"Mummy on the Orient Express" -- Thoughts

[earlgreytea68]

• So I *think* I liked this episode.


• The thing is, I am so confused by the Doctor and what I'm supposed to think about him and Clara and what I'm supposed to think about her and Danny and what I'm supposed to think about him that I've given up. I've no idea what they think their character cues are and how they think their audience is supposed to be reacting. I feel the way I feel and whatever, show, I've given you too much of my thought processes recently to try to figure out if you agree with me.


• So, moving on from the mess of character that this show is currently (to return to it later): the concept of this episode is, I think, absolutely brilliant. Everything about it. I loved the Orient Express train with its throwback atmosphere slightly wrong. "Don't Stop Me Now" was a brilliant touch. And the background music in this episode was so moody and atmospheric and I loved it so much. And then the train was all a trap to get a bunch of smart people in a room and I loved that, too. (The little inclusion of Einstein in the background was hilarious, right?) The disembodied voice was super-creepy.


• WHY IS JENNA COLEMAN SO BEAUTIFUL? STOP IT, JENNA COLEMAN.


• "Hatred is too strong an emotion to waste on someone that you don't like." I had the Doctor's reaction to this: What the hell was that even supposed to mean, Clara? I took it to mean that Clara didn't like the Doctor so she wasn't going to hate him anymore because she didn't want to waste the energy on that? Which makes zero sense, they must have intended me to take it that Clara never hated the Doctor because she liked him so much, but that doesn't seem to be what the sentence means? Here's the thing, when Doctor Who dialogue makes me feel like I have to analyze it like it's bloody Derrida, there's a problem.


• "Well, frankly, that would be an absolutely astonishing guess if I did know." Hahahahaha! Sometimes Twelve has such fabulous lines and I love him so much (the mystery shopper thing was another great one) and then other times I'm like, "What the hell is your deal?" And I guess that's what they're going for? The alienness of him? Whatever, I'm not crazy about him, regardless of if they think I *should* be. I want to be, but I don't really care for him, unless he's being funny. He does the cranky funny thing well; he doesn't do the inspirational, tearjerky thing well at all. Well. He doesn't do it, period. I guess they don't want him to.


• And I've seen a lot of people saying that the problem with Doctor Who is that it's gotten too Sherlock-y, but I actually think it feels like the opposite of Sherlock to me right now. I mean, yes, there's the brilliant, lack-of-social-nicety genius, and a profusion of damaged soldiers running around, but no one can deny that Sherlock as a show is filled to bursting with heart. That's why we're all in such despair over it, because Sherlock as a character is the most hopelessly emotional being on the planet, he's a complete lovesick wreck, he loves too much for his own good, for anyone's good. I don't think the Doctor is anything like Sherlock right now. Superficially, maybe, but I don't see this Doctor with any sort of weak point. I'd like to think this Doctor would be very sad if something terrible happened to Clara, but right now I don't see it at all. He seems like he'd shrug and move on, the way he just keeps shrugging and moving on. And I know they're trying to tell us that it's because he has to, he doesn't have time to mourn, but, anyway, I don't think the problem with this show right now is it's too much like Sherlock; I think the problem is it's not like Sherlock *enough.*


• And someone somewhere said that they miss how Doctor Who always used to be about hope. And yes. I miss that, too. I miss how it used to make me feel a little bit better about mankind. I *think* I get what they're going for, with the fact that it's tough to be the person that has to make the hard choices, and that makes you grumpy and prickly, not cuddly and loveable. But I don't like this Doctor. The way I didn't like Ten by the end when he got this way, too. It's probably just a matter of personal taste. I know there are people out there who really like Twelve and his bluntness. I'm just not a big fan. Rule #1: The Doctor lies. And for some reason that never bothered me when it was Eleven. Twelve lying all over the place really bothers me. In fact, I'm pretty convinced everybody *did* die in this episode and he's just lying to Clara about them all being okay. Twelve is a really great character, I'm not denying he's not. I just don't like him very much.


• "What are you a doctor of?" "Now, there's a question that's never asked often enough." TRUTH. See, there were some little bits of this episode that I found so unbearably brilliant that I've decided to just ignore there being any sort of actual consistent character ARC and every week two characters will show up and flirt with each other and do cool things and that's enough for me. (I know, I know, everyone's going to tell me this is a Moffat thing, but I confess I never saw it until Twelve, and I'm just, like, over it now.)


• I liked the Foretold. I liked the idea of it being a myth that was real, that had been around for thousands of years. And I liked the 66-second thing, I thought that was interesting. But by the end I was like: OH MY GOD ANOTHER SOLDIER THING. I'm also over trying to figure out what we're supposed to be thinking about the soldier stuff.


• And connected to that: WHAT IS DANNY'S DEAL? I DO NOT GET HIM. So now he thinks what the Doctor does is cool and awesome and Clara gets alone with him and should enjoy him???? WAS THAT NOT THE OPPOSITE OF THE STANCE HE TOOK BEFORE THIS? And then at the end he thinks that Clara *was* breaking up with the Doctor?


• And then Clara says to the Doctor, "Hey, I'll stick around as long as you get me home safe!" ...Clara, wasn't the point of this episode that the Doctor likes danger, he lies about taking you into danger, and you're addicted to the danger, too? So, is Clara just in total denial? I guess that's what we're meant to think?


• I guess the end result of all this is: I am exhausted by this show.


• (I honestly will say that I think I'd like this show a lot more right now if it wasn't called "Doctor Who." I think I'd like it a lot if Peter Capaldi was just playing a character, and I didn't have all this history with the show [granted, with the new version of the show]. If this show wasn't "Doctor Who," I'd have the end result being Clara and Twelve making out a lot in the TARDIS, because I'd support that, actually. This could be a really great story, this Twelve and Clara story. I'm just not sure it feels like a DW story *to me.*)

Comments

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

I have Suspicions, I have nefarious Suspicions about what is going on with the Doctor and even with Clara, but for the life of me I can't see that there's anywhere they can go with this on a family show.

I don't normally do link comments, but I wrote a lot about this on nonelvis's journal, here: "Mummy on the Orient Express": brief thoughts (http://nonelvis.livejournal.com/393838.html).

I see fanfic in my future, and if I didn't have a guest arriving in an hour I would be working on it right now!

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

I can't read it. I guess it's friendslocked? And for some bizarre reason I wasn't on the list? Weird.

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I guess I'll have to organize my comments and make a post out of them. It'll probably take a few days because I have an old friend stopping by in about 40 minutes!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Oooh, have fun!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I had the same issue!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

OMG! Fanfic! Awesome!!

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

And, yeah, I think that's part of the addiction: the extreme difficulty of breaking away from it, that is leading her to do the one thing Danny told her NOT to do, which is lie to him. So she's being treacherous to two people at once, which is itself a very dangerous thing, even when one isn't a Time Lord (who knows what you're doing and, if anything, is happier for it.)

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and I don't get it. I just don't get what she thinks is going to happen. I mean, obviously she isn't thinking it through at all? So I guess I just have to wait for the fallout.

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

I guess if the theme of the season is "Traveling with the Doctor as an addiction", then this would inevitably be a dark, if bright, shiny, and colorful, season.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

True.

I feel like there is a way in which that's often the theme. Companions often travel with the Doctor not because it's good for them but because they get hooked on it, it seems, and they use it to escape.

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

I'm firmly back in the camp of "it's clever, whatever" and praying for a new writer/show-runner sooner rather than later. Because I love Capaldi. And I don't overly mind this Doctor when watching him, just when I think about it AFTER watching him. Think of how well-rounded a character he could be with an actual real writer that isn't Moffat running the show.

(and yeah, I don't get why Sherlock works but Who doesn't)

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

I think the reason Twelve doesn't seem well-rounded is that he's giving off as few clues to his inner state to Clara as he possibly can (while the actor is giving off as many to the audience as he can.)

But I don't know how long they can sustain that, esp. since it's all nuance and I could easily be dead wrong. And as I said, I don't know how they can take it anywhere on a family show.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I actually think he's a pretty good character, he just doesn't seem like the Doctor to me.

Although I've heard people saying that he's a lot like the early Doctors and it's just because I didn't know anyone before Nine, so it's possible I just only like certain Doctors.

[fishface44.livejournal.com]

There were parts I just loved, and for me even a weak DW episode beats most other television, but I am concerned about where the show is headed this year.

Still not loving Danny.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm with you on the Danny thing.

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

Count me in among the confused. I don't like that the Doctor suddenly doesn't seem to give a shit about people, just beating whoever the MOTW is. And WTF was up with Clara lying about what Danny said? That struck me as another Amy-leaving-Rory-the-night-before-her-wedding plotline. I don't get the appeal of Danny, but I'm not really getting the appeal of noodling around the universe with the Doctor ATM, either.

Shouldn't the Doctor be turning into the Valeyard somewhere around now? Not that Moffatt gives a tinker's dam about classic Who, continuity...y'know, unimportant stuff like that. :\

And I definitely agree that the style of the Orient Express was awesome (the Titanic and now the Orient Express, huh?) and the Forsworn was a neat MOTW (I always like it when the villain turns out to be a victim, too). And was that Roger Allam as the voice of "Gus"? I meant to check the credits but forgot. (ETA: Nope, not him.)

I don't know. I just can't get a bead on what the heck they're trying to do with the Doctor and Clara. But so far, it's turning me off. And I love Peter Capaldi, so don't do this to me, show!

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

I have no clue what's going on with the characters, so I've decided to ignore them and just look at each episode as a standalone. And as a standalone I thought this was very pretty and clever and well-done!

And you're right, Gus *did* sound like Roger Allam! Now I'm sad it wasn't him!

[in-comescompany.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels the chemistry of an almost flirty, sexual nature between Twelve and Clara. (That is what I'm reading, right?) Because honestly I feel more UST between them than I did between Eleven and Clara. And I keep getting this impression that the thing Twelve said in his first episode about how she wasn't the only one who acted like he was her boyfriend before this regeneration keeps coming around. Like, the Doctor thinking "if only I was the person I used to be before now." Which, granted, is an interesting idea to be explored in fanfiction or even with that parallel of When People Change in Real Life...but not an idea that I necessarily associate with Doctor Who.

I love Peter Capaldi, and I like his portrayal and embodiment of the Doctor more than what the text is necessarily giving him. There are these moments where that harder, sarcastic edge really works (like the "Well, frankly, that would be an absolutely astonishing guess if I did know" line). But I think that harder, sarcastic edge is currently being applied across the board, instead of to certain situations. Someone who is sarcastic when someone is trying to have a serious conversation about emotions (which I am totally guilty of--like it's a problem) is one thing. Someone who is sarcastic about people dying all around them or doesn't seem to give a fuck about anything but the Puzzle or the Monster of the Week is something else entirely.

Also I totally had the same moment of "OMG what if he didn't save anyone but Clara and he's just saying he did." I think it'd be more compelling if you actually SAW him saving all those people, like "okay this hard 'I don't care' attitude is just bravado hiding the emotional instability or insecurity or whatever identity crisis the Doctor is having." But instead you have that awkward moment of...what, did he really save those people?

I don't know how to feel about Danny. I want to like him, but I don't really understand his motivations. And if he tries to tell Clara one more time about how he *understands* the Doctor better than she does I shall scream.

The whole end of this episode I just kind of went, "...huh? You're just going to lie to this guy you supposedly love about the one thing he asked you not to lie about because...you're an adrenaline junkie and can't stop? What...what."

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yes! I totally agree! I feel like Twelve and Clara are super-flirty and have tons more chemistry than Eleven and Clara ever had. And it saddens me a little bit because I feel like it's being wasted on this weird contentious relationship and then Danny coming in.

Which, I'm with you, if Danny picks a horse any higher to get on when it comes to the Doctor, we wouldn't be able to see him. Which would be okay with me.

The end of the episode made zero sense. I've decided to just ignore everything Clara says when it has to do with Danny because she doesn't make sense with Danny.

[(Anonymous)]

I had heard that Peter Capaldi had said 'no' to their being any flirting between Clara and the Doctor. Which makes me wonder if he changed his mind at some stage because there's definitely chemistry there. Reminds me a little of 9 and Rose actually.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wonder if he's not thinking he might have been a little hasty there, given the chemistry he has with her.

[seraangel.livejournal.com]

There's an old bit somewhere, and I can't remember where but basically it goes. Hate is not the opposite of love, indifference is the opposite of love. And thus, to hate somebody you have to care for them in some fashion, otherwise you simply wouldn't give a damn either way.

For Clara to have been so angry at the Doctor, or to feel as if she hated him, she had to have loved him before that moment. And so basically she was saying 'Look, I don't like that you do these things, but I love you and if I have to be your conscience, so be it.'

At least that was my take on it.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that's what they were going for. They phrased it really weird. Possibly to give us that great Doctor line in response!

[seraangel.livejournal.com]

Yep - it can happen to any writer who doesn't watch it, I figure. We love to put clever dialogue in things. I loved the Doctor's response but being clever should never win out over being understandable to your audience. :)

[np-complete.livejournal.com]

My take was the opposite: she'd hated him, but had calmed down and decided that she didn't like him anymore: she didn't *have* to hate him, he didn't have to have even that much claim on her emotions.

Brave words. But she's still absolutely furious and doesn't know how to manage it. The obvious solution is to leave him and not look back, and she does in the previous ep - but apparently he reappeared, or she called, and they're trying a "last hurrah". One last trip. One final hit.

And she's over him. Really. Why, she dislikes him, she says, as she cuddles his arm and leans against his shoulder.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh, I like that take.