Doctor Who 9.10 Face the Raven

[selenak]

Above cut unspoilery comment: a new scriptwriter, a new female scriptwriter, and one whom as opposed to Catherine Tregenna I don't recall writing for either DW or Torchwood before, though I may have missed something: welcome, Sarah Dollard! And an excellent episode, too, which was good not just because it needed to be, given one point of the content, but because of the Mark Gatiss penned rubbish last week having followed the "loved some parts, hated others" Zygon two parter. I was more than ready for an episode I could value completely again.



If this was it for Clara - and I think it was, though I wouldn't exclude some post mortem appearance a la Danny in the Christmas Special or an appearance by Clara from an earlier point in her time line (in fact, I'm pretty sure we'll get something like this in the finale) - it was also pretty gutsy both from Moffat's part to trust a new-to-Who scriptwriter with, and from Dollard to accept. Companion exits being usually show runner territory.

As we now know, Clara was originally supposed to die in the last Christmas special as an old woman, and only Jenna Coleman's decision to do one more season meant this was changed at the last minute (literally). Right now, I can't judge which exit feels "better" by itself, but I'm glad we got another season of the Clara & Twelve team up which became my second favourite New Who Doctor & Companion combination after Donna & Ten. Clara's increasing recklessness and lack of concern about her own life has been a red thread through the season, so I figured her taking the tattoo would backfire on her as a narrative pay off for this build up, but I didn't realize it would actually kill her until the episode played out the goodbye scene at full length. The Doctor and Clara already had two not-so-final-after-all goodbye scenes (one when Eleven thought he was dying for good, and one from the Christmas special), not counting the deaths of Oswin and Victorian Clara who each got their goodbye scene as well, so my assumption was we wouldn't have gotten another one without an actual death, and mentally went "this is real".

I still haven't seen Adric's death episode, or Sara Kingdom's, so I can't make Old Who comparisons on this point. Clara on the one hand not dying to save the universe or the Doctor, but on the other as the consequence of her own actions and having the time to face her death (in more ways than one) struck me as a good balance. And her goodbye scene with Twelve was fantastic. Also one which couldn't have happened between her and Eleven, because Clara was still idealizing the Doctor then, and didn't know about her own darker side, either. "I'm not asking, I'm commanding" is something only the Clara who went through last season's events could have said. She has confidence he'll keep his promise and not take vengeance but not because she doesn't think he's incapable of it; she knows better. She knows both the good and the bad, and because this isn't a cynical show, her knowledge of the bad doesn't mean the assumption it will win.

Like I said, I didn't realise just how serious this would get for Clara until the last third. Before that, I was glad it brought back Rigsy (from last season's Flatline), thrilled and intrigued it brought back Ashildr, and thought we were in for a murder mystery type of episode. Well faked out, Sarah Pollard.

Sidenote re: naming of characters. I'm using "Ashildr" not "Me" because that's how she's still named in the credits. Also because it's simpler for me, admittedly.

Anyway. As opposed to the Harness two parter, this time I had no problem with fantasy refugees and ill applied metaphors. Ashildr's Diagon Alley London Below Sanctuary sanctuary for illegal aliens being its own thing. Incidentally, given Ashildr used Retcon on Rigsy, she probably did look up Jack Harkness, who was in the habit of spreading the stuff like candy on Torchwood. (I think this is the first time Retcon was used on DW as opposed to TW, though.) This was the third version of the character Maisie Williams got to play, and she was different yet again. Colour me impressed. The moral ambiguity was there - was there really no way to keep the peace between the various aliens than to basically have the death penalty for every transgression? Though Genghis Khan would agree, that is essentially the law codex he gave the Mongols - , but she was still acting for a community, not out of nihilism as Ashildr Mark II/The Lady Me had done at the start of her second episode, and she hasn't grown callous about the deaths. And her relationship to the Doctor has changed yet again now that he looks on her as an enemy but is Clara-bound not to harm her. I continue to look forward to more appearances by her.

Speculation: the unknown party/parties who were blackmailing Ashildr to trap the Doctor for them are in fact the returned Time Lords.

My reasoning: if it were Missy alone, it would have been a case of been there, done that. Also having brought back Gallifrey and the Time Lords as a possibility, I think Moffat is going to restore the status pre Time War in full, which doesn't just mean the Time Lords back but the Doctor as a renegade and outcast. This wouldn't be possible if he has "hero who brought them back" status (as opposed That Guy Who Wiped Us Out Together With The Daleks Only Not). Now the Doctor, despite the interlude with Rassilon & Co. in Ten's regeneration episode, is at the moment in an emotional state where he actually would want to return to Gallifrey and be with the other Time Lords for a while. (See: "Going home" stated as a goal at the end of Time of the Doctor.) What could change this? If the Time Lords (even just a branch of their leaders) were co-responsible for the death of a Companion, especially Clara. I rest my case.

(Because that's how the Master rolls, Missy is probably to end up both teaming up with the Doctor and stab him in the back at some point of the next episodes, too.)

Back to Clara again: so worth watching through the entire credits this time, because the added bit at the end of Rigsy turning the TARDIS outside into a memorial for her with the spray we saw him use in his first episode, bringing back he's a graffiti artist, was lovely. When she mentioned Danny I also wondered whether there wasn't something to what that hinted at - that her widening reckless streak was a subconscious death wish - though this would go against Danny urging her to live her life. And she did enjoy her life. But, well, subconscious isn't the same as a conscious choice.

New Who has a problem Old Who didn't have, i.e. that the Companions aren't allowed to stop wanting to travel with the Doctor. (Other than Martha, and she had to go through the unrequited love trope in order to do so.) Which lead to increasingly outlandish ways to separate them from the Doctor; the Ponds in 1937 New York being but the latest non-sense-making one. What's to stop them from going to Chicago and be picked up there? Or picked up in 1945? Just the need to make their departure angsty without actually killing them off. So Clara not being landed in another dimension/time zone/get amnesia/whatever but straightforwardly dying actually feels even a bit like a relief on that count. At least it's honest tragedy instead of wanting the tears but not the price. (Even better would be if the show changed the parameters back to Companions leaving for mundane reasons and with a cheerful goodbye wave, but hey.) Clara has certainly been the Companion for whom my feelings changed most intensely; while I had liked her futuristic and Victorian selves, Clara proper felt bland to me for the rest of Eleven's run and I never got invested. Then, with Twelve, the character suddenly got focus and colour for me, and she became one of my all time favourite Companions, and her dynamic with Twelve just clicked and kept me hooked. Clara Oswin Oswald, good teacher, extraordinary liar, and, on occasion, a Doctor in her own right: I salute you. You weren't impossible, you were brilliant. I'm going to miss you.

ETA: and on the flippant side, given that Clara/Jane Austen is canon now ("I love her, and you can take that any way you like"), I hope for both Clara/Jane prank stories and for angsty ones in which the Doctor has to tell Jane Austen of Clara's demise.

Comments

[percysowner]

I probably preferred the Christmas goodbye to Clara, partly because it came closest to the companion leaves for mundane reasons trope. No, she didn't leave for mundane reasons, but she had a long happy life and did things that made her happy without the Doctor, so it was close. It meant poor Jane Austen missed out on some happiness, but I thought it was a good ending for Clara.

I do wish that companions would decide to leave the Tardis for their own reasons. People can get tired of constant adventure. People do get older and want to settle down. Yes, traveling with the Doctor is a wonderful experience, but some people would eventually want to call it quits. But the writers have decided that no one can want to leave the Doctor, so there we have it. I only hope we never, ever have a companion's memories erased as they beg for it not to happen again, so I guess this is a step up from Donna. (I will never forgive the way they ended Donna's run. Killing her would have been fine. But what they did was a form of mind rape and I HATED it.)

[selenak]

Maybe the next showrunner will let Companions leave for utterly mundane reasons again. We can only hope.

[kalypso]

The ending took me by surprise, because I had assumed that Ashildr would be obliged to take the Chronolock in order to keep her word to protect Clara, and that this would finally end her long life. Consequently I spent the whole farewell scene waiting for her to step in, and probably didn't get as much out of it as I should have done, but I'll be rewatching so can appreciate it properly then.

julesjones has suggested that my solution wouldn't have worked because Ashildr's autorepair gadget would have kicked in and kept her alive, when the Raven/Shade required an actual death - and this makes sense, because I can't think of any other reason why the Doctor doesn't attempt to sacrifice himself, except that he cannot because his regeneration would kick in and make him an unacceptable substitute. But I wish that had been spelled out (or was it, when I wasn't concentrating?)

I still expect to see more of Clara one way or another by Christmas...

And, as an Ashildr episode, I enjoyed this much more than The Woman Who Lived, though I admit that it depended on various facts set up there.

[selenak]

My own assumption was that not only was an actual death required (and both Ashildr and the Doctor would revive), but that the whole transfer thing only worked once. But that wasn't spelled out textually, no.

As I wrote, I definitely think we'll get another Clara appearance, but in the form of either earlier Clara or of the way Danny came back, i.e. dream appearance and/or the reveal Clara ended up in the Hereafter, err, Nethersphere with Danny, not a resurrection.

Mind you, we're still due an explanation for Orson the Clara related Danny double. But maybe he's from another time line?

[watervole]

I assumed the reason the Doctor didn't offer to take the lock was because he knew Clara would refuse to give it to him.

He knew her well enough not to waste time arguing over it.

[kalypso]

No, I don't think it's that, because Ashildr is so dogmatic that nothing can be done. Rigsy asks to take it back - which at this point wouldn't put him in danger, because she's made it clear that she always intended to spare him, which she was allowed to do. But Ashildr immediately says "She can't" - not "She won't." It's just possible that you can't take back a Chronolock you've previously surrendered, but apart from that the Doctor and Clara both challenge Ashildr, and she is very definite that she can't do anything because the terms of the contract were changed when Clara took it. I don't think Ashildr would hold back from saying "I can't do anything unless someone else volunteers to die in Clara's place" even if she thinks it unlikely that Clara would agree to that. As I said, I think she would have felt honour-bound to take it over herself, to keep her word to protect Clara, if that had been possible. And I don't believe the Doctor wouldn't have made some sort of attempt to take it, however well he knew Clara would refuse; he wouldn't accept defeat so easily. But his body language from the moment he realises what she's done indicates that he knows it can't be fixed - challenging Ashildr is his last desperate gambit.

I do think it would have helped to put in a single line of explanation, though. I'm currently leaning to selenak's theory that it can only be passed on once.

[watervole]

I guess it's a new contract, and unless terms like being able to pass it on are included in the deal, then they aren't there.

[endeni]

Oh, I love your Time Lords theory!

/Even better would be if the show changed the parameters back to Companions leaving for mundane reasons and with a cheerful goodbye wave, but hey./ - Oh, that'd be nice for a change. *nods*

[kaffy_r]

I was extremely impressed with this episode, the more because, as the days go on, I still can't get Clara's death out of my head. For me, that's a sign that the episode - the writing, the acting, the decision to keep the death "small" and very personal, not epic - came together exquisitely well. I started out impressed, as I said, with Clara - but the emotional impact of what she did, and my reaction to it, my feeling of loss, came about slowly and increased, day by day. As you said - well-played.

I think you're right about The Time Lords, but I've still played with another possibility: it's Torchwood, whatever revenant part of it remains. We've had the Doctor mention Jack Harkness; we've seen that Ashildr has access to retcon, and the teleport function could well be related to Jack's old bracelet. We can't forget that when Torchwood was operative, especially without Jack, its goal was to capture the Doctor. I like the idea that this seriesends with Jack and the Doctor meeting yet again, and the Doctor deciding to add Jack to his enemies list.

As I said, it's something I've played with. Since we've heard no word from anyone in the usually eagle-eyed Who fan community about Barrowman being anywhere near filming, we can safely assume that this is just wishful thinking.

[selenak]

I try to remain spoiler free, but even so I was spoiled for Jenna Coleman leaving because it was all over the place (thanks, Guardian and Twitter). So I think if John Barrowman had been spotted anywhere near Cardiff, the resulting buzz would have been loud enough to reach me. But this aside, that would be an intriguing scenario, and you're right, both the teleport and the retcon are associated with Jack.

My other reason for doubting Torchwood involvement is equally Doylist, not Watsonian: Big Finish among other things got permission to do more Torchwood audios. Which I don't think they'd have gotten if Moffat intended to use Torchwood in whichever form on Doctor Who.

On the third hand: retcon! Definitely a Torchwood drug and only used on TW until now....

[kaffy_r]

I hadn't heard about the Big Finish audios. Good for them!