New Doctor Who: I has seen it!

[eve11]

I was going to have this posted yesterday but then D and I watched a mini-marathon of Magnum P.I. season 2 instead. So, better late than never:



I was pretty well unspoiled for this episode except that I knew it dealt with wi-fi, and I'd seen the one scene where they jump to the plane which was fun. As for the rest of it, well my reactions these days are frightfully boring aren't they? Because they're all, "I loved it!" and that's about it. It was not necessarily blindlingly original, but it was good fun, entertaining and had a few tricks up its sleeve still.


- Monks are not cool, eh? But I think he looks so cute as a monk! And the titular bells, ha! Who is the woman in the shop? My money's on Martha Jones, but "the woman in the shop" sounds like a Rose reference. But Rose is in another universe. But she has returned before. Well. I think we'll see.

- How do I change my home network to those symbols? I totally want to do that. ALSO I find it hilarious when they show hackers doing the "whoever types faster wins" races on the TV. Don't they know that most hackers use custom made malware GUIs these days? But the lightning fast coding is fun. Makes me wonder what they are coding though. Shell scripts I guess? Windows dlls? Why is there no lightning use of the up arrow for previous history on the command line? Whatev, it's shorthand for "doing shit with computers!"

- OMG, Summer Falls by Amelia Williams! :D It took me to the second showing to catch that. But, yay! I think this means Lizbee's fic is canon now.

- "It's a surprisingly accurate description!" Ha! This and the twitter line are the only ones that really made me laugh out loud.

- ALSO, I think it is perfectly reasonable for someone to not know how the Internet works but to know what Twitter is.

- Doctor, licking other people's leaves is kind of creepy. Dial it down! He doesn't have Rose to look at him sternly like when he went for the peanut butter in ... Fear Her, I think?

- I kind of like the idea that Clara's computer skills come from a patch. But am uncertain why they are giving her a patch if all they want her for is to feed the big bad.

- Haha, whirlwind intro to the TARDIS and peril and craziness and breakfast.

- In the cafe I was thinking that this was very Matrix-y.

- "Did you even hear me say Anti-Grav?" Also, "Because I'm going to motivate you." The Doctor hacks tech, ha. Also I did not see that twist, because I am very thick when it comes to watching Doctor Who.

- When the Doctor tweaked the second-in-command's profile, was he tweaking "obedience" or "conscience"? I thought it was conscience but I saw some other comments that said they thought it was "obedience". I would think "conscience" would be more his style. ETA: Definitely "obedience" on second view. Well, it's using the baddie's tech against them, but still quite (literally!) manipulative. Then again, he can be pretty manipulative when he wants to be.

- Oho, so the baddie is the Great Intelligence again! I should have guessed that from the way the Spoonheads were mirroring what people were saying.

- Clara is less than impressed by the snog-box. I dunno though, if I wanted to travel, I'd be hard pressed to pass up all of time and space, even after a crazy adventure like she'd just gone through. But, "Come back tomorrow," -- I can't help but like it! She is kind of like the same person from the Victorian era, still a nanny, still doesn't run out on those she cares about, still witty and curious in the "I don't want to miss what happens next" vein, but modernly so.

Time to find out who she is...

Comments

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

I guess it could be Rose, seeing how she was a shop girl, but it wouldn't have made sense since Rose never went back to being a shop girl after meeting the Doctor? I have my money bet on either River or some older version of Clara, personally.

I actually went back and looked at the scripts they had written out, and it looked more like something you'd typically see in coding for a website as opposed to a command line interface?

I wasn't sure if she did even know what twitter was prior to the upload- I may be misremembering her comment about it, though.

I suppose that the patch would be some sort of delivery system? So more like, the human mind would act more as a release agent for the Great Intelligence to soak up more internet knowledge?

I'm 99% sure that it was obedience that he had been hacking, which didn't make sense seeing how he could've accessed conscience just as easily. That part didn't really sit too well with me, tbh.

[eve11]

I'm 99% sure that it was obedience that he had been hacking, which didn't make sense seeing how he could've accessed conscience just as easily.

Yeah, you're right, it was. Darn. Well, all bets are off when you ef with the people under his protection, I guess.

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it seems like Eleven really really tends to favor manipulating people to reach his goals, which may just be a more utilitarian mindset or approach to things?

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

What was the Amy reference?? I missed it!!

I was thinking the woman in the shop was River. One can dream.

[eve11]

The book that Clara had apparently loaned to the boy she was nanny-ing, where the creepy girl image came from when it downloaded Clara for the first time: it was "Summer Falls by Amelia Williams". "Chapter Eleven will make you cry your eyes out." ;)

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

OOOOH!!! OMG I MISSED THAT.

*owmyheartplace*

[thisbluespirit]

OMG, Summer Falls by Amelia Williams! :D It took me to the second showing to catch that. But, yay! I think this means Lizbee's fic is canon now.

Yes, my reaction exactly! :-)

I enjoyed it too. Very much. ♥

[eve11]

:) Eleventy! I kind of love him to bits.

[thisbluespirit]

Yes. I have to admit I do end up at MATT SMITH, YOUR FACE a lot, like a Tumblr person. But HIS FACE. :lol:

PS. As to the conscience/obedience thing going on here, if it makes it any better, Eleven does a definite screw up of his face before doing it - he doesn't like resorting to it. Also conscience may not have solved it - because if the souls without bodies are gone forever, the man may have hesitated longer over the dilemma involved. So obedience was the surest one to get Oswin and the still-available-bodies people freed.

I think, anyway? But, yes, not something the Doctor liked doing - v uncomfortable.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

It was good, wasn't it?

I'm pretty sure the Doctor tweaked "obedience." It makes sense because his boss was commanding "download me, download me!" Although now that you mention it, changing the boss-woman's conscience so she decides to evaporate the cloud would have also worked as a good resolution to the episode.

I think the woman in the shop must have been River. Who else would know the phone number for the phone that isn't supposed to ring? But then it would be interesting if it was someone else.

I have to admit that I didn't realize the baddie was the Great Intelligence until I started to read reaction posts from other people. You have to give me more of a clue than a fuzzy screen with Richard E. Grant on it.

I like modern Clara, but I miss Victorian Clara. Is that weird? Victorian Clara was less guarded, and she also just seemed happier with her life.

It's interesting that Moffat keeps creating mysteries around the companions for the Doctor to solve. Amy didn't make sense and had a crack in time in her bedroom wall, then she was a Flesh with ambiguous pregnancy readings. River of course was "who are you?" from the moment they met. And now Clara. I wonder if her mystery will lead into the 50th anniversary episode?

[eve11]

Definitely obedience, you are correct. I was thinking it might have been conscience of the guy himself. Well, it is what it is. Eleven can be a bit manipulative if he wants, and all bets were off when they started messing with people under his protection. (I figure also, "Under my protection" rather stood for the entire planet, and not just Clara)

I don't know who the woman in the shop was. River is the forerunner, I suppose. But it would be interesting if it's someone we haven't met yet too.

I wouldn't have gotten it from just Richard E Grant, but Ms. Kizlet actually does call him "Great Intelligence" at one point, which was how I got it. It was a very quick reference though.

Victorian Clara was less guarded, and she also just seemed happier with her life.

I think we don't know enough about modern Clara yet. I mean, she's happy enough with her life to not immediately decide to run off with the Doctor. It's like, to me, she knows that she doesn't need the magical man in the "snog-box" in order to go traveling. She'll still do it one day, and on her own terms. So he has to convince her. I didn't feel like she was as aimless as Rose, for example, or staying because of some mistaken idea of what her commitments were. She seemed more sure of herself than that, more mature even though she still is very young.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

No, I agree, modern Clara is sure of herself and not aimless -- as was Victorian Clara. But Victorian Clara seemed to have a joy in life that was missing in modern Clara. But perhaps we just haven't seen her in the right scenes yet.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Also loved it, somehow the leaf licking cracked me up because as you said, creepy and thus just perfect. Hee!

I'm loving how the TARDIS looks inside these days.

[eve11]

I want to see all the new Gallifreyan symbols along the top. :D

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

Me too! :)

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

It was definitely fun, and the lost souls were super creepy.

The episode could have dealt a bit more with all those souls suddenly gone without bodies to return to - it seemed odd to me that the tone was so triumphant when hundreds? thousands? of people had just been snuffed.

Almost all of Eleven's adventures leave me confused though - just like this episode, which I enjoyed while it was happening, but afterwards wasn't too sure what had happened. I miss tonnes of apparent clues and references (like to the shop girl). But then the resolutions of those clues haven't been as satisfying as, say, the Bad Wolf season. Maybe I'm just too dim-witted for Moffat's Who!

Fun though. And I like Clara better than Amy without any real justification for it.

[eve11]

Pshaw, I think Moffat is too dim-witted for his own Who. ;D

it seemed odd to me that the tone was so triumphant when hundreds? thousands? of people had just been snuffed.

Yeah, this was rather sad. But I think that the people who didn't have bodies: their bodies had already died and been mourned and buried, etc. It couldn't have been too many people because otherwise it would have been a news item, right? Still, yes, a bit of a disconnect there. Especially since, eg, as was pointed out to me in another person's reaction, the Doctor is saying that being stuck in a bodiless data cloud is a living hell, and that's kind of exactly what happened to River in Silence in the Library.

[laughingmagpie.livejournal.com]

One of the few little things I caught was boss lady saying to the Doctor something like "How many do you think you will save? Those with bodies left to return to? An infinitesimally small number."

Maybe I misheard (not the first time!) but I think he should have felt the weight of the situation more, even though the moral decision is fairly straightforward: to save all of those you can and not delay a moment, the rest are already lost.

Didn't one of the Shard workers at some point say something like they'd downloaded too many and were starting to attract attention? I think it was a lot of people gone.

Ah well.

Pshaw, I think Moffat is too dim-witted for his own Who. ;D
LOL :-)

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I was guessing the woman in the shop was Sally.

ALSO I find it hilarious when they show hackers doing the "whoever types faster wins" races on the TV.
Right? When I try to program things it goes more like, line, line, OH CRAP WHERE IS THE BUG, spend ten minutes searching for the bug, realize you left out a semicolon, facepalm forever. :P

Clara is less than impressed by the snog-box.
I am probably more amused than I should be that she calls it that.

[eve11]

It would be cool to see Sally again. And she's a moffat character so maybe she will show up :)

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

That would be fun!

[aoife-hime.livejournal.com]

I am sooooooooooo happy that Clara fangirls Amy's novels. I actually caught that right away and I had to pause for a solid minute while I made incoherent high-pitched noises.

I am also very curious to see where this Great Intelligence plot is going because it seems like a very wonderful baddie. Now that you mention the Spoonheads' mirroring, I should have picked up on it sooner, but yes. Very excited.

Overall, my mind wasn't blown, but I enjoyed myself immensely and I'm very much looking forward to finding out where these plot lines are all headed.

[eve11]

I like that we have the Big Mystery of Clara, but that we also have a mystery of who she is as a person too; her family, her ideas for travel, why a leaf is page 1, why she stayed to be a nanny, etc. So yeah, mind not blown, but also I thought it was a well-built episode and didn't have me either rolling my eyes or yelling at the screen or face-palming either. It was entertaining and fun, thus, a win in my book :)

[clocketpatch]

Oh, I loved it. And nothing else to say.

...

My personal favourite part was, "We don't want another incident like at Earl's Court" since one of the non-highlights of my London trip a few years back was an extended and ultimately futile search for what I am assured is an actual Police Public Call Box which is totally not made up and I apparently walked past at least ten times without seeing (while actively looking for it). To be fair, I was very tired at the time…

The woman in the shop… my first thought was River, but it did never mention her by name did it? It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.

On the whole obedience-conscience argument, I honestly wasn't paying attention to what was on the screen. And the TV I was watching on is sufficiently blurry that I'm not sure I would've caught it anyway – I was, however, admiring Matt's acting ability. I didn't catch the base station twist either. I thought though that, even as a hologram/duplicate/thing that Matt looked less than pleased about raising those levels. His movements had been effortless before, but as soon as he took out the tablet they became rather forced.

I am very pleased with the return of The Great Intelligence and that Richard E. Grant seems to be getting a recurring villain role for the series (I do love him so). It was an unexpected development for me though it probably shouldn't have been – I was convinced for the first part of the episode that the Master has returned and was wondering how the heck the Beeb had managed to sit on that. I'm curious to see how being downloaded and uploaded has effected Clara, and to find out if this is, in fact, the original Clara because her parting words did leave it somewhat up to speculation. So far, I like her, and find her an interesting contrast to Rose.

I've also got some fannish theories perculating wherein Moffat might pull off the most massive timey-wimey, paradox-bending thing ever if he made the G.I. somehow the disarticulated consciousness of the Time Lords who survived the war, or something like that (did it ever explain in the 1960s what the G.I. actually was?). I also got the idea that the Meddling Monk is some later incarnation of the Doctor messing with his former selves because he's bored and he knows that letting them win will encourage himself to greater things... So, yay~! Fic fodder!

And, finally, I'm hoping that having a maple leaf as the first page means that the TARDIS will be visiting my home country, land of many maple leafs, in the future… though I think, actually, that it'll turn out that the leaf came from the tree which got turned into the book or something equally timey-wimey.

[clocketpatch]

All that typing and I forgot to say the main thing I meant to say which is that, Matt Smith is from all accounts the biggest internet-a-phobe in existence so coming from him "knowledge of Internet = knowledge of Twitter" is a far easier than it would be coming from pretty much anyone else. Made me smile when I was watching anyways…

[eve11]

And nothing else to say.

:D Just like me!

I figured that Earl's Court thing was some kind of "in" joke. And hey, someone must have fitted it with a perception filter, yeah? That's why you kept walking past it.

I thought the baddie was going to be something new, but yeah, the Great Intelligence came as a surprise to me too.

So, yay~! Fic fodder!

Those are both really cool ideas! I keep wondering if Clara is some kind of cross-temporal key to the Matrix or something like that. But then again, I suppose she might have something to do with the Question and what the Doctor's running from. She seems to affect the people around her too... the password for example, "RYCBAR123," was obviously not something *she* made up; it's something that the family around her just came to use. She bends time?

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, I have nothing coherent or in any way constructive to add as I am still in 'OMG-SQUEE-DW-ELEVENTY-ALLTHETHINGS!' mode. But I do love your observations...

*HUGS*

[lostrack621.livejournal.com]

I was pleasantly surprised for this episode -- I watched the first trailer and didn't want to do spoilers at all. I caught the "Great Intelligence" bit and I'm betting we'll see him/it/whatever again....kind of crazy.

I'm tiredddd so I'm not really coherent...but I liked it. I did catch the bit about Chapter 10 and 11, which I thought was a cute reference.