Killing the moon…

[fbhjr]

My wife reads the reviews of Doctor Who episodes. I don’t tend to. I like what I like and other folks saying if they like it or not doesn’t really interest me much. (Discussions of plot, character, continuity and such I do like. And, do read some of those.)

That said, as we drove to practice Sunday morning, she was telling me some of the things said about the last episode, “Kill the Moon”.

From what I’m told there were a lot of people who didn’t like this one. A lot of folks didn’t like the Doctor “running off” and leaving his companions in danger like that. Or, that they didn’t like that this time he forces his companions to make the “big decision” that he usually makes.

So, even though I’m not all that interested in if other folks like it or not, I do like discussing the show. And, my wife and I had a good talk about it.
She said “you should write this up”. So, having been assigned an essay question here it is.

There are a number of themes that run through Doctor Who, and have for decades. Some of them started with the very first episode back in 1963.

One of those themes, in my opinion, is that “everyone can be special”. In 1963 it turned out that a teenage student was an alien time traveler. Her ship was kept in a junkyard where you’d least expect an alien time traveling ship to be. Two ordinary school teachers join her and her grandfather and get to see far more of time and space that average people.

I should point out, in my opinion, the theme is not “everyone IS special”. It is only a case that everyone has the potential to be special.
And, what makes people special to the Doctor is certainly not fame, fortune, power, money or things like that.
Traveling with him also does not make you special. Thinking it makes you special is a quick way to get booted out of the Tardis.

In fact, the Doctor gives one of the highest compliments he’s ever give to someone who chose not to travel with him.
Rory stays with the Pandorica and Amy rather than shoot forward to the future.
When Rory and Amy finally do get together the Doctor looks on from the sidelines and says “good on you mate”. He takes no limelight saying it. It is the only time I remember of watching the show since the time of the 3rd Doctor where he was willing to sit on the sideline and admire someone.

Why such admiration?
Because Rory did the right thing. When he was being told by the Doctor to go ahead and cheat the rules some, he didn’t and did what he should have done.

The start of this episode happens off screen. We saw at the end of the week before the young girl puking in the Tardis.
This apparently puts the Doctor off and he says something, exactly what is not 100% clear, that the young woman takes as “you’re not special”.
This seems to have at least as large an impact on Clara as it does on the young woman.
The young woman was already considered a “disruptive influence” in the school and appears to be carrying on with that, just with the help of the Doctor’s psychic paper. (I should point out that one of my favorite lines in a long, long time is when the Doctor is told she’s using it as fake ID asks “What? To get into museums?” How I would love psychic paper to get me into museums! See the stuff not on display! Maybe even get to hold some of those swords…)

Clara is very upset and berates the Doctor quite a bit on the subject.

So, the Doctor takes them on a trip. Theoretically to prove to the young woman she is special. To give her the chance to do something special.

Right. Sure. OK.
Traveling in time and space to push a robotic killing machine into deep space didn’t count?
Of course it did.
And, the Doctor knows that.
The trip really has nothing to do with her other than she’s along for the ride.
You can tell that because when she gets scared and doesn’t want to participate anymore the Doctor says “OK, stay in the Tardis”.
That is amazingly unlike him. Leaving people to stay in the Tardis while and adventure is going on outside the doors? Nope. Just doesn’t happen.

This is about Clara. He is no longer sure about her. He doesn’t know if she will do the right thing.
And, she won’t if he is there to do it for her. If he is there to stop humans from killing this ancient creature that has spent millions of years circling us, she won’t.
It’s his job. Let him do it.

This is him saying “Sorry, you have to prove yourself.”
And, off he flies.

That may seem mean to some folks; unwarranted or capricious. But, you really need to look at it from his point of view.

(This next part must be said in the Doctor’s current accent.)
“So, you’ve got an ancient alien being that is the last of its kind and turns out has been around humans forever. All of a sudden the pudding heads find out its there and could destroy them without even noticing they’re there. They react like all pudding heads do and want to destroy it to keep themselves safe.
“Every pudding head on Earth tells you to kill it.
“What do you do?”

It was never about if Clara would save the creature in the moon.

The Doctor is in the exact same position as the moon creature.
Ancient, last of his kind, very powerful, people around him die without him sometimes even seeming to realize it, has had groups of humans out to get him.

If the whole Earth tells Clara to kill the Doctor to save them from what he might do, will she?

For all we know, while the Doctor was away he was getting rid of all those bombs. It could be if the timer ran out, nothing else would have happened. Well, the three of them on the moon might have been in trouble when it hatched, but what happened on Earth wouldn’t change.

Clara has seen more of the Doctor’s past than any other companion. Even more so that his own granddaughter as she didn’t see him as a child, and Clara has.
And, she apparently can get the Tardis to break the time lock on the time war and go back to Gallifrey with just a thought to the Tardis.

If she can be swayed by popular opinion instead of doing what she knows is right?
Horrifically dangerous.

And, now he knows she will do the right thing.
She still doesn’t pass to anywhere near the level of Rory.
But, at least she passed.

She seems pretty pissed about it. It isn’t clear to me if she understands that it was a test to see if the Doctor can trust her or not.
And, by giving her the test he might have thrown the results to “can’t” and not realized it yet.
We’ll have to see where it goes from here.