Doctor Who: Clara’s Choice

That love for Clara is exactly the sort of chaos Missy craves, as the Doctor realizes he really would do anything for his companion. Clara is clearly well-suited to the role of the Doctor, and prides herself on being an exceptional liar. It was her plea, in “Face the Raven”, that prevented The Doctor from taking revenge on Ashildr right then and there, and it’s her memory that prevents him from being a bloodthirsty, vengeance-seeking maniac in the aftermath of her death.

That’s some super-creepy stuff with the Cloister Wraiths and the ultimate fate of the Time Lords (uploaded to a super computer?).

This is always something you should do sparingly, of course, as Doctor Who is at its best when it’s looking to the future as well as the past, but in the last few years we’ve had successful returns for both the Zygons and the Ice Warriors from the classic series. I can forgive the General due to the regeration psychosis, but what was Ohila’s excuse?

The memory device was described as human-compatible, yet it worked just fine on the Doctor. I’ll miss Jenna Coleman and Clara’s adventures with the Doctor, but it looks like Twelve is ready to take things in a new direction next year.

The Doctor does all of this just to get the use of an extraction chamber to talk to Clara.

The President of Gallifrey is more than anxious about the imminent arrival of the Doctor, instructing the high council and armed forces to protect the planet from him. They encounter again the immortal Ashildr (Maisie Williams), and the nature of the Hybrid is revealed.

The Doctor and Clara slip past the computer’s guard system – dead Time Lords, Weeping Angels, Cybermen, and Daleks – and get to work trying to hack their way out, or at least the Doctor does. It’s an emotional farewell, mostly because it isn’t a farewell at all: to The Doctor, Clara is a stranger. Now the Doctor did make sure that the Time Lord guard would regenerate first, and you could say it was all part of the “desperation” of saving Clara, but it’s a major rule in the Doctor’s handbook to be so offhandedly written into the story.

The diner TARDIS is indicated to be in Nevada by the caption.

And remember that while the Christmas episode of “Doctor Who” has yet to receive an actual airdate by BBC America, it will, more than likely, air on Christmas Day. He is able to freeze her in time the exact moment before she is killed.

Ashildr points out to The Doctor that it isn’t her or him who’s the Hybrid, but both The Doctor and Clara together. “Too slapstick, ‘ or ‘too childish” for a show of Doctor Who’s calibre. Clara has always been a bit of a hero, which is what eventually resulted in the tragic end to her travels with the Doctor when she made a very Doctor-like decision but paid the price for being human. Clara has a knack for bringing out the humanity in others- especially those who are not human. And considering this is already one of the darker interpretations of The Doctor in recent memory, it’s intriguing to think of how erasing Clara from his personal history might change him, potentially for the worse. Naturally, Clara is confused and scared, as her body is essentially frozen in that split second (she doesn’t even have a pulse). There seem to have been points where the Doctor was aware he lost Clara.

Mentioned in a throwaway comment by O’Donnell in Before The Flood, the Minister of War cast his or her shadow over most of the fan theories this series, with many fans assuming that Ashildr would turn out to hold the position. She says that maybe songs do that, too. Even though Clara knows she still must go back to that alley and die, she isn’t in any rush. Where has the time gone?!

“I am Rassilon the resurrected” does confirm something about the warlike leader of the Time Lords, that he was brought back to life to help Gallifrey in the Time War. And then it made me sad, because it reminded me how much joy I used to get out of this show, and haven’t now in quite a while.