[Oh,
SPOILERS like you wouldn't believe (Sweetie). It's two days before I
get to have a drink with the only other surviving Whovian in the
group and I got to get this stuff out so here we are.]
Good
few years since we've had one of these isn't it? A Doctor Who season
finale with a happy ending, I mean. No one's dead, everyone gets out
with their minds and souls more or less intact (yeah, the Doctor is
lying about forgetting Clara, I'm certain).
And
what a happy ending! I love that Clara and Lady Me get to swan off in
their very own TARDIS to have adventures. This is the first time
since Rose (arguably since Romana) that it felt like a companion has
“graduated” to become their own sort of hero. Tumblr has already
named them The Immortal Space Girlfriends. I expect epic fan fiction
within the week and a Big Finish box set announced within a year
(please, please, please...).
And
speaking of Clara: that moment in the cloisters when she finds out
how long the Doctor was trapped in the confession dial. You can see
it in her eyes, she's ready to burn Gallifrey to the ground for what
the Time Lords did to him.
Yay!
Canon acknowledgement that Rassilon is actually the Rassilon
and not just some schmuck using the name. (I have this head canon
that the Kro'Ka is somewhere on Gallifrey during the Time War and is
definitely piloting the shuttle when Rassilon goes into exile here).
Oh, and I like this new Rassilon, pity there was no chance to have
him meet Lady Me.
Lady
Me got a “Winter Is Coming” joke. Cheeky Moff. Whilst we're on
the subject, as good as she is in the show I'm starting to think that
Maisie Williams is a little bit wasted on Game Of Thrones.
Speaking
of the Moff writing cheeky women, that moment when the Sisterhood of
Karn just wandering into the High Concil chamber and Ohila very
nearly literally says “We heard the Doctor's come back, we brought
popcorn and we're going to watch him fuck your shit up” was
glorious. For the venomous looks between Ohila and Rassilon alone I
almost want to accept that whole Other / Pythia business from the New
Adventures since the context makes it all the sweeter. “Hey, Rass,
remember when you exiled us for being too superstitious? Well, now
we're going to sit back and watch your precious rationalist
civilisation burn to ashes!”.
The
General's regeneration. It doesn't get more undeniable than this: on
screen, right in front of us we see a Time Lord change gender and
ethnicity. Not off-screen like the Master or a joking aside like the
Corsair, right in front of us. Plus an off-hand mention that that
body (the General's tenth or eleventh, a line from The Five
Doctors of all things makes it
questionable) was their only male one. So, yeah, the sinister Moffat
agenda to one day give us a Doctor who is something other than a
white male has reached it's logical endgame (since it is very, very
unlikely that he will be part of casting the part a third time).
Plus, they emerge from their regeneration with eyeliner and without
all that post-regenerative fannying about the series insists on for
the Doctor. If there's one part of this masterplan I want more than a
female Doctor or a Doctor of colour it is DROPPING THAT
POST-REGENERATIVE TRAUMA BULLSHIT FOREVERMORE!
Shabogans.
I don't care what anyone says, those people are the barn are
Outsiders and we still don't actually know what the Shabogans are
outside of Terrance Dicks being a bit classist in The Eight
Doctors.
Anyone
else read that line about the President's daughter to mean Susan and
that the Doctor's son/daughter was Lord President?
My
reaction to Clara's survival was, I shit ye not, “Well, now Jane
Austen doesn't have to mourn her.”. Jane should definitely be at
least a semi-regular in the Immortal Space Girlfriends audios. Rigsy,
too.
The
Cloister Wraiths were such a fantastically creepy thing. I'd love to
see (or hear) them make another appearance down the line.
New
sonic screwdriver. I'll admit, I never hated the sonic sunglasses but
I will always prefer the screwdriver out of sheer, unbridled
nostalgia and fannishness.
I
love the acknowledgement that some day Clara will return to Trap
Street to die and she isn't scared. That was a wonderful note to end
things on. Ditto Lady Me's description of the death of stars as both
sad and beautiful.
Better
yet, the acknowledgement that what was done to Donna Noble was a
horrifically immoral act that stripped away her consent and
materially killed the person she was? That I have been waiting for
ever since it happened. It was one thing with Jamie and Zoe when that
was done without their consent by the uncaring technocrat Time Lords
but to see the Doctor rob his best friend of her very sense of self
was... awful in a way I don't think anyone making it really
considered. To have the show express that after so long was a
genuinely moving moment for me.
Aside
from Christmas specials this is it until 2017 and it is a fantastic
note to leave “proper” Doctor Who on. I honestly think this is my
favourite Moffat finale and possibly the best of the series as I'm
aware my feelings about Rose's departure are still complex and
perhaps not entirely tied to the story's actual quality.
