DOCTOR WHO Redux: The Mystery of ‘The Name of The Doctor’

There is no greater mystery in DOCTOR WHO than the name of The Doctor (Matt Smith). That is until The Doctor met Clara Oswald (Jenna Louise Coleman) – “The Impossible Girl” who kept dying on him. As the show’s seventh season comes to an end this Saturday, fans are going to be wondering which of the two massive mysteries will DOCTOR WHO answer. Given the unlikelihood that a show that has been on for over 50 years would choose to reveal it’s grand mystery as to The Doctor’s identity, it is more likely that we will instead find out how it is possible for Clara Oswald to keep popping up in The Doctor’s life. But it will be a shame if they do for it has provided a grand mystery for the past season.

 

“Doctor Who”

From the minute Jenna Louise Coleman popped up on screen as the mysterious Oswin in “Asylum of the Daleks,” we knew something significant was going on. Our brains told us that she was destined to be The Doctor’s next companion, but then Oswin died. Then when Jenna appeared in the annual Christmas episode, “The Snowman” as Clara, we just knew she was around to stay this time – particularly after Amy and Rory’s tragic departure in “The Angels Take Manhattan.” Yet, we were wrong again – and we wept giant tears along with The Doctor over Clara’s lifeless body. That blasted girl had the audacity to die twice. And so the hunt was on.

Thus, we were breathless with glee watching The Doctor unknowingly encounter Clara as a young child in prequel to “The Bells of Saint John” and even more ecstatic when he heard her voice in at the beginning of “The Bells of Saint John.” The time had finally come and we would find out why Clara had died twice before. Yet in great agonizing fashion, the seventh season rolled right along with nary a clue as to the answer of why Clara had been destined to have died twice before and whether she was on the cusp of dying yet again. These past seven episode were instead tantalizing teasers as to the mystery of “The Impossible Girl.” Our brains and emotions raced right along with The Doctor as he fervently tried to keep Clara safe and out of harm’s way. Nary a Spoonhead, Ice Warrior, parasite, molten creature, ancient leeches, or wayward Cyberman was going to get in The Doctor’s way. It made for an grand adventure spanning the course of the entire season. The sassy Ms. Oswald seemed perfectly normal, and had we not seen her live two entirely different lives, we would have been none the wiser. Yet we had; and like The Doctor, the mystery keep tugging on our brains ‘til we felt as if we may also go a bit mad.

 

“Doctor Who”

Yet as The Doctor and the audience were struggling to fathom the mystery of Clara, Clara had her own mystery to unravel. One of the few companions to try to look a bit deeper into who The Doctor actually was, Clara’s curiosity was insatiable. In her mind, everyone had a name and the name of The Doctor was just the perfect mystery for her to solve. Quite by accident she discovered it in a book in the episode “Journey To The Centre of the TARDIS,” but that precious discovery was washed away when time reset itself at the end of the episode. But just because time reset does not mean that Clara forgot that she really wanted to know the name of The Doctor. For surely he must have a name – why hide it?

In a massively big tease, executive producer Steven Moffat entitled the finale episode of this season “The Name of The Doctor.” That coupled with the spoilerish slip announcing that Alex Kingston would be back to reprise her role as River Song, the heightened expectations have begun to reach a frenzy. Would the show actually tell us his name – after all these years? And if we do get a name, what does it mean that The Doctor kept it hidden for nearly a millennium? What power does a name wield? For Time Lords it just may give someone the power of them? But what is the true answer?

We are just dying of curiosity to find out. But if forced to choose between the two burning mysteries, The Doctor’s name and the reason that Clara is “The Impossible Girl,” which shall weigh out?

To see which is answered and which remains for another day, be sure to tune in for the seventh season finale of DOCTOR WHO on Saturday, May 18th at 8:00 p.m. on BBC America.

“Doctor Who”

“Doctor Who”

“Doctor Who”

“Doctor Who”

“Doctor Who”

 

 

 

 

DOCTOR WHO: Love Is In the Air in “Nightmare In Silver”

Anything written by author Neil Gaiman can be recognized by his great fondness for mixing horror with whimsy — which means he is the perfect writer to tap for an episode of DOCTOR WHO.  Approached by executive producer Steven Moffat to pen another episode of the beloved science fiction series, Neil hesitated at first to try to top his prior episode “The Doctor’s Wife” (a fan favorite around the globe).  But when Steven proposed that he make the Cybermen scary again, Neil leapt at the chance and the end result was this week’s episode “Nightmare in Silver.”

“Doctor Who”

It starts like most innocuous fairytale stories do: two young children exploring an abandoned amusement park.  If only that were all it were. Under Neil’s crafty pen, an amusement park is never just an amusement park.  There is the wax museum of oddities, which includes a Cyberman or two – relics from an old war.  Yet in a world where there were once Cybermen, perhaps they are truly never gone.

In an episode initially seen through the eyes of children, we are then taken on two simultaneous adventures: one with The Doctor and another with Clara.  The Doctor has his own war to wage against the Cyberman and when faced with the enemy literally inside himself, The Doctor begins a battle of wills and a fantastic game of chess with stakes so high that literally the universe is at stake.  Then for Clara, after being left in charge under The Doctor’s strict instructions, it is up to her to keep the enthusiastic locales from pushing the button and collapsing the universe around them.

“Doctor Who”

DOCTOR WHO gives us an adventure infused with all the proper fairytale elements, including a castle with a moat, a brave knight, a damsel in distress, and a “dragon” or two in bright shiny armor – as well as a few sneaky creatures slithering through the darkness when no one is looking.  The Doctor may call them “funny insects,” but as everyone will soon see, there is nothing funny about them and they are not insects at all.

Finally, as if that were not enough to bring a fairytale to life, in the end there is a romantic proposal.  Love is unexpectedly in the air all throughout this episode.  Neil Gaiman did not just seek to remind everyone that Cybermen are incredibly scary when they want to be; he wanted to bring sprinkle in a little dose of love into the story.  The end result is a delightful concoction of thrilling adventure.  With nods to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and a few more classics, DOCTOR WHO presents fans with another breathless episode.
So be sure to tune in for the “Nightmare in Silver” episode of DOCTOR WHO this Saturday, May 11^th at 8:00 p.m. on BBC America – and buckle up for a wild ride!

Where to find this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2013/05/11/doctor-who-preview-love-is-in-the-air-in-%E2%80%9Cnightmare-in-silver%E2%80%9D/

Sneak preview:

“Doctor Who”

“Doctor Who”

DOCTOR WHO Speculations: Driving The Doctor Mad

Four episodes into the travels with Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) and we have begun to notice a pattern with The Doctor (Matt Smith).  He is frantically driven to try to protect Clara and yet simultaneously unravel the mystery “The Impossible Girl.”   In the “Bells of Saint John,” The Doctor dashed to be at Clara’s side and then ferociously fought the Spoonheads to save her.  In “The Rings of Akhaten,” The Doctor was challenged to show Clara something amazing costing her something precious in return.  In “Cold War,” The Doctor negotiated with the deadly Skaldak to spare Clara and save Earth.  And in “Hide,” The Doctor once again tries to find a way to subtly solve the mystery of Clara Oswald with the help of a psychic.

As charming and fun as each of these adventures have been, it does not quite erase the constant worry from our minds that The Doctor may be slowly being driven insane because he cannot fathom the mystery of Clara – and that he could not save her twice before in “The Asylum of the Daleks” and “The Snowman.”  As much as it could not possibly have been the same girl, each time it was.  She called herself Clara Oswald or Clara Oswin (Oswald-for-the-win).  She used the exact same key phrase: “Run, you clever boy . . . and remember.”  And she was unmistakably Clara.  She was head-strong, independent, curious and not at all intimidated by The Doctor.  It was just enough of a coincidence for The Doctor to deem her “The Impossible Girl” and to begin searching for her throughout time and space to try to figure out how and why Clara kept popping up in his life, only to die a tragic death.

“Doctor Who”

Being a Time Lord and knowing the rules of the time-space continuum, that there are fixed points and other times when time is flexible and may be rewritten, The Doctor is used to thinking outside-the-box and considering all the possibilities.  There literally has never been a mystery he could not solve.  But who is Clara Oswin and what does it mean that she keeps appearing in The Doctor’s life?  It is like stepping into a fun-house and seeing the walls of distorted mirrors, each showing a sliver of the true reality.  The Doctor is only seeing a piece of who Clara is and it is distorted each time, so he cannot see how her life fits all together.  And just like those who stand too long in the fun-house staring at all those warped mirrors, The Doctor will slowly start to lose his perception of reality simply because he is looking into a distorted reflection of what is really there.

This last episode “Hide” perhaps offered a clue.  The episode featured a time-traveler trapped in an alternate universe that was co-mingling with our universe.  She was just traveling at a different speed of time and in our universe; thus it looked like she was a ghost because she would appear only from time to time in the same fixed spot.  Perhaps this is exactly what is going on with Clara.  She too is a figure trapped in time, caught up in an infinite playing loop so that she literally pops up in different places at different times in The Doctor’s life.

“Doctor Who”

We have seen before how those who travel throughout time are affected differently.  For some, their entire body chemistry could have been altered by their exposure to time-travel and the different variations of their molecular make-up from being disassembled and reassembled.  We know that Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) became cursed to live nearly forever and that Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) nearly lost her mind trying to take on being psychically-linked to The Doctor.  Then what of Rose (Billie Piper) and Mickey (Noel Clarke) — they traveled to alternate universes and became a part of those worlds for a time.  As for Martha (Freema Ageyman), Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), they too are not unaffected as their adventures changed them forever as well.  Could a normal life ever be as satisfying after having seen all the mysteries of the universe?  And then there’s River Song (Alex Kingston), conceived on the TARDIS, born of Amy and Rory, kidnapped by Madame Kovarian and then falling in love with The Doctor – her life was perhaps affected more than them all.

So why would Clara be immune?  We may not have yet seen the origin of her lifespan intersection with The Doctor, or perhaps we have and we have not yet figured out how it came to pass.

“Doctor Who”

Regardless of where Clara came from or who she may be, what we do see is the effect she has on The Doctor.  To be confronted with the ultimate mystery and forced to watch her die over and over again, The Doctor’s mind and emotions are taxed to capacity.  He has run himself ragged watching Clara Oswald’s life at various points in time and trying to search for clues to the meaning of her.  Yet it is like watching a brilliant scientist beat his head against a wall.  Is it no wonder that The Doctor sought solace in the peace and tranquility of the monastery of Cumbria in 1207 to contemplate the mystery of Clara.  He knew he needed the down-time to recuperate.  But now that Clara is there and a daily part of his life, The Doctor is getting no rest, no peace and his mind seems to be in perpetual motion.  He literally cannot stop thinking about the meaning of her.  So if The Doctor seems a bit more frantic and anxious to please, it is perhaps he feels that the sands of time are working against him.  He knows that Clara will die again and likely soon.  It is a race against time and destiny.  As a Time Lord, The Doctor has circumvented time over and over again, but can he this time?

That franticness is taking its toll.  Are we watching The Doctor slowly lose his mind?  We only hope that he can solve the mystery of “The Impossible Girl” before it is too late – not only for Clara, but for The Doctor.  Imagine if some diabolical villain had found the perfect way to eliminate The Doctor by simply posing a mystery so unsolvable that it would drive The Doctor mad. Ingenious.  Now we just have to hope that the hands of fate are being pulled by destiny and not some evil puppeteer.

We too now will be beating our heads against the wall wondering if we’re watching The Doctor slowly go mad.  Pray it is not so!  In the meantime, be sure to tune in for the final four episodes of this season: “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” (April 27^th), “The Crimson Horror” (May 4^th), “Nightmare in Silver” (May 11^th) and “The Name of the Doctor” (May 18^th), Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m. on BBC America.

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Where to find this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2013/04/27/doctor-who-speculation-driving-the-doctor-mad/

“Doctor Who”