Posted in: Movies, TV | Tagged: ashildr, bbc, clara, doctor who, entertainment, face the raven, jenna cleman, me, peter capaldi

Ten Thoughts About Doctor Who: Face The Raven

So. Doctor Who: Face The Raven aired on BBC 1 a couple of hours again. What went down?

1. 1. Death Of A Theory

Theory shot to ribbons, at it always was going to be. Not an out-of-time Doctor it seems, but it was all just foreshadowing Or was it? Out of the hoodie, back in the jacket, this episode was after the Alhildr/Me two parter but the rest could have been in another order. Or am I just clutching at straws?

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee…

2. Save Him

But just as this is the Doctor who saves the one person he can, if that's all he can do, so that appeals to him again. And yes, the Doctor saying to Clara "there's no nice way to say you're about to die" did seem rather directed at Clara as well as being about Local Knowledge… and as there was the appeal to the Doctor from Rigsy to save him "you're the Doctor…. that's what you have to do", he did look at Clara again. Plus the daredevil stunt out of the TARDIS…

3. Where The Street Has No Name

So which is this, Doom Patrol or Neverwhere? Is this Danny The Street, the sentient street that slips in and out of cities? Or is it London Below, where the supernatural vagrant denizens live under out noses? Or could it even be Diagon Alley? Or maybe whoever painted that bridge in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade?

If it is Danny The Street, nice to see what he's up to these days though. Not sure of the pseudo-Victorian look though. Bloody hipster.

4. Foreshadow The Raven.

As any student of Norse literary (or reader of Journey Into Mystery) knows, it's all about the raven. Odin had two, could the memory of the raven be one of the few things to survive from the days of Ahildr to the days of the Mayor Me?

5. There Must Be Easier Ways To Get A Wristband On A Doctor

So that was the whole thing? A big mystery a fake story, engineered like last week, but the plan here was to just get the Doctor to put his hand in a hole. There must have been a less onerous way to do this that doesn't involve tattoos, death ravens, hidden streets, murder, stasis fields and glowing cobbles?

6. Re-Extermination

The death is the opposite of Time Lord regeneration of life. Arms outstretched but instead of light bursting from the mouth, it's black smoke of death. What if a Time Lord is so cursed? Maybe we'll find out next year….

7. Me'll Be Back

Whether she is the new Doctor Who companion or not, that kind of threatening eyeborw actin at the end from Capaldi means that Me'll be back. Somehow, somewhen. Call it Chekov's Eyebrows if you must. After all he Doctor has a lot of future still to live.

Any change we could get Rigsby as a companion? Or is he being set up for Class? Which, no, probably isn't going to be called Clara now is it?

8. So Who Has The Doctor?

It did feel as if he was going to Valhalla again… what with Ahildr, the Ravens and all. But there's no indication whatsoever was to who has the Doctor. The Mistress? The Time Lords? The Daleks again? Someone else who has been messing with the Doctor all this time? The Next Doctor?

Best guesses?

9. The Reference Books

The Retcon drug is straight out of Torchwood. And of course the street was full of familiar aliens, Sontaran, Judoon, Ood, Cyberman, that Blowfish fellow. Actually there's a thought, if all these people are refugees living in a hiding place, why do they need to appear as Victorians? If no one ever comes there and those who do get their memory wiped?

Anyway, the idea of the Doctor no longer being there and him being the Warrior again, the threat of the re-emergence of the War Doctor was raised against Ashildr and ordered away by Clara…

10. Is She Dead?

Well yes.But no. She is after all The Impossible Girl. And look how she appears on the cover of Doctor Who Magazine…

Could one of her splinters still be knocking around time?

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