I was gonna get this up yesterday, but I just did not feel up to it. This was a pretty good episode. The first half is a bit weird before the plot really gets going, but it is the sort of silliness I have come to love about this show; the moon is not moon, it's an egg. Of course it is. The second half of the episode is great and the final scenes between Clara and the Doctor and Clara and Danny are fantastic.
Let's get my biggest complaint out first. Why is Courtney there? There have been some fantastic secondary characters in the past 6 episodes that I would love to see again and the Doctor let's her come along?! I have no patience for annoying teenagers and, while she is not as annoying as last week, she is still annoying and I really don't like her.
However, it does seem harsh to me that the Doctor would just tell Courtney that she was not special, even if he did not mean it. Yes, this Doctor does not seem to care about humanity in the same way that the other versions have, but still, espcially since previous versions have been so adamant in expressing the importance of a singe person. I think it was Eleven who said that in all his travels he had never met someone who wasn't important, so this really does highlight the fact that Twelve is a lot darker than previous incarnations.
I think this is the first episode in this season where the supporting characters are severely underdeveloped. The two male astronauts are there just be killed off to make the bacteria into a threat and I had to google Lundvik's name because I could not remember even hearing it during the episode. She, as a character, is only interesting because of Hermione Norris' acting.
I do love the Doctor's excitement over the fact that the Moon is an egg. He is so fascinated by this, in his mind, beautiful weirdness that is the universe. Everyone else's reaction to Lundvik's question about killing the Moon did surprise me a bit. Well, not the Doctor's, he's always had a fondness for unique creatures, and, yes, Courtney is naive and does not understand the world and Clara is a good person and does not wish to harm anyone, so in that sense it is believable, but I don't think the concern behind Lundvik's question is wrong. She could have phrases the question differently, but I think what she really is asking is whether the creature will be dangerous. What are the consequences of this creature being born to Earth? And that is a valid concern in my opinion (or maybe I'm just not as nice as Clara), so it's a bit weird to me how everyone just attacks Lundvik for being rational.
I do wonder why the Doctor is so insistent in not being involved in the decision. Yes, he has done this before on few occasions, but he has always shown his support for the people making the decision. Now he just leaves after telling Clara that it's not his concern what the humanity decides. And the thing is, he did not have to leave. He could have stayed and helped them make the choice. He did not need to make it, but he could have helped. But he does not. And to me that seems out of character. It might be in character for Twelve, I don't know him that well yet, but the previous Doctors that I have known and loved, they would not have done this.
But I love Clara calling the Doctor out on his manipulations. It was about time someone did that, to be honest. And he tries to explain his departure by saying he trusted Clara enough to make a choice without him, but Clara is right to reject that. While the Doctor-companion relationship has never been quite equal (the Doctor always seems to have more knowledge and authority), these people have always been a team. But now Twelve is saying that he is definitely above Clara, that he gives her a permission to do things and that is just such a shitty way of thinking.
Danny only has one scene this week, but what a scene it is. It's so simple but it shows that Danny understands. He understands the situation, who Clara is as a person and lets her rant and supports her. Oh Danny, how I love your wisdom. I was not expecting his prediction of the Doctor pushing Clara to become a plot point this soon, but it should make an interesting arc for rest of the season.
Next week looks interesting. I hope it's a space version of Murder on the Orient Express (because I love Agatha Christie) and does not just use the train as inspiration. The preview makes it seem the latter, which is a bit disappointing but I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Now, the good news is that this week I get to add Supernatural posts to my weekly schedule. I can't even begin to say how excited I am!
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