by Chelsea Dee, Editor, and Jachelle Overstreet, Reporter

Previously on Doctor Who, Amy and Rory were touched by the angels and sent back in time to live out their lives away from the Doctor. He came across a woman named Clara Oswin Oswald several times, first in Asylum of the Daleks where she was trapped in a Dalek, and the second in the Christmas Special in the Victorian period. Both times she died and said “run you clever boy and remember.”

The Doctor’s been trying to find her since. This show opens with “The Bells of Saint John” actually referring to the sound of a phone ringing in the TARDIS. The Doctor has been thinking there, trying to figure out what to think about this girl who keeps appearing and dying. The phone rings and it’s the lady of the hour herself, Clara. She’s calling because she thinks he’s internet support. He scrambles around to find her, and she unknowingly signs into a wi-fi connection that a mysterious creature (spoiler: Great Intelligence) was using to feed off human brains. They are uploaded into the server and their body dies. The Doctor gets there to try and speak with her, but she thinks he’s a weirdo, obviously. When he goes into the TARDIS to change into normal clothes, since he thinks the monk clothes are unappealing, she is approached by a creepy little girl with a robot head that turns around and downloads her. She keeps yelling I don’t know where I am, I don’t know where I am, which seems to be normal for all the people trapped in this system.

The Doctor however isn’t going to lose her again so he hacks into the same place and manages to beat the code, bringing Clara back. He sends a coded message to the leader, Miss Kyzlet, saying Clara’s under his protection and signs his name. She tells the Great Intelligence about him, and they plan to get Clara for real now. She’s retained advanced hacker and computer knowledge from when she was in the server. Suddenly those robots are around and all the lights in the neighborhood are on, and a plane comes crashing toward them. The Doctor uses the TARDIS and brings her through it to stop the plane from crashing and waking up the humans on the flight. The bad guys can take over human brains thanks to their wi-fi power apparently. He’s like oh now it’s personal, so they try to find where the original place is. Clara insists with her new tech knowledge she can hack their location.

Miss Kyzlet taunts the Doctor by possessing several different people and telling him he can’t win. While he does that, they send another of those robots in the form of the Doctor and Clara’s finally downloaded despite having found them. Unsurprisingly, he’s pretty mad about this. He sends the robot him to the place, although they think it’s the Doctor at the time, and he grabs Miss Kyzlet herself into the server. This leads her to insist they let her out, let all of the minds out, and she apologizes to the Great Intelligence because UNIT has found them. He removes himself from all of his little minions, and they wake up as their original selves … including Miss Kyzlet who was a child. Oh that’s so sad. Clara survived this episode and the Doctor invites her to be his new Companion. She taunts him to come back the next day and try to convince her again. A little backstory is given about her that she planned to travel the world and gave that up when her friend died and the children needed help.

General Opinion of the Episode

Dee: I liked it in general. I wasn’t a huge fan of how it reminded me too much of older episodes. The “Don’t Click” thing made me roll my eyes, ha ha yes you’re so clever Moffat. Note heavy sarcasm. Then it reminded me of the episode with the Olympic Games and Rose losing her face. It’s fine to take inspiration from other things on the show, and they updated it to wi-fi and current tech to make it fun, but I’m sure they could’ve come up with something more original on top of it. Other than those nitpicks though I did enjoy it. I thought the villain and her crew were great, this new bad guy they’ve introduced the Greaet Intelligence is being handled well so far, and I liked the continuation of Clara’s story. Did anyone else see that Amy wrote the book Clara gave to the little girl? I’ll admit I smiled at that. Although I then rolled my eyes when he added the “Eleven is the best!” part. Ugh it’s fine. The important part is that Clara was introduced properly, she handled her first adventure well, and we’re ready to get started on our new companion. Is she going to keep dying? I bet she breaks Rory’s record soon enough. There was a pre-episode clip of the Doctor meeting Clara as a little girl. Or that was the implication, which made me side eye it, but that might’ve just been a joke since she seems not to remember him in the slightest.

Jachelle: Considering my general dislike of Clara in the Christmas Special, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was actually enjoying this episode. It wasn’t OMG AMAZING, but I found that the time flew by as I was watching it and I was invested in the storyline and the characters. I found Clara to be much more likeable and easier to swallow this time around. She’s still fun and spunky, but I felt that she was a little more reigned in than her previous incarnations. And it was nice to have the Doctor back to himself again. I am really enjoying the way the Great Intelligence is continuing to crop up and am looking forward to seeing what’s next there. Overall I thought this episode was a fun way to come back from hiatus, and I’m genuinely looking forward to the upcoming episodes.

Favorite Scene

Dee: I think when the Doctor trapped Miss Kyzlet by using one of her computer drones, the one dressed as him, to trap her in the server too. Nothing like personal incentive to get her to do what he wants. I am always fond of when the Doctor manages to get around direct violence, and this was a clever little manipulation. She used that one against Clara, so it was only justice she got hit with it too. Golf clap.

Jachelle: My scene isn’t nearly as action packed or dramatic as Dee’s this time. Honestly, I’d have to say my favorite scene was Clara and the Doctor’s brief conversation through the window after she wakes up. It was the first moment in the episode where you can see their natural chemistry, and I found it completely charming. I missed seeing that sweet and adorable side of the Doctor.

Least Favorite Scene

Dee:  WE GET IT. DOCTOR WHO IS THE TITLE OF THE SHOW AND PEOPLE ALSO SAY IT IN THE SHOW. HA HA. IT STOPPED BEING HILARIOUS A LONG TIME AGO. Sorry for the capslock but wow has it been overused to the point of ridiculousness. My eyes rolled so hard. Also another tiny nitpick, wasn’t the point of Asylum of the Daleks and his “death” that the Doctor wanted to go underground for awhile? So why is he acting like normal and yelling his name everywhere? I’m guessing that’s just a dropped plot so whatever. But if those are the worst things I can think of, it wasn’t bad overall. Oh and who would send a plane after someone? Why not just have the spoonhead robot kill her directly?

Jachelle: I was a bit annoyed with Clara’s “Oh hey, I’m a computer genius now!” I suppose it’s supposed to be quirky? But to me it just seemed kind of odd. I actually liked it that Clara had been so clueless about technology and the internet. In the midst of all of Moffat’s “I can do anything but still need to be saved constantly by the Doctor” female characters, I thought it was cute that she was so out of touch. Buuuuuut I guess that’s out the window now. Oh well.

Favorite Character

Dee: Since Doctor Who usually only has 2-3 main characters per episode, there are limited choices. So Clara’s going to be mine this week. I’m going to get into why I like her more below, but I do think she’s a good addition and I enjoy her banter so far.

Jachelle: The Doctor. Understandably, the Doctor wasn’t really himself in the Christmas episode due to still mourning the loss of Amy and Rory. I get it, I was too. And I would have been raging all over the place if they hadn’t gone there with him. It’s a natural response. But now that I’ve had time to let my beloved Ponds go, I was definitely ready to move on and have my Doctor back. I’ve mentioned before that Eleven is “my” Doctor, and it was nice to have him back to his old self. Even if I miss the tweed jacket.

Thoughts On Clara Oswin Oswald Continued!

Dee: I like her! I think the actress is extremely likable, and that helps a great deal. I’m not entirely sure what is going on with her dying everywhere, and I fully expected her to die again in this episode. I guess maybe this is the real Clara? Or are all of them real? I’ll admit, I find it intriguing, and that means I find her intriguing. I do sort of miss Dalek Clara though. I really dug that storyline. So far her chemistry with Matt is good and I’m on board her as a companion. Clara Oswald FTW (Oswin!). One nitpick though: I thought it was contrived to find a way to make her a computer genius. I imagine they want that to be a part of her future plots, which is fine, but I don’t know, I kind of would’ve rather it be an actual trait of hers from the get go. I feel she’s already a lot like most of Moffat’s female characters, but that could change. I just want another Donna, is that too much to ask?

Jachelle: As mentioned earlier, I did really like Clara this episode, which surprised me. As I said, I felt that she was a bit more subdued than the two other versions of her that we’ve already met. She was a bit more down to Earth and relatable. Like Dee said, she still does fit the pretty standard profile for all of Moffat’s female characters, but I think Jenna still played her well and brought a lot of life to the part. I think it will probably end up being a case of an engaging actress making a somewhat mediocre character memorable.
Rating: – While it wasn’t the most creative of plots, we’re looking forward to more of Clara and ready to move on.

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