Silence Never Falls: An Operation Blue Harvest Update and Clarification

HUGE-ASS FREAKING SPOILERS!

So, I need to make some clarifications about the season finale and the 50th Anniversary special.

For a lot of this blog, I've been talking about the season finale and the 50th Anniversary special as if they were the same thing.  I had a feeling they might not be, but I couldn't be sure.  So I asked around on the Doctor Who message board, Gallifrey Base, and they confirmed for me that the season finale and the 50th Anniversary special are two different things.  So now I believe them when they say they're just shooting it now, because the 50th Anniversary special, it seems, will be held on the exact 50th Anniversary, November 23rd, 2013.

Now, as far as the season finale itself goes, the BBC has finally announced the title of the season finale that they hadn't been announcing.  It turns out that the reason was that the title of the season finale is, in and of itself, a huge spoiler:

There's so much to analyze here just from this poster.  First of all, River's coming back.  Second of all, "his secret is revealed" is a huge clue.  Moffat said the same thing in an interview, that the Doctor's greatest secret would be revealed.  Sometimes Moffat gives us false clues to throw us off the trail.  Sometimes he's straightforward and reading too much into it is unnecessary.  He admitted at the end of Season 6 that he knew people would suspect River Song of being the one who kills the Doctor, and that he didn't care that people guessed it.

So we know what "The Name of the Doctor" is going to be about.  The BBC South Africa website's description said that someone's kidnapping the Doctor's friends to force him to come to the fields of Trenzalore, where he'll be forced to reveal his name.  Obviously, those friends will at least include Clara and River.  My guess is that, if Moffat's going to have some of the Doctor's friends kidnapped, he's going to throw Vastra, Jenny, and Strax in there too.

Now, somebody on Gallifrey Base suggested a possible scenario for this episode that's so perfect...I think it absolutely has to be what's going to happen, and it kind of ruins the ending.  I...I can't imagine it's going to play out in any other way other than this.  So, reading this might kind of ruin the fun of the episode.  So I'm going to make this super extra spoiler protected so you have to highlight it to read it.  I wish I hadn't even read it.

The Great Intelligence (probably, although it could be someone else) will lead the Doctor to the fields of Trenzalore.  There, the Doctor will be asked his name.  He will be forced to answer, but just as he does so, River will materialize the TARDIS around him, so that he blurts out his real name to the person in the universe it will be the most safe with:  River Song.  That's why she'll know his name in "Silence in the Library."

There's no doubt in my mind that the Doctor's real name is "The Other."  It's more or less been confirmed in expanded universe material.  I think it's about time I posted my explanation of the Cartmel Masterplan on this blog to explain what that means.  Regardless, even if that is the Doctor's real name (it is) and even if Moffat is following the Cartmel Masterplan (he is), I doubt the name is going to be said on the show.  Something will happen to allow him to say it without us, the audience, hearing it.  The Doctor IS the Other.  But they can't blatantly say that on the show.  It would ruin too much of the show's mystery.

Now, as for the 50th Anniversary Special itself.

In which we see the return of the cuddliest race in the history of the franchise

I still don't know why the fuck the Zygons are going to be the villain.  They've been in 1 episode!  This is another "Meat Puppets" move from Moffat.  (I'm creating too many inside terms on my own blog here.)

John Barrowman is sending extremely mixed messages.  Here's the timeline of what Barrowman has done:

1.  Announced he was in talks with the producers about returning.

2.  Announced that he was not returning.

3.  Announced that his absence from the special is not due to lack of interest, but because the producers never asked him.

One of these statements has to be bullshit.  I don't know which one.

A post recently on the David Tenant Facebook Fan Page said that Paul McGann's appearance in the special hasn't been ruled out.  Now, for most fans, the fact that a Doctor who appeared on screen for about 60 minutes is not that exciting, but those of us who have listened to the brilliant Eighth Doctor audio adventures know how great Paul McGann can really be.

My friend Gary asked me, what if they aren't lying?  What if it really is just going to be Matt and Dave against the Zygons?  First of all, not lying at all would be completely out of character for Moffat.  But, even if it isn't a trick, and all we're getting is Smith and Tennant...won't that still be awesome!?  Who doesn't want to see 11 meet 10.

It could be the best dialogue in the history of the series.

Creatures of Love: An Overanalysis of "Hide"

SPOILERS!

 

This looks like a very self-contained episode.  A "monster-of-the-week" episode.  But there were actually some really big classic series references in this episode.  Not to mention a few more big clues about the mystery of Clara.  So let's dig in.

It might have seemed like technobabble when the Doctor said that he could open the "well" using an aspect of the Eye of Harmony and a blue crystal from Metebelis III.  Well, it was technobabble, but it wasn't made up by the writer of this episode.  The Eye of Harmony was first introduced in the redundantly named 4th Doctor episode "The Deadly Assassin."  I can't quite tell you what it was used for then, because I don't care enough to remember.  The more memorable use of it was in the horrible made-for-TV movie, where it was said that the TARDIS had its own Eye of Harmony in a back room that powered it:

In a completely impossible twist, the Eye of Harmony could only be opened
by the retina of a human, a species that the Time Lords had little contact with.
Honestly, this movie made less sense than an M.C. Escher painting.

Okay, so the Eye of Harmony is kind of a bizarre and random thing that doesn't mean much of anything other than it's a power source.  But the cyrstal from Metebelis III is fully legit.  The Doctor first picked up the crystal in "The Green Death," but it didn't become a problem until the Third Doctor's final episode, "Planet of the Spiders."  The crystals have the ability, as the Doctor pointed out, to enhance certain abilities within a creature.  Metebelis III became the "Planet of the Spiders" because some spiders who were left behind by human explorers, and the crystals caused the spiders to become larger and hyper-intelligent.

The Third Doctor regenerates into the Fourth Doctor
out of fear after finding this thing in his shower.

The crystal turned a mentally disabled man into a genius.  It also helped a psychic to enhance his abilities.  So I was very happy about this episode using pre-established technology rather than some random bullshit that the writer made up.  It may have looked that way to the casual viewer, but I promise you that it was cleverer than that.

I was wondering what the Doctor was doing at this completely random house.  Someone on Gallifrey Base (the Doctor Who forum) suggested that maybe the Doctor was going back to the house that he met the 19th Century Clara.  It doesn't seem that it was the same house, but it's perfectly possible that it was and I missed it because I have no spatial awareness whatsoever.

What he did seem to come there for was an empathic psychic to tell him what the fuck is going on with the Claras.  She seems to think that Clara's perfectly normal, which is probably a clue, but she also thought that the Doctor had a "sliver of ice in his heart," so maybe she's just the worst psychic in the world.

Probably not.

But the fact that the empath thinks that Clara is a perfectly normal girl has to be a huge clue.  What could it mean that Clara isn't unusual?  My guess is that if Emma met either of the other two Claras, she wouldn't have had said that.  I think that whatever is going to splinter Clara across time, it hasn't happened to the 21st century Clara yet, putting versions of her in both the future and the past.

The problem is that Emma sees nothing wrong with Clara, but the TARDIS clearly does.  The running thread of the past few weeks, that the TARDIS doesn't like Clara, seems to be for an obvious reason:  The TARDIS can't handle temporal paradoxes, like Captain Jack in "Utopia," the alternate Amy in "The Girl Who Waited," and Clara Oswald, the impossible girl.  It even seemed to insult her because it said that the person she would most esteem would be...herself.  To which Clara called the TARDIS a "grumpy old cow."

You'd think the one that the TARDIS really hated would be the Doctor's real wife, River Song.

Then there's the whole weird creatures that are in love.  Aw, love can outlast time.  I don't think that matters in the long run.  Unless it's Clara's parents, and their great love story, that was splintered across time.

Next week, we go deep into the TARDIS to places the show has never been.  Moffat said he thought the classic series didn't show enough when it went inside the TARDIS.  There's a little bit in the 4th Doctor episode "The Invasion of Time," and a little more in the 5th Doctor's introductory episode, "Castrovalva," but nothing like what I think we're about to see.

See you next week!

Everybody Hates Chris: An Operation Blue Harvest Update

SPOILERS!

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/ninth-time-lord-christopher-eccleston-turns-down-doctor-who-return-8561822.html

It's been announced that Christopher Eccleston will not be returning for the 50th Anniversary special.  Now, this could be just another one of those little lies that makes up what I've been calling Operation Blue Harvest, but this one is probably true.  Eccleston has been very adamant about not wanting to come back since the beginning.

Let's be honest, Eccleston was never really that interested in Doctor Who.  Tennant was a hard core Doctor Who fan from childhood.  Matt Smith had never seen the show when he started, but he watched a lot of past episodes as research for the role.  Eccleston not only had never watched an episode, but refused to ever watch any past episodes to make sure that he wasn't influenced by other people's performance, which is the worst possible way to play the role.  When asked why he wasn't going to put on a more elaborate outfit, like past Doctors, he said it was because his Doctor wasn't going to be a "tosser."

There are some Doctors who, when put up next to each other, are hard to believe that they're the same person.  11 and 1.  6 and 4.  8 and 2.  But when you watch them all in order, there's a kind of natural progression of his personality that makes sense, so you can kind of understand how these different incarnations are actually the same person.  But if you put 9 up against any Doctor, even the ones immediately before and after him, it's almost impossible to believe that he's supposed to be the same person.  Even 10 and 9 don't seem like the same person, nor do they seem like they would like each other.  9 would find 11 insufferable.

Eccleston didn't take the role out of any interest in sci-fi or Doctor Who.  He actually took the role because he wanted to work with Russel T. Davies.  I don't think he knew what he was getting in to.  I don't think he understood that Doctor Who is a huge franchise with fervent fans who devour the expanded universe media and who want to see the past characters and actors come back.  I don't think he realized that anyone would want him to return after he was done.  He also had some difficulties with Davies behind the scenes, which have only been referred to very vaguely.  Hence his early departure.  No matter how much the fans want him back, I doubt he'll ever make another appearance on the show at any point.  There aren't going to be audio stories about the 9th Doctor.  Eccleston isn't interested in being a Doctor for the rest of his life.

However, the fact that Moffat met with him tells us that they're trying to do a big Doctor special.  Especially if Eccleston and the show parted on bad terms, the fact that anyone would consider calling him means that they were very interested in doing the special with multiple Doctors.  I'm frankly shocked that Eccleston even took the meeting.

If it's true that they intend to use footage of past Doctors, its possible that they're shooting to have an Eleven Doctors special after all.  As "The Five Doctors" proved (and, to a lesser extent, the super non-cannon "Dimensions in Time"), you don't need all the actual actors around to make it a multi-Doctor special.  I know there are those who really love Eccleston and want to see him back, but I think fans of the modern Who will be fine with just the Matt and Dave show.  And the classic fans will be happy with anyone from the classic series they can get (well, almost anyone).

And if Tom Baker comes back, then all will be forgiven.

Lies, Damn Lies, and BBC Announcements: An Operation Blue Harvest Update

SPOILERS!

This week it was announced that England's answer to Britney Spears, Billie "Call Girl" Piper, and England's favorite Scottsman, David Tennant, would be returning for the 50th Anniversary special.  Also, John Hurt--whose role as the first guy to die in Alien Moffat once used as a metaphor for childbirth in an episode of Coupling--is appearing for some reason.  Also, Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page is going to be in the special, which is very exciting news for Joanna's parents, who are probably the only people on Earth who know who she is.

In another announcement, the BBC said that the Zygons are going to be in the special, which is kind of like marketing a major motion picture as a star vehicle for Abe Vigoda.  The Zygons appeared once in a 1975 serial called "Terror of the Zygons," although, if you can find it, I much prefer their appearance in the Eighth Doctor audio drama, "The Zygon Who Fell to Earth."  The Eleventh Doctor also mentioned them in "The Power of Three" as having been responsible for an adventure that he had with Rory and Amy offscreen.  I'll bring you more information about this really obscure villain as the special approaches.

The BBC is suddenly very forthcoming with information, and I still highly doubt that this is all of it.  Billie Piper and David Tennant are the [i]only[/i] ones coming back?  I'll believe that when Daleks can climb stairs.  You can't have a 50th Anniversary special with only two Doctors.  And I'm still not sold on their claims that the episode hasn't begun filming yet.  Tennant's Facebook page is showing pictures of him and Matt Smith after the table read for the special, which they claim just happened.  I still really don't buy that they're cutting it this close, unless the show is going off the air after "The Last Cybermen" and returning with the special for the actual anniversary date itself, November 23rd.  If not, then we're looking at the 50th Anniversary special in about 7 weeks, and that means the episode has to have been in the can for months now.

Here are some possible scenarios I'm seeing:

1.  "The Eleven Doctors":  Even if they can't get all the living actors together (of which there are 8), you could probably still make something called "The Eleven Doctors."  Just throw in some sort of reference to the first three Doctors being trapped in a void somewhere, maybe splice in some stock footage, or have some extra seen only from the back in a Moe Howard wig.  There's a million ways you could do it.  But I'd say you'd need at least 5 of the actors to pull this off.  In "The Five Doctors," for every Doctor they couldn't get, either due to death or stubbornness, they made sure to get one of that Doctor's primary companions.  That wouldn't be that hard to pull off, either.  Carole Ann Ford, Frazier Hines, and Katy Manning are all alive and well and would all probably be up for a guest appearance.

2.  "The Modern Doctors":  Tennant, Smith, and Eccleston.  The three of them could pull off a hell of a special.  Although Rose might get pretty confused having both 9 and 10 around.  I always wondered how, in multi-Doctor episodes, the current Doctor wasn't already aware of what was going to happen because his earlier self already went through it.  You'd also think that all of the Doctors would know what their future regenerations look like from the multi-Doctor episodes.  I feel like a Moffat-written multi-Doctor episode might actually address that (he did address it in "Time Crash).

3.  Matt and Dave:  This is the worst case scenario, that it really is nothing but Matt Smith and David Tennant.  Don't get me wrong, they're my two favorite Doctors.  But you can't really celebrate 50 years of a program with less than 20% of the actors to play the role, and none of the actors from the classic series.  It's just wrong.

In conclusion, I'm thrilled that Tennant is officially coming back (although I had no doubt that he would), but it's not enough.  You need at least one other actor, preferably more (and preferably at least one Doctor from before Eccleston) to make this good enough for the 50th Anniversary.

And of course, the other big question:  If the Zygons are the villains for the special, then how does the Great Intelligence fit in here?