Five "Doctor Who" things make a post: (Contains spoilers for "Deep Breath" and another Moffat story)

[capri0mni]

1. More icons (now that I have actual images from the episode itself, rather than something else entirely... from 5 years ago).
   
   I want them to do two things for me -- first: that... the image and words to actually have gone together in my original source, and second: express a sentiment I actually intend to use more than once in my journal. Happily, the first episode on Saturday gave me plenty to work with... (I don't think either of these is too spoilery, for those who haven't seen it yet).
   
   and
   
   
2. On the downside, Visiting Physicians Association has changed my primary care provider 4 times in seven months. On the upside, it turns out the new guy is a massive Doctor Who fan (So is his assistant). [/unexpected geekery]
   
   
3. Another thing that annoyed me about Moffat's repeated reminders that "Hey! Look! I'm giving you those clockwork robots you like so much!" was that they obscured the way these repair droids were nothing like the ones from "Girl in the Fireplace." (This is what my use of "It's misunderstandable to me," is for)
   
   
   • In "Fireplace," the droids and their ship were still in the 51st century, but they had established temporal portals to one specific set of points in Earth-centric Spacetime, but in "Deep Breath," the ship crashed in the physical distant past of Earth.
     
     
   • In "Fireplace," the Droids were fixated on repairing the ship, and only disguised themselves as elaborate human works of art as camouflage, but in "Deep Breath," the droids were fixated on extending their individual lives, and gave up on their ship (more or less -- "The escape pod is viable..." but not, I think, capable of interstellar travel).
     
     
   • In "Fireplace," the droids were simply acting as they had been programmed to, by their human creators (It's just their human creators failed to realize the unintended consequences of their programing), in 'Deep Breath," the control droid had been overtaken by personal ambition and obsession -- I haven't counted, but I think he says: "I will reach the Promised Land" more than he says "We." The Doctor says this is because he's stuffed himself full of humanity. But I wonder if it's the other way around -- if someone, sometime, somewhere, implanted an algorithm for "promised land" into the control droid's system, and that shifted his focus from maintaining the ship.
   
   
   
4. The more I see of Moffat's writing, the more I'm convinced he's an Epicurean philosopher -- and not in the "Iron Chef" sort of way. I approve.
   
   
5. Anybody want to bet that the Doctor trading away his pocket watch will have further consequences in this season's arc?

Comments

[vilakins]

I'm betting Missy had a hand in some reprogramming.

[capri0mni]

I am, too.

In fan reviews of the episode, I've seen some complain that Missy is just a reboot of a River Song-like character, or Tasha Lem, because she refers to the Doctor as "my Boyfriend." But I doubt it. Her welcoming speech to Droid-man sounded to me more like the delusional obsessions of a stalker -- like people who are convinced that movie stars are speaking directly to them through the screen.

I've also seen the speculation that she's a female regeneration of the Master: Missy=Mistress. That's more likely, but the Master's death in "End of Time" is pretty close to the exit that Roger Delgado wanted during Pertwee's era (according to clips from DVD extras BBC has uploaded to its YouTube channel). So I believe Moffat when he says the Master won't be coming back.

I've also seen speculation that Twelve is actually the Valeyard (an evil alternate version of the Doctor from "Trial of a Timelord"). But that storyline coincided with the 100th anniversary of "Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde," and I, personally, think that the Doctor's actions in "Day of the Doctor" excised the guilt that would have led to the Valeyard's emergence (and since the Valeyard was an in-between regeneration, if anyone turns out to be the Valeyard, it would most likely be Rusty's Doctor Handy [Bwa-ha-ha])

-- Hello, my name is Ann, and I am an English Major...