If you want to have a *Doctor Who* squee-fest, you might as well start it

[capri0mni]

First: I haven't felt this overall philosophical/metaphysical about the implications of a Fictiverse since the days of the Pro-fun troll hoedowns [/inside joke ?]. It's a heady feeling.

Second: When the Doctor Who YouTube channel posted the clip of the Doctor speculating that we're never really alone, most of the comments were about how Moffat loves to think up evil things. But my first thought was of the Fylgiur, who are spooky, but good. I'm so glad I was right (or at least, I have the potential to be right). Also, I'm pretty sure the Perfect Hiders are real. Just because Clara is convinced they're imaginary, doesn't mean they are.

Third: It's getting a bit Mobius-strippy, though, with how much she's personally effecting the Doctor's supposed future. Reminds me of the ultimate arc of the River storyline. It's almost like Moffat is puzzling through a question about the meaning of life, or something, and he's not quite satisfied with the answers he's come up with, so far.

Fourth: Really, though: Why wouldn't the TARDIS go back along Clara's timeline? I have a sneaky suspicion there's more to it than "She got distracted."

Fifth: Okay, that barn scene. I'm pretty sure it's not Gallifrey. And this is after (Albeit shortly after) the day the Third Doctor remembered during "The Time Monster."

Sixth: Of course, I couldn't help thinking of the time the Doctor introduced himself to Ian and Barbara in "An Unearthly Child": "Susan and I are cut off from our own people, without friends or protection." I have a feeling that's he's been a sort of political outcast all his life. I'd been assuming he got himself in trouble as an adult. But now, I'm thinking his whole family were renegades, that's why he was growing up in the Not!Gallifrey Boonies.

Seventh: The only thing that really bothered about the episode was Clara giving the broken toy soldier to Tiny!Theta..

Comments

[vilakins]

So Clara was the monster under the Doctor's bed, but whatever was on Rupert|Danny's bed was something else. Didn't it disappear with a flash of light? I wonder if we'll come back to that.

Wasn't the barn the War Doctor was in on Gallifrey? I liked that it tied in with this ep, but not the last one given that Robin said that the Doctor, like him, was born into wealth and position and chose to care about others and be a hero. That barn and the clothes we saw on the parents (if they were indeed parents) were pretty shabby.

It bothered me about the toy solder too. Surely the Doctor would have remembered it, and it should have stayed with Orson Pink (if I got his name right).

But Greg thought it was very classic Who and it certainly would have had child me unwilling to sleep in the dark. Eep.

[capri0mni]

Reasons I do not think that barn was on Gallifrey:

1) In Doctor Who fan-lore (and I'm not sure how far this goes back -- I think it may go back as the First Doctor, when his granddaughter Susan describes their [unnamed] home planet, in the burninated episode "Marco Polo"), Gallifrey has an orange sky. It certainly has been consistently depicted that way in the mordern series. And Moffat is so much a Fanboy From the Old Days that I can't imagine him casually giving that landscape-with-barn a blue sky, without intending to signal something by it.

2) A: on the day that the Warrior intended to use the Moment, Gallifrey's skies were filled with dalek warships, but the sky was clear wherever that barn was clear, and B: if he were going to use the Moment while still somewhere on Gallifrey, why would he go to the trouble of traveling X-distance in his TARDIS? Why not just use it close to where he found it?

3) In that story the Third Doctor tells Jo (that I linked to, above) he describes his childhood home as being "halfway up the side of a mountain." Again, Moffat is such a fanboy, I'm sure that was in the back of his mind. There were mountains in that landscape, but they were far in the distance.

I don't think those adults were his parents, partly because I've become aware of how fond of parallels Moffat is, and he was clearly signalling, left, right, and center that the Doctor and Rupert/Danny Pink were reflections of each other, at least, in Clara's mind. And those two grownups were talking about "the other boys," instead of "his brothers," and I don't recall off the top of my head, but I don't think they called him son -- but "that boy." So I think the two adults were caretakers/guardians of an institutional home, and no more his parents than the caretaker/night guard was a parent to the kids in the home where Danny was.

As for the Doctor coming from wealth and privilege, Robin only "knew" that because of what Clara had said to him. And she was likely making assumptions based on the whole "Powerful Timelord" persona the Doctor has now.

I basically fell in love with the Doctor all over again, though, when he gave his "Fear is a superpower" speech to little Rupert.

[vilakins]

Ahh, see, I don't know enough about classic Who. So little Doctor was on another planet in an institution. I wonder why Gallifrey would do that - put him there, and have the place so far away.

That also explains why Rupert was in a home if they were drawing parallels, and why the Doctor might sleep in the barn - maybe the other boys played tricks as he thought was happening with Rupert.

So, did you see a flash of light when the thing under the bedspread went? I'm thinking the Doctor's still right on some level, and we've had a few aliens living on the edges of our perception.

[capri0mni]

So little Doctor was on another planet in an institution.

That's just speculation on that point. Very little has ever been written in canon (especially screen canon) about the Doctor's life, prior to nicking the TARDIS. In the very first episode the Doctor says he and his granddaughter are exiles from their home planet. There's Three, talking about that hermit on the mountain, and in the Fourth Doctor's era, there are a few episodes where he meets up with classmates and teachers from the Academy of Timelords, then the Seventh mentions having a favorite uncle. And that's about it. ... Oh, there's the bit in the failed American pilot where the Doctor says he's half human, on his mother's side. But we (including the actor who plays him) prefer to pretend that never happened.

I wonder why Gallifrey would do that

Well, in several of the novels (Which I haven't read, but I've eavesdropped on fan discussions), children were sent off to apprentice schools at the age of eight. And also, I think in the novels, or it may be a throwaway line in one of the classic tv episodes, Gallifrey was part of (the most powerful part) of a group of allied planets. So... It might be like an English kid living in India during the time of empire. But really all of this is just guessing on my part.

I vaguely remember that. I'll have to go back and rewatch that scene. Really though, the whole hiding creature idea reminded me of the Fylgiar: Lucky, invisible, spirits of Icelandic and Norse folklore, that attend on people who are born with cauls. They always follow right behind the person, and are never seen, except in dreams, or right before the person dies. But they'll let you know when company's coming by knocking on doors, and shuffling their feet in the hall. When a person enters a room, it's considered extremely rude to shut a door too quickly behind them, in case you accidently shut out their fylgia.

I really loved that the Doctor respected its need to stay hidden, for whatever reason. That's one thing I've always loved about the show, classic and modern: Alien beings are (mostly) respected as individuals, good and bad, and not just blanket evil simply 'cause we're scared of them (daleks and cybermen excepted).