"Director Rachel Talalay says Moffat has layered in a lot of things throughout the series which you never thought were important – “You have no clue what the series arc is, or how Clara leaves”

The finale is the fallout of Clara sort of becoming the Doctor.

Moffat thinks if the Doctor found Gallifrey he’d run away again. He thinks Clara is the same with Earth now. She has lost her sense of home

The two episodes are very different. Episode 11 is essentially one 45-minute monologue with the Doctor"

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http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/huge-sh...ctor+Who+TV%29

Anything to do with the v v v strange extras in Zygon Inversion who appeared motionless and unreactive when the half normalised zygon was running past?

Parallel realities? More bootstrapping?

I realise my comment is hardly a response to what is said above but it was a very weird thing going on. Was it not real/a simulation?

good question.

I assumed they were other rebel Zygons.

This all sums up why I don't like the current show as much as any previous era.

[A duplicate appeared when I edited the previous message, for some reason.]

Clara?

In the previous era she was basically a non-character and more of a plot device. Even Moffat admits to that

There are so many unknowns, and potential avenues the show could take...it's fascinating. It's somewhat like Series 4 in that regard...though that built up to an inevitable Dalek confrontation that was signposted everywhere...that was more about the journey than the destination (hence, Journey's End) whereas Series 9 has all been about the twists and turns around a very specific selection of ideas - so far it's the best thing Moffat's written in my opinion.

But we've got the hybrid focus for one thing - something that's been very difficult to pinpoint. Was Davros' first mention of it the one that hinted at it's direction, or was it simply the first of several (Ashildr, Osgood) that alluded to a grander game being played? Are any of them the hybrid that's going to come into more major play...are none of them? It's wonderfully vague, even if shoehorned in increasingly over the course of the series.

The Minister of War is an interesting prospect, and ties in nicely with Ashildr's name which means 'god of battle' in Norse. But equally that could prove to be a red herring, and the fact it's only been mentioned once might mean it's absolutely nothing to do with Series 9 - it may be relevant later on, or possibly not at all.

There's the heavy focus around Clara's exit, which is less speculative than inevitable. The 'how' is intriguing but not much has been hinted at in regards to that along the way. The line in the recent episode about the Doctor suffering "the longest month of my life" is interesting to some - whilst I interpreted it as simply meaning the Doctor suffered an enduring grief at the thought of Clara's death, others have suggested it could be an underplayed line hinting the Doctor has already experienced Clara's death/departure and is back on her timeline using up his remaining days with her. Anything is possible.

Then the convenient confession dial, which hasn't been hinted as even remotely since the opening story. But like any Chekhov's gun it'll likely come into play somehow too.

And finally the overwhelming number of characters who could come into play in the series finale that we've seen already. We've had the Sisterhood of Karn dropped in, the Shadow Proclamation and the Judoon referenced, the still mysterious Colony Sarf (admittedly dead now) and the Maldovarium, Davros could potentially have a role to play, Missy may have a role to play, Osgood and Ashildr could have a role to play, Kate Stewart or UNIT could be involved, and this is all without the prospect of more new characters and then The Doctor and Clara themselves embroiled in the middle of it all. The two of them have gotten a lot of friends and enemies in Series 9, and it's hard to tell which of them could play into a grander scheme.

It's wonderfully refreshing to have a storyline so vague, and so full of options. Hopefully the one they go for will pay off and Series 9 might finally deliver a satisfying finale all-round again.

Then I wish Moffat had found a better way of showing us this. It's not good enough for him to simply tell us "this is how this character feels right now" if what we see on screen doesn't support it.

At first I thought this year we would see Clara, having lost her boyfriend, ditch the job and live in the Tardis. The opening story sees her seemingly happy at her work, not obviously impatient for the Doctor to arrive and take her away.

Then for three episodes it does seem as though she might well be actually traveling with him, but no - The Woman Who Lived reminds us that she's just an occasional fixture and still happy in her career. Then for the Zygons further confirmation that she's maintaining a home and career on Earth.

I like Clara this year - she was established as having a genius intellect in her first story so it's believable enough (for anyone who remembers Bells that is) that she would become Doctorish. But I'm not seeing where this "lost sense of home" is coming from.

I don't see this either. There has been a theme of Clara becoming more gung-ho over the course of this series - a little bit like Rose's arc before her departure - and it's clear that Danny's loss has affected her, as she alluded to on one occasion. Everything else is speculative.

Being happy in her career doesn't mean she feel anchored to the place any more. Yes, we've been shown that she still doesn't live in the Tardis full-time, but we have been shown that Earth doesn't feature so much in her life. She's in a half-way state.

The first bit is fair enough, but I'm not really feeling that. For example when she entered the Tardis at the end of The Woman Who Lived, the first thing she did was excitedly show the Doctor what she'd been doing at school. And she has an official capacity at UNIT - Zygon Invasion confirmed she has full access to everything. These are, I think, examples of still being anchored to the place than the opposite.

I can't really see how we've been shown Earth doesn't feature so much in her life. The absence of a current relationship is fairly good evidence, but dramatically it'd be easier to swallow if they'd shown something, rather than just let us assume it from the absence of something.

It probably just needs a line or two, or some shots of Clara wistfully looking out of the school / flat window waiting for the Tardis to appear, or being asked to take on some Earth based commitment and turning it down (a promotion at school or something) to actually demonstrate that she isn't anchored to Earth. Or just plain saying to the Doctor, in the console room, that she's not feeling emotionally tied to Earth.

This makes absolutely no sense to me based on what we've been watching.
Out of all the companions since 2005 Clara is possibly the most grounded companion who balances her time with the Doctor and her life on Earth more effectively than any of the other companions.

Yes, Amy series 5 was a companion who wanted to run away and have an adventure

If I may posit an opinion: if a series has an arc but it is designed such that at the two-third mark, viewers won't yet have been able to figure out what it is even if they're genuinely trying, then perhaps that doesn't indicate an oversight of the viewers?

Quite personally I'm glad that we didn't see Clara's entire home life revolve around the concept of whether she had a boyfriend or not.


And heaven forbid she be happy in her career. To quote Rose, "for the first nineteen years of my life nothing happened. Nothing at all. And then I met a man called the Doctor". The Doctor became her world, and we've played that angle. The Doctor isn't everything to Clara - she's described him as 'one of her hobbies' in Series 8 and Series 9. That doesn't means she doesn't care tremendously for him, but she recognises she has to have more in her life...hence the career at the school. Which has grounded her somewhat.


The lost sense of home doesn't have to come from the fact that she still spends a fair bit of time there. She clearly spends a lot less time there than she was before... in Series 8 we saw her trying desperately to hold both distinct lives together. A home life with Danny and Coal Hill, and a life with the Doctor on alien worlds. This series her first scene showed her at the school, and she quickly just abandoned it and ran off to the Tower of London as soon as the chance presented itself. She keeps throwing herself into perilous situations...like with the underwater base, and with the Vikings, and toying with death with Zygella. She's taking more risks, off-the-rails might be pushing it but she's lost that sense of stability she had a fair bit - whilst at the same time it's not been a remarkable contradiction of her character.

The 'part-time companion' thing is something I wasn't a fan of at first either - I felt it was handled incredibly poorly in Series 7 - with Amy and Rory just as much as Clara. But logically it makes sense and is the kind of decision the show has to make if it wants you to buy that the Doctor is incredibly old. Nine and Ten age about six years between Series 1 and The Specials, and they're restricted to a human-timeline of life because their companions are such full-time, demanding characters. If your're to sell it that the Doctor is so incredibly old, you have to sell it that he has a life away from his companions as well. That their time with him is incredibly fleeting and whilst intense, you can buy into that sense of loss he feels when Clara leaves just as much as the sense of loss when Rose left.

But back to Clara...whose her friends, where's her family? She goes back home for a job, and she's not completely otherworldly, I don't think Moffat's trying to suggest that she is. But she's lost a huge sense of home and belonging, she throws herself into the deep end a lot more than she used to, and is a match for the Doctor in so many ways that she mirrors his detached, outsider feel. The Doctor has "the biggest family on Earth" as Sarah-Jane put it...and yet he was the only one who wound up alone and homeless at the end of Journey's End. It's simply exploring a similar notion through Clara, and far more intricately.

Could be, but not necessarily. After all, the arc is the path the character has taken, not an indication of where they are going to end up. Clara has changed over the series, it remains to see what leaps she takes next.

The friend/enemy enemy/friend has been a repeated motif I'd be surprised if this doesn't play a part in the arc.

I should preface by saying I'm not saying whether Moffat's "lost her sense of home" is a good idea or not, simply that I don't think he's done quite enough to show us that this is what is happening.

If Clara's arc is mostly about her becoming too Doctorish then I think they've done a lot to show that. But nothing in particular about her losing an anchor with Earth. Ironically she's now an official part of the UNIT set up - very Third Doctor! The most anchored to Earth Doctor there was.

Now then - I'll admit to a bit of backtracking. Between Before The Flood and Girl Who Died I did think this is exactly what they were showing us. But they were showing it by the absence of things, rather than positively showing us. The absence of scenes of her home life, absence of mention of job, absence of mentions of whether or not she's up for finding love again. But it's been undone a bit with The Woman Who Lived and Zygon Invasion.


Goodness. Agreed. But relationships are important to people and there is nothing belittling about someone being in one or, having had a traumatic loss of a loved one, they throw themselves into adventure.

There's nothing wrong with showing someone living a single life not looking for a partner either. But it is something that a dramatist might use to demonstrate someone isn't anchored at home. So that goes in Moffat's favour.


I'm not criticising the portrayal of Clara as having a happy and successful career at all. But if Moffat's intent is showing that someone has lost her sense of home, then showing them to have built a happy and successful careers at home isn't the most obvious way of showing it.

Your quotes from Rose and Clara show this perfectly. Rose was pretty much all about the tension between adventuring with the Doctor and home life, having ditched the job asap. Clara says the Doctor is just one of her hobbies, keeps the job on Earth, helps UNIT out on Earth (she was kidnapped in TMA!).

That's what I thought until The Woman Who Lived.
Well, yes. But all of that only supports the "becoming Doctorish" thing - which is true. None of it supports "lost her sense of home".

Evel Knievel kept throwing himself into perilous situations but that didn't imply he'd lost his sense of home.


Agree with most of that.


But I don't think that's a change - that's how she was introduced. No family, no friends, hanging around in that other family's life filling a void rather than carving her own place in the world.


I think that's what it boils down to.

For me the only thing that's changed about Clara is the extent to which she's Doctor-ish this year compared to s7 and s8. The other stuff - about her not having family or friends was equally as true of s7 and s8. The only actual difference I can see is that she is no longer in a relationship. And as you rightly point out, having that be the only tangible difference could be seen as problematic.

However both you and johnnysaucepn are getting the vibe more than me. Fair enough. I am enjoying Clara's character stuff this year. More than s7 and s8.

The final direction of this season depends on how complex Moffat is willing to allow his Doctor who to be.

He seems to shy away from many of the stories he told earlier on. For instance, Clara's 'impossible girl' story is never referenced. Last season's "Into The Dalek" would have been the perfect moment to reference Clara's first appearance (as a Dalek) in Asylum of the Daleks. But it wasn't mentioned at all.

So one way this could play out is that our Clara has died, at some point during season 9. And this Clara is one of her 'impossible girl' alternatives, that a grieving Doctor plucked from his own timeline.

But I just don't think Moffat would write something that complex again. It does feel as though everything in Season 9 will be wrapped up using clues and stories from within Season 9.

Great more galifrey this and that and is the doctor good or bad and i miss my home/planet talk. I want an episode just for adventure no hidden meaning, no secret agenda, no reading between the line.

I agree with Mulett about not looking for too many clues outside what we've been shown this year. And if some of it turns out not to have been guessable, then that's no bad thing. It's not a murder mystery - we can let things unfold without feeling cheated that we weren't given every tool possible to "solve" it. It'd just be nice if I get a few "Ah! So *that's* what the mention of a bookshop was all about!" type stuff.

Can I also say that my "lost her sense of home" thing is just quibbling about a Moffat quote, rather than a complaint about the series? In case that wasn't clear. Acres of TL;DR about a quibble, I know. An inverted pyramid of piffle I'm afraid.

Very good, well done

Jsut dont

...than just dont read between the lines lol. Enjoy the adventure in SNM

Scary!
I was beginning to wonder how it might all tie up for Clara in the end.
I wondered last season whether Danny might be the avenue that allows her to settle down (in the way Jo Grant departed from Pertwee when she wanted to), but it looked like Moffat didn't want to understandably repeat the romance in the Tardis so quickly so soon after Amy + Rory.

But Clara feeling she has no home on Earth now like the Doctor and Gallifrey ... Sad!