THE GRAND “GOODBYE” THAT
CLARA OSWALD DESERVES.
Let’s discuss the real
reason why “Face The Raven” was a heartbreaker.
The episode wasn’t just
sad because we lost Clara, the girl whom the Doctor admittedly loved so much
that he regenerated as an old man just so he could maintain his distance from
her.
The girl who saved the
Doctor multiple times.
The girl with a
conscience who challenged him to be the best Doctor he could be, who threatened
him and literally smacked him around when he got lost.
The girl who was angry
enough to leave him, but came back because he needed her.
The girl who kept the
War Doctor from blowing up the world, and then helped Twelve save the world
again with the Zygon boxes – it was because of Clara that Capaldi made that
amazing speech.
The girl who made the
Doctor more human.
The girl who made it
possible to do something critical for all “fantasy” entertainment like the
Potter movies, to pull the stories and insane plots back into the human
characters, by reminding us that love is more important than all the magic and
Time-Lord tricks.
The take-charge girl who
made a lot of the other companions look like worthless baggage by comparison,
silly girls who fell down wells and needed rescuing.
The girl who could have
taken over as Time Lord if things had turned out that way.
The girl who died to
save someone else, and didn’t even blink.
Although that was bad
enough, losing one of the best characters ever seen on television.
--
But, no.
And the episode wasn’t
just sad because we lost Jenna Coleman, arguably the best actor the show has
had in nine years.
The actor who got the
job in the first place because she was the only actress who outperformed Matt
Smith RIGHT IN THE AUDITIONS.
The actor who played
four very different characters and showed a range of personality and emotion
that the Donnas and Marthas of the world never could have managed.
Just imagine: even if we
had never met Clara or the two earlier Claras, Bonnie the Zygon with the
demonic lipstick would have been one of the most popular villains ever, all on
her own, and she was only one of FOUR characters created by Jenna.
Jenna made it possible
to build one of the most beautiful, complex relationships ever seen on
television, the Clara/Doctor relationship, even though she had to switch
seamlessly between two very different Doctors right in the middle.
And even more amazingly,
that extraordinary relationship was PLATONIC for three whole years, so most of
the things that an actress uses to build a man/woman relationship were taken
off the table – half of the Actress Toolkit taken away on Day 1.
Particularly, Jenna, a
stunning, beautiful woman, chose NOT to use her beauty as a tool. No skirt
slits, no plunging cleavage. The only time she really tarted herself up was
when she was playing Bonnie, the anti-Clara, as if to show “this is NOT who I
really am”. Is there another actress who would have the guts to do her
climactic farewell speech and then go out and DIE, all wearing the ugliest
sweater ever made? And then go out to do press interviews in the same butt-ugly
sweater, instead of prettying up?
She is an actor who
portrayed female strength, not with curvy femininity, and not by over-steering
the other way as some sort of weapon-wielding Katniss ninja – all she used was
strength of character. Courage, conscience, and a love of adventure.
She is the actor who
made that lame romance with Mister Pink look believable, even when he was
painted up in silver like a cyberman.
The actor who gave us a
magnificent death scene without blubbering or yanking too obviously on our
heartstrings. She could have given us the adorable victim, but instead took us
back to the cool schoolteacher giving orders, saving the Doctor yet again. Just
imagine how terrible that whole episode would have been if anyone else had
played the role – could Freema Agyeman or Billy Piper have pulled off that
death scene?
The actor who saved the
show for three straight years when the writers got sloppy and Capaldi got
erratic in his performances. Capaldi sags when the writers sag, but Coleman
always rose above bad writing.
Although losing Jenna
was bad enough….
--
But, no.
The real reason Face The
Raven was sad, is this. The showrunners allowed a new writer to come into their
office and say this:
1. We
are going to kill off the best character we have on the show,
2. And
the way we do it is because Rigsy, a minor character, did NOT murder the
two-faced girl,
3. And
because Clara didn’t read the fine print of an execution contract involving a
bird made of smoke, for a “crime” that NEVER EVEN HAPPENED, that neither she
nor Rigsy committed,
4. And
because it was really about Arya Stark kidnapping the Doctor, for no explicable
reason,
5. And
because the Doctor, who has gotten people out of impossible fatal peril 500
times, couldn’t save the most important person he’s ever had in his life, even
though the Doctor, and a Tardis, and a Stasis, and another immortal who owes
her life to him and doesn’t want Clara to die, were all nearby, and UNIT right
around the corner,
6. And
that the chronolock, which the Doctor was positive he could help Rigsy with in
the beginning of the episode, suddenly became totally insoluble when it
appeared on Clara’s neck,
7. And
everybody just gives up on Clara and she drops dead.
8. And
the critical plot point, the Impossible Girl, will just be left hanging there
like a shirt tail that needs tucking in, forever.
The writer pitched THAT
story to kill off the best character the show ever had, and the Doctor Who team
ALLOWED HER TO DO IT. A roomful of writers, and not one spotted ANY of those
gaping plot holes and silly contrivances. They could have killed Clara off
using the Impossible Girl thread, i.e. she split herself in a dozen pieces and
now she must pay the price, or any one of a hundred other ways to kill her,
that were NOT stupid.
But, no. Clara was
executed for a “crime” that never even happened.
And it never occurred to
anyone that, despite all that “the raven will follow you to the ends of time”
bullshit, all the Doctor had to do is go back a week and ensure that neither
Rigsy nor Clara ever enter that alley. Problem solved. The Doctor has saved people
like that a hundred times – that’s what he did in “Blink”. The Doctor has been
known to go back in time to get a freakin’ cat out of a tree, but he wouldn’t
figure out how to keep Clara out of that alley?
--
THAT is what made “Face
The Raven” sad.
They knew that millions
of fans had invested, not just in the show, but in Clara and her dynamic with
the Doctor, and THAT is the way they chose to destroy it.
Either they didn’t even
know how badly they were betraying their viewers, or they didn’t care.
Jenna said she cried
when she read the script, but it had to be partly because they were giving her
such a crappy send-off after her three years of brilliant work, as though they
had tried to jam as much bad writing into her farewell as possible.
That script shows how
off-target the DW team is now.
That means that the next
season could have a whole string of episodes that are written just like that
one.
And unlike this year,
next year they won’t have Jenna OR Clara to save them.
They could have done
something that would get us excited: "We're all shattered by her death,
but they paved the way for the show to go in really exciting directions, I
can't wait for the next season!"
Instead they made us
dread what they are going to do next. More "Cool Uncle Capaldi" with
his sunglasses and his guitar? More sloppy writing and plot holes? More
eye-booger monsters? A new companion who will drag the show down even further,
rather than making it soar as Clara did?
And the teasers we’ve
seen are ominous. The Doctor will be going through some sort of Goblet-Of-Fire
obstacle course, and then for Christmas we get a silly romp with River Song, an
under-developed one-note companion who simply serves to highlight how good
Clara was.
It’s very late in the
game, and the Doctor Who team doesn’t even know who the next companion will be,
let alone how they will interact with the grieving Doctor and take the show in
a new direction. Even now, they don’t know how to get out of their current
tailspin.
Mister Moffat, GET HELP.
You people are possibly in over your head, splitting your talents, your time
and your good writers between Doctor Who and Sherlock. There are many, many
good writers in the UK, and many Doctor Who fans who respect the characters and
the concept, who can get you back on track, give you ideas to explore bits of
Doctor Who history you either forgot or never knew, and shoot down bad story
ideas. There are fifteen-year-olds out there writing fan-fic that is better
than some of the stuff you peddled to us this year – go hire them!
I am not a Doctor Who
geek. I’d never seen any of the episodes until a few months ago, and I don’t go
around draped in bowties and scarves. I know little of the old pre-2005 shows,
and the few I’ve seen are really terrible. I just saw a tiny snippet of Clara
interacting with the Doctor one day and the writing hooked me (and a bit of
Jenna). But I am a writer and I can tell when a writing team is wasting an incredible
opportunity to tell amazing stories for years to come. So, Mister Moffat:
please prove me wrong. Don’t be the guy who makes Doctor Who go off the air
again. Don’t be that guy, or you’ll probably have to flee England.
This weekend, impress
me, Mister Moffat. Dazzle me.