Possibly! I wouldn't put money on it, but... possibly! I'm sure we'll see her again one day, but I think it'll be a few production teams down the line. Call it a hunch.
Right! The Name of the Doctor. Rewatched it. What a funny episode.
To clarify, I did love it. So much of it. Geeky glee. Every little fanboy moment - I was actually laughing. Big grin, properly, edge of my seat for so much of the run time. They're not metaphors, either, I was really grinning, and really perching.
But... the plot wasn't up to much, was it? It answered a lot of unsolved questions, but didn't do much besides. Lots of explanations, thankless exposition-speak. "Where are we?" "Where's this?" "What happens here?" Whispermen nicely designed but underused. Jenny's death genuinely harrowing - but fixed painlessly a few minutes later. Peril in short supply. Especially later, with Clara putting herself in the timestream, which did work dramatically, but it was a hell of a foregone conclusion. As soon as the Great Intelligence did its thang, we knew that it was going to be thwarted, how it was going to be defeated, and by whom. Any consequences of the Great Intelligence's actions were sort of fangless, because we knew, due to the nature of the predestination paradox, that they were absolutely going to be undone. Strax's disintegration, the stars going out - entertaining, nice ideas, but I didn't buy them. But then, it might be different if you're eight - and I don't mean that as a slur at all, even though it does sound like one. I'm trying to think of a better way to put it. DW speaks to kids in a different way to adults, and I can completely imagine kids yelling at Clara, willing her to, "Step into the timeline!!" I may not quite be the episode's target audience.
I don't know. I liked the episode, often loved it, but I'm not convinced it was good? It feels like a very pleasant bridge. "That's what was going on there, this is what's coming up next. Any questions?" Rather, it was a quality product, but not in the same way Hide was a quality product. I think it had emphasis on thrills above plot. When the thrills are that good, I think the plot can take a back seat and still produce a cracking episode, but I don't know that it doesn't still feel like there's something missing.
I don't know. This is the strangest reaction I've yet had to an episode of Doctor Who! Still a little punchdrunk. Any thoughts?