The revelation that Missy was actually the Mistress, a female regeneration of the Master was a big shock to most people. I had heard some rumblings on the internet about it being a possibility, but I thought those folks were crazy, and then I ignored them. I thought it was more likely that Missy was a regeneration of River or something along those lines, so I was obviously surprised when I found out the truth. I was surprised, and then I was really turned off. The whole thing didn’t sit well with me, and I had a hard time taking it seriously. I know this whole post is somewhat late to the party, but I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to say about this whole thing, or if I wanted to say anything and just let it all go. Except now, Missy is coming back for series 9, so I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts.

I had a lot of high hopes for series 8, and maybe they were too high. I really liked the look of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and I was excited to see where he was going to take the character. I wasn’t totally disappointed with it. Yes, there were some shaky moments in the series, especially toward the beginning, and there were times where his Doctor simply made me feel uncomfortable. By the end of the series, however, I was really enjoying 12.

I was also excited about Clara coming back. Here, I was totally and utterly disappointed. From a Clara standpoint, I wish series 8 had never happened, or at least that Danny had never happened. In any case, he did and it did, so I have to accept that and move on. I am hoping Clara’s character gets the full season she deserves with series 9, and I can move on from series 8. Although, truth be told, my inability to move on from series 8 as far as Clara is concerned is really my issue that i need to get over.

Series 8 had its moments of greatness and its moments of mediocrity, like every series of Doctor Who, so that’s fine. Overall, the series was perfectly alright. That is, if you don’t count the series finale. I didn’t feel like it was groundbreaking or Earth shattering or anything like that. I’ll tell what I thought when I saw the last two episodes:

That’s right. I felt like the show jumped the shark. I really felt like changing the Master’s gender was simply a gimmick and nothing more. It was Moffat basically doing it because he can, and that’s it. I don’t have a problem with strong female characters, whether antagonists or protagonists. That doesn’t bother me at all, but i don’t feel like that is what Moffat was doing here. He wasn’t introducing a strong, original female character. He was just reintroducing a strong male character as a female, which is totally different. I know the whole thing is supposed to be so different and so groundbreaking, and only Moffat would dare to do it. That’s simply not true. Every time the Doctor has regenerated since the reboot, there have been a ton of people wanting him to regenerate into a woman. Of course, there have been a lot of people who have been against the idea. The point is, the idea of a Time Lord regenerating not a Time Lady is not new, and it’s not Moffat’s.

What it really comes down to, what it really felt like to me was that Moffat was saying that he couldn’t come up with anything new and shocking, so he turned to a gimmick instead. And it was in typical Moffat fashion. Oh, everyone wants the Doctor to regenerate into a woman, well, I’m not going to give them that, because they want it. Instead, I’m going to give them almost that and just randomly throw it in for no reason.

To me, turning to gimmicks says that the fancies isn’t intelligent enough to realize that’s what’s happened, that they won’t get that it was just a gimmick, and they don’t need anything new or smart. They’ll be just fine with whatever. It’s almost like giving a fan base the finger, and then laughing about it. Of course, he can be laughing about it because it all went over so well with the fans. A lot of people embraced Missy, enough that they just happen to be bringing her back for series 9. Yay! (he says with sarcasm).

The really great news with all of this is that Moffat is on board for all of series 9, so we get to see what gimmick he has up his sleeve for the finale at the end of 9. Maybe it is all just a big set up for the big gimmick, having the Doctor regenerate into a Time Lady. That has to be the direction all of it is going, right? Can it be too far away at this point? I don’t think so.

Let’s hope that’s not the case, at least not doing just as a trick to get people to watch. I think when you get to the point that all you have left is easy little gimmicks like this, maybe it’s time to move on, and let someone else step in and take over. Just a thought to throw out there.

What were your thoughts about Missy being the Master? Did you think it was bold new move? Or did you feel like I did? Let us know in the comments.

This is a question that you here all the time as a Whovian. It is almost a standard greeting when you meet another Whovian for the first time. I ran into a group of Mormon missionaries the other day at the airport, a common occurrence here in Salt Lake City, and one of them noticed my super cool Doctor Who shirt. When she saw the shirt, her first question was which Doctor was my favorite. Before I could think too hard about it, I blurted out that the 12th is my favorite Doctor. At first, I thought about retracting that statement, but then I didn’t. I felt justified in saying it, and hopefully this post will help explain why.

That’s me, and I am wearing my super cool Doctor Who shirt that I mentioned in the post. My wife’s shirt is pretty awesome too.

Growing up, I was not into Doctor Who. That’s the honest truth. I am not a lifelong fan. I openly admit that I am a recent convert to the Doctor Who mythos. That doesn’t mean that I am less passionate than others. I love the show and the mythos and everything about Doctor Who, and I have tried to study up, not just on current Who, but classic Who as well. None of that changes the fact that I am a latecomer to the game. As a child, all I knew about Doctor Who was that it was some old show that aired late on Saturday night on PBS. Somehow, I was convinced that if it was on PBS, it probably was either boring or educational, so I just wasn’t interested. I knew he had a big floppy hat and a really long scarf, but that was it. I didn’t even know that there were multiple Doctors. I just knew about Tom Baker.

I heard about the reboot of the Doctor Who series as it was being launched, but again, I wasn’t interested. This came at a time when I was trying to hide my inner geek. I am not proud of that, but there was a space of a few years where I tried to not be a geek for a while. My wife was the one who convinced me to let my inner geek out, so I did. And as i did, I kept hearing about this Doctor Who show, and I was intrigued. I felt like it was something I could maybe get into and throw myself into as I was embracing my inner geek.

I didn’t know where to start at first. I am usually someone who likes to start something at the beginning and watch everything or read everything sequentially. As I studied up on Doctor Who and the series, I began to realize that it would be quite a bit to get caught up on. So I decided that I would start with the reboot. I wasn’t sure how to start, but I had heard that the series was on Netflix. My love of Doctor Who is tied to Netflix. We didn’t have Netflix at the time that I was wanting to start watching the show, so I started a subscription for us. Doctor Who is the reason we have Netflix. I had a job at the time where I worked the graveyard shift, and because it was slow, we had the opportunity to catch up on our Netflix viewing. This is when and where I met the Doctor for the first time.

9, in all his glory.

A lot of the people I knew who were familiar with the show told me to start with “Blink,” but I couldn’t do that. As I mentioned before, I like to start things at the beginning and work my way through sequentially. I had to start with “Rose.” I started with number 9. He was not what i was expecting at first. There he was, dressed all hip in his T-shirt and leather jacket. Where was the big hat and the scarf? And he was so cool. He was laid back and tough all at the same time. I’ll admit, though, it was hard to look past some of the special effects of that first season. i still felt like this was some kind of low budget SciFi, that wasn’t quite up to snuff. I had a hard time getting into as a result. I just wasn’t sure what I thought about this quirky little British show. Then I watched an episode called “The Empty Child,” and the follow-up “The Doctor Dances.” I was hooked. The very end of the story, when everyone is healed, and the Doctor is celebrating and saying, “Everybody lives, Rose, Everybody lives!” For me, that’s when I realized who the Doctor is. That’s when I was on board for the long haul. I really enjoyed the rest of the first series, and really loved the whole “Bad Wolf” storyline. And then, something cruel happened. My Doctor died. I really loved 9 and felt like he was my Doctor, and then he was gone. In his place was some lumpy, goofy looking guy who…wait a second, is that Barty Crouch, Jr.? This is too much. I don’t think I can keep watching.

10, looking all serious.

That was exactly how I felt as I watched “The Christmas Invasion.” This new guy, he wasn’t the Doctor. I didn’t like him at all. At least Rose was on my side. I think we both wanted 9 back at that time. I stuck with it, though, hoping that maybe he would be alright. He would never take 9’s place, but maybe he would do ok. I can’t pinpoint the exact episode or moment he became “my Doctor,” but it happened. It might have been “Blink,” which was really not very Doctor-centric, as far as episodes go. Maybe it was when he met up again with Donna Noble and they battled the Adipose. He and Donna were great together, some great moments and classic episodes. It was definitely solidified in “Waters of Mars,” when he declared himself the Time Lord Victorious. In any case, at the end of his time as the Doctor, I was convinced he was the greatest Doctor ever. No one could take his place. Of course, his time came to an end, in the worst last episode ever, and he had to go, even thought he didn’t want to. And I had to prepare myself for another adjustment.

Bow ties certainly are cool.

Enter number 11. And I thought 10 was goofy. Have you seen this guy? He spends the first 20 minutes ransacking this little girl’s house for food, and finally settle on fish fingers and custard. How ridiculous. Except, it wasn’t that ridiculous. Somehow it was endearing, as were his floppy hair and exaggerated movements. All of it together just seemed to work. The moment, though, for me came in the first episode, toward the end, when he stood up to the police force that was looking for the escaped prisoner. When they scanned him and went through all the faces of the previous Doctors, and he walks through and announces that he is the Doctor. He was the Doctor from that moment on. He holds a special place at our house, because he was the one my wife and kids really got into. He had so many classic stories and moments, and as it came down to the end, I was feeling the same thing I had felt when I got to the end of 10’s time. I knew it was coming, but I didn’t want it to come. How could 12 top what 11 had done?

Look at those eyebrows.

I don’t have all those answers yet. I have hope that it will happen though. I know for a lot of folks, this transition has been a rough one, and I get it, but for me, this time, it hasn’t been bad. I have actually enjoyed. I think a part of it is that I know now that I have cone through this twice before, and each time it worked out. i have confidence this time will too. I think I have just been enjoying getting to know this Doctor. Discovering his quirks and what makes him tick. It has been a good ride, so far, and I think it will get better in Series 9. I don’t know if he has had his moment yet where he has become “my Doctor,” but I am sure it is coming. I take that back. He did have his moment, at the end of “The Mummy on the Orient Express,” when Clara thought he didn’t value lives of those around him, and he demonstrated that there were few things that mattered more. Maybe that was his moment for me.

So, when someone asks me who my favorite Doctor is, I don’t think it is wrong for me to say the current one. I know if he’s not right now, he will be. It is how it has worked before. I have enjoyed each of them almost equally. Now, I am enjoying getting to know some of the classic Doctors, like watching some classic 4 or 6, or listening to the audio adventures of 8. Each version of the Doctor is just great and adds something to the overall story and Mythos, so it is hard for me to pick just one. I guess picking the current one is maybe the easy answer, the easy way out, but it might just be true, for now at least.

A couple of months ago, I was very excited to hear that Jenna Coleman was going to be done with Doctor Who after the Christmas special. Series 8 had not been kind to Clara, and quite frankly, I thought it was time for her to go. I did not like how her character had interacted with Capaldi’s Doctor up to this point, and the love triangle story between her and Danny Pink and the Doctor was clunky and awkward at best. I couldn’t wait for a new companion. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Clara hater. I liked her with 11, and was excited that she was going to be back with 12. That just added to my wanting her to go. They had already all but ruined a character I liked quite a bit, so I didn’t want to see it get any worse.

Then something great happened. Less than two minutes into the first part of the season finale, Danny Pink died. I don’t mean for that to sound cruel. I liked Danny, just like I like Clara, but I didn’t like the way Clara was with the Doctor when she was with Danny. I didn’t like how the Doctor and Danny didn’t like each other, even though they were both pretty decent people. In the end, although a good man, Danny just wasn’t a good fit for the series. It was a good thing when he died. His death opened the door for Clara to possibly stick around unhindered. She wouldn’t be torn, she wouldn’t have to lie to Danny and the Doctor any more. She could just go with the Doctor, like she did before. And she needed to find a way to stay and go with the Doctor. She needed to stay because if she didn’t she was going to become the next Martha.

Let me explain what I mean by that. Martha had the unenviable task of following a very popular companion. Everyone loved Rose, including, most importantly, the Doctor. Everyone wanted to see Rose somehow end up with 10, and it was heartbreaking when he had to leave her behind in another universe, never to see her again (I know, they saw each other again, but he didn’t know that). Now Martha is supposed to step in and take her place. She wasn’t Rose. I am probably way in the minority here, but I always like Martha more than Rose. I think she was very clever, very pretty and somehow more relatable for me. I get, however, that I am alone in that. The rest of the Whoniverse really did not like Martha. She would never be Rose, and everyone wanted Rose back, including the Doctor. As a result, Martha’s time in the TARDIS was short. She remains one of the least popular companions. And really, who’s companion was she? I mean she was only with 10, but no one really considers her to be 10’s companion, that would be Rose, or maybe Donna, but never Martha. That is what it means to be a Martha.

Similarly, Clara had to step in to the companion shoes left vacant by two very popular companions: The Ponds. They weren’t just companions, at the end of it all, they were family. Who didn’t love these two? Amy was fiery and always in charge. Rory was faithful to the end and as lovable as can be. The two of them with 11 was just awesome. Some of my favorite episodes involved that trio, and I cried when they left the show. It was just so sudden and so awesome, Amy following Rory back in time to live out the rest of their days together. It was kind of beautiful. Excuse me while I wipe down my keyboard from the tears. Then enters Clara. Like Martha, she had lots of spunk and personality, and then added to that, she was the impossible girl. Despite all of that, though, she wasn’t the ponds. She had chemistry with 11, but the Ponds will always be his companions, not Clara. It was Amy he saw at the very end, the face that face first saw. Amy always had the Doctor’s heart. It was good that their time together was short.

Enter Capaldi as 12. This was Clara’s opportunity to shine and become someone’s companion. Like, THE companion. And 12 could have become HER Doctor. Unfortunately, Danny Pink came along and was so anti- the Doctor and the TARDIS and everything, that it just made the whole rest of the season miserable any time he was involved. When it was rumored that she was leaving the show after the Christmas special, I was thrilled. She needed to go, because what had become of her was bringing the whole show down. That was sad that i felt that way. I was pulling for her to really shine during series 8, win over some of her detractors. Unfortunately, the writing prevented that from happening. I couldn’t wait to hear who would be stepping into her shoes and move on to the next companion. Clara would have just become the next Martha. A filler companion until the next good one came along. She deserved better.

Then Danny died, and the whole dynamic changed. Then the Christmas special happened. Right before it aired, it was announced that she would be back for at least one more season. I was upset. Then I watched the Christmas special, and I got to see what the Doctor and Clara could be like post Danny, and I loved it. It made me excited for what is going to happen next. She has nothing to hold her back now. She is all in, which means she won’t be holding the Doctor back, which means we will really get to see Capaldi settle into the role, and I think all of that will be great.

Clara needs this. She needs to become Capaldi’s companion. No one deserves to be the next Martha. Martha didn’t deserve that. Clara has been saved. Now let’s hope the writers and directors do something good with it. Let’s hope they don’t ruin it. The Doctor really cares for Clara, and Clara has realized now that even though he looks different, she really cares for the Doctor. Series 9 could be stellar for the pair of them. I hope it will be.

Well, here we are, at the end of series 8 of Doctor Who, and it looks like Clara is staying for at least one more series.  Those that have followed my blog will know, I’m sure, that I have not been a big fan of Clara this series.  I have not enjoyed the way that she and the new Doctor have been interacting with one another.  This whole idea that Clara can’t stand this Doctor because he looks different has never sat well with me, and it hasn’t helped their chemistry.  Then, when you throw in a love interest for Clara who doesn’t approve of or like the Doctor, it just starts to get messy.  To the point, that when the rumors started going around that Coleman was leaving the show after the Christmas special, I started doing a happy dance.  Which is all very sad, really, because I liked Clara before.  They just butchered her character this series, and I didn’t like her. Now, however, it appears that Clara is sticking around, which could be good or bad news.  I am optimistic since Danny is out of the picture now and she has finally warmed up to number 12, that Clara will be better in series 9.

One thing that may have bothered some folks was how it looked like it was all going to end between Clara and the Doctor at the end of “Death in Heaven.”  It certainly wasn’t an ending that gave you the feels.  Now that she will be back, many of you may be hoping that we will get one of those warm, fuzzy send offs for Clara.  To those who are hoping for that I say: Don’t hold your breath.  That just isn’t how it has gone so far for the Doctor’s companions since the series relaunched with Eccleston.  Don’t believe me?  Let’s take a look:

Rose Tyler

Some might argue that leaving her with her mum and her dad, the two of them together now, so she could live happily ever after is a good thing.  Except she was left with her mum and her dad (from a parallel universe) in a parallel universe, forever cutoff from the Doctor, who she was head over heels for, and who may have felt the same way toward her.  That kind of sucks.  Yes, she is safe, but she is cut off from the Doctor forever.  I mean except for when she got back over into this universe and then she was stranded there by the Doctor again, with a copy of the Doctor, which I suppose could make it all better.  I would argue it doesn’t.  That Doctor that she was left with is not her Doctor, I mean not really.  Plus, it still really is crummy for the Doctor who is cut off from Rose.  In any case, it’s one of those tragic happy endings, at best.  There is of course some deleted scene circulating about with some kind of home made TARDIS.  Deleted scenes don’t count and are not canon.

Martha Jones

Martha always got a bad rap.  I liked Martha.  I thought she was a great companion.  She was smart and witty and everything a companion should be.  The only thing she wasn’t was Rose Tyler, which is why, I think everyone can’t stand her.  It’s also why the Doctor didn’t like her.  Her exit didn’t seem so bad.  She walked away from the Doctor and from the TARDIS all on her own. IT was her choice.  Except, I wonder, if there wasn’t some part of her that wanted the Doctor to try to talk her into staying.  I think that is the real sad part here.  She walked away, and the Doctor was totally fine with it.  As were the fans.  Poor Martha.

Donna Noble

One of the saddest departures was Donna’s.  Her mother had always told her she would never really amount to anything, and she proved her wrong by running off with the Doctor and seeing the Universe and being just brilliant. Then she had it all stripped away from her because of the whole Doctor-Donna thing.  Her memory is totally gone as far as anything to do with the Doctor, and unfortunately, anything to do with being brilliant.  Now, she is back to being a temp again and living the life she had before, never knowing about her untapped potential.

The Ponds

Two of my favorites.  I loved the Ponds, and just like everyone else, I was sad to see them go. The way they went didn’t help matters any.  To have them just ripped away from the Doctor and River, just kind of sucked. The Angels had been a menace for the Doctor for a while now, and he and his companions always seemed to just barely get away.  It was only a matter of time before they got someone.  Unfortunately, that someone was Rory.  Of course it would be Rory. It was only like the tenth time he had died. The big shock was when Amy decided to go with him, and just like that they were gone, and the Doctor could never go back to see them (one of those convenient Time Lord rules).

Looking at these examples, I think it is safe to assume that whatever ending the future holds for Clara, it will not be a happy one.  The awkward conversation in the diner at the end of “Death in Heaven” may be as close as we come to a happy ending.