There’s something in the wifi.
– the Doctor does his best Jaws impression
The Bells of St. John is an intriguing piece of Doctor Who. This is the first time that the show has had to manage a companion swap in the middle of a season. That said, it doesn’t really work to think of the seventh season as a single cohesive entity.
The first five episodes are something of an abridged season, akin to the 2009 season of specials starring David Tennant. They are dedicated to tidying away lingering plot threads from the last two years of the show, and resolving Moffat’s lingering plot threads. The Power of Three and The Angels Take Manhattan are very much about tidying up the Doctor’s lingering connection to Rory and Amy.
In contrast, the second half of the season has a much more celebratory feeling to it, tied together by the over-arching mystery around Clara. While Clara pops up in Asylum of the Daleks, she’s very much a teaser of a mystery to come rather than a character in her own right. Instead, the themes of the season start in The Snowmen, introducing (or reintroducing) the Great Intelligence and Clara, and outlining the mystery of “the twice-dead girl.”
As a result, The Bells of St. John feels very much like a season opener to an unfortunately brief season of celebration.
Maybe that should be “thrice dead”?
Filed under: Television | Tagged: bbc, Bells of St John, Billie Piper, Clara, doctor, DoctorWho, Impossible Astronaut, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Jon Pertwee, matt smith, Moffat, russell t. davies, Snowmen, steven moffat, tardis, Tenth Doctor, Twin Dilemma, Yeti | 2 Comments »
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