The Doctor and Clara – Can I be undecided? ‘The Bells of Saint John’ Review

The first episode of the second half of Doctor Who season 7 aired and the story flew by at a frantic and slightly manic pace. Anyone else feeling a bit of whiplash? Perhaps it was the show’s way of ripping the band-aid off the loss of the Ponds. Here’s Clara: young, fun, pretty, clever, unencumbered. We’ve met her before — at least 3 times now. And 2 of those times, she did not make it out alive. Heck, she barely made it out alive of this episode. We’ve got a mystery on our hands! Why is Clara important? How and why has made it across time and space reincarnated into basically the same person? While I do not yet have theories on her existence, I have picked up a few clues in our 4th encounter. [SPOILERS AHEAD]

Clara has a Mary Poppins streak

At least twice now we’ve seen Clara is a nanny but dreams of traveling and seeing the world (or worlds)

Clara is an IT wonder

After Clara gets zapped into the cloud and re-downloaded (uploaded? retrieved?) back into her body, she comes back with super computer knowledge. Is this how future Clara is able to hack through the Dalek’s systems?

Clara for the win

We know that future Clara goes by Oswin, which is apparently a nickname in the present day

Clara reads

We learn that Clara has read Amelia William’s book Summer Falls. Bet you a pretty penny that Amelia Williams is our dearly departed Amy Pond (RIP). Is this a clue to our mystery or just a fun link to past companions? (You can also get an e-book version of this book, for realsies)

Clara talks to strangers

The big bad of this episode is some sort of great alien intelligence which had been controlling an earth vessel since she was a child. Is this the same alien intelligence of the Christmas special when we first met Clara which had been whispering in little boys’ ears? The prequel of this episode tells us that young Clara talks to strangers despite the warning from her mum. Could Clara be under the great alien intelligence’s influence?

I’m still not sure if I will love the Doctor and Clara the way that I loved the Doctor and the Ponds or the Doctor and Rose (OTP), but that will certainly not stop me from watching (and dissecting) all episodes to come.

The best part about writing a post about Doctor Who is all the “research” I get to do on tumblr. Look at some of my great finds:

 

 

Well marshmallows, what did you think of ‘The Bells of Saint John?’ And how are you feeling about the Clara mystery? Please share your theories below!