Friday, November 15, 2013

Doctor Who-Hide

                          The doctor and Clara materialize within the haunted Caliburn Mansion in 1974,where former intelligence agent Professor Alec Palmer and his assistant Emma Grayling,an empathic psychic is using her abilities to aid in the search. While Palmer explains to the doctor his motivation for the search,Emma explains to Clara that her romantic feelings towards Palmer,which Clara is even able to pick up while the doctor requests Clara's help in searching for ghost they find a room of the mansion,which Palmer apparently purchased for himself,is colder than the others. Additionally Clara feels her hand is being held when the doctor isn't doing so.When he returns he finds a spinning black disc has appeared with a voice behind it saying "help me". He takes Clara with him the the TARDIS to photograph various points in human history to affirm his guesses,with Clara noting his lack of compassion for these events she finds transcendent.  When they return the doctor surmises from the photographs that they are dealing not with a ghost but a 23rd century human time traveler named Hila Tukurian.
                      
                      Tukurian is trapped in a decaying pocket of space-moving so slowing that for every second in her time is a hundred thousand years on Earth. The only way the doctor can think of to rescue Tukurian from her imprisonment in time is to use a psychic projection device from Metabelis III to enhance Emma's empathetic abilities to to provide a gateway into the decaying time pocket. He is successful in rescuing Tukurian from a beast chasing them within the pocket. However Clara ends up having to retrieve the doctor herself in the TARDIS. After the doctor returns he reveals that Turkurian is Emma and Palmer's distant relative from a future coupling of theirs. Revealing his real reason for coming their was to consult Emma about the identity of Clara,he quickly returns to the time pocket where he realizes the creature grabbing Clara's hand earlier was actually the mate of the creature chasing them so, before leaving returns to retrieve its mate.

                       Very much set up with Steven Moffat's concept of a surreal horror/mystery element of Tom Baker era Doctor Who in mind,this story initially sets up a series of scenarios that don't seem to fit together. We have Emma and Alec-one shut off from their emotions and the other overwhelmed by them,who both love each other and are trying to avoid it. Than you have Clara and the doctor,both of whom are not sure if they can truly trust one another at all. In the meantime,the ghost they think they are searching for is actually a confirmation of Emma and Alec's feelings. And the actual ghost is realized accidentally by Clara,and is actually itself an alien creature in love. While the narrative is illustrated with the same kind of extreme space/time complication of a tale such as Warriors Gate,the general theme is a very non-cynical view on the emotion of love and empathy as being a vitally unused force within humanity. So the story,in the end is about the triumph of optimism and compassion.

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