Clara Oswald,apparently now a teacher at the Coal Hill School is summoned by the doctor and returns to the TARDIS. Suddenly,much to the doctors dismay they are airlifted to Trafulgar Square by Kate Lethbridge Stewart,current said of UNIT by one of their helicopters. Stewart ushers the doctor and Clara to the national museum to see a personal message from Queen Elizabeth the first. This message comes in the form of a painting that very much troubles the doctor. It is dimensionally transcendent time lord painting that the doctor recognizes as being referred to both by the names "Galifrey Falls" and "No More". What he doesn't understand is what the message could mean. Meanwhile one of the museum employees gets a mysterious phone call to move the painting. Meanwhile in the 1590's,the tenth doctor is gleefully enjoying an outdoor picnic with Elizabeth 1 when one of his devices detects a non human presence,which as it turns out is actually a shape shifting Zygon masquerading as his horse. He and the queen manage to escape into the TARDIS only to find a Zygon masquerading as the queen-with the real article present as well.
On Galifrey the time war with the Daleks rages on-with the time lords fighting a losing battle and the incarnation of the doctor encountered on Trenzalore wanders amid the carnage. He is granted a great weapon that was one of the last works of Omega referred to as "the moment",which had the ability to destroy Galifrey and end the war. While he tries to understand it's use it takes the form of Rose Tyler,his future companion,as a verbal interface. As the doctor debates with the moment (as it were) as to the morality of what he is about to do,a bright vortex appears and a red fez flies out at him. The same thing occurs with the tenth doctor,Elizabeth 1 and her Zygon clone. The eleventh doctor in the meantime confronts a top secret UNIT fascility where Elizabeth once stored dangerous art which,as it turns out is all time lord art. The doctor reveals that all this art are actually frozen moments of time meant to contain figures of people. But the figures have gone. In this facility,along with many personal effects of his past he locates his fez and,upon exiting finds a floor of broken glass-blown to the ground from the painting on the inside out. Suddenly the same vortex appears above the doctor and Clara. The doctor throws in his fez and leaps through-only to emerge before his tenth incarnation.
The doctor and the moment have also followed suit-arriving at the same place as each of the three incarnations are unsure how to each relates to the other. Meanwhile the queen has all three arrested and taken to the towers of London to be imprisoned. Meanwhile in the future Clara is taken by Stewart and her assistant Osgood to the towers of London as well,where they find many of UNIT's most sacred treasures among which is the vortex manipulator used before by Torchwood's Captain Jack Harkness. At the revelation that Stewart and Osgood have both been co-opted by Zygons as well,Clara uses the manipulator. She finds herself in the same location in the 16th century while the three doctors debate how to sync their sonic screwdrivers to open the door when Clara simply waltz in and allows for an escape. In lieu of Elizabeth actually manipulating the Zygons into thinking she was the clone,she and the tenth doctor marry after which he,the eleventh and the doctor set to destroy his world all use Zygone technology to incorporate themselves into the 'Galifrey Falls",arranging with the employee by phone to have the painting moved.
Upon arrival in the 21'st century Towers Of London the doctors,Clara and the moment find themselves confronted by the Zygons-who had been using the paintings in the same way to emerge to conquer Earth for their colonization seeing as their world was too destroyed. This of course when Earth had the proper level of technology to do so. Clara finds the actual Kate Stewart and Osgood trapped in the queens vault. The actual Kate and her Zygon clone wind up in a stand off-with the real Kate electing to blow up the towers and all of London with a nuclear device beneath them to save their entire world. The doctor prevents this by temporarily erasing the memories of both Kate Stewart,Osgood and their Zygon clones so neither knows who the other is-therefore allowing them to talk peace. The "time war" doctor suddenly returns back to where he started from while talking to Clara. So she,the 11th and 10th doctors go in their TARDIS to make sure that their predecessor doesn't have to destroy their world alone.
Meanwhile Clara's encouragement brings the 11th doctor to make a decision to use a series of calculations,that apparently he'd been working on in all his incarnations to bring all 12 of the doctors TARDIS's to mask Galifrey behind the same type of freeze in time used in the paintings. The Daleks therefore destroy each other-thinking they've destroyed Galifrey as well. Upon returning to 21st century London,the tenth doctor and the "time war" incarnation return to their respective time. Before departing with Clara,the 11th is visited by the museums curator,a man who resembles and whom he believes to be his 4th incarnation,who informs him that the name of the painting has been misunderstood and is actually "Galifrey Falls No More",meaning the planet is saved and the doctor breaks the time streams one more time to join all his other past incarnations in viewing a Galifrey that is no longer dead,but awaiting a rebirth in some future time.
Being the 50th anniversary story,this episode represents for the contemporary version of Doctor Who what The Five Doctors did for the original series on its two decade anniversary thirty years ago. It ties together as many elements as it possibly can,including the return of David Tennant as the tenth doctor-resulting in repartee between him and Matt Smith easily on a par with the silly sparring between the second and third doctors in the past two multi doctor stories. The return of the Zygons,
absent from Doctor Who for 37 years is also a highlight. John Hurts "time war" doctor calls back into question something once suggested in The Brain of Morbius-that the doctor has many incarnations he rejects for different reasons as part of his history. In this case,a guilty conscience. During the climactic scene we also see a brief glimpse of the eyes of Peter Capaldi,slated to play the doctors next incarnation. But it won't be the last. The doctor played by John Hurt makes it clear the doctor can actually regenerate more then 12 times. Tom Baker's extremely surprising appearance at the conclusion of this story is probably the most exciting part of it all. And because the story behind the doctors personal secrets are becomming more and more unraveled during his current incarnation,this epic story represents not only a secure future for Doctor Who but also a superb golden anniversary story. And,if I may say so in terms of scope,epic plotting and writing one of the most vital and strong stories Doctor Who has yet delivered.
*As a bonus for this 50th anniversary "after party",as it were on this blog I am including a very special bonus video I made on YouTube-in which I'll be talking about my top 25 Doctor Who stories,action figures and the new book Doctor Who-The Vault:Treasures From The First 50 Years. Enjoy this review,enjoy the video and a big happy birthday to Doctor Who. All too happy and proud that I could be enjoying the show for this big event!
***Coming soon. Here's A Link In The Meantime***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuZ2BpgmQJQ
Fifty years ago today,the BBC launched what was intended to be an educational program for preteens/adolescents. Current series producer Steven Moffat,when asked about how the original creators of the series would've responded to the current Doctor Who. He indicated that he felt they would be shocked at how much the show has endured from their intentions. Though one thing I noticed is he didn't speak of it in particularly cynical terms. Very to no Doctor Who admirers/Whovians speak or think of the show in this manner. Its such a broad construct,the TARDIS openly admitted in the un-aired Doctor Who pilot by William Hartnell himself as a metaphor for the huge world presented to the audience of the small television screen. There is so much one interested person could say about Doctor Who. Since an unending journey through time and space is so intimidating,might be best to merely offer a perspective.
One of the main reasons this blog was started was because I was a Star Trek admirer. It's view of a more hopeful future had a strong therapeutic influence on my developing mind-even in difficult times. Basically I had to stand by and watch Star Trek die a slow death-both literally and as a strong cultural influence. It got lost in nostalgia. And never came back to television either. Than I started learning more about Doctor Who. It was not a case of a fan of one science fiction TV show transferring devotion to another. Doctor Who actually took time to grow on me. And that's appropriate because time is the central theme of Doctor Who. Not just time travel,but the place of all life within it. Because Star Trek existed at a time before I had access to internet,the opportunity to discuss my feelings about it never happened. So I started this blog to share my views on the show,and the episodes as I saw them. For Doctor Who,half a century has passed. For Doctor Who in my life,not quite yet two years. So here is what I have to offer.
Sometimes it is important to face reality. And the reality is we live in a society that's still extremely closed to a strong consciousness. It doesn't matter if its a social consciousness or a more personal one. Seems as though more and more things in life are presented to us to laugh at,rather than laugh with. And "drama" has become an insult-to be used when a genuinely serious matter is discussed. Doctor Who itself was actually born out of a vital twin consciousness. When the show premiered this day in 1963,no Americans were seeing it in their own country. They were preoccupied with the shattering assassination of President John Kennedy,a man who symbolically inspired an entire generation to ask what they could do for their country. England was equally shaken,and the show wasn't given much notice at first. But Doctor Who endured,just as the world endured the slaying of JFK. Doctor Who was cancelled twice in its original run. And both times came back. And even though the second time it took fifteen years to do so,it still came back.
When Doctor Who returned in 2005,it was to what I've heard call the Net 2.0 generation. The world was filled with new technology-all designed with the greatest hopes it would somehow bring human beings together. Instead human beings were finding ways to use this new digital technology to shut out what else was going on around them. From the first episode of the "new who" as some call it entitled "Rose",that very situations was addressed. The doctors ninth incarnation,played by Christopher Eccleston took one Rose Tyler to show her many worlds were you didn't only have to face reality,but where reality was totally flexible. This new doctor was tortured by the loss of the other time lords and his home planet Galifrey in the last great time war. The character has regenerated twice since then. And is about to yet again as Matt Smith's 11th incarnation is about to regenerate into a 12th played by actor Peter Capaldi. Though originally began as a way to replace the original actor portraying the doctor William Hartnell,it is also now representative of humanity's ability to revive itself from seemingly impossible odds.
On a personal level,the one thing I've learned to appreciate most about Doctor Who is it's enduring message of friendship,love and understanding. While a mysterious character who occasionally is frustrated with humanity's slow progression,the doctor is a character who never gives up on a race his fourth incarnation,played by Tom Baker described as "indomitable". In recent years he has even been able to see himself through the eyes of his enemies who see him,as Dalek creator Davros once described him as "the destroyer of worlds". The doctor is grown from a mildly sinister character kidnapping two school teachers in his time travelling police box that was "bigger on the inside" to someone who has seen the many sides of humanity,come to grips with his own lonliness and is at last coming to realize he cannot outrun the identity he has been hiding since he first denied his true identity by bestowing upon himself the name of "the doctor".
That overall message of love and understanding is something that extends to Doctor Who admirers as well. Speaking again from a personal perspective,the one thing that really makes Doctor Who such a special part in my life is how influential the character of the doctor is on the lives of those companions who travel with him-both human and sometimes otherwise. If only for a brief moment sometimes,they are led into a new way of looking at life or even being the universes savior by being in the doctors presence. And mostly without his direct guidance. As a person who is still overcoming the many odds against them by periodically re-arranging their consciousness rather than making myself into someone they aren't,the implied method of influence the doctor has with his travelling companions is what I'd described as a very positive one. In a society that often tries hard to dismiss consciousness as only the result of drug use,where people interested in creative things deacribe themselves as "music nerd" or "Star Trek geek"-echoing seemingly enforced self hatred,its my pleasure to wish a very happy birthday to this TV show about this time and space travelling character who bestowed upon himself the name of...the doctor.
Clara Oswin Oswald,the "impossible girl" is racing through a time tunnel-splintered into a million fragments. She finds herself, while often in the shadows,saving the life of the doctor in all his incarnations-including her warning the first doctor when he is about to take the TARDIS from Galifrey with his granddaughter. Meanwhile during the 19th century Vastra,Jenny and Strax-who is in Glasgow,find themselves in a telepathic conference call with River Song based on coordinates given to Vastra by a mass murderer of women named Clarence. Using Vastra's shock to create an escape attempt,Vastra writes a letter for Clara to open in the future-containing a trance enduing substance that allows her to join in on the conference. She is given the coordinates such as Jenny disappears from the conference-claiming to be getting murdered. In reality,Jenny has been murdered by a group of white ghostly faced humanoid forms in top hat and tails.
Meanwhile Clara is awakened by the sound of the doctors voice while he is caring for Angie and Artie. Clara tells him what was told to her in the conference call-that the coordinates given to her were for a planet called Trenzalore,a name which related to the doctor. Reacting with a good deal of sadness,the doctor takes Clara to the TARDIS where he explains Trenzalore is a graveyard for time lords after their final regeneration. And that no living time lord should ever go there. When they arrive on Trenzalore the pair find a massive yet conventional looking graveyard with the doctors tomb; his decayed future TARDIS which itself is expanded outwardly as much as the inside. Still linked to the telepathic conference,Clara is contacted by River Song who points her and the doctor to what appears to be her own grave but,as it turns out is an entrance to the future TARDIS. While travelling through it,Clara begins to remember her encounter with the core of the TARDIS-namely the fact the doctor had encountered and lost her twice in the past.
Vastra,Jenny and Strax travel to Trenzalore to meet the doctor-only to meet the Great Intelligence,in the guise of Dr.Simeon,with his ghostly lackey's. They have the capability to end someones life from the inside. They meet the doctor within the control room of the future TARDIS where they find a white energy stream the doctor claims represents the entirety of all his timestreams-all that ever happened and ever will to him. It is the Great Intelligence's intention to enter this stream and cause every single right the doctor had done to many different worlds to be undone. As Vastra notices stars blinking out,Strax turns on her,Jenny disappears and the doctor buckles in pain as his timeline is re-written. Clara realizes why the doctor encountered her twice before and proceeds to enter the energy stream herself-scattering herself as the Great Intelligence did to right all he was doing wrong. While this recovers the timeline,the doctors as well as Vastra,Jenny and Strax the doctor is then obligated to enter the stream and rescue Clara from his timestreams. When he arrives he finds a confused Clara surrounded by a metaphoric world of his essence and past regerations. She agrees to leave when they encounter a man who the doctor knows as one of his regeneration's,and the one who revealed the secret of his identity.
While the majority of Steven Moffat's work on Doctor Who has been based around season long story arc's surrounding a companion of the doctors,this story completes a story arc that had massive ramifications on the life and fate of the doctor himself. Throughout her time with the doctor,Clara Oswald has been puzzled by the fact that the doctor seems to be aware of her in a way she doesn't fully understand. It is only when he is faced with someone else,in the shape of the Great Intelligence,
erasing the doctor from history that her purpose becomes clear. This is a story that links all of the doctors incarnations together. Contemporary FX enabled Clara to be seen peripherally keeping the doctors (visible to us anyway) played by William Hartnell,Patrick Troughton,Jon Pertwee,Tom Baker,Peter Davison,Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy out of danger throughout there timestream. Its therefore presumed that Clara Oswald is very likely the singular human figure that has bought the events that started the events of Doctor Who together and,without anticipation,might be part of the doctors attraction to human beings. If this story is followed through to a dramatic conclusion,it may represent massive changes for the doctors character in the future.
On the insistence of Alice and Artie,the two children Clara is caring for,the doctor takes all of them on a day trip to Hedgwicks Worlds Of Wonder,an alien theme park in the future where they encounter a man named Wembley who are hiding from military troops who now occupy the planet,where the amusement park is now closed. He uses his psychic paper to convince troop Captain Ferring he is an ambassador looking for the departed emperor they are searching for. Wembley takes the doctor,Clara and the children back with him to meet up with a new automated chess playing device that he has invented,which turns out to be the shell of an extinct Cyberman body with a sort man calling himself Porridge manipulating the controls inside. When the doctor notices some odd armored silver insects,he instructs the children to sleep at Wembley's. After he leaves,the Cyberman shell reawakens and grabs Wembley. After discovering the insects are actually a form of new Cybermites,the doctors sonic screwdriver can of them inadvertently transports him to an orbiting vessel where he meets Wembley-who is now a partially upgraded Cyberman,along with Angie and Artie who are in a more controlled upgraded state. The upgraded Wembley informs the doctor that a new fleet of new Cyberman are awaiting a newer and more powerful consciousness into their central mind-the Cybermariad.
That consciousness is apparently going to be the doctor. The Cybermites effect on the doctor creates a duel personality-the doctor and another who calls itself Mr Clever. The doctor breaks through enough to warn Clara to lead Captain Ferring and her army,who warn him they are an incompetent punishing unit who would be ineffective against an enemy whose destruction is now part of their history. As Clara,along with the surprisingly able assistance of Porridge are able to lead the army into pitched battle against the new and advanced Cybermen,the doctor uses Wembley's chess board as part of a metaphoric game with "Mr Clever"-the doctor trying to gain control and deactivate the new Cybermariad and regain the lives of Alice and Artie. Aware from Porridge that the planet has a self destruct mechanism for situations such as this,Clara attempts to deliver the activation device to who she thinks is the doctor,when Mr Clever is able to deceive her and destroy the activation device. While the doctor is able to use a laser to remove the connection and destroy the Mr Clever identity,Porridge reveals he knows the destruct code himself-and its the now liberated Alice who makes the connection with a statue of the missing emperor she saw earlier that Porridge is that emperor. He succeeds in evacuating all of them to his imperial ship in orbit,along with the TARDIS before destroying the planet and the new cyber army. After a failed marriage proposal to Clara the doctor returns her,Alice and Artie home.
Very much in the spirit of the Daleks,the Cybermen seem to
consistently be able to fool the doctor into thinking that the doctor has at last defeated them. But the situation has changed at this point. The doctor spends the majority of this story literally in pitch battle with himself-that is as a highly organized Cybermariad manipulated version,triggering some type of time lord psychosis. Needless to say Matt Smith's playing two separates sides of himself with split second precision is an award winning performance in and of itself. Clara instantly takes on responsibility,
apparently drawing on her nanny skills,in leading Herring's army against the new Cybermen. In the end however the story is punctuated by two unexpected twists. Though even more cyber controlled through much of the story as the doctor,its Alice who reveals Porridge's status as the missing Emperor-having grown board and lonely in his position to such a degree he decided to hide in the abandoned amusement park. The introduction of the Cybermites is certainly a fascinating modern update of the Cybermats seen in The Tomb Of The Cybermen. Another interesting quality mentioned again in this story is the doctors seeming mission,ever since the departure of Amy and Rory,of trying to erase himself from history. Of course,that will remain a whole other story.
Madame Vastra,Jenny and Strax are in 1893 Yorkshire investigating an unusual plague of bright red skinned corpses that seem to surround the private planned community of Sweetville, run by the reformist Mrs. Gillyflower and are referred to as The Crimson Horror. Disguising herself as a guest of one her Gillyflower's "sermons", Jenny manages to bribe another member of her congregation into creating a distraction to sneak into the back room to investigate-only to find herself in a strange industrial factory surrounded by vials of bright red liquid the same color as the corpses. Madame Vastra reunites with Jenny to find that she recognizes the liquid. Vastra has also noticed the face of the doctor in the eyes of one of the photographs taken of the corpses. Meanwhile Gillyflower's daughter Ada,blind and deformed,is caring for a friend of hers named she refers to as the monster. As it turns out,the monster is really the doctor who,after Jenny rescues him reveals he and Clara accidently arrived in Yorkshire in this town,where they came to the same conclusions about the mysterious Sweetville: the no one who goes in comes out. He and Clara are than selected as part of Gillyflower's plan: to emurce human beings in this red liquid which Vastra reveals as being the secretion of a Selurian era parasite that poisoned their drinking water 65 million years ago.
While the doctor has revived himself using his sonic screwdriver, he is searching for Clara. Believing Clara to have died during their previous encounter,Jenny is surprised when the doctor finds her and is successful in reviving her. It is not long after,however that the doctor reveals himself to Ada and Gillyflower discovers what he and Clara are trying to do. By than the doctor learns the truth about Ada. While being led to believe her injuries were bought on by an abusive alcoholic husband,Gillyflower had actually been experimenting on Ada in her plans to construct a rocket that would launch this parasitic liquid that woul,if functional would kill all humanity-leaving only the ones in Sweetville alive. The doctor,Clara and Ada than learn just who the mysterious owner of the community Mr.Swet is: one of the parasites that has attached itself to Gillyflower. After Clara disables the rocket launcher with a chair, Gillyflower goes to the launch by to attempt a manual launch. When she does,the finds Vastra has removed the liquid. And Strax kills her with his Silurian weapon-after which an enraged Ada clubs the parasitic lifeform to death before the doctor and Clara depart. After arriving home,Clara returns to a strange sight: the children she is caring for have noticed pictures of her and the doctor from across time on the internet. Realizing she is a time traveler,they make it clear they want in.
Framed in an extremely dark comedy atmosphere of a Victorian planned community,there are a number of interesting threads throughout this story. For one theirs the return of the team of Vastra,Jenny and Strax: characters who all seem to be there for the purpose of a potential future spin off series. Vastra and Jenny are the most helpful tot he doctor of course as they are able to provide the framework for the entire mystery. The real victim in the rather contemptible Mrs.Gillyflower's plans is not any merely just any number of those who succumbed to the poison her her "crimson horror". But rather her daughter Ada who she deforms,lies about and than turns her weakness for her supposedly heroic cause of Eugenics against her. As with a lot of the modern day Doctor Who stories, there's a mild return to the Gothic/Victorian horror with a sociopolitical twist of the Tom Baker era of the show. Of course the real twist is in the end. In particular the completely shocked expression on Clara's face when she returns to the time she left-only to find that her adventures across time with the doctor have resulted in her face being smeared across the internet. And knowledge of her being a time traveler now could be publicly known.
The TARDIS finds itself buckling and leaking gas when it is unknowingly taken in by the Van Baalen brothers Bram,Gregor and Tricky as cosmic salvage. When the doctor comes to he notices Clara has gone missing. The doctor approaches the bickering brothers,all of whom present Tricky as being an android,to come on board to see for themselves that what they are salvaging is no mere escape pod as they had thought but an advanced space/time device. His real objective is to locate Clara. In actuality Clara is trapped inside the TARDIS,which stretches into an infinite maze of corridors and an impossibly huge library where she learns of the doctors origins. And even his real name. In their search Gregor,hoping to find new salvage material comes across the artificial replication technology that maintains and constructs all the technology aboard the TARDIS and removes one of its nodes. The TARDIS for its part goes on the defensive from this act-locking the doctor and the Van Baalens into the same mobius that's trapped Clara. The doctor and Clara both arrive in the same place-an exit-less echo of the TARDIS's secure control room but on different intersections of the damaged time continuum within it. Using his sonic screwdriver to bring Clara into his dimension he finds himself and the Van Baalens menaced by the same monsters which had beforehand been menacing Clara.
The doctor knows who they are but will not reveal this to Clara. When a series of metal control rods penetrate Tricky along their journey to fix the damage at the heart of the TARDIS, his injury forces the doctor to reveal to him he is not an android,but Gregor's injured brother who sustained memory loss and physical damage requiring robotic implants. And that him being an android was a cruel practical joke on Gregor's part. When the doctor reaches the eye of harmony-actually an enormous star held forever in a near super nova state,he reveals the "time zombies" they've been seeing represent a future Clara and Van Baalen brothers if,that is the present time fracture continues. After the Van Baalens sync up with this time frame and only remain as zombies,the doctor locates a message etched into Clara's hand about a big friendly button. This reveals to him what he must do-send a device back through a time crack in the side of the TARDIS to himself and Clara before they met up with the Van Baalens ship that caused the whole disaster and reset time itself. While Clara believes her memory of the doctor will be erased after this the evidence shows,even when time resets so the TARDIS is undamaged that Clara,the doctor and even Gregor Van Baalen retained something for their experience.
A few Whovians I've seen recently online claim that this is among their least favorite Doctor Who stories ever. In my opinion its one of the strongest of the 11th doctor era stories I've yet seen. Over the now half century legacy of Doctor Who we've seen bits and pieces of the TARDIS. And we know it has a biological component with a personality. But few stories have ever delved into the nature of what the TARDIS is and its relationship with the doctor on its own terms. We start out with Clara getting the feeling the TARDIS doesn't trust her-mirroring an extreme version of the doctor's own puzzlement of her impossible existence from his perspective. When the opportunistic Van Baalen brothers interfere with the damage they caused to the TARDIS,the initially inconsequential nature of their characters changes at the revelation of Tricky's true identity. This projects in a quick and subtle way the fundamental anti bullying message behind Doctor Who itself. Clara and the doctor both learn about how the really are here through this story-on opposite levels as Clara learns he is much more than she thought,the doctor learning she is far less than he suspected. Though time is reset at the end of the story,the lingering thread of that memory remains etched at a point beyond time and space.
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.
