Warning: Full spoilers below.
Let’s just talk about the ending of “Before the Flood” right now because I can’t wait any longer, it thrilled me so. I’m referring to the last 30 seconds or so, where the Doctor breaks down the bootstrap paradox of it all for Clara. Her wow moment of realization as the Doctor says, “When did I first have those ideas, Clara?" followed by “Who composed Beethoven's 5th?" followed by his looking down at the camera, at us, and just ever so slightly shrugging. Man, it gave me goosebumps!
Why did I find that so effective, both as an answer to an unanswerable riddle and as a character beat for both the Doctor and Clara? I’m not sure, because really it should be more frustrating than anything else. There is no explanation to how the Doctor saved the day here, and yet there’s also the perfect explanation in his “reverse engineering” of everything he knows is going to happen so that he can make those things happen. It’s a bit of a thing of beauty.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...
Let’s just talk about the ending of “Before the Flood” right now because I can’t wait any longer, it thrilled me so. I’m referring to the last 30 seconds or so, where the Doctor breaks down the bootstrap paradox of it all for Clara. Her wow moment of realization as the Doctor says, “When did I first have those ideas, Clara?" followed by “Who composed Beethoven's 5th?" followed by his looking down at the camera, at us, and just ever so slightly shrugging. Man, it gave me goosebumps!
Why did I find that so effective, both as an answer to an unanswerable riddle and as a character beat for both the Doctor and Clara? I’m not sure, because really it should be more frustrating than anything else. There is no explanation to how the Doctor saved the day here, and yet there’s also the perfect explanation in his “reverse engineering” of everything he knows is going to happen so that he can make those things happen. It’s a bit of a thing of beauty.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...