'The Crimson Horror' -- DW 7x11

Warning: Spoiler Alert

While I was gratified to see Madame Vastra, Jenny, and Strax in another episode, since the three of them amuse me so very greatly ... I am still rather bored of this season. I'm even getting rather bored of the "mystery" that is Clara ... not that I was ever overly interested in finding out what is going on with her (the most that could probably be said was that I was mildly interested in finding out what is happening).

It would have been nice if the doctor would have actually answered Jenny's question about what the whole thing with Clara was all about, instead of blowing her off in that regard. For all we know, the three of them would have been able to put their brains to task and gotten some kind of answer for the doctor so that he can stop freaking out about what it's all about. They may not have, but we don't know that at this point; and besides, sometimes having someone else look at something may give a new perspective that may help in getting answers when you're stuck.

And really, I think that it's kind of amazing [/sarcasm] that the doctor is the one who is so in need of an answer about Clara. It's her life, and yet, she's not the one that needs to know anything about this great mystery. And the thing is, it seems as if the doctor had left her alone in the first place, there would probably have been no mystery to begin with. If he hadn't gone chasing after her, she would have just been a normal girl, and there probably wouldn't have been multiple versions of her. I would not be at all surprised if everything comes back onto the fact that she started traveling with the doctor, and the traveling is what threw her into different times (kind of like with River ... if he had just left Amy and Rory alone, Amy wouldn't have gotten pregnant while she was traveling with him, wouldn't have gotten kidnapped, Melody would never have gotten kidnapped and programmed to kill the doctor, and she never would have gotten herself some Time Lord energies).

Also, I thought it was kind of strange that the kids that Clara is a nanny for were able to happen across all kinds of pictures of her from different times. That seems like a bit of a stretch. And I don't see why they would necessarily think that it was her, or that their first instinct was to go for "ZOMG! She's a time traveler!!" when that isn't something that most people would really consider (even within the DW universe, there aren't that many humans who know who the doctor is, or that he can travel through time, so it doesn't seem like this would be most people's first reaction). And it kind of bothered me that the writers had her built up as being clever (even if it was something that came about cuz of something that was done to her), and she felt the need to correct them about where she had been in this episode. On the one hand, yeah, she's clever and maybe wants to be specific about where and when she actually was, but that still doesn't mean that she should tell the kids what is actually going on. Wouldn't it have been more clever to keep that information from them, and pretend like she didn't know what they were talking about? Especially when she doesn't know if the two of them will be able to keep the information to themselves? For all we know, they might tell their dad, who (if he believed them) might freak out and send her packing; and they might tell their friends (or whoever else) which might send "X-Files" type authorities to pick her up. It's not like traveling with the doctor is the safest thing that you can do; it's not just the danger that he puts you in while he's with you, it's also the fact that he has made so many enemies over the centuries who may use you to get to him.