Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The Strange World of Concave and Convex

While I do like Steven Moffat, my favourite Twelfth Doctor episode of Doctor Who was written by Jamie Mathieson, "Mummy on the Orient Express". It's odd because the next episode, also written by Mathieson, is just so-so, "Flatline".

I like the concept of the Doctor and Clara facing two dimensional aliens. I also like how the asshole foreman of the community service workers isn't killed off as a moral retribution for being an asshole.

The shrinking TARDIS in the episode is cute and I like how Clara carries it around in her purse. I wonder what Hitchcock would make of that--purses in Hitchcock movies are said to symbolise female anatomy. That first season with Twelve and Clara was supposed to be moving away from romantic subtext between the two but of course every attempt the writers made to do that ended up intensifying it.

I think "Flatline" is the first one where Clara attempts to adopt the role of the Doctor, trying to act as he would while he's stuck in her purse. It adds a nicely somber note to the comedy when you know where it ultimately leads her.

X Sonnet #1883

Concerted dogs could trust the trains and sleds.
Partakers told the tell of radish rum.
These skulls of yours are only in your heads.
The mindless snow was made of sugar gum.
Authentic castles change the trodden stage.
As night delivers day, the ghost remains.
The numbered year was never given age.
For all the sweat, no summer's yet retained.
The flattened people seek to kill the round.
Resentment burst forbidden gum at birth.
A cautious tread concludes where nothing's found.
And yet a castle's shadow carries worth.
Offensive eyes would stick to hair like glue.
The sky remembers something close to blue.

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