Clara is still sticking around on Doctor Who. The Doctor's billboard-faced Companion who has caused so much fannish angst amongst Whovians is probably gonna be in the next season of Auntie Beeb's sci-fi classic. Will she-won't she arguments have been put to rest, maybe, by the UK's Mirror.
Perhaps.
WHO fans have been arguing about Clara for awhile, now. The Impossible Girl has a big following, and as many detractors. You know, fandom. The upshot is that the fans believe that they know more about Doctor Who than Moffat and the other show-runners, or even the BBC itself. If you marathon all of the extant episodes from 1963 onward, you are an Expert, after all, and Understand These Things. (Whooaboos need not apply.)
Add in the online scuttlebutt, and you have a Masters in WHOology! The upshot is, fans who are not in the planning meetings think they know more than the planners.
My ham-fistedly clever analogy should be shrieking in your brain by now.
The Grand Jury in Ferguson met. They heard the evidence, data which were unknown and unavailable to the people on the street. They weighed the evidence of science, entry angles, videos, and myriad other details to which those not in the jury proceedings had no clue. The evidence against the policeman who shot Michael Brown was found wanting by the Grand Jury, despite a Democrat prosecutor, a Democrat mayor, and those on the street all crying for a lynching, figurative or no. Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Brown, was not found to be tryable. There was no case against him, despite the druthers of prosecutors, politicos, race-baiting "civil rights" activists, rabble-rousers from Chicago and such, and the people of Ferguson who cried for Justice, even if it was a justice based upon perjury by some of their number.
Justice was served by the Grand Jury, which the people on the street were not a part of. I suppose that there are dark mutterings of "White Science", "White Ballistics" and the like, because those are the shades with which the media, the politicians, and the agitators have painted the story. Wilson is free, and the peee-pul don't like it, the people who did not hear the testimonies, who either will not read the transcripts, or cannot. It doesn't matter. The evidence is in, and they don't care. They don't like Darren Wilson, and want him dead.
The BBC show-runners know "Who" better than we. They are privy to information which we do not have...things like story arcs, the direction the show is going, and WHY CLARA, ANYWAY? There will continue to be debates, tart Facebook postings, and the cameras will continue to roll until the next Thing for fans to agitate against.
Hopefully Wales will not burn when the next season is unveiled.
5 comments:
For the record I am a Clara fan. Perhaps not as much as I was a Donna Noble or Sarah Jane Smith fan (and I still think a Rory/Amy spinoff series is doable), but I felt that Jenna Coleman played off well against Peter Capaldi.
Having said that, though, Denise and I were left with the impression that we were at the end of the "Clara arc". It'll take a nice bit of juggling to render matters smoothly, but it wouldn't have been the first time it's been accomplished, so I guess wait and see.
I know not the Dr. I haven't watched since... Tom Baker, and some of the earlier actors. I sort of like Smith, but for my own peculiar reasons. Are there any other reasons? :p But I haven't watched an actual episode with any newer actor, just music video spots.
As to the other? Well... I think they have gone way too far, even if they did find him innocent, of course. Basically, the people they attempt to sway with full force of the law merely put a cop out of work and it still ended as it started. You can't please some people, and shouldn't even try.
Put me in charge? Not only would a grand jury not have been convened, the police would have been given combat ROE, and bolstered by 4k state guard, under the jurisdiction of the police, with the sole purpose of preventing, first loss of life (and yes, they did murder one of the honest black witnesses), and second property protection, as well as eliminating interference and threatening behavior. You can't negotiate with terrorists. I might not know Who, but I do know what.
I once thought that "Doctor Who Companion Fandom" took off with Sarah Jane Smith, but then I met some really militant Liz Shaw fans.
The comments here concerning Missouri have been weighing heavily on my mind, and I've held back from making an immediate sentiment known until I had pondered and meditated on it.
As you know, Doom, I am currently enduring a job which, unfortunately, brings me regularly into contact with the worst aspects of contemporary people. Courtesy and patience has become extremely rare, superseded by rudeness and a devotion to Ego.
The news (from the world in general, and Missouri in particular), does little to help my outlook. I am struggling to keep from thinking what I believe to be unChristian (and, as such, wholly unworthy) thoughts. There is ample argument for feeling justified in doing so, but I really don't want Them to achieve that sort of victory over me.
I'm also rather caught between extremes of a sort. On the one hand I see the news out of Ferguson. On the other hand I've been re-reading Hilton's "Lost Horizons". As such I am mournfully positioned between what we are, and what we could (and should be inspired to) become. It has not left me in the best of moods.
@Michael-I enjoy Clara for the most part. I was reflecting the kvetching of fans. As to MO, well, The jury could not make a "right" decision, any road. The putative political and civil rights leadership cannot allow the Grand Jury's findings to stand unprotested. If they found AGAINST the evidence for political purposes, neither would that be right in the ethical sense. Sigh.
@Doom-I posted on Facebook:
"No Justice, No Peace."
Do people REALLY want "justice", or just their way?
I think we have the answer.
Michael,
Sour moods are some of my best thinking moods. I don't have to like reality, or dealing with it, so when I go there, a knot in my soul seems to be about the right time to spread my wings and fly those skies.
I can only imagine how torn many people are. White guilt is still there and will take a bit to lose. Jobs require interaction with people who don't act the part, and yet the job depends on it. And, of course, with this admin, nothing good or right will be sought. It doesn't always win to all of our loss, but it tries and sometimes succeeds.
Aardvark,
Was there ever any doubt? Maybe in your mind, not in mine. I doubt if this is close to over. Best if they not bring it to me. I can lose, but it won't be because they stop me in traffic, or even gang up and try to catch me on foot. Doubtful that I would go down, definitely not alone. And, yeah... that is where I see things.
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