The man who forgets…
A few days ago, my friend and author Kat Heckenbach made this observation on Facebook: Realizing, as I watch Doctor Who Season 7, that Clara Oswald is not lacking anything. She is really awesome. BUT. There was no mourning time for the Ponds. That is why the transition didn’t work. For some reason, the move from Rose to Martha to Donna to Amy/Rory…it all felt like it was going in the same direction. But going anywhere away from Amy and Rory…there just needs to be time to mourn, and we weren’t given any. Being a Doctor Who fan who actually remembers and watched Classic Who when it was still new, I am of the opinion that #11 (Matt Smith) actually embodies Classic Who the best of the modern Doctors, that Moffat’s writing for #11 is more true to the Classic Who methodology, and that Amy and Rory were more typical of Classic Who companions. I know not everyone agrees with me in this, but that’s not really the point of this blog. I bring up those opinions because the transition from the Ponds to Clara and saying goodbye to #11 was a big deal to me. So as I was considering what Kat said and the subsequent replies, which covered things like having to say goodbye to the Ponds too many times and Moffat’s split loyalties in writing between Who and Sherlock, and a great joke which I’ll include at the end, I realized that, even though I too felt something odd about the transition from the Ponds to Clara and a weird misstep in Eleven’s goodbye, Moffat really did get it right.