I actually genuinely enjoyed this episode. I am in complete agreement about being a bit tired of Madam Vastra and Strax though. You're completely on point about how people in Victorian era would be TERRIFIED of her, and that it's out of place, and I'm annoyed that Moffat Era has made a mockery out of Sontarans as villains. I never found them terrifying in looks or anything, but they're a hostile species and I feel that with only having Strax around (and him mainly being comic relief), newer fans are going to forget that. They are *villains* of the Doctor for the most part; not beings he particularly likes to pal around with.
That being said, I loved everything else. Eleven's facial expressions in this episode had me DYING of laughter, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jenny deck him one good time. I also feel like the reason they added Madam Vastra was purely because they were the ONLY recurring "companions" who would recognise the importance of the Doctor traveling with Clara. And they needed to remind the viewers that she's "different," cos we may have forgotten from the million times it's been brought up in previous episodes. *rolls eyes* But, Moffat Era has never been big on subtlety really and I've gotten to the point where I just let things like this pass.
But it was a brilliant "Frankenstein" story that payed homage to quite a few of my favourite classic horror works, which is one of the things I love about Gatiss above all the other modern Who writers.
As for the 50th Anniversary theories, I wouldn't worry too much about them. I haven't read any that sound particularly plausible. I doubt Billie and David would have agreed to be in it if it did a disservice to their era and all the hard work they had put into it before. As desperate as she and David have been to work together again, I doubt they'd agree to a crappy story line for their characters, knowing how much those characters were loved by their fanbase.
And if they want an explanation for why there's more than 13 Doctors by the end, just look at the Master. He went through all his regenerations before the 8th Doctor movie even came out, and he still manages to turn up. Plus, in the SJA episode The Death of the Doctor, Russell wrote in Eleven saying that he had an infinite number of regenerations (which pissed everyone off), but it could have easily been a joke...Or not? Plus, in a classic!Who ep, I think it was mentioned somewhere that Time Lords *can* regenerate more than 12 times, it's just no longer stable. But when has the Doctor EVER had a stable regeneration?
Anyway,this is long and I am done now. I'll stop rambling.
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That being said, I loved everything else. Eleven's facial expressions in this episode had me DYING of laughter, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jenny deck him one good time. I also feel like the reason they added Madam Vastra was purely because they were the ONLY recurring "companions" who would recognise the importance of the Doctor traveling with Clara. And they needed to remind the viewers that she's "different," cos we may have forgotten from the million times it's been brought up in previous episodes. *rolls eyes* But, Moffat Era has never been big on subtlety really and I've gotten to the point where I just let things like this pass.
But it was a brilliant "Frankenstein" story that payed homage to quite a few of my favourite classic horror works, which is one of the things I love about Gatiss above all the other modern Who writers.
As for the 50th Anniversary theories, I wouldn't worry too much about them. I haven't read any that sound particularly plausible. I doubt Billie and David would have agreed to be in it if it did a disservice to their era and all the hard work they had put into it before. As desperate as she and David have been to work together again, I doubt they'd agree to a crappy story line for their characters, knowing how much those characters were loved by their fanbase.
And if they want an explanation for why there's more than 13 Doctors by the end, just look at the Master. He went through all his regenerations before the 8th Doctor movie even came out, and he still manages to turn up. Plus, in the SJA episode The Death of the Doctor, Russell wrote in Eleven saying that he had an infinite number of regenerations (which pissed everyone off), but it could have easily been a joke...Or not? Plus, in a classic!Who ep, I think it was mentioned somewhere that Time Lords *can* regenerate more than 12 times, it's just no longer stable. But when has the Doctor EVER had a stable regeneration?
Anyway,this is long and I am done now. I'll stop rambling.