Doctor Who “The Bells of Saint John” Meet Clara Oswin Oswald…Again [Review]

“Bells of Saint John”, the mid-season premiere in which Jenna-Louise Coleman debuted her third incarnation of Clara Oswald was at once a fast-paced introduction to the world of the show, and a mirror of what we’ve seen before.

The relative stand-alone story structure of the episode functioned perfectly as an introduction to new viewers or as a refresher to the more casual audience. Though, to dedicated Whovians this reintroduction could feel repetitive (let me know in the comments).

The Doctor (Matt Smith) having to save the people of Earth from having their consciousnesses uploaded through the Wi-Fi served as a great one-off adventure, a framework that tells us that the Doctor is the good guy, and quite peculiar at that, and there are bad guys from whom he saves the world on the regular. The Intelligence revealed as the villainous client behind the scheme was a nice way of tucking in a continuation from the Christmas Special (and to Classic Who lore for the truly dedicated) while remaining an innocuous reference to new viewers.

Introducing a new companion amid an adventure such as this leaves room for a whole pile of exposition to take place without it seeming too clunky. Clara, the clever young woman that she is, of course asks questions about the man who has so brazenly invaded her life dishing out key details about The Doctor and the TARDIS that are necessary for understanding how these stories work.

The Doctor meeting Clara (this time ‘round) was very much a mirror of Eleven crash-landing into the life of Amelia Pond in their first episode, “The Eleventh Hour”. He invades her home based on a vague distress-call to and meets a girl whose origins, at least for the time being, are quite vague.  The mechanics of it – as the Doctor explores her home, interacting in his odd way with the food products and her belongings are so familiar. It’s all a bit one-sided until Clara wakes up and armed with tea and chairs, goes out to meet her guard.

Overall I found this to be a very satisfying, well-paced hour of Doctor Who with enough adventure, mystery, energy and great chemistry between Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman to keep us soaring through the first episode and wanting to come back for more.

A few other bits:

“Clara Oswald for the win! OsWIN!”

It was neat using the omnipresence of the internet and surveillance in our society as  a storytelling device, neatly mixing in our reality with our science fiction making it just a little more eerie.

That book Clara’s charge was reading “Summer Falls”, you know – the one written by Amelia Williams, where if you look real close you see a young Sherlock and Watson in the cover art? Yes – that one will be published and available for purchase on April 2nd!

“Eleven is the best, you’ll cry your eyes out”. Now I’m not doubting the awesomeness of the Eleventh chapter, but if Clara had seen the most heartbreaking moment on television between Ten & Rose,  she’d know there’s really no competition for where we cried our eyes out.

What did you think of “Bells of Saint John”? A fun adventure or was it too elementary for more advanced Whovians?