Doctor Who - Recap: Fear Is A Superpower

I found myself loving this episode, even as it provided more questions than it answered. Much like last week, we don't really get much in the way of progress on the season's overarching mystery regarding Missy or her perplexing version of Heaven. Similarly, while the romance between Clara and Danny develops, the presence of an ancestor of Danny's from 100 years into the future opens up the question of just how far this romance will go, and whether children are in the offing. There's also the mystery of just how essential Clara was to The Doctor's development as a Time Lord, as Clara meets the young Doctor and teaches him that fear doesn't have to be one's enemy. All in all, it's a fascinating episode that tells us more about the three characters at its center than a single episode centered on either one of them would, in my opinion. These are the kinds of episodes at which Doctor Who excels, and I genuinely enjoyed it far more for its emotional aspects than for the horror show atmosphere it attempts to cultivate.

Credit: BBC

So Clara finally goes on that date with Danny, but Danny's social skills clash with Clara's stubbornness, and while they initially hit things off, the date inevitably ends in disaster. Clara storms off and returns home, only to find The Doctor waiting for her, seeking to investigate the nature of dreams -- more specifically, nightmares of creatures underneath the bed. In order to get to the root of the problem, he has Clara form a telepathic link with the TARDIS, which will take them to a specific point in her own timeline. Of course, things go haywire when Clara becomes distracted with thoughts of Danny. Thus, she and The Doctor end up at a boys home where the young Danny -- who goes by his hated birth name of "Rupert" -- remains afraid of things that go bump in the night. Naturally, Clara tries to avoid having too direct an influence on Danny, even as a youth, yet her influence is inevitable, as she ends up helping the boy get over his fear of the dark by convincing him that one of his toy soldiers represents the latent bravery within Danny himself. This has a ripple effect through time, as the name young Rupert gives the soldier ends up being the name Danny takes as an adult. Moreover, the toy soldier becomes a Pink family heirloom, which becomes important once The Doctor and Clara suddenly find themselves transported by the TARDIS to the end of the universe.

Credit: BBC

After being transported back for a do-over on her date with Danny, Clara ends up botching things even worse, with Danny being the one to storm off this time (he accuses her of lying to him after she accidentally calls him "Rupert" without providing an adequate explanation of how she knows his real name). Yet things are about to get worse for Clara, as she meets an astronaut that looks perplexingly like Danny, except much older. His name is Orson Pink, and he's a descendant of Danny from 100 years into the future. Apparently, time travel "runs in the family," although he doesn't name the great grandparents who apparently were the time travelers of the Pink family, leaving open the possibility that Orson is descended from Clara and Danny...especially since Orson possesses the toy soldier that Clara gave to the young Rupert. But those issues aren't even the central focus of the narrative, as Clara, The Doctor, and Orson are stuck in a space station at the end of the universe, with a mysterious creature/force on the outside, desperate to get in. It's a mystery The Doctor must uncover, even if it could mean the end for him.

Credit: BBC

This side of the story was fairly interesting, as it illustrated the Twelfth Doctor's more impulsive, danger-seeking side. He has a compulsive curiosity that could be his demise, yet he can't pass up the thirst for knowledge, even if it's knowledge for its own sake. While Clara and Danny never see what's on the outside due to The Doctor forcing them to remain safe within the TARDIS, they are able to recover The Doctor in time to escape. Clara pilots the TARDIS away and finds herself in a barn where a boy is crying himself to sleep. Believing the child to be Danny/Rupert/Orson, she tries comforting him, only for adults to come into the room, demanding the boy stop crying. Clara hides under the bed and learns, from the conversation between these adults, that the boy underneath the covers is actually The Doctor, who is afraid of joining the army, but whose fear might also prevent him from ever becoming a proper Time Lord. This leads to the best moment of the episode, as Clara convinces The Doctor he's asleep, and dreaming this entire confrontation. She then gives him a heart-warming little pep talk, in which she says that fear can be a companion. "Fear is a superpower, and fear can make you faster and stronger and cleverer," she says. "Fear doesn't have to make you cruel and cowardly. Fear can make you kind." She departs with just enough time to prevent The Doctor from exiting the TARDIS and crossing over his own timeline, and if this all seems a bit mind-bending, the show does a decent job of keeping all the disparate plot threads from being too difficult to juggle. The episode actually wraps up quite neatly, as Clara is able to go back and fix things with Danny, meeting him at his apartment and apologizing. They seal things with a first kiss -- and if Orson really is their descendant, it's unlikely to be their last.

"Listen" is a solid episode that illustrates how headstrong Clara can be as a companion. I'm still not entirely sold on Danny Pink, but I do think we're overdue for another male companion on Doctor Who. I'll be interested to see how he develops, and how he ends up introduced into Clara and The Doctor's travels. Until then, this was a pretty good follow-up to last week's fun little escapade.