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Jane Campbell

8 Comments

  1. Anton B
    February 2, 2016 @ 12:48 pm

    Welcome back Jane, and with a fantastic overview of LKH. Thanks for your totally enjoyable close reading/reconstruction. I love your suggestion that it is in fact the Doctor whom Mels considers to be the ‘Hitler’ worthy of assassination.

    A story about me if I dare? Okay let’s see…

    Once again your observations, filtered through my own esoteric knowledge, suggest to me links to Tarot imagery. The Tesselector as Judgement or Justice, Amy and Rory as the Lovers with the Doctor as the presiding angel of the image which also suggest its mirror, the Devil card with the Doctor as Devil and Amy and Rory as chained supplicants. Thus the dual nature of the Doctor’s relationships is revealed.
    You link Amy with Demeter, who is represented in Tarot as the Empress. Take a look at the Rider Waite deck depiction of the card. Demeter sits in a field of corn on a throne (the chair agenda!) While a river(!) flows toward her from the trees behind. She wears a crown of twelve stars, traditionally signifying the zodiac but in this case I feel Amy’s growing intellectual understanding of the universe. The Empress is card 3 of the major arcana (foreshadowing The Power of Three?).
    I’m struck by the number of vehicles in this episode, the cars in the wheat field, the motorbike, the TARDIS and the Tesselector itself. For me the TARDIS is always the Chariot (in the Waite deck shown pulled by sphinxes, traditional askers of riddles, “Who Are You?”)
    Coincidently (if there is such a thing) I’ve been considering revisiting series 6 myself. Bearing in mind your observations on the production schedule iliciting foreshadowing and so forth do you have a suggestion for an order to watch the episodes in?

    Reply

    • Jane Campbell
      February 2, 2016 @ 10:51 pm

      I really think the broadcast order is for the best when it comes to a rewatch. Just bear in mind that the Moffat episodes are the “connective tissue” holding together the other episodes. Stories like Black Spot and TGWW really deserve to be understood in context of the larger threads around them; it really behooves us to consider the events therein as metaphors for the issues surrounding them.

      Reply

  2. Janine
    February 2, 2016 @ 4:08 pm

    A wonderful read, Jane, as ever. Not an episode I’ve ever been terribly keen on; but I’m considering reevaluating my position after that analysis. Are we back to Tuesdays as your regular slot, then?

    Reply

    • Jane Campbell
      February 2, 2016 @ 10:52 pm

      Yup, back to Tuesdays. Hoping to get another Lost Exegesis in next week. 🙂

      Reply

  3. Megara Justice Machine
    February 3, 2016 @ 12:39 am

    Put me down as another reader who’s reevaluating his take on this episode. Your take on it has revealed a lot to me that I missed.

    Reply

  4. Shannon
    February 4, 2016 @ 3:15 am

    Thank you! Even though this episode has all sorts of issues, I really, really enjoyed it when I first watched it and I think this essay highlights why. I certainly didn’t notice all of the symbolism throughout, but it is obviously dense with story even if you aren’t looking for the symbolism itself. Even when the density lead to it not making a ton of sense, I still liked the overstuffedness of it. (This is unlike most science fiction that is overstuffed, where they just spend most of the time explaining things.)
    Also, that’s an excellent definition of mercy vs. grace. They far too often – especially in evangelical Christianity – are confused for each other.

    Reply

  5. Roderick T. Long
    February 6, 2016 @ 5:57 pm

    If you ever write another piece on this, you can call it “They Keep Killing Hitler.”

    Reply

  6. bscorp
    March 24, 2016 @ 4:36 pm

    This was a beautiful read. Thank you. I’ve always loved your take on Doctor Who and visual symbolism.

    Funny thing, I found this after noticing all the golden halos around River Song in The Husbands Of River Song. It seems the motifs of divinity & redemption is literally echoed in that episode. Which I thought was a fitting ‘last’ episode for her. I would love to read you take on it if you ever have the inclination.

    Thanks for all your wonderful work!

    Reply

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