I try not to get technical, but at times I can't help it and this comes a lot with how new episodes come up with these "romanticized" explanations of things. Making things more fantastical than scientific, I mean. Like destroying Cybermen with love.
The thing that's bothering me is that the Great Intelligence and Clara were said to be scattered across the Doctor's entire timeline. For obvious reasons, we only see a few clips of passed episodes, some used for both Clara and the Intelligence like The Invasion of Time or The Five Doctors, as opposed to dozens of past clips with the two inserted. But because of this, I believe they were only scattered to certain points in the Doctor's timeline and not "all across" it. If that were the case, then even after Clara leaves the Doctor we should see her saving the Doctor from time to time in her various incarnations. Granted, she should have been seen over the past 49 years, technically speaking, but if they cut her out entirely it would defeat Moffat's own continuity.
What do others think? Also consider that all the inserted Claras conveniently knew to call out "Doctor" when Oswin and Victorian Clara had to interact with him to help him. Honestly, how does calling out "Doctor" help him when he's trapped in the Matrix or hanging off the cliff. The only time it works is when the Time Scoop is chasing the Third Doctor and she warns him. So I really think being "spread across the entire time stream" really means only certain points. Steed User talk:Steed 23:37, June 17, 2013 (UTC)
- If they Great Intelligence had control over where he ended up in the timestream, then I would say he probably only focused on attacking the first eleven Doctors because Eleven was the Doctor that he lured to Trenzalore and thus, killing later Doctors would be a waste of time and energy, of which he would have had little left since he was being ripped apart by the timelines. Clara likewise focused on pursuing the Great Intelligence, so she would have only gone to the points in the Doctor's timeline that had been tampered with. And as for them calling out "Doctor," I think that was just a "minimized" example of what really happened, just to get the point across. Did they really just show up and shout his name? I don't think so. River says that there will be countless versions of Clara "living and dying" all over time and space, and even she says that it feels like she's lived "a million lives in a million places." The other echoes probably led regular lives for a long time before they met and saved the Doctor, and just ended up in the right situation to save him like Oswin and Victorian Clara did. Ensephylon ☎ 11:35, June 18, 2013 (UTC)
- That's pretty much what I guessed happened. They were each split up into a million copies that appeared in various times and places such that they would "by chance" encounter the Doctor at various points, though none of them realizing such wasn't mere coincidence. Now, it may have been slightly different for the GI, seeing as he's a disembodied consciousness who may or may not have been an Old God in the Universe before this one. Even if it wasn't, each copy would have a slight subconscious echo in the backs of their minds: for Clara it was "save the Doctor", and if the GI didn't remember that he'd entered the Doctor's timestream, it would likely have been "destroy the Doctor".
- I'm not sure if Clara had to counteract what the GI put into motion, but I don't agree with some interpretations saying she "overwrote" his appearances; she just followed him. Seeing the GI all across the flashbacks occurred before Clara was in those places, remember, and some of them might have been more explanatory than expository (a simple "this happened" as opposed to "this is how this happened"). —BioniclesaurKing4t2 - "Hello, I'm the Doctor. Basically, . . . run." 22:32, June 18, 2013 (UTC)
- That's pretty much what I guessed happened. They were each split up into a million copies that appeared in various times and places such that they would "by chance" encounter the Doctor at various points, though none of them realizing such wasn't mere coincidence. Now, it may have been slightly different for the GI, seeing as he's a disembodied consciousness who may or may not have been an Old God in the Universe before this one. Even if it wasn't, each copy would have a slight subconscious echo in the backs of their minds: for Clara it was "save the Doctor", and if the GI didn't remember that he'd entered the Doctor's timestream, it would likely have been "destroy the Doctor".