The Great Intelligence's MO

All of the Great Intelligence stories (I haven't seen the classic series ones, but I've read the Wikipedia articles, so please forgive me) have certain elements in common. Be warned, some of this may be spoilery if you haven't seen The Bells of Saint John yet.

The mirroring multi-nuclear host: In each story, the Great Intelligence has a multi-nuclear (that means it has more than one nucleus, or center) host that it possesses. In the classic series stories, it was those metal balls. In The Snowmen, it was the telepathic snow, each snowflake a nucleus. The snow actually had nothing to do with the Great Intelligence, it just happened, and the Great Intelligence took advantage of it. In The Bells of Saint John, it was the wireless routers and the Spoonheads. Both the snow and the Spoonheads appeared to be able to mirror people's thoughts back at them. It would soak up images and words from the surrounding people (like the girl on the book, the Doctor, the snowmen, and "that's the way to do it!") and copy them.

The beasts/foot soldiers: There were also the creatures that the Great Intelligence controlled to do its bidding. In the classic series these were the Yeti, while in the new series they were the snowmen and the Spoonheads. The Yeti were simply animals that the Great Intelligence was controlling telepathically, though they later turned into robots. The snowmen were controlled by the Great Intelligence because they were made of the telepathic snow that the Great Intelligence was already in control of. The snow was able to remember the shape of Dr. Simeon's snowman as a child. The Spoonheads were manufactured specifically for their purpose by Ms. Kizlet's company. They were controlled by the Great Intelligence simply because they were Wi-Fi connected, and the Great Intelligence was living inside the Wi-Fi.

The boss: This was the person that the Great Intelligence had contacted as a child and was connected to telepathically. I don't know who it was in the classic series episodes (I think there was something about a monk or a professor in one of the episodes), but in The Snowmen, it was Dr. Simeon, while in The Bells of Saint John, it was Ms. Kizlet. Each of these people became telepathically linked to the Intelligence as a child. Both of them felt very alone (Simeon didn't like the other children and Kizlet's parents had disappeared) and the Intelligence used this to befriend them and use them for its own purposes.

The Bells of Saint John Spoiler Summary

The following is a summary of all the information I could get my hands on about tomorrow's episode, The Bells of Saint John, which is written by Steven Moffat and directed by Colm McCarthy.

Clip 1

Clip 2

Prequel

Trailer

Clip 3

Clip 4

Clip 5

Teaser

There are also trailers for Series 7 here and here.

The Doctor somehow finds Clara after spending time at a monastery in 1207 Cumbria. He meets her, she's suspicious of him, yada yada yada, they get in the TARDIS, bigger on the inside, etc etc. Anyway, a company run by Ms. Kizlet (Celia Imrie) is using software to take people's minds and upload them onto the internet. The people's minds are taken when they click on some alien symbols in their wireless network list.

<mega spoiler>Her client is the Great Intelligence, played by Richard E. Grant.</mega spoiler>

<speculation>After people's minds are uploaded, evil bad guy (see mega spoiler, if you dare) is going either use them to increase his own powers or take over their bodies and use them as hosts.</speculation>

Meet Ms. Kizlet

A new clip has been released feature this Saturday's episode's villain, Ms. Kizlet.

Two New Pictures of the Doctor

These were released alongside yesterday's new poster.

BBC America Promo Pics for The Bells of Saint John

BBC America has released a set of promotional pictures for the spring opener, The Bells of Saint John, set to air on the 30th of this month.

More Pictures from The Bells of Saint John

Loads more images hot off the press!