Who Review: The Time of the Doctor
A mysterious, untranslatable message is being broadcast from an unknown planet around which some of the Doctor’s most fearsome enemies have gathered. Upon further investigation, it appears to be coming from a crack in the fabric of the universe left over from Series Five (“The Eleventh Hour” – “The Big Bang”), located in a town called Christmas. With help from his cyberman-head side-kick, Handles, The Doctor determines the message originates from the Time Lords in their pocket universe. He is then able to translate the message, and it’s a very old question: Doctor Who? All the Doctor has to do is answer that question, and the Time Lords will return to that planet. When that happens, the fleets of ships surrounding the planet will then attack, renewing the Time War. When the Doctor learns the real name of the planet, the true horror of the situation hits home. With the planet under siege, the Doctor decides to stay and fend off insurgent attacks, and try to negotiate peace. But the centuries are passing, and the Doctor is at the end of his regeneration cycle. Facing certain death, how can he save the planet, the universe, and himself from what seems inevitable…?
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen the episode. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!
It seems that coming into this story, writer (and show-runner) Steven Moffat had a couple of objectives: tie up some loose story-ends from Matt Smith’s era, and send the Eleventh Doctor off with a bang. I think he certainly delivered on both of these, giving us a story that may be somewhat satisfying from a “grand story-arc” perspective (though I still want to know how the Doctor rescued Clara from his time stream), but falls a little flat, I think, in the “great story” department. Don’t get me wrong–I enjoyed the episode, and all involved put forth stellar performances (particularly Matt Smith–one of his best, I think). However, after the triumph of “The Day of the Doctor,” my expectations for a magnificent closing to the anniversary year were high. From that perspective, I was disappointed. But, as I said, I still enjoyed it, and it was, overall, a good story.
Some specifics I liked: Handles! With Clara not on the TARDIS 24/7 (a new development with the companions I’m not sure I like), the Doctor makes himself a companion out of a cyberman head. The interaction between them is wonderful, and Handles’ passing is possibly the saddest part of the whole episode–even more than the Eleventh Doctor’s parting speech! I also liked the Doctor’s explanation of why he’s at the end of his regeneration cycle. Perhaps those who didn’t get Moffat’s explanation are still confused, but as someone who already understood the idea, I found it to be a nice, succinct summing up of the situation. Matt’s performance as an old man was very good also. Some may have felt the middle part, where we see the Doctor living in Christmas, defending the town, and getting older, to drag a bit. Maybe it did, but I didn’t think it slowed the pace enough to make me lose interest.
Some specifics I didn’t like: The whole “naked” thing at the beginning. Sorry, but to me that’s just uncomfortable–perhaps some shock/smile value, but it doesn’t serve a purpose. Likewise the sultry scenes between the Doctor and Tasha Lem were a bit over the top and unnecessary. I can handle the idea that the Doctor has had “involvement” with people in the past (Madame de Pompadour, Elizabeth I, etc.), but Moffat likes to inject way too much lust into these kinds of scenes, and it’s just not necessary. I don’t even think it’s funny. It’s just… uncomfortable. Especially given that it’s the Doctor.
As for Peter Capaldi’s first scene as the Doctor… really not much to go on. And you can never truly assess what a Doctor will be like on their initial post-regeneration scene. The wild, amnesiac character is probably only temporary. Yes, he may crash the TARDIS, but that seems standard for new Doctors (the 10th and 11th Doctors both started out crashing the TARDIS). I daresay, once he recovers, that’s when his new persona will start to shine. But Capaldi looked convincing and at home in the part already. There was that look of mania, but also that twinkle. It’ll be interesting to see what he becomes. The first hint of that will be when the BBC releases pictures of him in his new outfit, which should happen within the next month or so.
My predictions for the coming season? First, it will be different–a reboot of sorts. Moffat has indicated as much, but with a new Doctor, that’s inevitable. Also, given the Doctor’s new big story arc (the hunt for Gallifrey), there’s a new purpose and direction for the show. This is all good, and I look forward to seeing how it plays out. I’ll also go out on a limb and say that Jenna Coleman will be in this series, but it’ll be her last. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we start hearing murmurs about Steven Moffat moving on to bigger things. When you get a new Doctor on board, it’s not uncommon for these kinds of changes to happen. Now that Moffat has made Doctor Who the international success it is, I’m sure he’s getting some high-profile, big-money offers, and he won’t want to be saying “no” much longer, otherwise, as Jon Pertwee feared, they may stop asking. As for Jenna, Who has no doubt boosted her young career, so I’m sure she’s not short of offers either. While she may enjoy Who, she developed a relationship with Matt Smith that may be hard to replicate with Peter Capaldi. I’m not saying they won’t get along, but it’ll be different, and that may be enough to make her consider some of those other offers.
So, there are my thoughts. What did you think? Do you have any predictions for the coming year in Who?
I should probably not start off my comment by saying “I also love Handles”, but I will. Although he was just a ‘filler’ character, I would have liked him to stay. I agree with your summing up of this episode. It was good, but lacked the grand finale I thought it deserved. I wasn’t sad that Matt Smith was leaving, to be honest. I might not have given him much of a chance, but I haven’t liked him since the beginning. Hopefully my opinion of Peter Capaldi as the next Doctor will be better. I will also say, I am unsure of him using his real accent. You will know better than I if there has been a Doctor before who hasn’t had an English accent, but I prefer there to be a semblance of continuity between the Doctors.
(Also, what was your opinion on the “colour of my kidneys” comment? Do you think that is a hint as to his personality this time round? Or just a result of his regeneration? :))
Matt Smith grew on me. He’ll never be my favorite Doctor, but his latter episodes have been among his best, I think.
Sylvester McCoy was really the first to break with the tradition of the Doctor having a good “received” accent (i.e., a BBC-announcer-type English accent). He clearly made no effort to hide his Scots brogue, and no-one to my knowledge called him out on it. Paul McGann’s Liverpudlian accent is detectable, not only in his TV story (The Movie), but also in the Big Finish audio adventures. And we all know Christopher Eccleston wore his Salford colors with pride (“Every planet has a North!”) 😉 So I don’t think there’s any conspiracy to keep the Doctor with a plain-Jane English accent–it’s a question of what fits that particular Doctor. Tennant’s Scots accent might not have worked as well with Tennant’s Doctor–perhaps the same is true with Capaldi? Was he using his Scottish accent in the short scene we saw? I’ve listened closely a few times, and it doesn’t sound like it to me, but I could be wrong. Perhaps I need to watch “The Thick of It” to get a better ear for his speech patterns. 🙂
The “colour of my kidneys” comment was, I think, part of something that’s become the running theme with regenerations–i.e., checking everything is where it should be. The Second Doctor started a trend of saying, “Oh, you’ve redecorated–I don’t like it” in “The Three Doctors” when he first saw the Third Doctor’s TARDIS. He used the same line with regard to the Brigadier’s office in “The Five Doctors.” And you’ll recall The Eleventh Doctor used a similar line when he re-visited Craig in “Closing Time.” I hoped the Tenth Doctor would say the same of the Eleventh Doctor’s TARDIS in “The Day of the Doctor,” and I wasn’t disappointed. So, I think that’s the background to Capaldi’s comment about the color of his kidneys. A bit of wacky regeneration madness–I wouldn’t read much more into it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Anna! 🙂
Blimey bruv, you HAVE been out of the UK a long time to not hear Peter Capaldi’s accent!! It was unhidden and proud. 😉
Okay… The official line on how the Doctor and Clara escaped from his time stream in ‘The Name of the Doctor’ (as some people are having trouble letting this one go ;)) from The Grand Moff himself:
‘He turned around and walked out again, carrying Clara. Simple as that. But frankly it would have been clearer if Matt hadn’t hurt his knee rather badly, and had been able to do the move!’
Happy now? 😀
Sorry, Ian, but Capaldi is not as well know over here, especially among people who don’t watch a lot of television anyway. 🙂
I figured that was the explanation we were going with, but given all the fuss made about the danger of entering the time stream, it seems like it ought to have been harder than that. And the reason I (and others) have a hard time “letting go” of it, is because it seems such a cop-out. Why did Clara survive? How did the Doctor not get “ripped to shreds” or implode on himself, or something like that? Better storytelling would have hidden the answer earlier in the episode–or the series–and brought it to bear at the crucial moment. I don’t mind endings I don’t agree with; I hate unsatisfying endings. And I don’t need everything to be tied up nicely, but that was a major plot point that really needed to be handled better. It looked to me as if Moffat ran out of time on the episode and wanted to quickly wrap it up.
I think because the reveal of John Hurt as The Doctor was far more important perhaps?
Oh, clearly from a big story arc perspective, the reveal of John Hurt as the Doctor was massive. And that was probably the whole point of the entering-into-the-Doctor’s-time-stream storyline. But that reveal took all of a few minutes at the end of “The Name of the Doctor.” And the tie-up of the plot point could have been as quick and simple.
By analogy, remember Superman 2? Superman destroys his “home” when he enters the machine that makes him “normal.” There’s no way he can be Superman again unless he rebuilds his home, and to do that would require a piece of the crystal from the place he just destroyed. But the place no longer exists–how is that resolved? As I recall, Lois Lane put her bag on top of a piece of crystal prior to the place going down, rescuing it from destruction. Simple, but it works.
Something as easy as that would not have intruded into the bigger arc, and would have better tied up that plot point. Maybe River’s connection with Clara not only told her she was alive, but *kept* her alive, and allowed the Doctor to go in and rescue her. I’m sure you could come up with even better ways to resolve it. Just having the Doctor go in and rescue her, like entering his time stream really wasn’t as big a deal as everyone made out, undermines the drama of that whole scene, and Clara’s “sacrifice.”
It was still a good story, though. 🙂