Wow. That was rather good wasn't it ?
As finale's go 'The Name Of The Doctor' wasn't nearly as bombastic or
an SFX driven affair as previous Series ender's, but was still ridiculously epic just thanks to it's subject matter alone. Moffat
promised that this episode would 'change the history of the show
forever' and he wasn't wrong, the show's timeline has definitely been
altered considerably thanks to that cliffhanger ending. It's a great
episode packed with fantastic idea's and one that rather nicely leads
into the 50th Anniversary Special.
For starters how amazing was that
opening sequence? Openings to Steven Moffat episodes are always
a joy to behold, often cutting between multiple different points in
time and space that really give off a feel of grandeur and excitement
(look at the openings for 'The Pandorica Opens' and 'The Wedding Of
River Song', amazing stuff) that no other TV show can really produce.
This one however tops them all, heck I could barely contain myself
after that first magnificent shot of Gallifrey. If you were to go
through a checklist of MUST DO'S for the 50th Anniversary
I'd say multiple Doctor appearances ranks pretty highly for your
average Who fan. This would be akin to getting all your Xmas presents
a few months before then, because we're treated with cunningly edited
clips of the first 8 Doctor's AND WE'RE NOT EVEN PAST THE TWO MINUTE
MARK! Of course as with all Moffat eps there's still a wonderfully heavy dosage of WTF going on, what with Clara seemingly being present in all the adventures of past Doctors. As a side note: how amazing is it to see William
Hartnell's face plastered all over the nation's TV screens again?
We're in 2013, this man has been dead since 1975 and has basically
been rendered immortal thanks to a lead role in a cheap BBC science
fiction show from the early 1960's!
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| OMG IT'S GALLIFREY! IT LOOKS AMAZING! MORE! |
After that incredible opening we cut to
Victorian England and I'm delighted to say that Vastra,
Jenny and Strax are once again back and just as fun as ever. After an ominous message from a raving lunatic concerning the Doctor Vastra
decides to meet up with River Song and Clara by having a weird
shared dream that (somehow) manages to traverse time & space. Ten minutes and some kidnappings later The Doctor and Clara are
finally at Trenzalore, the prophesied planet spoken by Dorium at the
end of Series 6. Turn's out it's the home of The Doctor's grave on
the site of a massive battle, and in a nutshell the Great
Intelligence from the Xmas special needs the Doctor's name in order
to open the doors to his tomb, a giant TARDIS. Why? Well...so he
can invade the Doctor's personal time stream and turn every single
one of this victories/adventures into defeats, effectively killing
him a million times over...that's why. So Clara goes in after him,
splintering herself across every single one of his adventures (which
explains the multiple Clara's) and thus saving him from the Great
Intelligence a million gazillion times. She also get's the first Doctor to pick
the right TARDIS, which is a nice touch. Cue the Doctor ALSO going
into his time-stream (at this point it might as well be a revolving
door) and saving Clara, BUT before they leave they encounter what
(for now) is only known as 'The Hurt Doctor'. SURPRISE!
Aesthetically speaking this was a very dark episode, filled with mist and gloomy backgrounds. While it gave everything a funeral air that permeated through the episode (this is another finale that focuses on the Doctor's death) all I can remember is those dark backgrounds so visually it's the most uninteresting out the entire season. The damaged console room was wonderful though, it must have been hell for the production team to transform things back afterwards. And let's not forget the flashback sequences, which let's face it are kind of fake looking when you look back at it. It's obvious that Clara has been photo-shopped in quite a few instances. Again this isn't an episode that rely's on spectacle, and when you think about it comes off as looking quite cheap compared to other finales.
Aesthetically speaking this was a very dark episode, filled with mist and gloomy backgrounds. While it gave everything a funeral air that permeated through the episode (this is another finale that focuses on the Doctor's death) all I can remember is those dark backgrounds so visually it's the most uninteresting out the entire season. The damaged console room was wonderful though, it must have been hell for the production team to transform things back afterwards. And let's not forget the flashback sequences, which let's face it are kind of fake looking when you look back at it. It's obvious that Clara has been photo-shopped in quite a few instances. Again this isn't an episode that rely's on spectacle, and when you think about it comes off as looking quite cheap compared to other finales.
By far the worst aspect of the episode
was (like the Xmas special) Richard E Grant's pantomime villain The
Great Intelligence, who's so cliche he might as well be twirling a moustache. The episode never explains to us what he has been doing
since the 1800's and states his sole motivation as 'revenge', a
motive so paper thin that any past Doctor Who enemy could have filled
his shoes and still would have fit perfectly. There's no attempt to
make him menacing either, the only emotion on display is 'bitter'. His ghostly allies the Whispermen are creepy though, and share more than a passing resemblance to the Silence from Series 6. Just what were they though? The Great Intelligence seems to imply that they're a part of of him, but we're not even sure who 'he' is now as the last time we saw him he was basically telepathic snow, right? *SIGH* I'm confused, this bad guy is a fail.
Counteracting the badness of 'The Great Intelligence' is the return of River Song! It's always been fun to work out where she is in her timeline but here it's explicitly said that this post-library for her so chronologically this is her last appearance, even if she's already died at this point. How she's still alive as an 'echo' I don't know but it felt oddly sad when she had to say goodbye to the Doctor at the end, almost like this is her last appearance...
If this is her last episode on the show, and it would make sense to end it here because it's definitely the end of her story, then I'm very sad indeed. River's character has basically been a constant in Steven Moffat's era and has defined the show just as much as Matt Smith has. This will be her last episode with Matt Smith as the Doctor (unless she's in the 50th or Xmas episodes) so maybe the VERY DEFINITIVE goodbye scene was just a way for her character to say goodbye to the 11th Doctor and not the series in general? I do wonder though, as bringing her back again from a point after her death would just dilute things a bit too much. Judging from recent interviews Moffat hasn't made his mind up if he wants to continue the character or not, and this episode was intended to cover all bases making it enough of an ending for her arc for viewers to feel satisfied but also leaving it open for future appearances. I hope she does come back, but her story does feel complete now.
Besides a resolution to River's storyline, Clara FINALLY got her mystery explained! So much of this season has been treading water til' the big reveal, and despite losing interest in the main mystery half way through it's a really neat resolution that I didn't see coming (not that we could have, no 'clues' as such were given beforehand), and it basically means she is present in every Doctor Who story ever constantly saving him as a different version of herself! That's...kind of interesting, leaving the possibility for her to come back after she leaves as 'another' Clara. They could have dealt with this a lot sooner and moved onto something else though, like Series 6. Imagine Amy's mysterious pregnancy lasting the whole season and getting 'A Good Man Goes To War' as the last episode, it would have dragged things out and caused far too much filler in-between with little to no evolution to keep things interesting. That's the second half of Series 7 in a nutshell, filler. Mostly good filler, but filler nonetheless. Thankfully the pay-off is great, it's just a shame it took so long to get here.
Aside from the leads, River Song and the baddies this was another quiet episode as far as the cast was concerned, the supporting roles here are once again Vastra, Strax and Jenny. This is their third episode back since 'A Good Man Goes To War', so saying that the Patternoster gang is awesome is pretty much routine now. Along with Matt Smith I have trouble writing about them in these blogs now because there's nothing really to write about apart from how good they are, and that get's repetitive after a while. I take issue with Jenny being 'murdered' and brought back to life so quickly though, I mean what was the point? Death is pretty much meaningless in Moffat's Who, heck everyone's died and come back to life now.
Counteracting the badness of 'The Great Intelligence' is the return of River Song! It's always been fun to work out where she is in her timeline but here it's explicitly said that this post-library for her so chronologically this is her last appearance, even if she's already died at this point. How she's still alive as an 'echo' I don't know but it felt oddly sad when she had to say goodbye to the Doctor at the end, almost like this is her last appearance...
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| Richard E Grant *LOOKS AT SCRIPT*: 'Why did I sign up for this again?' |
If this is her last episode on the show, and it would make sense to end it here because it's definitely the end of her story, then I'm very sad indeed. River's character has basically been a constant in Steven Moffat's era and has defined the show just as much as Matt Smith has. This will be her last episode with Matt Smith as the Doctor (unless she's in the 50th or Xmas episodes) so maybe the VERY DEFINITIVE goodbye scene was just a way for her character to say goodbye to the 11th Doctor and not the series in general? I do wonder though, as bringing her back again from a point after her death would just dilute things a bit too much. Judging from recent interviews Moffat hasn't made his mind up if he wants to continue the character or not, and this episode was intended to cover all bases making it enough of an ending for her arc for viewers to feel satisfied but also leaving it open for future appearances. I hope she does come back, but her story does feel complete now.
Besides a resolution to River's storyline, Clara FINALLY got her mystery explained! So much of this season has been treading water til' the big reveal, and despite losing interest in the main mystery half way through it's a really neat resolution that I didn't see coming (not that we could have, no 'clues' as such were given beforehand), and it basically means she is present in every Doctor Who story ever constantly saving him as a different version of herself! That's...kind of interesting, leaving the possibility for her to come back after she leaves as 'another' Clara. They could have dealt with this a lot sooner and moved onto something else though, like Series 6. Imagine Amy's mysterious pregnancy lasting the whole season and getting 'A Good Man Goes To War' as the last episode, it would have dragged things out and caused far too much filler in-between with little to no evolution to keep things interesting. That's the second half of Series 7 in a nutshell, filler. Mostly good filler, but filler nonetheless. Thankfully the pay-off is great, it's just a shame it took so long to get here.
Aside from the leads, River Song and the baddies this was another quiet episode as far as the cast was concerned, the supporting roles here are once again Vastra, Strax and Jenny. This is their third episode back since 'A Good Man Goes To War', so saying that the Patternoster gang is awesome is pretty much routine now. Along with Matt Smith I have trouble writing about them in these blogs now because there's nothing really to write about apart from how good they are, and that get's repetitive after a while. I take issue with Jenny being 'murdered' and brought back to life so quickly though, I mean what was the point? Death is pretty much meaningless in Moffat's Who, heck everyone's died and come back to life now.
Okay, let's talk about THAT cliffhanger. John Hurt's appearance at the end was
the second most amazing moment of the episode, the idea that the
Doctor has a forgotten incarnation (presumably during the Time War)
that went against everything the name of 'The Doctor' stood for is a
powerful one. I also like that he chose this name as a 'promise',
something that represented the values he adhere's to (like 'The
Master' for example, who wants to rule over everybody). The
guy who did the whole 'Introducing John Hurt as the Doctor' title
card clearly hasn't read the script, because the Doctor clearly
stated that this incarnation in no way, shape or form deserves the
title of 'The Doctor'. Text issues aside, this is a perfect way to hype up the 50th Anniversary, something that radically changes the show and our perception of the Doctor. We're basically talking about a new forgotten Doctor here, folks. And John Hurt is playing him! Think of that for a second, John Hurt as the Doctor! Amazing, just amazing.
Undoubtedly a great episode to finish off the uneven second half of Series 7. It may have a crap bad guy and be rather downsized compared to what we're used to with DW finale's but I for one can't wait to see where the show goes next after all this Clara business had been resolved: 9/10.
Positives:
+ Great opening, ending
+ Lot's of great idea's
+ Past Doctor's!
+ Clara's arc is finally resolved!
+ The patternoster gang are back!
+ River Song is back!
+ John Hurt!
Negatives:
- Villain is weaksauce, motivation lacking
- Very gloomy in look, LOTS of black backgrounds
- Jenny's supposed 'death'
- Could have been a bit more epic
- River's last appearance?
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| Both stars are left stunned after that reveal... |
Undoubtedly a great episode to finish off the uneven second half of Series 7. It may have a crap bad guy and be rather downsized compared to what we're used to with DW finale's but I for one can't wait to see where the show goes next after all this Clara business had been resolved: 9/10.
Positives:
+ Great opening, ending
+ Lot's of great idea's
+ Past Doctor's!
+ Clara's arc is finally resolved!
+ The patternoster gang are back!
+ River Song is back!
+ John Hurt!
Negatives:
- Villain is weaksauce, motivation lacking
- Very gloomy in look, LOTS of black backgrounds
- Jenny's supposed 'death'
- Could have been a bit more epic
- River's last appearance?
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