Doctor Who, 2013 Christmas Special - The Time Of The Doctor

THE QUICK, SPOILER FREE REVIEW

Excellent.  Matt Smith is given a worthy send-off and Steven Moffat manages to tidy up all the loose ends regarding The Eleventh Doctor's era.  Pity Jenna Coleman is given so little to do and so much of the action occurs off-camera.  Then again, this is very much Matt Smith's show.  And it is a good one.


SPOILERS FOLLOW AFTER THE IMAGE!




THE PLOT

A mysterious message broadcast across all of time and space brings about the gathering of the worst beings the universe has to offer around a mysterious planet.  Weeping Angels.  Sontarans.  Cybermen.  Even The Daleks!  And The Doctor, of course, because The Doctor always turns up wherever trouble is brewing.  Taking just enough time to snatch Clara away from an increasingly awkward Christmas dinner, The Doctor is soon on his way to the source of the signal - a crack in the wall of a bell-tower in a town called Christmas where no one can tell a lie.  The Doctor quickly learns the source of the message as well as the name of the mystery planet.  Trenzalore.  The planet where he is destined to fight his final battle!


THE GOOD PARTS

* Like Peter Davison, Matt Smith may have delivered his greatest performance as The Doctor in his final episode.  Simply put, Matt Smith nails every aspect of The Doctor's personality here.  I've never been the biggest fan of Smith's take on The Doctor but even I'm going to miss him after this episode.

* Steven Moffat's scripts can be hit or miss at times.  This one was definitely a hit.  As near as I can tell based on one viewing, every single plot thread involving The Siege of Trenzalore and all the prophecies regarding the Eleventh Doctor have been resolved.  Fans may debate how much of this The Grand Moff had planned in advance but I think everything - even the mystery of Gallifrey from the 50th Anniversary special - is addressed.  And yes Virginia, they figure out a way to give The Doctor a whole new regeneration cycle without any hand-waving or jiggery-pokerey.  It's all there in the Classic Series, clear as crystal. 

* The story itself is a truly fitting end to The Eleventh Doctor's story.  Smith's Doctor took great joy in the lives of ordinary people, loved children and dreamed about what it would be like for him to have an ordinary life with a real job somewhere.  How fitting then that he should finally - in a way - be granted that wish as he becomes the protector of Christmas.

* There's a lot of death and rebirth imagery throughout the episode and its very powerful symbolically.  I won't go into all of it here but there's a thesis paper out there for the Anglophile willing to compare/contrast this episode, Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and the wholesale mythology of Father Christmas and Odin.


THE PROBLEMS

* Granting that her actions save the day, Jenna Coleman isn't really given much to do.  She's great with what she does get but it seems like she's barely in the episode.

* Fans who dislike the idea of The Doctor as a romantic figure will find little to like in the character of Tasha Lem - Mother Superior of the Papal Mainframe and even I - who don't mind the idea of The Doctor snogging - thought this was a bit gratuitous after Queen Elizabeth and River Song.

* It's rather depressing - after what we saw of Clara's childhood and upbringing and how amazing her parents were in The Rings of Akhaten - to see her family reduced to sitcom fodder here.  Who the heck is the woman haranguing Clara about not having a boyfriend, anyway?  Step-mother?  I don't think they ever said.

* Grand as it is, Moffat does violate the "show, don't tell" rule regarding television and we are told about The Doctor's grand battles against all of his enemies without being shown much of them.  We see a bit but we might have seen more.

* Likewise, while I'm always glad to see more of Karen Gillan (minds out of the gutter, people!), it does seem kinda insulting to Clara that The Doctor drifts off thinking about The Girl Who Waited as his final thought without then turning to The Impossible Girl and the last face this face will see.


THE FINAL VERDICT

A fitting Christmas special and a fitting end to The Eleventh Hour.  Goodbye, Raggedy Man.

Doctor Who, 50th Anniversary Special - The Day Of The Doctor

THE QUICK, SPOILER FREE REVIEW

It is both fantastic and brilliant.  There are some nits that might be picked but old fans and new will be too busy blinking back the tears throughout to worry about the dodgy bits.  Smith and Tennant get along like a house on fire and John Hurt proves a worthy addition to the pantheon of Doctors.  There will be surprises aplenty, mighty sights and great wonders to behold.  In short, it is everything we could have hoped for and - for once - when they say nothing will be the same after this episode, they are telling the truth.




THE PLOT

In modern day England, Clara Oswald (newly hired as a teacher at the Coal Hill School) prepares for a weekend date with The Doctor.  Their plans are cut short when UNIT airlifts the TARDIS into The National Gallery, where a sealed envelope from Queen Elizabeth I awaits with orders regarding a secret gallery of three-dimensional paintings from Gallifrey.  A series of paintings from which the subjects have seemingly escaped into the waking world...

In Elizabethan England, The Doctor is trying to win free of the amorous of Queen Elizabeth I.  He's also trying to avert an invasion by the shape-shifting Zygons.  Both tasks are made even more difficult when one of the Zygons begins impersonating The Queen and all The Doctor's cunning proves ineffective in finding the imposter.

And in a place very far away and long ago, an old man - once a Doctor - seeks to put an end to the great Time War.  Pushed to desperate measures, he has stolen a weapon known as The Moment - a galaxy eater capable of destroying whole races throughout time and space.  But unbeknownst to him, The Moment has become sentient and before it will be used, it will test any who dare to make use of it.  So in the form of one who is or will be very dear to the one-time Doctor, The Moment shows him images of the men he will become.

Three men who are yet one man, united by a name, an ideal and a Moment in Time.  They will unite to fight a common enemy and more, to test the very limits of what time can take.  Because Time can be rewritten... and even fixed points in time can be broken.


THE GOOD PARTS   

* Smith and Tennant play off one another perfectly.  The two have a combative relationship similar to the one that existed between Two and Three with the difference being that Smith and Tennant act more like brothers squabbling than bickering colleagues.

* Not surprisingly, John Hurt is a fine Doctor.

* Lots of nods to the classic series in the background, including a picture of The Brigadier.

* For a moment, when The Doctor mentioned stone dust and the covered figures in the Under Gallery were revealed, I thought for sure we were going to see the return of The Weeping Angels.  Kudos to Steven Moffat for not bringing his most terrifying creations back when he easily could have.

* Jenna Coleman probably has the least out of all the cast to do but she does a remarkable job playing up Clara's cleverness with what little she has to work with.

* Billie Piper is similarly hobbled in her role as The Moment, but it is interesting watching her play a character through three filters - The Moment As Rose Tyler As The Bad Wolf.

* All The Doctors in the final battle to save Gallifrey.  ALL THE DOCTORS!!!

* The Curator.  Dear gods, The Curator.  I don't know if it was a nod to the Shada special, where an older version of The Fourth Doctor is seen wandering a museum devoted towards The Doctor's life... but it was a nice touch regardless.

* For once, the phrase "Nothing will ever bee the same again" seems accurate.  The revelation that Gallifrey has survived somewhere changes the dynamic of the modern show and gives The Doctor a goal to work toward in the coming series.  More, Moffat has managed this without contradicting The End of Time as The High Council was said to have broken off contact with the military, who we see in this episode.  Of course that does mean The Doctor will likely have to deal with them later... and it won't be pretty.

* The final shot of all The Doctors is a thing of beauty.


THE PROBLEMS  
* What we see of Galifreyian art in this episode doesn't quite jibe with what's been said on the subject in the past.  In City of Death, for instance, it was revealed that all Galifreyian art was done on computers.  True, the technology to capture a moment in time as a painting probably DOES involve computers on some level but the idea of something flat hanging on a wall seemed utterly shocking to Romana.

* The plot with the Zygons is dropped completely after The War Doctor disappears to activate The Moment.  It would have been nice to see the final resolution of that thread.



THE FINAL VERDICT

Steven Moffat promised this episode would redefine the series.  For once, he was telling the truth.

11th Doctor Matt Smith To Carry Olympic Torch

SOURCE: Doctor Who Offiical Twitter

"Who Will Run?"  Who indeed.

#whowillrun‬ We can confirm that Matt Smith will start the ‪#torchrelay‬ in Cardiff tomorrow (Saturday)!

Expect thousands of enraged Tenth Doctor fans to begin screaming bloody murder... about three hours ago, relative time.