By: Steven Moffat
**Spoilers**
If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.
The Time of The Doctor is the conclusion of the 11th Doctor's arc where Steven Moffat not only actually managed to tie up a few loose plot threads but also made fans the worldwide suffer through a regeneration story for a Christmas Special. I know, I know - the first part of David Tennant's swan song also aired on December 25th...but we didn't actually have to watch the regeneration until New Year's. So completely different ball game. Moffat is a cruel, cruel man.
This episode was epic. A far cry from the soppy, illogical mess that was last year's The Snowmen, this episode saw all of the plot elements from Matt Smith's era as The Doctor being brought together and woven in with some new friends to create the so-long prophesied siege of Trenzalore where the question will be asked.
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- Is it a tradition now for The Doctor to get in at least one, erm, clotheless scene during his run? 0.o Just...why?!
- All of the real light-hearted stuff in this episode happened in the opening 10 or so minutes. Generally with Moffat the witty quips and humorous snark is scattered throughout the writing - but here as the story went on the dark tone became more and more prevalent.
- Nothing was overlooked in the writing of this script. Not the Screwdriver's inability to do wood nor Matt Smith's rather famous lack of eyebrows (he claims they're just 'delicate'...). The necessity of a wig for our dear fellow in this episode was also worked into the story itself.
- There is a church where you have to take off your clothes to attend. I'm pretty certain that the only purpose this served within the episode was to give us a view of Smith's abs... *rolls eyes*
- The Weeping Angels are officially scary again! For everyone who complained about them moving in Flesh & Stone or about the Statue of Liberty plot hole in The Angels Take Manhattan fear not...in this episode The Doctor and Clara find themselves trapped in a valley with hundreds of Weeping Angels coming up from under the very snow beneath their feet!
- I was rather underwhelmed by Tasha...Mother Superior or Sister or Reverend or whatever her title was. Not only did we have little time to get to know her (and yet were expected to believe she had known The Doctor for centuries) but she was just bland. What about Madam Kovarian? Why couldn't she come back? Did she actually die in that parallel universe? I thought once time was set right everything snapped back. Guess not.
- Clara got sent back twice. TWICE! What was Rose complaining about again?
- While we're on the subject of Clara, I suppose we can see it as sort of symbolic that she spent most of her time in this episode clinging to the outside of the TARDIS or light years (and literal years) away from The Doctor as she is the character who still has no personality. Even Tasha the Bland had a character. Pretty much all we know about Clara is that she is feisty, is a teacher/governess, and is born to save The Doctor. None of the former have been expanded or built on enough to constitute an actual three-dimensional person and the latter hasn't really affected her in any way. Hopefully now with a new Doctor and a new character arc Clara will get the chance to be more than just The Impossible Girl responsible for the tension-breaking witty quips. C'mon, Moffat, you can do better than this!
- Steven Moffat made me cry over a decapitated Cyberman head. A Cyberman head! RIP, Handles.
- I feel like the way the Silence were suddenly on the side of The Doctor sort of smelled like a bit of Davies Forced Exposition. Which is strange, since Davies is no longer writing for this show...
- Would the Daleks please stop stating the obvious!?
- old!Eleven sort of looks like old!Bilbo from The Fellowship of the Ring. (Please tell me I'm not crazy...you all see this too, right?)
- On that note, Matt's age make-up looked incredible and his performance melded perfectly with it to convince us that The Doctor really was getting physically older.
- The Crack from Series 5 is back. I love the way all of these plot elements are coming together for one big finish to Matt's run.
- The scenes with Clara and 11 by the fireside was absolutely adorably heart-breaking. I love the way she rested her head against his knee and then helped his aged and weakened hand pull the cracker. For a moment I actually saw a person instead of a plot device. It was marvelous!
- MY THEORY ABOUT THE REGENERATIONS WAS RIGHT!!!! Sorry...ahem...what I meant to say was that it was brilliant of Moffat to make us think that he was going to do some sort of sneaky thing (like with the River-Regeneration-Thingy from Let's Kill Hitler!) when really he just went with the tried-and-true lore. We've already scene the council grant The Master a new cycle before and so that made it both more 'logical' (if you can ever apply such a term to this show) and believable (ditto) to old and new fans alike.
- I love the way that they used the Bookend trope. 11's first companion was Amy, and she came to say goodbye (Rory's wedding ring on hand...*sniff*). His trademark was the bowtie, he let it go gently. His first meal was fish-fingers and custard, and that was what he eats one last time before he regenerates.
- It was nice that Amy's message to her best friend was "Raggedy Man, good-night" as this regeneration is not a death but a new beginning. One of the things I hate the most about the RTD era of the show is the way he handled the whole regeneration story for poor Tennant. Was he bitter about leaving or something? I don't think so, based on the interviews I've seen, but if you were just watching the episode you would have thought that both actor and writer were being forced out at gunpoint. As 11 said in this episode...10 had vanity issues. He whinged and moaned through his swansong like a 10-year-old woobie and went to his death with no sense of dignity (unlike 9 who faced 'death' with a smile). Eleven, on the other hand, got a deep speech that is meaningful to all of us...a speech filled with contentment and acceptance. This is honestly one of my favorite regenerations of all time and definitely one of Matt's finest moments.
- And for everyone who has been moaning about Capaldi...
The Time of The Doctor was a great episode. It was fun and sad and dark and epic. It tied up loose plot-threads and introduced new ideas for the next series. It was everything that I wanted and more. There were some problems as such things are inevitable whenever you have to cram so much into a set running time, but for the most part the action and emotion sailed us on through the hiccups. I give this episode an 4/5 and say that I really want to go back and re-watch Matt's entire run now, just to get the complete picture. Geronimo!
What did you think? Do you agree with my
rating? If not - what would you say differently?
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