Doctor Who:
The Name of The Doctor
By Steven Moffat
“His friends are lost forevermore
unless he goes to Trenzalore.”
It is here. The long
anticipated and leaked story, thanks to a BBC America Shop error, of Series 7B finale
is finally here. The Name of The Doctor
takes place at the place where The Doctor should never go Trenzalore what mysteries
will be revealed there and will they are satisfying or will the fans not like
what is revealed. The Name of The Doctor
also promises to reveal the secret behind Clara. Lots of things going on in this story
including a new villain and an old villain we have seen twice before this
series. So did The Name of The Doctor
give us the goods or was it another disappointing series finale that has been the
norm to often with Doctor Who. Read on
to find out what I think about The Name of The Doctor.
I have to say that this
was a pretty good series finale for the 7th series since its return
in 2005. Usually they have been let
downs and haven’t lived up to the hype surrounding them. They usually refer to cheap theatrics that
don’t have anything to do with the story at all like Dalek Caan saying one will
die when no one did. The title to this
story is also a ploy to get people to watch and speculate either happily or angrily
at what The Doctor’s name could be or if Steven Moffat will actually reveal
what it is. Thankfully that is still a secret but the name is heavily featured
and does take on some importance in the closing minutes.
Lately when Steven Moffat
has given us a story especially a series finale it is filled with every
character imaginable. This time he does
have all The Doctor’s friends from the Victorian age Vastra, Jenny, Strax and
of course River Song is in it but it doesn’t feel all that crowded. They serve a purpose as bait to get The
Doctor to Trenzalore and a confrontation with The Great Intelligence. In fact they are handled really well and I
have grown to enjoy seeing them popping up from time to time since we saw them
return in The Snowmen. In fact I would
not mind them getting their own spinoff someday.
I really liked The Name of
The Doctor. Not only was it a pretty
good story but it was one of the best in a long time from Steven Moffat. I was entertained to the fullest and was intrigued
by the events that took place. We
discover what Clara is as she saves the Doctor’s timeline from being corrupted by
The Great Intelligence. We get the
answers to why she was at the Dalek asylum and in Victorian London. The answer is pretty satisfying as she was
born to save The Doctor’s timeline. It
was a pretty neat idea if you asked me and it was cool seeing how Clara did it
at the Doctor’s tomb. The Impossible
Girl has been solved and I sure did not figure that one out.
Matt Smith was brilliant in
The Name of The Doctor as he brought out tons of emotions including crying
which you hardly see The Doctor do at all.
What an emotional scene it was when Clara tells him and he figures its
Trenzalore and just brakes down. Matt
Smith really gels when he does the super serious stuff and just gives The
Doctor a vulnerability that is not something we are accustomed to seeing and
which is good to see from time to time.
I really liked the darkness
of this story and thought The Whisper Men to be pretty creepy and scary. Loved the way they talked and the noise they
make. Steven Moffat does come up with
some pretty cool villains and The Whisper Men is another cool one from
him. I just liked the way they looked
dressed up as a Victorian Gentlemen as that just added to the creepiness and I
can see a lot of children being afraid of The Whispermen.
River Song did not bother
me in this story as she was toned down more or less and wasn’t over the top and
annoying as she has been lately. It was
a nice touch seeing her as the dead River Song and having the Doctor say a
certain thing in the only way the Doctor could.
She added a good aspect to the story as she was pretty much a narrator to
Clara letting her know what was happening in a roundabout way.
What really did it for me
was seeing all of the past Doctor’s especially William Hartnell as the First
Doctor. We see him escaping Gallifrey
with Susan which was a treat as that has never been done before and it was a
fanboy moment seeing how this 50 year old story got started. In fact I really loved seeing all The Doctors
running around even if they were old clips from the show. It is the 50th Anniversary and it was a great
nod to us old guard fans who grew up on the classic series. What was even better was the excitement from
my son in seeing the old Doctors as he named them all and was happy to see
them. Truly a great moment and handled
in the right way and not feeling forced into the story.
I really loved the
surprise ending. I’m sure social network
like Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr will all be abuzz with the appearance of John
Hurt as The Doctor. What a cliffhanger
for the 50th Anniversary special and I’m sure fandom will be in a
tizzy over it and the speculation over what that last bit of dialog meant. I’m
sure we will find out on November 23rd 2013 what it all means.
The Name of The Doctor was
really enjoyable and in fact I really loved this story. This is one of the best series finales in my
mind and it sure is one of the best since the Davies era and ended a series
that was really good and such an improvement from series 6. Steven Moffat delivered the goods this time
and has my excitement for Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary ramped up to
high.
Grade A
Sounds like it was really fun!
ReplyDelete