On The Time of the Doctor

The Time of the Doctor aired on Christmas Day and I sat with my feet up and a mug of milky tea and watched it from beginning to end. This was Matt Smith's last outing as the Doctor and safe enough to say there has been a lot of anticipation building up to this moment. There was a lot in this one episode that was worth talking about and events of this one episode have a lot of implication for the series as a whole.

I want to establish that I liked the episode, I thought it was good, but only good, not great though. Just to make sure we're clear on that. And also I'm only dealing with what happened in this episode not the series wide implacations.

Something that struck me in particular was a problem I think that has plagued the recent episodes of the series. It is the fact that despite a great premise and great idea being established these ideas are executed poorly. I feel this prevented the episode from reaching its full potential and being a fabulous send off for Doctor number eleven. Let's run through this from the beginning,

Personally I'm not a big fan of the voice over explaining where we are and what's happening, show don't tell should apply. The encounters with the Cybermen and the Daleks does really give weight to the situation, we do get a sense that every player in the universe is here.  This is good storytelling so far, Doctor Eleven's last outing is going to be something massive that everyone is there for. The fact that no one has gone down to the planet and the prevalence of fear also adds to it too.

Skipping ahead the Doctor and Clara land on the planet and are attacked by the Weeping Angles, the use of the snow make very a very good moment here however the angels are not really heard from again. The Angels work best in tight claustrophobic environments where they are difficult to get away from and it does make sense why they aren't focused on more. This is where the execution does falls down as the Angels were their for their own sake. I understand why there we put in but it is worth consider if they are really necessary.

Examining the town the idea of the truth field is nice but I really don't think it adds to the story, it's used once and doesn't come up again really. Another good idea gone to waste. I did like the idea of using the crack in the universe again, it ties together some of the elements of the Eleventh Doctor's story and the Time Lords returning harks back to the send off given to the Tenth Doctor. The fact that they are returning in peace as opposed to as warriors is also a nice touch. It sets up a moral dilemma for the Doctor, rescue his lost people but in doing so he will restart the Time War. The Doctor, knowing that this planet is the one where he will die, the Doctor resolves to stay with the people of the town and hold out for as long as possible.

A great set up? Absolutely, the Doctor having his last stand, knowing he is out of regenerations. This should be a battle of epic proportions, an emotional roller coaster from start to finish. But here's the problem it falls flat. The Doctor remains unchanged by centuries of fighting, the townspeople come and come and there is no real sense of danger. Every fight the Doctor wins and wins easily, his character doesn't grow more jaded as the fighting continues. We are not made care about the people the doctor is protecting and we know the end result so therefore the fighting is inconsequential.

I suppose this is a problem when you know that the doctor is regenerating and will survive but when we are watching only to figure out how he will move on and know that the world will go on unaffected by the events we can't get involved and me moved by it (as much as we possibly could).

The episode does tug at the heartstrings a few times, when the Doctor send Clara away (harking back to The Ninth Doctor send Rose away) and him seeing Amy again. This was a nice touch, and I thought a better way to handle the send off than was displayed with the Tenth Doctors send off. Here it's simple, the first face the Eleventh Doctor saw, not a celebration dance of all of his achievements.

To conclude I think, the episode concluded well, the resolution of the new regeneration cycle I fell fitted well although it had a bit of Deus Ex hanging about it. A nice send off, nothing great though. I'm hopeful for the new series.


Just more thoughts from nowhere.
Thanks for reading.