Story: The Time of the Doctor
Written By: Steven Moffat
Length: 60 Minutes
Year: 2013
Matt Smith's tenure as the Doctor comes to an end in this year's Christmas Special, "The Time of the Doctor". Practically all of the little threads that were left lingering since Smith took over the role get resolved here. Several monsters appear including The Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans, Weeping Angels, the Silence, and even the Cracks in Time from Series 5. The answers to questions like what exactly are the Silence and how they came to be is all answered, along with who Madame Kovarian was in the grand scheme of things, as well as who blew up the TARDIS and caused the cracks in the first place. It all leads early on to the Planet Trenzalore, which we previously discovered would hold the Doctor's grave.
To get some issues out of the way early, I think there might have been some unnecessary shoehorning in of certain monsters. The Weeping Angels serve no purpose, their one scene felt like filler in a story that has just so much to get to in one hour. The Daleks show up and have a throwaway line about scanning someone's mind and now are well aware of the Doctor again, making the purpose of them forgetting the Doctor in their previous outing seem pointless. The Cybermen at least have some neat bits. I liked the Doctor using the decapitated Cyber-head for info, and I thought the Wooden Cyber was neat. That said they don't do much else. One wishes they were just the main foes alongside the Silence (and instead of a throwaway line discarding the plot developments of the Daleks not knowing the Doctor we have a throwaway line using that as a reason why the Daleks aren't there).
Essentially the Doctor get to Trenzalore, rediscovers the Crack in time and finding out that on the other side is Gallifrey (which they hid in the 50th special in an unknown pocket universe). And the Question is Asked, "Doctor Who?" Finally why this question being asked brings so much doom makes sense. The Time Lords are asking the question to confirm it is the Real Doctor on the other side (as he is the one who saved them in all his lives), and if it is, it's safe to come through...but if they come through it could restart the Time War anew, and we can't have that!
There are problems with this story, script wise, but there are a lot of answers given and it pretty much wraps up the Matt Smith era in style. I liked seeing the Doctor settle on a planet for centuries and aging slowly but very much so. This Doctor probably lived the longest since the first (he even has the first Doctor's hair at the end), but most of it is spent on this planet trying to keep the Time Lords at bay and the planet protected from the swarm of Monsters surrounding it.
This story also solves and puts an end to the long standing and problematic rule that the Doctor can only regenerate 12 times, giving us a total of 13 Doctors. With the addition of the War Doctor we have 12 Doctors, and Moffat uses the fake-out Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor Regeneration from "Journey's End" to give us the end of this always pointless limitation. The Time Lords on the other side of the Crack are asked by Clara to help him, and the Time Lords do...they send him a whole new Regeneration cycle. There is of course a precedence for this, "The Five Doctors". They even make an early slight reference to that story by using the Seal that the Third Doctor got from the Master in that tale.
Of course the atomic bomb regeneration that somehow wipes out the Daleks (again...) is silly and feels like a too easy cheat to win the day. It also seemed like they just needed to have Smith in his standard look for the final regeneration moments, and the "reset" thing is dumb. It was odd enough when the Tenth Doctor's wounds healed up prior to his regeneration, but it makes no sense with the Eleventh. But...I will give it this. I'm not entirely sure it was actually a reset. Clara says "you haven't changed yet" and the Doctor just chuckles, and after speech-ing out his incarnation and seeing Amy Pond one last time (I assume in his head) he finally regenerates into Peter Capaldi. Judging by all the hologram clothes nonsense early in the story, I sort of think that this Doctor is projecting his youthful appearence just before he finally goes.
I enjoyed this story despite some storytelling problems. Like much of the Matt Smith era it is held together by Smith himself, despite Moffat's somewhat hard to keep track of scripts and storylines that can feel convoluted. I still prefer the Tenth Doctor/RTD era, but Moffat has done a solid job for the most part. I know he has his problems, and certainly raising too many questions without answers is one of them. But I felt this was a nice clean-up job to set up the new tales with Capaldi.
So ends the Matt Smith era as the Doctor. He gave a great performance from his debut in "The Eleventh Hour" to his final end here. I would've certainly preferred more of him, certainly more than his 3 seasons spread over four years mess, but I'm glad he got the job, as he truly felt like every Doctor before him, yet completely unique.
NEXT TIME: 2013 Specials Recap
Essentially the Doctor get to Trenzalore, rediscovers the Crack in time and finding out that on the other side is Gallifrey (which they hid in the 50th special in an unknown pocket universe). And the Question is Asked, "Doctor Who?" Finally why this question being asked brings so much doom makes sense. The Time Lords are asking the question to confirm it is the Real Doctor on the other side (as he is the one who saved them in all his lives), and if it is, it's safe to come through...but if they come through it could restart the Time War anew, and we can't have that!
There are problems with this story, script wise, but there are a lot of answers given and it pretty much wraps up the Matt Smith era in style. I liked seeing the Doctor settle on a planet for centuries and aging slowly but very much so. This Doctor probably lived the longest since the first (he even has the first Doctor's hair at the end), but most of it is spent on this planet trying to keep the Time Lords at bay and the planet protected from the swarm of Monsters surrounding it.
This story also solves and puts an end to the long standing and problematic rule that the Doctor can only regenerate 12 times, giving us a total of 13 Doctors. With the addition of the War Doctor we have 12 Doctors, and Moffat uses the fake-out Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor Regeneration from "Journey's End" to give us the end of this always pointless limitation. The Time Lords on the other side of the Crack are asked by Clara to help him, and the Time Lords do...they send him a whole new Regeneration cycle. There is of course a precedence for this, "The Five Doctors". They even make an early slight reference to that story by using the Seal that the Third Doctor got from the Master in that tale.
Of course the atomic bomb regeneration that somehow wipes out the Daleks (again...) is silly and feels like a too easy cheat to win the day. It also seemed like they just needed to have Smith in his standard look for the final regeneration moments, and the "reset" thing is dumb. It was odd enough when the Tenth Doctor's wounds healed up prior to his regeneration, but it makes no sense with the Eleventh. But...I will give it this. I'm not entirely sure it was actually a reset. Clara says "you haven't changed yet" and the Doctor just chuckles, and after speech-ing out his incarnation and seeing Amy Pond one last time (I assume in his head) he finally regenerates into Peter Capaldi. Judging by all the hologram clothes nonsense early in the story, I sort of think that this Doctor is projecting his youthful appearence just before he finally goes.
I enjoyed this story despite some storytelling problems. Like much of the Matt Smith era it is held together by Smith himself, despite Moffat's somewhat hard to keep track of scripts and storylines that can feel convoluted. I still prefer the Tenth Doctor/RTD era, but Moffat has done a solid job for the most part. I know he has his problems, and certainly raising too many questions without answers is one of them. But I felt this was a nice clean-up job to set up the new tales with Capaldi.
So ends the Matt Smith era as the Doctor. He gave a great performance from his debut in "The Eleventh Hour" to his final end here. I would've certainly preferred more of him, certainly more than his 3 seasons spread over four years mess, but I'm glad he got the job, as he truly felt like every Doctor before him, yet completely unique.
NEXT TIME: 2013 Specials Recap
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