Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor (2013) - Review
Christmas specials in Doctor Who are a mixed bag, although I thoroughly enjoyed last years' (The Snowmen) so much that I thought this was going to be just as entertaining. I've only watched this story once, so this is my INITIAL IMPRESSION of the episode.
The Snowmen was a brilliant, fun and entertaining piece of television, and the best episode of the 2012 series of Doctor Who. However, it's predecessor - The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe - was the biggest load of Christmas smeg I have ever sat through. Urgh. I was so glad to see those end credits, and the trailer for series two of Sherlock almost made up for it. It was a horrible piece of television with inconsistent and boring characters, poor jokes, clichés, and more forced moments than you could shake a sonic screwdriver at. I absolutely hated it. Worst of all, it had no plot at the end of the day, making a complete mess of an episode. It made A Christmas Carol look like a masterpiece. Well, A Christmas Carol actually DID look like a masterpiece, with some stellar cinematography, despite the badly-paced story.
So, how was The Time of the Doctor? Much like Doctor Who Christmas specials, it was a mixed bag in itself.
I enjoyed the opening, and the only element that ruined it was a naked Matt Smith. Why was he naked? Why does Matt Smith have to strip off in Doctor Who? Who wants to see Matt Smith naked? OK, I can predict many fan-girls would be interested, but for fans of Clara?
The only other gripe was the not-so-subtle sex references. Seriously, a three year old would automatically know what they're hinting at. Can Steven Moffat not do subtlety? Or maybe that's an element of Tasha's character?
The sequence with the Weeping Angels on Trenzalore was brilliant, and I wish it could have been longer. I quite liked the idea with the Doctor actually wearing a wig, and being bald underneath, as a little in-joke to Matt Smith shaving his head. I'm gonna have to stare at his rocket-fin ears for a while now it seems.
The point where it falls is when the Doctor sends Clara home and the TARDIS de-materialises with her back to Christmas town, reminding me of The Parting of the Ways quite a bit, and the Silence group is formed from the Papal Mainframe. Then it goes through hundreds of years as various monsters try to invade, but the Doctor stops them. Why was Matt Smith aged though? His ageing was only there to show time passing, and that amount of time didn't need to pass. By the end of the episode, Smith looks like Doc Brown off Back to the Future! It just seems odd.
I liked the elements of Clara back home, although the deleted scene should have been in the episode, as it's only 30 seconds long. Only her gran is actually identified as, well, her gran, and I presume the man was her dad (who looked nothing like the actor in The Rings of Akhaten) and the woman was her...step-mum? I thought this episode would give us an idea of Clara's family, but it failed miserably. Well, I hope Series Eight does better (and has an Easter Special).
The moments of "war" on Trenzalore were the least entertaining bit of the episode. It was like Captain America: The First Avenger, in the sense that we were only teased the battles and saw very little action. Also, was too much sonic screwdriver in those scenes.
Handles was an interesting creation, but added nothing to the story and the background of the head was just thrown in there if you're paying close enough attention. His death meant nothing, and neither did the little boy that the Doctor knew.
The revelations in this episode finally came about, but so subtley that they meant nothing to anyone. Where were Kovarian's Silence fraction for the ENTIRE EPISODE? Why couldn't we have had two fractions of Silence going enormous head to enormous head? What was the point of the Daleks in the episode? They added absolutely NOTHING.
There were many questions left open. Why did the Time Lords give the Doctor more regenerations, and how? I thought they hated the Doctor? How does the tie into The Name of the Doctor? Is this Trenzalore thing finished now? Has time changed, and if so, does that create a paradox after the Doctor and Clara saw the Doctor's grave? Does that mean the Doctor does not die on Trenzalore after all? Why did Kovarian's Silence group break away, but then kill their leader in The Wedding of River Song? Why weren't the other Silence group in the episode? These questions linger on and bug me a bit, as I thought the whole Dorium prophecy from Series Six was finished in The Name of the Doctor?
However, the episode picked up though once the devastation had ended (although why the Time Lords weren't actually seen puzzles me) as Clara walks back to the TARDIS and sees Matt Smith regenerate. Seeing Amelia was a nice idea, but the girl looked nothing like Caitlin Blackwood, and didn't actually look ginger to me. It was nice to see Karen Gillan return, even with a strange wig, and the final bit with Peter Capaldi...well, a definite highlight and I look forward to whenever they can be bothered to make Series Eight.
I really hope he knows how to fly the TARDIS...
Despite what people said about Matt Smith, I thought Jenna Coleman's performance was the highlight of all of them, although Peter Capaldi was great considering his ten seconds of screen time, and had a fantastic final line - "Just one question: do you have any idea how to fly this thing?".
Overall, it had good and bad so I have to give it a 6/10.
The Snowmen was a brilliant, fun and entertaining piece of television, and the best episode of the 2012 series of Doctor Who. However, it's predecessor - The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe - was the biggest load of Christmas smeg I have ever sat through. Urgh. I was so glad to see those end credits, and the trailer for series two of Sherlock almost made up for it. It was a horrible piece of television with inconsistent and boring characters, poor jokes, clichés, and more forced moments than you could shake a sonic screwdriver at. I absolutely hated it. Worst of all, it had no plot at the end of the day, making a complete mess of an episode. It made A Christmas Carol look like a masterpiece. Well, A Christmas Carol actually DID look like a masterpiece, with some stellar cinematography, despite the badly-paced story.
So, how was The Time of the Doctor? Much like Doctor Who Christmas specials, it was a mixed bag in itself.
I enjoyed the opening, and the only element that ruined it was a naked Matt Smith. Why was he naked? Why does Matt Smith have to strip off in Doctor Who? Who wants to see Matt Smith naked? OK, I can predict many fan-girls would be interested, but for fans of Clara?
The only other gripe was the not-so-subtle sex references. Seriously, a three year old would automatically know what they're hinting at. Can Steven Moffat not do subtlety? Or maybe that's an element of Tasha's character?
The sequence with the Weeping Angels on Trenzalore was brilliant, and I wish it could have been longer. I quite liked the idea with the Doctor actually wearing a wig, and being bald underneath, as a little in-joke to Matt Smith shaving his head. I'm gonna have to stare at his rocket-fin ears for a while now it seems.
The point where it falls is when the Doctor sends Clara home and the TARDIS de-materialises with her back to Christmas town, reminding me of The Parting of the Ways quite a bit, and the Silence group is formed from the Papal Mainframe. Then it goes through hundreds of years as various monsters try to invade, but the Doctor stops them. Why was Matt Smith aged though? His ageing was only there to show time passing, and that amount of time didn't need to pass. By the end of the episode, Smith looks like Doc Brown off Back to the Future! It just seems odd.
I liked the elements of Clara back home, although the deleted scene should have been in the episode, as it's only 30 seconds long. Only her gran is actually identified as, well, her gran, and I presume the man was her dad (who looked nothing like the actor in The Rings of Akhaten) and the woman was her...step-mum? I thought this episode would give us an idea of Clara's family, but it failed miserably. Well, I hope Series Eight does better (and has an Easter Special).
The moments of "war" on Trenzalore were the least entertaining bit of the episode. It was like Captain America: The First Avenger, in the sense that we were only teased the battles and saw very little action. Also, was too much sonic screwdriver in those scenes.
Handles was an interesting creation, but added nothing to the story and the background of the head was just thrown in there if you're paying close enough attention. His death meant nothing, and neither did the little boy that the Doctor knew.
The revelations in this episode finally came about, but so subtley that they meant nothing to anyone. Where were Kovarian's Silence fraction for the ENTIRE EPISODE? Why couldn't we have had two fractions of Silence going enormous head to enormous head? What was the point of the Daleks in the episode? They added absolutely NOTHING.
There were many questions left open. Why did the Time Lords give the Doctor more regenerations, and how? I thought they hated the Doctor? How does the tie into The Name of the Doctor? Is this Trenzalore thing finished now? Has time changed, and if so, does that create a paradox after the Doctor and Clara saw the Doctor's grave? Does that mean the Doctor does not die on Trenzalore after all? Why did Kovarian's Silence group break away, but then kill their leader in The Wedding of River Song? Why weren't the other Silence group in the episode? These questions linger on and bug me a bit, as I thought the whole Dorium prophecy from Series Six was finished in The Name of the Doctor?
However, the episode picked up though once the devastation had ended (although why the Time Lords weren't actually seen puzzles me) as Clara walks back to the TARDIS and sees Matt Smith regenerate. Seeing Amelia was a nice idea, but the girl looked nothing like Caitlin Blackwood, and didn't actually look ginger to me. It was nice to see Karen Gillan return, even with a strange wig, and the final bit with Peter Capaldi...well, a definite highlight and I look forward to whenever they can be bothered to make Series Eight.
I really hope he knows how to fly the TARDIS...
Despite what people said about Matt Smith, I thought Jenna Coleman's performance was the highlight of all of them, although Peter Capaldi was great considering his ten seconds of screen time, and had a fantastic final line - "Just one question: do you have any idea how to fly this thing?".
Overall, it had good and bad so I have to give it a 6/10.
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