The Time of the Doctor

Well if The Time of the Doctor has taught me anything, its that I should never watch Doctor Who on live television. I can wait till its online or available on Itunes but I will never sit through an episode with commercials ever again.

Disclaimer: This review is going to have a lot of spoilers from the Christmas special so you've been warned. 

So this is the episode Doctor Who fans have been waiting for. The regeneration episode, the final entry of Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor and how did it fare?

Well... for me it was a little bit of a mediocre feeling. I'm not saying it was bad by any means and there are certainly parts of the episode that are done really really well to give Matt Smith a proper send off as the Doctor.

But the episode did have its... interesting parts.

It took me a second watching for me to really warm up to this episode and see it as a great send off for Matt Smith.

So here we go, here's The Time of the Doctor.

The episode starts off with an introduction explaining a mysterious planet giving off a decoded message. While nobody knows what the message says, they are all scared of it and all go to the planet. Daleks, Cybermen, the whole lot comes. Including the Doctor.

In the mean time, Clara is preparing Christmas dinner for her family and she needs the Doctor to be her date. A charming part of this episode was the back and forth between the events in space and the christmas dinner. Although it did get old after a while and didn't have enough to really give it proper charm, it was still a few fun scenes.

Eventually the Doctor and Clara land on the planet and they find themselves in a town called Christmas... yes... Christmas. I've gone back and forth on whether or not I like that name because really the episode didn't need the town to be called Christmas... but I digress.

The Doctor realizes the message is coming from the crack in the wall from the 5th series, Matt Smith's first series, and its a message from the Timelords who the Doctor had saved in The Day of the Doctor. They're trying to get back into the universe and the only way they will is if the Doctor says his name.

But all the enemies of the Doctor don't want the Timelords to come back so there starts the standoff with the Doctor becoming the "Sheriff" of the town called Christmas. It's also important to note that the planet they are on is Trenzalore, the planet that holds the grave of the Doctor.

The Doctor sends Clara back to her Christmas dinner and sets up shop as a toymaker/defender of Trenzalore and the town called Christmas. He stays there for many centuries growing older because he knows he's out of regenerations and its time for him to die on Trenzalore.

Eventually it comes time for the Doctor to face the Daleks and it seems like he is about to die but then Clara calls for the help of the Timelords, they give the Doctor another regeneration cycle and he defeats the Daleks.

With the enemy defeated, the future changed, it is time for the Doctor to regenerate and there comes Peter Capaldi.

Again, story-wise, its a pretty good narrative and good chance for Steven Moffat to throw in all the enemies of the Doctor into one place.

So there are a couple things I want to talk about with this episode. Things I thought were just okay or things I didn't like at all.

1. Mother Superious: Tasha Lem - Orla Brady did do a very good job as the head of the Church of the Papal Mainframe. I enjoyed her enough and I thought it was fascinating to finally get the origins of the Silence and how they connected to all the Matt Smith seasons.

The criticisms I have of this part of the show are small but I think they're necessary.

Tasha Lem, as much as I enjoyed her, didn't really need to be in this episode.

I saw a review that suggested that her part could have been replaced by River Song. While it would have needed to crafting of the script, it could have been done nicely and given Alex Kingston one last appearance in Doctor Who. Again, not a huge complaint, when you look at the episode, you don't really connect Tasha Lem as a quintessential part.

2. Old man Doctor - The Doctor is very familiar with the fact that he will not be able to regenerate again. So he just resigns himself to this random ass town. This was confusing to me and while it is important to note the presence of the crack that is holding back the Timelords, there is just a sign of resignation in this Doctor. There's no dramatic speech like the one he made on Stonehenge, he basically says to the Daleks when he thinks they're going to kill him, go ahead and shoot me.

I understand that the Doctor is older than he's ever been and he knows he's coming to the end of his life. It gave Matt Smith the opportunity show how mature of an actor he can play, that while he is very young, he can portray someone who is incredibly old.

However, he was able to do that when he looked like he was in his twenties. He doesn't need makeup to make him look older. It didn't look awful but it did kind of have the hints of Cloud Atlas prosthetics.

Cloud Atlas did a lot of manipulating the look of each of the actors in order to make them look younger, a different race or some other kind of adjustments. While this was a unique way to use the same actors in different parts, many times it did look a little silly, especially when they tried to make Jim Sturgess look Asian.

While Matt Smith's prosthetics looked a lot better than Cloud Atlas's, it was still a little weird and kind of took away from the episode for me, at least the first time I watched it.

(I will most likely be reviewing Cloud Atlas soon)

I wanted to see Matt Smith as the Doctor, not Matt Smith with makeup and prosthetics as the Doctor. It didn't ruin the episode but it didn't enhance it.

There is a scene where Clara asks the Doctor why she sent him away and he says, "I would have buried you a long time ago". Which was really touching but it didn't really mend the actions he pulls against Clara in this episode.

3. Clara and the Doctor - The Doctor sends Clara back home, ditching her, not once, but twice. There's a scene where Clara says, promise me you won't send me away again. The Doctor says he won't and then two seconds later he does.

I know the Doctor lies but this to me was just kind of an asshole thing to do.

Clara is really turning out to be a very different companion for the Doctor. With Rose, or Amy, The Doctor is pulling them out of a dull life. In many ways, former companions before Clara were almost dependent on the Doctor.

What I like about Clara is that she doesn't really need the Doctor. She's very clever and good at making her life worthwhile. In many ways the Doctor and her seem to be on an even playing field.

Unfortunately, that doesn't make her a really compelling character... yet. I really enjoy Jenna-Louise Coleman, and my god she is very very attractive. But she's had so little time to develop herself as a character and not so much a plot device that she hasn't been able to form a real bond with the Doctor that the audience can relate to.

And that brings me to my last "complaint"

4. The Regeneration Scene - When I first watched this scene, it was basically cut in half by commercials. The very reason I will never watch Doctor Who live again.

The did a lot of thing right with this scene. After getting his new regeneration from the Timelords, destroying the Daleks, The Doctor returns to the TARDIS and is "old" Matt Smith Doctor again. He looks the same he had looked for his entire time as the Doctor which was a very smart move.

When he's regenerating he gives a speech that really isn't the Doctor saying it, its more Matt Smith's words. He eats some custard and fish fingers, drops the iconic bow tie and says how he'll never forget when he was the Doctor.

But then something a little odd happened in my opinion.

Amy Pond shows up. At first it was just the child version of her running through the TARDIS but then Karen Gillen (Wig and all) shows up and says, "Ragedy Man, Goodnight"

Don't get me wrong, I teared up.

But it just seemed odd to me.

When the scene first starts it is slightly reminiscent of the first time Rose sees Christopher Eccleston turn into David Tennant. Clara is looking upon the Doctor in a similar way and it was very sad, she doesn't want to see him change.

But then the Doctor kind just forgets Clara is in the room and he gets distracted by the ghost of Amy Pond.

I don't deny the fact that Amy Pond was a quintessential part to Matt Smith's career being as she was his companion for 2 and a half seasons.

But I feel as though we had already said goodbye to Amy Pond. And Rory? Where the hell was he? And River Song? She got a good goodbye in The Name of the Doctor, why not bring her back for this episode.

It just seemed really odd to have Amy Pond show up and kind of push Clara to the side.

I predict that Clara will become more of a significant companion to Peter Capaldi's Doctor rather than Matt Smith's but still they had a whole half season together. They were together during the 50th anniversary for godsake and she didn't really have a role of importance near the end.

That's a bit of an exaggeration but it just felt odd.

The only other thing I will say about the regeneration scene was how quickly it ended. While they tried to make it seem like it was drawn out, there's a quick jerk and suddenly Peter Capaldi is there. It was oddly fast.

Furthermore, Capaldi gets a strange looking stare and a quick line and the episode was over.

This isn't a huge complaint as Matt Smith didn't get that much screen time when he took over from David Tennant. It just felt very rushed.

I think I'm just really excited to see Peter Capaldi be the next Doctor.

I feel as though I've given a lot of criticisms of this episode and the truth is, it wasn't my favorite. That does not mean that it wasn't good.

It was a very whimsical adventure and was a good send off for Matt Smith and a little bit of a precursor to Peter Capaldi's time, despite having to wait a long time before we see those episodes.

It was funny, it really did a good job at including all the Doctor's enemies in only an hour's time.

The criticisms aren't really against the story, they are just things I found interesting and not what I expected.

So, did you see the final Doctor Who episode staring Matt Smith? What did you think? Am I totally off on my critics or was there things I'm missing?

I'll leave you with this. A funny introduction to Peter Capaldi. I don't think he'll swear this much but I think we've got a fun Doctor ahead of us. Congrats Matt Smith and Good Luck to you!