Doctor Who Review: The Time of the Doctor

I and my fellow Whovians have all been busy holding our breath as the last few months ticked by.  The huge 50^th Anniversary Special brought us a three-Doctor episode and now the Christmas Special brings us the end of Matt Smith’s time on the show along with a new Doctor in the form of Peter Capaldi.  And while the episode did nothing to let us know what kind of Doctor Capaldi may end up being, it did do a rather extravagant job of sending Smith off.  Unfortunately, the bangs and explosions really didn’t do it for me and I found the episode to be rather mediocre in general.

This episode pushes full-steam through events that could have easily consumed 4-5 episodes of Doctor Who.  First the Doctor picks up Clara, then they head off to find out the secret of a city that the intergalactic church people are guarding from hordes of alien races, all bent on destroying it.  He discovers that the Time Lords (locked away on Gallifrey due to the events of the 50^th Anniversary Special) are poking their way through the fabric of time, trying to get a message out.  But if they come out then all the angry enemies will attack and the Time War will start all over again.

So the Doctor sets up shop at the source of the dimensional breach, a little place that just happens to be called Christmas.  There he stays for hundreds of years, defending the town against the continued advances of countless enemies.  But eventually even he has to die of old age.  Luckily, just as things look grim, Clara comes to the rescue and the Doctor saves the day with a crazy energy attack that destroys everything.

I really liked the way showrunner Steven Moffat tied up all the little bits and pieces he’s been teasing us with for the last 4 years, from the crack in time that first appeared with Amy Pond to the Silence to the question of Trenzalore.  I was disappointed that he didn’t have about 5 hours to do it with, however, as the deeper meaning behind this complex planning he’s been doing over the years was lost in the rush.  Still, it was interesting to see how it all fit together - or at least the bits I managed to catch.

As for the addition of regenerations to the Doctor so that they could keep the series going, I was fairly upset.  It was a huge pile of dues ex machina that was only worthy of the most amateur of writers.  Seriously, there are a hundred different ways they could have done it that would have worked better than: “Here!  Have some more lives so we get Capaldi in here!”

The rest of the episode was filled with intermittent good points and a strange tirade of “hereseverythingthatjusthappenedin300years”.  In the end, it felt very forced.  Compared to the 50^th Anniversary Special, this was a low point.  As it compares to most other episodes of Doctor Who, it was about on par.  Still, I hope they do better next season.

And speaking of next season, it looks like we’re all going to get to wait extra-long to see it.  Yup, I know you’re excited, but we may not see Capaldi strutting his stuff until September of 2014, so cross Doctor Who off your viewing list for some time.  The only upside is that they may opt to air the entire season in one go, so no 3-4 month wait between the two halves.

Photo Credits -           

Time of the Doctor courtesy of screencrush.com