My thoughts on "Time of the Doctor"

[dbskyler]

Well, it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't good, either. Most of all, it was just disappointing.

There were such great things leading up to this. "Name of the Doctor" was wonderful. Then we got "Day of the Doctor," and that was just so ridiculously good, it was staring at "wonderful" in its rearview mirror. So there I was, sitting down for "Time of the Doctor," Matt Smith's regeneration story, which surely would be epic. Right?

There was promise. The beginning was good. A mysterious message! The Silence! Weeping Angels attacking from snowbanks! The Crack! I gasped when I saw that. (Gasping is good, Moffat, well done.) And then it was Gallifrey through the Crack, and rather than ratcheting things up, I got my first shot of disappointment. Because I thought the Doctor was going to go looking for Gallifrey, and I wanted to see some of that. Maybe even see a whole arc of it. I didn't want Gallifrey to come calling on the Doctor in the very next episode. But I was still ready to give things the benefit of the doubt and see where this episode was going.

Unfortunately, it didn't go much of anywhere after that. Neither did the Doctor. He just stayed there, getting more and more age make-up on his face. The first time I watched the episode, I truly didn't understand what was going on after Clara was sent away. It was all just random battles, and aging, and explanations-by-exposition that flew here and there but never landed, certainly not in a way that made sense to me. I've since had some kind people explain it to me on various LJ comms, and I've seen the episode a second time, and it's a little less confusing now, but still a pretty big mess. It's all, okay, the Doctor is there for hundreds of years, and sometimes there are attacks, and meanwhile he can't leave, and there's a stalemate except people are still attacking, so really only a semi-stalemate, which the Doctor apparently can't do anything about even though you'd think he could have come up with a plan to deal with the situation by at least year 247 or so, and then speaking of plans, hundreds of years into the whole thing the Daleks suddenly get a new idea (apparently new ideas don't come easily to them) and they decide to attack the Papal Mainframe ship, and the Doctor leaves the planet to go up there, which doesn't break the semi-stalemate for reasons-I-still-don't-get, and then there's a huge full-on war, which didn't-happen-earlier-for-reasons-I-still-don't-get, and then it gets casually slipped in that this is the Doctor's last life so he's going to die.

That's, um, a big deal, right? So why did we get that tidbit so late? And why is there no particular consequence to it? The Doctor's about to die of old age. Wouldn't that end the stalemate? Why again are the armies attacking instead of waiting him out just a little longer, after they've already waited him out for hundreds of years? Suddenly, they're in a rush? Okay, forget the logic part; let's just deal with the emotion part. Why was there so little on this being the Doctor's death? His actual death, no regenerations left? I mean, here we are on TRENZALORE, and that was hardly dealt with, either. Instead of emotional resonance, we got lots of whiz-bang explosions. How disappointing.

In fact, I don't just feel disappointed; I feel cheated. What if we'd had a whole episode of "this is it; the Doctor is going to DIE HERE"? Wouldn't that have been great? Didn't we have that exact set-up? But somehow, it didn't happen. There's no impending sense of doom while you're watching a character age for hundreds of years. It doesn't matter what you reveal later; you've lost that drama.

Speakng of drama, the episode felt very impersonal, which is very sad for a regeneration story. Clara was separated from the Doctor for most of it, and a lot of information was given to us in narration. The Doctor's biggest emotional relationship throughout that whole time was with a Cyberman head. That's a problem. It's hard to feel swept up in the Doctor's situation when we're not connected to it in any way, or even told what's going on past a narration-plus-clip-montage info-dump. It's hard to get worried about a new epic battle when we've been watching various battles throughout the whole thing. It's even hard to care about the Doctor's final death when the news of it gets delivered in such a slapdash fashion, late in the episode, with apparently not much of a consequence attached -- not for the Crack, or for the Time Lords, or for the semi-stalemate, or even for the Doctor.

After "Name of the Doctor," I wanted so much more from Trenzalore. The whole idea of the Doctor's grave being a wound in time -- that was brilliant. It didn't just explain why the Doctor hides his name; it explained why the Master hides his, and the Rani hers. Time Lord graves are dangerous! Time Lord names are the keys to those graves, and Time Lords who regularly venture from Gallifrey must hide their names! I thought I understood, but apparently I read more into it than was intended. Apparently the only important aspect of the Doctor's real name is that the Time Lords asked for him through a crack. Which seems . . . kind of stupid, actually. Disappointing. Certainly not epic. Where's my epic? Weren't we set up for epic?

And speaking of set-up, when exactly did River learn the Doctor's name? We know it wasn't when he married her. So, when was it? Why did he tell her? Ever since we first heard of Trenzalore, I'd been expecting that it was wrapped up in not just the Doctor's name, but in River learning the Doctor's name. Apparently not. Apparently he just told her casually one day, over tea or something, in a scene that we didn't get to see. How disappointing. (And don't say that he told her because he knew he had told her; that's the most boring reason possible. Again, I wanted more.)

And now, some final thoughts:

1) Did we get to see Matt Smith all aged up in preparation for a possible comeback for Doctor Who's 75th anniversary? No "aging must be an effect of the time differential" explanation required -- just say he's popped out from Trenzalore! (Although actually, considering how much they aged him, make that the 100th anniversary. Matt's only going to be middle-aged by the time of the 75th. Stick him in a wig and he should be fine -- hey, they could use the same wig!)

2) I kind of wish they hadn't counted the "Journey's End" regeneration, and had instead made Capaldi Doctor Thirteen, and told us from the start that this was his last life. Just think, we could have seen the Doctor dealing with that! Okay, he's always been mortal, and regeneration has never been a given, but to know that you're on your last life? Isn't there some drama there that we didn't get with Eleven? Wouldn't it have been interesting to explore that with Capaldi? While watching him look for Gallifrey, seeking to restore the Time Lords before he goes? Wouldn't that have been great? Instead, the whole concept was thrown away -- from set-up to resolution in about five minutes or so. For the first time, I am tempted to write AU fanfic.

3) I still love Moffat for giving us "Day of the Doctor." As much of a clunker as this one was, ultimately I have to forgive him because he really came through for the anniversary. I just hope he rests up and writes us some better stuff again in the future.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I found the Xmas ep disappointing. too many whizz-bangs, not enough content.

I re-watched Day of the Doctor yesterday (I had the DVD for Xmas). I still think the b-plot with the Zygons is lame, mainly because we're never told how it's resolved. BUT, that aside, it's a bloody brilliant episode (that's three times I've seen it now).

I'm hoping someone will eventually write missing adventure fics for the War Doctor (after all, the reflection of him we see at the end of 'Night of the Doctor' is considerably younger than his appearance in 'Day') - though not with him finding Rose, because PUHLEASE!

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

The Zygon b-plot is indeed the weakest thing about that episode, and I agree that it would have been nice to get a resolution. I think Moffat didn't want to bog things down, and I understand that, but we could have gotten a brief shot of the Zygons leaving or something, just to confirm that it happened. But for me, that's a nitpick I can easily overlook.

I'm hoping someone will eventually write missing adventure fics for the War Doctor

I would definitely like more on the War Doctor! He's a great character. In fact, I'm kind of sorry they regenerated him right away, because I want some space for post-Moment fanfic with him. Oh well, I suppose it can still be snuck in -- with fanfic, there's always a way!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

Agreed, fandom will find a way, it always does.

[pedanther]

Oh, man. Your final thought #2 really would have been great.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I know, right? What a wasted opportunity. And it's not even a stretch, so I can't believe no one in DW production land thought of it. Although maybe they were too caught up in everything else to really think through the established plot points laid out in front of them.

Bring on the AU fanfic!

[avarill.livejournal.com]

Yes, well that sums it up.

As much as I love Moffat, and I really do, he has ONE BIG FLAW:

He gets lazy and will often put the Most Important Thing off-screen.

As in the aforementioned 'When did the Doctor give River his name' thing, as one shining example.

It can be a clever ploy to engage the viewer's imagination, but then again, it can create a mess like this episode apparently was. And having no emotional connection to the Doctor is such a terrible thing to do to Eleven. As Eleven was the Doctor most poignantly shaped by his friends.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yep. Overall it's probably good that the showrunner is also the head writer, but sometimes I really wish for someone else with higher authority who could have said, "Nice ideas, Steven, but you left out the X, and the Y really doesn't make sense. Try again." All writers need an editor.

(And I'm sure that DW scripts do go through some sort of editing process -- Moffat's a professional -- but he also has the highest authority. What I'm saying is, that isn't always the best thing. I saw the same issue with some of RTD's scripts.)

[clocketpatch]

Just think, we could have seen the Doctor dealing with that! Okay, he's always been mortal, and regeneration has never been a given, but to know that you're on your last life? Isn't there some drama there that we didn't get with Eleven? Wouldn't it have been interesting to explore that with Capaldi? While watching him look for Gallifrey, seeking to restore the Time Lords before he goes? Wouldn't that have been great?

Yes. Yes. and also, YES! I would happily read the AU fic for this, because the fact that Moffat had these grand concepts to play with and threw them away for some last-minutes, hand-wavey, emotionally dry raising-of-the-stakes makes me sad.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I would happily read the AU fic for this, because the fact that Moffat had these grand concepts to play with and threw them away for some last-minutes, hand-wavey, emotionally dry raising-of-the-stakes makes me sad.


Yes, it's really sad!

[honeynoir.livejournal.com]

"Name of the Doctor" was wonderful. Then we got "Day of the Doctor," and that was just so ridiculously good, it was staring at "wonderful" in its rearview mirror. So there I was, sitting down for "Time of the Doctor," Matt Smith's regeneration story, which surely would be epic. Right?
Completely agreed!

Drawing out the whole "on his last life" thing could have been really interesting, yes. Ohh, AU fanfic sounds great! I keep thinking "did poor Eleven know this whole time he was on his last life without telling anyone? (Except River, probably)", so seeing it realised with Twelve would've been cool.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I know, I keep wondering if Eleven knew the whole time, too. That would be interesting fic as well. But since we didn't get to see it with Eleven, I really wish we could've seen it with Twelve. Sigh.