As I sit in my hotel room in Atlantic City, I listen to Chamelion Circut's "Regenerate Me" and think about this Saturday's episode.
Usually, I churn out the post to go with the new episode, but this week, like last week ("Nightmare in Silver") I needed a few days to process what in the name of the holy TARDIS of Gallifrey just happened.
Before I get into the meat of this post, I have a few bones to pick, in the form of a direct address to showrunner Steven Moffat.
- Was that "silence falling?" WTF, Steve, the Silence wasn't even there >.< Not to mention that there was NO mention of the Silence in, like, all of 7.2.
- Okay. I have to say that overall liked the episode. And I'm completely OK with you having an effect on the story as you are kind of in charge, and I do not think you're totally messing up the show. But, you can't go back and change the Doctor's time stream! You practically negated 50 years of storyline. Albeit, you did send Clara back to remedy it so it wasn't completely thrown into a singularity, but still. Kind of feel like you disrespected the past 50 years of DW.
Alright, so when Seth writes his post, he's going to get really nit-picky (ex, why did Bessie have side view mirrors?), so I'll end my stickler rant there. Congrats if you're still reading this :)
The opening was near amazing, although I feel a little wary of Clara. Like, there is something about her I just do not trust. I don’t know what it is. I really want to think that she is good and all that, but there is something that throws me off. Anyone else feel the same way? Please comment.
As always, it was nice to see Vastra, Jenny, and Strax. They really should have their own show, but I can’t help thinking how uncomfortable the Silurian and Sontaran make up must be.
I was struck when they said that time travel is possible in dreams—on more than one occasion, I’ve dreamt I was traveling with the Doctor, so like am I his companion? #MySecretLife
I must say that I literally LOL’d at the Doctor when he said “the little…daleks.” It was just something in the way he pronounced the word “dalek”.
The Whisper Men are probably the scariest thing I have seen in all of Doctor Who. Sure, that thing from The Power of Kroll was pretty freaky, too, but I think the Whispermen take the cake. I think there was something said by Moffat about the lack of eyes on the Whispermen having to do with the fact that the episode looks to the past a lot, which was true. I felt a sense of being connected with a long history of the Doctor, kind of like the feeling I get when I watch the Olympics.
Some people are saying that this episode, like the other Moffat season finales, was very rushed. But to them I say “well, no, because it is kind of a two-parter…with about a six-month gap! That’s not rushed at all!” But I do understand where they are coming from. There was a lot more that could have been explored.
Trenzalore was not at all how I imagined. I was picturing a field, kind of like the one in the Windows XP desktop, but at night. I’m also a bit confused why the Silence wasn’t there as well. Because the whole prophecy thing was that “Silence will Fall on the Fields of Trenzalore at the Fall of the Eleventh, when no creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never be answered—Doctor Who?” (Dorium Muldovar) The obvious answer is that we will return to Trenzalore and that will be when the Silence falls, else I can’t think how to get the TARDIS there again to make it possible to have the Doctor’s time stream there.
Who else squee’d at the mention of the Valeyard? I did. Just to clarify, the Valeyard is not a regeneration of the Doctor. The Valeyard is an embodiment of all the negative traits that the Doctor had, which the Time Lords created to testify against him in Trial of a Time Lord, a fourteen-part serial (well, technically four serials with a framing device, but still--we complain about two-part episodes!) with the Sixth Doctor. So it is somewhat possible that the John Hurt “Doctor” is the Valeyard, although something in me doubts it. What we all assume is that the John Hurt “Doctor” is the one that burned Gallifrey, but it seems to me that that is just too simple.
People have been like “well, at least we know what Clara is!” but I’m not so sure that we do. I think that there is still something more to it, like a connection to Rose. Notice how she is constantly surrounded by roses? That can’t be a coincidence to me…
Overall, “The Name of the Doctor” was a very good episode, especially in comparison to the rest of 7.2. Acting wise, Matt Smith shined once again, and that is a huge compliment coming from me as Matt does not have a lot of formal training. Jenna-Louise Coleman also complimented Alex Kingston very well. They worked tag-team in conjunction quite nicely, so kudos to them. I cannot wait for 23 November!
