Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor (7x13)

So, before I start this review I feel I need to make a blanket statement about my feelings on Moffat-era Doctor Who. The guy is a fairly brilliant writer, as evidenced by his work in other things, in particular Sherlock. And some of my favorite Doctor Who episodes of all time, such as “Blink,” “The Silence in the Library,” etc. etc. were written by him. So, clearly, he’s a good writer. Great, even.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard about these past few seasons is that Moffat basically fancies himself a god – he seems to have no problem with being the one to encompass the entire history of the Doctor in his story – he’s in charge of the 50^th, and you just know it’s going to be huge… with 50 years of history, a lot of people feel that Moffat is disrespecting a lot of the writers or show-runners that have come before him by incorporating their work into his own, changing timelines, and so on.

Well.. yeah. I do think that Moffat is a bit full of himself. I would have been seriously annoyed if the Doctor’s name had been revealed in this finale, but luckily it didn’t go that route. That being said, I think Moffat makes some pretty extreme choices trying to pull this show into the public view and into something that will seriously impress the world for years to come. Sometimes, these risks fall flat, and other times they’re great.

And an example of something that’s great? Clara. I know I just complained about Moffat making everything more “epic” than it needs to be, and one could argue that that’s exactly what’s happened with Clara. But rather than being some special super-girl with a mysterious back story and all sorts of connections to the Doctor (like River) Clara is really just a normal girl who sacrifices herself to help the Doctor. And that, more than anything else Moffat has done in series 5-7, feels true to the legacy of the Companion. Amy and Rory, while fun, were too special and different and it was all about how intense and strong the Doctor’s connection with Amy was. With Clara, there was a lot of worry (from me and other people, too) that the same thing was going on. That Clara was just another all too important and special person that was going to change the world forever.

And she sort of is. But it’s just because she’s a normal, beautiful, brave girl. And isn’t that sort of like Rose? Martha? Donna? Perfectly normal people who save the day because of their kindness and their inherent human-ness. I never got that feeling from Amy and Rory, or from River, and it was nice to see it back again here.

But now that I’ve started my review with a long ramble about Moffat and Clara, let’s look at the episode a bit more closely.

We start off with a speech from Clara, as she encounters several versions of the Doctor throughout time. We learn that she’s running and always trying to find and save the Doctor. I will admit that it was freakin’ cool to see Clara on screen at the same time as older versions of the Doctor. I’m just thinking about the time and effort it must have taken to go through all that archived footage and piece that together. It wasn’t revolutionary as far as technology goes, but it was certainly neat to see.

But then we go back a bit, to see how Clara got to this strange point. Madame Vastra meets with a prisoner who begs for his freedom in exchange for a piece of information about the Doctor. Vastra, Jenny, Strax, River, and Clara all meet up via some sort of hypnotic conference in order to discuss what has happened.

Herein lays a few of my initial annoyances: that prisoner. He wasn’t very well established and I didn’t understand how he knew so much about the Doctor. I wanted answers. Also, why wouldn’t the Doctor be included in this conference himself? Shouldn’t he have had the chance to contribute to that conversation? And, most importantly, River. From what point in her timeline was she there? She obviously wasn’t already dead, because all parties involved could see and interact with her. So… when was River in her own story? Again, answers would have been lovely. But I guess not.

But of course there were also great things about this conference scene. For example, the Whispermen. They were pretty cool. They reminded me a lot of the Silence, and I do hope that more is made of them in the future. I have faith that they must come back into the story later, even if only as minions of the Great Intelligence. No matter what, I want more. Then there was Clara and River’s initial meeting, which was hilarious: Clara admitted that she had never pictured River as a woman. The look on Alex Kingston’s face is priceless – you just know that she’s going to give the Doctor a strict talking-to next time they meet. It was also great to see how Jenny, Vastra, and Strax all awkwardly tried to navigate the introductions between these two women.

I also found it so freaky and powerful when Jenny started apologizing and crying “Sorry, so sorry… I think I’ve been murdered!” That was such a powerful moment and I was really upset over thinking that Jenny was dead. I’m glad she was resurrected for selfish reasons, but I actually think it might have been a bit more powerful if she had just stayed dead. I should never be wishing for more death and depression from Moffat, but what can I say? I almost didn’t see the point of killing Jenny at all if she was just going to come right back to life.

So, these Whispermen take Jenny, Strax, and Vastra to Trenzalore, while Clara wakes up to find the Doctor at her house. She gives him the news about Trenzalore, which freaks him out considerably, since he knows that “it is discovered” refers not to his secret but to his grave. But, even though all the rules of time travel are against it, he has to go to Trenzalore to rescue his friends. Clara of course volunteers to come with, and off they go.

They show up, and we see the Doctor’s tomb – a giant, dead TARDIS. I’ll give them props for a cool set design, because I was pretty awed by it. Then we get River, who turns up to talk to Clara, leading them through the secret entrance to the tomb through a grave with River’s name on it.

And then we have the Whispermen, headed by the Great Intelligence himself, threatening to kill all of the Doctor's friends if he doesn't say his true name and open up the giant TARDIS. The Doctor, panicking, doesn't say it, but River who is standing nearby (invisible) does, and the doors open.

I'd like to point out that Matt Smith is awesome. Later, we of course discover that he's been seeing River this whole time, which means that this entire time that he's freaking out, he's just waiting for her to get desperate enough to say it for him. On top of that you can actually see him glance very briefly in her direction once the doors are open. Not enough that you'd notice it the first time around, but it's definitely there.

So... inside the TARDIS is this beautiful light column thing, and basically it represents the Doctor's entire life experience. There are some fun sound clips of past doctors whirling around in there, and the Great Intelligence finally reveals his plan - he's going into the Doctor's timestream to rewrite his history, effectively killing him/ruining his past by breaking up into it and spreading out throughout time.

As the Great Intelligence does just that, history does begin to change. Strax reverts back into a war machine, Jenny disappears, and the Doctor starts writhing around in pain (again, Matt Smith. I don't know how you're doing this, but you are amazing). Clara realizes that she has to jump in and find a way to save the Doctor. She'll die, but echoes of herself will spread out along time and help the Doctor again and again. Despite the Doctor's protests, she jumps.

Now, going back to my earlier discussion of why this is awesome: Clara was scared. Terrified. But she knew, based on remembering some of the events from "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS," that the Doctor had met her before. She knew what had to be done, and she was brave enough to do it. It reminds me of, say, Martha's actions when the Master took over the world, or Donna's bravery at the end of Series Four. I loved that Clara did this, and again it was so cool to see her falling through the Doctor's life and seeing all these different versions of Clara interacting with different regenerations of the Doctor.

Before I discuss the controversial ending to this episode, there are a few other things to touch on.

Jenny, Strax, Vastra. Their presence here felt virtually pointless. I like seeing them, and I think Jenny in particular is a lovely character, but they didn't contribute much to the plot other than just being bait to bring the Doctor there. Couldn't it have just been Clara as bait? Or, hell, just some random civilians? Once the Doctor actually arrived on Trenzalore, these characters felt pretty underused.

The Doctor and Clara's relationship. The humor between them was back at full force again, and it's always fun to see. I especially liked when the Doctor was tricked into playing Blind Man's Bluff by Artie and Angie, and they went to the movies. I loved Clara's shocked reaction to finding out that River was the Doctor's wife. But more than that, we saw the obvious love and loyalty between them - not just through Clara's sacrifice at the end, but through the Doctor's panic and worry about her when she was threatened by the Whispermen, by her concern for him as he cried... it is so touching to see how close these two have become.

And... River. Okay, so I'm a tad bit confused. Was that the last time we'll ever see her? It was certainly the very latest point in River's timeline that we've yet seen, because it happens after the events in the "Silence in the Library" episode. But if that was the last time we see her, I'm sort of disappointed. I don't really think River is all that interesting of a character, so it's not like I want a lot more of her. But we never saw the Doctor give her his sonic screwdriver, and we never see the moment when she learns his name... so, what's up with that?

Regardless of my confusion, I will say that they're last moment together was absolutely adorable. I think that's the sweetest kiss between the Doctor and anyone ever. So pure, so full of love, so... strange, given that Jenny, Vastra, and Strax just saw him make out with nothing. But it was a beautiful moment and I did get a little teary-eyed. If we don't see more of River in the future, I won't be too upset, but I will be a bit confused.

And now the ending. So, the Doctor and Clara tearfully embrace after the Doctor enters his own time stream (Moffat does not care if this makes no sense to you). They are together, and we know that they will find a way to get out of this. And then a mysterious figure appears.

We learn that this is the Doctor's secret. The name "the Doctor" is like a promise and "he's the one who broke the promise." And so he turns around.

And it's John Hurt.

And I already knew he was going to be in the 50th Anniversary, and I already had heard rumors that he was going to play the Doctor, and I was already pissed about it. I've heard people saying that this means that 9 is now 10, 10 is now 11, and 11 is now 12, but I actually don't think that's what Moffat's getting at. John Hurt isn't "the Doctor" the same way that the other eleven actors have been. He's some sort of forgotten piece - a regeneration gone rogue. He's a part of the Doctor without being the Doctor. People have also theorized that he's playing the Doctor that ended the Time War, but I disagree with that theory. The Doctor often talks about what happened in the Time War and how he was involved (also - this is Eight's story, they can't take it from him). John Hurt, whatever/whoever he really is, is the Doctor's secret. Whatever's up with this guy I'm sure it's not something we'll be able to guess before we see the 50th Anniversary.

I'm reserving judgment about John Hurt. Because he's a freakin' brilliant human being and I'm sure he'd make a brilliant Time Lord. I'm worried that Moffat is going a little crazy here, but I don't want to judge him on this until I've seen the episode come November.

On the very positive side, however, I think that the whole idea of the Doctor's time-stream is an excellent setup for the 50th, and gives us a good excuse for why 10 and Rose would be there. We'll see what Moffat throws our way!

In short, this episode was intense. It did have some slip-ups here and there, but not enough to make it bad. I'm having a really hard time assigning it marks out of ten, because it feels like I can't judge the buildup without having seen the fallout. But, I guess at the end of the day, I thoroughly enjoyed myself while watching this.

8/10