DOCTOR WOT?!?!?!?!!?

I've given myself a few days to decompress from this season (series) ending episode and took the time to read a few other reviews of “The Name of the Doctor” and I am starting to wonder if I watched the same show.

I am not sure whether it was the heightened anticipation for this episode or that going into it that it would be the last for 6 long months (knowing that filming on it is already done doesn't help any) or the story itself, or that it's only Part 1 and that the story isn't finished yet, but I find myself really disappointed by this episode.

In a change of pace, I am going to start out with what I didn't like . . . . . . .

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

I think that Stephen Moffat tries to get too cute with "concepts" too often.  I know that this is the 50th anniversary year of Doctor Who and that he's maybe trying to top the past, but maybe he needs to dial it back a bit.

Jenny, a Victorian Lady's Maid knows what a “desktop” is???   Maybe she picked up the concept during other “Conference Calls” to which we, obviously, have not been privy.  It would have been nice if we had known about the concept of the “Conference Calls” previously, even with a passing comment but this is a new one Moffatt pulled out on us.

Never has a regenerated Doctor appeared in the last seconds of an episode and they break the 4^th wall, so to speak and put “Introducing so and so as The Doctor”, it's always in the closing credits, but no, Moffat and Company felt it necessary to throw a huge “Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor” at the very end.

On top of that, Hurt's reveal followed this bit of dialogue:

Hurt: What I did, I did without choice.

Smith: I know
Hurt: in the name of peace and sanity.
Smith: But not in the name of The Doctor

After just saying that he acted not in the name of The Doctor, the credits come up calling Hurt The Doctor. To kind of quote River, what in the name of sanity is that?

River, after The Doctor and Clara land Trenzalor, reconnects with Clara, having somehow kept the “Conference Call” open.

We had yet another “The stars are going out moment” after The Great Intelligence went into The Doctor's time line. I was waiting for another “Amy pulls an entire universe out of her arse” moment.  Evidently it was Clara going  into The Doctor's timeline, since The Victorian Gang were all back.  And Clara's simply going in killed off the Great Intelligence??  I mean I never thought he lived up to his name, but I also didn't think he was that much of a woosie.

That Moffat finally decided to say goodbye to the character of River (I'll miss her) in her Library persona, which, quite frankly, made no sense to me. It was a nice touch in this particular episode, but we all knew that River “died” on the Library planet and that The Doctor had more or less saved a copy of her there. I guess it worked in getting her to Trenzalor. Which of course brings up the following:

All of a sudden he can see her, The Doctor doesn't see her in the grave yard, doesn't see her in the catacombs, but “he always sees her.”?????? Yes, it was a nice, romantic send off, even I squeed a bit over that kiss, but I think it would have been cooler had she turned up in an "alive" persona as the wife of some alien tribal chief dragged in to help her husband one last time, with her kissing him off at the end.  And I guess we'll never actually see where she forced him to tell her his name.  I mean she could come back, but this seemed like kind of a final send off to the character.  Whosoever Moffatt createth, so Moffat can killeth off.

And when did she force his name out of him?!?!?!?!

Um . . . . wasn't it established in "The Doctor's Wife" that the TARDIS had stolen The Doctor??  Moffat pretty much killed that by having Clara direct The Doctor to another TARDIS, unless of course The TARDIS put it in Clara's head to redirect The Doctor to that fabled Type 40.

WHAT I LIKED

Yes, I liked a few things and here they are:

I liked the sequence where The Doctor had decided to rescue the Victorian Gang and The TARDIS was having none of it.  Then the release of the anti-grav - nice effects, the cooling down of the TARDIS exterior and the broken glass were nice touches.

The opening, showing Clara at various times in The Doctor's life, that was cute, though at a couple of points it didn't make much sense (Troughton in his fur coat running on what looked like a beach in the Los Angeles area while no one reacts to him), at least to me, but it was cool.

Blind Man's Bluff - that was a little silly, but cool.  1000 years old and The Doctor is still fooled by a couple of kids.

Scottish Straax!  If there's one group in the UK that will one day become the Sontarans it's probably the Scots!

Souffle Girl explained!  I knew it had to do something with the "Default Clara" so to speak, but obviously we'd never been told why she was so hot for them.  In hindsight, her making disastrous soufflés in the Dalek Asylum and then recording messages for her (dead) mother makes that opening to season 7 all that more poignant.

This ends Season 7 - so far - I will have 2 more postings coming up - I am spacing them out a bit because of the 6 month lay-off between now and the 23rd of November.  They will cover speculations on what Doctor John Hurt is actually playing - I have my thoughts on this and some of those thoughts are out there - and an overall review of Season 7.
No Pictures this time, I need to take some time to actually learn to set things up in BlogSpot while on Windows - Season 8 should be better in that regard :-)

Jayne.