Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
December. 25,2013Orbiting a quiet backwater planet, the massed forces of the universe's deadliest species gather, drawn to a mysterious message that echoes out to the stars. And amongst them, the Doctor. Rescuing Clara from a family Christmas dinner, the Time Lord and his best friend must learn what this enigmatic signal means for his own fate and that of the universe.
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Reviews
Surprisingly incoherent and boring
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Warning do not read unless seen episode.This I thought was a great send off for the Eleventh Doctor, he's my second favorite Doctor if you can believe that which made his departure all the more sad for me.I like the plot line which in a way is sort of like your one or few against the world premise which is cool though in this case it's against the universe, as the Doctor is forced to defend a planet called Christmas which of course becomes Trensalore in the future from forces that want to destroy the portal that contains Galafrey and of course every nasty posse wants to destroy it for no good reason. So if the Doctor leaves the planet undefended for a mere moment then both planets are destroyed. Yeah, it's a pretty tall order for the Doctor let alone anyone.This is a different premise because the Doctor never stayed in one place for a lifetime, let alone the fact he is literally defending two entirely planets throughout that lifetime. One of the moments that was interesting was seeing a wooden Cyberman as a way to shield of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver frequency. But of course they overlooked one crucial detail as that Cyberman can't be wood all over.But then of course things get really emotional as we see Clara come to the Doctor's homestead. I really like how the place has letters and pictures of the Doctor all around, it pretty much represents us the fans and how long our love for him. I'll admit when I saw the Doctor really old, it really made my heart sink because it reminded me of how mortal he truly is.The whole theme of the episode is about facing the end, seeing him old and possibly dying just shows that no one lives forever and how precious time truly is.We then see a moment where it looks really bad for the planet as the Daliek mother ship swoops down along with an armada and are about to annihilate him and everything else. At that point I wasn't really sure what the Doctor or anyone can do. But then of course the planet Galafrey gives the Doctor regenerative energy, pretty much a whole new lease on life. I personally thought it was a spectacular moment as we see the Doctor literally have the power of a God, as he is just blasting away at the Dalieks and the Mothership, this moment also marks the Eleventh Doctor going out in a blaze of glory.Then it of course comes down to the final moment which are the most heartbreaking of all. After the Doctor gives a final speech that was great, we then see someone from his past which is Amy Pond. That moment was really tugged at my heart string as we know Amy has passed on a long time ago, though I wish they also had Rory and River I not sure why they didn't but oh well. But all th same seeing Amy again and what she says to the Doctor showed that the Eleventh Doctor is going to be joining his family which is something he never really had much.And of course we see him take off that bow tie and it drops to the ground. That's when I know the Eleventh Doctor is gone; that just made me break down and cry. Clara says one last thing to him, "Please don't change." that's exactly how I felt about the Eleventh Doctor and every other Doctor before him.Farewell Matt Smith, you really brought out the best as the Doctor which is why you'll be greatly missed, but like the constellations in the sky timeless.Rating: 4 stars
This is Matt Smith's last episode directly as "The Doctor." For that I am glad, he was bad in his first episode and just as bad in this episode.The only good part was the ending with the regeneration.This episode is a jumbled mess.From the Doctor showing up with in clothing only Clara can see at her families Christmas dinner so they see him naked, she pushes him off to the kitchen explaining The Doctor is Swedish.When Clara finds out the turkey isn't done she asks The Doctor to use his sonic screwdriver but says it wasn't made for that. However The Doctor say someone with a time machine could........DUH........ Yet another example of bad acting and bad script writing.So the adventure begins after that is figured out the TARDIS console can also be an oven.The we go to a planet supposedly Gallifrey and a ship that is a church where you also have to be naked but again it is implied nudity and again we are really left guessing on many things.Only watch the last 7 minutes to see the lame regeneration.
Don't get me wrong. I loved Doctor Who, however, there are some reoccurring elements that seem to be popping up much more frequently than they need to be. This episode contains virtually every Doctor Who cliché in it which might be why people like it, but to me it makes it incredibly weak.The episode follows the Doctor for almost the entire time and he stands as the main character in this episode. In the episode the Doctor faces his "biggest threat" yet where he is stuck on the planet where he is destined to die on. On this planet he is forced to spend hundreds of years fighting off Cyber-men, Daleks, and Weeping Angels. He does all of this to save the people of a small town called "Christmas"... get it? It's ironic because Christmas is supposed to be a happy thing yet it is chaotic and has war on it.Now, while the premise of this episode may sound good, the execution is less than that. It has way too many Doctor Who clichés in it so it feels like a retread of old territory.The issues: 1. The "Doctor does something embarrassing that looks like he is in a sexual relationship with his companion": This is done in this episode... like in so many other episodes. It may have been funny once, but now it just seems like fan service.2. The "Doctor makes a promise, and it seems like he breaks it, but quickly fulfills it later because the Doctor "never fails anyone in danger...": This is done at least twice in this episode.3. The "Promise for a super huge battle that will be epic that turns out to be a battle between only a handful of enemies": This promise has been done so many times in Doctor Who, but rarely has it ever been fulfilled. This episode really takes the cake for big let downs. This episode is supposed to show a giant battle that consumes thousands/millions of lives (we see the tomb stones of this battle in previous episodes), however the scope of this battle is literally only a handful of people. Literally, it takes place in a tiny 1800s styled town, and the Doctor has "supposedly" been fighting off Daleks, Weeping Angels, and Cyber-men for HUNDREDS of years in this tiny town...This is a slap in the face to the audience, because we also get to see some of the battles. In ALL of the scenarios, we see the Doctor "cleverly" destroying all challengers... such as a lone wooden cyber-man... or a lone Dalek... or a lone Weeping Angel... or a pair of Sontarans... see the problem here? Literally, ALL of the Doctor's enemies apparently attack him ONE AT A TIME (due to the montage, it appears they attack him once a week or once). Did the show forget that there is a DALEK SPACESHIP THE SIZE OF A CITY FLOATING IN SPACE??? Or a Cyber-man FLEET SITTING IN THE ATMOSPHERE? Why send one wooden cyber-man? Why not send 2,000? The weeping angels don't join anyone's allegiance, so why was there only ONE weeping angel infilitrating the town instead of... I don't know, the 10-20 we saw earlier in the episode? To make things WORSE, we do get to see the final epic battle when the Dalek ship sends down its troops, and it literally only sends down maybe 10... the episode tries really hard to pretend that this is a "giant battle" but I think it forgets that it was established that THOUSANDS of people would die in this battle yet we can clearly see the town (along with other people) holds a maximum capacity of around 200 or so... REALLY?!?!?!?Doctor Who does this a lot. There will always be an episode floating around that will say "This is the Doctor's greatest blunder" or "This is the Doctor's Greatest Battle" or "This is the day The Doctor really screws it up" yet in none of them do we ever get the sense that it was really big in scale or in failure. This is a TV series that spans all of SPACE AND TIME so for something to be some important that people know about it hundreds of years in the past and future then it better be big enough to effect more than a tiny town.4. The "Deus Ex Machina super ability that comes out of nowhere to wipe out a large amount of enemies... which happens in almost every finale": Once again *spoilers* the Doctor is magically granted the ability to be able to regenerate again (even though this was supposed to be his last regeneration) and yet all of the Time Lords stuck in the other dimension somehow combine all of their regeneration abilities, shift it through the time rift which magically connects with the Doctor, which gives the Doctor all of the power of the Time Lord's regeneration energy (which is quite explosive) which the Doctor uses to--you guessed it--wipe out all of the Dalek ships and Cyber-men with a giant nuclear spirit-bomb of energy... yeah... haven't heard this one before...All in all, the premise of the Doctor going through a big failure or having to spend hundreds of years stuck in one location fighting is a great concept. However, the episode messes it up in almost every way. The scope of the enemies is fine but the scope of the battle/s is pathetically small (why couldn't we see a battle on the level of those of when Gallifrey was be attacked just an episode ago?). The episode just feels so... been there done that... it feels like the creators of the show were almost bored with the premise and were kind of like "screw it". It's a real shame that Matt Smith couldn't have left on a higher note or with a better episode, oh well.
It was rubbish writing. Moffat broke the cardinal rule of writing with too much narrating. It wouldn't be Moffat without a big red button in the form of a big, shiny crack in the sky. Clara *remembers* seeing the Silents next time she sees them, which isn't how it works. Stolen plot line ("Handles" the Cyberman head...an asinine idea...is a direct lift of Tom Hanks and his volleyball "companion", Wilson in "Castaway"). The "Old man" makeup on Smith was awful. And Moffat had to come up with an even bigger regeneration than ever before. Took out a few thousand daleks at this go. ..And started the Time War, the whole reason he aged to prevent, yet no explanation or worries, just turns young again and piddles about the TARDIS. And now we have Tash (possibly meant to be River) the half Dalek mucking about somewhere in the TARDIS. He gave Smith as maudlin a farewell as Tennant had. (Possibly Moffat's farewell speech as show runner). Rubbish writing. And yet he had me crying several times. And waiting until August for the the next Doctor's real debut. The thing is, even Moffat's rubbish is gold for the rest of us. It's not easy to have us (as most of us, male and female, did) both laugh and weep...repeatedly...in under an hour. Being a Whovian is like having a brilliant but lazy child. It's all the more frustrating because you know what *might* have been. It seems inconceivable that the gem of "The Night of the Doctor" and this rubbish came from a mind between the same set of ears.MOFFFAATT!!!!