‘The Time of The Doctor’ marks the end of Matt Smiths three year journey in the Tardis and the beginning of the Peter Capaldi era. The episode also marks the culmination of three years of interconnected plot threads that have been laid down by series show runner Steven Moffat since the very first time we heard the words ‘silence will fall’ in Smiths first episode.
‘The Time of The Doctor’ follows the Doctors last adventure as he spends hundreds of years protecting the planet of Trenzalore from massive assault from dozens of his enemies, including Sontarans, Weeping Angels, Cybermen and of course Daleks.
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| Old enemies and allies gather over Trenzalore. |
Having discovered a mysterious signal being sent out across the whole of the universe originating at Trenzalore the Doctor finds at its point of origin a crack in the universe, as seen during series five. It turns out that the signal is in fact a message being sent through the crack by the Time Lords after the events of ‘Day of The Doctor’ and the removal of Galifrey from the universe.
The signal is a question, the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight. ‘Doctor Who?’ Only the Doctor himself can answer that question, and when he does the Time Lords will return. Whilst the Doctor wants nothing more than to see the return of his people and his home, to no longer be the last of his race, unfortunately their return would mean the start of a second Time War.
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| The Doctors life begins to run out. |
It is during this siege of Trenzalore that Clara learns a terrifying truth about the Doctor, that he can no longer regenerate and that the eleventh version is in fact the last. Sticking to the twelve regenerations rule established decades ago Moffat faces probably one of the most difficult jobs that a writer can probably face on Doctor Who. How do you give the Doctor more regenerations.
Whilst it didn’t happen the way I thought it might, I was expecting that the Doctor received more regenerations already in ‘Lets Kill Hitler’ when River Song used the remainder of her regenerations to save the Doctors life, it still felt like a natural part of the mythology for the Time Lords to gift the Doctor with a new regeneration cycle. They have done it before with the Master after all.
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| The eleventh Doctor's era comes to a close. |
The episode isn’t one of the most exciting or spectacular, yet it’s full of tender character moments, fantastic comedy and enough shocks that mean you’ll never know what to expect next. With the further promise of the return of the Time Lords as the focus of the show going forward, great performances from both Smith and Coleman, the surprise return of Karen Gillan and some classic monsters seen in some interesting new ways (wooden Cybermen!) ‘The Time of The Doctor’ proved to be one of the more interesting and daring Christmas episodes in years.
A good episode that doesn’t quite wrap up everything in the Moffat/Smith era as completely as would be desired but nonetheless a competent and entertaining story. 7/10
Amy.
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