Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Doctor Who: 2013 Christmas Special – “The Time of the Doctor” (2013)

 
O Doctor!  My Doctor!  It’s goodbye to Matt Smith and hello to Doctor PC.  I really don’t know how I can explain the premise.  It’s just… first questions and monsters and Trenzalore, oh my!  If you took snippets from every Eleven episode and stuck them in a blender, this is what you get.
 
I’ll do what I can to keep my remarks spoiler-free.  Grumbles first, so we can move on to the sweeter stuff.  I have no great love for flippant flirtyness/kissyness from the Doctor, and those elements are positive out of control for chunks of the episode.  Too many bad guys in my opinion, especially since not much new is done with any of them.  I’m still not quite sure what I think of the plot – parts of it knit together well, but it seems there’s a lot of sloppiness.
 
And now, for the good.  Eleven’s exit (yes, he’s Eleven to me, whatever his technical number may be) is absolutely lovely.  For new Who regenerations, I think Nine’s remains my favorite – this one was drawn out maybe a bit too long – but it’s miles better than Ten’s.  It reminded me in a way of “The Big Bang,” where Eleven believes he’s going to die and approaches it with grace.  Really nice.  Beyond that, there’s a truth field that’s good for some fun (although the Doctor seems remarkably adept at managing to lie anyway,) and Clara has some good moments.
 
So where do I stand on it?  Emotionally strong, narratively shaky.  Some great heartfelt stuff, and Eleven’s final moments are a beautiful tribute to a wonderful Doctor, but I feel like Matt Smith deserved a tighter, more cohesive swan song that doesn’t bend the rules to get where it needs to.
 
And of course… new Doctor!  The post-regeneration scene feels very short, but maybe it’s just because he doesn’t say as much as Ten or Eleven do after regenerating (Eleven in particular was all over the place.)  So it’s hard to get much of a feel for him.  He has a Tennish intensity in his eyes, and he has one of the most original new-body complaints I’ve ever heard.  It seems there might be some big-time regeneration crisis going on, so we may have to contend with that when series 8 begins.
 
Accent Watch
 
The Scottish is pretty light, I think.  Maybe an even softer version of his own accent.
 
Recommend?
 
In General – If you’re a Whovian, obviously.  If you’re not, this would make a terrible virgin episode, since it incorporates basically every Eleventh Doctor plot ever.  Start with “The Eleventh Hour” and work your way up.
 
PC-wise – Less than a minute at the end of an hour-long episode may be a hard sell, but it’s the beginning of amazing things to come.  I recommend not missing a moment of PC’s Doctor.
 
Warnings
 
Sci-fi violence, general scariness, and implied nudity (don’t ask – seriously.)

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