Over the last month and a half, Doctor Who had on two big episodes. One was the 50th anniversary special titled "The Day of the Doctor" and the other was both the 2013 Christmas Special and Matt Smith's final installment. It was titled "The Time of the Doctor".
The Day of the Doctor was a "multi-Doctor" episode like the series has done on occasion. In this case the Doctors were Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt. There was both an A and a B story. The B story was an invasion of Earth that the Doctors dealt with. The A story, however, was MUCH bigger in import to the show. It directly went in detail into the events surrounding the end of the Time War and was part of a pretty big piece of setup that showrunner Steven Moffat has performed over the last year to get the stage set for new Doctor Peter Capaldi.
The acting in Day of the Doctor was excellent, especially John Hurt as the War Doctor. His wry humor mixed with a sort of solemn and tragic persona was perfect. Also surprisingly good was Billie Piper who - contrary to speculation beforehand - did NOT play Rose Tyler. And topping it off was a complete surprise performance from Tom Baker.
The story was also strong. Indeed, the trio of stories starting at the end of last season and including this one (The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor) are cracking good Science Fiction. To me they need to be looked at as a unit because their plots are all related. And in them Moffat has done some very good things for the show:
1) He has tied the classic series and the new series tightly together and resolved all apparent plot discrepancies between them. Now it is all one series. In a sense he gave Doctor Who its heritage back here.
2) The stage is set to bring back the Time Lords. Indeed the new Doctor also has a new purpose in the background. We had a past discussion on GateFans where the topic of why it was bad when prior showrunner Russel T Davies destroyed the Time Lords came up (because without the Time Lords enforcing the Laws of Time having a TARDIS means character decisions have no real permanence).
3) Almost all the naff stuff Davies did has now been undone. The Doctor is not an EMO "lonely god" anymore who is a terror to the races of the universe.
So, on to Time of the Doctor, which was both the Christmas Special and the Matt Smith regeneration episode. As it turns out all the stuff we were teased about regarding Trenzalore happens here, and also some key plot points going all the way back to original Doctor Who are resolved.
Again the acting here was first rate. Smith went out on a real high note and showed he has excellent range as an actor - his work when in the elderly Doctor makeup was terrific. Really he was so dominant in his episode that everyone else kind of took a back seat. Especially nice was that unlike Tennant's EMO drenched exit in the horrid "The End of Time", Smith's exit was WAY more "Doctor like" and a lot better (and less self indulgent).
Jenna Coleman also did some nice work especially in a nicely low key scene near the end where she persuaded the Time Lords (who were using a crack in Space/Time for communications) to intervene to help the Doctor.
As alluded to earlier, strong story again. It wrapped up all the plot lines from the Matt Smith era and also the whole issue of the regeneration limit was addressed (anyone who remembered the "The Five Doctors" probably had a good idea of how this would go down). Suffice it to say that the Capaldi Doctor is regeneration number one of a full new cycle. Finally, Capaldi's initial scene right at the end was great - him and Jenna Coleman staring at each other was well staged.
So starting next year we get new adventures with a new Doctor - can't wait!
The Day of the Doctor was a "multi-Doctor" episode like the series has done on occasion. In this case the Doctors were Matt Smith, David Tennant and John Hurt. There was both an A and a B story. The B story was an invasion of Earth that the Doctors dealt with. The A story, however, was MUCH bigger in import to the show. It directly went in detail into the events surrounding the end of the Time War and was part of a pretty big piece of setup that showrunner Steven Moffat has performed over the last year to get the stage set for new Doctor Peter Capaldi.
The acting in Day of the Doctor was excellent, especially John Hurt as the War Doctor. His wry humor mixed with a sort of solemn and tragic persona was perfect. Also surprisingly good was Billie Piper who - contrary to speculation beforehand - did NOT play Rose Tyler. And topping it off was a complete surprise performance from Tom Baker.
The story was also strong. Indeed, the trio of stories starting at the end of last season and including this one (The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor) are cracking good Science Fiction. To me they need to be looked at as a unit because their plots are all related. And in them Moffat has done some very good things for the show:
1) He has tied the classic series and the new series tightly together and resolved all apparent plot discrepancies between them. Now it is all one series. In a sense he gave Doctor Who its heritage back here.
2) The stage is set to bring back the Time Lords. Indeed the new Doctor also has a new purpose in the background. We had a past discussion on GateFans where the topic of why it was bad when prior showrunner Russel T Davies destroyed the Time Lords came up (because without the Time Lords enforcing the Laws of Time having a TARDIS means character decisions have no real permanence).
3) Almost all the naff stuff Davies did has now been undone. The Doctor is not an EMO "lonely god" anymore who is a terror to the races of the universe.
So, on to Time of the Doctor, which was both the Christmas Special and the Matt Smith regeneration episode. As it turns out all the stuff we were teased about regarding Trenzalore happens here, and also some key plot points going all the way back to original Doctor Who are resolved.
Again the acting here was first rate. Smith went out on a real high note and showed he has excellent range as an actor - his work when in the elderly Doctor makeup was terrific. Really he was so dominant in his episode that everyone else kind of took a back seat. Especially nice was that unlike Tennant's EMO drenched exit in the horrid "The End of Time", Smith's exit was WAY more "Doctor like" and a lot better (and less self indulgent).
Jenna Coleman also did some nice work especially in a nicely low key scene near the end where she persuaded the Time Lords (who were using a crack in Space/Time for communications) to intervene to help the Doctor.
As alluded to earlier, strong story again. It wrapped up all the plot lines from the Matt Smith era and also the whole issue of the regeneration limit was addressed (anyone who remembered the "The Five Doctors" probably had a good idea of how this would go down). Suffice it to say that the Capaldi Doctor is regeneration number one of a full new cycle. Finally, Capaldi's initial scene right at the end was great - him and Jenna Coleman staring at each other was well staged.
So starting next year we get new adventures with a new Doctor - can't wait!
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