Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor
First off, I know this one has divided the fans down the middle; for the record, I liked it.
Parts of the plot were confusing but I've just about got to grips with it, so:
[Major spoilers]
The Doctor (pretending he was Clara's boyfriend) showed up NAKED at the Christmas dinner (with Madge from Benidorm, who is also Clara's gran!), wearing hologram clothes only Clara could see. I'm not sure where he got the Cyberman head from (the last Neil Gaiman episode maybe? Moffat often throws in random stuff that isn't exactly explained).
The idea of a church only allowing holographic clothes was a bit weird, but it seemed to be so that they could see through the hologram clothes and check what the Doctor was trying to smuggle through to the surface, but he was able to hide the TARDIS key under his wig. I'm assuming that he shaved his hair off for this purpose and got a wig rather than having been bald all along, which would make no sense (Tennant would have had to regenerate into a bald Matt Smith). And the bald doctor looked like Richard O'Brien - or maybe Duncan Goodhew.
It seemed that the signal the Time Lords were sending through the crack in time were summoning everyone to the siege of Trenzalor, and the village of Christmas was ON Trenzalor. Because the Doctor thought he had no regenerations left - because he used up his last regeneration energy on River Song, though not sure if that incident in "The Angels take Manhattan" even counted. I can speculate on two things, as River said "That was a foolish waste of regeneration energy":
*Maybe River did not know how many incarnations the Doctor had.
*Maybe becoming Tennant a second time didn't use so much energy, so the Doctor had a little left, but not enough for a full regeneration?
Anyhow, the Doctor decided to stay and protect the town, as he believed he was destined to die there (he made a comment about having to settle down sooner or later). He sent Clara back without saying goodbye, like he's done to Rose TWICE; the moment when he pushed her into the parallel universe, looking very unemotional as I recall it, is an image I can't get out of my head. Also, don't forget the end of "The God Complex" when he sent Amy and Rory home.
The Doctor lying to Clara was a bit of a shock; it shows though that he can lie (he was also off the planet when he did it, so Moffat wasn't making a continuity error).
The whole explanation of how he could regenerate again, that Clara reasoned with the time lords and they gave him more regeneration energy (we don't know how much) made sense. I liked a few other touches, such as the "boy who waited" (evidently) and the brief mention of The Master.
The presence of the Silence was a bit bizarre, and the whole "Confess" was a bit baffling, so I suspect that is something that they will go into in more detail around the end of the first series of Peter Capaldi episodes.
The whole idea of the Doctor growing old was like the vision he had in "The Family of Blood"!
The regeneration at the end was nice, if a bit weird due to Moffat's artistic license, so half way through the regeneration he stopped looking old, but still had to change and Moffat's idea of regenerations was different to Russell T. Davies', so instead of light just pouring out of him and a slow morph he just suddenly changed. The appearance of Amy (in the Doctor's mind) was nice; I'm guessing Arthur Darvill wasn't available, but I doubt Rory meant that much to the Doctor. (Also, they should somehow show the versions of Amy and Rory who appeared in the Hungry Earth again!)
It was mentioned to me that in Matt Smith's Sarah Jane Adventures episode he said he'd regenerated hundreds of times; this could be:
*Russell T Davies ignoring the mythology, like the silly idea of Tennant regenerating into Tennant.
*The Doctor lying
*Evidence that he'll regenerate into Matt Smith again for some reason.
The sound wasn't great in Capaldi's first scene, but I'm looking forward to watching him as The Doctor.
Parts of the plot were confusing but I've just about got to grips with it, so:
[Major spoilers]
The Doctor (pretending he was Clara's boyfriend) showed up NAKED at the Christmas dinner (with Madge from Benidorm, who is also Clara's gran!), wearing hologram clothes only Clara could see. I'm not sure where he got the Cyberman head from (the last Neil Gaiman episode maybe? Moffat often throws in random stuff that isn't exactly explained).
The idea of a church only allowing holographic clothes was a bit weird, but it seemed to be so that they could see through the hologram clothes and check what the Doctor was trying to smuggle through to the surface, but he was able to hide the TARDIS key under his wig. I'm assuming that he shaved his hair off for this purpose and got a wig rather than having been bald all along, which would make no sense (Tennant would have had to regenerate into a bald Matt Smith). And the bald doctor looked like Richard O'Brien - or maybe Duncan Goodhew.
It seemed that the signal the Time Lords were sending through the crack in time were summoning everyone to the siege of Trenzalor, and the village of Christmas was ON Trenzalor. Because the Doctor thought he had no regenerations left - because he used up his last regeneration energy on River Song, though not sure if that incident in "The Angels take Manhattan" even counted. I can speculate on two things, as River said "That was a foolish waste of regeneration energy":
*Maybe River did not know how many incarnations the Doctor had.
*Maybe becoming Tennant a second time didn't use so much energy, so the Doctor had a little left, but not enough for a full regeneration?
Anyhow, the Doctor decided to stay and protect the town, as he believed he was destined to die there (he made a comment about having to settle down sooner or later). He sent Clara back without saying goodbye, like he's done to Rose TWICE; the moment when he pushed her into the parallel universe, looking very unemotional as I recall it, is an image I can't get out of my head. Also, don't forget the end of "The God Complex" when he sent Amy and Rory home.
The Doctor lying to Clara was a bit of a shock; it shows though that he can lie (he was also off the planet when he did it, so Moffat wasn't making a continuity error).
The whole explanation of how he could regenerate again, that Clara reasoned with the time lords and they gave him more regeneration energy (we don't know how much) made sense. I liked a few other touches, such as the "boy who waited" (evidently) and the brief mention of The Master.
The presence of the Silence was a bit bizarre, and the whole "Confess" was a bit baffling, so I suspect that is something that they will go into in more detail around the end of the first series of Peter Capaldi episodes.
The whole idea of the Doctor growing old was like the vision he had in "The Family of Blood"!
The regeneration at the end was nice, if a bit weird due to Moffat's artistic license, so half way through the regeneration he stopped looking old, but still had to change and Moffat's idea of regenerations was different to Russell T. Davies', so instead of light just pouring out of him and a slow morph he just suddenly changed. The appearance of Amy (in the Doctor's mind) was nice; I'm guessing Arthur Darvill wasn't available, but I doubt Rory meant that much to the Doctor. (Also, they should somehow show the versions of Amy and Rory who appeared in the Hungry Earth again!)
It was mentioned to me that in Matt Smith's Sarah Jane Adventures episode he said he'd regenerated hundreds of times; this could be:
*Russell T Davies ignoring the mythology, like the silly idea of Tennant regenerating into Tennant.
*The Doctor lying
*Evidence that he'll regenerate into Matt Smith again for some reason.
The sound wasn't great in Capaldi's first scene, but I'm looking forward to watching him as The Doctor.