New Who Christmas 2013 special: The Time of the Doctor

[strange_complex]

OK, yes, internet. I think we are all agreed that that wasn't the best episode of Doctor Who ever. But that's OK. Not every episode in the world's longest-running SF show can be brilliant

Comments

[parrot_knight]

I enjoyed it, but agree with your points. A few more minutes, just to develop Christmas and its people a bit more, would have been appreciated; though the idea of the Doctor living and dying to save generations of people when the answer to the question, which would have sealed the crack, was hidden in his own manner of living. The new cycle of regenerations was a bit glib - I wondered whether the Doctor had engineered the explosion of the TARDIS himself, or perhaps Tasha Lem would, and siphon off the energy from the Eye of Harmony or something to give him a new regeneration cycle, leaving an injured TARDIS and story possibilities...

[swisstone]

"Moffat pretty much just put up on screen all the notes he's been keeping about how the time crack, the Silence, the question hiding in plain sight, Trenzalore and the Lore of the Twelve Regenerations should be resolved, without troubling to knit them into a coherent story or to give them any emotional weight."

That pretty much nails it for me.

[maviscruet]

The oddest thing to it for me was yes it resolved the "limit of regenerations" thing - but did so by randomly using up a regeneration....... which was just odd......

[kernowgirl]

I agreed fully with you. I kind of wished they'd just done a small-scale Christmas episode which happened to kill off the Doctor--I know that the whole Trenzalore thing needed to be featured, but... I'd rather some smaller and with actual emotion.

My favourite touch of the change over was dropping the bow tie. Least favourite, gratuitous Amy cameo. Bah, humbug.

[radiantbaby]

(here from who_daily)

The people in Christmas town telling the Doctor to "be happy here" reminded me of the creepy villagers in Children of the Stones wishing each other 'happy day' all the time.

I <3 this review most for the 'Children of the Stones' reference (LOVE THAT SHOW!).

Also nice to meet Clara's family - and perhaps we'll see more of them, too, now that Moffat has gone to the trouble of inventing them?

Well, we saw her father in flashbacks before (though this was a different actor -- but then again, he is older now). And then her mother is dead, of course (which is a big character motivation for Clara), so I guess that was her step-mother? I *loved* her grandmother, though!

[strange_complex]

Oh my - and you actually have a Children of the Stones icon as well! You are probably the only person on the internet with one of those, you know, and for that I salute you!

And yeah, I'd actually forgotten about the previous appearances of Clara's parents when I wrote this. It's a pity there was no in-story reference to remind us, as that would probably have made the whole scene more poignant - especially given the stuff about Clara's mother dying in Rings of Akhaten.