by Chelsea Doyle, Editor
This is going to be a long one and involve a lot of spoilers, people. Sorry about that!
Sigh. You know. I’m really on the borderline of this show. I’m not entirely sure I’m on board for next season. This one has seemed like an endless disappointment, and the only thing I’m looking forward to is the Anniversary Special. Not that I’m too excited about it, since Moffat refused to take older Doctors since he didn’t want to be bogged down in the past. Newsflash: anniversary specials are about all fifty freaking years. Not just the past few, you arrogant jerk. Wow I’m starting this recap off in a positive spirit, right? I’ll give this for the finale: it did answer the mystery of Clara. It did introduce something slightly interesting at the very end. It had some emotional pathos in the form of River Song. It had Vastra, Jenny, and Strax back and I’ve mentioned many times that I would watch a show of only the three of them. The giant TARDIS was interesting and the concept of the grave site was pretty cool. I’m going to analyze more of this later on, let’s get to the recap first.
Clara introduces herself as “The Impossible Girl.” She says she’s following the Doctor everywhere and we see flashes of her in scenes from the old show, which makes me happy and wonder why Moffat is against using more of that in the anniversary special. Maybe he will, and he’s throwing us all off by saying he’s not. Crossing fingers! Basically her existence surrounds the fact she’s supposed to save the Doctor. For crying out loud how is this not the same as River and Amy in another light? I swear this Doctor has been the most self absorbed in a really frustrating way, because it’s always about him now. Remember how Rose, Martha, Donna, that was all about saving the world? Yes, Clara saves stars because of saving him, but it’s very clear this is All! About! Him! He’s the lead character but there’s more to this show than that. Okay okay I’m rambling too much. The episode starts with Vastra overhearing this random prisoner saying he knows the Doctor’s deep dark secret. He also mentions the Whisper Men, who are set up to be something and trust me, it’s a disappointment. They look a little like the Silence too, which is weird. Vastra decides to put them all into a sleep so they can have a conference call about the Doctor. Jenny, Vastra, Strax, and Clara are there, as well as River Song. Jenny thinks she’s killed back in her world, the Whisper Man have attacked, and the meeting falls apart. The Doctor shows up at Clara’s house being silly and she tells him about the prophecy and what happened to the others. He agrees to go to the place where he should never go, his grave in Trenzalore.
They arrive and there are a great many graves there. The TARDIS is gigantic and apparently where he’s buried. He says the TARDIS deteriorated and turned into that due to failing transdimensional circuits. They are attacked by the Whisper Men, and Clara gets unexpected advice from River Song who is telepathically linked to her still. She says the Doctor can’t see her. She has her own gravestone there, and she advises Clara to tell the Doctor it’s an escape route. This becomes slightly dumb later on since he reveals he can see River all along, and they’re in immediate danger, so why would he play through the game of pretending he can’t hear her when they could die? Ugh this show sometimes. As they escape he admits that River is his wife but won’t answer more. I feel like this is some more ship teasing and she was all like ‘oh the Doctor mentioned you but he didn’t say you were a woman’ before. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be jealousy, it’s not clear. I’m going with no because it annoys me less. Strax and Vastra have been brought there too, along with the dead Jenny who Strax manages to resurrect. Oh yay. I was a little worried they were going to fridge her. Vastra and Jenny are one of my Whoverse OTPs for real. While the Doctor and Clara run, she starts remembering things she shouldn’t. Including something about his name and her being impossible, and she starts to put it together.
They arrive at the TARDIS to meet up with the others and the Whisper Men surround them, one making himself into the Great Intelligence. I guess his thing is he wants to destroy the Doctor. I’m not entirely certain about his motivations even now. He seems to be annoyed the Doctor’s done a lot of horrible stuff and no one takes him to task for it. There’s fuzzy logic in there somewhere, but mostly he is just evil. The Doctor refuses to speak his name, and I really don’t get why I’m supposed to care. I mean seriously. Has his name always been a big deal or are they only choosing to make it a big deal now? Yes, I get it is, because it’s special if you know his name and it means something to him. But are we as an audience supposed to be chomping at the bit to hear it? Because I’m fine with never hearing it, in fact it’d probably just be a let down. I almost wish it was John Smith after all. Wouldn’t that be fun. Anyway River says it instead. They go inside and see the Doctor’s entire life stream all glowy. The Great Intelligence plans to walk into it and unravel his entire history, which will destroy him and change everything that happened in the past. Jenny disappears and then Strax forgets Vastra and they all sort of lose it, and they see stars going out because of the Doctor.
Clara then realizes that she needs to go into the time stream too and fix everything. That she’s been sprinkled through his life because she intentionally is there to save him in important moments. It will make her lose herself and scatter, but she’s fine with that if it saves him. Guys I’m going to be honest, I’m not entirely sure she knows him well enough to make this big of a sacrifice. Also how creepy is it that she knows she only exists to be a plot device for him? I guess if she’s going well I’m doing this to save all those stars and you’ve done a lot of good things, that’s fine, she would be doing a lot of good. But it again seems so focused on him and not the big picture. Maybe I am the only one bothered by this. Was I the only one bothered that she convinced the First Doctor to steal the TARDIS even though we know in canon it was said the TARDIS chose him? Or that she’s some super special snowflake that has mattered so much she’s everywhere in his life? The Doctor plans to go after her into his own time stream. Probably not a good idea. River tries to stop him, but he can’t hear her. Except he can. And thus why I said before why did he pretend he didn’t when they were in danger? Because he says it would hurt too much for him. Oh my god why do they keep writing him like he’s some child? You are a thousand years old. Grow up! You can’t even think that maybe it would be comforting to River to talk to you? She is stuck in the damn library archive forever saving you. But no, it would hurt you, so you don’t bother. I am tired of people handling him with kid gloves, I swear.
Anyway he tells River he always sees and hears her and she says if he ever loved her, he’ll pretend they’ll see each other again. But they won’t, which means this could be the last of her? I wonder if she’ll show up in the Anniversary special. She says Spoilers and Goodbye Sweetie, her catchphrases, and then she’s gone. I have a lot of problems with River Song as a character, but I love that actress and I think this scene – while frustrating – was extremely well acted and emotional. The Doctor goes after Clara and somehow finds her. I have no idea how or why. This seems pretty damn easy all things considered. Also there’s zero ending to what happened with the Great Intelligence! What’s up with that? They find each other and she sees this other guy in the shadows. Maybe he’s “the secret”? I think so. He is another version of the Doctor who is not in fact “The Doctor.” He says his name was a promise he made to himself, and that version of him is “the one who broke the promise.” So wait does that make him Twelve instead? It’s John Hurt anyway. I guess that’s interesting? I’m not sure. Maybe everything I said above are quibbles. Maybe I’m being too skeptical in the show and I should just chill and enjoy how silly it is. But I don’t know, I feel like the show takes itself more seriously than that sometimes, and so when I try to take it seriously, I end up with all these nitpicks. I appreciate they explained Clara’s existence. It made sense with the story presented! I don’t like that her entire life is absorbed in the Doctor, and it doesn’t explain why her other versions didn’t remember him at all even though the one with the First Doctor seemed to get it enough to lead him to the TARDIS. The grave was interesting. River’s exit was nice, if making me facepalm about the infantile way people treat the Doctor.
In truth I just didn’t feel much about this season. I wanted to. The Ponds left. A new Companion was introduced. I like Jenna Louise Coleman, she seems like a very nice person and a good actress, but most of what they gave her left me apathetic. It’s no wonder she didn’t have much of a personality, since she existed for only one reason. I’m feeling wishy washy (wibbly wobbly) about Doctor Who these days. I really do wish Matt Smith was bowing out now. I have time to decide if I’ll continue with next year, maybe by then and after the Anniversary Special I’ll get the enthusiasm back.
Rating: 
It did answer my questions about Clara and had some nice moments. I think the part with John Hurt at the end was interesting, but the quibbles listed above plus the lackluster season plus no answer about the Great Intelligence left me a little cold. So I give Doctor Who “The Name of the Doctor” 3.5 out of 5 timey wimey plot devices.
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