The Time of the Doctor

Matt Smith's final performance as the current Doctor was sensational. There's a little moment in the first portion of the episode where he decides he will stay to defend Christmas, he goes out to introduce the townspeople, and says "Hello everyone, I'm the Doctor." Every time I watch this episode, this is the moment in the episode that holds the most emotional weight and impact. It's the last time we here him say that iconic saying and the way that Smith delivers the line is perfect. It also goes without saying that his final monologue or speech at the end, in the Tardis about moving on and change, but how he will always be the Doctor is stellar writing on Moffat's behalf, and I can only hope Capaldi gets similar treatment in Twice Upon a Time.

I do really enjoy this episode, mainly for Matt Smith, but there are some negatives to it. The pacing does feel a little off, I do have a feeling that Matt was supposed to stay for Series 8, and so Moffat had to cram everything into this 1-hour special. But i'd like to think that Series 8 would've been solely dedicated to the Doctor defending Trenzalore, and as the series went on we saw 11 age, and lose hope in life to the point in the finale on top of the clock-tower having the final standoff with the Daleks. A bit like having whole adventures per episodes, ala Tales of Trenzalore novel. Tasha Lem is a bit naff as well, she needed to be more fleshed out or a character we knew.

But overall, Time Of The Doctor is a sorely underrated episode, and a great final performance by my Doctor.

This one should be called The Time of the Rani.

Time of the Doctor was the final episode for Matt Smith's 11th Doctor.

What the special got right included many fun ideas such as the wooden Cyberman. More importantly, the Doctor's decision to stay on Trenzalore for the last year of his life showed the nobility of the Doctor (although the Doctor spending Centuries on some far flung backwater planet seems awfully familiar to the premise of the Eighth Doctor Adventure story, "Orbis") and he faces death without whining and complaint, and the final scene was pure class. Matt Smith's acting combined with good make up make this a solid performance. We also do get a few answers to some long standing questions.

However, many of these revelations are rushed and the same could be said of the whole production. One hour was not enough time to tell of the Doctor's centuries long vigil and regeneration. Given that, it is puzzling the show wastes time on Clara's family Christmas or the battle with the Daleks in the papal mainframe. Thus we end up with a story that lacks coherence.

Matt Smith is wonderful but this dodgy script let him down.

After watching The Day of the Doctor, I was really expecting something just as good, if not better, but that would have been very unlikely. Upon viewing it of course wasn't as good as Day and still some fans I know simply said it was good because it was a Christmas Special and for whatever reason I find people give all Special episodes a free pass on quality although most of them if regular episodes wouldn't work and this is the case for quite a bit of Time.


Before I get into the bad let's get the good out of the way. Matt Smith gives a great performance throughout especially near the beginning when he finds out the name of the planet, when he has to stay behind without the TARDIS and ages, and the closing scenes in the TARDIS before the regeneration and his final speech about change (but I'll get into that later). The direction by Jamie Payne did give the episode a nice feel reminiscent of his other story Hide. The rest of the cast also gave good performances with the material that they were given. Also the music by Murray Gold worked well during the closing TARDIS scenes with some of the melody being lifted from The Rings of Akhaten.


What didn't really work was the whole Church of the Papal Mainframe/Tasha Lem portions of the plot because Lem as a character didn't get any time to explain who she was except the Doctor’s explanation of her being the Mother Superius of the Church. Also the Silence and almost all of the other villains were underused and most of them were there for a scene or two especially the Sontarans who are there for a throwaway gag. Really they could have just made it a Dalek story and it would have worked well. The portions on Earth with Clara’s family didn't work very well, showing how lackluster the humor of the episode was with the only person to make me laugh was Clara's grandmother (but that might be because I had recently seen Vengeance on Varos).


Calling the town Christmas seemed unnecessary considering for the portions of the story on Earth took place at Christmas and should have been enough to tie the story to Christmas.


All in all The Time of the Doctor is just an ok story that is brought up by it's regeneration scene