And so we bid farewell to Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor (War Doctor aside). Smith was probably my favorite of the New Who Doctors. He didn’t have all the burdens of his predecessors and he had some of the best Companions. Also, they got rid of that stupid coral motif and eventually dropped the “assembled from junkyard parts” look of the consoles. New Who hasn’t done well with console rooms, and that’s not just nostalgia talking. I kind of liked Paul McGann’s control room.
One of the questions we all had would be was this a proper sendoff for Matt Smith? Did Moffat give him a better send-off than David Tennant’s run ended with? “I don’t wanna go” was probably the worst final line in any regeneration. So how did this play out? Well, you shouldn’t need River Song to tell you there will be spoilers on this one. But I’m not calling you “sweetie”.
It’s kind of rare for a Doctor to end a life in old age. I keep thinking the War Doctor was more that the war took a toll on him than the old age of the 1st and 11th non-war Doctors. So congrats for that. And while the make-up was hit or miss depending on the lighting, Smith did a decent job playing a senor citizen while still being his Doctor. It reminds me how people were all freaked out when Smith was chosen as the next Doctor, proving fanboys need to stop doing that. (See also Ben “Batman” Affleck and Gal “Wonder Woman” Gadot.) And at least his good-bye was without the make-up.
The story is, of course, set on Christmas, but it really has nothing to do with Christmas, less so than last year’s special or any of Davies’s specials (outside of “hey, let’s scare kids out of celebrating that Christian holiday”). Yes, the Doctor ends up in a town called Christmas but that doesn’t count. I met a girl once named, not kidding, Noel Christmas, but mentioning her won’t have me adding this to the Christmas Spotlight category. So as a “Christmas” special it fails as much as all the others except maybe the one where the Doctor tries to make a mean man nice again to save Amy and Rory.
He’s missing a fez.
Speaking of which, Amy gets a brief cameo as the first person to see this face and while that was nice I wouldn’t have minded seeing Rory as well. Not a complaint, as Amy was the first companion Smith had and was probably around the longest of the New Whos by a fraction (not that I’m going to count them up so if I’m wrong just blame it on anti-Rose bias). The one I do miss in this story was River Song, his wife. I wonder if she’ll be back and prepared for Peter Capaldi? (Who I can’t review after only one line.) Also, Clara was already aware of regenerations, making her the first Companion I recall, new or classic, who was prepared for a new face. Hopefully she’ll have the easiest adjustment to the new Doctor since she’s ready for it.
Now for the story itself. It was…okay. There were parts that I felt was unnecessary, like the Doctor meeting Clara’s folks for all of five minutes. It was kind of pointless having them there, but less so than the “holographic clothes that had to be imprinted on the eye” gag. (Seriously, what was the point of that?) It’s only the interaction with the Doctor and Clara, like having her call him away from an adventure for something mundane that makes the scene worth anything. Also, I join those bothered by the games with the lives. The War Doctor regeneration was artificially induced so that could have shaved time off, but they also threw in that time Tennant’s Doctor semi-regenerated (for no good reason except as a fake-out) and made this his last official life. Meaning the Time Lords (if that’s actually who is on the other side of the crack) had to step in and give him a new regeneration. At least the crack was a good call-back to Eleven’s first adventure, much like bringing Amy back.
I’d also like to know when the heck regeneration became so dangerous to everything around him, like the Quickening in the Highlander franchise. Classic regeneration was turning white and having a new face, while the TV movie decided to go with violently morphing. Eccleson’s regeneration was caused by the Vortex energy in him and Tennant died from radiation, yet Tennant’s was the first one to actually destroy his control room (and possibly the whole darn TARDIS) while Smith’s was powerful enough to take down an entire Dalek attack force! You’d think the Daleks would be afraid to kill Time Lords if just one could wipe them all out. This is one aspect of New Who I just don’t understand.
The great team rides off into the sunset.
So what did I like besides Amy’s cameo and the usual Doctor/Clara interaction? Every enemy Eleven ever had comes in to say goodbye, and you have to give them credit for the innovations they came up with, like the Cyberman made of wood, forcing the Doctor to sneak around the otherwise ridiculous “truth field” to trick the Cyberman into shooting himself since wood (for some reason) is immune to the Sonic Screwdriver. (And somehow this makes less sense than when the first Green Lantern, Alan Scott, had that weakness.) After that the truth field seems to disappear, making it pointless. I think the reason it was there was so the Doctor HAD to speak his real name, one of Moffat’s hangups, in order for the Time Lords to make an appearance. Still not sure how that works. I’m also curious how they’re going to get around the “if the Time Lords return the Time War will resume when they didn’t start it” angle.
As for the citizens of Christmas, the only one we meet is one boy who didn’t want the Doctor to leave. Otherwise, we knew nothing about them and didn’t get drawn into caring outside of them being innocent people, but at least they seemed like people worth saving and watching them change from happy-go-lucky people to an efficient defense force was well done. We also got an origin for the Silence, which was nice. And as a side note, that part where people turned into Dalek Zombies (or what ever the official term is) is still freaky. “You weren’t there when I died screaming. Oh right, I forgot I was dead.” [Eye stalk pops out of forehead.] Second only to the gas mask people transformation in how creepy it is.
Finally there’s Trenzelor. The previous special was about changing the Doctor’s past, while this one was about changing his future, in other words the Doctor doesn’t die at Trenzelor as initially thought. So once again the Impossible Girl saved the Doctor by calling the Time Lords for help but doesn’t that mean the events of “The Name Of The Doctor” never happened? How “Impossible” is Clara anyway?
While the complaints seem longer than the positives I didn’t hate the story. I thought it was a good send-off for Smith, but more for the subtle touches than the story itself. It worked better as Smith’s good-bye than “Day of the Doctor” did for celebrating all 50 years of the franchise. But I’m not sure anything would satisfy me because Smith was the Doctor I didn’t want to go. Thanks for three great years manning the TARDIS and good luck in your future acting endeavors. “Geronimo” indeed.
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