hepcat
1861
I can understand the plotting criticism. It’s been getting a bit too convoluted for a while now. However, I thought they ended the episode with a fairly straightforward conclusion to Clara’s story, while setting us up for what will hopefully be a much more focused new season.
And John Hurt is a huge get, in my opinion. That man is an actor’s actor. Can’t wait to see what he does with the role.
This episode is what happens when you replace coherent plotting with 45 minutes of “wouldn’t it be cool if”. Sure, a certain amount of hand-waving is par for the course in Who, but it’s been getting worse and worse over the last couple of seasons, practically to the point now that events unfold in such an arbitrary, disjointed, deus ex machina fashion that it’s becoming very difficult to care anymore.
At least this season finale didn’t involve a literal reset button, unlike others I could mention. I’ve been really disappointed with this season, apart from a handful of episodes, but in that context, and the context of generally shit New Who finales, this was OK.
I thought they ended the episode with a fairly straightforward conclusion to Clara’s story, while setting us up for what will hopefully be a much more focused new season.
Also setting us up for George Lucas style CGI Clara-retconned Blu-Ray re-releases of old episodes.
It was Hartnell.
The finale was my favorite episode of the season, but it’s been a terrible, terrible season - Matt Smith is great, we know Steven Moffat is capable of coherent storytelling, but the show largely doesn’t seem to even be trying to tell sensible stories.
Instead there’s some fun characters and dialogue and a lot of sentiment and evangelizing about the “power of love” while waving around a screwdriver that instantly accomplishes whatever the plot wants in the moment. The entire show is insufferably indulgent - even in the goofy Graeme Williams/Douglas Adams days there seemed to be more storytelling than emotional musing.
That probably explains why the BBC is currently re-running ‘I, Claudius’. To paraphrase one British comedian, it will be nice to see the Doctor played by an adult again. Although Smith wasn’t too bad and did at times manage to convey the impression of an old man in a young man’s body.
Did any of the classic series use that “Introducing ___________ as the Doctor” style when a new actor regenerated into the role? I admit the reveal did give me chills. Good stuff there.
Uggh. Really?
This whole season has felt like a letdown and a tease.
Zylon
1867
At the risk of thinking about this more than Moffat apparently did, do we have any evidence that the 21st-century Clara that jumped into the Doctor’s time stream is in fact the original Clara? It seems that any incarnation of her would have made the decision to dive in. The only thing unique about this one is that she managed to stay alive somewhat longer after being noticed. Which reminds me, did we ever get an explanation of who gave her the tech support/TARDIS phone number?
I think the leaf thing was the clue. The leaf resulted in her parents meeting which lead to her being present to jump into the Doctors time line to save him. It looks like she won’t be in the John Hurt series though, as she told the Doctor that she hadn’t met him in the course of her travels.
Seppey
1869
Are we sure that John Hurt is the next Dr? And not something like the Valeyard?
I am still unclear as to what exactly that all meant at the end, but my take was that John Hurt was the final Doctor, when he gets tired and fed up with playing the universe’s Mr. Fixit and drops the “Doctor” moniker. Presumably this is just a lead-up to the 50th anniversary special, and leaves things open for more iterations and regenerations in between.
It all meant “Oohhh, wouldn’t this be cool if we did this.” and little else.
Well, John Hurt is credited for the 50th Anniversary Special, so he will be in that at least.
Editer
1873
The articles I’ve read indicate John Hurt is only around for the 50th anniversary special.
Speculative spoilers (not tagging because it’s based on media speculation and not definite, but skip down if you’re sensitive…):
They approached Christopher Eccleston about returning as the ninth doctor, but he refused. Guess he doesn’t want to screw up his post-Who acting career, despite the fact that it apparently peaked in 2009’s GI Joe. Jerk. We’ll see if he still has the attitude in 20 years when he’s signing at Dr. Who conventions to pay the rent. :)
So instead they brought in Hurt as a new Doctor who it’s supposed is the actual ninth doctor. The one who destroyed Gallifrey and the Daleks in the Time War. One who was never acknowledged because of the Doctor’s shame about it.
Which makes things interesting, as that means Matt Smith would be the 12th Doctor, which would mean he’s out of regenerations. (Well, it would be interesting, except you know Moffet will just have him point his nowadays-magical Sonic Screwdriver at himself to give him another set of 12 regenerations, given the plotting lately…)
Matt Smith is not leaving the show, so Hurt is a guest star (along with Tennant), not a replacement.
I’m not sure what GI Joe was, but his performance as a sympathetic drug pusher in the BBC series ‘The Shadow Line’ (2011) outshone anything he did as the Doctor. IMDB shows his last appearance on TV was o 13th December 2012, so I doubt he’s going to be starving any time soon. He’s probably earned enough from his two ventures ‘downmarket’ to ensure he never has to pay rent again :).
That’s not it at all - he doesn’t want to go back because he has a lot of animosity towards the show arising from his time there (and premature departure). Frankly, since the first season of the relaunch is far more coherent and serious than the others in notable ways, I tend to think that Eccleston was on the right side of those arguments too. So there’s still hurt feelings there, and he probably feels he did as much for the show as it did for him, so he doesn’t owe it anything after that ugly departure. Shame for sure though.
I think John Hurt is the Valeyard - he’s dressed like that character, especially in the scene where you can’t see his face. For folks unfamiliar with the history of the show, the Valeyard is a dark persona of the Doctor inbetween his final regeneration, who was the prosecutor in Trial of a Timelord -season long story.
My friend’s (largely unsubstantiated) theory is Hurt is a heretofore unmentioned “missing” Doctor from between Eight and Nine - someone who didn’t call himself “the Doctor” because of Very Terrible Things he did during the Last Great Time War. Which explains why Eleven says, “I said he was me, I never said he was the Doctor. . . . The name you choose, it’s like a promise you make. He’s the one who broke the promise.”
And caught up! Ending was alright…
My main issue is I don’t really have any feelings for Clara, so her giving her life to save the Doctor , was sort of meh.
hepcat
1878
That’s okay…I’ve got enough for both of us. Yowza.
Agreed, I felt like we barely had time to connect with her. I hope we do see more of her because she’s clearly a competent actress and DAMNED is she cute, but for this finale? Meh, I could barely be bothered to care.
I think Clara could have been a much better character. I don’t place any of the blame on her acting. Episodes like the haunted house one showed that she can have excellent chemistry with the Doctor, but good grief these episodes were not showcasing it for the most part.
