Why I Love… The Time of the Doctor
Guest contributor Will Atkinson takes another look at Matt Smith’s final episode.
The Eleventh Doctor was my Doctor. I’ve loved the character since he first tumbled out of the TARDIS and into Amelia Pond’s life all the way back in The Eleventh Hour, so I was very sad to see him go just shy of a year ago now. It didn’t help that he left at Christmas, my #FavouriteDayOfTheYearTM, and in an episode that’s proven so divisive.
The Time of the Doctor is such an unusual episode of Doctor Who. It’s a Christmas special, an anniversary special, a Dalek story, a regeneration story, a season finale…Out of the 812 episodes of Doctor Who it’s certainly one of the hardest to define and pin down. Maybe that’s why it proved so divisive. It’s an epic written like a fairytale, a festive comedy that ties up four years worth of continuity. It’s bonkers, it’s bizarre and, to me at least, it’s brilliant.
I’ve previously waxed lyrically about my love for Series 7, and though Wikipedia may disagree with me on this, I see The Time of the Doctor as the conclusion of Series 7, and a fitting one as well. Moffat’s script is surprisingly tight for a story that has to appeal to so many different audiences and do so many different things. Yes, there are lapses – the scene where Tasha Lem explains the whole of the Eleventh Doctor’s era is one glorious rush of nonsense, and the turkey and nakedness buffoonery goes on perhaps a smidgen too long. However, to me it’s a pretty sound script, and it must be noted that Moffat didn’t really have that long to write it, and he had a heck of a lot to cram in.
I’ll admit, some of the Christmas elements feel shoehorned in, with the naming of the town of the Christmas and the aforementioned turkey based scenes being obvious examples. But, on the whole, I think the story hits more than it misses. With Strictly on the telly, and the interludes with Clara’s family, there is at least enough reference made to the festivities so that the episodes feels like it deserves to be shown at prime time on Christmas Day.
In addition to this, the parade of the show’s greatest monsters was a suitable celebration in the show’s 50th year, with the Dalek attack on Christmas, the Wooden Cyberman and the Weeping Angels in the snow all being particular favourites of mine. However, the comedy Sontarans did feel a bit…meh. We need a proper Sontaran story again, asap (sorry Strax). Any misgivings about them I did have were balanced out by the intriguing usage of the Silence, finally unveiling what they really were and, most importantly, giving them snazzy new polo neck jumpers, so they now look like a race of evil bulbous-headed Saab drivers and architects.
I also like the pacing of the story, the hectic switch between locations giving the story a real drive, before cranking it all right down when it reaches Trenzalore, before the final, epic few scenes. It always amazes me how it packs so much into an hour, from Daleks and Cybermen, to Gallifrey and cracks in time. Certainly, the scale of the story is something to be admired.
I also feel that the story works as a good summary of Smith’s era. It has its fairytale sensibilities, its twee town of space-Victorians, the clerics, the Silence, the Weeping Angels, the strangely promiscuous female character, Trenzalore, Amy Pond… everything that makes the Eleventh Doctor’s time in the TARDIS special is on show here. For me, it’s so much fun to watch because it has everything that Eleven’s time in the TARDIS added to the canon, the new type of Doctor Who it introduced. Because of this, I prefer The Time of the Doctor to The End of Time, because while both really reflect and honour the way the show was during their Doctor’s tenure, I feel that The Time of the Doctor does it a lot better. It takes a lot of risks, and while they may not all pay off, it’s certainly a tribute to the run that spawned it.
Talking of the Eleventh Doctor, I’ve been holding this back to the end as it’s impossible to talk about The Time of the Doctor without talking about the acting, especially that of it’s star. Tasha Lem and Handles are too of my favourite characters, Handles especially. Both of the performances are so moving and funny, and I for one never thought I’d get teary eyed over the death of a Cyber-head.
But the standout performances have to be those of Jenna Coleman and Matt Smith. Jenna Coleman really shines as Clara. She makes the character funny, charming and likeable, giving the audience an emotional perspective into the events of Eleven’s demise. Free of her “Impossible Girl” nomenclature, she’s easy to warm to and begins to show she has the makings of the classic companion she became in Series 8. Despite all this, she still can’t beat Smith in my eyes.
This is probably the most important reason why I love The Time of the Doctor. Matt Smith is awesome. At times he makes you laugh, at times he makes you scared, and at some he makes you cry. I’d go as far as say this is one of the best performances of any Doctor ever. Smith seems so in tune with the script, channelling his real sadness about leaving the role into the character. He shows us more sides of the Doctor than ever before, his anger at dying, his sadness at ageing and his final, brilliant victory. It truly is a stunning performance, and it really emphasised to me how much I loved his Doctor. His final scene is one of my favourites ever, sweet and solemn, and truly fanta-oh wait, here comes number Twelve…
In summation then, I really can’t speak any higher of last year’s special, and if you need something to do on Christmas Day between lunch and the Queen’s Speech, I can’t recommend anything better than watching The Time of the Doctor again. It’s fun, it’s festive and it’s infuriating.
Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
