The Time of the Doctor Review

Here is my review of this year's Christmas special, starring Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, and Peter Capaldi, written by Steven Moffat, and directed by Jamie Payne.

I'm glad they addressed the issue with the telephone I mentioned in my last review. Normally, the phone is supposed to go through the console; the one in the door is just a pretend phone. Hopefully, the Doctor will have this fixed by the time the next season comes around. Although, with a regeneration like this, we're likely to pick up where we left off, so it might not be fixed for a few episodes.

I am satisfied some of the explanation for series 5 and 6. Madame Kovarian's offshoot blew up the TARDIS so that it created the cracks. By having the Doctor be responsible for the creation of the cracks, he was part of their history, and therefore couldn't alter it and simply close the crack at Trenzalore. I'm still not sure I understand why they thought River and the astronaut suit was a good way to kill the Doctor. I mean, if they can build the suit, then surely they can turn it into an android with no need for an operator. The only explanation that makes sense is if they used her to hurt the Doctor emotionally by taking away his friend's baby.

One thing I don't understand is how the crack can still be here if the Doctor fixed them all. All the cracks in series 5 seemed to have one of two places on the other side: either a random other point in space-time or the collapsing reality of The Big Bang. I'm guessing that on the other side of this particular crack is a parallel universe where the cracks still exist. The Time Lords are able to manipulate the crack in order to get the other side to point wherever they want, in this case, the Doctor's universe.

This episode raises an interesting question regarding Clara's existence. Now that the Doctor's grave is no longer on Trenzalore, then Clara could never have jumped into his timestream in The Name of the Doctor. That means that the Doctor could never have met her at the Asylum or Victorian London. That of course, raises the question of how they met in the first place and how Clara could be at Trenzalore now. I'm guessing that time rewrote so that they still met each other, but some other way, and they remember both versions of history.

Clara now knows the Doctor better than most companions. She's met more than one of his regenerations, including the one he never talks about. She knows his name and what really happened on the last day of the Time War. Plus, she's seen him naked. Now, they're only the question of whether he accidentally saw her naked when she changed into the hologram clothes. Also, can you feel holograms? Because they were doing an awful lot of hugging while naked.

One thing we've learned about Clara in this episode is that she's been misusing time travel. She's gotten the Doctor to get her there on time when she's been late to a variety of things. Apparently, Clara even calls the Doctor when she's missed her favorite shows on TV and can't be bothered to use iPlayer. This adventure with the turkey clearly isn't the first time she's called him to help.

I was actually expecting the ending to be a little different. I thought that when Clara walked into the TARDIS, she would find Peter Capaldi already there. Instead, Moffat decided to use the same ploy as in The End of Time and The Angels Take Manhattan and give us a false happy ending where Matt is standing there all young again. The key giveaway is that there's too much time left in the episode.