Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "The Name of The Doctor"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

So this is it, a journey which began last September with "The Asylum of The Daleks" when The Pond's were still knocking around with The Doctor and we first encountered the impossible girl. Trapped in a Dalek who implored our hero to run and remember, causing knotted brows across the country as fans tried to work out how Jenna-Louise Coleman, just announced as The Doctor's new companion, was going to end up in The Doctor's company if she was in fact a Dalek. With this episode there was a feeling of coming full circle but just how we were going to get there was a mystery. Surely Moffat wouldn't actually reveal the greatest secret of The Doctor? After all, it's the whole premise of the show, it's Doctor Who with a question mark, despite him being a part of our lives of 50 years what do we really know about him?

What we got in the form of "The Name of The Doctor" was a true treat for the fans as the impossible girl Clara, born to save The Doctor over and over again, visited our hero through his various incarnations. While some people without a degree from the University of Wholigans may have missed out on some of the more obscure references the broader parts would have hit home just as strongly. What I found suprising about the episode as a whole was it's more somber than usual tone. It reminded me in some ways of the final Tom Baker serial "Logopolis", that story feels like a funeral for the Fourth Doctor and fits in with the Eleventh visiting his final resting place at Trenzalore. There was some nice comedy business as always from Strax and the rest of the Paternoster Gang, I really enjoyed Vastra knocking out Clara via a spiked letter. This feeling of joviality quickly disappears as the shadows quickly gather around The Doctor's friends. Special praise must be given to Catrin Stewart's Jenny, he delivery of "I'm sorry, but I think I've been murdered" was truly amazing and let the viewers know that there was no messing around in this story. Seeing The Doctor's reaction to the news is actually one of the most shocking moments of the episode. Beautifully played by Matt Smith seeing The Doctor burst into frightened, worried tears was remarkable. We're all so used to The Doctor's zany, wacky persona that to truly see the behind the veil was something new and another signal to us that this was serious business. One of the constant criticisms of Smith's Doctor is that he's too comedic and the stories too childish and cartoon like, well here is the rebuttal.

That's not to say that this episode was perfect, the relationship between The Doctor and Clara doesn't feel well established enough for her sacrifice to make the maximum impact with the viewers, by the time we got round to this episodes spiritual predecessor "The Wedding of River Song" we'd been with River, Amy and Rory for the best part of three years. The chemistry they had together throws the lack thereof between Clara and The Doctor in sharp relief. I think that will change significantly in the series to come as the characters stop holding each other at arms length, in fact I think we got a hint of that in the episodes closing moments. Another problem was The Great Intelligence and his minions The Whisper Men, while Richard E Grant was chillingly imperious as Doctor Simeon his appearance again lacked some impact, another constant criticsm of Moffat's tenure has been that the stories were to complex, interlinked and the constant reminders of the overarching narrative of the series rankled. However I feel here that by going to the other extreme and hardly seeing our Big Bad at work diminished his impact, I think there is a happy medium between the two. As for The Whisper Men although nice and creepy I would have rather seen a return of The Silence, after all their whole religious order was built around the events at Trenzalore.

In this cynical day and age it takes a lot to shock most seasoned genre fans but I think all of us that managed to remain unspoiled by the early release of the Doctor Who series 7 blu ray and the machinations of our tabloid press are still picking our collective jaws off the floor after that ending. The wait for November 23rd seems even more agonising. Overall for me this was a cracking piece of Doctor Who, an unashamed fan pleaser and despite some flaws it was a beautifully put together piece of television that will live long in the memory.