Day of the Doctor
Nov. 23rd, 2013 09:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bobcatmoranThat was far better than I had expected! I'd watched the re-airing of "The Name of the Doctor," and still found it to be a pacing disaster, with half a season's worth of plot crammed into one episode, and was really worried that the 50th anniversary special would suffer from a similar problem of too much story in too little time. Nope.
I loved how it started with the original opening, and for half a second as the episode proper started, with the shot of the policeman and the sign for the junkyard, I thought they were re-airing the first episode (I am somewhat disappointed that BBC America didn't actually do that any time today, but I suspect that it would've suffered in comparison to the marathon of 7th season episodes they were running). And then the shout-out with the school — headmaster I. Chesterton! — was also great. New headcanon is that Ian, Barbara, and Clara get together to swap Doctor stories.
I also loved the bit where all the Doctors teamed up together to save Gallifrey, and the glimpse of Capaldi!Doctor — ooooh! Also speaking of cameos, the one at the end was a very pleasant surprise. And I loved how Billie Piper wasn't Rose! Don't get me wrong, I loved Rose as a companion, but the way her character was handled afterward, especially during season 4, really rubbed me the wrong way. Seeing her as a snarky technological interface was a real treat. Actually, I just loved all the shoutouts, and how they all fit into the plot, without becoming obnoxious or, I hope, making the episode inaccessible to those unfamiliar with Classic Who.
I was relieved that they didn't get too far into the mechanics of how the Time War worked, just showed a very localized part of it, mostly because I suspect that explaining the whole thing would've just wound up as ridiculous. I'm still on the fence about how that thread was wrapped up, because although I love the possibilities introduced by Gallifrey still being out there somewhere, taking Gallifrey out of the picture while leaving the Daleks there doesn't seem to make much sense in terms of not having the Daleks take over everything. True, the Daleks in the immediate vicinity of Gallifrey would've taken each other out, but surely that destruction isn't as complete as what the Doctor originally did, is it?
Hurt!Doctor's cranky attitude of, "My later regenerations are a couple of ridiculous manchilds, dear Rassilon, what went wrong?" was hilarious and then, when it actually became relevant as a characterization point, was one of my favorite bits of this episode. Such good writing.
Not such good writing was the Elizabeth I subplot, which was ridiculously emblematic of why a lot of people have problems with Moffat as the showrunner. It was a shame to have such a low point in what was otherwise a fabulous episode. Compared to a lot of Moffat's more recent episodes, this felt like it hung together much better. There seem to have been a lot of cases recently with things tacked on just because he thought they seemed like cool ideas, and they often are cool ideas at the root, but the execution has been lacking. Not so this time.
And now, the wait until Christmas. I'm going to be sad to see Eleven — or is it Twelve now? — go. I came into the series with The Eleventh Hour, and I suspect that Matt Smith will always be The Doctor in my heart. Ah, well. It's been a good run so far, and here's hoping the next 50 years will be just as good, if not better.
I loved how it started with the original opening, and for half a second as the episode proper started, with the shot of the policeman and the sign for the junkyard, I thought they were re-airing the first episode (I am somewhat disappointed that BBC America didn't actually do that any time today, but I suspect that it would've suffered in comparison to the marathon of 7th season episodes they were running). And then the shout-out with the school — headmaster I. Chesterton! — was also great. New headcanon is that Ian, Barbara, and Clara get together to swap Doctor stories.
I also loved the bit where all the Doctors teamed up together to save Gallifrey, and the glimpse of Capaldi!Doctor — ooooh! Also speaking of cameos, the one at the end was a very pleasant surprise. And I loved how Billie Piper wasn't Rose! Don't get me wrong, I loved Rose as a companion, but the way her character was handled afterward, especially during season 4, really rubbed me the wrong way. Seeing her as a snarky technological interface was a real treat. Actually, I just loved all the shoutouts, and how they all fit into the plot, without becoming obnoxious or, I hope, making the episode inaccessible to those unfamiliar with Classic Who.
I was relieved that they didn't get too far into the mechanics of how the Time War worked, just showed a very localized part of it, mostly because I suspect that explaining the whole thing would've just wound up as ridiculous. I'm still on the fence about how that thread was wrapped up, because although I love the possibilities introduced by Gallifrey still being out there somewhere, taking Gallifrey out of the picture while leaving the Daleks there doesn't seem to make much sense in terms of not having the Daleks take over everything. True, the Daleks in the immediate vicinity of Gallifrey would've taken each other out, but surely that destruction isn't as complete as what the Doctor originally did, is it?
Hurt!Doctor's cranky attitude of, "My later regenerations are a couple of ridiculous manchilds, dear Rassilon, what went wrong?" was hilarious and then, when it actually became relevant as a characterization point, was one of my favorite bits of this episode. Such good writing.
Not such good writing was the Elizabeth I subplot, which was ridiculously emblematic of why a lot of people have problems with Moffat as the showrunner. It was a shame to have such a low point in what was otherwise a fabulous episode. Compared to a lot of Moffat's more recent episodes, this felt like it hung together much better. There seem to have been a lot of cases recently with things tacked on just because he thought they seemed like cool ideas, and they often are cool ideas at the root, but the execution has been lacking. Not so this time.
And now, the wait until Christmas. I'm going to be sad to see Eleven — or is it Twelve now? — go. I came into the series with The Eleventh Hour, and I suspect that Matt Smith will always be The Doctor in my heart. Ah, well. It's been a good run so far, and here's hoping the next 50 years will be just as good, if not better.
