ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
Well, we’ve got to the end of yet
another era. When Matt
Smith was first cast I was doubtful, by this point, I wanted him to
stay
longer. I think in his last year he got his version of the Doctor
exactly
right, a mix of Tennant-like enthusiasm but tempered with a very
‘classic
series’ eccentricity and awkwardness. It would be nice to say his last
story
was a climax of some kind, but in all honesty it’s a bit of a
well-filmed but
flimsy style over substance sort of affair.
The planet Trenzalore (yes, there
again) is being surrounded
by thousands of different alien craft. The planet is broadcasting a
signal out
into the Universe and the Doctor and Clara are sent to the planet by
Tasha Lem
(Orla Brady) to discover what the signal is. They track it to the
settlement of
Christmas and a crack in the clock tower which seems to be linking to
the Time
Lords, lost in the pocket universe that they were put in by the War
Doctor. The
Doctor cannot leave Trenzalore because he has to guard against the Time
Lords
escaping through the crack in time (remember that) and against the
assembled
aliens who would burn the planet if he leaves; so the Doctor being here
allows
the people of Christmas to carry on surviving.
The Doctor tricks Clara into
returning to Earth on the
TARDIS, but she jumps aboard and clings on to it when it returns to the
Doctor.
It arrives 300 years later and the Doctor is now really old, having
used up all
his 12 regenerations and is prepared to die on Trenzalore protecting
the
citizens of Christmas. After an attack on Tasha Lem’s organisation, now
the
Church of the Silence, the Doctor once more tricks Clara into returning
home.
Centuries pass and the only aliens
left attacking Trenzalore
are the Daleks, never ones to give up. The Doctor is now really ancient
and is
on the verge of dying. Tasha Lem returns Clara to his side, but knowing
his
life is now nearly over he says farewell to Clara and climbs the clock
tower to
confront the Daleks for the last time.
Clara speaks to the Time Lords
through the crack in reality
and persuades them to help. They grant the Doctor a new set of
regenerations
and he uses the spare energy he is given to destroy the Daleks,
becoming young
once more. The crack in reality closes up and Trenzalore is safe. The
Doctor
and Clara leave in the TARDIS but the Doctor is now dying and so he
regenerates
into an older man (Peter Capaldi).
There’s some really nice stuff in
this story; the Doctor’s
relationship with Handles (Kayvan Novak) – a detached Cyberman head –
is funny
and ultimately touching. Christmas is a beautifully realised little
town and
again, the relationship the townsfolk have with the Doctor is splendid,
for one
last time Matt gets to show how good he is acting with kids. It’s nice
to get
cameos from all those invading aliens and Matt Smith is a really
convincing old
man.
What works a lot less well is all the
stuff with Tasha Lem
and the Silence, which just feels muddled – and Clara is sent back home
over
and again mostly to allow for the Doctor to be aged and it just seems a
bit
clumsy. If anything, Clara is a under utilised here, Jenna Coleman is a
good
enough actress to have handled a more meaty role than she is given
here,
although her plea to the Time Lords is a sublime piece of acting.
However, in the end this is about
Matt Smith’s big finale,
and for that it serves well. Inevitably, Amy makes a reappearance as
the Doctor
is about to change, and that dropping of the bow tie is a really
effective way
of signalling that Doctor No. 11 is gone.
I would really have liked to see
another season with Matt’s
Doctor but they always say leave them wanting more, and this he does,
having
grown on me massively over his three seasons in the role. Fandom was
massively
excited that an actor of the calibre of Peter Capaldi was our new
Doctor – plus
he is famously a massive Doctor Who fan from childhood. Anticipation
for a new
Doctor had probably never been higher.
NEXT UP: DEEP BREATH
© Text copyright - Raving Loony
Productions and
Andrew J. Müller,
Roy Barton
and Shaun Runham
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller
© Web Design and Layout - Andrew J. Müller
2022
