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locker_monsterSo, good-bye Eleven, hello Twelve. Or something. Honestly, the numbers are all mixed up now. But anyway...
It was an all right episode. Not awesome, but still okay. It was like Eleven's greatest hits. Moffat paid off most of the era.
I watched the episode was non Who fans and boy were they confused. You really had to watch all of Eleven's run right from the beginning to make sense of it all and to spot all of the callbacks. I guess Moffat always knew where Eleven was going. It was just a matter of how many seasons it would take before Eleven reached the end.
So the prophecy of Trenzalore is addressed and the Question and the Silence and even the Crack makes an appearance again. Like I said: Eleven's greatest hits. A few things felt a bit slap-dash to me. Oh, a Silent is actually a priest with the Papal Mainframe. The Daleks remember the Doctor again because they intercepted some Time Lord information or whatever. The Crack is what the Doctor saw in his room in "The God Complex" (really?). Madame Kovarian and her group made the TARDIS explode. That last one felt rushed. How did Kovarian make the TARDIS explode then? Look, tying up loose ends is nice and all, but don't breeze by them with a few sentences. I think I'll need to watch this episode over again but with subtitles. There's a lot of info flying around and I doubt I caught most of it.
Also, if the Doctor has changed his history and now he doesn't die at Trenzalore, doesn't that affect a lot of things? I mean, if the Doctor never dies, then he doesn't have a tomb on Trenzalore. No tomb, no wound in time. No wound in time, no Great Intelligence jumping into it to kill the Doctor. No Great Intelligence killing the Doctor, no Clara jumping into the Doctor's time stream to save him and thus no Clara on the Dalek Asylum and no Victorian Clara. It's like there are no consequences in Moffat's Doctor Who. Everything can be re-written.
I don't know. I kind of felt like there needed to be more. Like, it needed to be more epic. The Doctor is stuck on Trenzalore for most of the episode and we only get glimpses of the fighting that went on. Clara was barely there. She kept getting shuttled back to Earth. It's not fair she gets sent off. I mean, I get why the Doctor sends her away, but she could have helped. And then the regeneration itself is really quick. You don't see Eleven morph into Twelve. It's like they ran out of money.
But Eleven has a nice moment before he goes. He sees a vision of Amelia and then he gets to see Amy, too. No Rory or River, though, but I assume both Arthur and Alex were in the US doing stuff. Eleven's good-bye speech totally felt like Matt saying good-bye, too. "I will always remember when the Doctor was me." It's nice that they got Karen Gillan in for that quick appearance. You need to have past Companions show up when it's the end. And it's interesting that Eleven takes off his bow tie before he regenerates. He doesn't want the new guy to wear it. That was his thing.
So Eleven is actually Thirteen? So Ten's regeneration at the end of "The Stolen Earth" was legit. I guess it's fitting then that Eleven was dying of old age in his last body. He lived his life and he spent a good chunk of the end protecting people. That was nice. Gives him some symmetry with One. The Time Lords giving him one more regeneration? It's not that strange. They've offered to bestow new regenerations before. But was it just one life? Or does the Doctor have a completely new cycle? I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out it was a new cycle. Got to keep the show going. Oh, and how old is the Doctor now? Over 1,500 by now.
Random: I can't believe they worked Matt's shaved head into the plot. The wig looked pretty good, though there were times that it didn't look right, either. So, cheeky Moffat, just decided, "Hey, the Doctor shaved his head because he was bored; problem solved!" Matt Smith looks really weird with absolutely no hair at all. I'm glad Clara made him put the wig back on. And speaking of wigs, they had to get one for Karen Gillan, too. The wooden Cyberman reminded me of Bender from this episode of Futurama. So is the Cyberman steamed powered? I love that the Gallifreyan seal that the Doctor slaps onto Handles' head is from "The Five Doctors". The Doctor never throws anything out. And random Cyberman head. So Clara's an English teacher. I did wonder what her subject was. So she was spending Christmas with her dad, grandmother, and aunt? Who is that other lady? Random naked Eleven! So is Twelve going to have amnesia for his first episode? Tends to happen from time to time.
So no new Doctor Who until August. I can't wait to see Twelve's costume and how Clara handles this new Doctor.
Oh, and the fish fingers and custard:
The fish fingers were sugar cookies coated with graham cracker crumbs and the custard was homemade vanilla pudding. Yummy. A fitting dessert for Eleven's last episode.
It was an all right episode. Not awesome, but still okay. It was like Eleven's greatest hits. Moffat paid off most of the era.
I watched the episode was non Who fans and boy were they confused. You really had to watch all of Eleven's run right from the beginning to make sense of it all and to spot all of the callbacks. I guess Moffat always knew where Eleven was going. It was just a matter of how many seasons it would take before Eleven reached the end.
So the prophecy of Trenzalore is addressed and the Question and the Silence and even the Crack makes an appearance again. Like I said: Eleven's greatest hits. A few things felt a bit slap-dash to me. Oh, a Silent is actually a priest with the Papal Mainframe. The Daleks remember the Doctor again because they intercepted some Time Lord information or whatever. The Crack is what the Doctor saw in his room in "The God Complex" (really?). Madame Kovarian and her group made the TARDIS explode. That last one felt rushed. How did Kovarian make the TARDIS explode then? Look, tying up loose ends is nice and all, but don't breeze by them with a few sentences. I think I'll need to watch this episode over again but with subtitles. There's a lot of info flying around and I doubt I caught most of it.
Also, if the Doctor has changed his history and now he doesn't die at Trenzalore, doesn't that affect a lot of things? I mean, if the Doctor never dies, then he doesn't have a tomb on Trenzalore. No tomb, no wound in time. No wound in time, no Great Intelligence jumping into it to kill the Doctor. No Great Intelligence killing the Doctor, no Clara jumping into the Doctor's time stream to save him and thus no Clara on the Dalek Asylum and no Victorian Clara. It's like there are no consequences in Moffat's Doctor Who. Everything can be re-written.
I don't know. I kind of felt like there needed to be more. Like, it needed to be more epic. The Doctor is stuck on Trenzalore for most of the episode and we only get glimpses of the fighting that went on. Clara was barely there. She kept getting shuttled back to Earth. It's not fair she gets sent off. I mean, I get why the Doctor sends her away, but she could have helped. And then the regeneration itself is really quick. You don't see Eleven morph into Twelve. It's like they ran out of money.
But Eleven has a nice moment before he goes. He sees a vision of Amelia and then he gets to see Amy, too. No Rory or River, though, but I assume both Arthur and Alex were in the US doing stuff. Eleven's good-bye speech totally felt like Matt saying good-bye, too. "I will always remember when the Doctor was me." It's nice that they got Karen Gillan in for that quick appearance. You need to have past Companions show up when it's the end. And it's interesting that Eleven takes off his bow tie before he regenerates. He doesn't want the new guy to wear it. That was his thing.
So Eleven is actually Thirteen? So Ten's regeneration at the end of "The Stolen Earth" was legit. I guess it's fitting then that Eleven was dying of old age in his last body. He lived his life and he spent a good chunk of the end protecting people. That was nice. Gives him some symmetry with One. The Time Lords giving him one more regeneration? It's not that strange. They've offered to bestow new regenerations before. But was it just one life? Or does the Doctor have a completely new cycle? I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out it was a new cycle. Got to keep the show going. Oh, and how old is the Doctor now? Over 1,500 by now.
Random: I can't believe they worked Matt's shaved head into the plot. The wig looked pretty good, though there were times that it didn't look right, either. So, cheeky Moffat, just decided, "Hey, the Doctor shaved his head because he was bored; problem solved!" Matt Smith looks really weird with absolutely no hair at all. I'm glad Clara made him put the wig back on. And speaking of wigs, they had to get one for Karen Gillan, too. The wooden Cyberman reminded me of Bender from this episode of Futurama. So is the Cyberman steamed powered? I love that the Gallifreyan seal that the Doctor slaps onto Handles' head is from "The Five Doctors". The Doctor never throws anything out. And random Cyberman head. So Clara's an English teacher. I did wonder what her subject was. So she was spending Christmas with her dad, grandmother, and aunt? Who is that other lady? Random naked Eleven! So is Twelve going to have amnesia for his first episode? Tends to happen from time to time.
So no new Doctor Who until August. I can't wait to see Twelve's costume and how Clara handles this new Doctor.
Oh, and the fish fingers and custard:
The fish fingers were sugar cookies coated with graham cracker crumbs and the custard was homemade vanilla pudding. Yummy. A fitting dessert for Eleven's last episode.
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Date: 2013-12-26 05:20 pm (UTC)The Crack is what the Doctor saw in his room in "The God Complex" (really?)
I'm very disappointed with that reveal. First, I think it would have been better to leave it to our imaginations. Second, in my head, he totally saw himself in there. In fact, I've now decided that he saw the War Doctor.
Look, tying up loose ends is nice and all, but don't breeze by them with a few sentences. I think I'll need to watch this episode over again but with subtitles. There's a lot of info flying around and I doubt I caught most of it.
Yeah, this sums up my reaction to the episode. Except I feel like I caught hardly any of it. It was very scattershot, with series-long-arcs-tied-up-by-sentences flying here and there and everywhere, but nothing formed a cohesive whole. I agree with you that it needed more; more sense, more epicness, more drama (deal with Gallifrey, don't just say "Oh, there it is"), and definitely more Clara.
the regeneration itself is really quick. You don't see Eleven morph into Twelve. It's like they ran out of money.
That struck me as very odd, too. Why didn't we get a morph? I want my morph!
I too really liked Amy's appearance -- that was my favorite moment in the episode, hands-down. And yes, it was sad when he took off his bowtie. He knew he was finished with it. My second-favorite moment was that random reference to "The Five Doctors." I love how he's been carrying around the Seal of Rassilon ever since (although ha, so much for returning it at "the first opportunity"!)
And hey, can you explain Matt's shaved head to me? I knew he had cut his hair, but was it really shaved? Why? Well, presumably for a part, but I feel so out of the loop -- everyone else seems to know all about it, but I'm clueless.
Oh, and one last thought on the subject of how Clara handles the new Doctor -- for the first time, we're going to have the companion dealing with a new Doctor when she is already very used to the concept of regeneration, and has already interacted with different Doctors. (Well, except for the Brig in "Robot," but he wasn't the primary companion.) I think it's going to be very interesting!
no subject
Date: 2013-12-26 11:53 pm (UTC)I didn't need to know at all what was in the Doctor's room. You don't need to know. It's like his name. The reveal will never be as good as the mystique. And I don't understand why it would be the Crack in his room. That's his biggest fear/regret?
And hey, can you explain Matt's shaved head to me? I knew he had cut his hair, but was it really shaved? Why? Well, presumably for a part, but I feel so out of the loop -- everyone else seems to know all about it, but I'm clueless.
He shaved his head for a movie, How to Kill a Monster or something like that (directed by Ryan Gosling), but it was a buzz cut so he still had some stubble on his head. If you check out Matt Smith's good-bye video on YouTube he did while filming the movie you can see how short his hair was. I guess they shaved him completely bald for that one scene. Maybe it was easier to get the wig on?
I don't think we got a morph because Eleven had used up all of his regeneration energy on destroying the ships? That's usually when the faces morph, when the glowy energy starts. It's still bizarre, though. Eleven falls out of frame and up pops Twelve.
And very true about Clara already knowing about regeneration. She might handle it really well, but it's been a while since we had a Companion carry over into a new Doctor. I want it to be funny.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-27 12:00 am (UTC)Seriously, the Doctor's regeneration destroys all the Daleks?
Bah. This reminds me of the worst of the Magic Doctor moments in RTD's run (like where everybody in the world believing in him gave him extra super powers).
And what's the deal with the Daleks suddenly remembering him again... you didn't even USE it once. It was a decent idea, and then the very next time, you threw it away.
I think he backtracked on the "question that must never be answered" too, or at least showed that he hadn't planned ahead. "on the Fields of Trenzalore, at the fall of the Eleventh, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked..."
Except, they seemed to entirely forget about the "can't fail to answer" part in this ep, because the Doctor failed to answer it for hundreds of years. The hundreds of years spent defending a small town named Christmas using only his wits? Also very lame. In fact, the whole 'town called Christmas' was pretty lame and only seemed to be because it was a "Christmas ep".
Anyway, I believe they outright stated that this wasn't a one-off regeneration, it was indeed a whole new cycle (that's his explanation for why it was "taking a bit longer" and included a "reset" back to his young-self).
Btw, the Fish Fingers and Custard looks great (and made an appearance in the ep, too... the original, not yours)!
I hope somebody thought to grab a picture of Karen Gillen and Matt Smith both in the TARDIS and in costume, but bald. together because that would be hilarious. Or at least it would be to me.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-27 08:58 pm (UTC)I don't know. It just feels weird to go from the 50th anniversary to the end of an era with nothing in-between.
Though, I have a wacky notion that Moffat wanted to get to the end of the Doctor's regeneration cycle to cap off the 50th anniversary year. Next year, it's the start of the show's next 50 years. So the Doctor is starting over in a way for the next half century. Heck, Capaldi is the same age Hartnell was when he started. Perhaps Twelve will be a bit like One; grumpy and impatient.
I hope somebody thought to grab a picture of Karen Gillen and Matt Smith both in the TARDIS and in costume, but bald. together because that would be hilarious. Or at least it would be to me.
That would be an awesome picture. Matt and Karen could have exchanged wigs, too.
no subject
Date: 2013-12-27 04:46 am (UTC)Yeah, I was not very impressed with that one, either. I enjoyed the episode overall, though, and it was nice to see Amy again at the end!
no subject
Date: 2013-12-27 09:02 pm (UTC)Yeah, having Amy back was nice. Too bad they couldn't have Rory, too, but it makes sense that the Doctor only sees Amy. I always enjoy those cameo moments. They don't need to happen with every regeneration, but it's nice when they do.