The Name of the Doctor Cliffhanger

I strongly recommend not watching this YouTube clip if you have not seen the actual episode. I'm only posting this because it is the most important scene in 'Who' I can think of as it is the very first time that the almost 50 year old question 'Doctor who?' becomes really teased... So, enjoy and pay attention, as that minute is all Moffat offers us to survive the next 6 'Who'-less months.

Run You Clever Boy and Remember Me.

When you are a time traveller, 
 there is one place you must never go...

Ever since the Mighty Moff started his reign I have been waiting for a plausible, non-timey-wimey finale written by him, one which did not involve rewriting all of history, the end of civilisation, or that of the Doctor, or all three of these. And what do we get? "The Name of the Doctor" in which Moffat rewrites the Doctor's past. Twice. He kills him. Several times. And whole stellar constellations come to their end. Nevertheless, I have to say that this was the least timey-wimey, most plausible and, most importantly, best finale I've seen for ages. Because it made sense.

Sort of. Moffat made an effort to come up with brilliant explanations for several things. E.g. how the Paternoster Gang, post-library River and Clara could have a conference meeting regardless the obvious restrictions set by time and space. Even though, let's not really start to go into that matter, because I don't know why it was easier for them to get an actually dead River to attend that meeting, than a still living version of her...

Besides, there may be fans who'd love to have an explanation how post-library River can be the Doctor's  imaginary friend (is the TARDIS linked to the Library's data core, and if yes why is the Doctor (and Clara) the only one who's able to see her?) But I'm willing to accept that anyway, because him not wanting to say goodbye to her was heartbreaking. If there's one scene perfectly summarising their relationship, or the Doctor's life, then it's that one. Because he does hate goodbyes and endings. 

And I'm not sure if it was really necessary to use the *recent* TARDIS interior design for the Doctor's tomb. Or more importantly, how did the Paternoster Gang end up at Trenzalore? How did they time travel? Can the Great Intelligence and his Whispermen time travel as well, or have they been simply waiting for the Doctor to turn up at Trenzalore one day? Or what was the Great Intelligence's actual motivation behind destroying the Doctor's life? Why does it mean 'peace at last' for him? I hope Moffat will come back to these snippets. Maybe, and this is a very bold guess, he's the one responsible for the exploding TARDIS in "The Big Bang", something which is still waiting to be tackled.

At least, thank you for not revealing the Doctor's actual name. When they were trying to open the tomb I was worried for a split second... For a moment I thought the code word was 'please'. Now that would have been very didactic.

But luckily, "The Name of the Doctor" also gives us some answers. We find out how Clara can be the impossible girl: she sacrifices her life, scatters herself over time and space to be there and save the Doctor whenever it is needed. BTW, the flashbacks actually made me shiver. They were brilliantly done.  Clara's conversation with the Doctor who's just about to steal, sorry, borrow, the TARDIS was a masterpiece. I've no idea how they did that. But it was top notch.

However, with the Mighty Moff, each answer comes with several questions. Because, if Clara rewrites the Doctor's history, it's a bit strange that he hasn't noticed her sooner. Sure, Clara says he can't always see or hear her, but this statement does not *really* explain why it took him so long to actually notice her being there. Well, then again, I guess this is the best possible explanation Moffat can offer us, and we'll have to take what we get. And let's not start to think about how the Doctor could save Clara by entering his own timestream. It worked, somehow; that's another thing we'll have to put up with, I guess.

But there is yet another point. Clara enters the timeline of a future Doctor, one who will die at Trenzalore. Therefore, it's logical that she claims that she's seen all of him. The only thing which is not logical is why "all of him" should only include "11 faces" as she puts it. Time Lords can regenerate 12 times, which equals 13 different bodies, so, even with the "dark pre-Doctor" form the cliffhanger there should be one regeneration left. But there is not, according to Calra, which means it has to be the 11th Doctor who dies at Trenzalore... I know, time can be rewritten, and we have more exciting things to worry about at the moment, but all of a sudden, the last, final, ultimo episode of 'Who' seems to have come a lot closer.

All in all, this was certainly the best finale I've ever seen. If somebody has ever doubted the Big Moff's abilities in the past, "The Name of the Doctor" proves that he deserves his place. As much as I hate the fact that he's messing with the Doctor's past, I'm glad that it's him who's carving his ideas about it into stone, and not someone else.

Now, all I need is to borrow a TARDIS myself, because the Mighty Moff can't expect us to wait 6 months till the next episode. That would be torture...

Cheating Time...

Let's face it, there seems to have been a curse on Doctor Who's finales. Or am I the only one who doesn't have any of them on their 'Recommendable Doctor Who Episodes' list? Maybe not. And having twice of them a season would not have been exactly my idea of a solution; but the same person who invented double-finale-seasons, is apparently the one to break the spell. Even though admittedly solving the problem by writing a Doctor Who parody will hopefully not become the standard solution of how to deal with the usually hopelessly self-important and overrated finales. 

I dare to say, that The Wedding of River Song is the first finale which I consider to be entertaining, because that's what parodies are. Of course, this comes at a cost due to which some (especially older) fans may be less fond of, namely, to achieve this Moffat breaks maybe every single of Doctor Who's unwritten Golden Rules:

First of all, you and I know that the Doctor will never die, at least not before completing his 12th regeneration. So, when we saw the Doctor's death in 'The Impossinle Astronaut' for the first time, most of us knew it could not be real. So the only remaining question was which paradoxical set-up was Moffat going to use to save the Doctor. Of course, using a Teselcta-Doctor-double is not the cleverest twist the Big Moff could have come up with, after all it triggers more questions than answers, but if we think about the finale as a parody, it may just do.

Then, there is the date. So, the whoniverse was supposed to end on April 11th 2o11 at 5:o2 pm. If it had been true, wouldn't it have been more effective to air episode 13 on April 11th? This way it seemed like one of those newspaper articles announcing that yesterday the world/time/universe ended. With a whimper not a bang, that's why we need a note.

Furthermore, I don't remember a season during which people, DIY-journalists, or according to Steven Moffat even worse, grown-ups, would not have been complaining about Doctor Who's far too complex storyline. And no doubt, bearing this in mind, the Big Moff wrote the most complex story-arch in Who's up-to-date-history, which gives, as a side effect, the running gang, What is bigger on the inside? a new answer: Steven Moffat's brain. He is the only one who can keep that finale and River's story in there. At the same time.

Talking about running gangs. Wasn't, back in the old days, the shows title supposed to be one? Well, now, almost 25 years after its 25 year anniversary we learn it's not a running gag, it is the question of the universe, which should be never asked nor answered.

And last but not least, if you had asked an old whovian whether the Doctor is ever going to change his martial status, the answer would have been a definite 'no'. Well, we could argue that the 'wedding' (lovely low-budget-bowties-are-cool-ceremony BTW) took place in an alternative universe which never happened, for what the wedding actually did never take place. But, of course that would be too easy. Because with Gallifrey being used to govern alternative-universes, they certainly made sure that their wedding-ceremonies are binding ones, no matter when and in which universe they happen to be conducted. So, I guess the 'I-do' is binding. And I know, there was never an actual I-do... but maybe that is what the kiss in Gallifreyan terms is supposed to be.

Oh, and we didn't really expected to see River in a white dress, did we? Then again we don't know much about time-lord-ish weddings in the first place...

But there is more to the episode than its immense fun factor. This was the first time since 2oo5 that the finale did not mean the end of an era, and Moffat kept his promise, we got answers. River is the Doctor's wife, and she is also in prison for killing him, without having actually killed him. Sort of. At least that seems to be how River's storyline is set in Moffat's mind. But come on, isn't it ironical that the Mill, the Champions of Law and Order, doesn't care about River committing a 'fake' murder, however, she still has to suffer its real effects? Although without the Teselecta the whole situation couldn't have happened in the first place. Is Moffat hinting at the universal police being as corrupt as the Russian government? And what about time itself? If everyone in the world believe a lie, does it become the truth? Ok, maybe things start to become too philosophical...

Anyway. Let's move on to the parts which were even less  answered. Like almost everything about season 5. Or most crucially what or who made the TARDIS explode causing Big Bang number 2? The Silence? And if yes, shouldn't we have come across that voice declaring 'Silence will Fall' from the TARDIS console by now? Maybe we'll find out next season. Even though personally I think that season 7's quest is more a 'when no living creature could speak falsely, or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered. Silence will fall when the question is asked...' -thing. So who knows, Moffat may manage to tackle both.

We are all stories in the end...

The Doctor is famous for giving the universe a hard time to vanish into thin air, but now the odds were more than just bad. However, the Doctor wouldn't be the Doctor if being imprisoned inside the Pandorica could stop him from fulfilling his duties, and yes, guaranteeing Amy to get her finale fairytale-y happy ending. Hurray.

These last 11o minutes didn't only topped any other of Russel T Davies' (if you happen to remember that name) so-called finales, but they also ended a season during which the Big Moff proved to be very much capable of doing his job in a really fantastic way. The only things people might criticise is that this two-parter was really for the fans (to occasional viewers the story might have been a bit complicated), and that Moffat doesn't care about paradoxes as the Doctor couldn't give Rory his screwdriver before he got out of the Pandorica in the first place. Although, when the universe and time are collapsing it can be supposed that nothing ( time included) behaves the way it used to. So, at least Moffat made sure that we get some sort of an explanation.

Then he also made sure to serve RTD-fans by making the end one of the most dramatical ones ever. For to my mind the Doctor never ever had to face the possibility of vanishing out of existence in such a complex manner. Although to be honest we knew it all along. Come on, the name of this show is Doctor Who after all. However, he did it in a very clever way... Now there is a whole generation to whom "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" has a completely different meaning. Well, I'm not complaining.

All in all, this was a great deep ending and I can't wait for the Christmas Special and for the next season to find out about River Song's view of the story.

How to do a proper cliffhanger...

Let the universe end just after reaching half of the time you have to go. That's it.

And basically that's the plot of this week's The Pandorica Opens. For the currant situation is: Auton-Rory killed Amy after a really heart breaking and love-revealing scene, the Doctor is locked up inside the Pandorica, which was actually created for... a nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies, the most feared being in all the cosmos. And, River Song is about to die for being inside the very soon exploding TARDIS which is causing the cracks in time and the end of the whole universe. Well, actually things has been already better than this.

Although I have to admit this is how I would imagine the perfect end of the very last Doctor Who episode ever, Moffat has still 55 minutes to go and to turn this into the perfect happy end of Amy Pond's fairytale. And we know that's exactly what he is going to do.

They killed Rory ... AGAIN!?

Cold Blood was a not bad Sillurian 2 parter, well, the only thing we could have asked for was a good plot, but according to this week's Guardian comments people seem to care less about that aspect as they used to. There was some tension, some weird set of sci-fi rules, some relatives of an "old" alien species, a nice in-between human story (actually there were two of them) and the Doctor more or less saved the day (again). Still, I cant' help thinking that the connection between these parts could have been a bit better.

However, it is very likely that we don't care much about the actual story anyway, because just after we started thinking that now they will be dashing off toward a new exciting place (or Rio), the crack reappears and Rory sacrifices his life for the Doctor and gets consumed by 'the light' and his own fiancée can't remember him anymore (some sort of a Donna-deja-vu, anyone?). Furthermore, as if this would not have been enough, the crack also seems to destroy the Doctor's TARDIS in the future.
Obviously, all these finale-teasers had to steal the Sillurians the show.

Now, I won't write about how complicated (and stereotypical) the Human-Sillurian relationship was in the first place, even without Ambrose killing Ayela out of a weird form of mother-love. Or what Chris Chibnall's idea was when writing it's human germs keeping the Doctor alive, because when looking at it form a biological point of view, also humans need germs to stay alive, so they could not have done the same with them either. And I definitely won't ask myself why the Doctor could pick that TARDIS-bit out of the crack without the light having an effect on him, while Rory was forgotten before the light/the crack even consumed him completely.

Because thanks to Moffat there are a bit more interesting things to write about.

So let's start with those famous last five minute which start with Rory's death.
I'm sure that an average fan must have liked him for giving us another (a more 'down-to-earth') perspective of the happenings. Sure, generally, he was not very heroic, still, he also knew how to shine, how to appeal to a/our human common sense, but not in a boring way. Somehow he was a bit of the counterpart of the Doctor. And that's why he was so likeable.
Additionally, many (traditional) fans were glad about him being some sort of a grantee that we won't have to sit through another 'season 2' storyline.

Still, despite Moffat apparently having something against him (all in all it was him who wasn't against killing Rory three times within only one season!), there is a chance that Amy gets the opportunity to live her life with Rory, because of the simple reason that the Doctor won't allow anything, no matter how terrifying it might be, to harm his beloved TARDIS. For this, he will find a way to get the crack-story-arch fixed (I just didn't feel like calling it a 'crack-problem') and through this maybe Amy and Rory will be reunited in the future.

And next week Vincent Van Gogh will see Amy and the Doctor, and I guess he is also in desperate need of one.

RTD's desirable Utopia

Only three very effective words: I'm shocked! If you haven't heard the recent news, just have a look at this.

I know we're facing an economic crisis and that because of this development the government spends less money on culture, just the same way every one else do. But I think they are wrong when they don't fund children's television anymore. RTD says:

"They're our children, they're the most vital and precious resource you could ever find. It is more important than industry, it is more important than the economy, it is more important than food and education."

Maybe he isn't the most innovative script writer (I'm sorry, that's my honest opinion), but if there's one thing he's really adapted in, then it's children's television. You don't need to be an expert to be able to say "he knows his job". Because of him "Doctor Who" became the show we know and love today. Before him it was something for "real" sci-fi fans, or it was considered as "children's stuff" (although I really love the old episodes as well). But he made it popular. And it's his "fault" that today millions of fans can't wait until Easter because of the next special.

And I also do know, the article isn't about Doctor Who but other programs (e.g. Sarah Jane's Adventures) although they don't want to raise too much money for the special effects anymore, but it's just the same. Right, they won't cancel one of their most successful programs. 

But we're living in the 21st century, and I really hoped we'll do a better job than 80 years ago... Cutting culture to a minimum has never been an effective way of facing and fighting, or rather defeating an economic crisis. We shouldn't only notice the economical potential of the entertainment industry, but that it can motivate people to achieve their goals, even defeating a crisis. And taking the money away from our children is certainly a step into the wrong direction, especially as parents don't seem to have too much time for them (thanks to the economic crisis), so our children deserve at least some kind of quality entertainment. No, I'm exaggerating. 

What I'm trying to say is: entertainment is an important part of every child's life. And if the government doesn't care about a child's spare time (as no matter how engaged one's parents are, there are always a few "spare" hours left), then others will do. And I think the government should rather invest some money into children's television now, than into drug-rehab-clinics in the future.