Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Name of The Doctor (Spoilers)

Recently I watched the season seven finale of Doctor Who entitled "The Name of The Doctor".  First off I would just like to say that this was a really solid episode that I really enjoyed. However, the entire second half of the seventh season just kind of left me feeling empty and wanting more.  It all seemed like a big drumroll leading up to the fiftieth anniversary special.  One of the biggest problems I have with season 7.2 (as on demand calls it) is Clara Oswin Oswald.  Now I wanted to like her I really did and she has some moments when she really shines and she seems like the perfect companion for the doctor but that's kind of the problem.  Aside from a few scenes here and there where she questions the doctor's humanity she seems to just follow him blindly expecting everything to turn up roses and of course we know it will because he's the doctor but why does she know that?  We are supposed to accept this relationship that seems rather forced all because the doctor has seen her die and she is the "impossible girl."  Alright I'll admit that the mystery was intriguing and had a really satisfying ending but when the doctor met the original Clara she really had no reason to trust him or go with him.  Think about it, Amy was the girl who waited for the doctor so of course she would go with him and Rory would follow Amy anywhere.  Donna actually tracked down the doctor to become his companion and I'm sure Rose had something too but whenever I think of her I see her stupid face and forget any plot line she was in; but Clara has none of that.  The doctor just shows up and shows her his box and off they go!

I think maybe I should talk a little about the episode now.  It opened with Clara traveling through time and interacting with all the past doctors.  This was a really cool scene and certainly grabbed my attention.  Long story slightly shorter the great intelligence is going to kill all the people that the doctor currently cares about unless he goes to Trenzalor (yes I know I probably spelled that wrong).  So why Trenzalor?  Well it turns out that is where the doctor is buried, y'know cus time travel.  It is then revealed that when a time lord dies there is no body just a manifestation of their timeline which the great intelligence promptly enters so that he can fuck with the doctor throughout history Reverse Flash style.  Clara goes in to save the doctor and then the doctor goes in to save Clara.  Now quick point here, the doctor entered the room with his timeline and because there were events unfolding that he had not yet experienced he collapsed from pain due to the time paradoxes; but then he goes into his own time line and he's like, "Yeah I'm fine high fives all around!" Well anyway while in the timeline we learn of another regeneration that the doctor wants to keep secret and is ashamed of.

So yeah pretty big reveal at the end and Clara saved the doctor and since the doctor is responsible for entire galaxies she saved them as well so that's cool... Why do I still have this empty feeling? Oh maybe it's because in an episode entitled "The Name of The Doctor" we didn't learn the name of the doctor!  I did a little bit of digging on this subject because I honestly thought I just missed it.  I mean there's no way Stephen Moffat would spend years telling us the name of the doctor is the most powerful secret in the universe then name an episode the name of the doctor and then not tell us the name of the fucking doctor!  What I found through my research is that either this episode was to teach us that the doctor's name is unimportant and that he has so many other secrets that it doesn't matter.  To the people who believe that I say DUH they made fifty years of shows without telling us his goddamn name that wasn't the point.  What I think the title was referring to was the acts committed in "The Name of The Doctor".  The current doctor even says this to the new big reveal doctor.  So I am still holding out hope that we will learn his name.  I mean we have to right? Right?

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