So who is Clara? What is the Doctors secret?
The episode is a lead in for the 50th anniversary story (coming to us Novermber 23rd) but with so many questions, so much to get through, what is the name of the Doctor?
***SPOILERS***
Pre-title and we get the fan love in that we all deserve. Clara meeting all the classic series Doctors. Talking to Hartnell, C.Baker walking behind her, her follwing T.Baker. We see McCoy hanging, Davison falling, Betsy nearly running her over and McGann and Troughton passing in front of her face.
"What kind of idiot would try and steal a faulty TARDIS?"
I have to say I had tears in my eyes pretty much all the way through that scene. Who wouldn't? It was a perfect way to remind us of the 8 wonderful men who played the Doctor's before the show came back in 2005. 8 Men who changed our lives. The 8 men who made the show a success so much so that in 2005 it was able to come back at all!
Back to modern Who and Vestra is meeting with a convicted murderer who is bargaining for his life with information on the Doctor.
Do you hear the Whisper Men
The Whisper Men are near
If you hear the Whisper Men
Then turn away your ear
Do not hear the Whisper Men
Whatever else you do
For once you've heard the Whisper Men
They'll stop... and look at you
The normal eerie poetry from Moffat.
Vestra tells Jenny at once and calls a conference call. Apparently you have to be unconscious for the call so they use candles to knock themselves out. Strax who is on holiday in Glasgow fighting in the Glorious name of the Sontaran Empire asks his fighting partner to hit him over the head with a shovel. Clara is sent a sulfurous soaked letter and an old friend is uploaded from her final resting place.
Yes we have a post-Library River Song!
After the meeting of the Doctors current companion and his wife (at this point River hasn't told Clara she is his wife) they start talking about the issue at hand. The Doctor. And Trenzalore. "The secret the Doctor would take to his grave has been discovered". But before River can shed any light to the situation Jenny has a chilling messages. She's been killed... And as she fades River snaps Vestra and Strax out of the sleep, they've all been surrounded by Whisper Men who have stopped Jenny's heart.
The Whisper Men invade the conference call but Clara is woken by the Doctor's voice. He was "looking after" the kids but they made him play blind mans bluff so they could go to the cinema, which is a good thing as when Clara tells the Doctor about what happened I could have killed Matt Smith. He had me in tears most of my first viewing of the episode with his performance and once again showed how lucky we are to have him as the Doctor at this moment in time. This tiny little moment could have been overplayed (not naming any names) but he was perfect. In fact the way he underplayed it to a point, going from his normal jolly eccentric self to a more sombre and haunted man was chilling. He really looked like he had a secret he wanted to keep not only that he knows exactly what Trenzalore is.
It is these moments from Matt which make him a wonder as the Doctor. He looks like he is about 1,000 years old, he looks alien and he looks like he's alone. Such a wonderful performance from a wonderful actor.
The secret hasn't been found, the Doctor's grave has been found. Trenazlore is where the Doctor has been buried.
We also find out what the one thing that could possibly take him to Trenazlore is. His friends. Another teary moment where he tells Clara that the Paternoster Gang were his friends through dark times, they never judged him they were always just kind. But Clara doesn't need to be explained to she knows why the have to go and off they go to the TARDIS' annoyance. When She figures out where they are going she turns herself off so it is left for the Doctor to turn the anti-grave off and fall into the grave yard. His final resting place. The grave yard of his final battle.
Clara is startled when suddenly River shows up, she's kept her mental link to Clara but she hasn't got time to say much as the Doctor turns around and see's her grave. This is the moment when Clara finds out that River is dead, but there isn't any time as the Whisper Men are upon them and River guides the Doctor through Clara to the entrance of his tomb. Her tomb is the entrance "They'd never bury my wife out here"... Funny moment as Clara realizes who River is.
Back to the Paternoster Gang and it isn't all teary. Jenny is brought back by Strax and they come face to face with Dr Simeon who now is just the Great Intelligence. Richard E Grant is given a lot more time then he had in the Snowmen and if you don't appreciate his character from this season then it is a shame because he gives a chilling performance and was a wonderful face for the G.I all series long.
Whilst Simeon is with the Paternoster Gang River is telling Clara about how she died in the Library and how the Doctor doesn't like endings. But there isn't long as the Whisper Men are on them.
Simeon tells us about the Doctor's last battle...
"It was a minor skermish compared to the Doctors blood soaked standards. Not exactly the Time War or enough to finish it. In the end it was too much for the old man. The Doctor lives his life in darker hues. He will have other names before the end. Storm. The Beast. The Valeyard."
In the catacombes of the dead TARDIS Clara starts to remember the events of Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS including that conversation. She knows that she is the Impossible Girl, the she has died at least twice before. She doesn't get any answers from the Doctor though as they run right to the G.I and the Paternoster Gang. The G.I confronts the Doctor and asks him his name "Doctor what is your name?" When he refuses to answer the G.I tells the Whisper Men to stop his friends hearts. They put their hands into their chests and his friends start to die but suddenly the doors open... Yeah it is the memory of River that speaks his name so we never hear it.
Inside of the TARDIS is the last living part of the Doctor. His timeline. It hangs beautifully in the centre of the console room. We get the cloister bell ringing out and even get to hear the voices of past Doctors coming out of the timeline. And as the paradox of the Doctor being in his own tomb so close to his timeline starts to hurt the Doctor the G.I walks into the "open wound" and explains "It will kill me, it will destroy you". He gets splintered into a million pieces all along the Doctor's timeline killing him at every turn.
Vestra starts calling off all the times when the Doctor would have died including "The Asylum" at those words Clara knew what had to be done. Before she does it we get Vestra explaining it isn't just the Doctor it'll effect, think of all the worlds and people he saved. And at those words Jenny disappears ("He saved you the first time we met"), Strax forgets that he is friends with Vestra and then disappears just before he attacks. Everything the Doctor did, all the people he saved, everything he has done is being rewritten.
The Doctor isn't the only person who doesn't want Clara to go in after the G.I. River is there telling her not to do it too, she tells her that she'll become mere echos. But Clara is determined.
"The Souffle isn't the souffle, the souffle is just the recipe."
"Run you clever boy and remember me."
"Doctor. Sorry but you're about to make a very big mistake. Don't steal that one steal this one. The navigation system might be knackered but you'll have much more fun"
As Clara saves the Doctor a million times he is determined to go in after her. River begs him to hear her, begs him to get into his TARDIS and save her but not like this and as she goes to slap him he stops her. Of course the Doctor could always hear her, always see her but he couldn't speak because it would hurt too much. As this seems the last goodbye to River Song it is heartbreaking.
Back to Clara and she's finally landed, she see's all his faces all of them running past him. The Doctor sends her something to help her remember who she is "This is you Clara, everything you are and will be" the leaf from Bells of St John. Finally she finds Eleven who for this one time saves Clara instead of Clara saving him. But there isn't time for celebration as we finally find out the Doctor's secret.
"The name you choose is like the promise you make and he is the one that broke that promise."
"What I did I did without choice"
"I know"
"In the name of peace and sanity."
"But not in the name of the Doctor."Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor.
What a wonderful episode! Not only do we get to see all our Doctor's again but we get a mystery cliffhanger. What did John Hurts Doctor do that it can't be in the name of the Doctor and how the hell did our little show end up with JOHN HURT as a version of the Doctor?
I can't agree on any point that the episode didn't have a point. At the end of the day we know that the anniversary special is only going to be so long so using this episode as a lead in to the 50th is brilliant. We now don't need a reason tacked onto the beginning of the episode as to why John Hurt is there, we know that he is the Doctor, that he did something that the Doctor is ashamed of.
There is just so much that I love about this episode. The use of the Paternoster Gang along with River Song was lovely. Clara being shattered into the Doctor's life and saving him is beautiful. The fans getting to see all the Doctors again just makes me want to cry. Just hearing their voices is enough!
For the first time I liked Clara, I think I've always like her in Moffat episodes I just didn't like the story of Bell's all that much. Everything in between Bells and TNoTD has kind of downplayed who Clara is but not given her much of a character. Thankfully in the finale her story made me cry even if her character had been bland up till now.
The lack of music also helped set the scene, it gave everything much more impact and Clara's theme is wonderfully gentle and matches her character so well.
It was such a simple episode yet it carried such a punch in delivery. It just felt so special to watch it.
Personally the ending had been spoilt online for me, not by any of the American's who got the episode early through the DVD leak but by someone on Facebook sometime in April. Nevertheless the episode was able to still make that ending brilliant, knowing it was happening (or until it happened guessing that was what would happen) didn't ruin anything for me. On screen it was played so well by Jenna and Matt I couldn't possibly give them higher praise!
Will it go down as a classic episode? Maybe not because it was a set up piece more than anything. It did however work wonders and its place in Doctor Who history might be better judged when we have the 50th in our hands and watch them back to back. For now it has done its job. We have to wait till November and we have the biggest dangling thread in a long time to chew over till then.
Did it explain Clara? Yes and nicely so. For people who thought the Ponds were too much this was perfect for them. She jumped into his timeline and splintered herself into a million pieces to always save the Doctor. Soft mystery, wonderful ending.
Series 7b failed in so many ways for me. The episodes seemed abrupt and not put together well. We had exploding planets instead of imploding planets, Clara was never directed well... 7a was beautiful and humble, a total joy to watch. 7b has been hard going. Don't get me wrong we've had top performances, Matt has gotten slowly better by the second as always, it has attracted some of the best actors/actresses possible who have given us masterclasses in acting. But for me (and I am a giant Moffat era fan) there has been something missing. Something that has just made me think meh. THIS made up for it. Bookmarking a series that started off a treasure, got to the most heartbreaking thing in the "new" series for me (farewell Ponds) introduced us to the Impossible Girl and then kind of fizzled out a bit until the explosion that was this episode.
I literally can not find words for how amazing Matt Smith has been. Just perfect in this episode and so heartbreaking. His interaction with John Hurt albeit for seconds was so heartfelt. I can not wait to see them together again.
Someone knock me out and don't wake me up till November 23rd! This is going to be a LONG wait!
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