Review

A signal is being broadcast throughout space and time from the forgotten planet of Trenzalore which cannot be deciphered. The broadcast however is causing undiluted fear in any civilisation that receives it, and attracts the most advanced races to the planet to investigate. Fortunately for the inhabitants of Christmas, a small agrarian village on the planet, the Papal Mainframe has locked down the planet to avoid bloodshed. With a situation like this going down the Doctor of course isn't far away. A Cyberman head, the Doctor just happens to have lying around, can identify the origin of the signal as Gallifrey, the Doctor's home planet that is lost from time and space.

The Doctor is faced with battling Cyberman, Daleks, Weeping Angels, and about every other nemesis he has developed through the years to defend Christmas and its inhabitants. Aiding the Doctor are companion Clara, the Papal Church, and the locals. Something is seeking him out through a split in the skin of reality, if he acknowledges it the past will re-emerge and the Time Wars will begin again. Can the Doctor save the day with the defences starting to crumble under a Dalek onslaught?

While a lot of people have singled out this Christmas special as having huge problems I would be telling porkies if I didn't state pretty much every special under the pen of Steven Moffat has been pretty bad. With the Time of the Doctor Moffat is closing off a lot of threads that have been floating around over the last four or so years, but still adds confusion to the whole Doctor numbering system. Even worse Moffat has been listening to the Whovian community, notably the newbie Yank one, and throws in so many references that I was reduced to face palming. Moffat, and his legion of fans, might think this is cool but it's leading to some fracking bad episodes, especially those that have involved Matt Smith.

Notably Time was the last ride for Matt Smith in the role of The Doctor, which pretty much ensured cheers around our neck of the woods. Smith had the misfortune of following in the footsteps of the great David Tenant and has had to endure the various scripts Moffat has devised so is probably allowed more slack than we have been giving him. Once again Moffat layers it on with a prolonged regeneration scene that throws the pace of the episode to hell and beyond, though it was nice to see Amy Pond getting a final appearance. When the regeneration does finally happy it's in a blink, no pun intended, of the eye and we get a quick cameo from the new Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Exit Smith enter Capaldi to the resounding sound of "is that it!"

Moffat has to close so many threads his Xmas special for 2013 turns into a disaster under the weight of it all!

The problem with Time of the Doctor is that Moffat tries to jam too much plot into the slim sixty odd minute running time, we really needed another half of an hour to do the concepts justice, and quite probably a better screen writer. The start of the episode is sort of cool, for those who like things on the epic side of the equation, but I was sort of reminded of The Pandorica Opens. This wouldn't be the only time I was wondering if Moffat was perhaps recycling scenes and ideas from previous episodes. The Doctor investigates two of the ships, having quite possibly done a few more prior to the episode starting, and we get a humorous style interlude with both the Daleks and the Cybermen. Clearly Moffat is going to tick off the Doctor's major adversaries in the modern series.

Through the middle of Time things drag a bit as Director Jamie Payne completely loses hold on anything approaching pacing. We get more humour, Clara battling the complexity of a Christmas turkey dinner - anyone else thinking Grandma was a ring in for Wilfred Mott? -, the Doctor doing his normal schlock, and for no apparent reason two Sontarians discovering their cloaking device has been compromised. We also get an interlude with the Weeping Angels, which does nothing more than remind us of that particular monster, and then they simply disappear from the episode, assumed lost in a snow storm or something. The Doctor spends the next 300 odd years defending the Township of Christmas from various alien incursions, which is about as long as the viewer probably thinks the block takes. On the bright side there's a whole bunch of adversaries shown in the background via a Punch and Judy show and drawings done by the children of the town. Fingers crossed this is the Producers indicating new adversaries will feature during the next incarnation of the Doctor.

During this part of Time Moffat is emphasising the relationship between Matt Smith's Doctor and Clara, which of course is an attempt to setup the dramatically overwrought final act. On the bright side we do get an explanation as to why the TARDIS exploded in a previous season and also the whole militant church thing that went down in A Good Man Goes To War. Oh not to mention the Silence, and how that comes about. Moffat may have his story lines confused to buggery here, but given the vagaries of time travel he can probably write himself out of that particular corner.

I had a lounge room of people watching the episode including a compliment of non-Who watchers, who not surprisingly spend the entirety of Time asking questions as the show supposes you are up on the whole Whovian thing, thanks Moffat. About the only question the Whovians in the room couldn't answer was where the flock the Doctor got the Cyberman head named Handles, I was expecting him to call it Wilson, but whatever. I did however point out that Handles was a stand in for the tin dog, which went no way to explaining anything, but once again points out Moffat being way too clever for his own good. Moffat fans think "The Hurt Doctor" is clever, let's face facts here you would want to be pretty blatant with the script in the face of that level of fan peppiness.

The final act of Time arrives after what seems a few hours and its back to the full on action. Dalek troops have managed to breach Christmas' defences and things are looking pretty bleak for the Doctor, who has aged markedly, and Clara, who isn't going anywhere soon despite the Doctor's best efforts to put her out of harm's way. I guess it's fitting that Matt Smith's final confrontation is with this particular nemesis but from about this point things start to go markedly wrong. Moffat is clearly as confused as the rest of us on the Doctor numbering and regeneration thing, though he naturally comes up with the most implausible reason possible for the next regeneration, frack you Moffat that was fracking stupid! I'm not even going to try to talk through the Doctor's final defence against the Dalek hordes; ladies and gentlemen we have perhaps the stupidest ever scene in the whole history of Doctor Who. I'm still face palming like a mad bastard.

And finally we hit the Matt Smith regeneration scene that goes on and on as Moffat and Director Payne try their very best to reconstruct amateur theatrics at your local repertory society. You can almost see Smith hamming it up as the scene drags, guess they were going for audience empathy or something, I was just thinking "get the frack on with it". Finally we do get the new Doctor, but it's in the blink of an eye, was it just me or have they allowed Capaldi to go with his native Scottish accent?

There are some cool aspects to Time of the Doctor that were enough to have me bright eyed and bushy tailed, who's not going to dig a wooden Cyberman! The episode is part three of a loose trio that informs the final appearance of Matt Smith's Doctor. In The Name of the Doctor we learn, along with the Doctor, that Trenzalore is where his life is fated to end. Through 2010 the "crack in the universe" was a common plot arc which is now linked with the fate of Gallifrey as revealed in The Day of the Doctor. So in effect Moffat is tying up some loose ends while building some intriguing possibilities for future seasons.

I've given up being disappointed by Doctor Who Christmas specials, generally they range from face palming to having me wondering if there isn't some leftover turkey to make a sandwich with. The Time of the Doctor was at least interesting, though as stated Moffat has tried to jam way too much into the episode, and it did involve the last ride of Matt Smith as the Doctor. I was expecting a whole bunch more from this special but Moffat disappointed once again, there definitely needs to be at least one more regeneration, no prizes for guessing who that should relate to. No recommendation on this episode, no wonder Doctor Who has been drifting in viewing numbers through the Commonwealth markets.

Unconfirmed, rumour has it that The Time of the Doctor is the 800th episode of Doctor Who! Outstanding, here as ScaryMinds we only have 780 odd more episides to cover and we're all caught up ... someone pass me a bottle of the hard stuff.

ScaryMinds Rates this episode as ...