This review can also be found on Media Gateway.
On the channel of BBC One at the hour of Seven, when no living creature can speak falsely or fail to answer, a question will be asked. A question that must never, ever be answered... In Steven Moffat’s phenomenal finale, The Name of the Doctor, the enigmatic Time Lord is forced to travel to the one place that he must never go, and his greatest secret is revealed...
Ever since The Wedding of River Song back in 2011, we’ve known that the Doctor’s path will eventually lead him to Trenzalore, where he will be asked his name at the ambiguous yet foreboding Fall of the Eleventh. It’s been the topic of intrigue for some time, but now here we are, the Doctor inextricably summoned to Trenzalore at the behest of the Great Intelligence in order to save the lives of those he cares about. However, in doing so the Doctor not only puts himself in jeopardy, but his actions could have major implications for the rest of the Universe and time itself...
The Name of the Doctor has to be, in my opinion, the finest series finale we’ve had in a very long time! From start to finish, this episode delivered on all fronts, providing us with a superb story and answers to some of this series’ lingering questions, as well as an homage to the past with a look to the future. The whole thing really was bloody brilliant!
The revelation of Clara takes place early in the episode, revealing that she was born to save the Doctor (although quite why or how is not explained until much later) through a montage of Jenna-Louise Coleman being inserted into old footage of almost every pre-2005 generation of Doctor Who, seeing Clara as a constant throughout the Doctor’s life, even being the one who helped Hartnell’s Doctor choose the right TARDIS (although I was under the impression that it was the TARDIS who chose him). Not unlike my crack in the mirror theory (detailed in my review of Hide), Clara is fractured into a million pieces, a million echoes of herself spread across time, living and dying over and over to save the Doctor. We now know the mystery of the Impossible Girl, and it’s actually quite a satisfying answer to the question, neatly wrapping up the enigma and tying it up with a bow.
However, it’s the truth of Trenzalore that provides the most intrigue in this episode; it’s the site of the Doctor’s final battle, and his final resting place. Here, on the Fields of Trenzalore, is the Doctor’s tomb, and quite a familiar old thing it is too. Trenzalore is as much a graveyard for the TARDIS as it is for the Doctor; a fitting end for them both, intrinsically linked even in death. And at the heart of the dying TARDIS, a tear in time; scar tissue from the Doctor’s journeys throughout time and space. This tear represents the Doctor, his own personal timeline, things that have been and things that will be - something no time traveller should ever come across. There’s something remarkably mystifying about this idea and it’s used to great effect in this story, especially towards the end.
It was a welcome return for Richard E Grant as the Great Intelligence, with a cohort of the fantastically creepy, Slenderman-esque Whispermen, as the villain of the piece. Gaining access to the Doctor’s tomb, the Great Intelligence’s master plan was to intercept the Time Lord’s timeline, destroying himself in order to turn all of the Doctor’s victories in to defeats, essentially rewriting the past, present and future. Despite his menacing presence, and the build up he received in The Snowmen and The Bells of Saint John, it’s surprising to see the Great Intelligence just go like that. Admittedly, it’s a fine act of villainous vengeance, but for something so steeped in Who lore and portrayed by the eminent Richard E Grant, Mr G. Intelligence felt sorely underused and had the potential to be a superb recurring foe for the Doctor. That being so, it’s entirely possible that as he was disseminated throughout the Doctor’s timeline he could pop up again sometime in the future (although that may just be wishful thinking on my behalf).
In addition, The Name of the Doctor sees the return of the Paternoster Gang (Vastra, Jenny and Strax), and the Doctor’s non-TARDIS wife, River Song. Although it felt as if River’s storyline had come to an end in The Angels Take Manhattan, Alex Kingston reprises the role in this episode to provide something she never truly got; a wonderfully understated and tender farewell. It’s difficult to give a natural end to a character whose story has essentially been upside-down and backwards since inception (a veritable Schrödinger’s Cat, both dead and alive depending on which way you look at the timeline), and although I wasn’t sure whether she needed to reappear, I’m incredibly pleased she did. It’s a genuinely touching moment between herself and the Doctor, and something that both Kingston and Matt Smith portrayed superbly.
It would be remiss of me not to mention Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart and Dan Starkey as Vastra, Jenny and Strax (a trio I am still trying to conjure up a fitting alliterative title for) as they continue to prove that a Victorian era crime drama spin-off series featuring these three would be bloody fantastic! Jenny's death during their 'conference call' (a sort of psychic Skype, which personally I reckon would be infinitely better than actual Skype) was a fantastically sinister moment with Catrin Stewart's chilling line, “I'm so sorry Ma'am, so sorry, so sorry, I think I've been murdered.” Thankfully, she was bought back to life later on; the loss of Jenny would be a terrible thing to happen to the trio. These are three great characters, brilliantly brought to life by three fantastic actors, and I certainly hope to see more of them in the coming series (maybe even an appearance in the 50th Anniversary?!).
Naturally, the absolute stand-out performance was that of Matt Smith. He never ceases to portray a consistently outstanding Doctor, and this episode was certainly no exception. There are times that a truly great actor can project an emotion and make it genuinely palpable, and that’s something Smith achieved at multiple points throughout this episode (and many, many other episodes!), not least during his deep concern and sorrow upon hearing the name Trenzalore. And of course, the man who doesn’t like goodbyes having to let go of the one he loves and finally bid her farewell was a truly tangible scene.
However, regardless of how outstanding this entire episode proved to be, there is one singular moment that steals the show and overshadows everything else in a revelation . The Name of the Doctor is an apt title, but not for the reasons many were anticipating, and not for the first time is a cunning turn of phrase to intentionally mislead. In the recesses of the Doctor’s timeline lies a truth that the he has tried to bury... One of his incarnations, but one he does not call the Doctor. “The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like a promise you make,” the Doctor explains of this mystery figure, “he's the one who broke the promise.”
This is the kind of phenomenal finale we have lacked for quite some time, it’s something that genuinely blows you away, and provides us with possibly one of the greatest cliffhangers in Who history, leading into the 50th Anniversary on 23rd November. And I am excited! Not least because I love John Hurt, he’s a magnificent gentleman and consummate actor, but also because it opens up so much speculation and anticipating for the anniversary special.
So, without further ado, let the theorising commence! My initial thought was that Hurt could be the Valeyard, an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor’s nature from between his twelfth and final incarnations, but that doesn’t seem to fit with what little has been revealed... The Eleventh Doctor - that is to say, Smith’s Doctor - seems to possess knowledge of this other man, “he’s the one who broke the promise.” This also implies that this incarnation was not true to the Doctor’s name. A doctor heals people, and Hurt’s Doctor did something that goes against that name. He did not heal; he killed. Hurt hurt people, if you will.
He did what he did without choice, in the name of peace and sanity... We’ve always assumed that Smith is the Eleventh, because McGann was the Eighth in the 1996 film, and Eccleston came next when the show was revived in 2005 (so it was assumed Tennant was Tenth). What if there was a forgotten incarnation, between McGann and Eccleston, the true ninth incarnation of the man we know as the Doctor? This would be the incarnation who fought in the Time War, sealing his own people - the Time Lords - and the Daleks in a time-lock, and in doing so brought the war to an end. The Doctor would look back on this time with nothing but sorrow and regret, and see the man who had to commit these acts as someone other than himself, a man who did not act in the name of the Doctor. “I said he was me, I never said he was the Doctor.”
It’s going to be a long wait for the 50th Anniversary, but I have a feeling it’s going to be worth it!
I bloody love John Hurt.
If you missed The Name of the Doctor because the Great Intelligence interrupted your timeline (almost did mine, neighbours came and knocked on my door half-way through the episode), you can watch it again on iPlayer here.
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