‘THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Clara and the Doctor’s Secret with the Eleventh Doctor

N.B.: Watch ‘She Said, He Said’ and ‘Clarence and the Whispermen’ before this episode.

The season finale of Series 7 and it features the appearances of all the Doctors from the TV series. Jenna Coleman as Clara keeps appearing in the Doctors’ lives throughout their timelines and she gets to be very important to them.

Clara comes across the First Doctor on Gallifrey from long ago and she persuades him to take a different TARDIS since he’s going for the wrong one. This was a pretty interesting moment to watch.

Clara also calls out to the Third Doctor in Bessie and follows the Fourth Doctor on Gallifrey. She bumps into the Second and Eighth Doctors and sees the Fifth Doctor within the Time Lords’ Matrix.

Also Clara calls to the Seventh Doctor hanging from a cliff-face and she misses the Sixth Doctor in a corridor. Most of these are clips from classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV tales but they were such a thrill to see.

This episode features the revelation of why Clara is impossible…since she was born to save the Doctor. I can tell you I was pretty gobsmacked when I saw it and it all seemed to make perfect sense.

I’ll give credit to Steven Moffat, the writer of the season finale for Series 7 of ‘Doctor Who‘. He certainly writes a compelling story that sets things up in a celebratory way for the 50th anniversary.

This episode also features the return of the Paternoster Gang including Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Catrin Stewart as Jenny and Dan Starkey as Strax. It was really great to see these three again.

Our heroes all come together in a dream-like meeting to save the Doctor. Clara joins the Paternoster Gang and Alex Kingston as River Song is also invited. It was also good to see her return in this episode.

River Song is now a data ghost, following her ‘death’ in ‘Silence in the Library’/’Forest of the Dead’. It was very interesting to see River again following that story and also see how she behaves in this one.

This episode also features the return of The Great Intelligence with Richard E. Grant and their new servants called the Whispermen. These Whispermen, dressed in Victorian clothes, are quite horrific.

The story itself is about the Doctor’s secret being discovered and him being terribly distraught about it. The secret is found in the place where he must never go to on his travels as it is where he is dead.

The secret is in the Doctor’s grave called Trenzalore. Trenzalore was mentioned by Dorium Maldovar a few times. It is the place for where the first question is to be asked and for where “Silence will Fall”.

Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Clara have to go to Trenzalore and rescue their friends, Vastra; Jenny and Strax. This is a trap that the Doctor falls for, as the Great Intelligence waiting there for him to open up his tomb.

Fortunately, the Doctor doesn’t get to reveal his name, since River says it for him as the data ghost. I’m pleased we don’t have the Doctor’s name mentioned, as I want that mystery to be kept a secret.

Inside the Doctor’s tomb, there’s his time-stream sizzling in the centre of his dead TARDIS. This is where his memories and experiences are kept. Slowly the Doctor weakens as he’s soon about to die.

The Great Intelligence have their revenge, as they go inside the Doctor’s time-stream and change his victories into defeats. That’s when Clara enters the time-steam as well in order to rescue the Doctor.

Once Clara goes inside, she’s splintered across time and space to save the Doctor from being destroyed. This does explain why Clara had died twice in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ and ‘The Snowmen’.

Clara ends up lost, alone and frightened in the wilderness. But the Doctor, once he’s recovered, goes into his time stream as well and rescues Clara. They’re happy and relieved once they find each other.

The Doctor then sees someone in the distance. It’s a version of the Doctor that he has chosen to forget. This apparently was the Doctor who ‘broke the promise’ and it is the Doctor’s greatest secret.

The man in the distance reveals what he did was ‘in the name of peace and sanity’. The Doctor knows this to be true, but he bitterly rebukes him saying he did not do it ‘in the name of the Doctor’.

Introducing JOHN HURT…as THE DOCTOR…

What this meant at the time, I had no idea. I couldn’t wait to find out what it was all about!

The DVD/Blu-ray special features for this episode are as follows. There are the prequels ‘She Said, He Said’ and ‘Clarence and the Whispermen’. There’s the documentary called ‘The Companions’, which focuses on only the new TV series companions and there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew. There’s the ‘Behind-The-Scenes: The Name of the Doctor’ featurette, which contains behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew. There’s the ‘Creating Clara’ featurette, and there are the mini-episodes ‘Clara and the TARDIS’, ‘The Inforarium’ and ‘Rain Gods’. On ‘The Name of the Doctor’ disc (Disc 1) of the ’50th Anniversary Collector’s Edition DVD’ of ‘Doctor Who’, there’s ‘The Night of the Doctor’ prequel and the ‘Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide’ documentary.

Series 7 – Part 2 has been a truly enjoyable collection of ‘Doctor Who’ episodes. I enjoyed Clara’s journey with the Eleventh Doctor and found their Doctor-companion relationship very refreshing. They spark off each other pretty well and I was looking forward to seeing where they would go next.

‘The Name of the Doctor’ rating – 9/10

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The previous story For the First Doctor was ‘The Beginning’ (Audio) For Susan was ‘The Beginning’ (Audio) For the Second Doctor was ‘The Five Doctors’ (TV) For the Third Doctor was ‘The Five Doctors’ (TV) For the Fourth Doctor was ‘The Invasion of Time’ (TV) For the Fifth Doctor was ‘Arc of Infinity’ (TV) For the Sixth Doctor was ‘Wink’ (Audio) For the Seventh Doctor was ‘Dragonfire’ (TV) For the Eighth Doctor was ‘DS AL Fine’ (ST) For the War Doctor was ‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ For the Ninth Doctor was ‘Bad Wolf’/’The Parting of the Ways’ (TV) For the Tenth Doctor was ‘Silence in the Library’/’Forest of the Dead’ (TV) For the Eleventh Doctor was ‘The Birthday Boy’ (Comic) For Clara was ‘The Birthday Boy’ (Comic) For River Song was ‘Silence in the Library’/’Forest of the Dead’ (TV)	The next story For the First Doctor is ‘The Exiles’ (ST) For Susan is ‘The Exiles’ (ST) For the Second Doctor is ‘Avatars of the Intelligence’ (LWM) (Book) For the Third Doctor is ‘The Five Doctors’ (TV) For the Fourth Doctor is ‘The Invasion of Time’ (TV) For the Fifth Doctor is ‘Arc of Infinity’ (TV) For the Sixth Doctor is ‘Piece of Mind’ (TLOCJ) (Audio) For the Seventh Doctor is ‘Dragonfire’ (TV) For the Eighth Doctor is ‘Quantum Heresy’ (ST/Audio) For the Ninth Doctor is ‘Battle Scars’ (ST/Audio) For the Tenth Doctor is ‘The Christmas Invasion’ (TV) ‘Donna Noble: Kidnapped!’ (Audio)  For the Eleventh Doctor is ‘She Said, He Said’ (Webcast) For Clara is ‘She Said, He Said’ (Webcast)
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