I might as well start where the episode does: with the best
pre-title sequence Doctor Who has had since The Time of Angels.
Some of the effects look absolutely terrible but conceptually
it's a stunning sequence which sets the tone and scale of the
rest of the adventure. The Name of the Doctor makes a huge
addition to Doctor Who lore by establishing where the Doctor
will die. Yes, I know in The Time of the Doctor we find out that
he doesn't actually die on Trenzalore, but this episode's job is
to convince us that he does. The decision to start the episode
with Clara, a character from the modern continuity, being
retconed into a moment as mythic and unfilmable as the First
Doctor and Susan stealing the TARDIS on Gallifrey demonstrates
this episode's willingness to play with the show's lore. It's a
statement of intent, communicating the mindset you have to be in
to fully accept big ideas like the Doctor's death and the
introduction of the War Doctor.
I love how confident Steven Moffat is when creating huge
game-changing plot points like this. Some would say he doesn't
have the right to make such massive changes, which is a
perfectly valid opinion to have. Personally, I think that in the
absence of Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert, whoever is the
showrunner should have absolute control to make whatever changes
they want to make. If everyone who ever wrote for the show was
too scared to make a lasting difference, Doctor Who would never
evolve and it certainly wouldn't still be on TV now. For that
reason, I embrace all the new changes and adore this episode for
having the guts to tell a big lore-bending story. It's not as if
Doctor Who has a canon anyway.
Another thing this pre-title sequence establishes is the
standard of the music. All of Murray Gold's tracks for this
episode are perfect. As well as the opening fanfare version of
This is Gallifrey, the musical highlight for me is the
Trenzalore theme that crops up many times throughout the 50th
anniversary trilogy. Its first use is by far its most effective,
when the Doctor and Clara emerge from the TARDIS and explore the
graveyard. The music is incredibly subtle and understated but
nevertheless sends shivers down your spine and has a weight that
makes you believe this is where the Doctor could die. From the
lighting to the direction to the music to the design of
Trenzalore and the sinister Whispermen, everything about this
episode has a sombre atmosphere that hasn't been fully captured
by the show since Logopolis. With The Name of the Doctor, Saul
Metzstein directs his fifth episode of Who and his work just
gets better and better. He manages to give everything a real
sense of gravity and importance, again helping you to believe
that this really is the Doctor's future grave.
Few things were known about this episode when it aired (that is
if you hadn't pre-ordered the Blu-Ray in which case the BBC
would've accidently sent the episode to you in full HD), but one
thing we knew for certain was that we'd see a resolution to
Clara Oswald's "Impossible Girl" arc. At this point, I'd like to
offer a defence against some popular criticisms of this arc in
fandom drama (I'll be referencing fandom drama and Moffat
criticism a lot during my reviews of the early Capaldi
episodes). Many have criticised Moffat's handling of Clara
(including me in the past), claiming she's nothing more than a
human Rubik's Cube; a mere puzzle for the Doctor to solve rather
than a fully fleshed-out character in her own right. However, as
I've come to realise in revisiting this series, the writing does
nothing to dehumanise or objectify Clara. Quite the opposite in
fact. While the Doctor is running around trying to figure out
her mystery, both he and the audience are constantly told how
normal she is.
In The Rings of Akhaten, the Doctor delves into her past hoping
to find clues to the great mystery but instead finds the
backstory of a completely average person. We see that her mother
died when she was young, which could be partly why she looks
after children and eventually pursues teaching as a career
(something she does after she starts travelling with the Doctor,
demonstrating that her life continues outside of the TARDIS). In
Hide, the Doctor seeks out Emma Grayling, a psychic who he
thinks can help him uncover Clara's mystery, but instead Emma
simply says that she's a "perfectly ordinary girl." With regards
to Clara, a majority of fans (again, including me) were
essentially playing the role of the Doctor; failing to see Clara
as a normal person and instead viewing her as some puzzle to be
solved. The revelation in The Name of the Doctor, that Clara
jumped into the Doctor's timeline to save all of reality works
so well because in the end she DID turn out to be an ordinary
person and her saving the universe was ultimately her choice.
My only problem with the way it's handled is the line "I'm Clara
Oswald. I'm the Impossible Girl. And I was born to save the
Doctor." For me, this completely misses the genius of Clara's
arc and undermines it a bit by reducing her accomplishment to a
big cliffhanger statement. She wasn't born to save the Doctor at
all. She isn't Amy or River Song who'd been conditioned from an
early age to obsess over the Doctor. She's a normal person, not
a puzzle. Had that line not been in this episode, I think
Clara's Series 7 story would've been almost perfect. What
would've made it truly perfect of course is if Steven Moffat had
come up with Clara way earlier and we saw at least one more
episode featuring one of Clara's echoes on top of Asylum of the
Daleks and The Snowmen. The revelation that Clara was supposed
to have existed way back at the show's beginning in 1963 is
slightly diminished by the fact she's actually only been around
since 2012. A few genuine Jenna Coleman cameos mixed in with
that opening montage would've made it perfect.
This episode also saw the return of River Song in what seems
like her final appearance. I really hope she comes back one day.
Silence in the Library promised a relationship between the
Doctor and River that would be stronger than any relationship
he'd previously had with another companion, but so far we
haven't seen that relationship entirely blossom. The Name of the
Doctor is only River's second episode since they got married and
already she appears to be leaving the show. I'd love to see some
River appearances in the Twelfth Doctor's era because now that
the Doctor knows who she is, that would bring a radical new
dynamic to their relationship that would allow them to become as
close as Silence in the Library said they would be. Based on a
line from The Time of Angels ("I've got pictures of all your
faces. You never show up in the right order, though. I need the
spotter's guide."), it's implied that River has met multiple
Doctors but doesn't know what order they come in, explaining why
she checks her diary with the Tenth Doctor and struggles to
place his age. For all she knows, Tennant's Doctor could come
after Smith's. Also, I just want to see how well Alex Kingston
plays the role opposite Peter Capaldi and what River makes of
his latest incarnation.
The Name of the Doctor is a fantastic series finale and is the
start of an excellent trilogy of stories marking five decades of
adventures through time and space.
Next: The Day of the Doctor