Review - The Name Of The Doctor

The title of this episode combined with the tag line it was promoted with had me very worried. Thankfully the thing I was worried about didn't happen, and I was able to very much enjoy The Name Of The Doctor.

Season 7, Episode 13 - The Name Of The Doctor

What can I say about this episode? I had to go into near Internet blackout in the lead up to its screening here in Australia to avoid spoilers. I don't think any spoilers would have diminished my enjoyment of the episode, but was glad I did. If anything the episode made me angry at whatever marketing department person it was that decided to drop that line in the poster above. Anyway, here's yet another spoiler-laden review from me.

This was yet another example of a near perfect episode structure. From the pre-credits opening hook we had a steady increase in threat and fairly natural plot exposition. The conference call was an interesting way of doing it, but it worked well and didn't seem forced. Vastra's embarrassment introducing Clara and River and River's jealousy were slightly off-putting, but that's more to do with the failure to clarify the relationship between The Doctor and Clara (platonic only, please). I loved Strax's weekend retreat though, and Jenny's "death" gave both Neve McIntosh and Catrin Stewart a chance to shine. There needs to be more of these guys, I can't say that enough.

I was simultaneously delighted and saddened with River's appearance in this episode. Although we've known she was dead since we met her, her exit this time was somehow more poignant. She will be missed, and not just because it frees the writers up to have The Doctor get freaky with someone else (please don't). Similarly I was sad to see Richard E Grant go. The Great Intelligence had potential for a wonderful recurring villain. Gods know they could use one now that they threw The Master away (such a waste). All of that was made up for by the appearance of John Hurt at the end. That scene alone has me so fired up for the 50th Anniversary Special. I'm hoping for more on The Time War and The Doctor's part in it. 

The Whispermen were nice and creepy and actually threatening too, which was good. I can't work out if they were maybe slightly underutilised or if there was just a lot packed into this episode. They were, however, another example of the "advance slowly and be menacing" variety of monster that seems to be becoming more prevalent in the show of late.

I can see now why they didn't have Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS play out like I suggested. They were saving that trick for Clara's journey through The Doctor's time stream. I still think they could have added a little of it to Journey though. This episode certainly shows it's possible. And didn't it look fantastic? Seeing all of the Doctors was pretty special.

My only real criticism of this episode is that the ending was slightly rushed and there was no real explanation of why the Great Intelligence died, but Clara didn't. Again, I'd have to place the blame squarely on the constraints of time. That said, we didn't get into the pacing issues seen in The Bells of Saint John, for example, and I wouldn't say Go, go, go, Geronimo! was a problem here.

Overall a very entertaining episode with a bit of everything. After some of the rather poor episodes this season, it was great to go out with a bang!

9/10

Can we fix it?

No, not really.

If anything it just needs some handwavium above and beyond River's hint that she was still linked to Clara and it would have tidied that ending up a bit more.

To be honest, I wouldn't bother touching it. This one's going in my favourites.