Naturally, as River Song would say - 'Spoilers!'
In an earlier post, written just after news broke of Matt Smith leaving the role of The Doctor, I asked who would replace him. The answer came in the form of a rather over-the-top live BBC One special, announcing the Twelfth Doctor as Peter Capaldi. This man seems to be as splintered across the Doctor Who universe (and beyond) as Clara Oswald was duplicated across the Doc's timelines at the end of The Name Of The Doctor. Firstly, we saw Capaldi as the Roman, Caecilius, in the 2008 Tenth Doctor episode, The Fires Of Pompeii, followed by his turn as Dr. Frobisher in 2009's Torchwood: Children Of Earth, Capaldi then played 'W.H.O Doctor' (as in World Health Organisation) in this year's World War Z. Now, Capaldi is THE Doctor, finally taking his place in the TARDIS at the end of The Time Of The Doctor, the 2013 Christmas special. He also turns up in the 1996 Vicar Of Dibley Christmas special (broadcast after Time, on Christmas Day) as Tristram Campbell, a Songs Of Praise producer. He appears with his fiancee, Aoife, played by Orla Brady, who portrays Tasha Lem - an old flame of our hero's - in Time Of The Doctor. Of course, Richard Curtis, who created Vicar Of Dibley wrote the 2010 Eleventh Doctor episode, Vincent And The Doctor. Good Lord, I'm lonely…
As to Time itself, I found it a mixed bag. It starts off all light and breezy, with Clara trying to get The Doctor to act as her boyfriend at her family Christmas dinner. Things thankfully get all dark and serious after he has embarrassed himself (and Clara) in front of her family, then resuming his investigation of a mysterious signal emanating from what turns out to be Trenzalore - The Doctor's resting place. Meanwhile, he discovers an old crack in time through which The Doctor's newly resurrected people, the Time Lords, are sending a signal. It's that old question, the first question, in fact - 'the one that must never be answered' - 'Doctor WHO?' (One would think that such an advanced race would know proper grammar and ask Doctor WHOM but I guess their idea of true English is different to humans.)
Once again, the question remains unanswered, at least to us. Here, The Doc knows that, to answer would bring the Time Lords back through the crack to be attacked by the vast army made up of The Doctor's enemies, including Daleks, Cybermen, etc, potentially kicking off another Time War. The Doctor (all thirteen of him) only just got done sorting out the last one, no need for another. So, our hero spends a thousand years defending the town of Christmas (hey, Moffat had to make it Christmassy somehow) from said villains, resisting the temptation to reunite with his lost people in the process. In the end, of course, something must give and, The Doctor being the self-sacrificial character he is, makes sure it's him, fighting to the point of death from old age. This regeneration - his twelfth (not forgetting John Hurt's 'Captain Grumpy') - is his final one and he knows it. It's a good job, then, that Clara Oswald is on hand once again to persuade those stubborn old Time Lords to grant their finest a new regeneration cycle, just in time for the Doctor to see off the encroaching Dalek force before they obliterate Christmas. The Doctor saves Christmas. Does the man never take a holiday?!
The Doctor expends a ludicrous amount of regeneration energy in blowing up the Dalek ships (who surely could've just shot him off that church tower he hid in? Also, when did The Doctor take to destroying his enemies so violently? When he's no other choice, presumably).
With the threat dispelled and now safely back in the TARDIS, The Doctor handily 'resets' to the youthful Matt Smith looks we first saw this Doctor with, in time to give an understated, bittersweet farewell speech to Clara. The scene we have all been waiting for turns out to be almost as drawn out as David Tennant's departure in The End Of Time but thankfully kept the former companion quotient to a minimum. Here, The Doctor experiences visions of little Amelia Pond - 'The first face this face ever saw' - and the grown up version, requiring a touchingly welcome Karen Gillan cameo.
Then, with a final lurch and a flash of that old golden-yellow regen-energy, Matt Smith is gone and there stands Peter Capaldi - eyebrows in attack position as he glares at an amusingly shocked Clara. The transition is so abrupt, I thought I'd missed a bit - the usual moment where we see an old Doctor's face morph into the new one's. Sadly not, and, without that satisfying change, it's oddly disjointed and anticlimactic. At least Capaldi's first lines are an improvement over Smith's first dialogue about still having legs, not being ginger, or a girl, then bellowing 'geronimo!' Instead, The Thirteenth Doctor complains about the colour of his new kidneys and seems to have forgotten how to fly the TARDIS. Oh dear. Better bring back River Song (only to help The Doc relearn his piloting skills, I've had enough of her otherwise), or that nice Tasha Lem, whom I much prefer as a romantic interest for the Doctor. Well, Brady and Capaldi looked good together in Vicar Of Dibley, so why not?
After the exciting Name Of The Doctor and Day Of The Doctor, it's a bit of a shame that Doctor Who's fiftieth anniversary year had to end on a messy and slightly disappointing note with Time, which at least gives Matt Smith a rousing, epic exit and Peter Capaldi a funny and surprising introduction.
Images courtesy of the BBC Doctor Who website
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