Ranger

Yeah, I think he said that the reset gave him his full powers or whatever.

I thought it was OK. But I think I liked last year's snowmen Xmas special better.

Groucho

Susan? Eww...

Supermallet

Susan? I would hope not, what with all the flirting and the kissing and such.

Josh-da-man

I'll need more time to mull it over and watch a few more times, but my first impression was that it was too Moffaty.

1. I'm not really a fan of the idea that the Doctor takes long 'breaks' between scenes and episodes. That this one episode covered something like ONE THOUSAND years just seems a bit much to swallow. And it also means that, if Tennant's Doctor was 900 years old, then it means that Smith has been The Doctor longer than all of his predecessors combined.

2. Another damned deus ex machina ending. The heavens, quite literally, opened up and imbued the Doctor with magical abilities that vanquished his enemies. Jesus... that's Hack Writing 101.

3. Daleks and Cybermen and Sontarans and Weeping Angels and Silences... too many enemies and a general lack of focus. And, oh God, another mysterious person from the Doctor's past/future who's probably going to end up being River Song...

4. Enough with the Christmas specials. The whole Christmas thing seemed really tacked-on and forced.

5. Not a fan of making Smith the thirteenth technical Doctor. He was introduced as the Eleventh, he recently got bumped up to being the technical twelfth, and then the metacrisis Doctor got retconned as a regeneration. This just seems to forced as a way for Moffat to claim the 'final' Doctor for himself and the fiftieth anniversary. I'm actually okay with the War Doctor being shoe-horned into the count, but I really think that the thirteenth and final incarnation of the Doctor should have been one that the audience knew was number thirteen.

And now I'm going to stop before I start sounding too much like John Byrne.

Josh-da-man

I hope that when the Time Lords come back we can see (President?) Romana again.

windom

I agree with everything you said, Josh-da-man. And for being the longest incarnation of the Doctor, this one only had 3 (or 4 if you count, River) companions during that time? I also don't like how now the companions basically get to live a normal life on Earth while the Doctor pops in and out of their lives when he feels like it and takes them on an adventure. If he's doing that why does he keep going back to the same companion? Why not juggle multiple companions in this fashion? Being a companion should be a full time job and not a weekend excursion.

I think Romana is still stuck in E-Space as far as I remember.

danfindlay

Nice send-offI guess but this whole damn thing is confusing to me. What about the episode with Timothy Dalton as President Rassilon?

Supermallet

End of Time was the High Council of Gallifrey trying to break the time locks surrounding the events of the Time War to return to the current timeline. They were still in our universe, just locked off in time. In the events of the 50th anniversary, the Doctors put Gallifrey in a pocket universe, where it's currently being held. If the events of End of Time had unfolded with Gallifrey breaking free of the time locks, it would have brought the whole Time War with it. This way, the Time War ended, Gallifrey is isolated, so if it came back, it would be without a whole host of horrors.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

Thanks. Picked it up this AM. Now lets hope the BBC and AZ don't jack up the price like they did with the 50th for those that didn't.

Super X

That's correct. And the show has established that regeneration energy can be quite explosive (see "The End of Time Part 2"), so the Doctor was directing that energy at the ships as he was regenerating.

That was at the beginning of "Journey's End". The Doctor was regenerating after being shot by a Dalek, his body repaired itself but, before it could change his appearance, he redirected the remaining regeneration energy into the jar containing his lopped-off hand from "The Christmas Invasion" since that hand was part of him and could hold it. Of course, the energy later caused the hand to become a fully-formed duplicate of Tennant and we had two of him around.

Tom Banjo

What was up with Capaldi acting like he didn't know how to fly the TARDIS? That was my only real wtf moment.

Shannon Nutt

I thought "The Time of the Doctor" was a huge mess and a big disappointment. Not Matt's fault - just a very uneven and unentertaining story by Moffat. I'm worried that his storytelling/showrunning is going to result in Capaldi becoming one of the least favorite Doctors ever - hopefully Peter being a more established actor will mean he'll have some input when he gets scripts as poorly written as the one we saw last night.

It made me wish Matt had re-generated at the end of the 50th Anniversary special - he deserved a much better final story than the one he got.

RocShemp

Isn't the Doctor usually a bit out of sorts just after a regeneration?

Jay G.

I watched the episode last night, and while I enjoyed it, it was a bit of a disappointment coming after the excellent 50th anniversary special. This one ended up seeming a bit overstuffed as Moffat tried to bring all of the Matt Smith era storylines together, tying up loose ends and throwing every enemy in, even if it didn't make too much sense.


An interesting thought is that maybe a Time Lord's body can only hold the energy for 12 regenerations at a time?

Well, he did use up one regeneration at the end of this episode, so it likely means he only has 11 more regenerations left.

Well, in the Night of the Doctor minisode we see that 8th regenerated into a young War Doctor, who aged quite a bit. So it's possible the War Doctor lived hundreds of years as well, but his age wasn't counted by the later incarnations since he wasn't "really" the Doctor.

Also, the Doctor lies, almost certainly about his age.

Once interesting thing about the 11th aging so much, especially in appearance, is that it might make it easier for Matt Smith to return in later years. 50 years from now, Matt Smith could appear as The Doctor, and his aged appearance would fit in existing continuity.

Well, he did spend close to a millennium protecting The Crack, so I'm not sure the ending wasn't earned. We always knew that giving The Doctor more lives was going to involve a cheat of some kind.

But what did the ending resolve? It appears that The Crack has disappeared for the moment, so I assume Trenzalore is now safe from attack, since there's nothing there to attack. Will The Crack reappear somewhere/when else, and The Doctor will be able to release Gallifrey?

Do you mean enough with a special released on Christmas, or enough with them being Christmas themed? They've always taken place during Christmas since the show came back, but I agree that naming the town Christmas, and it apparently always being Christmas there, was a bit much. It may have been better if the only Christmas part had been the parts with Clara's family.

The Metacrisis Doctor wasn't "retconned" as a regeneration; it was a regeneration. I think that's how he got called "Metacrisis Doctor" in the first place, since his appearance caused a metacrisis in terms of fans determining whether that regeneration counted or not to the total count.

However, that doesn't make Smith's the 13th. He's technically the 12th incarnation in that body. The 10th burned through a regeneration without changing appearance. The Metacrisis Doctor doesn't count as a number as he's more a side-effect of that regeneration than a proper incarnation.

DRG

I'm kind of in the same boat. I just don't think Moffat is very good as these 'epic moment' type episodes. I think he's great with scary episodes and with quirky/fun episodes, but whenever he tries to do these deep, twisty existential storylines they just fail for me.

The regeneration and the cameo leading up to it I loved, but the entire part of the Doctor living this long lifetime protecting Christmas had no weight to me at all. On paper it should feel like a huge sacrifice, a huge deal... but onscreen it had no emotional heft. Maybe it's because I didn't care about the people in the town, maybe it's because they rushed through the whole thing with narration... I'm not sure.

TheNightFlier

Yeah. I've seen this criticism everywhere since the episode aired. I guess people forgot about Tennant crashing into things when he first regenerated from Eccleston, or Smith forgetting for a bit that the TARDIS was actually crashing.

It's also entertaining seeing the tweens and fangirls complain about Capaldi being too old.

Tom Banjo

I do remember Tennant being out of sorts, but that ultimately was just him sleeping through most of his first episode. Smith seemed mostly pre-occupied with his taste buds. Eccleston seemed fine (assuming that when we first see him he had just regenerated from Hurt).
Perhaps I'd have a different perspective if I'd seen more classic DW.

Jay G.

Smith spent the first few seconds of his regeneration checking body parts, then had to concentrate very hard to remember that the TARDIS was crashing.

Tennant actually seemed fine in the few seconds after regeneration in the Children in Need special, but then was loopy, crashing the TARDIS, at the opening of the Christmas Special.

I don't think we're to assume that we see Eccleston immediately after the regeneration, although likely soon after. It's possible that he was out of sorts for a while before getting it back together and then encountering Rose.

The Valeyard

Yes. The Doctor usually acts loopy post-regeneration.

Tom Baker:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/K3CWXqUqPFA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Peter Davison's regeneration failed so he spent most of his first story sorting it out:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JovVVUMD_0w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Colin Baker's personality fluctuated post-regeneration. The worst moment was trying to strangle his companion (Peri):
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/bcwiXY7YCyY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Regeneration is a traumatic experience for most Time Lords. Other Time Lords seem to be able to ease into it (like Romana and the Master).

The Valeyard

Deleted bit from "Time of the Doctor":

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HyS8oD64L-s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


And a making of:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EH3hbEo_g1E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

ddrknghtrtns

That was the pits last night! Maybe with Capaldi and hopefully a new producer in the near future they can bring the show back on track.

Timber

Ugh, there was a marathon of Who today so the episode got deleted. Is it being broadcasts again in the next week or so?

The Cow

DirecTV guide says next showing is Tue, Dec 31, 9:40PM EST

Jay G.

Yep, that's the next showing according to BBCA's schedule:
http://www.bbcamerica.com/doctor-who/schedule/
http://www.bbcamerica.com/schedule/

Timber

Thanks guys. Didn't really want to wait a week to see this but oh well.