NuWho Rewatch: Time of the Doctor
Apr. 13th, 2016 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatIt's the Eleventh Doctor's final story and, oh look! it's Victorian Christmas planet again. I really didn't rate this story much last time around so I was suprised to find myself liking it much better on second viewing.
I think the finale really benefits from having watched the whole Eleventh Doctor arc play through for a second time with the knowledge of how it fits together. On first viewing I felt Time and the Doctor smacked of frantic resolution of plot threads. This time the overall structure was much clearer; the Doctor's death and the events surrounding it have been echoing back throughout his final regeneration. This is typical of the kind of plotting Moffat has favoured in Doctor Who. To an extent the whole thing is Blink writ large. I still think a lot of the dots don't join as well as they might. The universe/history has now been rewritten on a grand scale at least twice, if not three, times during the Doctor's eleventh incarnation which is certainly a convenient continuity get-out-of-jail-free card for future producers though one feels it is perhaps twice more than was necessary.
There are still parts of the finale that don't really work. Clara's family, in particular, making their only appearance seem rather wasted. Possibly Moffat (who was presumably even, at the time, thinking of centering the next season around Clara's every-day life more) was experimenting with a more Davies' era set up where some of the story is driven by intra-family tensions, but it seems like he must have ultimately decided he didn't want to take that route. Here it's fairly obvious that the family scenes exist only to give Clara something to do in between the moments where she is needed on Trenzalore and, in a story, already straining a bit with the amount it is trying to do it is awkward to have time wasted in this way.
The town of Christmas on the planet of Trenzalore with its 19th century technology level, no light to speak of and, once it is the focus of invading nasties, presumably very little trade with the better lit parts of the planet, makes no sense at all. This time around I knew this going in however, so just rolled my eyes and let it wash over me.
The jokes about nudity seem pointless and silly. I'm not sure the idea that the Doctor must stay in a fixed time and place for hundreds of years actually receives the attention it needs to work. And the core story, which is basically about all the Doctor's enemies hanging around for 300 years waiting for him to die, doesn't actually have much happening. I think this explains why Time of the Doctor both seems over-frenetic and over-leisurely - there's a lot of explaining to do but not much actual plot to get through.
First time around I thought Time of the Doctor was a bit of a mess. I still think it is a bit of a mess, though it works better on re-watching. Still, as a story, it is burdened with trying to explain a lot, resolve a lot, set up alot and that prevents it really telling its own story.
I asked The Child if she wants to rewatch the Twelfth Doctor stories - Deep Breath being where she came into the show and she has decided not. She wants to see the "important" classic Who stories (which is defined as companions arriving and leaving, Doctor's changing, and other significant events - I'm guessing first appearances of recurring monsters and characters) plus the "really good" ones. I have a tentative list though I'm dubious about some of it (even deciding that if only telesnaps exist we may content ourselves with just watching the relevant bits of episodes). However, given she's seen An Unearthly Child, we obviously need to watch The Daleks next and we'll play it by ear from there.
Could be a while though, there is the family Buffy rewatch to get through and Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
I think the finale really benefits from having watched the whole Eleventh Doctor arc play through for a second time with the knowledge of how it fits together. On first viewing I felt Time and the Doctor smacked of frantic resolution of plot threads. This time the overall structure was much clearer; the Doctor's death and the events surrounding it have been echoing back throughout his final regeneration. This is typical of the kind of plotting Moffat has favoured in Doctor Who. To an extent the whole thing is Blink writ large. I still think a lot of the dots don't join as well as they might. The universe/history has now been rewritten on a grand scale at least twice, if not three, times during the Doctor's eleventh incarnation which is certainly a convenient continuity get-out-of-jail-free card for future producers though one feels it is perhaps twice more than was necessary.
There are still parts of the finale that don't really work. Clara's family, in particular, making their only appearance seem rather wasted. Possibly Moffat (who was presumably even, at the time, thinking of centering the next season around Clara's every-day life more) was experimenting with a more Davies' era set up where some of the story is driven by intra-family tensions, but it seems like he must have ultimately decided he didn't want to take that route. Here it's fairly obvious that the family scenes exist only to give Clara something to do in between the moments where she is needed on Trenzalore and, in a story, already straining a bit with the amount it is trying to do it is awkward to have time wasted in this way.
The town of Christmas on the planet of Trenzalore with its 19th century technology level, no light to speak of and, once it is the focus of invading nasties, presumably very little trade with the better lit parts of the planet, makes no sense at all. This time around I knew this going in however, so just rolled my eyes and let it wash over me.
The jokes about nudity seem pointless and silly. I'm not sure the idea that the Doctor must stay in a fixed time and place for hundreds of years actually receives the attention it needs to work. And the core story, which is basically about all the Doctor's enemies hanging around for 300 years waiting for him to die, doesn't actually have much happening. I think this explains why Time of the Doctor both seems over-frenetic and over-leisurely - there's a lot of explaining to do but not much actual plot to get through.
First time around I thought Time of the Doctor was a bit of a mess. I still think it is a bit of a mess, though it works better on re-watching. Still, as a story, it is burdened with trying to explain a lot, resolve a lot, set up alot and that prevents it really telling its own story.
I asked The Child if she wants to rewatch the Twelfth Doctor stories - Deep Breath being where she came into the show and she has decided not. She wants to see the "important" classic Who stories (which is defined as companions arriving and leaving, Doctor's changing, and other significant events - I'm guessing first appearances of recurring monsters and characters) plus the "really good" ones. I have a tentative list though I'm dubious about some of it (even deciding that if only telesnaps exist we may content ourselves with just watching the relevant bits of episodes). However, given she's seen An Unearthly Child, we obviously need to watch The Daleks next and we'll play it by ear from there.
Could be a while though, there is the family Buffy rewatch to get through and Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.