Doctor Who: Name, Day, Time Review

Hello! As promised yesterday, I'm doing a review for what many Whovians have called 'The Triolgy of the Doctor', which is basically Name of the Doctor, Day of the Doctor and Time of the Doctor. For many of these episodes, I lacked doing in-depth reviews, and I just thought 'what the hay', so here we are. There's a little bonus at the end, by the way. Geronimo!

 Spoilers follow

Name of the Doctor

The Name of the Doctor  was the epic season finale of Doctor Who's seventh season of the revived series. In it, the Doctor had to face his future, and find out what was so special about the Impossible Girl, Clara Oswald. 

 The episode found the Doctor's allies, the Posternoster gang, kidnapped by the Great Intelligence as bait for the Doctor to go to Trenzalore, the one place he must never go because-surprise-it's where he's buried. He and Clara (along with a ghost version of River Song) embark on a journey to save his friends, and stop the Intelligence. 

     The episode also introduced in full, this time, Trenzalore, which was mentioned a year previously in the October episode/season finale, The Wedding of River Song. It revealed that it was where the Doctor was buried. It also showed us his grave, which was a 'wound in space and time' according to the Great Intelligence, and was the Doctor's timeline, in all it's wibbly-wobbliness. It also explained how Clara was impossible, simply because she chose to save the Doctor over and over again, through echoes of herself, and that she scattered herself all over time and space to put right what the Intelligence had tried to undo. It also gave us the farewell scene between the Doctor and River, which I think was very much deserved for the characters, as they never really got a proper goodbye. 

 I think this is one of the best season finales Doctor Who has had, and it's one of my favorite episodes of the season. I love that it shows all the Doctors, and that it also gives us the goodbye scene between the Doctor and River. It's a great episode, and it's a great revelation over who Clara really was all that time. And I loved the scenes with her and the past Doctors. 

 The episode started off with some funny scenes, and quickly went into a bitter sweetness that really fits Trenzalore, or it seems to as the episodes it's in has this same formula. 

    Great episode all around, and it begins the things that are really important to this 'of the Doctor' arc: one: the Doctor's name. Two: Trenzalore. And, three: Ghosts. More on that later. 

 Overview: 4/5

The Day of the Doctor

 The Day of the Doctor was the special for the greatest anniversary for Who ever: The 50th. It saw the return of familiar faces abound, and brought in new ones for us to become acquainted with. It saw the return of two fan-favorite Doctors, and a whole lot more. It also showed the Time War in full, after a mere glimpse of it in The End of Time. To be honest, I think this episode will go down as one of the best Doctor Who episodes ever, really. It's full of banter between the Doctors, bickering as well, chock full of references to the past, and opens up a whole new future for the Doctor, and finally gives him a destination. The episode saw the return of UNIT, and Kate Stewart, daughter of the Brigadier, and introduced us to Osgood-a Whovian. I cannot love this episode more, really. I watch it a lot, it hilarious and makes me laugh every time. It's funny, it's occasionally dramatic, and epic. There's not enough words to describe this episode, because it's pure awesomeness, and it's pure Doctor Who. And the scene at the end with all of them, all thirteen of them-it makes me grin every time I see it. Awesome. Just awesome. Need I say more? Well, I'll say this: No More.

Overview: 5/5

The Time of the Doctor

Ahh. The episode that shall not be named, yet I did just name it, so...

The Time of the Doctor was the final episode featuring Matt Smith's Doctor (Eleventh. Or Twelfth. Or thirteen. Oh, I done lost count), and introduced us to Peter Capladi's Doctor (is it Fall, yet?). How can I describe this episode? Well, one, technically two, words: heartbreaking. Really. I'm not ashamed to admit that I ball my little eyes out every time I watch it. I literally pace around my house trying to work up the courage to watch it when I want to watch it. But, don't let my pain fool you. It's a great episode. I've heard a lot of complaints towards this episode, but I only have one: it's sad. Really sad, it beat Doomsday on my 'Saddest Doctor Who Episodes' List. Time is number one on the list. Doomsday is number two. 

Anyway, this episode is just spectacular, and gives us answers to questions we've had for a while. It's got a bunch of nice call-backs to Eleven's era, and is just wonderful and devastating all around, really.

 Overview: 4/5 (I debated 3/5 for the sadness this episode puts me through, but...)

Bonus:
The Night of the Doctor

The Night of the Doctor was a prelude/prequel to The Day of the Doctor, and featured the return of Paul McGann, who played the Eighth Doctor in the television movie, Doctor Who, and numerous audio adventures. It also saw the previously unseen regeneration from Eight to the technical ninth incarnation of the Doctor, alias the War Doctor (John Hurt), who previously appeared in the last few moments of Name and was featured in Day. I wish I could say I was surprised by the appearance of Eight, but that morning I decided to go to Tumblr first, and not news, so I knew what happened. That's the first and last time I've ever done that, just so you know. The mini-episode is nearly seven minutes long, and is a great mini-episode, and is, according to most Whovians, the best prequel ever. It's definitely what Whovians wanted, and it was great to see Eight again.
Overview: 4/5

  

Arc of the Doctor:
The question to this really is, what makes this an arc, besides the titles ending with 'of the Doctor'. All of them have to do with the Doctor's secrets. It starts in Name: the Doctor knew what Trenzalore was all this time, and never told us. Not once. Then, again, when attempting to get in his grave, it was his name, which later played a very great detail in this arc. Then, at the end, we find out that the Doctor had a secret incarnation which he never told anyone, and hid so well that it appears he forgot about it himself. Or attempted to. But what really plays very much a part of this arc? Two things, but both are all but excluded in Night-ghosts and the Doctor's name. We'll start with ghosts. The first part of this arc, Name, had River Song in ghost form. Only a couple of characters and the audience could see her. Then, in Day, we had the Moment, which took the form of Rose Tyler, whom only the War Doctor and we could see. Then, finally, in Time  we had Amy Pond showing up to say one last goodbye to her Raggedy Doctor. Once more, only a certain character (The Doctor) and we could see them. I'm kind of curious if this will mean anything for the first episode of series eight.
     The second major thing that connects this arc is the Doctor's name. It's supposedly his greatest secret. But, according to the Doctor in Name '[his] name is not the point. The name you choose is like a promise you make. He's the one who broke the promise'. His name plays a large part in this episode, being the key to open his tomb, and also finding out that it doesn't really matter to the Doctor. It doesn't play as large a part in  Day, but we learn the Doctor's promise: 'Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in.'. In this episode, he also saves Gallifrey. Then, we reach Time, which the name takes a very big part in. His name is the key to bringing the Time Lords back. But he can't say it because the Time War would start again. Luckily for him, because he's out of regenerations, Clara convinces the Time Lords to help him because the only name he really needs is the Doctor. Because that's who he is.

        Overview:

 So, that's the 'Of the Doctor' post that I promised, that was supposed to be up last night, but was delayed by a Netflix marathon.....that website is very bad for me, anyway, here it is. Hope you enjoyed, it was fun to write! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a marathon to get back to...
 Name, Day, Time, Night Overview:
Out of Ten? Eleven.

-Tegan