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Rate & Review The Time of the Doctor

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Question: Rate this story
Absolutely amazing - 1 (16.7%)
Near perfect - 3 (50%)
Not bad, not great - 2 (33.3%)
Not impressed - 0 (0%)
Shockingly bad - 0 (0%)
Total Voters: 6

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Author Topic: Rate & Review The Time of the Doctor  (Read 282 times)
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poprockgeek
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« on: December 13, 2013, 12:14:41 pm »

What are your thoughts on this story? Rate and review it in here.
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« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2013, 09:23:26 pm »

Correct me if I've got this wrong. The Time Lords were sending a message through the Crack in Time. The church became the Silence because they were trying to avoid the Doctor answering the message. Kovarian's group were some kind of splinter cell of the Silence and tried to prevent the Doctor from ever answering the message first by trying to blow up the Tardis (which I seem to recall would have destroyed the entire universe -- a bit of a miscalculation?) and then by trying to program River Song to assassinate the Doctor. But it was the attempt to blow up the Tardis that created the Crack of Time in the first place? So if Kovarian had not tried to stop the Doctor responding to the message through the Crack in Time there would not have been a Crack in Time? It wouldn't be the first time there had been such a time paradox, but I'm curious whether such a paradox was really intended. And I'm still not sure what actually happened the first time on Trenzalore. The last we saw he was inside his own timeline, as was TGI. How did he get out? And what happened to TGI?

After the excellent TNOTD and TDOTD I found this episode a bit disappointing. True, it did manage to tie up some of the loose ends in a fairly satisfactory way. But the Christmas theme (what there was of it) and the truth-field were very much tacked on. It was a bold decision, and perhaps one that was a bit forced on Moffatt, to opt for a more melancholy and contemplative episode. But I just found it rather unexciting. To add a bit of action they had to keep on finding new ways to keep sending Clara backwards and forwards. Otherwise it would have been more like a documentary. And the way they solved the regeneration issue was pretty arbitrary (he swallows a ball of light and suddenly has a whole new cycle of regenerations presumably granted him by the Time Lords) And if the message is supposed to there through all time, why has it taken until now for the Doctor to notice?

It wasn't terrible, but fell short of what I hoped for and expected
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« Reply #2 on: December 28, 2013, 12:00:21 am »

I enjoyed it overall, but I did have some doubts, especially about Clara's role.  I'm fine with the Time Paradox - I love that kind of thing, and I didn't find the solution to the regeneration issue at all arbitrary - I liked the idea that it was essentially a side-effect of the Time Lords opening the Crack.

I'm going to watch it at least once more before I rate it - at the moment, it would probably be a four, but I want to see if the bits I'm doubtful about grow on me with rewatching.
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« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2013, 03:09:42 am »

I rather liked this episode, enough for it to warrant a four. The only thing that wasn't so hot for me was that it ended up just being the Doctor and the Daleks again. While I love a good Dalek romp, it just seemed so much more interesting with all the other enemies there, as well.
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« Reply #4 on: December 28, 2013, 10:57:41 am »

Incidentally, the Weeping Angel touched Clara, so why wasn't she sent back in time?
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« Reply #5 on: December 28, 2013, 01:07:39 pm »

3 from me. I can't say it was as good as I thought it would be but it wasn't terrible.
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« Reply #6 on: December 28, 2013, 10:25:52 pm »

I've rewatched it now, and I've gone with a four.  I liked most of it, but I found Clara's family a bit pointless, and the whole thing about the Doctor trying to send Clara away and her coming back seemed very Parting of the Ways, and I certainly don't think we needed it twice in the same story.  I did like the way all the mysteries were drawn together and explained (if only via a timey-wimey paradox) and it was interesting seeing the Doctor staying for centuries and growing old.

And I was relieved at the solution to the Doctor Who question.  I wouldn't have liked his name to be revealed, and Clara's right - the Doctor is who he is.
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« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2013, 11:32:54 am »

My suspicion is that this was not the original plan for the Crack in Time. After all, if the Doctor was meant to imprisoned in the Pandorica why blow up the TARDIS as well? And how exactly did they do it? And if by doing so they destroy the whole universe, isn't that rather counter-productive and defeats the purpose? One can only assume they didn't understand the implications of destroying the TARDIS. Also, I seem to remember (in the Big Bang I think) the Doctor saying something like "We still don't know why the TARDIS was brought to this place"? Was this ever really explained? I suppose one might argue that it was part of getting Amy onto the TARDIS and thence to the conception on the TARDIS of River Song? But this all suggests they didn't have a lot of faith in the Pandorica working. Or perhaps the Pandorica was someone else's idea. I don't remember the Pandorica being mentioned. The more I think about it, the less satisfactory and more perfunctory I find the one-sentence explanation "Kovarian tried to blow up the TARDIS" and I am becoming more convinced that this was not the original plan but the writers has to tie up a loose end.
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« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2013, 11:34:45 am »

And I am not sure the writers noticed that by tying it up in this way they were producing a paradox.
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« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2013, 12:57:14 pm »

No, the Pandorica was a separate plot, hatched by the Daleks, Cybermen and the rest, to prevent the Doctor destroying the universe when the TARDIS blew up, without actually realising that it was their plot that helped it to happen.  I assume Kovarian didn't anticipate that blowing up the TARDIS would destroy the universe - that would have been counter-productive.

The Doctor specifically refers in TotD to this being a paradox.
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« Reply #10 on: February 08, 2014, 01:21:03 am »

A bit late to the party ... I gave it a 4.

I really enjoyed it for the most part.  A couple of things bothered me though.  First was what I consider to be a whopping plot hole - the message being broadcast was from the Time Lords, presumably in Gallifreyan, yet neither the Doctor nor the TARDIS could decipher it??  At the beginning of "The Pandorica Opens" the Doctor said the TARDIS could translate anything.  Did I miss something?  I've watched it several times now.

The whole nudity bit with Clara's family I found to be quite cringe-worthy.  1000+ years of hanging out with humans and he doesn't realize what he's doing?  Amusing, maybe, but it just makes him look like an idiot!  (Shirtless Matt Smith though, yum!   Cheesy )

Another minor niggle - they said the planet was an Earth farming colony, yet they only got a few moments of daylight per day.  Not to mention it was always snowing.  I wonder how they managed to grow any crops under those conditions?

That regeneration scene - wow!  As sad as I am to see Eleven go, I gotta admit, that was pretty spectacular! 
 
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« Reply #11 on: February 08, 2014, 04:05:31 pm »

I really enjoyed it for the most part.  A couple of things bothered me though.  First was what I consider to be a whopping plot hole - the message being broadcast was from the Time Lords, presumably in Gallifreyan, yet neither the Doctor nor the TARDIS could decipher it??  At the beginning of "The Pandorica Opens" the Doctor said the TARDIS could translate anything.  Did I miss something?  I've watched it several times now.

The TARDIS translation seems to be rather like the Star Trek Universal Translator - it has a built-in mechanism that makes it cut out whenever it's dramatically effective to do so (in ST it's usually when someone wants to show off their Klingon).  It's not quite as inconsistent in NuWho as in the classic series, but sometimes the writers seem to forget.

Of course, River does say in AGMGTW that Gallifreyan writing doesn't translate, but there's never been any problem in the past with Time Lords making themselves understood.  And there's no reason why the Doctor wouldn't understand it, anyway.

I completely agree about the planet's conditions - I think I commented on that in another thread somewhere.  If it's like that because they're in the polar regions, it would be the opposite in summer.  If it's permanently winter, that would mean the planet doesn't have a tilt and there'd be equal day and night.  I can't think of any way there'd only be mostly night and a few minutes daylight all over the planet.  And, if they are in the polar regions, why didn't they found their colony somewhere better?
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« Reply #12 on: February 08, 2014, 09:26:44 pm »

The TARDIS translation seems to be rather like the Star Trek Universal Translator - it has a built-in mechanism that makes it cut out whenever it's dramatically effective to do so (in ST it's usually when someone wants to show off their Klingon).  It's not quite as inconsistent in NuWho as in the classic series, but sometimes the writers seem to forget.

I could see that among different writers, but Moffat wrote both of them!  He of all people should have caught that one. 

Quote
Of course, River does say in AGMGTW that Gallifreyan writing doesn't translate, but there's never been any problem in the past with Time Lords making themselves understood.  And there's no reason why the Doctor wouldn't understand it, anyway.

Exactly!  The Doctor should have been the ONLY being in the universe who understood the message. 
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« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2014, 08:42:06 pm »

I suppose I'm the only person who really loved this episode? It's my favourite episode, i really like "The day of the Doctor, but found this even better. I can't figure out why so many people disliked this episode.
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