7X13 The Name Of The Doctor(Grading/Discussion)(SPOILERS!)

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by Samurai8472, May 18, 2013.

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Grade "The Name Of The Doctor"

Poll closed Jun 27, 2013.
  1. Merlin

    111 vote(s)
    72.1%
  2. Radagast the brown

    30 vote(s)
    19.5%
  3. Barty crouch jr

    5 vote(s)
    3.2%
  4. Destro

    5 vote(s)
    3.2%
  5. Malekith

    3 vote(s)
    1.9%
  1. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    His reaction...

    Well, it's not NSFW, but it's also not particularly nice.

    Click at your own risk.

    Don't ever change, Mad Larry.
     
  2. SeerSGB

    SeerSGB Admiral Admiral

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    This is why I keep thinking he's gong to end up being a pre-Doctor, "Doctor". The man that leads to the Doctor taking the name Doctor
     
  3. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    LOL
     
  4. Skellington

    Skellington Part-time poltergeist Rear Admiral

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    Kids big and small across the Western Hemisphere have no doubt yet to pick their jaws off of the floors. That was a humdinger of an ending. Wonder what it's like for fans who were completely unaware that Hurt would be involved with the show.

    Not a perfect episode - a bit too much of the trademark silliness and pseudo-resolution for my taste - but scintillating enough in places. Nice surprise to see the First Doctor, though the opening scene and its reprise are slightly at odds with The Doctor's Wife.

    This was something of a return to form for Moffat, I think. Like most of his best stories this one doesn't make much logical sense but packs an emotional punch, and that's arguably what good storytelling is all about. Great send-off for River. I guess it'll be a while before we have any idea of the exceptional circumstances whereby she learned the Doctor's original name( or maybe, since the Hurt Doctor didn't call himself that...).

    Hurt is almost certainly a Time War incarnation between Eight and Nine. I wonder if we'll see a Hurt-to-Eccleston regeneration in November.

    Anyway, Fridge Logic time. Were the Silence trying to kill the Doctor to prevent his past unravelling? And what was that stuff about no living thing being unable to answer? I'm thinking that there's an element of smoke-and-mirrors with this whole multi-seasonal storyline. This is really the one place where Moffat's writing seems to fall down - when it comes to arc plots he's an ideas man but seemingly unable to tie things up satisfactorily.

    In any case, all things considered it's a Radagast from me.
     
  5. MickJo1701

    MickJo1701 Commander Red Shirt

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    AWESOME 10/10 nothing more can be said on the matter!

    Speculation as to what Hurt's Doctor did that disgraced his incarnation to the point where he was deemed unworthy of the title ??
     
  6. sttngfan1701d

    sttngfan1701d Commodore Commodore

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    Hmm....four hours and change to go. And apparently it's geekgasmingly awesome. Great.

    So this episode resolves all the "The 50th Special doesn't have enough past doctors!" angst? And John Hurt shows up at the end? Well I figured it would either be him or Tennant and Piper (was hoping the latter), but good to know it's worth looking forward to.
     
  7. Jax

    Jax Admiral Admiral

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    I do the like idea about him being linked to the Time War, Imagine if the 8th Doctor (McGann's) aged so Hurt could play him and that 8th Doctor was the one who ended the Time War, he said...

    He potentially killed Billions, maybe trillions to end the Time War.
     
  8. diankra

    diankra Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Ok, some bits of much-loved 'fanon' which get sort-of ruled out by tonight...

    Huge amounts of Virgin/BBC books continuity. (I refer the honourable gentlemen to the past posts regarding Mad Larry.)

    The Doctor wasn't generally called the Doctor until Ian and Barbara started calling him it in the absence of a name.

    When the Doctor stole the TARDIS, it was like running off with a company car - he took the TARDIS he'd already been using on official Time Lord business up till then.
     
  9. SeerSGB

    SeerSGB Admiral Admiral

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    The bit with Clara being there when the Doctor takes the Tardis did bug me a tiny bit--given what was said in "The Doctor's Wife". Then again, this was after the Great Intelligence started fucking over his timeline so she. more or less, repaired the damage.
     
  10. inflatabledalek

    inflatabledalek Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Wellllllll I liked that. New kid William Hartnell was very good, lets hope we see more of him in future.


    Considering the massive cop out on actually naming him it worked surprisingly well, the Doctor montage was lovely (even if Colin and Paul didn't get to their face on screen), Troughton running about California in his big fur coat being the highlight.

    And the Clara secret actually worked, not guessable before the episode but actually fits in well with what we've already seen (though I'm not sure why the Doctor's entire timestream going back from his death only had pre-Smith Doctors in it. Even if Clara didn't have to help any of the others she should have still seen more than 11 faces) and the penny dropped around the time The Great Intelligence started explaining his plan.

    Also, I loved the idea of a recurring villain getting so completely pissed off at constantly being defeated by the Doctor he pretty much decides to give up on life in his revenge efforts. Richey E really conveyed the world weary fucked off aspect of the character very well. And he's such a bad ass villain he's not afraid to make continuity references to Trial of a Time Lord as well. The fiend. Shame there were "Created by" credits for the Sillurians and Sontarans but not The Great Intelligence though. And they missed a cast iron opportunity to use the Yeti instead of the Whispermen as well.

    I guess that's goodbye to River Song as well, and she got a pretty good exit. Though how Vastra managed to deliver a magic candle into a computer program centuries in the future so she could join in the conference call is beyond me.

    And as for Johm Hurt, the reveal was kind of dampened by the fact everyone seemed to basically assume he'd be playing the Doctor from the moment his casting was announced. But I liked how the explanation looks as if it's going to be simple rather than some of the more convoluted theories I've seen put forward over the last couple of months. Not from an alternate history, not supposed to be an older McGann or Eccleston, not forgotten because of a mind wipe. Instead, at least based on what he says here, the Doctor decided at some point his real 9th incarnation wasn't worthy of the name and just blocked him out.

    Now, if the rumours that they're going to do a mini-sode showing a 8th/Hurt regeneration covering some of the backstory turns out to be true I may do a little squee.
     
  11. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I've watched the bonus video of Matt Smith and David Tennant a few times.

    The thought that occurs to me watching it -- someone, some day is going to produce a series of Doctor Who that stars two Doctors. I'm not talking a single story. I'm talking a run of episodes (8 to 13), with two Doctors. Matt and David clearly have a good rapport in that video, and if there were a run of episodes with the two of them in the TARDIS together it might be nonsensical but it would certainly be a hell of a lot of fun.
     
  12. diankra

    diankra Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Intflatable Dalek, re: River - not quite. Her comment of 'Spoilers' seems to imply that there's at least one more encounter between the earlier River the later Doctor still to come.
     
  13. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    We know he still has turn up at her door withe a new haircut and a suit, to give her the sonic.

    They're both time travellers, so can meet in any order
     
  14. Eliczo

    Eliczo Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    Loved it, had a nice story, wonderful scenes at the beginning of The Doctor & Susan stealing the tardis, and loved the ending, I think John Hurt played the 9th Doctor and subsquent Doctors dont consider him worthy of the title.
     
  15. inflatabledalek

    inflatabledalek Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Oh, I'm sure they could have lots of off-screen out of order meet ups, it just felt like it was written as a final scene for her in the show itself. It'll seem a slightly OTT way of saying goodbye if she pops up again any time soon at least.
     
  16. Jax

    Jax Admiral Admiral

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    I thought River travelled with the Doctor for a while after he loss Amy n Rory so I would of assumed all that happened and she is dead to him now :( their timelines crossing are done.
     
  17. SeerSGB

    SeerSGB Admiral Admiral

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    Going to have to break with my rule about buying split-season DVD sets and get this one just to get a hard-copy of this episode
     
  18. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'm kind of gobsmacked at the moment, that it easily the biggest piece of fanwank ever but I'm not, well, I'm not quite sure it's makes much sense or is a good idea. There are things here that would make any long time fan grin but...it's just full on stream of consciousness, I don't know...
     
  19. beamMe

    beamMe Commodore

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    Maybe Clara is/ends up being the heart, the soul of the Tardis.
    Then she really would have chosen him.
     
  20. Count Zero

    Count Zero No nation but procrastination Moderator

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    Well, I really only have this to say: holy fuck.

    It started off with a bang, Clara trying to communicate with all those Doctors. Thanks to the lower picture quality of the older material it even looked like one of the crappier colour separation overlay scenes from the old show. An unintended additional homage.
    And then it ended with an even bigger bang. I thought the episode would end with Clara being trapped in the timestream and the Doctor jumping in after her. Then the anniversary special could have been the two Doctors teaming up to save her. But instead we got something much more intriguing, a non-Doctor Doctor.
    It has the added benefit of making sense out of the Doctor's name mystique. I quite like that.

    There were some minor weaknesses towards the end with the pacing. It was all a bit too much exposition for my taste but otherwise it was fantastic. I did love the scene where we see the first consequences of the Doctor's timestream being poisoned when Strax tries to kill Vastra. That actually felt more terrible to me than the stars disappearing.

    I must say that the whispering men were terrifying villains. That scene where they were about to kill the Doctor's friends and were unstoppable was great.

    I'm sooo looking forward to the anniversary special.


    I've only watched it once so far. Is it just me or does Tennant seem a bit out of place in the Doctor's costume? It's funny because he's still my favourite Doctor and Matt Smith is actually my least favourite one but somehow seeing Tennant back in the costume looked odd to me.

    The anniversary special will be awesome.