This episode was meant to reintroduce the doctor in his new
form and I don’t think Moffat understands that this is basically the only thing
we need from the episode. Predictably however the episode seemed
overcrowded with irritating side characters and an overly complex storyline. I understand the argument that this episode also needs to set up the new
series but to me it seemed like Moffat has forgotten that this is Capaldi's first episode, and he needs to be somewhat established before moving on.
When Capaldi is onscreen it totally works, he’s an able
and in fact brilliant doctor. I can even give a pass to how the story also
focused highly on his companion since at this point she’s the only character
who we know from the previous series. But I disliked how cluttered the story
seemed and the undeniable lack of focus it had. Its almost as if they had several ideas and thought the best compromise would be to try and blend them all together somehow.
I said before about how the story needed to establish the
new doctor, what he’s like and his new set of morals. So why on earth would
there be an appearance from Matt Smith? His appearance to me seemed like the
definition of backtracking and almost completely undermined his concluding episode. Some would argue that he needed to be there so Jenna Coleman’s
character could accept the new doctor. But wouldn’t it have been great if the
episode finished with her still unsure about him, and with a whole series coming up
next I could imagine great tension when she gets to the point where she
simply doesn’t trust him or doesn’t even recognise him anymore. That could have
been a great story arc and one that hasn't been properly explored in Doctor Who before. Perhaps having the Doctor be a unpredictable loose cannon with a companion who he slowly has to build trust with. Now if they try doing something similar to that it would be horribly
undermined by the appearance of Matt Smith here.
Look I’m not a ‘Whovian’, I don’t know Doctor Who all that well. But unfortunately I couldn’t help
thinking throughout this episode ‘I wonder how Russell T. Davies would have handled this Doctor.’ and that’s sad because
there were plenty of opportunities for this episode to be great, and even really
surprising. But it just never happened.
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