Story 242 - The Time of the Doctor

 

In which a mysterious signal is being broadcast to the entire universe. It emanates from an obscure planet and hundreds of alien races converge there, determined to discover its source. The Doctor takes the TARDIS there. He is travelling on his own at the moment, but employing a Cyberman head as a sort of personal computer. He has named it "Handles". He visits a number of spacecraft in order to learn what their occupants know, only to find himself confronted by Daleks and Cybermen amongst many others. 

None of these visitors is able to descend to the planet. It has been placed under a force-field by the Church of the Papal Mainframe.

The Doctor receives a phone call from Clara. It is Christmas Day and her family are visiting - and she has told them that she has a boyfriend. She wants the Doctor to come and act the part. She also needs his help with cooking her turkey.

He turns up, and Clara is shocked to learn that he only appears to be dressed. He is wearing holographic clothes which only she can see. To her family he is naked. This is because he intends to visit the Papal Mainframe ship, and custom dictates that all who do so must come naked. Clara will also have to wear the holographic clothing. Clara accompanies the Doctor to the TARDIS with the turkey, which will be exposed to the time winds, and they travel to the Church. Here they meet Tasha Lem, the Mother Superious of the Church. She is an old acquaintance of the Doctor. Clara sees some Silents, and learns that they were used by the Church for confessions - before she forgets this fact. She permits the Doctor and Clara to travel down to the planet, but not with the TARDIS. They transmat down, and find themselves under attack by Weeping Angels, who have managed to sneak down. There is a small settlement nearby, which lies in a valley where it is almost perpetual night. The town is called Christmas and there is a truth field operating - so no-one can ever lie. The Doctor learns that this planet is actually Trenzalore - and "Handles" identifies the universal signal as originating from Gallifrey. The signal is a message: "Doctor who?".

The Doctor is able to summon the TARDIS after hiding a key under his wig. He tricks Clara into entering it to check on the turkey - only for it to take her back home. The Doctor wants her out of harm's way, if this is the planet where he is to die. He ends up living with the people of Christmas, protecting them over the years from various attempts by aliens to breach the Church's force-field. This includes a wooden Cyberman, more Weeping Angels and Sontaran troopers. In orbit around the planet, the Daleks gradually fight and defeat all the other visitors, until only they and the Church remain. Clara is able to get the TARDIS to return her to Trenzalore, arriving after several decades have passed. In the village bell tower, she finds the Doctor with the crack in space / time which had once plagued the life of Amy Pond. Beyond it is Gallifrey, still hidden from the rest of the Universe. The Time Lords are sending the signal which is asking for the Doctor to give his name. The truth field is theirs, to prevent deception. If it is safe for Gallifrey to return, the Doctor should give his name. The Doctor realises, however, that should the Time Lords return, the Time War will start up again. This is also the fear of Tasha Lem and the Church, and is why the breakaway Kovarian faction were so determined to assassinate him - to prevent him from stating his name.

Clara accompanies the Doctor to the Church and they discover that the Daleks have finally managed to defeat it. Tasha and the others are now Dalek drones. The Daleks arrive but Tasha's old self reasserts itself and she helps them escape. The Daleks attack the township, but the Doctor is assisted in repelling them by a group of Silents. Once again he tricks Clara into going back home. The next time the TARDIS materialises, still Christmas Day for her, she goes there and finds Tasha piloting it. She brings Clara back to Christmas where centuries have now passed for the Doctor. he is a very old man. He explains that he is in his thirteenth and final incarnation. His tenth incarnation had used up a regeneration to survive a Dalek extermination blast, and the War Doctor had used another regeneration.

Clara goes to the crack in space / time and urges the Time Lords to help the Doctor - after everything he has done for them. She also tells them that the time is not right for their return. As the Daleks begin to destroy the town, and their mothership hovers overhead, the Time Lords grant the Doctor a whole new regeneration cycle. The Doctor uses regeneration energy to destroy the mothership and the Dalek ground forces.

Clara follows the Doctor to the TARDIS and finds that he no longer appears like a very old man. he looks just like he did when he first met her. He explains that his regeneration has started. In his final moments he recalls Amy Pond, then rapidly regenerates into an older, grey haired man...

The Time of the Doctor was written by Steven Moffat, and was first broadcast on 25th December, 2013. As well as forming 2013's Christmas Special, it marks the departure of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor, and the arrival of Peter Capaldi's Twelfth. Broadcast so close to -and referencing - The Day of the Doctor, it also forms part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations. It can also be seen as the concluding part of a trilogy which began with The Name of the Doctor.

The story is used to finally tie up some story arc points which had been around since Smith's first season four years before, as well as touching upon elements from Time Lord stories from the classic era of the programme.

The crack in space / time which was prominent throughout Series 5 is back, and being used by the Time Lords. It is also finally revealed that it was the crack which the Doctor saw in his room in The God Complex. 

Kovarian's motives from Series 6 are revealed, and an explanation is given for the Silents' ability to make people instantly forget them - they have been employed by the Church (also first introduced in Series 5) for confession purposes.

We also get a return to Trenzalore (last seen in The Name of the Doctor).

The Deadly Assassin is revisited with the idea that a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times - their thirteenth incarnation being their last. The Five Doctors provides the High Council seal, which the Doctor uses to enable "Handles" to translate the signal, as well as the notion that Time Lords can actually grant a whole new regeneration cycle.

The Eleventh Doctor has become the Thirteenth as the War Doctor was introduced (becoming the new Ninth), and the partial regeneration seen in Journey's End turns out to have been a full one.

It was becoming harder to find Christmassy things to include in the festive specials, so here we have a place called Christmas. It is snowy, and always in darkness, so looks like a Winter night. There are fir-type trees, and the citizens string up coloured lights - so it looks Christmassy despite being an alien planet.

As the story follows of from the 50th Anniversary tale, and relates to the Time War, the Daleks feature. This was the first time that the Daleks featured prominently in a festive special. We also get appearances by the Weeping Angels (a cameo sequence in a snowy forest), the Sontarans (another cameo featuring Dan Starkey as two identical warriors) and the Cybermen. A new Cyberman variant is introduced - one made from wood, with a yellow light in the chest instead of the usual blue. This is because technology can't break through the Church forcefield, so the Cybermen resort to non-tech wood. It is armed with a flame-thrower. As mentioned, the Silents also appear. Spaceships orbiting Trenzalore include those of the Judoon and the Silurians, and the Terileptils and Slitheen are also mentioned. 

The Doctor has told the children of Christmas many stories, and drawings of many monsters appear, but we also see a Monoid puppet.

The guest cast is headed by Orla Brady, who plays Tasha Lem. Her flirty relationship with the Doctor mirrors River Song's. 

Tessa Peake-Jones (Only Fools and Horses) and Rob Jarvis (Hustle) play a couple from the township whom the Doctor and Clara meet when they first arrive. 

"Handles" is voiced by Kayvan Novak, who is best known nowadays for playing vampire Nandor in the TV adaptation of What We Do In The Shadows.

Playing Clara's grandmother is Sheila Reid, who had played Etta in Vengeance on Varos. Her father is James Buller, and his lady friend is Elizabeth Rider. Rider had previously appeared in Lost In Time, one of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and she had also voiced the ATMOS devices in The Sontaran Stratagem two-parter.

Overall, what would have been a much better story is hampered by having to do too many things. There are references going back four years, which the casual Christmas viewer would have no idea about - let alone the references dating back to the 1970's. 95th (out of 241) in the DWM 50th Anniversary Poll. 

Things you might like to know:

• This was the 800th episode of Doctor Who.
• A working title was "Twelfth Night" - as in the night on which the Twelfth Doctor arrives.
• In the scene where the Doctor sees Amy Pond once more, in the TARDIS, both actors are wearing wigs. Smith had shaved his head for a film role, as had Karen Gillan (to portray Nebula in The Guardians of the Galaxy).
• The Silents are used by the Church so that people can use them as confessors. However, if you are seeking to allay your guilt you would want to know that you had done so, to feel better for having sought absolution. Confessing to a Silent would leave you just as guilt-ridden as if you hadn't done so.
• The Doctor obtained the High Council seal in The Five Doctors, where he took it from the Master in the Death Zone - believing he had stolen it.
• No mention is made of the Valeyard. He should have come into being between what had been the David Tennant and Matt Smith Doctors.
• The Time Lord voice is that of Ken Bones, which means that it is the General, seen in The Day of the Doctor, who is calling for the Doctor.
• Unusually for a regeneration story, the final shot of the episode isn't of the new Doctor, but Clara's reaction to him. The actual regeneration is not the usual explosive affair, which wrecks the TARDIS. That effect occurs whilst the Doctor is in the bell tower, and is used to destroy the Daleks.
• We see the older Doctor wielding a walking stick. This is because Smith really did injure his leg during filming.
• At one point it was supposed to be more than just Amelia / Amy whom the Doctor saw before he regenerated. We were also to have seen River, Rory, his dad Brian, the Paternoster Gang and Craig and Sophie with their baby.
• A scene where Clara notices the TARDIS door phone off the hook is explained in the first episode of Series 8. In what can only be described as a lack of confidence on behalf of the producers, the Eleventh Doctor has to call Clara (and therefore the audience) from the past, to reassure her (us) that this new guy is the Doctor. The Daleks had been used in Patrick Troughton's first story to help reassure the audience, since this was the first time a change of lead had ever been attempted, but it was never felt to be needed since. We didn't need Matt Smith to tell us that Peter Capaldi was the new Doctor.