The Name of the Doctor
Story 239, Episode 798, Series 7 Episode 13
Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor
Companions: River Song, Madame Vastra, Clara Oswald
Series 7 comes to an end with an odd episode acting as a finale to several arcs we didn’t know we had.
The Review
This is an odd story to be sure, one that feels like it could’ve been the final one for the 11th Doctor and brings together an intriguing mix of characters. She Said, He Said is an enticing prequel as Clara and the Doctor interrogate the other separately saying they now know their secrets. Clarence and the Whispermen provides some much needed context to how the story unspools. We get the Paternoster Gang back in a background role, but it turns out less is more as they’re all pretty great here. There’s a weird bit where it is teased that Jenny is dead but she gets revived whatever. The first story arc resolved is that of the Great Intelligence, who is here and back to exact vengeance on the Doctor by going in his time stream and destroying him simultaneously. I appreciate bringing back such an obscure villain but we are given no particular reason to care about the Intelligence, and he’s pretty much a nothing-burger. At least the Whispermen look cool.
River Song gets dropped into this story, interestingly a post-Library version of her. Vastra arranges a temporal conference call which is a fun idea I’d like to see again. With how distinct Series 7B had been and no mention of River it’s a bit surprising this episode functions as a goodbye for her. When the Doctor reveals he can always see her and loves her, it is genuinely a touching moment, the most touching between Matt Smith and Kingston. That’s not the most out of nowhere arc, which would be this renewed interest in what the Doctor’s name is. Most of the action takes place in the ruins of the TARDIS on Trenzalore where the Doctor’s grave lies after a terrible war. The Great Intelligence needs someone to say his name to get in, River does, etc. I think out of universe this was hyped up a lot, and technically Series 6 ended with ‘Doctor Who?’ as a question, but other than one mention in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS the Doctor’s name has hardly been an arc. Still, it’s almost all worth it for the trick I’ll discuss later.
Of course, the one arc we knew was that of the ‘Impossible Girl’, how could Clara exist multiple times. The opening of the First Doctor stealing the TARDIS and meeting Clara followed by her edited into classic Who is exhilarating. The real answer is deceptively simple, she jumped in the Doctor’s time stream to stop the Intelligence from killing him. Logically it sticks the landing, emotionally Clara has still not matured enough in her relationship with the Doctor to make it feel like a big payoff. We do see through Vastra stars going out without the Doctor’s heroism, and Strax and Jenny vanishing (though it seems Vastra would always have been pure). At the end, we get the also unrelated reveal of John Hurt as the War Doctor but with some classic Moffat literalism. Just as ‘the Doctor takes a secret to his grave, it is discovered’ meant the grave, the story’s title meant the name of ‘the Doctor’ and Hurt broke the promise. In many ways, it’s pretty a gloomy episode, in the dark at the Doctor’s grave with River finally fading away. Day and Time build upon it in important ways, but Name still manages emotional resonances we weren’t expecting.
Several story arcs get unexpected conclusions, and the obvious one gets a fun nostalgia-fueled one (I mean come on, seeing the Doctor finally stealing the TARDIS is great). It’s the most low-key finale in the new series, but the underdeveloped Doctor/Clara relationship means it doesn’t land as hard as it could. Thankfully, her and River will both get much better farewells, but this one isn’t bad at all.
8.25/10 Think there could’ve been more done with the Great Intelligence here
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 