Series 7
Series 7
Doctor: The Eleventh Doctor
Companions: River Song, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, Madame Vastra, Clara Oswald
Series 7 features an epilogue for the Ponds, and then gives us a total refresh with Clara Oswald, who shows great promise but is frustratingly underdeveloped.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
A Town Called Mercy: 9.5/10
The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe: 9.5/10
The Power of Three: 9.25/10
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship: 9/10
Hide: 8.9/10
The Rings of Akhaten: 8.75/10
The Angels Take Manhattan: 8.75/10
Cold War: 8.5/10
The Crimson Horror: 8.5/10
The Name of the Doctor: 8.25/10
The Bells of Saint John: 8/10
The Snowmen: 8/10
Asylum of the Daleks: 8/10
Nightmare in Silver: 7.5/10
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS: 7.5/10
For many people, Series 7 is where the show started to run out of steam, and it does give that feeling. The unique structure does it no favors, you begin with the tweed-wearing Doctor and the Ponds and end with him wearing dark purple and with Clara Oswald. There is a common theme that Matt Smith lost it in this series, and I honestly have to disagree. It’s certainly less electric than his incredible debut in Series 5, but suiting an incarnation now centuries old, the Eleventh Doctor of especially Series 7B feels lived in. I also think his purple ensemble might be my favorite Doctor outfit of all time, formal and whimsy perfectly mixed. The real miss is that Clara Oswald just feels underdeveloped, partly because once we get to the original Clara it’s the third time we’ve met Jenna Coleman and we’re kind of done with it. Still, the power and knowledge imbalance between here and the Doctor and the viewers makes it for awkward viewing and her relationship with the Doctor is essentially ‘flirty’, which is new and different than the puppy-dog love of Rose but still not enough. Thankfully, it will get better. Lastly, a lot of the scripts just aren’t that great. Explosive episodes billed as rehabilitations of the Daleks and Cybermen fall flat, and the Weeping Angels lack their previous punch. Series 7 isn’t a disaster, but it does feel like a show in need of a creative retool.
8.527/10 A disappointing series that goes back to the bag of tricks and finds little new to do
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 