Doctor Who 7.13: The Name Of The Doctor

Clara & The Doctor (Jenna-Louise Coleman & Matt Smith) are forced to get deadly serious in “The Name Of The Doctor.”

Less poetry, Doctor. just tell them.
– The Great Intelligence

It’s almost too close to call at some points, but for the most part, Steven Moffat does manage to follow that advice in this story, a finale that’s not really a finale — a distinction that allows it to strike a much darker tone than we’re used to at this stage of the season.

The primary source for that is the welcome return of Richard E. Grant as The Great Intelligence. Though clad in the face of his Victorian-era accomplice Dr. Simeon, this being is still non-corporeal in nature, and bolstered by the Whisper Men, a creepy-enough amalgam of the Silence and Sunnydale’s Gentlemen. But though they look, well, cool, these ghouls are an odd substitute for the Silence itself. After all, even the risk that the Doctor would reveal his true name was allegedly such a threat to their existence that they conjured up a fixed point in time to stop it.

But what the Great one is, he points out, is information, and it’s that knowledge that fuels his final plan: not universal power, not even dominion over the Earth. He just wants to hurt the Doctor, anywhere and everywhen he can. It’s a refreshingly intimate vendetta to put front-and-center, and Grant, of course, packs his formality with a barely-veiled hatred. The brief face-off between the Intelligence and The Doctor also puts into physical terms just how badly Eleven is outmatched this time. And worse still, he knows it, seemingly from the first mention of the word Trenzalore.

In the big payoff to the mystery introduced way back at the end of Season 6, we learn that the fields of Trenzalore aren’t just where The Doctor’s name will be finally spoken; they’re where he will be laid to rest — only this time without the benefit of the Teselecta to send in his stead. In another nod to the tight-knit nature of the story, he rushes in at the news that Vastra, Strax and Jenny have been taken hostage (in Jenny’s case, posthumously), saying, “I have a duty” and acknowledging the care they showed for him following the loss of his Ponds.

Also along for the ride, sort of, is River Song. But in one of several moves sure to exacerbate the friction between Steven Moffat and fans, it’s the version of her The Tenth Doctor saved to the supercomputer at The Library. Though technically not a cheat, since it reinforces that River’s appearance in Manhattan is sandwiched between the events of “First Night/Last Night,” it will do little to stem critiques of how she’s been treated to see her playing Fairy Ghostmother to Clara via telepathic link. That said, the on-screen coda to her romance with The Doctor is elevated by Alex Kingston and Matt Smith’s work here. And it doesn’t quite mean we can’t see River again, because Timelines and all.

Speaking of love stories mixed with jobbing characters out, Vastra and Jenny also find themselves de-emphasized to a staggering degree (Jenny forgot to lock the door? Really?), yet credit is due to Neve McIntosh and Catrin Stewart for making the stakes for their characters palpable, if not always plausible. The brief exchange between Strax and Vastra upon Jenny’s reviving (“The heart is a simple thing.” “I do not find it to be so.”) has as much heart as the fight between the two has sadness.

That fight, of course, is spurred on by the Intelligence’s incursion of Eleven’s timeline, which forces the Impossible Girl to make the impossible choice and right his wrongs — in effect, to get every Doctor to turn left. Though the idea might have been intended to echo the Bad Wolf, the way it’s presented — with her telling The First Doctor which TARDIS to swipe — end up looking too close to Forrest Gump for comfort, through no fault of Jenna-Louise Coleman’s.

Coleman gets the emotion behind Clara’s rising to this final challenge, but Moffat’s dialogue for her doesn’t quite elevate her accordingly. It also might have helped her case for us to see her undoing one of the Intelligence’s machinations. On the bright side, hopefully this means the demise of, “Run you clever boy,” et al. But if you didn’t like her coming into this episode, seeing Clara become a Universal Madame Fix-It isn’t likely to win you over.

But at the very least, we know she’s going to get more chances to, since both Coleman and Smith have been confirmed to return for Series 8 next year. Before we can get to that, however, we get the unfolding of the climactic plot point to this episode, in which we learn that there is (still) a Darker Doctor, a revelation that strips at least some of the shine from Eleven and Clara’s win.

Or perhaps this is really a set-up for John Hurt to play an updated take on The Valeyard. But all signs to this confrontation between Eleven and Doctor X being the impetus for Eleven and Ten to join forces in a few months. Will the Doctor(s) be faced with the choice of killing himself — and not in the sacrificial sense — to save himself? Does this mean Clara now has River’s blessing to finally make a move on her crush? And will the show be able to answer these questions without inviting more doubts about Moffat’s handling of the show’s 50th anniversary?

While we begin the long wait for all of the answers, there’s a little bit of insight to be gleaned from this joint interview between Smith and David Tennant.

And as a bonus, if you’ve been hankering for a Vastra/Jenny/Strax spin-off, this video might be what your doctor (if not your Doctor) has ordered.

Thanks for reading along this year, and we’ll see you in November!