Dr Who Christmas Special 2013

Albino Boo

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Well we have just seen the last of Matt Smith and the first of Peter Capaldi. To be honest here, I was a little disappointed. The story just didn't work, it tried to develope a sense inevitable doom and defeat but seeing everyone was waiting for the new Doctor, there was no tension. Just when you thought the plot was going to take off, that line fizzled out.
 

FinalDream

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Apr 6, 2010
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SPOILERS - It was bad. Usual Christmas bad. Tried too hard to tie up everything and it did feel a little duff for the Time Lords to just pop in and reset his limit.
 

Plinglebob

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I liked it. Not what I was expecting, but overall a well written and brilliantly acted episode which did a good job of wrapping up Eleven's time on the show.
 

Ninjamedic

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......I liked it.

I found it a better send-off than The End of Time (though that's not difficult), I found it to be more of a long farewell rather than trying to ratchet up the tension.

Just saw it now so I'll think on it, but yeah, I thought it was good.
 

spartandude

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I didnt understand the silence at all. Ok so if the doctor says his name the time lords return (for some reason) and if that happens a new time war will start which will destroy the universe. The silence understandably want to stop this and call themselves the silence because they dont want the doctor to talk, and they want him dead. They way they do that is by destroying the Tardis which would destroy the universe..... Did the silence not understand the controversy surrounding the Mass Effect 3 ending?

Also what created the time cracks, the Timelords or the Tardis exploding? Why the Weeping Angels there? Or was it Moffat just going "people liked these guys, so im going to shoe-horn them in for no reason".

I really didnt like this episode at all. For the past couple of years ive been saying the I love Matt Smith and i still do, even though im excited to see what Capaldi will bring the table, but if Doctor Who is to improve they need to get rid of Steven Moffat because he is running the show into the ground.
 

Albino Boo

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FinalDream said:
It was bad. Usual Christmas bad. Tried too hard to tie up everything and it did feel a little duff for the Time Lords to just pop in and reset his limit.
Especially since the Time lords and the Dr have rarely been on the best terms.
 

Ninjamedic

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albino boo said:
Especially since the Time lords and the Dr have rarely been on the best terms.
I'm willing to bet saving your home planet from total destruction might net you a favor or two.
 

Gizmo1990

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Oct 19, 2010
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FinalDream said:
It was bad. Usual Christmas bad. Tried too hard to tie up everything and it did feel a little duff for the Time Lords to pop in and reset his limit.
I am ok with the reset because lets face it there was no other way out of it. What I do hate (besides the episode being slow and kind of boring) is that yet again we have something left unresolved. I get that Moffat likes to have a plot threads continue from series to series but it took him 4 years to explain why everything over he last 4 years has even happened and yet at the end of it all we still don't know what happened to Galifray. He should have given us a strait they are back/they are still in another universe and gone into the next Doctor with a completly clean slate.


Also I have to point out that Moffat said that after asylum of the daleks he was going to give them a rest and who were the only bad guys left standing at the end?
 

Albino Boo

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Ninjamedic said:
albino boo said:
Especially since the Time lords and the Dr have rarely been on the best terms.
I'm willing to bet saving your home planet from total destruction might net you a favor or two.
The Dr has done that at least twice and they still put him on trial.
 

Spacewolf

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Miles better than the 50th at least, this one at least had some emotion in it. The only thing I would have changed (while still sticking to the episode outline) would have been to drop some of the early scenes to expand the ending because as always it feels rushed and some minor dialog changes.

Although it doesn't really wrap anything up but at least it gives us some decent background information on the threads, does seem like where not going to be told how they blew up the TARDIS rather just being told the earlier silence factions where a bunch of crazies.

Also pointless Cameo at the end was pointless.
 

Ninjamedic

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albino boo said:
The Dr has done that at least twice and they still put him on trial.
Are you referring to Trial of a Time Lord? Wasn't that part of a conspiracy involving the Valeyard? (Haven't seen it yet, working my way through the classic series right now, at Pertwee.)

Again, this was the first time they were fully brought to their knees, and when Omega tried it they lifted The Doctor's exile on Earth for stopping him.
 

Albino Boo

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Ninjamedic said:
albino boo said:
The Dr has done that at least twice and they still put him on trial.
Are you referring to Trial of a Time Lord? Wasn't that part of a conspiracy involving the Valeyard? (Haven't seen it yet, working my way through the classic series right now, at Pertwee.)

Again, this was the first time they were fully brought to their knees, and when Omega tried it they lifted The Doctor's exile on Earth for stopping him.
Yeah it was but the plot worked because the Dr isn't popular with the Timelords. As far as the Timelords are concerned the Dr is the lunatic you send for when you have got nothing to lose.
 

Ninjamedic

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albino boo said:
Yeah it was but the plot worked because the DR isn't popular with the Timelords.
But he had been trusted by them when needed (The Three Doctors, Genesis of The Daleks) and on the former example he was rewarded by them for his actions.


As far as the Timelords are concerned the Dr is the lunatic you send for when you have got nothing to lose.
And Galifrey wasn't completely screwed in Day of The Doctor?
 

JoJo

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It wasn't bad, it helped tie up the Eleventh's final chapter nicely even if it was a little slow at times, it was fairly dark for a Christmas episode certainly. Glad they've finally gotten over the 13 Doctors limit, no idea why some people thought they'd stick to it when it was clearly just a number they picked out at random early on in the show, when no-one could expect it would last this long. I'm most excited to see what Capaldi can do in the next series.

The only real problem I had with this episode was why did the Doctor think he was going to die when 13 versions of him turned up at the end of Day of the Doctor, when they were placing Gallifrey in a time thingy? Surely that would be a dead giveaway that he would regenerate at-least one more time... oh well.
 

Ninjamedic

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JoJo said:
The only real problem I had with this episode was why did the Doctor think he was going to die when 13 versions of him turned up at the end of Day of the Doctor, when they were placing Gallifrey in a time thingy? Surely that would be a dead giveaway that he would regenerate at-least one more time... oh well.
I'm guessing that the other Doctor's didn't know, and that 12 just showed up to assist anyways, though that doesn't really help does it?
 

JoJo

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Ninjamedic said:
JoJo said:
The only real problem I had with this episode was why did the Doctor think he was going to die when 13 versions of him turned up at the end of Day of the Doctor, when they were placing Gallifrey in a time thingy? Surely that would be a dead giveaway that he would regenerate at-least one more time... oh well.
I'm guessing that the other Doctor's didn't know, and that 12 just showed up to assist anyways, though that doesn't really help does it?
Yeah, I guess you could argue that it wasn't specifically said that the Eleventh Doctor knew there were twelve other Doctors helping him but even so, it seems like a weak point for continuity that it wasn't explained in any way... not that Doctor Who's ever been strong on that.
 

EscapeGoat_v1legacy

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I thought the plot was, on the whole, Moffat's usual garbage but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. The way they dealt with the Doctor's regeneration limit was fine - at least it was justified in-universe rather than just handwaved. I thought Smith's big finish and final eulogy were well put together and fantastically delivered, while Capaldi's first proper appearance was funny. I can't help but hope for the best for the next series, and I'm very much looking forward to Capaldi's Doctor. So yeah, overall not the strongest episode but Smith's performance more than made up for it.
 

BrotherRool

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I didn't really like it, it felt like they were trying to squeeze so many indulgences in that there wasn't any space to give them time and weight. It felt like someone came up with lots of ideas and then made the episode by going down the checklist to add them in. Oh we never explained the 'silence will fall' stuff, I guess we'll stick in a line where she says the words. And a scene with angels. And with stupid Dalek-humans. And then he'll mention being old... All really disconnected

Also Matt Smith's last words really sucked. There was no pacing or emotion, I already can't remember precisely what they were. He just waxed philosophical. It didn't really feel like it summed up his character at all

Gizmo1990 said:
FinalDream said:
It was bad. Usual Christmas bad. Tried too hard to tie up everything and it did feel a little duff for the Time Lords to pop in and reset his limit.
I am ok with the reset because lets face it there was no other way out of it. What I do hate (besides the episode being slow and kind of boring) is that yet again we have something left unresolved. I get that Moffat likes to have a plot threads continue from series to series but it took him 4 years to explain why everything over he last 4 years has even happened and yet at the end of it all we still don't know what happened to Galifray. He should have given us a strait they are back/they are still in another universe and gone into the next Doctor with a completly clean slate.
I think whether David Tennant wasted a regeneration or not was an undecided point. They could have left Matt Smith as 12 and then spent a season building up a good reason why Peter Capaldi was going to regenerate. It would have been cool because instead of trying to cram all that 'I'm old and going to die, but I've learned to accept that' in one episode, basically in bulletpoints, we could have seen it play out across a whole series with time and space. And instead of relying on silly make-up you could just have the fact Peter Capaldi naturally looks older
 

Silvanus

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This was a pretty terrible episode. In places, the plot was thin enough to see through, like an oily piece of greasepaper.



They mentioned that every sentient species in the universe had gathered above Trenzalore, ready to attack should the Time Lords make their way through or the other races move in. And then, they were handwaved away with a single sentence. Every sentient species in the universe. Gravitas was somewhat lacking there.

This is also the second time he's avoided the Trenzalore prophecy, which makes me wonder why The Silence take it so seriously, considering how easily it can be jogged around (repeatedly).

And, of course, they committed the very favourite cardinal sin of New Who: inventing new mechanics right at the end, to solve whatever predicament the Doctor is in.


Rrargh! Not happy at all.
 

Crazy Zaul

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It was pretty good but I wish we at least got a few mins of Capaldi to see if he was gonna be a more serious doctor or if Moffat told him to prat around as much as Smith did.