I wasn't really looking forward to the series finale of Doctor Who. The time between the airing of part one and part two was filled by Torchwood: Miracle Day and I would rather have watched that for longer than return to Doctor Who. After a dismal part 2 to series 6 I knew something would happen so that The Doctor wasn't going to die, since Matt Smith's signed up for another series, so the suspense and anticipation wasn't really there as it has been in previous series. It didn't help that Part 2 on the series has not been that great. It's been disconnected with the first part, lacking a clear connection until the very end and even then the connection was tenuous at best. There have been so many unanswered questions and makes it seem as if Moffat is unable to sustain a story arc without bringing together all the loose ends (not that Moffat is alone in this).
Having said that the second half does have some excellent stand alone episodes and three in particular which should be mentioned. The Girl Who Waited written by Tom MacRae is one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes now. It breathed new life into the show and although it was psychologically complex it wasn't as dark as other episodes have been. It wasn't so much about being scared but about being touched emotionally. It was definitely a box of tissues episode. I felt like it wanted to represent a turning point in the show but was then bogged down my Toby Whithouse's The God Complex which people seemed to love but I found to be a huge disappointment apart from David Walliams. In fact the second series had some really good guest appearances including Daniel Mays and James Corden.
Which brings me to the next episode, Closing Time written by Gareth Roberts. After The Doctor has abandoned Amy and Rory he returns to Craig. I had a problem with The Doctor just leaving his companions, it was strange and wasn't really explained all that well. Basically it was used as an excuse to get rid of Amy and Rory even though they then showed up in the episode, it reeked of soap opera logic. Moving beyond that the episode had a good message which made it a good feel good episode. Again the show seemed to return to what it used to be about and had great humorous moments.
This was a strange episode to lead into the finale, not setting up anything important plot wise besides the cowboy hat which Craig gives him and we saw in The Impossible Astronaut. And finally we come to the series finale, The Wedding of River Song, written by Steven Moffat which although I'm not a fan of Moffat's Doctor Who I have to admit this was a pretty good episode and is my second all-time favorite Moffat episode just behind The Eleventh Hour. It had humor, adventure and mostly a well executed plot although I think it could have benefited from more set up from a previous episode - so a two part finale. The very beginning when the guy is eaten by all the skulls is super creepy but after that the darkness of the show fades into the background which was nice for a change. I did like the nod to Indian Jones with the "I hate rates comment" substituting rats for snakes. It set up the adventure aspect of the episode nicely. I also really liked the return of old characters when time is happening all at once, Simon Callow as Charles Dickens was the first acknowledgement of a time before the 11th Doctor which was also seen in The Doctor's comment about helping Rose Tyler with her homework. Yes there's River Song who first appeared in the Tennant Era but she was a Moffat creation so that's to be expected. It was still nice to have that connection to make it seem not so closed off from its previous incarnations. Allowing Doctor Who to not feel as if its only a Moffat creation which at times is how I feel the show has turned causing me to like Moffat even less. I guess to me it feels a bit egotistical but the inclusion of these little nods helped.
The best part of the episode by far was Rory and Amy. Again Amy not really knowing who he is but Rory standing by his woman. Another witty line about his dying again and again and his perseverance of staying behind to defend the position even through the pain of the eyepatch. The eyepath in and of itself was an interesting prop that was shown in all the publicity images but I like what they did with it, it finally made sense why Madame Kovarian had been wearing one besides the cool factor of wearing an eyepatch. I just loved the fact that Rory had such a kick-ass character this time around - he's come a long way since his first appearance as a male nurse in The Eleventh Hour. And Amy also was a strong character in this episode and showed her muster from The Girl Who Waited, I mean she was wielding a machine gun! Fantastic. Killing Madame Kovarian was so shocking not only for Amy to do but also for a companion of The Doctor to do but it felt right and about time for her to show a little backbone and I loved her dialogue about River getting it from her.
Of course we all knew that The Doctor wasn't going to actually die and I knew that The Doctor was going to ask the robot to help out, that's how it was set up but they could have done a better job of showing it. They showed The Doctor asking for help in a flashback to explain how he could be in the eye of the robot Doctor but you knew that's what happened so it was a waste of screen time. I had originally thought that maybe it would be the rebel flesh that came back to save The Doctor a death but the robot worked I just wish they had revealed it in a different way.
The end was a bit rushed, another reason for having a two-part finale. It becomes extra confusing with trying to keep the timeline of River Song straight. Although Steven Moffat has expressed little confusion over her timeline in Doctor Who Confidential that's not that case, for audience members, or if not everyone is having trouble at least for me I'm finding it hard to follow. There's so much of her history that we haven't seen, most of it has been out of order and we've seen her death so it's quite a complex narrative to follow and there's still more to come since The Doctor really didn't reveal his name to her but she know because she tells the 10th doctor.
What was good was the revealing of the question as a sort of cliffhanger. I was wondering if the question would actually be asked or if they would leave it, like they did in The God Complex without showing what The Doctor's room held. And boy what a question, it sparked a smile from me impressed by the ingeniousness of the question that same sort of jaw dropping quality I had with the end of each Torchwood: Miracle Day episode.
Doctor who?
And now we will become the audience who waited.
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