The Naming of the Doctor

Well after a fairly disappointing series Moffat redeems himself with a fantastic episode that answers a lot of the questions he had left hanging over the last couple of series and really makes me excited for the 50th anniversary episode in November.

Moffat, who has spent the last year saying that multiple Doctors will not appear in the 50th episode, proves once again that he, like The Doctor, lies. Or at least manipulates the truth, this wasn't the 50th anniversary, but featured every (or at least most of them - I didn't see Paul McGann or David Tennant, but am prepared to believe I missed them) previous Doctor. He claimed there would be no two-parters this series, but this was totally the first half of the fiftieth anniversary episode. In an age where every spoiler is revealed months in advance this was a huge coup!

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However, his attempts to keep this amazing reveal a secret has come at a cost. Clara has been a virtual blank slate this series. In order to keep her role secret, vital information about her character appears to have been kept from the writers, meaning her character has changed from episode to episode - for example in last week's episode Gaiman had clearly written a female role based on Amy which Jenna-Louise Coleman had been forced to fit to herself. This, unfortunately, undercut Clara's sacrifice as we've never really been able to get a handle on the character and build sympathy towards her - she's been more of a plot device, a mystery for The Doctor (and the viewers) to puzzle over. This is a problem Amy had in her first series too, but thanks to (the sadly cancelled) Doctor Who Confidential we got to know the actress so well and learned to love the character as Karen Gillan was so charismatic and friendly it overcame gaps in the script. Sadly Jenna-Louise has not had this additional chance to shine but hopefully will in future.

Anyway, enough with negative. This was an episode with Madam Vastra et al, River Song, Richard E Grant returning as the Great Intelligence and John Hurt as an evil version of The Doctor or possibly The Valeyard (both of who were fantastic, by the way) and the first (proper) multiple Doctor sTtory since the 2007 Comic Relief mini-episode Time Crash where David Tennant met his future father-in-law Peter Davision - let's embrace the sheer awesomeness on offer!

viewers will be  wishing this disappointing summer will just bugger off so we can see the conclusion

And awesomeness there was. The episode looked amazing, possible the best of this entire series (the end of Amy and Rory's run included), the cast were all on fire and it managed to answer a dozen questions which have been hanging over the show since Moffat took over (the most important being how to rescue River from the sealed time line that was introduced in her first episode, The Silence of The Library, which was beautifully done) while also managing to set up a fiftieth anniversary episode that would not let down the fans. Each fan-favourite character had a moment to shine (Strax, perhaps, got one or two many one-liners which undercut the serious tone of the episode perhaps). River turning the tea into champagne was a particular favourite of mine, and totally in character for her, which was a major achievement considering the size of the cast and the 45 minute run time.

All in all it was an amazing episode, but one which deserved a better series to lead up to it. This series has been the patchiest by far since Moffat took over. However, it managed it's main function, without a doubt, the vast majority of viewers will be looking at their calendars this week and wishing this disappointing summer will just bugger off so we can see the conclusion.

Gareth