THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY

So I read some of the online reviews of The Name of The Doctor.  I was… hmm… awed, shocked, flabbergasted?  I’m not sure.  Apparently, the scuttlebutt is that Moffett is a misogynistic pig who hates little children, lives to scare them and really wants to screw with the press by not sending out the full episode in the press release.  I can understand the press frustration.  Although Moffett is the producer and has a hand in the script direction and writes a few of the scripts he does not write them all.  He cannot be blamed for everything, even if you want to.  Anytime you have a major male leading character and a secondary female character there is going to be a damsel-in-distress situation that comes up.  It is a fundamental of storytelling.  As far as the complaints that the Doctor has been more “earthy” as of late, that is what society has become.  If the show did not change to reflect society, it would have been off the air years ago.

Now as to the developments in the plot, did anyone notice that Riversong was physically linked to Clara?  Why?  Why not Vastra or Jenny or the Doctor?  Clara also had the ability to read Gallifrian, maybe, in Journey to the Center of The TARDIS.  Also I didn’t like the Whispermen personally.  I think there are much scarier monsters.  Whispering angels scare the bejesus out of me, for example. 

Hopefully the 50^th answers some of the plot holes that you could drive a giant Mack truck through.  For instance, if the Doctor’s life was being destroyed then he would never have died on Trenzalor.  So therefore he wouldn’t have been on Trenzalor in the first place.  So busted, Moffet.  Also why introduce John Hurt as the Doctor if he “didn’t live up to the Promise” or whatever?   The current going theory is that the 50^th will discuss the time war.  But that doesn’t add up to the set shots that “leaked” out.  They seemed to point to a episode that dealt with Elizabeth the first and UNIT and the Zygons.  Also there was the cryptic clue that Matt Smith said “paintings”.  WTH.  Of course, that could be a red herring.  It could all be red herrings and here we are looking for clues in the wrong ocean, so to speak.  Maybe the shots that leaked out are from season eight and DT is back to stay?  We can only wish! Maybe Van Gogh is involved in the 50^th? Cezanne? Who knows? Or more appropriately, Who knows! Actually we will on the 23^rd! Where did I park my TARDIS?

Rings of Akhaten

So this is supposed to introduce us to the pace of the new companion.  Last week we saw her in a frantic pace and it was more the Doctor trying to get the feel of her and how she interacts with him.  This was more of how the tone of the series is going to be. *shrugs*  The blue screen stuff was so-so.  I really expected better.  What is it with stuff disappointing me lately? I have heard the latest online ramblings.  The whole season is supposed to be a dream, with Tennant coming back at the anniversary after not having regenerated after the End of Time.  I would love that,but not all the clues work.  One of the clues is the birds chirping.  But that is from the episode with the Dream Lord which occurs with Amy after regeneration.  Another thrown away clue was that the Doctor quoted Puff the magic dragon in this week’s episode. Missed that did you?  He tells Merry she has yet to see the painted wings and giant rings or something.  Subtle.  And he mentioned his granddaughter.  Almost everyone caught that.  Why?  He told Rose and Donna he forgot about that or removed that part of his memories or something.  Also, why was Donna left out of the companions special?  She was a GREAT companion in my opinion.  She and the Doctor has great adventures, lots of fun and without her he would have never met River, had another Daughter, defeated the Time Lords etc, etc. Sorry, tangent. So, Let’s get back to this week’s episode, shall we? The singing threw me.  It was great; the girl should have an opera career.  But I would have loved to be able to know WHAT they were singing.  The words and the dialogue were overlapping and you had to listen carefully to understand either one.  I choose the dialogue.  I would still like to hear the music though; I do appreciate it for its musicality.  I also understand that the long drawn out speech was achieving a point but it was still long and drawn out.  The Doctor’s speech was pointless after Clara made hers.  I would have also appreciated knowing why they called the monster/mummy thing grandfather unless this ties back into the whole this season is a dream thing.  That would make sense because the Doctor views himself as a mummy/monster/god/grandfather who abandoned his children/grandchildren.  If the whole season is a dream what does Clara represent? She doesn’t represent the child/grandchildren he’s lost because he’s being shown representations of them. Also interesting point, Clara’s mother was born on September 11.  The Doctor has pointed out that certain time/dates are fixed points and some are hot spots.  I would think that that date would be.  Other bloggers have pointed out that the car that almost ran over Clara’s father looked like the car that ran over Rose’s father.  If this is a dream world that would make sense because he’s pulling images he knows.  If not, that would be a freaky coincidence.  Oh well, that’s my thoughts on this week’s episode.  Feel free to yell in the comments.