The opening scene where the Doctor lands on the Dalek ship
and it goes from darkness around him to all their eyestalk lights appearing is
a great opening scene and it immediately goes to the Cybermen and what is most
curious of all is that the Doctor has a Cyberman’s head with him and I would
have liked an explanation as to why and how he got it. Moffat uses a rather
unusual (but festively obvious) way of getting Clara back into the TARDIS. This
being a Christmas episode, Clara is trying to cook Christmas dinner and boards
the TARDIS with the cold turkey.
It’s like this episode is a greatest hits for the Eleventh
Doctor. The first to appear are the Silence. From the moment that the Silence
appear its clear they have been to the tailor and it’s a better look for them
than the white shirt and black tie they had before. Next up are the Weeping
Angels who are now able to fight their way through the snow, they are always
good. Next up we have the crack in the wall from his first series and this
perhaps has the most significant part of the story. Then of course we have the
old school references. I did love the reference to ‘The Five Doctors’. We have
the Monoid puppet. These are done in a way that they will make sense to fans
like myself yet wont confuse the newer viewer. Finally I have to say that wooden
Cybermen are a brilliant idea and they look really creepy.
We get the speech about how many regenerations the Doctor has
had though I’m still not convinced.
The eye stalks coming out of peoples head that first
appeared in ‘Asylum of the Daleks’ return here in another greatest hits nod.
Silence with eye stalks are a weird but good look. For the second time in a row
there is a very impressive battle sequence and its well shot and looks like a
fair amount of money and effort went into it.
As the Doctor was getting older I got a feeling like this
was trying to get the newer fan use to the idea of the Doctor being older. As
Capaldi is a fair bit older its probably wise thing. I think that at times
Smith looked like William Hartnell which I found amusing. I don’t quite get why
the crack appeared in the sky and it started the Doctor regeneration. That said
I thought that it was a great scene and I liked how the Doctor used the
regeneration power to destroy the Dalek spaceship.
The final scene between the Doctor and Clara is really nice
and I thought for a moment that when the Doctor appears that it would be
Capaldi’s Doctor with a hologram face but thankfully that didn’t happen and
Smith got a fine goodbye speech which wasn’t as soppy as Tennant’s final scene.
I didn’t expect Amy to return but that was a nice touch.
Capaldi’s opening scene was just as barmy as Smith’s opening
scene. I just like the idea that the Doctor doesn’t like the colour of his
kidneys. I don’t think anyone and I mean anyone can judge what sort of Doctor
Capaldi will be based on this short scene but what I can say is that it will be
different to Matt Smith’s performance.
Matt Smith’s performance is very good from start to finish.
I’ve always rated Smith as a good Doctor and he shows it again here. For those
who disliked him should hopefully have eat their words during this episode. Jenna
Coleman’s performance was spot on. She was involved in the story but didn’t try
and steal the limelight from Matt Smith. Again she’s been strong in every
episode she has been in.
I like the fact that despite their being a giant plot, what
we got was a fitting end to the Smith era. I think that it was the perfect way
to end. It didn’t feel like it was building itself up to something that it couldn’t
live up but knew what it had to do and did it well. Roll on episode 801 but we
will probably have to wait until August or September.
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