Doctor Who: "The Name of the Doctor"

Watched the Doctor Who season-ending episode "The Name of the Doctor" this evening.

Now, I've been grumbling about Steven Moffat's storytelling for a while. I have all sorts of gripes with it: plot sof time paradoxes built into ever-twisting halls of mirrors, characters with unsatisfactory endings to their lives and their stories, a Doctor who is randomly childish and wise, irresponsible and noble, clueless and insightful... Steven Moffat stories tend to leave me mildly unsatisfied. Sound and fury but not much sense. And cheap tricks.



So it was a relief to like this one quite a bit. A lot of it made no sense at all, but that didn't get in the way of the story. The mystery of Clara the Impossible Girl was nicely sorted out in a way that reminded me of Rose becoming Bad Wolf in series one: I like both instances, though I was left with the feeling that Clara's life had no intrinsic purpose but to keep the Doctor alive.

So yes, there were more cheap tricks, but also much to love. Seeing the old Doctors. Seeing... the person who isn't Doctor whom we see in the end. The Doctor being actually caring and loving to both River Song and to Clara. Keep this up, and I might actually end up liking River. I particularly liked some of the visual metaphors: the villain with an empty body, the old TARDIS full of vines, the threads of light that are the Doctor's timeline... And it might be the first time that I've believed Mat Smith's Doctor was a real person.

It's possibly the first time since David Tennant that I've thought a Doctor Who story had real substance. (Despite Neil Gaiman's best try.) An interesting episode that quite makes me look forward to the 50th Anniversary show.