11.23.2013

Television: Doctor Who, "The Day of the Doctor"

My question is: Why did the Zygons wait until we'd overpopulated the planet and nearly exhausted our resources to make their move?

Also: How did that negotiation end? Seems like our Doctors left in the middle of it.

And: What did that guy's friends and family think of him starting a new job every day? Because surely, if he believed that, he talked about it? "Starting my new job tomorrow!" (I'm just saying, in a roundabout way, if you're going to have a punchline, make sure the logic of the joke plays through.)

I had mixed feelings about the use of "No More" as a message emblazoned on a wall during what is akin to a holocaust; it felt a bit too much like the "Never Again" I saw at Dachau. And while that parallel may fit, I'm not entirely comfortable in it being reduced to entertainment.

The story itself felt . . . Forced. That's typical of "event" episodes that are made to exist because someone feels the need to acknowledge an anniversary or other milestone or landmark. It was cute, and somewhat inconsequential—yes, I said it, even though the end result is Gallifrey is not destroyed, which I'm sure is meant to feel very consequential, and yet . . . I remain underwhelmed in a way. As if Moffat only did it because he felt the need to make some huge change and leave his thumbprints all over everything.

I guess now, though, the story moves forward with the Doctor in search of where he mislaid his planet? Things that are lost might always be found; things that are destroyed, however, cannot always be mended. Unless you're a Time Lord. Or several Time Lord incarnations joined in one purpose. Or something.

I felt I was being denied something, too, in not getting to see Billie Piper and David Tennant interact. But always nice to see Mr. Baker. And on the whole the episode was fun. Which is what Doctor Who should be, when one gets right down to it.

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