Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor Review - *Will include Spoilers*

A series that begun all the way back in September, and a second half that began eight weeks ago, has finally completed. Series 7 has its finale and it is The Name of the Doctor. Did the finale answer the question of who Clara is? Do we get to know the Doctor's name? Do we have more questions that answers?

I will just let the cat out of the bag right here in the beginning, I loved this episode. This is one of the best, if not THE best, Doctor Who episodes I have ever seen. This was just amazing. The story was fantastic. The directing by Saul Metzstein was great. The episode just looked great, great cinematography. It was a dark episode and it worked very well in this episode. It dealt with the death of the Doctor and needed that dark feel to it.

The supporting cast was pretty good. Vasthra, Jenny, and Strax were at their best in the beginning. After the first ten minutes, after the conference call, they were pretty underused. Alex Kingston made her return as River Song. This time she appeared as River after the events of Silence in the Library. This was echo/computer back up River. Her appearance probably wasn't totally necessary, but who cares? River is amazing and anytime she can show up is fine with me. Kingston is amazing once again and always. Her scene with Matt Smith near the end is one of the best between the two actors. Hope to see more River in future.

Richard E. Grant was great in his role as Dr. Simeon/Great Intelligence. I have seen some people have called his performance bland, but really what else is expected from a non-corporeal being inhabiting a human. He may have been devoid of emotion, but that is what I would expect from the GI. The Whisper Men were an incredibly scary new monster. I am sad that they ended up being tied to the GI. I would've loved to see them in the future and still hold hope that they make a return at some time.

The finale also brought another joy to fans of the show. This episode brought the 50th Anniversary to TV sets early. The pre-credit opening was nothing but a giant callback. We saw all Seven Classic Series Doctors in the sequence. We see Clara edited in with old footage of the Doctor's and are left to wonder what was going. We do get the resolution to why Clara is there, and I will discuss that next. There were many callbacks to old Doctor Who and this episode leads directly into the 50th Anniversary in November.

We have been waiting since September when Jenna-Louise Coleman made a surprise appearance in Asylum of the Daleks to finally get an answer to the question, who is Clara Oswald. Steven Moffat gave us the answer in the series finale. It turns out that Clara has appeared at different times in space because she had jumped into the Doctor's time stream and she was split into thousand pieces. She was flung through space and time to different points, different Claras. She was the girl "born to save the Doctor." She jumped into the time stream after the Great Intelligence to stop the GI from messing with the Doctor's past and future. I liked the explanation we were given, but it did kind of seem a little disappointing. It was a slight let down only because of all the fantastic, out of the world theories that have been flying around the Internet. It was very simple, but of course something that no one thought of. Good job Moffat you got us again.

The final "small" thing that must be discussed is the revelation in the last two minutes. Much like Jenna-Louise in Asylum of the Daleks, John Hurt made a surprise appearance in The Name of the Doctor. This was huge because Hurt had already been confirmed as a guest-star in the 50th Anniversary episode and there has been much speculation as to his character. Well he showed up here. This is what I felt was the most compelling, most intense, most spectacular two minutes in Doctor Who that I have ever seen. Hurt is revealed after The Doctor and Clara are both immersed in the Doctor's time stream. The Doctor tells Clara that everyone down here is him. Clara confused because she had seen all the Doctors expect him. Hurt is revealed to be the Doctor's biggest secret. The dialogue between Matt Smith and Hurt is great and it is great writing by Moffat.

Smith: "He is my secret."

Hurt: "What I did, I did without choice."

Smith: "I know."

Hurt: "In the name of peace and sanity."

Smith: "But not in the Name of the Doctor."

Hurt turns around to face the camera and text reads "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor." I for one didn't think the text was necessary, but it isn't too important. So now the question is, which Doctor is Hurt? Who exactly is he? That is a question for another post.

Overall I loved this episode. Everything about it was great. This was amazing and a perfect way to end this season. 9.5 out of 10.

I will post a full season review soon. Do I still feel the same about each episode? How do I rank the episodes of Series 7? Find out next time.

Oblivion Review

We are kicking off the summer in which we have a plethora of movies about the destruction of Earth. The first movie in the lineup is Oblivion starring Tom Cruise.

Oblivion was a fantastic movie. The plot and story of the movie is well crafted. It is constantly making you think and question what is happening. I don't believe that there was a time during the movie that I wasn't doing so. The first 30 minutes or so do kind of drag a little, but that is pretty much just setting the stage once you get into it. This isn't a typical summer action movie, but it still gets the job done. It is fun to watch and even more fun to think about. What action scenes there are in the movie are shot well. I loved the major fight scene in the movie.

The movie could very easily change it's name to Tom Cruise in the Future. For a summer movie, this is a very small cast. The movie is pretty much 70% Tom Cruise and the rest the supporting cast around him. The movie follows him the entire way and the audience learns more as Tom learns more. The movie is very much served for the better with Cruise being the main stay. His acting is at a high level here. He makes the movie.

The twist in this movie is fantastic. It is one that you get hints at through out, but still comes somewhat as a shock. You will sit there thinking that you know what is going on, but it turns out that it is something else. I will not be posting the trailer at the end of this review. If you haven't seen a trailer yet, I would advise that you don't. If you have try not to think about it too much. The trailer doesn't give away any twists, but I would say that it probably shows a little too much than it should.

I thought that this movie was great. It is a nice way to kick off the summer movie lineup. It also sets a high standard for the remainder of these post-Earth type movies that we have on tap. 8 out of 10.

Feel free to leave any comments and or thoughts below.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary *Major Spoiler Warning Plot Points Discussed From This Point On*

So some new developments have just happened regarding the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special. I have wanted to talk about some of this and my new blog is a good place for it. WARNING PLOT POINTS DISCUSSED FROM HERE ON OUT. According to Doctor Who Spoilers.com John Hurt may have let slip what his role in the special is going to be. For full story go to http://www.doctorwhospoilers.com/2012/?p=7617.

According to the leak, Hurt has said that he plays "a part of the Doctor in a kind of trinity which includes David Tennant." For a couple weeks now people have speculated that Hurt may be playing a lost/forgotten regeneration of the Doctor. Those speculations were previously based on the clothing Hurt is wearing in the above picture (far right). Many of spotted similarities between his clothing and the costumes of the 8th and 9th Doctors, including the leather jacket. But now it seems like this may be a true possibility.

Hurt may in fact be playing a forgotten regeneration of the Doctor, a regeneration between the 8th and 9th Doctor. This would make Christopher Eccleston the 10th Doctor, Tennant the 11th, and Matt Smith the 12th. I have also heard plot speculation that if this was the case that they would deal with this by somehow erasing Hurt's Doctor by the end of the special and thus returning to the original numbering.

If this does turn out to be true, I will be both excited and disappointed. I would be excited to see how Moffat will fit in this new incarnation of the Doctor. He would be battle worn and scarred from the Time War. If we thought Eccleston was the battle worn Doctor, imagine what this Doctor would be like. It would be fabulous. Moffat is probably the only writer capable of delivering this to us. But I would be wary of how he either writes off the character in order to restore canon or how it would shake the foundation of Who canon by adding in Hurt's Doctor.

This news also makes me very sad. As a new series fan, I was upset over the news that Christopher Eccleston turned down the opportunity to return to the show. This would kind of be the way to fit in that 3rd Doctor into the story. But what makes me even sadder is the fact that they did not turn to any of the classic series actors. Yes Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and Colin Baker don't look the same as they did when they originally played the character. Sylvester McCoy still looks enough like the 7th Doctor to reprise the role for the Classic Series fans.

But even more than that it leaves out the bridge that connects the gap between the Classic Series and the New Series. I am speaking of the 8th Doctor Paul McGann. McGann looks much the same as he does when he played the Doctor in the 1996 TV movie. He has only had the one 90 minute television appearance (only 60 of which he was the Doctor). This would have been the perfect opportunity to give McGann his one chance at another appearance. I would have loved to see him reprise the role and get the proper send off that he deserved. Wouldn't it be great if at the end of the special something happened to McGann which initiated the regeneration from him to Eccleston? Then the Anniversary would also go back and loop around to the revival of the New Series. But that is probably too much to ask for.

It would have been a better service to the fans of the show if they had returned McGann instead of inventing another Doctor. I still hold out hope that they could surprise us all with the return of McGann or other classic series Doctors. But after this news, that hope is seeming to fade.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below.

My Clara Theory - *Warning Series 7 finale plot points may be included*

So far I have stuck to just reviews of Doctor Who episodes. In some reviews I have included some of my notes or thoughts about the mystery of Clara Oswin Oswald, but I have not written anything definitive about my thoughts. There are as many different Clara theories out there as there are Doctor Who fans. Most of them are of course going to be wrong. So I have shied away creating my own theory knowing it will be wrong. Plus it is just fun to read all the other theories and see how other fans think. But now we have only two episodes left in Series 7B and we have been told that we will finally be told the secret behind Clara.

Since it is so close to the end, I have decided that I want to put out my own theory. I know that it will more than likely be wrong, but on the off chance that I stumble across something I want a record of it haha. I am sorry someone else has already come up with a similar idea, I am not trying to take someone else's credit.

So here it is: Clara is connected to The Silence.

After Series 6, we still have not gotten a clear picture of the Silence. Then of course the series ended with us finding out what the oldest question was. Silence will fall when the question is asked. I am going to piggyback on another theory I have heard, and I'm going to say that I believe that the Doctor is behind the Silence. We learn in Let's Kill Hitler that the Silence isn't a race, it is a religious order. It is predicated around "Silence will fall when the question is asked." The story has led us to believe the Silence is working to stop the Doctor in order to keep the question from being asked to save themselves from "the fall." But I believe that they want Silence to fall. Not Silence the religious order, but literally silence as in quiet/absence of sound. They want to make sure that when the question is asked that it does not get answered. Thus leading to the Doctor being behind the formation of the Silence.

How does Clara fit into this? To date in the show, we have seen Clara in three different points in time. All in the right place and right time to meet the Doctor. All three have uttered the phrase "Run you clever boy and remember." I believe that she is a memory device created by the Doctor. Not a "creation", but some how the Doctor was able to use a future version of Clara and spread her through out time. He knowingly did this to intrigue his past self, knowing that he could not pass up the mystery that would be Clara. So he would search her out and find out more and unravel more.

We also know that River was taken by the Silence as a baby. No I am not saying that Clara is River, but they are connected. In The Time of Angels, River makes a joke about learning how to pilot the TARDIS from the best. We are led to believe that she was joking about being taught by the Doctor. What if she wasn't? What if she meant that she had been taught by Clara? In Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, we see in the opening that the Doctor has begun to teach Clara how to fly the TARDIS. So maybe she does learn and learns well. River, in Let's Kill Hitler, says the line "She taught me how to fly it", and we are led to think of either the TARDIS teaching River in that short time or perhaps Madame Kovarian. But it could have been Clara.

In all I think that Clara is set up by a future incarnation of the Doctor in order to ensure that Silence falls when the question is asked. Clara is the key to making sure that the question does not get answered. We will find out in two weeks when The Name of the Doctor debuts.

Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below. Let me know if I make any convincing points or if I'm way off base.

Doctor Who: "The Crimson Horror" Review - *May Include Spoilers*

Mark Gatiss made his return with his second script of Series 7B. Was he able to carry over the success of his earlier story, Cold War, or would he give us another Night Terrors?

This episode served as the Doctor-lite episode of the series. It centered around the return of the Paternoster Gang: Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax. Most people are calling this an attempt at a backdoor pilot for a spin-off series centered around the trio. If that series was much like this episode then I would watch it. Jenny got a much larger role to play than in any previous episode to date and she was fantastic. Loved seeing her being the character that the story focused on. Strax is a great character and very funny. If used in the correct way he could warm onto even the people who still don't like him. Madame Vastra was good, but I felt she was underused. Very much in the background, she was just there to help push the story along. Together they did a great job at advancing the story and making it engaging until the Doctor appeared. I hope this was in fact a backdoor pilot because I would watch more of this.

The guest stars in this story were the mother-daughter tandem of Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling who played an onscreen mother-daughter tandem. They both did an excellent job here. Stirling played a great version of the blind daughter who was in turn blindly following her mother. Rigg was exceptional as the villain of the story, Mrs. Gillyflower. She was very believable, but even more than that she was very sinister and played the creepy old lady that you know is up to something.

The Doctor does not show up until fifteen minutes into the episode. Once he is on screen Matt Smith does a good job of not overtaking the other actors on screen. This episode was not about the Doctor, it was about the ensemble cast. Clara doesn't appear until the twenty-seven minute mark. So it was a very Clara-lite episode, as she appeared late and also did not have that much to do.

Some quick notes: As I said before it was very Clara-lite. She really didn't have much to do except add in a couple of lines. I would've liked to see more of her especially since we are down to just two more episodes left in the season. Because of all of that we also didn't learn anything new about who Clara is, except that we still know that the Doctor hasn't found out either (or has he?). The prehistoric leech creature was bordering on the absurd for me. And finally I hated the ending. Not the ending of Mrs. Gillyflower, but the ending with the kids and Clara. It felt tacked on. It seemed really pointless and served only as a point to get the kids into the next episode. It didn't really need to be there.

I was sort of dreading this episode when I saw the next time trailer. I am not of a fan of most of what Mark Gatiss has written for Doctor Who. Cold War showed me something new and I actually was holding out hope for this episode, but once that trailer came on I felt like he went right back to that comfort zone and I was afraid that we would get another Night Terrors instead. I ended up quite pleased and enjoying this Gatiss story.

If this was supposed to be a horror episode with comedy mixed it, it failed. If it was a comedy with horror elements, then it greatly succeeded. Once I looked at it more as a comedy it made my enjoyment that much greater. This was a light fluffy story that was a nice change from the last couple weeks. I am now ready for the final two weeks of the season. 7.5 out of 10.

Feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below.