One of the things that became clear during the Russell T. Davies as showrunner era is that he had an over-reliance on deus ex machina resolutions to series-long arcs, frequently involving someone becoming glowy and more powerful. After two seasons, it appears that the defining trait of the finale’s for the Steven Moffat era is going to be be stories that run in place and never actually resolve anything.
It’s a little frustrating, because there is a lot to like about this episode. I’m a fan of the “throw lots of big, mad ideas at the viewer” approach that Moffat frequently takes on the show. A non-linear story cutting back and forth between a very big universe that contains carnivorous skulls, death by chess, and tiny people inside shape-shifting robots and a very small world in which all of time is happening all at once could be challenging, but Moffat keeps the tone consistent and light and fun. It’s a neat trick, because either thread could have made for a good episode, but blending them together drives what little plot the episode has forward and gives each idea just enough time to breathe without being overwhelming. But then we get to the final act of the episode and it’s time for everything to be explained and it all somewhat crashes down.
There was no way that the resolution to the “Doctor dies” storyline was going to please people. We all knew that the eventual revelation of how the Doctor lives, because we all know he’s going to live, was going to be a cheat. And sure enough, having the Doctor, the real Doctor be there, technically, so that the “fixed point” can be preserved but given a convenient out with a plot point from a previous episode blatantly reintroduced in this one…I can’t really complain, because it’s a fair enough resolution to the mystery, but it still somehow feels arbitrary. The real problem is that the big questions remain unanswered. Who are the Silence? Well, they’re aliens. But, no, really, they’re religious fanatics. But, no, they’re aliens who are also religious fanatics. Why do they hate the Doctor? Well, they don’t, they just don’t want him to do something in the future. So they mess with his past, repeatedly, drawing his attention to them, in what has got to the be worst thought out plan in the history of poorly thought out plans. “The Doctor is a great and terrible force that will utterly destroy those he deems evil. Let’s go out of our way to really fucking annoy him.” And rather than draw a line under all these points, Moffat instead chooses to roll them over into a new story-arc, one where the Doctor is unknown to the universe again and destined to face off with the Silence yet again. The sole bright spot with this plot line is, Cartmel Master Plan-style, a renewed emphasis on the character of the Doctor and his exact nature, instead of constantly trying to impress us with how special and precious the latest companion is.
We’ll see if Moffat manages to follow through with this in the next series…
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I believe the fixed point that River destroyed reality over wasn’t the Doctor’s death, but his faking of his death. At least that’s what I took away from the episode.
I don’t know if it counts as a cheat. It’s more like a slight of hand played on the viewers.
Yeah, I think the Fixed Point has gotten people confused. The Fixed Point wasn’t that the Doctor died, but that the Doctor APPEARED to have died. I’m with William George: it wasn’t a cheat, it was a trick, which isn’t quite the same thing.
Also, Matt Smith in a cowboy hat? *melts*
I can’t be the only one who, as the episode progressed, kept looking at the time and wondering, “gee, they’re not leaving themselves a lot of time to explain . . .” and then boom, they DON’T ACTUALLY EXPLAIN ANYTHING. I was worried for a minute that they weren’t even going to explain the Doctor’s “death” until next season! I guess leaving that cliffhanger for a whole YEAR would have been too much for them. But whoops, they managed to squeak that one in under the door. God forbid they answer anything else, ever.
But the saving grace here is that it seems as if – unlike LOST, for comparison – they’re really not setting up TOO many unanswered plot threads, so that they could never be sufficiently answered. There’s essentially one big mystery – who / what are the Silence, and what they are trying to prevent. We got a little bit of that this episode. So far, so good, even if all the anticipation might tend to make the repetition seem less darling by 2013 or 2014.
Part of the issue is the question that should not be answered… and Dr. River Song has already hinted about it. ‘Doctor” means healer (“we got that from YOU”) but it’s starting to mean warrior… That might be the question that should not be asked. Doctor Who? Healer or Warrior?
I was re-watching episodes, and my main complaint is what order they decided to show the episodes… ’cause I don’t believe that Amy would let the Doctor run her and Rory around without asking every 5 minutes “Where’s Melody!!!”
Was there an in-story explanation to why the Doctor actually married River before they restarted time or whatever? I’ve watched the scene several times and there doesn’t seem to be a reason (other then the title of the episode).
@bl000- It was the only way to convince her to stop breaking time because she isn’t, as it turns out, bold and sassy. She was bug fuck insane and from that point she was crawling her way back to something akin to normality by the time Amy meets her.