Now that most audiences have seen Time of the Doctor, I feel I can write a bit more about my initial reaction to it. I shall post another opinion piece after I rewatched it.
The episode seems divisive with some applauding it for its greatness while others are complaining it didn't meet their expectations. There also seems to a polarizing effect on what you took away as being the main thrust of the episode.
For those who were hoping to receive a longer explanation for the renewal of regenerations, there seems to be a great disappointment. I concur the universe opening up so Gallifrey can give him regeneration energy seems a bit weak, but I think it has to be at this point. The writers have not completed Peter's scripts and there is no way of telling what future seasons or actors may want to do with the part. If they did give us a lengthy exposition on why Matt can regenerate, the reason would be scrutinized to death in the same way the throwaway line in Paul's tv movie has been lingering around in fan's minds for over sixteen years.
There also seems to be two regenerations in my mind. There is the one on the tower and the other in the TARDIS. Yes, it was a bit striking to see the Doctor use regenerative energy as a weapon to beat the Daleks. I also think the Time Lords wouldn't have it any other way. Since we still see Matt's hands lighting up and regenerating in the TARDIS and privy to one of the most poetic ways to say goodbye, I thought it was perhaps one of the best regenerations we have seen to date. I really liked David's too.
There also seems to be many who think the episode didn't do Matt justice. I braced myself for having my heart shredded like confetti and then tossed in the air as Moffat laughed manically. I'm delighted this wasn't the case. I wept, but it was cathartic and the right amount of emotion for those scenes. It didn't leave me emotionally scarred. I thought it was an interesting choice to make Matt/Steven's last words to us be consoling and reassuring along with a wonderful summary of Matt's tenure. I'm not sure what the fans would have liked in order to create justice for Matt.
I'm in love with the self references in the episode. I loved how the musical score changed at one point to The Rings of Akhaten and then resumed back to usual. I loved the fish fingers and custard in a bowl and then Matt talking about 'the face this first face ever saw' as this beautiful nod to The Eleventh Hour. I think we were all splendidly surprised to see Karen Gillian reprise her role as Amy. The slight change in parting words "Raggedy man, Goodnight" was wonderful as well.
I thought the light expositions worked well. The fact the Silence will hear your confessions and then later you both forget I think is a nice way of explaining their distinctive feature. The rip in the fabric of the universe behind door 11 from The God Complex also worked well and that the rip/voices calling out were asking the ancient question Doctor Who? as a way of identification so they can return once more was equally beautiful. I loved the sass the Doctor brings to the idea an assassin was engineered to kill him so he marries her and all the other things involved as well.
I loved Matt kissing Tash as a reminder of how much Matt likes kissing people and the dance he does with the children is a recollection of him in a tuxedo with children at Amy and Rory's wedding. The episode is dense with nods to Matt's tenure and that is why I can't understand why people thought it didn't do him justice. We got to see the highlights of his tenure within the episode.
It was hard for me to see Matt age, but I also thought it was a perfect way to handle things. If Moffat thought it might be too much of a stretch for us to go from Matt's youthful face to Peter's more seasoned one, what better way to make Matt look so utterly ancient that Peter actually looks young by comparison.
I also thought they handled the wigs well in the episode too. Rather than have potential people complain the wigs are a distraction, just address them right away and even show us a bald Matt just to get the whole thing out of the way.
Some people didn't know how to respond to Matt's nakedness. I thought the Granny's reaction was spot on. I love Clara's flimsy excuse about her boyfriend being Swedish. I thought the nudity added a bit of levity to the whole affair and it was something we needed if we were going to journey through all the best monsters and bits of Matt's time on the show.
I was equally surprised how fond I grew of Handles and I began to cry as he was dying. It had the sort of Wilson affect from Cast Away. I thought it rather touching Handles last words were to fulfill the request about the phone we saw earlier in the episode.
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