The Name of the Doctor

239 – "The Name of the Doctor"
Doctor Who episode
Cast
Doctor Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor)
Companion Jenna-Louise Coleman (Clara Oswald)
Guest Alex Kingston – River Song Richard E. Grant – The Great Intelligence Neve McIntosh – Madame Vastra Catrin Stewart – Jenny Flint Dan Starkey – Strax Eve de Leon Allen – Angie Kassius Carey Johnson – Artie Nasi Voustsas – Andro David Avery – Fabian Michael Jenn – Clarence Rab Affleck – Archie Samuel Irvine – Messenger Boy Sophie Downham – Young Clara Paul Kasey – Whisper Man John Hurt – The Doctor
Production
Directed by	Saul Metzstein
Written by	Steven Moffat
Produced by	Denise Paul Marcus Wilson (series producer)
Executive producer(s)	Steven Moffat Caroline Skinner
Music by	Murray Gold
Series	Series 7
Running time	45 minutes
First broadcast	18 May 2013 (2013-05-18)
Chronology
← Preceded by "Nightmare in Silver" Followed by → 50th Anniversary Special

"The Name of the Doctor" is the thirteenth and final episode of the seventh series of the British science-fiction drama Doctor Who and was broadcast on 18 May 2013 (2013-05-18). It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Saul Metzstein.

The episode stars Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara Oswald. It also features the return of Alex Kingston as River Song, Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra, Dan Starkey as Commander Strax, Catrin Stewart as Jenny and Richard E. Grant as the Great Intelligence. The episode also features new monsters called the Whisper Men.

Plot

Prequels and supplementary material

"She Said, He Said" is a prequel to the episode, in which the Doctor and Clara each have a monologue about how little they know about each other and that they discovered each other's secret at Trenzalore. It was released on 11 May 2013 (2013-05-11) on BBC Red Button and on-line. Viewers using Red Button were able to access the prologue between 7:40 until midnight every evening, until "The Name of the Doctor" aired on 18 May 2013 (2013-05-18).

A second prequel, entitled "Clarence and the Whispermen", depicts the imprisoned Victorian murderer Clarence DeMarco being threatened by the Whisper Men (whom he believes to be a figment of his deranged imagination) into learning a set of space-time coordinates - promising him, in return, a "long, full life", though one overshadowed by his fear of them.

Also released to promote the episode were three "Strax Field Reports", in the first of which, subtitled "The Name of the Doctor", Strax informed the Sontarans of a great battle predicted to occur and admitting suspicions that it had to do with the Doctor's greatest secret. He informed Sontar that the operation was called "The Name of the Doctor". The second, subtitled "A Glorious Day Is Almost Upon Us...", Strax discussed a 'glorious day' in which death was likely. The final Field Report — "The Doctor's Greatest Secret" — discussed the cliffhanger, commenting that this new Doctor had the appearance of a warrior. This was the only Field Report released after the episode.

Synopsis

In 1893, the Paternoster Gang (Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Commander Strax) are given information concerning the Doctor by Clarence DeMarco, in return for a stay on his execution. They use soporific drugs to bring themselves, River Song, and Clara Oswald across space and time to a dream realm as a "conference call". Vastra repeats the man's words: "It is a secret he will take to the grave, and it is discovered." She reiterates the prophecy about the Doctor's name on the planet Trenzalore ("The Wedding of River Song"), as well as showing the planet's coordinates. During their conference, strange faceless humanoids called Whisper Men attack the gang; River shocks the others to wake them out of the dream to save themselves.

Clara awakes in contemporary London to find the Doctor visiting her for their weekly outing. Clara tells him the events from the conference call; the Doctor, deeply shocked, decides that he must go to Trenzalore to save his friends, even though visiting the location of his own grave is dangerous for a time traveller. The TARDIS resists the Doctor's efforts to land on Trenzalore, but they eventually arrive after the Doctor forces it into a crash landing. The planet is covered with tombstones, the result of a great war, according to the Doctor, while a future version of the TARDIS (having deteriorated and grown to enormous size due to its failing transdimensional circuits) stands above the graveyard. The duo are attacked by Whisper Men. River, still telepathically linked to Clara but apparently unseen by the Doctor, helps direct the two to an escape route, disguised as her own grave, that leads to the giant TARDIS. River also reveals that she died saving the Doctor, and is now only the echo saved by his previous self in "Forest of the Dead". Vastra, Jenny and Strax awaken by the structure and are surrounded by Whisper Men and meet their controller, the Great Intelligence, in the body of Dr Simeon from "The Snowmen".

The Doctor and Clara arrive at the TARDIS, and the Great Intelligence threatens to kill the Doctor's allies unless he says his true name to open the TARDIS doors. The Doctor refuses, but River – still only visible to Clara – says the Doctor's name (unheard by the viewer) and opens the doors. Inside, a pulsating column of light representing the Doctor's traversal of time and space sits where the console would usually be. Crossing his own time stream sends the Doctor into convulsions. The Great Intelligence sees the light as a wound in the fabric of space and time, and enters it in order to undo the Doctor's past as revenge for all the defeats it has been dealt, even though this will kill it. The Great Intelligence and its Whisper Men disappear into the timeline, and Vastra notices that the stars in the sky are going out. Jenny disappears, followed by Strax after he forgets his association with Vastra and momentarily threatens to kill her.

Clara, who has had recollections of the erased timeline from "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" due to the telepathic link with the TARDIS, realises that she has helped the Doctor in other places in time and space ("Asylum of the Daleks" and "The Snowmen"). She decides to enter the column of light to restore the Doctor's timeline by preventing all the damage the Great Intelligence is trying to deal. The Doctor and River try to stop her, but she calls back "run, you clever boy, and remember me" before disappearing into the light. Clara is seen falling through space and time, and appearing throughout the Doctor's past incarnations. She now considers this the resolution of the mystery of the "impossible girl". The Doctor, Jenny, Strax, and the universe are restored to normal. The Doctor prepares to save Clara, instructing the others to get away in the TARDIS in case he fails to return, but River yells at him to stop, as it is perilous for him to enter his own time stream. The Doctor finally reveals that he could hear, see, and even touch River all along, but did not acknowledge it because it was too painful. They share a passionate kiss, and River asks for the Doctor's goodbye to be spoken as if they will see each other again, which the Doctor grants her. After River disappears, the Doctor enters the column of light.

Clara lands in a cavernous place where she sees several previous incarnations of the Doctor running past her. Unseen, the Doctor calls out to her, informing her that she is caught in his timeline, which is now collapsing in on itself. He provides her with the leaf that was responsible for her existence ("The Rings of Akhaten") to guide her to him. Reunited, the two spot another figure in the shadows which Clara does not recognise from the Doctor's past. The Doctor tells her that it is yet another version of himself, but not as "The Doctor"; he explains that his chosen name is a promise he made to himself, and that the stranger is his secret: "the one who broke the promise". Clara suddenly falls unconscious from exhaustion. The stranger addresses the Doctor saying, "What I did, I did without choice... in the name of peace and sanity," to which the Doctor retorts, "But not in the name of 'The Doctor'". As the Doctor carries Clara away, the stranger turns around and an onscreen caption appears: "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor".

Continuity

Imagery of the Doctor's prior incarnations is used during scenes in which Clara and the Great Intelligence interact with the Doctor. Footage of the First (from The Aztecs), Second, Third (both from The Five Doctors), Fourth (The Invasion of Time), Fifth (Arc of Infinity), and Seventh (Dragonfire) Doctors is utilised, with doubles used for some other brief appearances during the final scenes. The opening scene also includes a representation of Susan Foreman and reference to the Doctor's original departure from Gallifrey (as a globed city, previously seen in "The Sound of Drums", and later seen destroyed in The End of Time), with Clara directing him to steal the TARDIS with a broken navigation system as it would be much more fun. Audio of the First (from An Unearthly Child and The Web Planet), Second (from The Moonbase), Third (from The Time Monster), Fourth (from Genesis of the Daleks), Fifth (from The Caves of Androzani), Sixth (from The Ultimate Foe), Ninth (from "The Parting of the Ways"), Tenth (from "Voyage of the Damned"), and Eleventh (from "The Pandorica Opens") Doctors is also heard. The Eighth Doctor is briefly glimpsed running past Clara on a beach just before she sees the Second Doctor.

The Great Intelligence says that the Doctor has been cruel several times, talking about the leader of the Sycorax, whom the Tenth Doctor kills in "The Christmas Invasion", Solomon the trader, whom the Eleventh Doctor sent to his death in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", the Daleks, and the Cybermen. The Great Intelligence also states that the Doctor will be known as the Valeyard before the end of his life. The Valeyard appeared in the 1986 serial The Trial of a Time Lord, where he is described as an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor's nature, somewhere between his twelfth and final incarnation. He also mentions the Doctor will be called the Storm; one of the names the Daleks have for the Doctor is the Oncoming Storm. He also mentions that the Doctor will be referred to as the Beast. The reason for this is unclear. Vastra mentions the Doctor dying on Androzani, a reference to The Caves of Androzani, in which the Fifth Doctor regenerates.

Production

Lead writer Steven Moffat stated that he wanted to have a new monster in the finale, after the series had seen the reappearance of old monsters such as the Ice Warriors, Cybermen, and Daleks. The idea of the Whisper Men came from "the thought of stylish, whispering, almost faceless creatures" which seemed frightening and appropriate for "an episode that looks forward and back".

Broadcast and reception

Leak

On 12 May 2013, a week before the official premiere of "The Name of The Doctor", it was announced that 210 Doctor Who fans in the USA had received their Blu-ray box set of the second half of the seventh series early due to a production error. After sucessfully requesting that they not reveal the plot, the BBC sent the recipients copies of an interview with the cast. Moffat later complimented them "210 of them, with the top secret episode in their grasp – and because we asked nicely, they didn’t breathe a word."

Ratings

"The Name of the Doctor" received overnight ratings of 5.46 million viewers on BBC One. When viewers who watched the episode later on were taken into account, the figure rose to 7.45 million, making Doctor Who the third most-watched programme of the week on BBC One. The episode received an Appreciation Index of 88.

Critical reception

The episode received positive reviews. Mark Snow of IGN gave the episode 9.1/10, praising the final conversation between the Doctor and River Song, as well as the revelation about Clara, however he noted that the Great Intelligence was "a little underwhelming" and "not very threatening", and that while the Whispermen impressed initially, they did not "[make] a great villain." Michael Hogan of The Telegraph said that the episode was "even better" than the previous two. He noted that it was "momentous, moving and thrilling". However, he also noted that the episode had "a tad too much clunking exposition, the odd spot of creaky CGI and some unconvincing metaphors about soufflés and leaves." Despite this, he called it a "breathless, brilliant finale". Some advance coverage of the story assumed the Doctor's name would actually be revealed in the episode.

External links

• "The Name of the Doctor" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• The Name of the Doctor on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki
• Template:Brief
• "The Name of the Doctor" at IMDb