Review of The Time of the Doctor by Callandor
17 September 2024
This review contains spoilers
11's hour is over now, the clock is striking 12's.
Prerequisites: References are made across the entire Smith era, so honestly watch all the Smith episodes prior to this to get the full experience.
The Time of the Doctor has an emotional core that I love, but I find most of the dressing and details to be lacking. The first fifteen minutes is honestly a pretty weak segment, and a prime example of annoying 'Moffatisms'. We've got everything here: annoying over-sexualization (the whole 'don't wear clothes to church' thing is idiotic), a completely irrelevant section dedicated to a companion's family that we never see again, a woman introduced who feels exactly like River Song (Tasha Lem), and a hodgepodge of different mystery boxes all coming together. I'm also not a fan of the reveal that the Silents were confessional priests the whole time (silly idea that adds nothing), and the reveal that the Doctor's biggest fear from the God Complex was the cracks in time (boring answer). Still, despite all of those flaws, the middle section is genuinely pretty good, and the last fifteen minutes are truly excellent. In particular, 11's regeneration speech is one of my favorites in the entire show, and I adore pretty much everything about that scene. Overall, this is a pretty messy episode, but I do still quite like it on the whole.