Time of the Doctor: Goodbye Matt Smith

The Clock has struck Twelve. Matt Smith has handed in his bowtie and sonic screwdriver. Peter Capaldi is now in the driving seat of the TARDIS. Unfortunately, the handover episode, Time of the Doctor was not all that great. After the epic that was Day of the Doctor, this was a bit of a let down.

After the extremely successful, and awesome to watch, 50th Anniversary, this always had a lot to live up to, made even harder for being at Christmas, where it's not just new fans that are watching but all their sozzled and stuffed relatives. But I thinking Time may have been a bit too dense and over reaching for its own good.

Doctor Who is 50: The Return

Because it's Christmas, and I don't have anything actually ready, I'm going back to the well of the Doctor Who 50th marathon I did. Below you'll find the original Matt Smith entry I wrote, on the The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon and The Wedding of River Song. It got dropped early on because after watching Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor I just had to go with them because Matt Smith is outstanding there. Oh, and Clara. So I apologise as it is a little rough.

Besides, lets not pretend that the end of the week's entry isn't going to my thoughts on Matt Smith's swansong.

Doctor Who turns 50: The Day of the Doctor

Well that was just Fantastic!

I'll admit that as we watched the Battle of Gallifrey become just another – admittedly epic looking – sci-fi battle I started to worry. That isn't what Doctor Who is. Then John Hurt was in a desert, talking to Bad Wolf Rose, being given the choice to destroy his people and the Daleks or not, and the only way to make that decision was to meet his future selves. Finally we were on the right track.

The Man Who Regrets and The Man Who Forgets. A brilliant way of describing Tennant and Smith's Doctors. But it didn't stop there. Hurt's old man Doctor just kept picking apart the differences between Old and New Whos. Calling them companions due to their age, wondering why they wave their screwdrivers at everything. The banter between the three was fantastic, especially between Smith and Tennant which immediately brought to mind the same repartee that Pertwee and Troughton had, which is the perfect Doctor relationship to model it after. Both Doctors were on the top of their game.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 11: Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor

This post was nearly Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon and Wedding of River Song, but last night I also watched Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor, and I can gush a lot more of those two then I can the others, so I switch, even though the other is practically written. I'll probably release it in a few weeks when I'm struggling for content.

It also unfortunately means that I don't get to gush about Arthur Darvill as Rory, who is just plain fantastic in them, and Mark Sheppard, who in his quest to appear in everything makes his Doctor Who debut, and I hope we got to see more of Canton some day.

But Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor. I thought I was being a bit harsh on Eccleston and Tennant's outings. I remember thoroughly enjoying then. I've never been one for rewatching stuff that often, I need a good few years between instances, and I just put it down to that. Then I watched Asylum of the Daleks. Holy Crap this is good Who. It's only been a year since it came out, and I still got thrills with it.