<\/a><\/div>\nWe managed to watch the season\/series finale for "Doctor Who" tonight and …<\/p>\n
[SPOILERS, obviously]<\/p>\n
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… okay, so I feel more than a bit mixed about the finale. Which I've felt about this season as a whole, so that's not surprising.<\/p>\n
The final two eps felt the most Doctor-like, in terms of acknowledging anything about the greater Doctorverse — a classic opponent or two, in particular, but also the sense of something greater than the Doctor\/Clara Show. I don't mind that this season hasn't been weighted down in Doctor backstory, but a little bit less stand-alone-ness would have been kind of nice.<\/p>\n
The first episode of the finale was wildly complex and careening, but had some fantastic reveals as well as personal drama. The second half tried to keep the pace going with a wild array of activities, but was more important (and successful) for the character moments. The tying together of the Doctor's early question about being a Good Man with the resolution of the episode's conundrum was neatly done, as well as a very nice, even unique, path breaking up Clara and the Doctor.<\/p>\n
Oh, and the call-out to the Internet meme of Mary Poppins being a Time Lord was worth a good chuckle.<\/p>\n
That said — ugh. There were some places things just fell flat, or worse.<\/p>\n
While I appreciated the finale giving long time fans plenty of chewy Doctor lore, a lot of it felt too much like last-,moment throwing stuff at the wall to see what would stick. Cyber-pollen was the most hand-waving fantasy element in the season to date (and that's having just seen living trees and fairies as being real and out to save the Earth from a solar flare). The return of the Brigadier's daughter was nice, but using it to drive an almost-perfunctory tribute to the Brigadier himself felt almost appallingly trivial. The UNIT protocols seemed a waste. Missy abruptly shifted from being maniacal schemer to mental basket case with a lethal edge, shifting from Lex Luthor to the Joker in the course of one episode. UNIT guards monitoring a prisoner are apparently pretty oblivious to anything the prisoner is doing. Osgood's fate seemed a gratuitous dispatch of a nifty character solely as a throw-away to help the viewers understand how lunatic and<\/i> evil Missy was (yes, I think we already figured that out).<\/p>\n
Danny Pink was much the same blend of greatness (his traumatic backstory, his grasp of Clara and her lies, his torment as a Cyberman, his final decision) and poor storytelling (when, exactly, did he go from guy in Heaven \/ Backup Data to a Cyberman? And yes, of all humans, he gets to override Cybermen programming, because, of course, LOVE). <\/p>\n
The Doctor and Clara did really click in the episode — I liked both of them individually and together the most I have in pretty much any time this season. Clara's lies (to the Cybermen) (and their lovely echo in the title credits) was brilliantly done, and the Doctor and her lies to each other at the end of the ep were deeply moving.<\/p>\n
But as a whole, the Doctor's arc this season has been unsatisfying. Teased as a darker Doctor, Twelve has been mostly confused or out of touch, unable to understand humans, testy and cranky but not actually menacing or dubious. A bit of threat cracks through in the finale but too little, too late, and pretty much defused by the Doctor declaring that the whole Good Person \/ Bad Person question was somehow missing the point.<\/p>\n
Clara has much more grounded this season (after having been Magic Impossible Girl), and her desire to try and have it all — career, boyfriend, and<\/i> a time-space-hopping hobby — was fun to watch. Her final decisions, and conclusion to her story line, seemed apt (if trauma-driven abrupt), even if I suspect there's going to be a lot of late-night drinking in her future.<\/p>\n
All in all, watching "Doctor Who" remains a heck of a lot better way to spend time than watching most TV. But I'm pretty much ready for Steven Moffat to turn over the reins to someone else. Whether he does or not, I'll be there for the Christmas Special, and for whenever the next season rolls around, so I guess I deserve what I get. I just think we can get a lot more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n