By: GF WIllmetts. The one thing that can be said about Steven Moffat’s tenure as producer and chief writer of ‘Doctor Who’, now into its second year, is that he does like playing with time and encourages his writing team likewise.

For the most part, other producers in the past see the use of time as just a means to get somewhere else for an adventure, not as the adventure itself. Nothing wrong with either choice but it’s up to the viewers, especially the general audience, as to whether they understand all of its ramifications, even if it’s explained to them. If nothing else, they might learn the problems of cause and effect.



With this season, split into two halves, Moffat starts off by having an ending first and the rest of the season leading up to it. In many respects, this is a detective story in reverse, having to lay the clues for its resolution along the way, but because it’s Science Fiction it doesn’t mean that setting up the guns can be any hidden differently. It’s more a question of recognising what can be used again as there is nothing revealed in past seasons. I doubt if even Moffat would pull an obscure detail from the past to do that. In fact, those who’ve been following my weekly comments in the SFC Forum will know that I figured out the hidden gun coming from ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ long before the final episode. Then again, I suspect and hope most of the adults amongst you reading this would have had a similar inkling. After all, having a robot body that can look like anyone means anyone. If anything, the acquisition was rather too easy. It was also a bit more of a practical choice than the beings in the story, ‘The Rebel Flesh’ who wouldn’t be able to keep their form and would melt in the cremation. But as I pointed out in last month’s editorial, knowing what is going to happen doesn’t make it any less enjoyable to watch, more just a matter of keeping your eye on each episode’s potential and see if you’re as smart as the writers. Didn’t hurt watching Sherlock Holmes with that in mind and Conan Doyle often kept things a lot more obscure.

Oddly, the biggest absence has been any major species with domineering plans for any galaxy. Even the Cybermen have been reduced to a minor role in ‘Closing Time’ and we shouldn’t even go there when it comes to how, for the first time, that the Doctor dismantled a Dalek for its memory core. It does indicate that the Doctor doesn’t know everything, especially when it comes to The Silence, another alien race whose intentions aren’t clear nor who have a voice to say it…literally. This is quite a change from Russell T. Davies’ tenure when the Doctor knew far too much about what was going on in the cosmos. Of course, he could have been faking that. In many respects, I think having a dangerous alien species with advanced technology who doesn’t appear to speak, especially when the TARDIS can break any language barrier, seems like an easy cheat to cut back on dialogue.

I always find it a joy to have River Song around and we’ve seen a lot of her history working back to front to the Doctor’s history this time. What isn’t explained is how she was imprisoned for seemingly killing the Doctor. That and the fact that she revealed to the Tennant Doctor that she does know his real name and hasn’t got her sonic screwdriver yet also suggests there are still large chunks of her story yet to be told. Actress Alex Kingdom lights up the screen whenever she appears so I still expect to see more of her in future seasons as I don’t think her story at this side of the Doctor’s time-line is completed yet.

What is interesting is what happens with Amy and Rory. I’ve never seen the same companions left home and picked up again at different short intervals before. Oddly, they don’t seem very confused by this with only a hint of some modelling work as to how they supported themselves between jaunts. Having a steady job must be a bit of a bitch for any companions’ CVs. Remember that if an eccentric man coming out of an old-fashioned policebox asks you if you want to go with him and see the universe that you’re going to leave your place in time. Even if you arrive back shortly after you’ve left, your world will never be the same again.

I hope you’ll notice that I’m being careful not to give too many spoilers away, despite the big one but after a month, I’m betting the majority of you reading this have seen the relevant episodes.

This season does have a mixture of stories. I’m less inclined to enjoy the simpler ones like ‘The Curse of The Black Spot’, for instance, because it’s so simple compared to the more complex ones like ‘The Girl Who Waited’ where the dilemma of time travel and not being wise to have two versions of the same person existing at the same time, albeit divided by fifty years. Fortunately, there’s more complex than simple stories. I’m not sure if catering for different audiences is a good idea. ‘Doctor Who’ is ‘Doctor Who’. It’s significantly different but within everyone’s grasp.

I do think the final episode, ‘The Wedding Of River Song, is one of the best end episodes I’ve seen. I’m sure that even the people like me who figured it all out still liked the execution (sic). It also sets things up for the future. After all, according to history books, the Doctor is now dead. Long live the Doctor. I suspect it would make more sense if our favourite Time Lord didn’t hang around in social gathering places in current time as much as he has done before. Then again, he has all time and space to roam, so let’s hope this leads to more adventures. The fact that the Silence would still want him dead if they discovered him still alive has to be something that will probably be played out in future seasons. Maybe we’ll even discover why they are so eager to remove him? After all, the Doctor’s presence must be contributing to preventing something they wish to do.

In many respects, this season and the announcement at the end from the Doctor that he’s going to quieten down his physical presence in the universe for a while to convince those who think him dead that he is means a change in tone for the next season. Whether he can keep that up or not will be interesting to see. After all, the TARDIS is pretty distinctive and I doubt if he’s going to regenerate for a couple years.

GF Willmetts

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