Adventures of the Doctor

      Here it is, my long promised review of Doctor Who, Series 6. I was distracted by trying to finish Series 7 in time for the Day of the Doctor special, and I did it, and greatly enjoyed it. But that is a review for another time.

      The 6^th series had a lot to live up to. There was a lot of controversy and disappointed fans when David Tennant was announced to be leaving the show, Matt Smith had big shoes to fill in Series 5 with his start as the 11^th Doctor. I will admit that I was very resistant to the idea of Matt Smith as the Doctor because Tennant was (and still is) my favorite Doctor. However, with great story and in my opinion the best companions—the Ponds—I was quickly convinced that Matt Smith would be a great Doctor. The storyline and character development was brilliant in series 5 and while I eagerly leapt into series 6, a part of me was worried that they had peaked too quickly and had nowhere at this point. My fears were proved wrong.

      Now, I shouldn’t have to do this, but here it is:

      Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the characters and how they start. And what a whirlwind of a start we get. The Ponds are reunited with their beloved Doctor, though he is much older than when they last saw him. Also making an appearance is the mysterious Doctor River Song. We still don’t know that much about her other than she is very close to the Doctor—in the future. This older Doctor seems to know a lot more about Song though as they bond very well and relive a pleasant moment.

Things seem to be going well, until the Doctor knowingly goes to his death in front of them all. They then find out that the Doctor meant for them to go on a mission in the past at the time where man first reached for the stars. But there is one more person who must join them, and that is the man that the Doctor trusts more than anyone else in the universe—his younger self. For about the rest of the series, this introduces an interesting dynamic between the Ponds and the Doctor. Usually, the Doctor knows things that the Ponds can’t know, and here we have the Ponds knowing something the Doctor can’t learn. And the Doctor hates not knowing something. This puts a strain of their friendship, as the Doctor continues attempting to learn the truth and the Ponds try to come to terms with the death of their best friend, while he’s still with them.

      A new major player in this series is Doctor River Song. While we saw her death at the Library, saw her at the crash of the Byzantium, and saw her heavy involvement in the finale for series 5, we truly know little about her. We know the Doctor has a strong relationship with her, and that she is a big part of his future.

      With the main characters in mind, we move to the main part of the beginning of the series—the Silence. As revealed here, the Silence is an alien race that you can only remember when you see it. This proves to be a quite terrifying development as the main characters can only know if they’ve had an encounter with them if they make a mark on their arm or face. Several times in the series, the characters will be talking, only to find themselves covered in marks a second later. The Silence prove to be one of the most terrifying villains of Doctor Who, and their defeats as one of the most creative of the series as well. Along with all this, Amy begins to see a strange woman open nonexistent windows and look at her, talking to another unknown person.

      While the Silence swore revenge and that they would return, we begin on a string of largely unrelated episodes. Perhaps the best part of these episodes was seeing the TARDIS as a woman, and her great banter with the Doctor. It is a revealing moment for the Doctor, and we can never look at the TARDIS the same way again. This string of unrelated episodes comes to a screeching halt at the end of the Almost People episode, when it is shockingly revealed that Amy has not been with them for some time. This leads us on a grand adventure to save Amy, and we see the Doctor gather an army to go to war. Through this, we see the Doctor in a very unfamiliar setting. Instead of the wandering hero, he has becoming the warrior general. We see how this change has been slowly developing for some time, and this change causes everyone—the Doctor, the Ponds, River Song, and even the viewers—to be rather uneasy with this change. River Song even stands up to the Doctor and tells him as much, that he has drifted so far from his nature, and that people look to him as a warrior now, and not a healer. We also learn that the Silence is actually a religious order, not a single species. A religious order dedicated to prevent the Doctor from completing a prophecy.

My reaction after finding out who River Song is.

      Perhaps the biggest reveal in the series though, and the show as a whole, is the revelation of the true identity of River Song. River Songs reveal as Melody Pond is a testament to how far in advance the writers plan the series, as well as their skill at crafting a story. It completely changes the dynamics of the relationships between the Doctor, River, and the Ponds, and our views of each of these characters. We move from slight growing trust of River to great appreciation and love towards her. Which makes the next episode so jarring. We move from a River who loves and cares for the Doctor, to one that has never met him and has been raised for the purpose to kill him. Everything that we have learned about her is thrown out the window as we are put in the unusual situation of knowing more than the characters who’s tag line is “spoilers”.

      Without going through a full review of every episode, I would like to spend time on “The Girl Who Waited”. Going back to familiar setting of crazy time travel, we see a truly heart breaking episode where the Doctor and Rory are forced with a choice of trying to save an Amy that has been trapped in a deadly facility for a few days, and one that has been trapped for a few decades. The Doctor comes face to face with a companion that is one of his most beloved, who has now turned on him and has grown to hate him. Rory on the other hand must struggle with the fact that his wife is both of these two women, and is not sure how he can save over the other. In the end, we learn a lesson that is repeated many times, and that is that the doctor lies. Full of time paradoxes and hard ethical choices, this episode is a classic example of a good Doctor Who story.

      The end of the series is nearly as good—if not just as good—as the beginning, as we see the Doctor take on once again his great foes the Silence. This finale largely centers on the idea of changing a fixed point in time. We have long heard the dangers of changing a fixed point in time, and we now see the consequences of such an action when it is done related to the death of the Doctor. This episode is a thrilling end to series 6, with the marriage of the Doctor to River Song, the non-death of the Doctor, and the return of the Doctor to a more low key life.

      Focusing on this low key life, I believe that this was a great choice for the path of the Doctor. The Doctor began more as wandering traveler trying to see all that he could see. Over time, he slowly become more and more prominent. This meant fighting in battles, and becoming more seen to those around him. Slowly, he wondered away from his roots, and became less and less the Doctor we know and love. With this, the Doctor returns back to his roots, laying low again and enjoying life more fully.

      Perhaps the greatest part of the series however was finally learning the grand question that must not be answered. The question that has been under our nose the whole time, the first question. The most obvious question: Doctor Who?

      Look for more reviews in the future, and it is likely I will review more Doctor Who series and specials as time goes by. I'm working now on building more reviews so that I can regularly publish them so that you don't have to wait forever in order to read them. Once again, if you have a request for a future post or comments about them, please let me know through FaceBook or Twitter. And remember: