Looking back at 2013

It's certainly been a busy year with ups and downs. Nelson Mandela passed away, sadly. Andy Murray won Wimbledon and Prince George was born and eventually named.

For me personally it's been a bit up and down. Not bad but not brilliant. I hope, as always, that the new year will provide an opportunity to improve matters.

Doctor Who's 50th anniversary year has certainly been busy. Back in January Matt Smith was sitll the Doctor, fans were complaining that there was nothing interesting for the 50th anniversary. But we got a 3D Episode, a biopic, tie in programs and even a regeneration story for Paul McGann! Better still, could any of us imagine, back in January, that by the end of the year we would be able to watch the complete story The Enemy of the World or the almost complete The Web of Fear? It was a good time to be a Doctor Who fan

Here are five of my favourite things from 2013.

Favourite Public Event: Andy Murray wins Wimbledon
I must admit, I have been one of Andy Murray's doubters for some years. I never really thought he could win Wimbledon, so I was pleasantly surprised when he succeeded. It was nice to have a British Champion, so well done Andy!

Favourite TV Show: Orphan Black 
If you haven't seen this TV show (and you really should do because it's brilliant), stop reading and go watch it now because there'll be spoilers below.

This has been my favourite TV Show of the year. Tatiana Maslanay proved to be perfect at portraying Sarah Manning and her various clones. Series 2 will be coming in 2014 and I can't wait to find out what happened to Sarah's daughter.

Favourite Podcast: "Verity" 
The best Doctor Who podcast out there which started at the beginning of this year. Six smart women discuss Doctor Who. Their analysis of episodes are effortlessly better than my own. So, my thanks goes to Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Liz Myles, Lynne M Thomas, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Katrina Griffiths for making such a brilliant podcast.

Favourite Exhibition: "Alien Invasion" at The Lightbox Museum and Art Gallery
The Lightbox Museum and Art Gallery in Woking has had many good exhibitions this year, from the Gertrude Jeckyll gardening exhibition, to World Wildlife fund art. This exhibition is great for family with sections on HG Wells and the rest of the museum. It's open until 19th January, so if you haven't seen it already, go and see it now.

Favourite Game: Gone Home (PC)
A game with no enemies or supporting characters, just you, the protagonist, exploring an empty house. It's very much like Myst mixed with the original Resident Evil. The story is a little basic, but it's a good step forward for game developers to look in different directions.

Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor

The story of The Time of the Doctor wasn't really suited to being a Christmas Special. It had to bring an end to Matt Smith's Doctor and tie up plot threads from as far back as 2010. As a result, the episode is packed full to the brim with incident and exposition that might have been a bit baffling to a casual audience who were too full up on up on turkey and wine and wouldn't necessarily remember every plot point from previous season. A lot of the Christmas related story threads, such as the Christmas themed town and Clara trying to cook Christmas dinner for her family, felt tacked on. The time spent joking around with Clara's family might have been better spent establishing the main plot.

At its heart, The Time of the Doctor is a very simple story of the Doctor growing old while attempting to protect a backwater town from alien attack. But to get to this point there is a lot of setting up to do, such as reintroducing Gallifrey and the Trenzalore prophecy from Series Six. The story was further complicated by the idea that the Doctor had reached his thirteenth life. A plot point necessitated by the introduction of the War Doctor back in The Day of the Doctor. All of these additions mean that the plot is shifting from location to location. From Earth to the Papal Mainframe, to Trenzalore, and back and forth. This gives the audience little time to take in what is going on, before the story moves to the next set up.

In fairness, Steven Moffat does answer the majority of outstanding questions from the Matt Smith years. We now know who it was that blew up the Tardis in The Pandorica Opens, why the Doctor had to speak his name at Trenzalore and why the Silents wanted to prevent this. While some elements have obviously been altered over the years, Steven has done a good job of tying things together for the end and he can now move on to give Peter Capaldi's Doctor a relatively fresh start.

While the story had its ups and downs, other elements f the production were pretty good. The design work by Michael Pickwoad was excellant. Christmas Town looked like every other fantasy Christmas town ever. The Church of the Papal Mainframe looked suitably vast and moody in black with glowing blues and reds.

By now, Matt Smith has complete confidence in the role of the Eleventh Doctor. This episode shows off every facet of his character from the goofiness when he is naked, to the trickster and the warrior who defends Trenzalore from his old enemies. Seeing the older Doctor at the end of his life was very interesting. It also means that Peter Capaldi’s Doctor will seem younger in comparison. I wonder if the crutch was for his injury that he had before filming?

Jenna Louise Coleman continues to do her best with a thinly defined character. Clara apparently now fancies the Doctor which is disappointingly familiar to other companions. Still, it will be interesting to see how this affects her reaction to the new, older, Doctor. It was nice to see more of Clara’s family life. Her dad is now completely different from the one we saw in the Rings of Akhaten. The Gran was the best character. The other woman is unexplained, but I guess it was supposed to be Dad’s new girlfriend, since she was listed in the credits as “Linda” and not “Mum”.

The Papal Mainframe was an interesting idea, building up from the religious elements introduced in The Time of Angels and A Good Man Goes to War. However, it did veer into the hardcore science fiction that Russell T Davies strove to avoid. I didn’t really like the character of Tasha Lem , partly because I dislike old friends of the Doctor that we have never met before and partly because she felt way too similar to River Song in that she is a psychopath who fancies the Doctor. Either Alex Kingston was unavailable or Moffat fell back on an old character archetype. At least Orla Brady proved herself to be good in the role. It was good to see the Silents back again after it seemed like they'd been forgotten in Series 7. They are continuing with their tradition of having a different background per episode. First they were a race that had manipulated humanity. Then they became the establishers of history, now they are demoted to being confessors for the Papal Mainframe.

The alliance of aliens attempting to destroy Trenzalore was a bit of a repeat of the alliance in The Pandorica Opens but had a few, more interesting differences. The Daleks and Cybermen were generic threats with no discernable differences. I did, however, like the idea Wooden Cyberman that was used to infiltrate Christmas Town. I also liked the comedy Sontarans with their invisibility field. I would query the inclusion of Terileptils in the list of aliens though. It seems that in Steven Moffat’s vision of Doctor Who, every alien race knows about the Doctor.

As for the regeneration itself, Moffat has his cake and eats it by having the volcanic regeneration as the way to defeat the Daleks and a more low key regeneration. Amy’s cameo was nice, although I wish Rory could have been there. I liked the fact that the actual regeneration was swift. It meant the audience was just as disoriented as Clara was. It’s impossible at this stage to give my opinion on Peter Capaldi yet, because he is acting insane through post regeneration trauma, but he looked suitably insane.

All in all, The Time of the Doctor was not a bad story, but not a very emotionally engaging one. It does, at least, give Steven Moffat an advantage in that he can jettison all of the previous story threads and give Peter Capaldi's Doctor a fresh start. Matt Smith has been a very successful Doctor. While I am not sure this was the best story for him to go out on, he has been great in other stories. Steven Moffat has made good decisions and some not so good, but hiring Matt Smith was definitely a good decision. Goodbye Mr Smith. You were brilliant.

My Favourite moments of Matt Smith's Doctor

In three days time, we will be saying goodbye to the Eleventh Doctor, so I've decided to post some of my favourite moments of Matt Smith in his time in the part. Others would no doubt have chosen differently, but this my blog, so it's my choices.

1.  Confronting Rosana Calvieri (Vampires of Venice)
When Matt Smith was first announced as the new Doctor, a lot of people thought that he would be too young to show power and authority. This scene proves those people wrong. He begins the scene sitting on a throne, relaxed and confident. He circles the evil Rosanna, flirting and warning her at the same time. Finally he brushes away her manservant and strides out of the room. A good demonstration that this is not a Time Lord to mess with.

2. Saying goodbye to Amelia before the crack swallows him up (The Big Bang)
The Eleventh Doctor is often described as "wacky" or "zany", but here we see his more melancholy side as he sits by Amelia's bedside and tells her the story of how he left Gallifrey before he enters the crack in time, we viewers can finally see the old man beneath the veneer. Matt makes this a sad moment, one which might rival his regeneration scene.

3. Getting the boy to stop the Bomb (The Boy Who Saved the Proms)
Technically this isn't part of the TV Show but I don't care because it's brilliant. Matt Smith proves that he is great at acting with children away from the controlled studio environment and in a hall full of people and with a child whose responses can't be predicted.  As Matt and the boy disarm a bomb with invisible wires, we can see that like Tom Baker before him, Matt can deal with the unpredictable.

4. The Doctor confronts Oswin (Asylum of the Daleks)
The Doctor/Oswin conversations throughout the episode are pretty good, given that the actors were performing separately. I love the look on Matt Smith's face as he enters Oswin's room and realizes that she is a Dalek before she herself does. The eyes say it all. I also like the fact that the Doctor gets carried away with tearing down Oswin's illusions without realizing the danger he is putting himself in when she starts to revert to Dalek behaviour.

5. The Future Doctor prepares for his own death (The Impossible Astronaut)
Once you've seen the future Doctor being killed by the astronaut, it's interesting to look back at the subtle differences between Matt's performance as future Doctor and the present one. The future Doctor has the same tics, but is warier and more confident. The way he says he "never got done saving you" is the dead giveaway. The younger one is more excitable. It's a good example of the range of Matt Smith's performance.

6. Confronting his friends on their secrecy (The Impossible Astronaut)
A good example of how the Doctor can switch from a comedic goon to a serious Lord of Time as the Doctor reveals to his companions that he knows they are hiding something from him. It is at this moment that he reveals his nastier side as he tells River that he does not trust her.

7. Eating Fish Fingers and Custard with Amelia (The Eleventh Hour)
When we first see the Eleventh Doctor after his regeneration, he is completely crazy. The Doctor's one to one talk with young Amelia in her kitchen is the moment that the Doctor finally settles down. We knew he could be funny, but now we see him being observant. It is also the first time we see him acting with children. It's something that Matt has always been good at.

8. Imploring Amy to release him to save the world (The Eleventh Hour)
The Doctor is forced to implore Amy to free him to save the world. For the first time since she was a child, the Doctor talks seriously to Amy Pond.

9. Closing the door to Older Amy (The Girl Who Waited) 
The Doctor shows his darker side as he shuts the Tardis door on the older Amy. While Steven Moffat's version of Doctor Who is generally optimistic, this is a rare example of the Doctor making a harsh decision.

10. "Legs! I've still got legs!" (The End of Time Part 2)
After the downbeat death of the Tenth Doctor, the mood completely changes for the upbeat birth of the Eleventh. Not every Doctor gets the benefit of having a first line. Tom Baker got no line at all. David's first lines gave no indication of whether I would like him or not. Matt is very good at acting naturally crazy. From this moment on, I knew I would like him.