The Time Of The Doctor: Three Things We Loved About Matt Smith’s Farewell

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

“And now it’s time for one last bow, like all your other selves. Eleven’s hour is over now, the clock is striking Twelve’s.” Tonight Matt Smith’s journey as the Doctor reached its end, and with it the time of the Eleventh Twelfth Thirteenth Eleventh Doctor. It had quite a challenge ahead of it, following on the heels of the epic “Day of the Doctor,” but it succeeded admirably by telling a large story through a small, personal lens. It bookended the Matt Smith era with countless callbacks, wrapped up many of the dangling questions and bits of mythology showrunner Steven Moffat had left us with over the past several seasons, and gave Matt Smith a proper, memorable exit. Before handing him a new face (and kidneys). Here are three things we loved about “The Time of the Doctor.”

Spoilers, sweetie!

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Doctor Who makes us laugh as often as it thrills us or wallops us in the heartstrings, and “The Time of the Doctor” didn’t forget to break up all the bittersweet farewells with some jolly good laughs. The opening sequence where the Doctor gets stuck in a sort of teleportational Russian roulette, dropping into one unwelcoming spaceship after another, was a great way to establish the story and get us laughing. And while things were going to take a darker turn as the episode continued, the Silly Doctor was in full effect for the first half: prancing about naked (at least he put on a hologram), oversharing thanks to a troublesome truth field, cooking a turkey via time travel, and bantering with a Cyberman head. (Alas, poor Handles…we barely knew you.)

And when it came time to say goodbye, to clear the stage for the new guy? Of course all those tears were wiped away by the Doctor’s new kidneys. (Kudos must also be given for a brilliant use of Matt Smith’s haircut.)


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