The Name of the Doctor (TV story)
The Name of the Doctor was the thirteenth and the last episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It revealed the mystery of Clara Oswin Oswald and introduced an unknown incarnation of The Doctor.
Synopsis
Vastra is gathering Jenny, Strax, Clara and River, but everything goes wrong when the deadly Whisper Men take over the gathering. Clara wakes up in the Maitland family house, and finds the Doctor. When she tells him about the Whisper Men, the Doctor understands that this is the time to go to the place he must never be in. Where no creature can speak false. A place where a question that must never be answered will be asked - Trenzalore.
Plot
In a workshop at the base of the Capitol on Gallifrey two engineers notice a security breach in the repair shop. One notes how foolish it is to steal a malfunctioning TARDIS. Two people, the First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan Foreman begin entering a capsule, however suddenly the Doctor is stopped by Clara. She tells him he is about to make a big mistake. Clara is seen falling through a golden vortex. She remarks that she does not know where she is, but remembers one thing: she is the Impossible Girl, and she was born to save the Doctor.
In Victorian London, a Polish man locked in a jail cell rants in rhythmic fashion about 'the Whisper Men'. Suddenly he is disturbed by a veiled figure, Madame Vastra, standing by the bars of his prison. The man says that she could save him from being hanged, but Vastra promises him only silence. She states that due to his murder of 14 women he is doomed to be executed, but then the convict mentions the Doctor, saying he knows all about him, claiming 'The Doctor's greatest secret, which he will take to the grave, is discovered'.
Later Vastra is with Jenny, who protests that they must not let the man live. Vastra states that he will live until she understands what he said, and that they will need a conference call. Jenny leaves the room to deliver invitations, and hears a mystifying whisper coming from outside. Vastra then asks her where Strax is, to which Jenny replies with by saying 'It's his weekend off'. Vastra complains, saying she wishes Strax never discovered 'that place'.
In Glasgow, Strax is battling with a large Scottish man. As the two prepare to violently attack each other with blunt objects, Strax is suddenly stopped by a messenger boy, who gives him an urgent telegraph. Strax states that he had a conference call, apologises to the man he was fighting with for not being able to finish, and gives him his shovel in order for the man to knock Strax unconscious, which the latter proceeds with.
Vastra and Jenny are seen sitting at a table lighting a candle, and begin to go to sleep. They awaken in a wavering, dream-like room. Jenny says she likes the new appearance of the place, with Vastra replying to by saying she was bored with the Taj Mahal. The pair begin to pour tea. Strax soon appears, stating agitatedly that he was in the process of destroying 'some very pleasant primitives', a pastime he would very much like to return to. He then asks who else is coming, and Vastra says 'the women'.
In the Maitlands' kitchen Clara prepares to make a souffle. The Maitland children groan at this action, but Clara rebuttals it, stating it's her mum's souffle. She is determined to get it right, and to be 'Souffle Girl'. She says that her mother told her that 'the souffle isn't the souffle, the souffle is the recipe'. When asked by Angie whether her mother was 'deep on puddings', Clara says she was a great woman. She then picks up a letter, which the children say was left for her that day. Clara opens it alone, finding a candle enclosed. The message, addressed from Madame Vastra, states that she must light the candle to enter a trance state in order to speak with the rest of the Paternoster Gang across time. When Clara expresses slight disgust at this, she notices that Vastra has written that the substance of the candle has been printed into the paper as she foresaw Clara's possible skepticism. Clara promptly passes out and awakens in the same room as Vastra, Strax, and Jenny.
Vastra tells Clara time travel has always been possible in dreams, and that she is exactly where she was, albeit sleeping. She then says that they are still waiting on one more person. Strax expresses distaste at this: he does not want to meet 'the one with the gigantic head'. (Jenny corrects him here, saying it is the person's hair that is large.) At this point River Song appears, and is greeted by Vastra. She changes her teacup into a glass of champagne, saying to Jenny she did it 'disgracefully'. She is then introduced to Clara, who was unaware Professor Song was female (Strax considers this no big deal; he was unaware of this as well), while River expresses some mild jealousy when Clara is referred to as the Doctor's companion.
Vastra then throws some dust into the middle of the room which forms a shape of the face of the old man in the cell: Clarence DeMarco, murderer under sentence of death. She recounts the information given to her by the old man, and in the floating dust Gallifreyan symbols appear. River says these are space-time coordinates. Meanwhile in Madame Vastra's house a door opens,unbeknownst to the entranced inhabitants. Back in the dream Vastra tells the group that the coordinates lead to the location of the Doctor's greatest secret. Jenny experiences some discomfort as a figure walks past her in their house, outside their dream. River says that she made the Doctor tell her his name, and that she was 'a little more than a friend' of his. She also said that he hasn't contacted her, as he doesn't like endings.
Vastra says to River that Clarence told her one word that connected to the Doctor: Trenzalore. River asks her to describe what the old man told her, and Vastra plays back Clarence's prophesy in the floating dust. Jenny suddenly says she forgot to lock the door in their house, a factor Vastra dismisses, until Jenny tells them that someone has broken in. She discovers, to her own dismay, that she has in fact already been killed. Her form starts to flicker and fade away, to the horror of the others. River informs Vastra that she is under attack and must wake up, and then slaps her. Vastra awakens surrounded by tall figures with featureless faces, and demands they tell her who the are. The figures snarl at her. Back in the dream, River wakes up Strax by throwing her champagne in his face. He wakes to find himself surrounded by the tall men as well. The tall men then enter the trance with River and Clara, and order Clara to tell the Doctor something. When she asks what to tell him, a face appears in the dust: the face of Walter Simeon. He says: 'His friends are lost forever more, unless he goes to Trenzalore'. River protests against this, and Clara wakes up to find the Doctor walking around the Maitland house blindfolded calling for the children. When she asks what he is doing, he says that he decided to look after the children after their father went next door. Refusing to allow them to go to the cinema, he recalls they suggested they play Blind Man's Buff. Clara informs him the children will be at the cinema, and in reply the Doctor calls them 'little Daleks'.
Cast
- The Doctor - Matt Smith
- Clara Oswald - Jenna-Louise Coleman
- River Song - Alex Kingston
- The Great Intelligence - Richard E. Grant
- Madame Vastra – Neve McIntosh
- Jenny Flint - Catrin Stewart
- Strax – Dan Starkey
- Angie Maitland - Eve De Leon Allen
- Artie Maitland - Kassius Carey Johnson
- Andro - Nasi Voustsas
- Fabian - David Avery
- Clarence - Michael Jenn
- Archie - Rab Affleck
- Messenger Boy - Samuel Irvine
- Young Victorian Clara – Sophie Downham
- Whisper Man – Paul Kasey
- The Doctor – John Hurt
References
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Story notes
- In this episode, it is revealed that Clara has lived thousands of lives throughout the Doctor's history, saving him from the Great Intelligence's sabotage in each life, finally revealing why the Doctor met two versions of her at the Dalek Asylum and in Victorian London, respectively. However, according to her, he almost never notices her, with the exception of the First Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor
- This episode shows clips of different versions of Clara scattered throughout the Doctor's timeline: advising the First Doctor to steal his Type 40 TARDIS on Gallifrey, calling out for the Third Doctor as he's driving away in Bessie (from TV: The Five Doctors), chasing after the Fourth Doctor on Gallifrey (from TV: The Invasion of Time), finding the Fifth Doctor trapped (from TV: Arc of Infinity), trying to find the Sixth Doctor on his TARDIS, attempting to rescue the Seventh Doctor from falling off of a cliff (from TV: Dragonfire), running after the Second Doctor and the Eighth Doctor, and watching the Tenth Doctor in Gridlock (TV story)'s New New York. (The scene with the Tenth Doctor is missing from the iTunes version of the episode)
- This story features for the first time on television, the Doctor prior to stealing the TARDIS. The event had previously been seen in the comic strip adventure: Time & Time Again. His granddaughter Susan Foreman appears briefly when the First Doctor helps her into a TARDIS before the Gallifreyan Clara suggests he take the older model.
- While trapped in the Doctor's time stream, the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Doctors move past, behind, and in front of Clara. Unknown actors portrayed them without their faces being shown, altough the actor portraying the first Doctor resembles the appearance of Richard Hurndall, who replaced William Hartnell in The Five Doctors.
- This story contains the greatest number of Doctors in any medium.
- In the final scene, Clara refers to having seen 11 Doctors meaning she has not interacted with any future incarnations of the Doctor, if there are any.
- This is the first televised story in which we see the Doctor's TARDIS in what appears to be its "default" form, in the scenes set on Gallifrey. We also see it flying through the vortex soon after the First Doctor steals it.
Ratings
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Production errors
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Continuity
- The Great Intelligence refers to the Valeyard as a future name of the Doctor. (TV: The Trial of a Time Lord)
- The Great Intelligence mentions the deaths of the Sycorax Leader (TV: The Christmas Invasion) and Solomon the Trader. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
- Clara gets her memories of being trapped in the TARDIS back. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)
- The 'most important leaf in history' is shown and is returned to Clara. (TV: The Bells of Saint John, The Rings of Akhaten)
- River Song appears from the databanks of the Library Data Core. (TV: Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead)
- The Doctor has been killed prematurely before, and, just as in Name, the stars went out, and his actions undone. (TV: Turn Left)
- Among things that were undone were: saving Jenny, making Strax good, (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) and stopping Davros from obliterating the Universe with his Reality Bomb. (TV: Journey's End)
- Vastra mentions the Doctor dying in the Dalek Asylum, (TV: Asylum of the Daleks) on Androzani (TV: The Caves of Androzani) and in Victorian London. (TV: The Snowmen)
- The prophecy of the First Question is referred to again, and silence indeed falls. (TV: The Pandorica Opens, Let's Kill Hitler, The Wedding of River Song)
- River Song and the Doctor both mention the Doctor's hatred of endings. (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan) River states this as the reason for him saving her to the Data Core. Ironically, this took place in the same story in which the Doctor exclaimed, "You need a good death. Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size." (TV: Silence in the Library)
- Clara screams "I don't know where I am" several times while going through the Doctor's timeline. She's said this before in The Bells of Saint John and as a copy of her in the Dalek Asylum was being converted. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
- Clara attempts to make soufflés and states that her love of them stemmed from her mother. Interestingly, her Oswin Oswald self in the Dalek Asylum made a soufflé specifically on the occasion of her mother's birthday. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, The Snowmen)
- Strax expresses that he did not know that River is a woman, once again demonstrating his difficulty of separating the genders. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, The Snowmen, et al.) He also thinks the boy with the message is a girl.
- Whilst discussing the Doctor's secrets, Vastra states that the Doctor doesn't share his secrets with anyone, and that if Clara is under the impression that she is an exception, she should ask herself what is his name. Previously, in a conversation with the Dream Lord, Amy Pond stated she was the Doctor's closest confidante. The Dream Lord proved her wrong by asking her what the Doctor's name is, which she couldn't answer. (TV: Amy's Choice)
- When the Doctor connects Clara's memories to the TARDIS through her hand, he reassures her saying "This won't hurt", only to apologise afterwards with "I lied", inadvertently repeating the same lines that Rory had said to his father (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
- When the Doctor points his screwdriver towards the wound in time left by his travels voices can be heard, similar to the scene in the console room in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story), among them the Ninth Doctor saying "Fantastic!"
Home video releases
DVD releases
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