The Name of the Doctor (TV story)
The Name of the Doctor was the finale of the seventh series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It revealed the mystery of Clara Oswald and introduced an unknown aspect of the Doctor, previously unseen.
Synopsis
When the deadly Whisper Men begin kidnapping his friends, the Doctor sets course for the one time and place he should never find himself - Trenzalore. The Doctor's past, present and future are in danger of unravelling as his greatest secret looks set to be uncovered. Who is Clara Oswald, the Impossible Girl? What does her existence mean for the Doctor? And more importantly... Doctor who?
Plot
In a workshop, two engineers hear an alarm. One reports that it is from the repair shop, asking "what kind of idiot would try and steal a faulty TARDIS"? The workshop is at the base of the Capitol on Gallifrey, "a long time ago..."
The First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan Foreman begin entering a capsule, but suddenly the Doctor is stopped by Clara, who tells him he is about to make a very 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. She is shown meeting him in several of his incarnations, though as she states he barely ever notices her.
In Victorian London, a 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, Clarence DeMarco, 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. It 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.
Strax receives their urgent telegram during his time away, brawling with a large Scottish man in Glasgow. Strax apologises to Archie, his opponent, for not being able to finish, and asks the man to render him unconscious.
Vastra and Jenny are seen sitting at a table, lighting a candle to enter a trance state. Vastra is pleased to notice that their surroundings have changed from the last "conference call", as she was getting a bit tired of the Taj Mahal. The pair begin to pour tea. Strax soon appears, stating agitatedly that he would like to return to his fight with 'very pleasant primitives'. He then asks who else is coming, and Vastra says 'the women'.
On 10 April 2013, Clara prepares to make a soufflé in the Maitlands' kitchen. She tells the children what her mother had once told her: "The soufflé isn't the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe". Clara then picks up a letter, which the children say was left for her that day. Opening it when alone, the message, addressed from Madame Vastra, states that she must light the enclosed candle to enter a trance state, in order to speak with the rest of the Paternoster Gang across time. Clara expresses some scepticism about this, but the letter goes on to say that Madame Vastra anticipated this, so infused the substance of the candle into the letter paper. 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. At this point River Song appears, and is greeted by Vastra. Changing her teacup into a glass of champagne, River is then introduced to Clara, (who although having heard about her was unaware Professor Song was female), while River exhibits some mild jealousy when Clara is referred to as the Doctor's "companion."
Vastra displays and recounts the information given to her by the prisoner using some floating dust. It shifts into Gallifreyan symbols, which River identifies as space-time coordinates. 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 the Doctor had told 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. River says they misunderstood what he was saying. 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 flickers and fades away. River informs Vastra that she is under attack and must wake up, and then slaps her. Vastra awakens surrounded by the Whisper Men and demands they tell her who they are. River wakes up Strax by throwing her champagne in his face, and he finds himself also surrounded by the Whisper Men upon waking. The Whisper Men then enter the trance with River and Clara, and order Clara to tell the Doctor something: The face of Walter Simeon appears in the dust, to say 'His friends are lost forever more, unless he goes to Trenzalore'. River protests against this, and Clara wakes up.
Clara goes downstairs, finding the Doctor walking around the Maitland house blindfolded and calling for the children. It transpires they tricked him into playing 'Blind man's bluff' so that they could sneak out to the cinema. Clara asks the Doctor about River: He calls her his ex before changing the subject to Vastra's message. As Clara repeats it a visibly distraught Doctor asks her if it really was Trenzalore. Brought close to tears, he abruptly snaps out of it and runs off to the TARDIS.
Clara finds him below the console. The Doctor mentions he heard the name Trenzalore before, from Dorium Maldovar and a few others, and that River surely knew as she always did. He links Clara to the TARDIS' Telepathic circuits, then states that Trenzalore is the one place you don't want to go as a time traveller, and that Clara misunderstood the message. It didn't speak of the secret the Doctor will take to his grave, but the grave itself: The final resting place of the Doctor has been found. He has to save Vastra, Strax and Jenny - if the latter is still alive - by "breaking into my own tomb", as they were there for him during his dark times, never questioning, never judging.
As the Doctor sets course for Trenzalore the TARDIS realises what he is about to do and protests hard, fighting the coordinates while the Doctor forces her onwards. Explosions shake the console room as the TARDIS powers down to stop him. Coming to a stop in Trenzalore's orbit, Clara asks him if they are going to jump, which he dismisses as silly. The TARDIS has powered down everything aside from the antigravs - declaring "guess what I'm turning off", he sends the TARDIS plunging down through Trenzalore's atmosphere to the surface.
They land in a graveyard, one hastily assembled during a battle. A giant TARDIS shell looms on the horizon - The Doctor explains that its "bigger on the inside" qualities would have begun to leak out when it was dying. A psychic echo of River Song appears to Clara, saying that only she can see or hear her and to not mention her presence to the Doctor. On River's words, Clara directs the Doctor's attention to a grave that shouldn't be there, marked "River Song". Realizing that his wife's grave would only be there to cover up something like a secret entrance to the tomb, they enter, just as the Whisper Men are closing in on them.
During their climb up through the catacombs Clara suddenly starts remembering the events of Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and the Doctor telling her about her lives and deaths. He cuts her short as she tries to ask him about it.
Inside the TARDIS 'monument', Strax and Madame Vastra awake, and Strax is able to revive the nearby Jenny who was thought dead. Once the Doctor, Clara and the River echo arrive, all are surrounded by the Great Intelligence (using the appearance of Walter Simeon) and his Whisper Men. The Great Intelligence stands at the door to the Doctor's tomb, stating that only the Doctor's name will open it, demanding they gain access. Before everyone can be killed, River Song's apparition (unheard by the audience) calls out his name to open the crypt.
Inside is an overgrown TARDIS control room, with a glowing, writhing beam of light where the main console would usually be. The Doctor explains that this is his "mark" on the universe - his own personal timeline, past and future, and everything that resulted from it. The Doctor collapses from the influence of being so close to his past and future in this way. The Great Intelligence reveals his plan to re-write the Doctor's entire history, turning all his victories into failures. He knows that he will be killed, but the Doctor will surely be destroyed. The Great Intelligence steps into the light and is killed; the light turns red, and The Doctor falls to the floor, visibly in pain as he is being destroyed all at once. Horrified, Vastra declares that a universe without the Doctor will have consequences. She flees outside and sees the stars go dark as entire star systems are erased from history. Jenny, having been saved by the Doctor previously, is also erased, while Strax turns hostile. Grief-stricken, Vastra is forced to vaporize him.
Consulting with River and against the Doctor's protests, Clara decides to act - and with the words "run, you clever boy, and remember me," she follows the Great Intelligence into the Doctor's timeline to save him. A million copies of Clara appear throughout history, each one correcting the Doctor's timeline in her own way. On Gallifrey, one of the Claras tells the First Doctor he's about to make a very big mistake – by stealing the wrong TARDIS. She then directs him to the "proper" TARDIS.
With everyone restored except the Great Intelligence and Clara, the Doctor says he will enter his own timeline, risking its collapse to get Clara back. A frustrated River moves to slap him, but the Doctor catches her hand. The Doctor reveals that he could see her all along, he was just too afraid to talk to her as he was scared it would hurt - which it does. They share a kiss, which the Doctor says must look strange to Vastra, Jenny and Strax since they can't see her. River tells the Doctor that he never said goodbye to her and he admits he didn't know how. So she explains the only goodbye she would accept is one which promises their paths will cross again. They banter for a moment like they used to, and she reveals that she was telepathically linked to Clara, and would not still exist if Clara had died. As he asks what happened to her then, River smiles and simply states: "Spoilers." She dissipates with a final, "Goodbye Sweetie."
The Doctor then steps into his own time stream.
Clara lands in a dark, misty and cavernous place. As she stands up, various incarnations of the Doctor run past her on all sides. Her leaf appears, which she grabs, as the voice of the Doctor instructs her. The Doctor then arrives, promising to save her and take her home. As they embrace, they both notice a shadowy figure standing nearby, with his back to them. Clara does not recognise this figure, despite having thought she'd seen all of the Doctor's faces. The Doctor, showing great apprehension, explains that his real name was not the point; he chose the name "the Doctor" himself like a promise, and this mysterious man was "the one who broke the promise." He is his secret. As Clara collapses from exhaustion, the figure defends himself, saying that he had no choice and that his actions were "in the name of peace and sanity". The Doctor acknowledges this to be true, but that it had not been "in the name of the Doctor." As the Doctor carries Clara away, the man turns around, showing his elderly face as an on-screen caption reveals his identity to be "the Doctor".
Cast
- The Doctor - Matt Smith
- Clara - Jenna-Louise Coleman
- River Song - Alex Kingston
- Dr Simeon - Richard E Grant
- Vastra – Neve McIntosh
- Jenny - Catrin Stewart
- Strax – Dan Starkey
- Angie - Eve De Leon Allen
- Artie - Kassius Carey Johnson
- Andro - Nasi Voutsas
- Fabian - David Avery
- Clarence - Michael Jenn
- Archie - Rab Affleck
- Messenger Boy - Samuel Irvine
- Young Clara – Sophie Downham
- Whisper Man – Paul Kasey
- and
References
Cultural references from the real world
- Jenny and Madame Vastra play "Spring" from The Four Seasons as they enter — and presumably during — their "conference call".
- The Doctor says he hoped he'd retire and take up bee-keeping - which is what Sherlock Holmes did.
Individuals
- Because the Doctor was responsible for saving Jenny's life and turning Strax into a nurse, his absence from the universe makes Jenny disappear and Strax revert to a more typical Sontaran, before Vastra kills him.
The Doctor
- "The fields of Trenzalore" are shown to be the Doctor's final battlefield.
- The Doctor's TARDIS is used as his tomb after his death, which instead of his body, holds his timestream.
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. The First Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor interact with her, and the Third Doctor and Seventh Doctor appear to notice her, but only for a moment.
- Ultimately, Clara's companionship with the Doctor is something of an ontological paradox; the Doctor might not have invited 21st Century Clara to travel with him if he had not met the echoes of her in the Dalek Asylum and Victorian London, but if she never traveled with the Doctor, those echoes would never have existed.
- 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 (with footage taken from TV: The Five Doctors) and the Eighth Doctor, The Tenth Doctor as he stands in The Library and seeing the Ninth Doctor run past her while she was inside the Doctor's time stream.
- While many of these appearances are taken from actual footage of the original actors in character, many of them are lifted from different contexts than they appear here. As mentioned below, for example, there was no previous footage of the First Doctor stealing the TARDIS that would become his (or, if you prefer, the TARDIS stealing the First Doctor)! Similarly, the Second Doctor was never before seen running across a palm-tree lined beach in a fur coat, although he was seen running in a fur coat, in TV: The Five Doctors.
- The Second and Eighth Doctors crossed timelines at some point, or at least very nearly did, as evidenced by Clara observing both of them within seconds of each other on the same palm tree-lined beach.
- 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 another one because it will be more "fun".
- 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, although 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, with 12 Doctors.
- 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.
- The default form is slightly different from, but similar to, those seen in the TARDIS bay on Gallifrey in TV: The War Games during the Second Doctor's time, though the Doctor's own TARDIS was already stuck as a Police Box then.
- This is the second series finale of the revived series not to feature a Dalek (TV: Last of the Time Lords), though the Dalek Asylum is mentioned and appears in a flashback (TV: Asylum of the Daleks).
- This marks the first television story to use the complete moniker of "(Number) Doctor" after Clara used the term "Eleventh Doctor". Previous stories, such as TV: The Lodger or The Five Doctors have either heard the number ("Eleventh") or regeneration ("Fourth regeneration") respectively.
Ratings
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Filming locations
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Production errors
- In the sequence featuring the Second Doctor on the beach, the stand-in is running at a slower pace than that of Patrick Troughton's brisk jog.
- It is shown that River Song knows the Doctor's name, as it had been shown before in Silence in the Library (TV story) / Forest of the Dead (TV story), however The Doctor has never been shown telling River his name. He said that he told her his name in The Wedding of River Song (TV story), but it was revealed that he actually told her to look into his eyes.
Continuity
- The Sixth Doctor saw his gravestone before, musing that he had never thought precognition of his own death would be so disturbing. This turned out to be a fake set up by Davros. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks)
- The Great Intelligence refers to the Valeyard (TV: The Trial of a Time Lord), as well as The Beast, and Storm, as names for the Doctor, mentioning the Sycorax Leader (TV: The Christmas Invasion), Solomon the Trader (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship), Daleks and Cybermen as examples of the Doctor being "bloodsoaked." This is another instance of the Doctor's actions being perceived as such, by his enemies.
- Clara regains her memories of being trapped in the TARDIS. (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 apparently not attempted to contact her since her death in her own timeline.
- Since in River Song's first appearance in The Doctor's timeline in (TV: Forest of the Dead), she died and then he continued to see and interact with her throughout Series 6 and Series 7 up to (TV: The Angels Take Manhattan), a live River Song could make future appearances since their lives are out of sequence with each other.
- The Whisper Men bear a strong resemblance to The Trickster in appearance, barring the clothing, the colour on the face and the style of their teeth.
- 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 explicitly undone were saving Jenny and making Strax good, (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) .
- 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) By mentioning the Doctor dying where the Fifth Doctor regenerated, it's possible that Clara was not able to save the Doctor every time. However it's also possible that the Fifth Doctor might have genuinely died instead of regenerating.
- The prophecy of the First Question is referred to again. (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 not saying goodbye after 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 TV: The Bells of Saint John and as a copy of her in the Dalek Asylum. (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)
- Strax expresses that he did not know that River was 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. Jenny also believes he has an inability to distinguish River's "big hair" from her "big head," though River's "Time Head" is what saved everyone in The Library.
- 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 his name is. The Dream Lord had a similar exchange with Amy Pond (TV: Amy's Choice), as did Lady Peinforte with Ace (TV: Silver Nemesis).
- 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) and the lines River said to Amy after injecting her with the radiation vaccination in TV: The Time of Angels.
- 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, among them:
- The First Doctor asking "Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?" to Ian and Barbara (TV:An Unearthly Child)
- The Sixth Doctor saying "Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen! They're still in the nursery compared to us," to the Time Lords (TV: The Trial of a Time Lord)
- The Second Doctor saying "There are some corners of the universe that have bred the most terrible things" (TV: The Moonbase)
- The Fourth Doctor saying "Do I have the right?" to Sarah Jane Smith (TV: Genesis of the Daleks)
- The Ninth Doctor saying "Absolutely fantastic." (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
- the Tenth Doctor presenting himself in TV: Voyage of the Damned.
- The Fifth Doctor saying "So you see" to Stotz (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
- The Eleventh Doctor saying "Hello Stonehenge!" (TV: The Pandorica Opens)
- The Third Doctor saying "It was the daisiest daisy I'd ever seen" to Jo Grant (TV: The Time Monster)
- When the First Doctor steals the TARDIS, neither he nor Susan are wearing Gallifreyan clothing, but instead Earth clothing similar to that which they wear later after leaving Gallifrey. The Doctor has mentioned dislike of Time Lord dress sense in previous episodes (TV: Time Crash, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS).
- The Whisper Men sing about Clara "the girl who died will die again", which sounds similar to what The Silence said about Rory on the previous season finale, TV: The Wedding of River Song - "the man who dies and dies again. Die one last time."
- The Whisper Men at one point refer to the Doctor as "the man who lies". In A Good Man Goes to War, Colonel Manton also refers to the Doctor as "the man who lies". Also in The Wedding of River Song, River tells Amy that the first rule regarding the Doctor is that "he lies".
- The Capitol and the Citadel during the First Doctor's time looked a bit different from those shown in TV: The Sound of Drums and TV: The End of Time showing the Citadel and the globe resting on a bigger structure below, where the workshop is located.
- Jenny refers to the different appearance of the "conference call" as a change in the desktop theme, the same terminology used to describe the Console Room's appearance by the Fifth Doctor. (TV: Time Crash)
- The concept that time travel leaves scars upon the universe is previously alluded to in the description of the horrors of the Time War mentioned by both the Doctor and one of the members of the High Council in TV: The End of Time. Both of them suggest that the writing and rewriting of time in the course of the war had created those horrors, among others, as an unintended side-effect.
- Clara Oswald's splintering into multiple copies is somewhat reminiscent of what occurred to Scaroth in TV: City of Death, although in this case, Clara made a deliberate choice to put herself into a situation where she would become so divided.
- A full address for the Maitlands' home is finally given in this episode. A closeup on Madame Vastra's hand-written envelope reveals that she's living at 30 Oak Street in Chiswick. This squares with The Bells of Saint John, where there are no fewer than three exterior shots of the house number — 30 — on the right doorjamb. A previous companion, Donna Noble, had also lived in Chiswick.
- The unknown aspect of the Doctor has a full beard and mustache, as two incarnations of the Doctor also did, each for a short time. (TV: The Leisure Hive, TV: Day of the Moon).
- The Doctor acknowledges that the TARDIS has a fast return mechanism, possibly referring to the Fast Return Switch, or Emergency Program One. (TV: The Edge of Destruction, TV: Rose)
Home video releases
DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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External links
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