This is the end of a very long day which included a regular working day, a visit to my primary doctor, a visit to the chiropractor, and to full runs of show I am in that opens a week from tomorrow. As my British friends might say, I'm a bit knackered.

So let's talk Doctor Who so I can go to bed.

The Name of the Doctor

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

This episode sits it kind of an odd place. It is a season finale, sure, and as such it serves to wrap up the Impossible Girl storyline as well as the Great Intelligence plot thread that wove through the Clara half of this season. But it also serves to tee off the big 50th anniversary special coming up next and then the Christmas special that marks the end of the Eleventh Doctor era. That means that it can't go full-tilt crazy like most season enders because it has to leave some dry powder for the two big follow-on events.

Even so, it does an excellent job. Right off the bat it opens with a great montage that stretches back the entirety of the show's history, from the moment that the First Doctor and Susan stole the TARDIS, right up through to the Eleventh Doctor. Check it out:

I thought that was a cool enough sequence five years ago when it first aired. Now, because of this ridiculous project, it nearly brought a tear to my eye from recognizing every single one of those clips.

The gist of the story is that the Doctor is manipulated by the Great Intelligence to come to the Fields of Trenzalore, the location of his own death. Part of the lure involves bringing the Paternoster Gang along, with a post-Silence in the Library river song there as well as a kind-of ghost. The crux of the Great Intelligence's plot is that, there in the Doctor's TardisTomb, is the energy force that represents the Doctor's entire timeline. The Great Intelligence enters that timeline and proceeds to wipe out every single one of the Doctor's victories, throughout all of history.

As you might recall, the Doctor has played a pivotal role in a great many circumstances, and so having all of that negated also results in the destruction of entire star systems. It's pretty brutal.

But that is the point where Clara finally understands her role. She enters the same energy force and is split into a thousand different reflections of herself, each one dedicated to helping the Doctor. Usually her help happens in the background where he never even notices, but occasionally (like in Asylum of the Daleks) he takes note of the encounter. 

Thus having been saved, the Doctor enters the same energy force to rescue Clara, and then....  this happens:

Ho. Ly. Crap.

When this bomb dropped I was completely awestruck five years ago. Another unknown incarnation of the Doctor? Ok, wild, pretty clever. But casting the (now sadly late) great John Hurt in the role of the Doctor? BOOM!

My head did, in fact, a splode

Five years ago I had to wait six full months before finding out what happened next. Or, I mean, previously. It's all very timey-wimey. Luckily this time around I only have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Speaking of which, it is technically tomorrow in two more minutes so I am going to go to bed now. Good night, my dear imaginary readers.

STATS:

Doctor(s): Eleventh
Companion(s): Clara Oswald, Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, Strax, River Song
Episode(s): The Name of the Doctor
Steps Walked: 7,484 today, 3,310,413 total
Distance Walked: 4.00 miles today, 1,730.55 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 0 today, 6,529 total
Sit-ups Completed: 0 today, 929 total
Is Anything Cool?: Cool is definitely no longer a thing. Except, tomorrow it will be again.
Weight: 247.96 lbs (five day moving average), net change -59.34 lbs