As Doctor Who has been going for a log time the series has it's fair share of really popular episodes wit the likes of The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion Of Earth being another prime example of the series most popular episodes. However on the flip side of that is the fact that the series does also have alot of really unpopular episodes as well and it's one of those episodes that i'm going to be taking a look at today and so then join me as I review the episode that sees a really unexpected actor turn up to play a rather unexpected role with the episode in question being called simply just "The Name Of The Doctor" enjoy.
The plot of the episode is when his friends are threatened The Doctor and Clara go to the one place that The Doctor must never ever visit to stop a threat that wants to know the most deadliest secret in all of the universe Doctor Who?.Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad altho that that's all the issue as this episodes plot isn't that good either with this episodes plot being very weak at best and certainly not strong enough to be a season finale let alone anything more then a five minuet episode of the show but this episodes plot is also really rather entertaining and can be at times really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Matt Smith as The Doctor , Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara Oswald and Alex Kingston as River Song. Also starring in this episode is Richard E. Grant as The Great Intelligence , Neve McIntosh as Madame Vastra , Catrin Stewart as Jenny Flint , Dan Starkey as Strax , Eve De Leon Allen as Angie , Kassius Carey Johnson as Artie , Nasi Voustsas as Andro , David Avery as Fabian , Michael Jenn as Clarence , Rab Affleck as Archie , Paul Kasey as The Whisper Man and Sir John Hurt as The Doctor.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with all of the actors that you expect a great performance from really turning in some rather solid performances. However at the same time tho the acting isn't as good as it really should have been and alot of that does come down to this episodes script with the episodes script just not being that good as while it does give the actors quite alot to work with interms of what there characters personalities are meant to be none of the characters are written all that well in this episode and as a result of that is the fact that this episodes cast just can't turn in that good of a performance as this episodes script just simply won't allow for it.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Stargate Studios , Real SFX and BBC Wales Visual Effects. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that thew actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as this episode does feature some really good CGI but at the same time alot of the CGI effects in this episode have dated really badly which is of course of no fault of any of the effects companies working on this episode but at the same time it is a huge issue with this episode and while it doesn't make the episode bad having dated CGI effects will always be an issue with this show as this show even back in 2013 was made on a very small budget and because of that the CGI in this episode does suffer for it.
This is the episode that gives us that great cliffhanger by introducing Sir John Hurt as a previously unseen and unheard of incarnation of The Doctor. With this version of The Doctor being dubbed The War Doctor with the idea behind this character being a rather solid one as even tho we've known that The Doctor did indeed take part in The Time War in some way shape or form we don't know to what extent and seeing our current Doctor act ashamed of what The War Doctor did during that time period shows that he holds that incarnation of himself to such low standards so much so that it's a version of himself that he refuses to talk about as he broke a promise that he made to himself a promise which he believes to be against everything that The Doctor stands for and that is something that is interesting as every single time that we've seen incarnations of The Doctor meet up they usually don't get along but there usually friendly towards each other and yet here there's none of that as it's clear as day that the current version of the characters hates The War Doctor.
For an episode that's called "The Name Of The Doctor" and is built around finding out what his name actually is. We never get to find out what his name actually is which just seems like a massive as there's no need to call the episode "The Name Of The Doctor" and have the entire episode be built around finally finding out what his name is to only then not only not reveal his name but to not even give us the smallest clue as to what his name actually is all of which makes it look like that writer Steven Moffat didn't really care about this episode and had already instead turned his attention to the then upcoming fiftieth and Christmas specials when he still should have been focused on this episode and on making this episode the best that it can be instead of giving us some dodgy comedy and a plot that is at best very weak and thinly drawn out.
No where is Steven Moffat's bad writing for this episode more evident then in the fact that the plan for The Great Intelligence makes no sense. As his whole plan involves going into The Doctor's own personal time stream even tho it would kill him which just doesn't make sense as The Great Intelligence is meant to be one of the smartest villains that The Doctor has ever faced and yet he doesn't have a plan for this episode he's just doing things for no reason as if he was acting in character he would have known that killing himself won't get what he wants but instead forcing The Doctor to enter his own personal time stream might as it would then remove The Doctor from the universe and all of his greatest enemies would be free to do what they wanted and there essentially would really be no hero to stop them and thus they could take over any planet that they wanted with very little residence from anybody whatsoever.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes grand total running time even was I do know that for a fact that this episode has /had an exact grand total running time of roughly forty four minuets. Which even tho this is roughly the bogstanderd running time for this era of the show this episode really didn't need to be that long at all with this episode also not having enough there interms of plot and story to really cover that large amount of running time either with the episode really only having enough plot for ten minuets at the most with the rest of the episode just being made up of scenes designed to stretch this episodes already thin and weak plot even thinner which in turn does make this episode feel like a chore to sit though and watch but I will admit that this episode really does have so
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As even tho this episode only has one action scene in the whole entire episode it is an action scene that's done really well with it being a scene that lasts no longer then what it really needs to and even tho it doesn't really last all that long and have that many cool moments in it sometimes all you need is a quick and short action scene to get you excited and that's exactly what we got with this episodes action scene and that's really all we needed to have as it's something that advanced the episodes story by showing us what some of The Doctor's friends would've been like if he hadn't met them and that's really all it needed to do and it's something that worked really well for this episode in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this episode is by far one of if not the worst season finale of modern Doctor Who as while it does get you excited for the fiftieth special it doesn't really feel like a season finale in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly a 5.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I person ally used in this very review well then boys and girls and well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page , Wikipedia and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episode that I used in this very review being Google Images simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.