Was anybody else kinda disappointed by the Time War? I mean, the Time Lords and Daleks were the two most powerful factions in a universe filled with ridiculously overpowered civilizations. They were practically gods. I thought the War was supposed to stretch across the entirety of time and space, with each side manipulating time on an industrial scale - going back to raise unimaginably vast armies, resurrecting their own dead, attacking the other side in their past and future - the ripple effects of their actions continually rewriting history across the universe.
What we actually got was flying saucers and men in leather suits with laser rifles. I'd at the very least have expected guns that fired black holes and supernovae.
The episode as a whole was disappointing as well as confusing. Didn't the episode before end on Tranzalore? Since when was the Doctor happily back on Earth??
I was disappointed in it. Especially the time war part. It looked like the -blam!-ing Colonial Marines from Aliens fighting Daleks in an abandoned warehouse.
There's some things I don't understand. Can someone tell me? Obviously the spoilers are actual spoilers.
[spoiler]1. I thought the Time War was time locked and nobody could enter or leave. Was it explained how 8.5 got out?
Wasn't that the whole deal about [i]The End of Time[/i], that Gallifrey was frozen in time which is why the Time Lords tried to get out? [/spoiler]
[spoiler]2. I don't understand the Tom Baker part. Is that Four, or just a curator?
If it's Four, couldn't they have just had a different actor, like how David Bradbury played One?
If it's just a curator, was the talk of them being each other just because Eleven said he wanted to retire?
If so, how did the Curator know to tell him what to do?[/spoiler]
Mixed thoughts on the Day of the Doctor.
I was very disappointed by John Hurt's take. The way the last series ended, I pictured he'd be more an antagonistic force. That the Time War would have changed him into something barely recognisable. I was expecting to see him gunning down Daleks, or when the soldiers surrounded them in 1566 that he'd disarm one of their spear and kill them all.
Instead he was pretty much a doddering granddad, and despite his constant claim that he didn't deserve the title of Doctor anymore I saw nothing to suggest that it was true; he seemed the same as always, just a tad older. Nothing against John Hurt's performance, he did wonderfully with the material he was given. But the way his character was portrayed was lacking in my view.
Good seeing Tennant again, him and Smith played brilliantly off each other. Loved how the 'I don't wanna go' line was gently mocked. And it was very cool how they brought Gallifrey into it and changed its fate. That was Tom Baker at the end, right? Thought he'd turn up since that scientist was wearing his scarf. I didn't quite understand it though, were they suggesting that Baker's Doctor retired and became a curator before he regenerated?
The Sygon plot was a massive derivation, felt like it belonged in a totally different episode. Didn't like how much screentime that got at all. They should have focused on John Hurt's Doctor, portrayed him as a ruthless force with Tennant and Smith trying to temper him a little and make him see another way and centred the whole episode around/in the Time War itself on Gallifrey, not in England.
But disappointment at the way the plot went aside it was a pretty fantastic episode, I did enjoy it. Looking forward to the Christmas special and surprisingly very much looking forward to Capaldi's version of the Doctor, I'm getting a bit burnt out on Matt Smith now I'm sad to say.