TIMEY-WIMEY
MATT SMITH’S ERA BROUGHT NON-LINEAR STORYTELLING TO SATURDAY NIGHT TV, SAYS WILL SALMON
he Matt Smith years are intended to form a complete whole that begins with “the eleventh hour”, which introduces the idea of a crack in space/time and ends in “the time Of the Doctor” when that crack is revealed as a link to the lost time Lords. But rather than tell this story in a linear fashion, showrunner Steven Moffat uses the fact that this is a time travel show to mix things up a bit.
What was the famously complex arc about? here’s the tL;Dr version...
the Doctors send Gallifrey into another universe as an alternative to destroying it. the time Lords want to return and they use the crack to send a signal (a question: “Doctor who?”) through to the prime universe. it echoes throughout reality from the dawn of time. if the Doctor answers it, the time Lords will lock onto the signal and return – bringing the time War with them.
the Church of the Papal Mainframe traces the signal to the planet trenzalore and blockade it to prevent anyone from answering
tthe question. Meanwhile, a splinter faction led by Madame Kovarian decides it would be simpler to kill the Doctor. they blow up the tardis – an act which, ironically, causes the crack to open in the first place. When that fails they kidnap amy and rory’s daughter Melody and brainwash her to assassinate the time Lord. instead, Melody – latterly known as river Song – falls in love with her target.
eventually the Doctor finds himself on trenzalore, which he defends from various invaders, before falling to the Daleks. Clara implores the time Lords to help him and they renew his regeneration cycle and close the crack.
Got that? Phew. river sums up Moffat’s approach to plotting this era. She’s introduced in season four’s “Silence in the Library” as an archaeologist with mysterious foreknowledge of the Doctor. For the Doctor it’s their first meeting, for river it’s their last – she dies. the Doctor then spends the next few seasons bumping into her at various points along her timeline before she receives the fateful call to go to the library.
it’s convoluted, but it’s also an ambitious attempt to explore what it would be like to be a time traveller, encountering people and events in the wrong order. Whatever you think of the results, you can’t fault Moffat’s ambition.