LogFAQs > #964976885

9. Series 7 (The Doctor: Matt Smith, Companion/s: Amy Pond, Rory Williams & Clara Oswald)

*SPOILERS BELOW FOR SERIES SEVEN OF DOCTOR WHO*

Best Episode: The Power of Three
Worst Episode: The Snowmen

Series seven has some definite flaws, but ultimately, it feels like one of the bigger "filler" seasons the reboot has to offer. I can honestly say that, aside from The Snowmen (a Christmas episode during the mid-season break), I don't really HATE any episode from series seven, but I also don't harbor that much emotion towards the episodes at all. They're largely just filler. It doesn't help that, for the first time, we had a whole season (including the finale) without a single two-parter. We saw that take shape in the back half of series six, but it stands out more in series seven.

Really though, series is practically two series mashed together, instead of a single, coherent series. The first half, which is only five episodes, is the third part of the Amy/Rory saga. Every season with those two seems to take on the overarching narrative of one stage of adulthood, with series seven handling the inevitability of death. Honestly? The three-episode stretch from Town Called Mercy through Angels Take Manhattan is actually pretty solid, and feels like a solid send-off to the Ponds. It's no surprise that the first half of the season is the strong half (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship notwithstanding).

But then you hit Snowmen, and after introducing Jenna Coleman in Asylum of the Daleks, we see her again, this time playing a governess who is apparently the same person the Doctor met back in the asylum. And thus, the mystery begins. The Snowmen winds up being a mediocre Christmas special, tanked even harder by just how much Clara's mystery persona is played up in lieu of any content to make the episode feel interesting in its own right. This becomes a running theme throughout the rest of Clara's tenure with Matt Smith.

None of the Clara episodes in series seven are BAD per say. Name of the Doctor is a little weak, but I feel like every finale I've discussed thus far has been underwhelming at best. But the point is that the entire back half of series seven feels like a filler season. There's nothing that stands out, and the only running subplot is the Doctor's desperation to figure out why Clara is so special and unique and important that he's run into her in three different locations and times. Meanwhile, as a character, all we know about Clara is that her mom died. That's it. She's a blank slate and a plot device, before she's a character. As I've said, Matt Smith is not my favorite Doctor, so giving him a companion devoid of personality doesn't improve his stories in any way.

Ultimately, the back half of this season is what tanks it, because it's just so completely unmemorable, and it revolves SO heavily around the mystery behind this character who isn't interesting in the slightest, that it feels like a lost season. Knowing how she improves with Capaldi (note, none of his season have appeared yet), I feel like Clara just got hit with a bunch of filler stories because the show was just building up to Smith's departure and the 50th anniversary. And as such, series seven comes across as less valid of a season overall.