By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)
Two prequels mark the coming of an individual who is both an old friend and enemy of the Doctor’s prior to the broadcast of the season nine episode, “The Magician’s Apprentice.” If this series writers are clever, they better be making connections to season 26 when the Doctor was first referenced as Merlin (“Battlefield“).
The latest prologue premiered after the cinema screening of season 8’s finale (“Dark Water” and “Death in Heaven”) and it shows that The Doctor has fled to the Middle Ages to meditate. Comedy ensues as he’s the type who can barely last three hours in a quiet state, and he needs fresh water to quench his palette. More humour gets added as he guides a would-be knight, Bors, with his soldiers across a field in search for the perfect spot for a well.
The energy is not quite there in the 
Getting Spun Around with Time of the Doctor
28 DecBy Otaku no Culture
* Spoiler Alert *
E: I’m divided over whether I should like the finale of what was a stellar year for Doctor Who. The build up to the Anniversary Special was great. The two different plots that would lead up to reveal what happened in the final moments of the Great Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords melded together.
The Christmas episode, on the other hand, suggests the Time Lords found a way to come back to this reality, but it all depends on the Doctor (Matt Smith) to utter his name. Should he unlock the cosmic rift that’s formed on a planet that was mistakingly identified as Gallifrey, then another war will break out. But Mother Superious Tasha Lem (Orla Brady) of the Church of the Papal Mainframe can not have that. When the Doctor makes planetfall, he learns the planet is actually Trenzalore and he realizes his fate is sealed.
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Tags: Commentary, Doctor Who, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi