7.14. The Name Of The Doctor

Series 7 - 2012/2013

Writer: Steven Moffat
Series Producer: Marcus Wilson
Produced by: Denise Paul
Director: Saul Metzstein
Music: Murray Gold

Synopsis

In a workshop on Gallifrey, many years ago, a couple of workers are alerted to someone in the repair shop stealing a faulty Type 40 TARDIS. An old man, the First Doctor and a teenage girl are entering a TARDIS, when Clara interrupts the First Doctor to tell him he is making a mistake.

Another Clara doesn't know where she is. She appears to be in some kind of vortex, and feels as though she has been split into a million pieces. But she remembers one thing; she must save the Doctor. Without the Doctor realising Clara Oswalds start appearing throughout the Doctor's timelines, and through all of his previous regenerations.

In London, 1893, in a prison a man, Clarence DeMarco, is talking about the Whisper Men. Madame Vastra visits Clarence, and he tells her he has valuable information. Bargaining for his life, after he has killed 14 women, he tells Vastra that he knows all about the Doctor. Although the Doctor has many secrets there is one he will take to his grave. But it has been discovered.

In return for the information Madame Vastra arranges for the man to be spared from execution whilst she works out what do with the information. She asks Jenny about Strax, and Jenny says it his weekend off.

In Glasgow Strax is in the middle of a fight with a local, Archie, when he interrupted by a boy with a telegram calling for Strax to attend a "conference call". To do this he must be unconscious, a job Archie is more than happy to help Strax with. Back in London Jenny and Vastra use a scented candle to induce a trance state, rather an be rendered unconscious, to also join the "conference call".

In present time Clara is trying to make a soufflé. She finds a letter from Vastra with an enclosed candle. Lighting the candle would allow Clara to join the same trance state. Thinking Clara might not be open to lighting the candle Vastra also added the same soporific agent to the letter, and eventually Clara joins the "conference call". They now just need the final participant - River Song.

Vastra tells them about Clarence DeMarco, and shows them the space time co-ordinates that he told Vastra about in return for his life, supposedly the location of the Doctor's greatest secret. To prove the space time co-ordinates are real Clarence told Vastra one word: Trenzalore.

Inside the trance Jenny shivers, and can feel something touch her face. Inside the house in London there is one of the Whisper Men. Jenny apologises to Vastra for not locking the doors, saying she thinks she has been murdered, as she fades away. Rivers tells Vastra to wake up, and she finds herself in a room with the Whisper Men. Strax also awakens to find himself surrounded by Whisper Men. They break through in to the trance state, and the voice of Doctor Simeon tells River that the Doctor must go to Trenzalore, or his friends will be no more.

As Clara starts to wake she can hear the Doctor's voice; he's playing a game of Blind Man's Buff with Angie and Artie after telling them they could not go to the cinema. Clara breaks the news that whilst he has been blindfolded they have gone to the cinema after all.

Clara tells the Doctor about her experience, and asks about River Song. At the mention of Trenzalore the Doctor becomes upset and starts crying and runs back to the TARDIS. Clara follows, and the Doctor links Clara to the TARDIS' telepathic circuits to read the co-ordinates from her memory. The Doctor tells Clara that as a time traveller there is one place you must never go. Clarence wasn't talking about the Doctor's secret. He was talking about his grave. Trenzalore is where the Doctor is buried.

In order to save Jenny, Vastra and Strax he must travel to Trenzalore, and Clara is not about to stay behind. He is crossing his own timelines, and the TARDIS doesn't like it and tries to resist. The TARDIS refuses to land, and materialises in space. Through the doors the Doctor and Clara can see a burning, volcanic world. As the TARDIS won't land the Doctor turns off the anti-grav, and the TARDIS is drawn to the world below.

The TARDIS lands in what appears to be a huge battlefield graveyard, with many other gravestones. The size of the gravestones depends of the rank. In amongst them is a giant TARDIS, broken. The Doctor explains that this is actually his TARDIS, and that as a TARDIS dies the dimension dams breakdown, creating a size leak. All the bigger on the inside stuff leaks out. As the Doctor walks off River Song appears to Clara. River tells Clara that only she can see her. River's grave is also on Trenzalore. River, through Clara, tells the Doctor that grave stone could be a false grave, and that maybe it is a secret entrance to the tomb.

Vastra and Strax awake inside the giant broken TARDIS. With them is the body of Jenny. Using one of his medical devices Strax is able to revive Jenny. Soon afterwards they are met by more Whisper Men, and Doctor Simeon. Doctor Simeon, or rather the Great Intelligence, welcomes them to the Tomb of the Doctor.

At the same time the Doctor and Clara make it in to the future TARDIS, pursued by Whisper Men. Clara is starting to feel feint from the dimensioning forces inside the TARDIS. Clara starts getting memories from the TARDIS telepathic circuits, from conversation about the Doctor saying she keeps dying.

The Doctor and Clara make it to the tomb where Strax, Vastra and Jenny, and the Great Intelligence are gathered. The Great Intelligence knows that one word will open the tomb - the Doctor's name. The Doctor refuses to say it. The Great Intelligence orders the Whisper Men to stop the Doctor's companions hearts unless the Doctor tells him his name. Then the doors open. Despite only Clara being able to see and hear her River says the Doctor's name. The Doctor reluctantly leads everyone inside.

Inside the console room there is no console, but many light trails lighting up the room. The cloister bell is tolling. The Doctor explains that travelling through time is like a tear in the fabric of space time, and that each light trail is the scar of his journey through time and space - from Gallifrey to Trenzalore. Using the sonic screwdriver the Doctor lets people hear various clips from his previous selves talking from the time streams.

The time streams also contain future paths, and the paradox causes the Doctor to collapse. As Clara goes to help Doctor the Great Intelligence steps into the light. From there he can rewrite the Doctor's time line, changing wins into defeats. The journey will kill the Great Intelligence, but it would destroy the Doctor. As the Great Intelligence disappears so do the Whisper Men.

The Doctor starts writhing in pain as the Great Intelligence travels to points along the Doctor's history, rewriting it. Vastra is monitoring the changes, and when she mentions the Dalek Asylum Clara understands what she must do. She must also enter the time stream. River appears and tries to convince her not to, even though it the only way to save the Doctor. Once in the time stream she is able to correct his time stream.

With her task completed Clara lands on solid ground. She can't see where she is as all around is a strange brown mist. She can hear the Doctor talking to her, and she watches as different regenerations of the Doctor are rushing past her. In order to rescue Clara the Doctor has entered his own time stream, causing it to start collapsing. The Doctor sends something from Clara's past - a leaf. Holding on to it takes he back to the Doctor - her Doctor.

Clara holds on to the Doctor, but there is another man there. The Doctor says that the man is him, but Clara says she has seen all the Doctor's regenerations, and he wasn't one of them. The Doctor explains that the man is him, but the man is not the Doctor. He is the Doctor's secret.

Regular Cast

  • Clara Oswald: Jenna-Louise Coleman

Guest Cast

  • River Song: Alex Kingston
  • Dr. Simeon: Richard E. Grant
  • Madame Vastra: Neve McIntosh
  • Jenny: Catrin Stewart
  • Strax: Dan Starkey
  • Angie: Eva De Leon Allen
  • Artie: Kassius Carey Johnson
  • Andro: Nasi Voutsas
  • Fabian: David Avery
  • Clarence: Michael Jenn
  • Archie: Rab Affleck
  • Messenger Boy: Samuel Irvine
  • Young Clara: Sophie Downham
  • Whisper Man: Paul Kasey
  • The Doctor: John Hurt
Uncredited:
  • Double for Dr Simeon: Andy Sweet
  • Double for First Doctor (William Hartnell): Kevin Legg
  • Double for Susan: Grania Pickard
  • Double for Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker): Thomas Taylor
  • Double for Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker): Stephen Coggins
  • Double for Clara: Charlotte Parsonson
  • Double for Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton): Simon Challis
  • Double for Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann): Liam Hanley
  • Prison Guards: Nicholas Dunwell, Tim Beech, Nico Dowsell
  • Stunt Double for Archie: Matthew Stirling
  • Punters: Nick Pratt, Robert Parker Munn, Edward Hinks, Dave Mann
  • Bar Man: Charlie Akin
  • Whisper Men: Matt Doman, Jon Davey, Claudio Laurini
  • Voice of the Whisper Men: Matthew Cox
  • Double for Clara: Elena Allsopp
  • Stunt Double for the Doctor: Gordon Seed
  • Stunt Double for Clara: Dani Biernat
  • Double for the Doctor: Ian William George
  • Victorian Mum: Elena Allsopp
  • Baby: Olivia Joy Byrne
  • Double for Oswin: Elena Allsopp
  • Double for Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison): Neil Rogers
  • Double for Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston): Simon Ward

Original broadcast on the BBC

Channel Title Date Viewers Rating
BBC 1 (HD) 14. The Name Of The Doctor Saturday, May 18, 2013 7:00 PM - 7:45 PM 7.45M 88

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Studios

  • BBC Roath Lock Studios: Studio 1
  • BBC Roath Lock Studios: Studio 3
  • BBC Roath Lock Studios: Studio 4
  • BBC Roath Lock Studios: Studio 4

Outside Locations

  • Beatty Avenue, Roath, Cardiff
  • Cardiff Castle, Castle Street, Cardiff
  • Merthyr Mawr House, Merthyr Mawr, Bridgend
  • The Coal Exchange, Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff Bay
  • Uskmouth Power Station, West Nash Road, Newport