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Context Recap / DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor

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1[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2'''Eleventh Doctor Era'''\
3'''Series 7:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks 1]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship 2]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E3ATownCalledMercy 3]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E4ThePowerOfThree 4]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E5TheAngelsTakeManhattan 5]] | [[Recap/DoctorWho2012CSTheSnowmen CS]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn 6]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E7TheRingsOfAkhaten 7]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E8ColdWar 8]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide 9]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E10JourneyToTheCentreOfTheTARDIS 10]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E11TheCrimsonHorror 11]] | [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver 12]] | '''13'''\
4'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E1TheImpossibleAstronaut <<< Series 6]]''' | '''[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor 2013 Specials >>>]]''']]-]]]
5!The Name of the Doctor
6[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TNOTD_Poster_3327.png]]
7[[caption-width-right:350:[[ArmorPiercingQuestion "What is your name?"]]]]
8->Written by Creator/StevenMoffat\
9Directed by Saul Metzstein\
10'''Air date:''' 18 May 2013
11
12->''"Welcome to the final resting place of the cruel tyrant. Of the slaughterer of the ten billion and the vessel of the final darkness. Welcome to the tomb of the Doctor!"''
13-->-- '''The Great Intelligence'''
14
15JustForFun/{{The one|With}} that [[TheReveal permanently broke]] [[TheNthDoctor the numbering system]].
16
17'''{{T|ropeCodifier}}he''' ''Series/DoctorWho'' WhamEpisode.
18----
19
20Prequel: "She Said, He Said". Clara and the Doctor tell the viewer about how mysterious they find one another, and how they discovered one another's true identity when they went to the fields of Trenzalore... Watch it [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtaIpkjF6Ss on YouTube]].
21----
22
23[[RunningGag "Spoilers!"]]
24
25Clara's scattered across time and space, from Gallifrey to Earth, seeing the Doctor -- ''all'' Doctors -- move around her. She confronts the First Doctor and Susan when they're about to steal the TARDIS, spots the Sixth while he walks past her, tries to get the attention of the Third [[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors as he's driving by in]] [[CoolCar Bessie]], follows the Fourth as he's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime walking through corridors on Gallifrey]], rushes after the Second [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome while he's having an adventure with the Eighth]], watches the Fifth as he's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity trapped inside the Matrix]], tries to rescue the Seventh while he's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire dangling from a cliff on Ice World]], watches the Tenth Doctor [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary in the]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Library]], and confronts the Eleventh when he's [[Recap/DoctorWho2012CSTheSnowmen temporarily retiring in 19th century London]]. None of them, except the First and the Eleventh, ever properly notice her.
26
27Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax (who's spending the weekend in Glasgow because... he just ''really'' likes [[ViolentGlaswegian Glasgow]]) arrange a dreamscape séance across space and time, conferring about the danger the Doctor is in -- something is intruding into his reality and will require the secret he'd take to his grave, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingofRiverSong on the fields of Trenzalore]]. Also attending the "conference" are Clara (summoned to the dreamscape through a soporific-coated letter sent many years before her time by Vastra) and River Song. More precisely, River Song's VirtualGhost, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead still living on as a fragment of memory in the Library]]. As Clara and River meet for the first time, Jenny realises with horror that she left the door open back in reality, and promptly gets herself almost killed by the once again assumed physical body of the Great Intelligence (still Creator/RichardEGrant!) and his legion of "Whispermen".
28
29Clara breaks free of the trance and finds the Doctor stumbling blindfolded through her house, trying to babysit Angie and Artie, who have in fact tricked him and gone to the cinema. As soon as she mentions the séance and Trenzalore, the Doctor properly breaks down and begins to silently cry. He explains that the ExactWords meant that it's not his ''secret'' that is at Trenzalore, but his ''grave''. The TARDIS is just as reluctant as the Doctor is to go there, and with good reason: not just because it's really bad for the web of time to do that sort of thing, but also because it's her grave as well. The TARDIS is ''so'' reluctant to go to Trenzalore that she ''tries to blow herself up'' to avoid landing there. The Doctor shuts her down completely and forces her to fall down onto the planet... [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong the fall of the Eleventh]].
30
31The TARDIS' future self stands as a giant atop the catacombs, NotQuiteDead, with her dimensional transcendence having spilled out to her exterior. The fields of Trenzalore have merged with her body and show her memories as gravestones, and her tunnels reach down far underneath the ground. River, who's kept her psychic connection to Clara from the séance open, joins them there as a spectre -- appearing real to Clara, but unseen by the Doctor.
32
33As Clara and the Doctor navigate through the underground catacombs, she quite violently remembers [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E10JourneyToTheCentreOfTheTardis the Doctor telling her how she dies, twice]]. The Doctor notes that it's ''really'' not the appropriate moment to have that conversation, especially since she shouldn't even logically have memories of it. Once they reach the centre of the tomb, the Great Intelligence is waiting for them, along with Vastra, Strax and Jenny (who was saved from the brink of death by Strax).
34
35The Great Intelligence reveals that Trenzalore is where the Doctor died, during a minor skirmish that was nothing compared to any of his other battles -- but it was enough to finally kill him permanently. Both the Great Intelligence and the Doctor know that only his name can open the tomb, but the Doctor refuses to say it, even when the Whispermen are about to murder his friends. It's River who does eventually say it, unheard by anyone. The tomb opens and reveals the Doctor's corpse in the very core of the decaying TARDIS -- a mass of light representing every scar the Doctor ever left in the web of time with his travels. The Great Intelligence steps inside it, and begins to work his way through the Doctor's life, erasing the Doctor's actions throughout time and space. Soon enough, [[TheStarsAreGoingOut the stars start going out]]. Jenny vanishes (to Vastra's great distress) since she was never saved by the Doctor, and Strax, who never bettered his life, becomes a more unhinged Sontaran than we've seen, and begins to attack Vastra, forcing her to vaporize him. Clara realizes what she has to do in order to save reality and follows the Great Intelligence inside, scattering herself across time and space along with him. Everywhere the Great Intelligence tried to stop the Doctor, a reborn version of Clara would be there, native to that time period, to preserve the timeline. Like River, she'd be nothing more than a copy, but she'd have a chance to keep reality safe.
36
37Jenny and Strax are restored almost immediately, and the stars come back on cue, but the Doctor can't cope well with losing his companion. He confronts River (whom he can see just fine -- he could ''always'' see her just fine). River asks him why he never sought her out after he preserved her memory at the Library, and he explains that it would simply hurt him too much. After a tremendously BigDamnKiss instigated by the Doctor for once (since nobody else in this room could see River, God knows how that looked), the Doctor finally, for the first time, bids River a proper goodbye. Not a farewell, just a goodbye. He jumps into his own mess of tangled time scars after Clara.
38
39Clara's going absolutely insane from seeing all Doctors run around her in the surreal, barren mindscape in which her final "real" consciousness ends up. The Doctor rushes towards her and clings to her, and all is well again...
40
41...[[WhamShot until they see the unbelievable]]: there is ''another'' individual among the previous ten Doctors that have been seen in action. Unlike the rest of the echoes of the Doctor, this one is standing eerily still, with his body cloaked in shadows and his head slouched downward in a position of regret. And the Doctor is terrified of him.
42
43The Doctor tries to urge Clara to leave his timestream and not question the origins of the figure in front of them, desperately masking that person's identity. But she's already seen the one thing no one should have ever had access to inside the Doctor's memories. His biggest secret isn't his name, it's ''him'' (played by [[Creator/JohnHurt Sir John Hurt]]). A incarnation who committed an act so horrifying, he had to ''give up'' [[TitleDrop the name of "the Doctor"]].
44
45----
46
47'''[[center:[[ToBeContinued TO BE CONTINUED]]...\
48...IN [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR]]]]'''
49
50----
51!!Tropes:
52
53* EightiesHair: Strax and Clara both comment on River's enormous hair. Sontarans being hairless, Strax calls her the one with the "gigantic head". Certain versions of Clara also show hairstyles comparable to past companions', some in the '70s others in the '80s.
54* AllThereInTheManual: ''The Doctor's Lives and Times'', a book comprised of documents written by and about the Doctor and released as part of the 50[[superscript:th]] anniversary, tied into this episode by photoshopping Clara into various photos. One even shows her as a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E1DestinyOfTheDaleks Movellan]].
55* AndAnotherThing: River does this when revealing that Clara couldn't possibly be dead.
56-->'''River:''' Oh, there's one more thing.\
57'''The Doctor:''' [[LampshadeHanging Isn't there always?]]
58* ArcWords:
59** "Trenzalore" goes back as far as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingofRiverSong The Wedding of River Song]]".
60** "Run you clever boy, and remember [me]." Caused by Clara saying this before jumping into the time stream. Also "soufflé girl".
61** "[[TitleDrop Doctor Who]]!?"
62** "I don't know where I am!"
63* ApocalypseHow: By undoing every bit of good the Doctor has ever done, the Great Intelligence dooms the universe, and one by one the stars go out.
64* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: The Great Intelligence invades the Doctor's timeline to destroy every good thing he ever did. Clara follows suit, spreading into her various incarnations across his timeline. The Doctor jumps right in after them so he can pull Clara out once her job's done, but it seems the Intelligence is left behind to ascend.
65* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: While it later turns out there's actually a rather simple explanation for the gigantic size of the Doctor's tomb, nonetheless, it's in keeping in with his earlier comments that the size of the gravestones on Trenzalore is indicative of someone's position and rank. Presumably the people that erected the graves felt it somewhat fitting that the Doctor's tomb should tower over them ''all!''
66* AuthorAppeal: Creator/StevenMoffat [[Series/{{Coupling}} really likes]] Creator/JohnHurt.
67* BarBrawl: Strax's idea of a weekend off is to tear a pub apart with a ViolentGlaswegian. he's on a FirstNameBasis with.
68* BatmanGambit: The Great Intelligence is banking on the fact that the Doctor's friends mean so much to him that he will visit his own grave to save them.
69* BeyondTheImpossible: As befitting a series finale, the Doctor pulls this off a few times. First he catches a slap from a mental projection of River and gives her a BigDamnKiss, then he steps into his time travel scar and rescues Clara.
70* BigBad: The Great Intelligence.
71* BigDamnKiss: Between the Doctor and River.
72* BiggerOnTheInside: Averted with the Doctor's tomb, the wrecked TARDIS. Apparently as [=TARDISes=] die, "size leaking" occurs, causing the exterior size to match the inside.
73* BilingualBonus: Clara is repeatedly referred to as being "blown" into this world. Guess what "soufflé" means in French?
74* BreakingTheFourthWall: When Clarence first recites the "Whispermen" poem, when he reaches the line "and looks at you" he looks directly into the camera. The character is revealed to be facing a wall in the next shot, so it's not as if he's addressing anyone in front of him.
75* BridalCarry: The Doctor gives one to Clara after she passes out from the exhaustion of travelling through his time stream.
76* BuryYourGays: It looks twice like this has happened to Jenny, but it's [[PreserveYourGays subverted]] when she gets revived from both deaths and is still alive at the end of the episode.
77* TheBusCameBack: Returning characters for the last episode in the series include River Song, Madame Vastra, Strax, Jenny Flint, the Great Intelligence, all the previous Doctors, the planet Gallifrey and Bessie the car. Bessie in particular hasn't been seen on screen since 1989.
78* ButThouMust: The letter sent to Clara by Vastra tells her to use the soporific candle that comes with it, but then tells her the letter is laced with the soporific anyway.
79* CallBack: Several previous events are discussed:
80** River recounts how she died in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]" to Clara.
81** Madame Vastra and Jenny both note it should be impossible for Dr. Simeon to still be alive after his death in "[[Recap/DoctorWho2012CSTheSnowmen The Snowmen]]".
82** Clara freaks out at the Doctor when she starts remembering the events of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E10JourneyToTheCentreOfTheTardis Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]".
83** Clara notes "Well, how about that, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks I'm Soufflé Girl after all.]]"
84** The [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E7TheRingsOfAkhaten leaf]] that brought Clara's parents together shows up again -- and this time it really is "the most important leaf in human history".
85** The Doctor again mentions [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide "everyone is an echo, in the end" and "everyone has a grave somewhere out there."]]
86** Inside the tomb, after he uses his sonic screwdriver on the portal of light that leads into his timeline, voices
87*** The First Doctor: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild "Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension?]]"
88*** The Second Doctor: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E6TheMoonbase There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things.]]"
89*** The Fourth Doctor: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Do I have the right?]]"
90*** The Sixth Doctor: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe "... they're still in the nursery compared to us!]]"
91*** The Ninth Doctor: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays You were absolutely fantastic!]]"
92*** The Tenth Doctor: "[[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous]]"
93** The Great Intelligence, whilst trying to get the Doctor's name from him, mentions him as a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens blood-soaked warrior]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays the Storm]], the Beast, the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe Valeyard]]...
94** The Great Intelligence mentions the [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion Sycorax leader]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship Solomon the trader]], and Cybermen and Daleks as previous victims to the "bloodsoaked" Doctor.
95** When the Great Intelligence is sabotaging all of the Doctor's victories, Madame Vastra mentions [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks the Dalek asylum]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani Androzani]] and [[Recap/DoctorWho2012CSTheSnowmen Victorian London with the Paternoster Gang]].
96* CaptainObvious: "The Doctor will take his biggest secret to his grave."
97-->'''Clara:''' What is it? What's his biggest secret?\
98'''Jenny:''' We don't know. [[ShapedLikeItself It's a secret.]]
99* CelebrityParadox: Creator/JohnHurt exists as an actor in the Whoniverse, his role in ''Film/{{Alien}}'' being [[Recap/TorchwoodS1E7GreeksBearingGifts briefly mentioned]] in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}''.
100* ChekhovsBoomerang: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E7TheRingsOfAkhaten This isn't the first time the leaf was a plot point.]] It's still the most important leaf in human history.
101* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
102-->'''Strax:''' Madame, boys, combat formation; they are unarmed.\
103'''Jenny:''' So are we!\
104'''Strax:''' Do not divulge our military secrets!
105* ComicalOverreacting: Strax, upon waking up in an unknown place.
106-->'''Strax:''' This base is surrounded! Lay down your weapons and your deaths will be merciful! This planet is now property of the Sontaran Empire! Surrender your women and intellectuals!
107* ContinuityCavalcade: The episode references multiple previous episodes in single scenes and lines.
108** Clara shows up in multiple scenes from every era of ''Doctor Who'' in quick succession, including the First stealing his TARDIS on Gallifrey, and the Third driving Bessie, his iconic canary yellow roadster. Episodes featured: "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" -- Creator/JonPertwee / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E6TheInvasionOfTime The Invasion of Time]]" -- Creator/TomBaker / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]" -- Creator/PeterDavison / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire Dragonfire]]" -- Creator/SylvesterMcCoy / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary Silence in the Library]]" -- Creator/DavidTennant. Shopped footage taken from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E6TheAztecs The Aztecs]]" was used for Creator/WilliamHartnell and from "The Five Doctors" for Creator/PatrickTroughton. As the Great Intelligence attacks the Doctor's timestream footage is seen from "The Aztecs" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]". [[FakeShemp Stand-ins were used for]] Creator/PaulMcGann (seen for a split second before Troughton runs past Clara) and Creator/ChristopherEccleston. To round it off, a FakeShemp version of Creator/ColinBaker appears walking behind Clara during what appears to be an unseen adventure on a spaceship. Actual shots and audio of ''all'' Doctors are used when the [[SwirlyEnergyThingy Time rift]] is first seen.
109** The prequel shows some props from previous episodes, such as [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn the Doctor's painting of Clara]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E12NightmareInSilver the chess-playing Cyberman]].
110** FakeShemp versions of the [[Creator/WilliamHartnell First]], [[Creator/TomBaker Fourth]], [[Creator/PeterDavison Fifth]], [[Creator/ColinBaker Sixth]] and [[Creator/ChristopherEccleston Ninth]] Doctors run past Clara when she's stuck in the timestream.
111* ContinuityNod: A few background references are made to individual previous events.
112** River Song appears dressed similarly to her outfit from the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]"; an early indication that she is a VirtualGhost.
113** Similar to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E6TheBellsOfSaintJohn The Bells of Saint John]]", Clara gets panicked when she doesn't know where she is.
114** The Doctor mentions that, should he die, Vastra, Jenny and Strax should activate the TARDIS' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E3TheEdgeOfDestruction Fast Return Switch]].
115* ContinuitySnarl: Did the Doctor steal that particular TARDIS because [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E4TheDoctorsWife she was the one that was unlocked]], or because Clara told him to? Given the Great Intelligence's temporal meddling, this snarl is one in-universe. It may be that the Doctor originally picked the correct TARDIS, but the Great Intelligence locked her doors, nearly forcing the Doctor to pick another, until Clara stepped in. She pointed him to the one TARDIS in the vault that happened to have her security mechanisms disabled, saving him the time he'd have needed to get in the one operational. Presumably, this meant the difference between successfully fleeing the planet and getting caught.
116* CrazyPrepared: Vastra sent Clara a letter containing a candle that would release a special soporific when burned (which stays potent for over 100 years) so she could participate in the conference call. Knowing that Clara wouldn't light it, she also coated the letter itself with the soporific. Makes one wonder why she bothered sending the candle in the first place.
117* CreepyCemetery: The decrepit, overgrown graveyard on Trenzalore where the Whispermen take the Doctor's friends.
118* DeadAllAlong: River is talking from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary the Library]].
119-->'''River:''' Yeah, probably should have mentioned that. Never the right time.
120* DeathGlare: When Clara reveals that the Doctor never mentioned that he'd been married to River, or even that River was a woman, River gives a glare that cuts across time and space that just screams how, if the Doctor were present, she would kill him. Again.
121* DeathSeeker: The Great Intelligence, as implied through several of its lines.
122* DisneyDeath: Jenny dies having her heart stopped by the Whispermen, only for Strax to easily jumpstart it again and save her.
123* DistinctionWithoutADifference:
124** The Doctor tries to dissuade the Great Intelligence from entering the NegativeSpaceWedgie by telling him that it will destroy him. The Great Intelligence counters that it will outright kill him, but it will also destroy the Doctor.
125** When Clara and the Doctor confront his hidden incarnation, the Doctor confirms that yes, the man is him, but no, that man is ''not'' the Doctor due to having committed an act so horrific that he is not allowed to use the name.
126* DoNotSpoilThisEnding: After the [=DVDs=] accidentally got released to about 200 American online consumers a week before the episode was broadcast, Creator/TheBBC said this. Moffat, as an incentive for those so blessed to not reveal any secrets, promised that he would release [[BonusMaterial an exclusive video]] with Creator/MattSmith and Creator/DavidTennant if the reveal went unspoiled until after the episode was broadcast. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Em8lmmTNkA The fans behaved]]. Even Website/TVTropes got in on the action by posting a message at the top of this page:
127-->'''NOTE:''' Some warehouse in America goofed and shipped the Season 7b DVD set early. We are aware of this and ask any lucky tropers '''not to add any spoilers from the DVD set!''' per the BBC's [[http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2013/05/dwn12051312secret-of-name-out-early.html appeal to the internet.]]
128* DramaticUnmask: The Great Intelligence pulls off his face, revealing that there's nothing beneath.
129* DoubleMeaning:
130-->'''Strax:''' The heart is a relatively simple thing.\
131'''Vastra:''' ''[cradling Jenny]'' I have not found it to be so.
132* ExactWords:
133** As the Doctor explains: the Matt Smith incarnation is the Eleventh ''Doctor''. The Creator/JohnHurt incarnation has lost all right to that name.
134** Lampshaded by the Doctor when he berates Clara for not getting what the killer at the start was saying, when he said "There is one secret the Doctor will take to the grave... ''it'' is discovered." As in, the grave.
135** The title is an example as well: It doesn't refer to the Doctor's name, as many expected, but rather to the name "The Doctor" and what it means to use it.
136* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Clara has heard a bit about River from the Doctor before the séance, but thought that Professor Song was male. It's possible she had no idea about River and the Doctor's relationship (as implied later in the episode when she expresses surprise at learning the Doctor and River were married) and assumed "Professor Song" was just a professor the Doctor knew.
137* {{Expy}}: The Whispermen were obviously inspired by Slenderman.
138* EyelessFace: The Whispermen only have mouths on their otherwise featureless, creepy faces.
139* FakeShemp: Previous Doctors are portrayed through a mix of stock footage and barely-glimpsed body doubles in their IconicOutfit.
140* FantasticRacism: As the universe crumbles, Strax tries to kill Vastra, as when the Doctor's life begins to be unwritten, he loses the CharacterDevelopment that the Doctor provoked.
141* FateWorseThanDeath: The Great Intelligence doesn't plan to just kill the Doctor, though that is going to happen. Instead, the plan is to systemically undo every last bit of good he's ever done throughout his lifetime by rewriting his victories into defeats.
142* FoodSlap: River makes Strax wake up from the séance by tossing the contents of her champagne glass in his face.
143* ForegoneConclusion:
144** The prequel is implied to be set after the events of the main episode, making "The Name of the Doctor" a flashback to events that have already occurred.
145** As the Doctor himself admits, at some point in the future he will die and be entombed on Trenzalore. It's implied that the TARDIS will likewise not survive this final battle.
146* {{Foreshadowing}}:
147** The Great Intelligence mentions [[FutureMeScaresMe the Valeyard]]. This is the first clue that the tomb at Trenzalore isn't Eleven's final fate - if it were, the Valeyard would never come to pass.
148** Back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow The Beast Below]]", the Eleventh Doctor stated that if he killed the Star Whale, he'd no longer be able to call himself the Doctor. Hinting at a regeneration who gave up the name of the Doctor for a similar act.
149** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E9Hide Hide]]", Clara asks the Doctor if everyone he meets is just a ghost to him, since everyone's already dead from his perspective as a time traveler. His reluctance to answer in that episode was because of her impossible nature, but as this episode reveals, not in the least because he sees himself as a ghost as well for that reason.
150** The Doctor says he always imagined himself retiring one day, and taking up something like watercolours or beekeeping. Or [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor perhaps becoming a museum curator]]?
151* FreezeFrameBonus: All the past Doctors show up, but Eight only appears for a split-second before Two at the very beginning, and Ten is watched by Clara at the Library. Apparently, this brief sequence is inexplicably omitted from the iTunes version of the episode, though audio of that Doctor is still heard elsewhere in the episode, at least.
152** Also, while the room is spinning just before Jenny and Vastra go into the séance, the Whispermen can be seen outside the window.
153* FryingPanOfDoom: Well, saucepan anyway. Archie's weapon of choice when fighting Strax.
154* HaveWeMetYet: River Song has even more knowledge of the Doctor's future, even after dying, as this version of River is the VirtualGhost now residing in the largest Library in the universe.
155-->'''River:''' Spoilers.
156* HeroicSacrifice: Attempted by Clara by jumping into the Doctor's timeline to save him from the Great Intelligence. The Doctor is having none of it and goes in to pull her out.
157* HollywoodTorches: The catacombs have torches [[BattleTrophy made from Dalek eyestalks!]]
158* HowWeGotHere: The episode begins with Clara falling through a portal. These are the Doctor's time scars as she hunts down every instance of the Great Intelligence's meddling, which happens more than a half hour into the episode.
159* HypocriticalHumor: Strax complains about River's [[EightiesHair "huge head".]]
160* IDidWhatIHadToDo: The mysterious figure at the end of the episode, later revealed to be called the War Doctor, committed an act for the greater good that was so heinous it went against everything the Doctor tries to be.
161-->'''War Doctor:''' What I did, I did without choice.\
162'''Eleventh Doctor:''' ''(softly)'' I know.\
163'''War Doctor:''' In the name of peace and sanity.\
164'''Eleventh Doctor:''' ''(angrily)'' But not in [[TitleDrop the name of the Doctor]].
165* IKnowYourTrueName:
166** The Great Intelligence spends the episode trying to figure this out to destroy the Doctor because the name's power is to open the tomb that leads to his corpse/timeline scar thing. The Doctor, upon confronting his forgotten incarnation, claims that it's the name you give yourself that has power.
167--->'''The Doctor:''' My name -- my ''real'' name -- that is not the point. The name I ''chose'' is the Doctor. It's like a promise you make. ''He's'' the one who broke the promise.
168** River once again demonstrates that she knows the Doctor's name, though the audience do not hear.
169** Zigzagged with Clara. Although the episode reveals that she remembers information she heard in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E10JourneyToTheCentreOfTheTardis Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]", even though the timeline was reset, one key piece of information that does not survive that she obtained in that episode was the Doctor's name.
170* ILied: Like Rory and River previously, the Doctor pretends to Clara she won't get hurt by something that immediately stings her.
171* IdiotBall: The Doctor gets duped by Angie and Artie into playing blind man's bluff so they can ditch him and go to the pictures while he's blindfolded.
172* {{Intangibility}}: The Great Intelligence[=/=]Whispermen. You can't hurt them, but they can shove their hands in your internal organs.
173* InternalHomage:
174** The episode references a lot of ideas from the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novels ''[[Recap/EighthDoctorAdventuresAlienBodies Alien Bodies]]'', ''[[Recap/EighthDoctorAdventuresUnnaturalHistory Unnatural History]]'' and ''The Room with No Doors''. The link to ''Unnatural History'', in which the Doctor's lifeline becomes a scar woven through space and time, which the villain -- dressed as a Victorian undertaker -- is going to attempt to use to rewrite his life, until the Doctor's companion (who he's met before in a different version) saves the day by leaping into it at the cost of her own existence, is the strongest.
175** The Sixth Doctor did, in fact, once have [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho084TheNowherePlace an adventure on a space station with a woman named Oswin]].
176** There are also similarities to the comic ''Time and Time Again'' by Creator/PaulCornell to celebrate the 30[[superscript:th]] anniversary, where the Black Guardian alters the Doctor's timeline so he never leaves Gallifrey, meaning Earth is the battleground for many alien races, forcing the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and Benny have to move back along the Doctor's timestream to recover the segments of the Key to Time, meeting all the previous Doctors in the process.
177** This isn't the first time that the Doctor was determined to save a brunette female companion of his, giving her a BridalCarry after she fell unconscious. It was already done once nearly thirty years ago, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani with the Fifth Doctor and Peri]].
178* InvincibleBoogeymen: The Whisper Men. As they're completely intangible, nothing the heroes do can hurt or slow them down, and they very nearly kill the Doctor's friends several times over the course of the episode.
179* InvisibleToNormals: River's VirtualGhost cannot be seen by anybody but Clara on account of them still being linked by the dream conference call. Then the Doctor reveals that he's been able to see her the whole time.
180* ISeeDeadPeople: The Doctor can see River Song as a VirtualGhost.
181* JourneyToTheCentreOfTheMind: This is the best way to describe what happens to Clara after she has saved the Doctor's life at every turn from the Great Intelligence. The Doctor only vaguely describes where she ends up as being a representation of himself.
182* KickTheDog: The Great Intelligence murders Jenny (she gets better) for no other reason than to unnerve the Paternoster Gang and make sure they take him seriously before the Doctor shows up.
183* LuminescentBlush: Strax notes that Vastra has gone a darker green on introducing Clara to River.
184* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: The Great Intelligence's plan to {{Retgone}} the Doctor.
185* MeaningfulEcho: "The soufflé isn't the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe."
186* MentalTimeTravel: The "Conference Call" between Strax, Vastra, Jenny, Clara and River takes advantage of the timeless nature of dreams.
187* MesACrowd: The Great Intelligence's Whispermen are all creepy-looking copies of his Dr. Simeon form, down to wearing the exact same Victorian suits. The Great Intelligence can move between them as he sees fit, causing them to morph into his normal Simeon form.
188* TheMissusAndTheEx: Clara, the Doctor's current companion meets and works alongside River Song, the Doctor's former companion and deceased wife. At one point, Clara asks the Doctor if River is an "ex", which the Doctor confirms until referring to River as his wife, which startles Clara.
189* MoodWhiplash:
190** Immediately after the BigDamnKiss, the Doctor remembers he's the only one in the room who can see River. "God knows what that looked like." Cue the Paternoster Gang staring at him in confusion.
191** Earlier in the séance scene, Jenny starts crying because she forgot to lock the door and she had died, a ''very'' dramatic scene which ends with River ejecting Vastra from her trance. The next scene, the Doctor is blindfolded playing blind man's buff with the kids, who have run off.
192** Strax is a master of this throughout the episode. While everyone else is panicking, he's often woefully oblivious to their peril and continues to spout his usual brand of one-liner threats.
193--->'''Strax:''' Don't worry sir, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint I've got them on the run!]]
194** The joyful moment of triumph when the Doctor manages to find Clara and rescue her from being completely lost within his timestream is undercut seconds later when the Doctor is forced to confront his forgotten incarnation, who apparently did something so horrific that the Doctor refuses to consider him a Doctor.
195* MythologyGag: The "Introducing John Hurt as The Doctor" WhamShot is an exaggerated version of the credits Creator/DavidTennant and Creator/MattSmith respectively had at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays The Parting of the Ways]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]".
196* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The Doctor's corpse, a swirling confluence of temporal energy representing every moment of his life.
197* NoBodyLeftBehind: The Doctor's tomb doesn't have his body, but a swirling vortex of energy representing his entire timeline.
198-->'''The Doctor:''' Bodies are boring. I've had loads of them.
199* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: The Clara who appears to save the Seventh Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire Dragonfire]]" looks like she's stepped right out of the late 1980s, despite this serial being set at some point in the future. Deliberate, as her outfit evokes the fashion on Iceworld.
200* NonIndicativeName: The episode is called "The Name of the Doctor". His real name is never heard, though some of the significance behind choosing to call himself "the Doctor" is revealed instead. The title turns out to refer not to the Doctor's name itself, but to actions done in the Doctor's name.
201* NoodleIncident:
202** One of the events in the Doctor's life that Clara appears in seems to be an unseen adventure the Sixth Doctor had aboard a spaceship that looks just like the neon TARDIS corridors. There's also a time where the Eighth Doctor and the Second Doctor appear to have been in the same place at the same time, although it's unknown whether it was for the same adventure or not.
203** When the Doctor and Vastra first met Jenny, he saved her life. No further details are given.
204* NotNowKiddo: Occurs in tragic fashion during the conference call, by Vastra to Jenny when the latter realizes that she hadn't locked the door... and she's being ''murdered''.
205* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome:
206** In what appears to be a palm tree-laden beach of contemporary Earth, Clara witnesses the Eighth Doctor and the Second Doctor having an adventure at the same time. Whether the two Doctors were working together or not is left ambiguous. Specifically, Eight runs past Clara from left to right, and then Two runs past Clara a few seconds later from right to left.
207** The viewer only glimpses a couple of moments where a Clara echo is actually shown affecting the Doctor's behaviour. All the thousands upon thousands of actions the many Claras took to undo the Great Intelligence's interference take place off-screen.
208* OmnicidalManiac: The Great Intelligence is willing to [[TheStarsAreGoingOut let all of existence be destroyed]] just to undo the Doctor's victories and have some revenge.
209* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
210** Normally unflappable Clara gets scared. Full-on near-panic crying scared.
211** When the Doctor finds out he has to go to Trenzalore, he begins to cry, as in approaching full-out bawling.
212** What the Doctor apparently thinks of the War Doctor, who did something so terribly out of character that he has, in effect, become an {{Unperson}} to his various other incarnations.
213** Strax is transformed into an psychopathic Sontaran warrior who attempts to murder Vastra for being "racially impure", when the Doctor's timeline starts to be rewritten and his influence removed from the universe.
214** When she thinks Jenny is dead, the usually reserved and cultured Vastra threatens to cut Strax up; Strax, in turn, pushes Vastra to the ground. This is even more startlingly than the previous example with Strax because there is no actual timeline change to cause it, it's just Vastra being worried for her wife.
215* OpenSesame: The door to the Doctor's tomb is opened when someone states his true name.
216* OtherMeAnnoysMe: Whether it's technically a case of FutureMeScaresMe or IHatePastMe, the War Doctor is implied to be an incarnation of the Doctor that did something [[ThisIsUnforgivable so heinous]] the other incarnations simply refuse to speak about him.
217* RedHerring: The Doctor's greatest secret. It isn't his name, but the existence of an additional incarnation who committed a deed so terrible that he can no longer be called "the Doctor".
218* {{Retcon}}:
219** It's because of Clara that the Doctor has his TARDIS.
220** The Great Intelligence's plan InUniverse as well is to {{Retgone}} the Doctor.
221** It was the Great Intelligence's influence on the Doctor's timeline that resulted in the Seventh Doctor [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire randomly dangling himself over a cliff for no clear reason]] on Iceworld.
222* TheReveal: The episode finally solves the mysteries of the Doctor's greatest secret and the true nature of Clara, the impossible girl.
223** Clara's reincarnations are a result of her scattering herself across the Doctor's timeline to protect him.
224** The Doctor's greatest secret is a regeneration that he never speaks of, one that performed an act that goes against everything the Doctor stands for. But we never actually hear the Doctor's actual name, despite the episode's title.
225* RevengeBeforeReason: The Great Intelligence will gladly destroy itself in order to obtain revenge on the Doctor. This of course contradicts the Intelligence's character as shown in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]", where it claimed "revenge is a very human emotion." Evidently, the Doctor's wounded its pride enough for it to reconsider.
226* RhymesOnADime: The Whispermen speak entirely in couplets. The rhymes are as follows:
227** "The trap is set. The Doctor's friends / Will travel where the Doctor ends." When Jenny and Vastra fall into the trance.
228** "This man must fall as all men must. / The fate of all is always dust." As the Doctor and Clara are cornered at River Song's grave.
229** "The man who lies will lie no more / When this man lies at Trenzalore." As the Doctor and Clara fall into River Song's grave.
230** "The girl who died, he tried to save. / She'll die again within his grave." As Clara and the Doctor run through the corridors of the destroyed TARDIS.
231* RippleEffectProofMemory: As the Doctor's timeline is torn asunder, all those he's affected suffer the consequences. Vastra, strangely, keeps her memory, but perhaps the ripples simply hadn't got to her yet, as she is chronologically older than everyone else by several million years. Clara and River are also unaffected, but being in the TARDIS tomb probably had something to do with that. After Clara enters the Doctor's timestream and defeats the Great Intelligence, Strax can be heard apologizing to Vastra for his time ripple-effected behaviour, which he appears to remember.
232* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: The Great Intelligence is willing to let all of space and time be destroyed if it means he can get revenge on the Doctor.
233* RuleOfThree: This is the third time this exchange has taken place, after [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels River did it to Amy]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E2DinosaursOnASpaceship Rory did it to his dad]].
234-->'''The Doctor:''' Hold still, [[YouWontFeelAThing this won't hurt a bit]]. ''[hooks Clara up to the TARDIS' telepathic circuits]''\
235'''Clara:''' ''Ouch!''\
236'''The Doctor:''' I lied.
237* RunningGag: Strax still can't tell genders apart. He manages to not get a single one right in this episode, even thinking River is a man. The closest he gets is when he calls Vastra "Madame".
238* SamusIsAGirl: Clara assumed Professor Song was a man before meeting her.
239* SceneryGorn: The TARDIS "tomb", an oversized version of the phone box camouflage that has "leaked" into the surrounding environment.
240* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: Clara goes to set the Doctor's victories back to victories after the Great Intelligence set them to defeats. In other words, she sets right ''again''.
241* ShaggyDogStory:
242** One where the villain is on the receiving end. The Great Intelligence goes into the Doctor's timeline to undo all the good he had done, knowing full well that the process would ultimately kill him. However, Clara jumps in after him and [[BuffySpeak undoes his undoing]] of the Doctor's efforts, ensuring that the Great Intelligence's schemes were in vain and [[ShootTheShaggyDog that he died for nothing]], [[DeathSeeker although there are several hints that the Great Intelligence had another motivation for stepping into the timeline]].
243** It turns out that the foreshadowing and the fuss about the Doctor's true name becomes one of these, as it's revealed right at the end that the Doctor's name was never the real secret.
244* ShooOutTheClowns: When the Whispermen come for Strax, Archie, the man he was fighting in a humorous scene, is gone.
245* ShoutOut:
246** The Doctor jokes about retiring and [[Literature/SherlockHolmes taking up beekeeping]]. ShowRunner Creator/StevenMoffat is also in charge of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''.
247** Another sneaky one to a Creator/StevenMoffat franchise: ''[[Series/{{Coupling}} "THE JOHN HURT MOMENT"]]''.
248%%* SingleTear: Shed by several characters at various moments.
249* SlippingAMickey: Madame Vastra knows that Clara is unlikely to light a strange candle just because a 120-year-old letter asks her to. She makes sure that Clara participates in the Conference Call by treating the letter paper with the same knockout drug the candle is made of. Clara stays conscious just long enough to reach that part of the letter, and then passes out on cue.
250* SmallRoleBigImpact: Technically, every version of Clara is said to be a unique individual, but linked to the Doctor. So if every echo seen is a different person, then the "Clara" seen [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS8E5TheBeginning guiding the First Doctor to the proper TARDIS]] may be the smallest role with the biggest impact of all, as her actions basically made the entire franchise happen.
251* SorryThatImDying: Jenny tearfully apologizes to Vastra that she has just been murdered.
252* SpookySeance: A mental time travel conference call involving dead people.
253* StableTimeLoop: The Doctor started looking for Clara because he met two copies of her in different time periods. When he finally does find her, it leads up to the events of this episode, where Clara spreads herself throughout the Doctor's timeline to save him, creating the other versions of herself which would lead him to find her.
254* TheStarsAreGoingOut: As the result of an attempted RetGone, this begins to happen, since the Doctor prevented it before.
255* StepfordSmiler: River has a rather fixed expression when Clara says the Doctor never really talked about her. At first this seems like the usual companion jealousy, but it's later revealed that River believes the Doctor doesn't return her feelings.
256* StockFootage: If it's not done with a FakeShemp, it's this.
257* SupernaturallyMarkedGrave: The TARDIS itself, thanks to a size leak.
258* SwirlyEnergyThingy: The time rift composed of the Doctor's entire timeline is a swirl of light.
259* TapOnTheHead: To participate in the Conference Call, Strax asks a ViolentGlaswegian to knock him out. He starts off by telling the (very burly) Glaswegian that the metal pot he was holding wouldn't be enough, and after giving him a spade, still says it could take a while.
260* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Clara dies a third time, but gets brought back again.
261* TimeyWimeyBall: Vastra, Strax and Jenny, and even the rest of the universe, all react at different rates to the Great Intelligence's interference in the past for complicated temporal reasons that are not explained.
262* TitleDrop:
263** The Great Intelligence drops the show name while threatening the Doctor.
264--->'''The Great Intelligence:''' Doctor Who? Doctor! Who!? DOCTOR WHO!?
265** The Doctor himself drops the episode title at the end.
266--->'''War Doctor:''' What I did, I did without choice... in the name of peace and sanity...\
267'''Eleventh Doctor:''' ... But not in the name of the Doctor.
268* TouchTheIntangible: When River's astral projection is ranting at the Doctor, she assumes that he can't see or hear her. Then she goes to slap him and he catches her hand.
269* TrueCompanions: The Doctor feels this way about Strax, Jenny and Vastra. They became his makeshift family after he lost the Ponds, cared for him while he was in self-exile, and welcomed him into their lives without needing to question him.
270* TheUnreveal:
271** While some mysteries are at least arguably resolved, the Doctor's name is not one of them, as River says it off-screen. There is also no explanation for the question of the Doctor's name being the "oldest in the universe", how it is hidden in plain sight, nor it is explained how River knows his name.[[note]]The Doctor lied about telling it to her in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong The Wedding of River Song]]", but she did know it when he first met her.[[/note]] It's also not entirely settled as to whether the Silence still have anything to do with Trenzalore, or why "Silence must fall". It should be noted, however, that this episode is in fact the first part of a trilogy that also includes "[[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor The Day of the Doctor]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor The Time of the Doctor]]", and many of these answers are revealed in the latter.
272** The "conference call", never before seen before or since is never fully explained. Such as how a woman sleeping in 2013 could be brought into it, and how River, who at this point in her existence is little more than data in a 51[[superscript:st]]-century library, could also take part.
273* UnusualEuphemism: Upon learning that the kids tricked him, the Doctor refers to them as "those little... Daleks".
274* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: The Doctor doesn't see anything odd about Clara "taking a nap" in the middle of the floor.
275* ViolentGlaswegian: Archie, a Glasgow bar patron who [[BloodKnight Strax]] spends his free time brawling with for fun.
276* VirtualGhost: River, a digital "echo" saved on the computer of the largest library in the universe.
277* WalkingSpoiler: Knowing much of anything about the mysterious figure at the end of the episode gives away {{the reveal}} that [[WhamLine John Hurt is the Doctor]].
278* WhamEpisode:
279** Series producer Steven Moffat asserted that the episode will "change the course of ''Who'' forever". An accurate description, given the episode reveals the existence of a previously unknown incarnation of the Doctor, as well as implying that some manifestation of Clara was present throughout the previous lives of the Doctor and is in fact credited with the Doctor stealing the TARDIS we all know.
280** The season-long question of what's up with Clara is finally solved. She split herself thousands of times across the Doctor's timeline to save him from the Great Intelligence.
281** The Doctor's darkest secret is revealed. There was a lost regeneration of the Doctor, one who did something the other Doctors considers unforgivable.
282** We find out where and how the Doctor and the TARDIS will one day die.[[note]]Except that when [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor the time comes]] ... ''they don't.''[[/note]]
283* WhamLine:
284** The lines at the end of "She Said, He Said" prequel implying it takes place ''after'' the main episode.
285--->'''The Doctor[=/=]Clara:''' ... I found out on the day we went to Trenzalore.
286** Jenny near the start of the episode.
287--->'''Jenny:''' I think I've been murdered.
288** The reveal of the War Doctor.
289--->'''Clara:''' But... I never saw that one.
290* WhamShot:
291** The giant TARDIS on the fields of Trenzalore.
292--->'''The Doctor:''' What else would they bury me in?
293** The shadowy figure that suddenly appears just as the Doctor saves Clara.
294--->'''Clara:''' But... I never saw that one.
295** Introducing '''John Hurt''' as '''The Doctor'''. (Also counts as a WhamLine.)
296** The First Doctor shows up just as he and Susan (who's only seen from afar) are stealing the TARDIS.
297* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Clarence's execution was still on hold when Vastra and company were kidnapped. His final fate is never shown. While Vastra implies she'll have Clarence hanged when he isn't needed, the Whisper Men tell him in the prequel that he will get his pardon and live a long ([[PlaguedByNightmares if troubled]]) life.
298* WhoWouldBeStupidEnough: "What kind of idiot would steal a faulty TARDIS?" says one of the workers monitoring surveillance footage of said TARDIS being stolen.
299* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: The Great Intelligence explains to Vastra, Jenny and Strax that the Doctor died in a great battle, though one that was really a relatively minor skirmish compared to the likes of the Time War, on Trenzalore at a time when he had become so old that he couldn't take the strain any longer.
300* WriteBackToTheFuture: Madame Vastra, needing to draw Clara into a psychic conference, writes a letter to her and arranges for it to be delivered on April 10, 2013. The letter is impregnated with a drug to knock her out.
301* TheXOfY: "The Name of the Doctor" is the '''121[[superscript:st]]''' of the series -- being [[FridgeBrilliance 11]][[superscript:2]].
302----
303[[center:'''[[AndStarring INTRODUCING]] [[Creator/JohnHurt JOHN HURT]]\
304[[WhamLine AS THE DOCTOR]]''']]

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