Oh yeah. Ok, that's true

Anyway. What do you people think about each Doctor? I'm pretty sure the 11th is my favourite in most cases, although Tennant's intensity is unmatched.

BTW, I made a Youtube video with the Eleventh Doctor a while ago. It's just clips of him being badass, really. "The Eleventh Doctor is a Badass." It has a lot of views so you'll find it easily. I hope you like it. It's outdated as hell, unfortunately, but when I uploaded my updated version BBC America automatically shut it down. You can download the updated version from the description, so there. Maybe I'll upload it to some other place...

I actually like the more 'sparse' series arc. I think I'd enjoy something more elaborate for next time, but this was nice enough after all the Cracks in Time and Silence business. The great thing is that every season with the Eleventh Doctor connects in some way, so all of it has some sort of über-arc: the cracks in time lead to the Silence, the Silence led to the background arc early this season (which was set up at the end of the last one) of the Doctor deleting his trace on the universe, and the mid-season arc of how he ends up on Trenzelore, which has a lot to do with the cracks in time, the Silence and his identity. I think it all connects pretty well.

About the series finale episode itself, as an episode it was really good. As a season finale, meh, but as I said, you can't really pull anything more complex out of your ass if you really haven't established a complex arc for the series. It was more about the Doctor himself; yes, there was the mystery of Clara, but that was in the background.

The really great thing for me was the last two minutes of the episode, really. They could've happened in any other context. They could've ended up there in many more interesting ways. But once the episode is done, I'm not thinking about the underwhelming villain or really short 2nd act (there's very little action in this episode, which is very weird for a Doctor Who finale.) All I'm left thinking is... "OH MY FUCKING GOD. John Hurt... as a previously unrevealed incarnation of The Doctor!"

I think that was pretty interesting. He's there for just seconds, but the short dialogue exchange reveals a lot about the situation. First, he isn't really the Doctor, because he did something so horrible that he doesn't live up to the name. Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor recognizes this incarnation, so it has to be in his past. We know that the "First Doctor" hadn't still regenerated, and we have seen every regeneration but one. So there's only one single possibility: John Hurt's incarnation is a previously unknown incarnation just after McGann's Eight Doctor, but before Eccleston's Ninth Doctor.

The few lines they exchange hints at this too. The 2005 reboot started with Eccleston's Doctor just after an unseen Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks; we don't know much, but we know that to end the war the Doctor had to kill both the Daleks and the Time Lords. He committed two genocides. So, I'd bet that these atrocities were committed by John Hurt's incarnation, breaking the promise that the "Doctor" moniker entailed. He's the real Ninth Incarnation, but not the Ninth Doctor, because he didn't live up to the name. When John Hurt's Doctor defends himself by saying that he did "what he did" in the name of "sanity and peace", Smith's Eleventh Doctor sums it up perfectly: "You didn't do it in the name of the Doctor." That "it", I'd bet, is the destruction of two species to end a war.

And, about the "Name of the Doctor" twist, I think it's great. If it was a common or invented name, what of it? It's just sounds. It could be "John." Or "Galafeiskkor" or something even more random. It was obviously going to be something else, something symbolic and meaningful. But it'd be cheesy if it was something generic, so it was what it had to be: "The Doctor" may not be a real name, but it is the only thing that matters. As Smith's Doctor says, he does what he does "in the name of the Doctor" —and not only is that the real meaning of the episode title, it also is the only significant meaning his name could ever had: his chosen name is what matters, because it symbolizes the promise he made to help people.

In that sense, it was a wonderful end —it might not have wrapped up a previously set up complex mythology like many past series, but it did wrap up the Doctor's emotional journey through the season, and it sets up the future just perfectly —it is, indeed, a great opening to the 50th Anniversary Special episode. It's not much of a spoiler, as BBC told it to whoever would listen, but —SPOILER— Tennant's Tenth Doctor is coming back for November's 50th Anniversary Special. Tenant's and Smith's Doctor teaming up against (or with?) John Hurt's Doctor is going to be spectacular.

It's not always easy to get an original version screening in Spain. We dub everything, even documentaries. But I was in luck and I watched it properly. It's a great film, except the editing, which made me think Tarantino is getting closer and closer to his dream of just shooting his novel-length scripts. I must admit, however, that the ending made me forget all about that and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

However, my experience was weird. There was a rare sense of cultural disconnect. Most Europeans roughly know the infamous history of American slavery, but that's not really the point: in most reviews, half of it was about the portrayal of slavery or even more so the use of the "n" word.

The thing is, that didn't happen here. We have our own euphemisms and troubles, obviously, as everyone else. But the black population here is very recent and a very tiny minority —something like 1%. So we call black people "black", which confuses some English speakers since our word for "black" is "negro." And yeah, "nigger" does ultimately from the Latin "niger," which just means "black." However, I get that words carry baggage.

But as I was watching Django, with everyone taking it as the usual Tarantino "light-hearted but dark" movie, I thought about the black people I heard from who were surprised that they were uncomfortable with the laughs coming from the mostly white audience, and the white people who simply felt guilty about enjoying it too much.

My point is: that 'risqué' element was utterly gone with the distant and distinct Spanish cultural context. Of course, the Tarantino craziness was still there. But the feeling of breaking social taboos (for good or ill), of uncomfortable laughter, was simply missing.

Everything in screen was the same thing. In the comedy bits, my friends laughed. I laughed. And that's fine. But we laughed uncomplicatedly, comfortable in our seats. And for a guy who is so ingrained into American culture because I read and watch everything in English, that was really weird. I experienced cultural disconnect in my own head, which just shouldn't happen. I don't think Westerners make enough allowances for our cultural differences, really. That day, especially after watching the film and thinking about it, I was acutely aware of them.

In a way, the fact that the "n" word didn't get gasps here may be pretty crucial to how it has been received. I'm pretty sure they just dubbed every "nigger" with "negro" —which not only means literally "black" but it is the social equivalent of "black" or "African American" in the US. I don't really think we have a cultural equivalent that transmits the same emotion to modern audiences. That fact might've made the film more palatable around these parts, but I'm pretty sure it's also made it a less relevant film here.