The series finale of a television show ought to be the writer’s dream and the viewer’s reward. Such expectations could have surely been meet by the climax of this series of Doctor Who, which promised to be an onscreen escape trick, in which the Doctor manages to wriggle out of his own death. Unfortunately, the episode is far less Harry Houdini, and much more of a cheap and easy card trick.

I say ‘unfortunately’, but of course the writers of the show are to blame for much of the gimmickry. Matt Smith, usually a solid and convincing Doctor, was reduced to making a barely watchable shocked face responding to some dreadful CGI cannibalistic skulls. Quite why precious time on a 45-minute episode was being wasted on cannibalistic skulls is confusing, not least when it becomes apparent that most of the interesting questions posed over the course of the series remain unsatisfyingly unanswered.

Why have the religious organisation, The Silence, become so set on killing the Doctor, and how did they convince a human, Madam Kovarian (mostly known as Eye Patch Lady), to join their ranks and help abduct Amy Pond with the intention of stealing her child and raising her to be a killer? Instead, Winston Churchill is the lens through which we discover quite how the Doctor, inevitably avoids his apparently necessary death, problematic as it seems tired patriotism is being favoured over  working out quite why the Doctor is regarded as such a threat. The means by which he avoids death is an embarrassment to Steven Moffat, a writer who previously proved himself to be inventive.

The episode fails because it refuses to reflect, and instead tries to appease the audience by taking us on some sort of helter-skelter ride. The first question ever asked (‘Doctor who?’) of which the Silence have concerned themselves could have been the trigger for some genuinely insightful reflections about whether the Doctor is more hero than villain. Instead, it is glib and hollow, much like rest of the disappointing episode.