Doctor: War Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, (Eighth Doctor)
Companions: Clara Oswald
The two final 2013 Specials pack a solid punch to memorialize the landmark 50th Anniversary and bring the 11th Doctor’s era to a fine conclusion.
The Review
Here’s the scores for the stories
The Day of the Doctor: 10/10
The Time of the Doctor: 8.5/10
With all the pressure on him, Steven Moffat completely delivered on the 50th Anniversary. Uniting Tennant and Smith was a ton of fun, and bringing in John Hurt to represent the classic style Doctors was an inspired idea. Doctor Who is about second chances and the Doctor gets to finally save Gallifrey. The Time of the Doctor is less successful as several dangling threads have to be hastily dealt with, but still served as a fitting end to the Matt Smith era.
9.25/10 Moffat pulls a rabbit out of his hat to deliver when he needed to
Here comes the spoilers in the start of the 900-ish-Episode quest to review every Doctor Who episode!
Prequel- The Night of the Doctor
The Eighth Doctor returns at last
For some, this was an incredible moment. It was the return of the Eighth Doctor to Doctor Who proper after last being seen in a one-off movie in 1996. As having no Eighth Doctor experience, it was simply a good representation of the Time War. The Eighth Doctor is rebuked by a Companion and is mortally wounded trying to save her. He is offered a choice, regenerate and stop the Time War from ripping the universe apart. The prequel simply gave the Eighth Doctor closure and introduced the War Doctor.
8.5/10
Prequel-The Last Day
Less good as the Night of the Doctor, The Last Day showed a promising start to a new FPS blending Time Lords and Halo. Despite that such a game is too awesome to exist, The Last Day was even more ‘prequely’ than the last one. The Fall of Arcadia indeed.
6/10
The Day of the Doctor
The Doctor
The Day of the Doctor is truly brilliant. It is one of the best episodes of Moffatt’s run, and undoubtedly deserving of the 50th Anniversary special. Contrary to expectations, the true main character was the War Doctor, played by John Hurt. The sadness and gravitas he brought to the role left me saddened that all we see of the War Doctor is this episode. The crux of the 50th Anniversary is the War Doctor being shown by The Moment/Bad Wolf/Rose what he will be if he murders trillions of Gallifreyans and Daleks. He is thrust into seeing Eleven and Ten meeting up to solve an ingenious Zygon invasion. The other Doctors are understandably scared of him, as they remember his murder. Also fantastic is the return of David Tennant, who hasn’t been seen since he regenerated four years ago. He hasn’t missed a beat. Tennant dives right back into the role, and all the things that made the Tenth Doctor my favorite were shown in force in his scenes with Elizabeth I. The wit, the charm, everything that truly made him, as Clara called it, The Hero. Ten is the quintessential Hero, and his return was seamless. The Zygon invasion was utter genius, especially with the Time Lord being a 3D moment in time. So, in 1592 or whatever, the Zygons hide in paintings that the Zygon Elizabeth I places in her collection until 2013 when the Earth is ripe for the taking. The round-about way of Eleven and Clara being called in by UNIT to deal with the Zygons escaping (by Kate Stewart in a commanding performance that wants me to see more of her), and finding Ten investigating the same invasion was perfectly executed. The War Doctor is aghast at his future selves ‘timey-wimey’ speak and kissing and what the New Series in general. As he may be near the age of long-time Doctor Who fans, it was a way of comparing the old and new.
The Moment is at hand
Through it all, he sees that the future is in safe hands, but he cannot avoid activating the Moment, the Time War must be stopped. Ten and Eleven come to help him in a heartbreaking scene, until they realize: Time Lord art is frozen in time, a moment frozen there. What if, they can do that to Gallifrey? Suddenly, the three Doctors rush to Gallifrey to do this, and contact the planet and their faces pop up on holograms. But not just there’s, ALL THIRTEEN Doctors arrive to save Gallifrey, including Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor! They freeze Gallifrey and it vanishes and the Daleks’ fire destroys themselves. The Doctors depart, with the War Doctor and Tenth Doctor knowing their knowledge of them not committing genocide is lost. Seems only the oldest Doctor remembers multi-Doctor stuff, for the most part. The War Doctor regenerates of old age, into the Ninth Doctor, but cuts out before we see Eccleston. D’aw. The final scene had Tom Baker returning for the first time since 1981 as a Curator to lead the Doctor on his journey…to Gallifrey. It’s almost poetic, the Doctor’s going home. Stunning episode, great 50th Anniversary that shows what the Doctor’s mission now has become: going home.
10/10
Highlight: All thirteen incarnations of the Doctor arrive to save Gallifrey.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 