No More/ Gallifrey Falls

The Day of the Doctor, the 50^th anniversary special of Doctor Who, was it worth the wait?

Yes, it was.

I had reservations about this episode, and they were justified. However, as the final credits scrolled I was content. All my worries were crushed and my expectations were met.

The story was Goldilocks, just right. There was enough action, comedy and a hint of drama for balance. The plot involved the last days of Galifrey during the Time War. The day the Doctor ended it all. Finally we get into the how and why of that event. John Hurt is this incarnation of the Doctor and he I the 9^th now I guess. So, it might skew the numbering of any Doctor since 8, or does it? I don’t care since it doesn’t alter the show. Ok, we get the Doctor grabbing a weapon o’ mass destruction and he toddles off to use it.

Then we jump to present day where the 11^th Doctor is nabbed by U.N.I.T. to investigate an issue at the British museum. Then we jump back to the days of Queen Elizabeth the First to see the 10^th Doctor wooing her while trying to discover a Zygon incursion. A wacky time vortex opens and bang! The 10^th, 11^th and John Hurt all meet up in old timey England. Here they begin some great verbal sparring and are eventually locked up in the Tower of London. They have their dramatic moments about the death of their planet and the time war. This all ties into the Zygon plot and we have a jolly good time discovering they how and why of that. It all leads to a truce and an realization that Galifrey might not have needed to be destroyed.

Here we get the huge Doctor Who universe changing event. See the three Doctors realize that they can save Gallifrey. Sure it will sort of doom the planet, but nobody will die. Well except the Daleks who are attacking it. They enlist the help of all the other Doctors , yep they pull them all into this event, and they force Gallifery out of time. They force it exist outside of normal time by just a bit. See that will cause the planet to disappear and the Daleks will then be firing at each other. Of course it works and the Daleks all explode. Gallifrey disappears, but is still in one piece, just a weee bit out of the normal time stream. The Time Lords are now no longer all dead. It was a cannon changing event, but it was done well and it worked.

50= Fan Service

This episode/movie/event was also full of a ton of fan service. There was probably too much for some, but I really dug it. The Black Vault was full of so much Doctor Who stuff it was ridiculous. It was like a crazy I Spy book, but just all Doctor Who stuff.

Billie Piper was also a bit of fan service. Sure she wasn’t Rose Tyler, and we should have known that. She was the sentient form of the doomsday weapon and took the shape of an important figure from the Doctor’s past. It worked and it was good to see her back in the Who universe.

We get all the incarnations of the Doctor interacting during the end game. Sure they are just cuts from the various series thrown together, but it works. They even get the next Doctor, 12 or 13, in this scene to help. It made for a really great moment. Tom Baker returns as a curator of the museum to have a chat with the 11th at the end of the episode. Was this a fourth Doctor appearance in the show? Good to see him still kicking and on screen besides just his narration during Little Britain and Little Britain U.S.A.

Speaking of the various Doctors; Matt Smith, David Tennant and John  Hurt, all played off each other brilliantly. The serious and comedic moments were great between the three of them. This is what I hoped for and it did not disappoint.

A series milestone and I was (and still am excited) to have seen it. A good and fun episode and that is what I look for in this show. I think they nailed it for a 50^th anniversary. I’ll probably watch it again to see if what items I missed in the Black Vault and to see how it holds up to repeat viewing.