The two-part Series 10 finale was to have been the swansong for both Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi.
For the latter, it would be his regeneration story - and technically it still is.
That's because it is during the events of The Doctor Falls that the Doctor sustains the injury which will trigger the process. Indeed, it actually begins - but he refuses to go through with it.
Wandering outside into a frozen landscape, he encounters his earliest incarnation, who is about to go through the same thing - and is equally stubbornly trying to stem the inevitable.
Had the series ended here (and there are some who wished it had, bearing in mind what was to follow) then things would have come full circle. The first and last regenerations coming together.
We are therefore catching an unseen moment from The Tenth Planet. Presumably it's the few seconds before Ben and Polly join the Doctor in the TARDIS at the conclusion of the story - though perhaps he wandered outside during the third episode, when he was supposed to be lying down in the crew room?
The reason this didn't turn out to be the end of an era it was supposed to be was, of course, Chris Chibnall. As I've previously mentioned, Moffat took him out to dinner to sound him out about taking over as showrunner, only to hear how busy he was with Broadchurch. He therefore decided not to raise the subject.
Later, when he had been approached and had accepted, Moffat assumed he would want to launch his new Doctor in the 2017 Christmas Special.
On hearing that he simply wouldn't be ready, Moffat decided that he would have to contribute a festive Special himself - not wanting to lose the prestigious slot. There had been a Special every Christmas since 2005, even when Moffat himself hadn't been producing a regular series as happened during Capaldi's tenure.
The Doctor Falls would have to be amended to lead into something else, rather than act as a full stop.
One of the reasons Moffat brought back the Zygons for The Day of the Doctor was because David Tennant let it be known how much he liked them, and Capaldi had often stated how much he loved the Mondasian Cybermen - so we can assume their inclusion was a sort of parting gift for him.
Moffat had been unimpressed with the Mondasian Cybermen ever since he had seen them in a photograph in the Radio Times 10th Anniversary Special back in 1973, but Capaldi had pointed out how they could do a lot better these days, whilst still retaining the features which made them creepily effective.
During a Comic-Con panel, someone said they would like to see the Twelfth Doctor meet the First - to which Capaldi responded that he knew exactly who could play him.
This was David Bradley, who had played William Hartnell in the 50th Anniversary origins drama An Adventure in Space and Time.
Cybermen had featured regularly throughout Moffat's time in charge, either in series finales or in the penultimate episode of the series.
They were in Capaldi's first series finale, and so would also be in his last.
That first finale, from Series 8, had introduced Missy. Her inclusion this time was a foregone conclusion as her potential redemption formed this year's big story arc.
Michelle Gomez had also made it known that she wanted to leave the series along with Capaldi and Moffat.
Exploring the Master's character further had been something which Moffat had wanted to do before leaving the series. John Simm was on record as saying he did not expect to ever play the Master again, now that the role had been recast, but stated that he would be open to a return. (He had been upset not to have been invited to take part in The Day of the Doctor).
Moffat then considered how much fun it would be to see Missy meet another incarnation, sparking off them in the same way the Second and Third Doctors had in The Three Doctors.
It was decided to hold off such a meeting until after Missy had been firmly established, and such an event would make for a suitable series finale.
The hospital setting of the opening episode was inspired by the illness of Moffat's mother, as he was spending a lot of time visiting her.
The Master would be using a disguise throughout the first half of the story - something he had been using ever since his first appearance in Terror of the Autons when he donned a mask to play a telephone engineer.
Initially, it was to be faulty automatic guidance system which caused the colony ship to become trapped in a time loop - allowing the colonists to evolve into Cybermen. Moffat's son was an intern at CERN, and he explained the concept of time dilation due to gravitational forces such as those found close to a Black Hole.
Having the Cybermen appear in different stages of evolution simply allowed the reuse of old costumes, going back to 2006.
Moffat was inspired to revisit the origins of the Cybermen after re-reading Gerry Davis' novelisation of The Moonbase - Doctor Who and the Cybermen. Davis had written an origins story back in the 1980's, which had been rejected by Eric Saward, and Big Finish had also produced the audio Spare Parts, which saw the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa visit Mondas.
RTD had also come up with an origins story, but one set on an alternative Earth.
As well as writing out the Twelfth Doctor, the series finale was also to see the departure of companion Bill Potts. Moffat wanted to challenge himself and thought of the worst thing you could ever do to a companion, then see how he could get out of it with an upbeat conclusion.
Bill could therefore be converted into a Cyberman, but salvation already existed in the form of Heather, introduced in The Pilot. She loved Bill and had wanted her to come away with her to explore the universe as an artificial intelligence anyway.
Missy tells Bill and Nardole that the Doctor actually is called "Doctor Who" - a reference to the times during Gerry Davis' period as story editor when the Doctor did seem to use this appellation - signing a note "Dr W" in The Underwater Menace, having WOTAN call him by this name in The War Machines, and having him call himself Dr Von Wer (German for "Who") in The Highlanders.
The Doctor employs some Venusian Aikido - a martial art often employed by his Third incarnation.
Of the planets where Cybermen have evolved, the Doctor mentions Planet 14, from where the Cybermen recognised the Doctor in The Invasion, and Marinus. This planet, which was the setting for The Keys of Marinus, was revisited by the Sixth Doctor in the DWM comic strip "The World-Shapers", when it was seen that the Voord eventually became Cybermen.
The First Doctor states: "You may be a Doctor, but I am the Doctor. The original you might say!". This is a mix of two lines - one by the Fourth Doctor in Robot, and one by the First in The Five Doctors.
Next time: "The Two (Grumpy) Doctors". It's the end, but the moment has been (hurriedly) prepared for...
No comments:
Post a Comment