Inspirations: The Time of the Doctor

 

The Time of the Doctor is a regeneration story, bringing the TARDIS tenure of the Eleventh Doctor to a close. It also brings to a conclusion the entire Moffat era up to this point, in that it draws together elements which first appeared back in The Eleventh Hour and which have run throughout Series 5, 6 and 7.

In some ways you could argue that the story really begins with Rose, as it includes a postscript to the Last Great Time War.

That is potentially going to be reignited if the Time Lords return to the Universe - last seen being saved by being deposited in a pocket time zone by the multiple Doctors in the 50th Anniversary story.

The mechanism by which the Time Lords seek to find out if it's safe to return just happens to be the crack in Space / Time which the Doctor first spotted in Moffat's first story in charge, the one in Amelia Pond's bedroom and through which people and things disappeared - the story arc for Series 5.

The thing which will let them know that is safe is a certain code - the Doctor's real name, which has been the arc for Series 7.

Along the way we meet old foes, as well as yet another of those long-term friends of the Doctor whom we have never actually met - something which Moffat has been introducing ever since gathering his Demons Run gang.

The main location for the story is Trenzalore once more, which has been referred to since The Wedding of River Song and was finally seen in The Name of the Doctor.

Then, we saw the planet devastated after the events of this story, but in an alternate timeline in which the Doctor failed.

As well as a regeneration story, this is also a Christmas Special, so the village setting is a town called Christmas, and it's permanently snowy and festive looking.

If we go back to Dorium's words in the Series 6 finale, there's reference to no living soul speaking falsely - and that's covered by the crack emitting a truth field. This is because the Time Lords want to make sure that it really is the Doctor giving his name.

The new / old friend is Tasha Lem, who is basically a surrogate River Song - old friend who is flirty with the Doctor, that kind of thing.

She is in charge of the Papal Mainframe - the militaristic Clerics having been introduced in Time of the Angels / Flesh and Stone. She provides a hefty info-dump which explains a lot of leftover bits of Series 5 and 6. 

We learn that the Silents are the way they are because they are confessors - you'll happily tell them your sins because you'll forget about reliving them once you're done. 

Kovarian (Series 6 arc) was head of a schismatic breakaway faction who wanted to prevent the Doctor giving his name on Trenzalore, because it was claimed that silence would fall if he did (i.e. the Time War would start up again as there are Cybermen, Daleks etc waiting to either prevent this or recommence hostilities). One of her schemes was the destruction of the TARDIS (Series 5 arc).

As well as them, we also see Sontarans and Weeping Angels (despite the Sontarans never having been involved in the War, as clearly stated in The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky). Other aliens get name-checked and we recognise some of the spaceships such as Judoon and Silurian.

These enemies are all there basically to provide cameos for Smith's finale.

Nods to the classic era include the Doctor using the Seal of Rassilon (confiscated from the Master by his third incarnation in The Five Doctors) to translate a message emanating from the crack.

The whole fixed regeneration idea introduced by Robert Holmes in The Deadly Assassin is addressed her. Pre-Timeless Child, there is a 13 lives limit, and thanks to the War Doctor and a controlled regeneration by Ten, the Eleventh is actually the Thirteenth.

It turns out at the conclusion that Time Lords can issue a new regeneration cycle (as offered to the Master in The Five Doctors), but Moffat wisely declines to let us know how many new lives the Doctor has. We assume at this point that it's another 13, which should keep the series going for another 50 years (or 39, if actors keep quitting after 3 series).

One of the entertainments which the Doctor lays on for the children of Christmas is a puppet show, and one of these is modelled on a Monoid, from The Ark. He has obviously recounted many of his adventures as the kids have made lots of drawings, and we see creatures from both era of the series.

All of the aliens get beaten until only the Daleks are left. They employ converted human drones as introduced in Asylum of the Daleks.

When he first goes aboard their spaceship, the Doctor is dressed in a cloak - a reference to the Harry Potter franchise.

Karen Gillan makes a cameo appearance just before the regeneration. Interestingly, both she and Smith are wearing wigs thanks to filming on movie projects (Gillan shaved her head for her role as Nebula in a Guardians of the Galaxy outing). We don't get to see Caitlin Blackwood as Amelia, as the actress had grown too old and no longer resembled her younger self.

Drawings in the TARDIS are of creatures from Amy specific stories, like Saturnynes.

Clara sees the TARDIS phone dangling  - which we'll learn about next time.

That will be when we take a deep breath and launch into the adventures of the Twelfth Doctor and the second half of the Moffat era...

Inspirations: The Day of the Doctor

Featuring Three Doctors, partly set on Gallifrey and involving UNIT on Earth, in a story marking a significant anniversary...

But enough of The Three Doctors, this is the 50th Anniversary story.

Steven Moffat did take the Pertwee story as a basis for his celebration. After the 10th and 20th birthdays had been celebrated with multi-Doctor stories, fans have come to expect this sort of story structure whenever a big anniversary rolls round. For the 60th, RTD avoided a multi-Doctor story (unless you count the climax of The Giggle where we have an overlap) but he did bring back a popular old Doctor.

The three Doctors Moffat wanted were the trio of post-2005 ones - but that meant coaxing Christopher Eccleston back to the series. He had left the role under a shadow, which is yet to be fully explained. His agreeing to return was very much a long shot, and - as expected - he declined the invite. This is why Moffat instead created the hitherto unknown War Doctor, as he couldn't see the McGann Doctor as a warrior.

The story was to revolve around the Last Great Time War, in particular the events which led the Doctor to put an end to the conflict by destroying both his own people and the Daleks.

That he had been responsible for this had emerged gradually over the course of the first half of the 2005 series.

Some of the action revolves around Gallifrey's second city Arcadia. The Doctor had previously stated that he was present at the Fall of Arcadia in Doomsday.

The weapon which the Doctor deployed was known as the Moment, as we had learned in The End of Time when it gets reported to Rassilon in the council chamber. That earlier story had shown the political elite on Gallifrey's last day, whilst this story shows another chamber - the War Room belonging to Gallifrey's military.

Eccleston night not have come back, but Billie Piper was happy to return. However, Moffat elected not to have her simply back  as Rose. The Moment would be a sentient device, which made sure that its operator accepted the consequences of using it. Piper therefore played the psychic interface with the Moment which took a form from his mind - the Bad Wolf Rose. Being a Time Lord weapon, this form could be from his future.

She only interacted with the War Doctor. The current incarnation retained Clara as companion, but Ten was on his own, and it is implied that he comes from the period between The Waters of Mars and his arrival on the Ood-Sphere at the start of The End of Time. We know this as when he was reunited with Ood Sigma he mentioned having now married Queen Elizabeth (I). The elderly Elizabeth had recognised him in The Shakespeare Code, following an event which had annoyed her but which hadn't happened to him yet.

The presence of Daleks in the story was a given, this being the last day of the Time War. For an additional threat, confined to a separate plot, were the Zygons. They had featured only once before in the series in 1975's Terror of the Zygons, despite their massive popularity (thanks to the design work of James Acheson, the direction of Douglas Camfield and the performance of John Woodnutt).

David Tennant had spoken in the past of his love of the creatures, and Moffat was already a fan. They were chosen to  provide this additional plot strand.

This has lead to inconsistencies, however. There's no sign of the Skarasen, despite Broton having implied that they are dependent on the monsters.

The biggest problem, though, is that we have refugees turning up on Earth in the 1560's, when Broton suggested that he had only recently heard about the disaster which had befallen their world, and the refugees certainly wouldn't be arriving until well after the 20th Century.

Also, Broton's group had been located at Loch Ness for centuries - so why had the refugees not contacted him on arrival?

The shape-changing nature of the Zygons is played for laughs here - rabbits and horses as well as people.

That's the broad outline of Moffat's story. There's lots of little nods to the past within it, right from the opening moments. 

We see a policeman checking the gates to the junkyard on Totter's Lane, in monochrome scenes, in homage to the opening of An Unearthly Child. (A shift from monochrome into colour had also featured at the start of The Two Doctors).

Clara is teaching at Coal Hill School - just as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright had done back in 1963. Ian is listed on the school noticeboard as the Chairman of Governors. Like The Five Doctors, we get a mix of original arrangement of the theme music with the current version.

At one point Clara rides a motorcycle into the TARDIS - just as the cop had done in The Movie. We'd also seen Ten drive out of the ship on a scooter in The Idiot's Lantern, and the current Doctor emerged on an anti-grav bike in The Bells of Saint John.

The Doctor is seen to still be wearing Amy's reading glasses.

UNIT continue to be based at the Tower of London, first established in The Christmas Invasion. Like Malcolm (who gets a mention here) in Planet of the Dead, the latest Scientific Adviser is a big fan of the Doctor.

UNIT's Black Archive - first seen in SJA's Enemy of the Bane - has now been moved to beneath the Tower, when it was previously out in the countryside somewhere.

A few old props are seen - bits of Cyberman etc. - but the main interest is only glimpsed. There are loads of photographs, mainly from the classic era, which feature companion mash-ups - characters who were never seen together on screen:

The First and Third Doctors have previously mentioned being help prisoner in the Tower, and for the Eleventh this is his second known incarceration there.

The War Doctor often represents the classic era (or the Hartnell role in The Three Doctors), and is used to mock some aspects of the modern series - despairing of some of the others' catchphrases or questioning the amount of smooching which goes on.

His TARDIS is a mix of classic era and Ninth, and we will get a vague glimpse of the latter when he comes to regenerate.

For the finale we get to see all of the Doctors come together to save Gallifrey. Oddly, this includes the Seventh Doctor twice - once from The Movie and once from Battlefield. Other TARDIS-based clips come from The Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen, The Mind Robber, Colony in Space, Planet of Evil, Frontios, Attack of the Cybermen, Rose and Parting of the Ways. The Troughton dialogue comes from The Seeds of Death, however, whilst Pertwee's comes from The Green Death. Davison's comes from The Five Doctors.

As well as all the nods to the past, we are also treated to a nod to the future as Peter Capaldi's "attack eyebrows" also feature.

One of the classic Doctors does turn up in person, as we see Tom Baker portray the Curator - seemingly a future incarnation of the Doctor, revisiting an old persona.

Finally, we see all of the Doctor's line up for a curtain call.

Overall, it's more of a celebration of the revived series than it is of the classic era.

Inspirations Cutaway: Night of the Doctor

Regular readers will know that this blog concentrates on televised Doctor Who, so for me Paul McGann was the Doctor for one night only back in May 1996. The Eighth Doctor has gone on to enjoy a significant afterlife lasting many years - but that's all on audio or in novels and comic strips.

McGann had the opportunity to appear on screen once more when the 50th Anniversary rolled round in November 2013 - but The Night of the Doctor would prove to be a short minisode, and be released only on-line. He would have to wait another nine years to appear on BBC One, when he joined other ex-Doctors for the channel's Doctor Who centenary special.

The main 50th Anniversary was going to be featuring the War Doctor, and Steven Moffat thought it might be an idea to show just where he came from. An unknown incarnation, who had to be connected to the Time War, there was only one place he could have originated, and that was the wilderness years between 1996 and 2005.

That meant coming after McGann and before Eccleston.

The minisode opens with a spaceship in trouble, and the TARDIS materialises on board in time for the Doctor to rescue its lone pilot Cass. Trouble is, she sees the Time Lords as just as bad as the Daleks and declines his help. The Doctor has deliberately kept himself out of the conflict up to this point - helping but never fighting.

He decides to stay with Cass as the ship crashes. This just happens to be on the planet Karn.

We were introduced to this bleak world in The Brain of Morbius, where we learned that it was home to the mystic Sisterhood. They appear here, under a new leader named Ohila. The Sisterhood had passed into the leadership of the similarly named Ohica in the 13th Season story, but then the Doctor had stressed the importance of change. Ohica presumably refused to outstay her welcome as Maren had.

The group extricate the Doctor and Cass from the wreckage. She can't be helped, and he's fatally injured. 

Having the action set on Karn and featuring the Sisterhood made sense for Moffat, as not only was it a nod to one of the most popular seasons ever, but it had been stated in that older story that the Sisterhood had ancient links with the Time Lords. Their Elixir of Life was sometimes used to help save them should there be problems with a regeneration and that is exactly what this minisode is designed to be - a regeneration story. It wasn't so much about closing the door on the Eighth Doctor, as showing us the birth of the War Doctor.

Cass's reaction to him provides the impetus to make him decide that he can no longer stay on the sidelines of the conflict. The Elixir in the past simply healed or prolonged life, but now it has been refines so that it can give different results. The Doctor can basically chose the nature of his next persona, and he chooses to be a soldier. McGann regenerates, but before he goes he recalls all of his companions and, of course, these are all from the spin-off material except for Grace. (A problem with spin-offs shoehorning their own companions into gaps is that you then wonder why the Doctors entirely fail to recall them in various televised flashbacks).

We then get a glimpse of the War Doctor, looking much younger than when seen at the conclusion of The Name of the Doctor. That's because they used a bit of footage of John Hurt from the BBC's 1979 adaptation of Crime and Punishment.

An in-joke is when McGann asks if the regeneration is going to hurt...

Next time: The (New) Three Doctors...

Story 241 - The Day of the Doctor

 

In which the Doctor revisits events at the conclusion of the Last Great Time War.

Clara is now working as a teacher at Coal Hill School. She goes to visit the Doctor in the TARDIS, which is parked outside London. The Doctor receives a call from Kate Stewart of UNIT, seeking his help. Suddenly the TARDIS is picked up by a helicopter and flown towards the city. Kate explains that she thought the ship was empty. The Doctor accidentally falls out of the doors but hangs on as they arrive at Trafalgar Square. Kate is waiting to meet him, along with Osgood - UNIT's latest Scientific Adviser, who is another great fan of the Doctor's exploits - even wearing a long multi-coloured scarf.

The reason the TARDIS has been brought to Trafalgar Square is because of something to be found in the National Gallery, which looks onto the Square. This building has a secret under-gallery, which can be accessed behind a huge double portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and the Tenth Doctor. 

A number of paintings in this under-gallery have had their glass smashed, and a number of statues appear to have been broken as well. The paintings are all landscapes - but the Doctor is told by Kate that they used to have figures in them - and the glass has been broken from the inside outwards. Something has escaped from the pictures. 

The Doctor notes a large 3-D image of Gallifrey under attack during the Time War. It is known by two titles - "No More" and "Gallifrey Falls". The Doctor recognises the events depicted as the fall of Arcadia, the planet's second city. It was on this day that he decided to end the War - by destroying both sides. He had broken into the Time Lord arsenal and stolen the Moment. This was an immensely powerful weapon, but one with a sentient interface. This would try to ensure that the operator fully understood and accepted their actions in using it - forcing them to examine their conscience. The Doctor was in his ninth incarnation at this time, having regenerated on the planet Karn with the help of the Sisterhood. This was an incarnation which the Doctor had elected to forget, believing him not worthy of the name due to his actions in the War. He took the Moment to a childhood haunt of his, an old barn, on Gallifrey, and the Moment manifested itself to him as a young, blonde-haired woman, who went by the name "Bad Wolf". This was an image of Rose Tyler, taken from his future. She will show him part of that future, before he decides to use the weapon.

At the under-gallery, a temporal anomaly opens. The Doctor decides to enter it, and finds himself in Tudor England. His tenth incarnation is here, on a picnic with Queen Elizabeth. However, he is secretly on the trail of a Zygon. It disguises itself as a horse, and then as the Queen herself. The temporal anomaly has also appeared in the barn of Gallifrey, and the Time War Doctor also enters it - arriving at the same location as his two future selves. Soldiers arrive and they pretend to be sorcerers to hold them at bay. Elizabeth then appears and informs them that she has killed the Zygon duplicate, and they find themselves captured and sent to the Tower of London. The three Doctors discuss the Time War, and the destruction of Gallifrey, as they look for a way to escape. Clara has followed the Doctor to 1562 using Captain Jack Harkness' vortex manipulator - given to her by Kate. Clara discovers that Kate has been replaced by a Zygon duplicate, but she escapes using the manipulator. (The Doctor had left the co-ordinates and operation code scratched on the cell wall for Clara to find in 450 years time). Clara releases the Doctors from their cell.

They discover that there are more Zygons in the Tower. Elizabeth is impersonating the Zygon commander to discover their scheme. They are refugees who have arrived from their dead homeworld in search of a new home. As the time is not right, they are going to use Time Lord technology, stasis cubes, to hide themselves in a number of paintings - to emerge in a few centuries' time, when the planet will be less primitive. They emerged from the paintings in 2013 - hence the glass breaking outwards - and then hid under the covers which were draped on the statues, smashing the statues first. They have overpowered Kate and Osgood in order to gain access to the Tower, and UNIT's Black Archive.

The Doctors must return to 2013 to stop the Zygons, but first the Tenth Doctor weds Elizabeth - honouring a promise he had made. They take to the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS, and the console room layout struggles to compensate for the presence of three Doctors.

In order to get into the Black Archive. the Doctors hide within the "Gallifrey Falls" painting, which they then arrange to have transported into the complex. Kate and Osgood have arrived, but the Archive has a gas defence - a substance which causes amnesia. The Doctors confuse both human and Zygon by ensuring neither knows which side is really which. The Doctors force them to forge a treaty.

The stasis cubes have given the Doctors an idea for resolving the Time War without destroying Gallifrey. Their combined TARDISes, with this technology, may be able to place the whole planet in stasis - only appearing to have been destroyed.

All of the Doctor's incarnations respond to this plan - including a future, twelfth Doctor.

Gallifrey vanishes, and the Dalek fleet destroys itself in the crossfire. 

The War Doctor has been rehabilitated - now worthy of being called a Doctor. He and the Tenth Doctor won't remember these events, and the Eleventh Doctor does not know the new location of Gallifrey. The War Doctor returns to his TARDIS and begins to regenerate. After the Tenth Doctor has departed - soon to regenerate himself - the current Doctor meets an old man, who claims to be the curator of the under-gallery. He looks and sounds just like his fourth incarnation. The old man reveals that the title of the Arcadia painting is really "Gallifrey Falls No More".

Later, the Doctor dreams of rediscovering his lost homeworld.

The Day of the Doctor was written by Steven Moffat, and first broadcast on 23rd November 2013. It marked the 50th Anniversary of the series. It was simulcast globally, and also enjoyed a number of cinema outings. It was available in 3-D.

Moffat's original plan had been for a new The Three Doctors - the 10th Anniversary story - featuring the last three Doctors rather than the first trio. After an initial interest, Christopher Eccleston elected not to participate - which is how Moffat came to create the previously unknown War Doctor, as played by John Hurt and seen at the conclusion of The Name of the Doctor.

One of the earlier Doctors did make a new appearance - Tom Baker, in the role of the enigmatic Curator, who may be a future incarnation of the Doctor revisiting an old form. All the Doctors have a couple of cameos - first of all piloting their TARDISes to save Gallifrey (using footage from various episodes), and then in the final dream scene where the Doctor is flanked by all his predecessors.

Peter Capaldi made a surprise appearance - only his eyes being seen in close-up - a whole month before he was due to make his debut.

Being an anniversary story, there are many nods to the past. The story opens in black & white, with a policeman at the gates of the junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane. This turns out to be just around the corner from Coal Hill School, and the school sign states that Ian Chesterton is now Chairman of the Board of Governors, and W Coburn is headmaster. This all relates back to An Unearthly Child.

As the story concerns the Time War, the Daleks naturally appear - shown beating the Time Lords as they attack Arcadia, another domed city on Gallifrey. We see the head of Gallifrey's armed forces - the General - but reference is made to the politicians debating elsewhere (Rassilon and his council, as seen in The End of Time Parts 1 & 2).

From Tom Baker's era we have the man himself, but also Osgood's wearing of his scarf. The guest aliens are from his era. Ever since the series returned in 2005, fans had been clamouring for the return of the Zygons. They had only ever featured in one story - Terror of the Zygons - but this is regarded as a classic, and the creatures are a superb design (courtesy of James Acheson and John Friedlander).

Fortunately, the design isn't messed with, yet they are still somehow inferior to the originals.

The War Doctor is used to comment on the new series, as though he were a representative of the Classic Era. He bemoans the fact that Doctors seem so young these days, and enquires about the amount of kissing which goes on.

Moffat had asked for the previous TARDIS console room to be retained - it had a new home at the Doctor Who Experience - and this was used by the Tenth Doctor. The TARDIS for the War Doctor utilised the same console and pylons, but added more traditional white roundeled walls, as a nod to the Classic Era ship. The exterior of the War Doctor's TARDIS was a smaller copy of a Classic Era Police Box.

Of the new guest cast, Elizabeth I was played by Gavin & Stacey's Joanna Page. The General was played by Ken Bones, and his deputy, Androgar, by Peter De Jersey, who had featured alongside David Tennant in the RSC's recent production of Hamlet. 

Jemma Redgrave returned as Kate Stewart, and Osgood was played by Ingrid Oliver.

Billie Piper appears throughout as the manifestation of the Moment's interface.

Overall, an excellent way to celebrate an anniversary - with a brand new adventure which could stand on its own two feet, but loaded with fan-pleasing nods to the past.

Things you might like to know:

• The working title was "The Time War". Until contracts were signed, Moffat also referred to it as "The No Doctors".
• Shots of the Doctors in their TARDISes come from the following episodes: Hartnell (The Daleks - the voice sounds nothing like him); Troughton (Tomb of the Cybermen and The Mind Robber, audio from The Seeds of Death); Pertwee (Colony in Space, audio from The Green Death); Tom Baker (Planet of Evil); Davison (Frontios, audio from The Five Doctors); Colin Baker (Attack of the Cybermen), McCoy (Battlefield and The Movie); McGann (The Movie), Eccleston (Rose and Aliens of London, audio from Parting of the Ways). McCoy looks very different in his two clips.
• The operating code for Captain Jack's vortex manipulator is 1716231163 - which derives from 17:16 23/11/63 - the time and date of the broadcast of the very first episode.
• UNIT's Black Archive was previously seen as a separate building in the countryside in The Sarah Jane Adventures. It may have been moved after Sarah successfully broke into it.
• The Archive was going to include a poster for the first peter Cushing Dalek movie. In his novelisation of this story, Moffat had these films as movie versions of the real Doctor's actual adventures.
• What is seen in the Archive is a board covered in photographs of various companions, in very odd combinations - to suggest a huge number of unseen adventures.

• UNIT has a file codenamed "Cromer" - a reference to the Brigadier's belief that an alternative anti-matter universe was really the Norfolk coast (The Three Doctors).
• Kate mentions contacting Malcolm - presumably Malcolm Taylor, a previous Scientific Adviser seen in Planet of the Dead.
• It is said that the Zygon homeworld was destroyed at the beginning of the Time War, yet it was already said to have been destroyed long before the Time War in Terror of the Zygons. This story also claimed that it would take centuries after the 20th for the refugee fleet to arrive on Earth - yet they are already here in the 16th Century. 
• Capaldi filmed his scene alongside his regeneration at the conclusion of The Time of the Doctor.
• Some items contained in the Black Archive include River Song's red high heel shoes; a Cyberman head; a Dalek dome; the Space-Time Telegraph from Terror of the Zygons; Dalek tommy guns and Sontaran rifles.
• There are many verbal references to older stories throughout - including the War Doctor stating that his old body was wearing a bit thin (as the First Doctor said in The Tenth Planet); and the Tenth Doctor tells the Eleventh that he doesn't like the redecoration of the TARDIS (as Troughton did in The Three Doctors, and said about UNIT HQ in The Five Doctors).
• The episode was followed on BBC 3 by a live event known as The After Party. This brought together many Doctor and companion actors, who had assembled at the BFI on London's South bank to watch the story go out. It was a ramshackle affair, which came across as amateurish.
• Far better was the comic The Five-ish Doctors Reboot, which was written by Peter Davison and produced by his daughter Georgia Tennant. This told of Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy attempting to get involved in The Day of the Doctor. This was on the Red Button digital platform only, and has never had a commercial release (other than as an extra on a very limited - and expensive - special edition). It was full of cameo appearances by Doctor Who actors and production personnel. They finally do get to appear, but hidden under dust sheets in the under-gallery. However, in the actual TV episode it is extras who fill these places.

Story 241 (Prequel) - The Night of the Doctor

 

In which the pilot of a crashing spaceship - a young woman named Cass - is suddenly confronted by a stranger on her craft. This is the Doctor, in his Eighth incarnation. The Last Great Time War is at its height, affecting the entire universe. Cass explains that she teleported her crew off the stricken ship, but she is left behind. The Doctor tells her that he can save her, and takes her to a chamber towards the rear of the vessel where his TARDIS is parked. On discovering that this object is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, Cass is horrified. She realises that it is a TARDIS, and that the Doctor must be a Time Lord. She refuses to go with him - arguing that the Time Lords are just as bad as the Daleks. Both races are equally responsible for mass bloodshed in her view. Cass returns to the bridge and locks herself in, with the Doctor trying to argue that he is not like his fellows. To prove this, he tells her that he will not desert her - even as the ship heads towards destruction on a nearby planet.

The Doctor knows that this is the planet Karn, which he has previously visited. It is home to the Sisterhood, who worship the Sacred Flame which produces the Elixir of Life.

The ship crashes.

The Doctor wakes to find himself in the temple of the Sisterhood. Cass is here, but she is too badly wounded to save. The leader of the Sisterhood - Ohila - tells the Doctor that he died in the crash. They gave him a little of the Elixir to bring him back to life, but this incarnation is dying. He has but a few minutes. The Sisterhood believe that the Doctor is the only person who can bring the Time War to an end and save them all. His failure to save Cass weighing heavily on his mind, he decides to renounce his neutrality. He can no longer sit back and watch the universe being torn apart. Ohila informs him that he can use the Elixir to influence his next regeneration, affecting what sort of a person he will be. He decides that he can no longer be a Doctor in times of war, but instead must become a Warrior. He regenerates, taking on the appearance of the individual whom Clara had earlier glimpsed inside the Doctor's time stream...

The Night of the Doctor was written by Steven Moffat, and was initially released on the BBC Red Button service on 14th November 2013. Seven minutes long, it acts as a prequel to the forthcoming 50th Anniversary story, The Day of the Doctor, and shows how the unknown incarnation of the Doctor seen in the closing moments of the Series 7 finale - played by John Hurt - came into being. 

When Rose was first broadcast, it was suggested that the Doctor had only recently regenerated - as he appears to be noticing his ears for the first time in a mirror. Therefore, it wasn't known conclusively if this had been the incarnation who had fought in the Time War, and brought it to its genocidal conclusion. Steven Moffat had initially wanted to bring Eccleston, Tennant and Smith together to form a new "Three Doctors" for the anniversary, but Eccleston had eventually declined to return. If the Ninth Doctor hadn't fought in the war, then it must have been the Eighth - but Moffat simply couldn't see that particular incarnation being capable of such a thing. He therefore decided to create a new, interim Doctor who was a fighter - and who therefore didn't see himself as being worthy of the "Doctor" title.

Paul McGann was invited back to portray the Eighth Doctor, 17 years after last playing the character on screen. He had, of course, been playing the Doctor for many years on audio during this period. Not only was McGann being brought back in from the cold, as far as the TV series was concerned, this mini adventure also allowed him a conclusion, with a regeneration. Hurt does not appear, apart from use of his features from one of his earlier movies.

Being the big anniversary season, Moffat made the fan-pleasing decision to set the regeneration against a backdrop from the classic era of the series (namely the much loved Hinchcliffe-Holmes Gothic period). In The Brain of Morbius, it is stated that the Sisterhood sometimes help Time Lords regenerate with their Elixir. The Sisterhood appear here, with a leader called Ohila. She is played by Clare Higgins. On our last visit to Karn, the Sisterhood had just been taken over by a character named Ohica, so not the same person. Presumably the Sisterhood took the Doctor's advice on board and no longer have leaders who want to stay in post forever.

Being a seven minute short, there is only one other guest artist. Playing Cass is Emma Campbell-Jones.

Overall, it packs a punch well above its weight. Great to see McGann return as the Doctor, even if it's just to kill him off, and the inclusion of Karn and the Sisterhood is a lovely touch for older fans.

Things you might like to know:

• The Eighth Doctor's last words are "Physician, heal thyself". This comes from the Bible (Luke 4:23). Luke was a doctor. 
• Things the Doctor claims he could do in four minutes: knitting, watching television, chess, and reading.
• The Doctor does not have any travelling companion at this time. As he "dies" it is his companions whom he recalls. This is a list of his Big Finish audio companions. A nice touch, except that it means that any later companion added to the audio range is ignored.
• Talking of Big Finish, they continue to release Eighth Doctor audios, so these all have to take place prior to this - and they are denied the chance of having their own regeneration.
• Doctor Who Magazine had considered a regeneration for the Eighth Doctor into the Ninth Doctor at the conclusion of the epic Cyberman comic strip The Flood, but the BBC scuppered this by insisting that the Ninth Doctor should only ever bee seen with Rose as a companion.
• The CGI TARDIS seen in space is the Matt Smith one, with a St John Ambulance Maltese Cross emblem, but the physical prop in Cass's ship is the one that was created for the War Doctor in The Day of the Doctor, which doesn't have the emblem.
• Russell T Davies wrote a short story for the anniversary in which the Eighth Doctor did fight in the Time War, and regenerated directly into the Ninth. It was due to be published in DWM in 2013. However, as it clashed with Moffat's minisode it was withheld - eventually seeing release in 2020.

News Update

 

Hope you had a lovely Doctor Who Day yesterday - the 57th anniversary of the programme. I rewatched the More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS documentary to mark the occasion. 

Very little from the BBC itself, other than a promotional image for the forthcoming Christmas Special (above), and a tiny teaser clip with Captain Jack, and therefore final confirmation that Barrowman is in the episode - something we've known for the last 8 months thanks to the BBC themselves issuing a photo with him in costume in the background. So much for their obsession with spoiler avoidance.

Still no word of when Revolution of the Daleks will actually be broadcast, though many people think it will be Christmas Day rather than New Years Day. This will be known at the beginning of next week.

The people who make the Blu-ray box sets gave us absolutely nothing.

The people behind the animations at least gave us the news I reported earlier about the rerelease of The Web of Fear, with the missing third episode animated. Great news - until I saw the teaser for it.

I sincerely hope that the whole episode isn't as awful as this.

One other release due next year will be a steelbook of the 50th Anniversary Specials - The Day of the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor and the Hartnell docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, along with all the associated extras, such as the McGann mini-episode Night of the Doctor.

Specific dates for the Troughton story and this steelbook are yet to be released.

National Media Museum - 50 Years of Fandom

Just spent a wonderful weekend in Bradford, Yorkshire. On Saturday morning my brother showed me his "museum". His loft is packed with memorabilia primarily relating to the Soviet Union - uniforms, medals, banners, publications, statuettes. Every inch is covered. I mention this as, a few hours later, we were in the exhibition of Doctor Who fandom at the city's National Media Museum. It was the penultimate day, and still very busy. As I wandered round, I realised how many of the items on show I had once owned myself. Had I retained everything, I would have needed a "museum" like my brother's. Sadly, things were lost, given away, discarded, damaged over the years. There were two main elements to the exhibition - merchandising, and fan-made replica props. It was lovely to see an original item on show, however - the Servo Robot from the Patrick Troughton Cyberman story The Wheel in Space. Until I bought Marcus Hearn's The Vault book late last year, I had no idea this prop still existed.

There were a number of Daleks on show - excellent reproductions, though my favourite was the gold cardboard one you can see below. It is amazing how, despite its naivete, it is still indubitably recognisable as a Dalek.

A couple of Cybermen as well - a superb copy of one from Tomb of the Cybermen, along with a Cybermat - and one from Silver Nemesis. A Revenge Cybermat was also to be seen. Most hilarious item was a full size Tom Baker model, which sadly would not have looked out of place atop a bonfire on November 5th.

The merchandise covered some Hartnell items - annuals and jigsaws, but most was post 1974. There were Weetabix figures, Typhoo Tea cards, the first Target "Monster Book". Lots of art work on display - some fan-made, others professional artwork from novels. One case had a collection of foreign language Target novelisations.

More recent items included BBC VHS and DVD covers, Character Options figures and micro-figures. As you walked round, you found yourself carrying out a mental inventory: got that, had that, had that, got that...
A few items had been autographed (such as a pair of Converse trainers (by David Tennant) and a mug (by Arthur Darvill).

A thoroughly enjoyable experience overall - one I'm very glad I was able to catch. I strongly suspect that it would have been we older fans who would have got the most out of it.

That Was The Anniversary Week That Was 24.11.13

The cast of The Three Doctors sitcom spin-off pose for the cameras...

Five things I learned this week:
1. The Time Lords were first name-checked in the Radio Times six weeks before Episode 9 of The War Games.
2. And Gallifrey was named in TV Comic a whole five months before Episode 3 of The Time Warrior.
3. The Cybermen were supposed to have the Ogrons' role in Frontier In Space.
4. I always thought the Walls Sky-Ray Doctor was a poorly drawn Troughton, whereas it was supposed to be an entirely new Doctor (Troughton not giving permission for his likeness to be used).
5. That Julian Glover as King Richard wore the same tunic that Mark Eden had worn as Marco Polo.
The latter three are from "The Vault" book, which I finally got round to reading, the first two from this week's Radio Times anniversary issue.

With the third and final day of the official Convention closing today, the celebrations come to an end. All of the TV and radio programming will be available for the next week on i-player, or is already out there on You Tube.
The two big highlights were The Day of the Doctor and An Adventure In Space And Time. I enjoyed them both. Lowlights were the BBC3 items - which tended to trivialise with their use of third rate comedians. I gave up on the "Afterparty" as soon as One Direction were announced - switching to the "Behind the Lens" feature on the Red Button service. Also on the Red Button was "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" - another highlight of the week. So 5, 6 and 7 did make it into the special after all - if only covered in dust sheets.
Matthew Sweet's Culture Show Special was also well worth watching.
Of the CBBC stuff, 12 Again was my favourite, as  mentioned yesterday. This involved interviews with Louise Jameson, Sylvester McCoy, Warwick Davis, John Culshaw, Dan Starkey, Neve Mcintosh, Tommy Knight, and the annoying CBBC presenter who also does the DWM Time Team feature - all giving their memories of watching Doctor Who when aged 12. For some it was Hartnell, others Tom Baker, and for young Tommy Chris Eccleston.

A couple of snippets of news from the Convention - Series 8 commences filming in January, and the contents of Room 11 (from The God Complex) are going to be revealed - presumably in the Christmas Special. Colin Baker is still banging on about not getting into DOTD properly in an interview today - his nose out of joint that his namesake got to appear. Sorry Colin, but Tom is, and always will be, a hundred times more popular than you and you will always be propping up the bottom of the polls. Stick to BF.

Looking ahead, tomorrow sees the DVD release of The Enemy of the World. Those impatient amongst you who bought the episodes from i-tunes please note that this has been Vid-fired and is of far superior quality. No further news on those Marco Polo rumours. We'll have to wait until the "Missing Believed Wiped" event in the first week of December.
Last night, straight after DOTD, we got our first teaser trailer for the Christmas story. Bells tolling, Trenzalore, Daleks, Cybermen, Silents and Weeping Angels. Silence Will Fall.

Lastly, with the anniversary out of the way, and before things start to build up towards that Christmas Special, I am taking a little break. I'll be back next Sunday, ready to start musing on the next 50 years of Doctor Who...

The Day of the Doctor Musings

Let's get the obvious thing out of the way first. Coal Hill School has moved location at some point in the last 50 years. Either that or Ian and Barbara were extremely lazy - taking the car just to go round the corner. No wonder Susan had no problem with walking home, even on the foggiest of nights.
In 2013, Ian Chesterton is Chairman of the Board of Governors at the school, so he probably knows the new teacher, Clara Oswald.
The opening of The Day of the Doctor wasn't what I expected. First of all, we had the Hartnell opening titles - and no 2013 ones. This story's titles were simply played over the footage of the TARDIS being brought by helicopter to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. A couple of nice gags early on - my favourite being that the Tower of London ravens are battery operated. High visibility UNIT operations are put down to Derren Brown. We don't see him, but Malcolm is still scientific adviser.
We have two stories going on. One in the present day involving an invasion attempt by the Zygons - invading the present from the Elizabethan past via some paintings. This all proves to be a bit of a McGuffin of sorts - giving the Three Doctors the means by which they can change the course of events of the Last Great Time War, and therefore their own lives. It's the moment of the Moment that the story is really about. We all thought Billie was back as companion Rose, but she's really the device's interface with its user. It has selected an image from his future (Bad Wolf Rose) to reason with him. The Moment is a sentient device, hidden in the Omega Archives on Gallifrey, and stolen by the War Doctor. It basically makes you think about the consequences of using it.
The true nature of Billie's role is one of the big surprises. There are two others which should have got everyone dancing round the room - the appearance of the "Thirteenth" Doctor, and the Curator. Quite who the latter was we don't know. He implies he is an older Fourth Doctor but equally says things which contradict this.

Quite what the numbering of Doctors actually is, I am a bit lost. We were told beforehand that this wouldn't affect the present numbering, but Hurt was quickly added to the Doctor profiles image, and he clearly comes between McGann and Eccleston. We saw both regenerations - between this and The Night of the Doctor. Having now not used the Moment, he is also entitled to the name of Doctor.

The interplay between the Three Doctors very much reminded me of that particular 1972 / 3 story. Hurt took the Hartnell role (the exasperated "older" man who is not wholly impressed by his successors) whilst Tennant & Smith indulged in some Troughton / Pertwee friendly rivalry (even reusing the TARDIS redecoration joke).
Nice to see Moffat being a little self-deprecating ("timey-wimey" sounding childish etc). The increased amount of snogging in the new series was also referenced, but the War Doctor should have known about this - his immediate predecessor having started this (unwelcome) tradition.
That "game changing" phrase was bandied about prior to transmission, and I suppose this actually applies for once. The Time War arc has been wrapped up for now - Gallifrey frozen in time and deposited in a pocket Universe somewhere. The Doctor has had the burden of guilt lifted from him, and now has a new goal in life - to finally go home. Unfortunately, we might have to wait another 50 years to see the homecoming.

Bottom line: did I enjoy it? Yes I did. Was it perfect? No. I do think that casual viewers would have been confused. There were quite a lot of continuity references to plough through. I would personally have preferred it to have concentrated on a single story-line.
Was it a celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who? Partly. There were plenty of nods to the past - from the photographs of the old companions, Tom and the Zygons, props in the UNIT Black Archive, Hurt's TARDIS design, the events of The Three Doctors having a UNIT file code-named "Cromer"... We were also left with that wonderful image of all 12 Doctors standing together.
In a way, however, The Day of the Doctor was much more the End of Part One for "Nu-Who".

Saturday 23rd of November...

You're probably wondering what a picture from Marco Polo is doing, heading this post. Where's the review of The Day of the Doctor? Tomorrow. I'm still cogitating. Am I going to say I liked it? Yes, I did.
I also loved the brilliant The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot. Hilarious. It was on the BBC Red Button service. I sincerely hope everyone gets a chance to see it. To have roped in so much talent - including Sir Ian McKellen and Peter Jackson - was amazing.
The BBC3 "Afterparty" was so-so. Of the items on CBBC, 12 Again was very good and certainly worth watching on their i-player service. Blue Peter had the second of two Doctor Who specials this morning (the previous one was on Thursday 21st). They have the Series 8 design a sonic device competition, and over the last couple of days had a design a new monster comp (not to be featured in the series).
The reason for the Marco Polo picture? You may recall the same people who accurately predicted (i.e. knew about) the return of The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear also stated that this had been found. This morning, two UK newspapers (Daily Mail & The Mirror) both had stories today saying that all seven episodes of Marco Polo have been recovered in an unusual way. One which does cause a certain degree of uncertainty as to the truth of it all. The story goes that the episodes are silent cine-recordings, made by a fan directly off his TV screen in 1964. These are going to be coupled with the existing soundtracks. The big suspicion is, obviously, why has it taken so long for this person to have come forward? (Had they mentioned it in 2006, Blue Peter would have given them a life-size Dalek as a prize).
In a few day's time, the "Missing Believed Wiped" event has promised an episode of Doctor Who. One of the already released Nigerian finds seems a bit unlikely to me, so maybe there might just be some truth in these news stories.

Musings On An Adventure In Space And Time...

Best not to read until you've seen it yourself.
If that didn't move you, you've got the heart of a Weeping Angel. Often funny, full of little nods to the series' history, increasingly tragic, but ultimately uplifting. I've been looking forward to Mark Gatiss' An Adventure In Space And Time probably more than Saturday's anniversary episode - and I wasn't disappointed. The Day of the Doctor is sure to be epic, funny, sharply written - but will it really come close to the emotional impact of this?
AAISAT begins at the end - with Hartnell (a quite exceptional performance from David Bradley) stopped in his tracks by the sight of a Police Box on Barnes Common, one evening in 1966. Our first visual reference to the series is that Box, with a Policeman in the fog. Hartnell has just discovered that he is going to replaced in the role of the Doctor, a role he has created and made his own. He's shell-shocked. After a disappointing career, he is now loved by millions - especially children. Now it's all being taken away from him.

We won't see the decline until the final third of the programme. Before that, we watch as Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein pull Doctor Who together, fighting against the BBC stuff-shirts.
Now, this is a drama-documentary. Gatiss forewarned us that certain characters (such as Donald Wilson) would not appear, and certain events would be compressed in time. We see the creation of the titles, music and sound effects simply as little cutaways as Hussein and Lambert wine and dine Hartnell in an attempt to win him over. To have attempted to show the whole creation in all its minutiae would have damaged the drama. It is the story of Hartnell's time as the Doctor that is key, and the programme wisely sticks to that.

When we first see him, Hartnell is an irritable old sod, impatient and curt with his grand-daughter. He mellows as the programme progresses - mirroring the First Doctor's on-screen journey. One lovely sequence shows him encountering a party of children whilst out for a walk. For them he is "Dr Who", and he revels in it. In a recreation of The Edge of Destruction, we see the famous Fault Locator / Fornicator joke. In rehearsals for An Unearthly Child, we witness this most insecure of actors being placated by having his ego massaged.
I loved the way that Hartnell came to own the TARDIS - knowing exactly how it ought to operate and what every switch did. He insisted that the kids would  notice if he got it wrong.
The TARDIS Yearometer records the passage of time - as does the neat idea of showing the press introductions for later companions - held outside TV Centre. As first Vicki, then Steven and Dodo, then Ben and Polly are introduced, Hartnell's face tells it all.

The recreations of TV studios - and glimpses of classic episodes - are a delight. We see Hartnell prepare for his final scenes - with a smoking Cyberman named Reg (Whitehead, of course) in attendance. The TARDIS control room, Totter's Lane junkyard, Kublai Khan's palace, Revolutionary Paris, Daleks in their city and on Westminster Bridge, and the planet Vortis are all faithfully recreated, with suitable props and costumes. The dialogue is full of well known phrases from interviews and from the programme itself.
One scene in particular stands out - where the current version of the series is nicely referenced. Hartnell has returned home and is telling wife Heather that he is leaving the show. He leans against the fireplace. Bathed in the glow of the flames - illuminated like a regeneration - he says "I don't want to go". It's the end of Ten.

William Russell cameos as a jobsworth BBC Commissionaire, Carole Ann Forrd as a mum calling her kid in off the street to watch the Daleks on TV. Present at Verity Lambert's leaving party are Jean Marsh and Anneke Wills. Toby Hadoke (he of the "Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf" show, and countless DVD commentaries) is the barman of the BBC bar, and Nick Briggs gets to portray his hero - Peter Hawkins.
I'm sure there will be a lot of comment about the ending - especially the scene where old meets new, which I'm not going to elaborate upon as it is a spoiler of sorts. Personally, I thought it was wonderful and brought yet another lump to the throat. It was lovely to see the real man himself in the closing moments as well.
The other day I commented on Hartnell only coming second from bottom in the Radio Times poll. I was gob-smacked. Hopefully, people will reappraise him after watching this. If you can't appreciate his contribution after this, and I meet you in the street, I will happily kick you up the arse. You'll deserve it.

Monday Round-Up

Earlier today, the Countess of Wessex (whose husband JNT had unsuccessfully tried to recruit for Silver Nemesis) hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace to mark the 50th Anniversary. Present and past TARDIS incumbents were in attendance.

A lot of new photos released from The Day of the Doctor - mostly from scenes already seen, and nothing spoilery.
This morning's BBC Breakfast News had a video set report, which did feature some new clips and interviews. It's on the BBC news website, as well as on You Tube (surprise, surprise).
BBC3 showed the 2 hour "Ultimate Guide". I was pleasantly surprised with this. Not as bad as most clip shows. A heavy emphasis on post 2005, of course, but each Doctor did get their mention. Some annoyingly unfunny "guests" un-associated with the programme. All quite unnecessary as there were enough relevant participants. Some glaring omissions - such as no Ian or Jamie when they were looking at the male companions. Katy Manning was the earliest person interviewed - so no William Russell or Carole Ann Ford from the very beginning. This will be on i-player, but also gets a repeat on Friday evening on Three.
Lastly, if you are a fan of Matt Berry, you will have seen a Tom Baker era Doctor Who piece during last night's Toast of London. That'll be on 4OD.

That Was The Week That Was 17.11.13

And what a momentous week it was - especially with that wholly unexpected appearance by Eight in The Night of The Doctor. Not just him but the Sisterhood of Karn as well. If McGann couldn't be in the Special itself, this was the next best thing. In some ways it was a return just to die - so a bit of a shame. In other ways, it was good as at least he gets an ending.
I have been thinking about the other extra we have been promised - The Last Day - which is due to feature on the DVD release of the anniversary tale. Who's last day? Maybe the War Doctor's? I know that Christopher Eccleston has ruled himself out of any of these proceedings, but might his image be used in the same way footage of the younger John Hurt was employed in the prequel clip? Or it might refer to Smith's impending last day, and act as a prelude to his regeneration.

Lots of new images released for both The Day of the Doctor and An Adventure In Space And Time. The former had its Children in Need clip shown on Friday evening, and the latter finally got a trailer. Very little new information, though. The CiN clip informs us that figures have broken out of paintings in the National Gallery, and we see what appears to be the first meeting between 10 & 11.
Thursday's DWM gave one other little snippet of information - namely that UNIT has been infiltrated by Zygon duplicates. I read a bit of speculation the other day that suggests Rose and Clara also get duplicated at some point.

Whilst in the shops buying the latest DWM I was pleased to come across the third and final DWM "Magazook" - covering the Doctors. Haven't had a chance to read it yet but the most interesting features look like they'll be the Anniversary stories that never were - Deathworld, The Six Doctors and The Dark Dimension.

As for what has been on the box so far, I have already given my thoughts on The Science of Doctor Who. I watched about three minutes of BBC3's weekend of top ten monsters then gave up. If you own the DVD's then it makes for quite redundant programming.
And so to the coming week. After all the anticipation, it had better be an excellent one. Lots of stuff on the radio, including some BF and Audiogo items on Radio 4Xtra. There's the two hour "Ultimate Guide" on BBC 3 tomorrow night - though that might just be the ultimate clips show... Tuesday sees the so-called Radio Times Anniversary edition - really just an ordinary issue with a few extra pages devoted to Who and 12 covers to collect. Sadly no proper RT Special. Thursday night has the long anticipated AAISAT followed by a screening of An Unearthly Child. The official convention commences on Friday, and that evening we have the Culture Show special on BBC2. And then on Saturday it will be The Day of the Doctor, followed by a BBC3 "after party".

50th Trailers & Images

A very quick round-up of some of the character portraits from The Day of the Doctor, plus that amazing Night of the Doctor video, and - finally - the An Adventure in Space and Time trailer.

And we finally get to see, with only a week to go, the trailer for An Adventure In Space And Time...
After all, that's where this all started...