The Doctor's Day

Righty so another post and this time its on Doctor Who and not only any Doctor Who story but this is the 50th anniversary episode, The Day of the Doctor, which was broadcast on 23 November, the date that the show began.  And with that let's reverse the polarity and give this a look....

So the story begins actually where the show began at Coal Hill school, where Clara Oswald (the lovely Jenna Louise Coleman) receives a message from the Doctor (Matt Smith) who tells her to return to the TARDIS.  However when Clara does return, the TARDIS is airlifted to Trafalgar square, which was arranged by UNIT.  One of the members of the paramilitary organisation UNIT Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) shows preserved instructions from Elizabeth I (the Doctor's former wife apparently!) and a secret gallery within the National Gallery which has a display of Time Lord art.  The time lord pictures include a picture of the legendary time war, where the time lords and the dalek races were both obliterated.  The Doctor on investigating the pictures finds the glass has been broken in them and it soon transpires the 3D images contain zygons, shape shifting aliens who have been impersonating key members of UNIT and are intent on invasion.

Meanwhile another incarnation of the Doctor, known as the War Doctor (John Hurt) is the one who has said to have detonated the bomb that destroyed both the time lords and the daleks.  The war doctor intends to end the time war by use of a weapon of mass destruction called the "Moment", which is actually a sentient being, which takes the shape of the Tenth Doctor's assistant, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) who warns him of the consequences of doing so.  The Moment then opens a fissure in time and space to link the two time periods of the Eleventh doctor in London 2013 and the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) who is in the Elizabethan era, where he is investigating the appearance of zygons, as well as appearing to court a young Elizabeth I (Joanna Page).  And its not long before the three doctors, the tenth, eleventh and the war doctor are all drawn together to fight against the zygons and find the best way forward to try and save Gallifrey from its own seemingly inevitable fate.

As a 50th anniversary celebratory episode, The Day of the Doctor does a fine job in achieving just that in what is almost essentially another variation of the three doctors, as that's how many doctors we really get in this story (if you exclude the brief footage of the other doctors).  And the dynamic between the three doctors is what actually makes the story work pretty well as the doctors all bounce off one another nicely.  And the War Doctor is a nice contrast as the aged and wounded doctor who has the weight of the universe on his shoulders as he faces carrying the fate of it in his hands.  The tenth and eleventh doctors are in comparison like a pair of exciteable kids who the War doctor tries to keep in check.  The episode also makes several references to previous stories and in particular to An Unearthly Child, the first ever Doctor Who story, as we see a policeman enter a scrapyard with the name I.M. Foreman on the front and we even get the original title sequence as well.  The story also makes various other references to the Tenth Doctor's era and elaborates on his marriage to Elizabeth I as we see them together in that period.  There are also references to UNIT as Kate Stewart, the UNIT commander, is the daughter of Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart and she uses the callsign of "Greyhound leader" which was used often by the Brigadier in the past.  There is also a female character called Osgood (played by Ingrid Oliver) who is asthmatic and curiously wears the fourth doctor's scarf, and the name Osgood itself is a reference to The Daemons, the third doctor story where there was a character called Sergeant Osgood (but nothing is really made of this in the episode!).  So naturally as an anniversary episiode it is quite referential.

Moving onto the performaces were the three leads are very good in their different ways, with Matt Smith admittedly starting to grate a little with his speedy delivery and his need to constantly keep twirling as if he has just wondered off Strictly come dancing!  But regardless of that though Smith still does a fine job as the current doctor and he plays off the other two nicely, especially in his first scene with the tenth doctor when it dawns on him they are both the same person as they get out their sonic screwdrivers and also both wear glasses!  Smith also pokes fun at Tennant's slim build as he first arrives through the time fissure and he says "That is proper skinny! Matchstick man wearing sandshoes!".  David Tennant is great in his role as the Tenth doctor and he makes a very welcome return to the series and its refreshing to see his potrayal of the doctor again.  Tennant also has some funny moments such as where he confronts Elizbaeth I and accuses her of being a zygon and he takes out a device that he uses to detect aliens, and the Elizabeth asks what it is and he says "Its a thing that goes ding!".  Also Tennant nicely refers to his last line in his tenure of the show as he hears of the Eleventh's doctor dying place and he says to him "We need to find a new destination, because.... because I don't want to go".  Both Doctors also make a nice reference to their catchphrase, i.e. "Jeronimo!" for the Eleventh and "Allons-y!" for the Tenth.   

John Hurt is also really good in his part as the War Doctor as a man with a tremendous burdon of carrying fate of his race.  Hurt also has some nice moments with the other two doctors and I also like the moment where he hears the other doctors catchphrases as they are set to try and freeze Gallifrey in order to preserve it and he groans and says "Oh for God's sake! Gallifrey stands!".  Billie Piper also makes a welcome return although she is not playing her character of Rose Tyler and instead plays the Moment, which makes it difficult for us to relate to her as a character in any conventional sense.  Jenna Louise Coleman is fine (and foine!) again in her role as Clara Oswald although she does play a more secondary role in the story to what is going with the doctors, which is only fair since they are the focus of this story.  Joanna Page as Queen Elizabeth I is also quite good in her role as she has a flirtatious relationship with the tenth doctor and they later on marry and she also can't stop kissing him!  Jemma Redgrave is not too bad either in her role as Kate Stewart, the Brigadier's daughter who is prepared to destroy London in order to save it from the zygon invasion.  And finally I will mention and cannot forget to for that matter, Tom Baker who provides a nice little end scene with the Eleventh doctor, as the curator of the National gallery, who suggests to the Doctor that Gallifrey can be found and restored once again.  And as a final final note I also liked the inclusion of Peter Capaldi in the scene where all the Doctors use their TARDIS's to save Gallifrey, even though we just see his eyes its a nice touch that they included him.   

As for the story's flaws.... well it does have some and the main one would be exlcusion of the some of the other doctors from the story as it would have been nice to have seen Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Paul McGann (well he was involved in a mini episode called The Night of the Doctor of course) and Sylvester McCoy all involved in the actual story instead of just footage fron their respective eras.  In regards to Christopher Eccleston he turned down the offer to appear in the story, which was probably a reflection of his time on the show and how he didn't get on with the senior production of the time in his short tenure for the role.  And in a way it becomes more of a three-man show, and at times just a two-man show with Matt Smith and David Tennant at the forefront vying for the attention.  The story which is written by the series current producer and script editor, Steven Moffatt, is also pretty convoluted once again, and while Moffatt is an intelligent and witty writer, he can't resist in confusing his audience by writing things back to front.  Which is a reminder again of the current stories of Doctor Who will never be quite a patch on the old ones from the original show, in how they were written was far better structured than they are now.  However I guess that's just me and I don't mean to take away from the efforts that Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies have given to the series for which they deserve alot of credit for bringing it back to our screens in the first place.

So all that aside The Day of the Doctor is an entertaining story and an enjoyable way to celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, which will soon carry on with a new face quite soon as Matt Smith is set to depart from the role in the Christmas special and a certain Mr Capaldi will take over, which should be very interesting.

And so with that I shall let things dematerialise right there.