ANDREW'S
DOCTOR WHO REVIEWS 
It must have been a daunting thing for showrunner Steven
Moffat – produce the 50th Anniversary show for Doctor Who. How to
make it different and exciting from what had been done for the 10th
and 20th. Do you do multi-Doctor? Do you do the ‘Eleven Doctors’ and
if so, how do you work with the fact that three of the actors had died and others
were much older than when they had played the role, plus one actor who was
pretty unlikely to take part. In the end Moffat took a slightly different
approach and invented a whole new Doctor to work alongside Matt Smith and David
Tennant’s familiar recent incarnations. He had a lot of other tricks up his
sleeve too.
At the height of the Time War, the War Doctor (John Hurt) –
the forgotten incarnation between the 8th and 9th Doctors
– decides he has had enough and that he is going to end it by using a device
called “the Moment” which will destroy both Time Lords and Daleks alike. The
Moment has a human interface, that appears to the Doctor as Rose Tyler (Billie
Piper), it links him to his future 10th and 11th selves
(Tennant and Smith) who have come together in Elizabethan England. Here the
Zygons have secreted themselves in a painting made with Time Lord technology
and plan to emerge in the 20th Century.
Doctors 10 and 11 and the War Doctor join forces in
Elizabethan England but find out they need to reach UNIT headquarters under the
Tower of London and Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) whose operation is being
infiltrated by Zygons, including her scientific adviser Osgood (Ingrid Oliver).
The Doctors get to the 20th Century via a painting and using a
mindwipe they blank out the minds of both Zygon copies and human originals so
no one knows who is a copy and who is an original – this forces them to broker
for peace.
Meanwhile, the War Doctor returns to the Moment to detonate
it and stop the Time War. The other Doctors travel with him, their intention
being to not let the War Doctor shoulder all the blame. As they prepare to
detonate Clara insists they find another way. They then contact all their
previous incarnations plus the next incarnation of the Doctor (Peter Capaldi in
an uncredited role) and move Gallifrey into a stasis loop which makes it
disappear from the Universe but does not destroy it.
The Eleventh Doctor and Clara return to Earth and the Tenth
and War Doctors realise they won’t remember this adventure and will still bear
the guilt of destroying Gallifrey. After Doctor 10 returns to his time zone the
War Doctor begins to regenerate into the Eccleston Doctor.
On Earth the Eleventh Doctor meets the mysterious Curator
(Tom Baker) who hints that plan has worked and the Doctor vows to find
Gallifrey.
The plot of this story is really strong, quite timey wimey
as you might expect from Moffat, but it all makes sense. It is not this that
really makes this story fly – it is the superb acting from all involved and the
joy of seeing so many of our favourite actors doing their thing. Who doesn’t
get a buzz when Tennant’s Doctor starts threatening the rabbit before realising
it’s just a rabbit. Who doesn’t enjoy seeing Billie Piper and think it’s clever
that she isn’t playing Rose at all. Of course, best of all, and a well kept
secret is Tom Baker appearing as the Curator when you think all the surprises
are over, it’s one of those chill down the spine moments when you hear THAT
voice again. It’s enough to make any fan stand up and cheer.
Plus, we get John Hurt’s magnificent War Doctor; so funny,
so Doctor-y, and yet we only see him this one time.
And we get the Zygons back after so many years and they’re
magnificent too. And we finally get to see why Elizabeth I had such a problem
with the 10th Doctor.
We do miss the surviving older Doctors, although they got
their own special comedy on-line only outing which is equally brilliant but
sadly not out on DVD even now.
The Day of the Doctor is a gift that keeps on giving, it’s
just amazing from start to finish and the best 50th present us fans
could get. This is how to make Doctor Who and it’s damned near perfect!
NEXT UP: THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR
© Text copyright - Raving Loony
Productions and
Andrew J. Müller,
Roy Barton
and Shaun Runham
© Photos and Artwork - Andrew J. Müller
© Web Design and Layout - Andrew J. Müller
2022
