You know you're a hardcore geek when you ask for the day off so you can watch a TV show. To be fair, our good friends Bill and Chantell invited my husband and myself over to their house to watch the Doctor Who anniversary special, so I can at least lay the excuse of "We attended a party" on top of that...or does that make it worse? Never attended a party for a TV show before. Don't know, don't care, I had fun!
I'm not going to babble on about the brilliance of the whole thing -- those who saw it know already -- so instead, I'm just going to touch on certain things and my thoughts about them, starting with...
The Night of the Doctor: My first full-on exposure to Doctor Who was the 1996 TV movie. Before that, my experience was limited to a couple of failed attempts to watch it on PBS (jumping into a random episode with no one to coach you through it is the worst way to learn about this show) and "Doctorin' the TARDIS" (a cool song that requires no knowledge of the Who-niverse in order to enjoy it), along with the occasional vague joke about multicolored scarves. When this joint British/American production came down the pipe, I decided to give it a whirl. It was good...not great, but good, and had Fox picked it up as a series, I would've kept up with it. Most important, it gave me a better grounding in the whats and whys of Who than any previous attempts had. Thanks to Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor, I now had a rough understanding of the basics, and that was important when the series came back full-force in 2005. From the get-go, I knew what a TARDIS was and that it was bigger on the inside; I knew about Time Lords and Gallifrey and two hearts and regenerations; I knew about the Master and (kind of) Daleks; and I knew for sure that scarves were important somehow, but I still hadn't totally figured that part out yet. Without watching the TV Movie back then, getting into Doctor Who right now would've been a little harder, even with having a husband who'd been versed in the stuff for decades. Paul McGann may not be my favorite Doctor, but he was my first Doctor, the one that managed to get my attention in the right way, so I have a soft spot for him. I'm glad he got another chance to strut his stuff in the audios, as well as the novels and comics, even if I've never watched or read them.
I say all this so you can understand how deeply moved I was by this little six-minute webisode. They didn't have to do this, not one bit. They could've let us assume John Hurt's character was the Eighth Doctor, terribly aged and scarred by the Time War -- it'd become a given in the fan community that #8 was the one who'd fought in the War, without question -- but no, they asked Paul McGann to come back and take his "one night only" turn one more time, and to top it off, they gave him a regeneration scene. I was damn-near crying by the end of it all. It certainly takes some of the sting off of the failed 1996 reboot, that's for sure.
I say all this so you can understand how deeply moved I was by this little six-minute webisode. They didn't have to do this, not one bit. They could've let us assume John Hurt's character was the Eighth Doctor, terribly aged and scarred by the Time War -- it'd become a given in the fan community that #8 was the one who'd fought in the War, without question -- but no, they asked Paul McGann to come back and take his "one night only" turn one more time, and to top it off, they gave him a regeneration scene. I was damn-near crying by the end of it all. It certainly takes some of the sting off of the failed 1996 reboot, that's for sure.
An Adventure in Space and Time: Kind of an aside here, since this was a special in and of itself, but I just have to say how brilliant this docudrama was all on its own. It helps you see the context that this show originated in, and how important it was to the people that made it (everyone talks about how groundbreaking it was to make Verity Lambert the BBC's first female producer, but no one ever talks about Waris Hussein being their first Indian director!). I'm hoping for a nice DVD or Blu-Ray release of this, perhaps included with "The Day of the Doctor" itself.
"Code word 'Cromer'": With a throwaway line in "The Day of the Doctor", Kate Lethbridge-Stewart invoked the memory of previous multi-Doctor team-ups. For those who don't remember, there's a scene in "The Three Doctors" where the Brigadier refuses to believe they're now on an alien world, saying, "I'm fairly sure that's Cromer" (a coastal town in northern Norfolk, England). That he went on to label a file about the experience "Cromer" rings true to the Brig's dry sense of humor. I was absolutely tickled by presence of that one simple word in the special.
"No, sir, all thirteen!": I'd hoped for perhaps a nod to Peter Capaldi in "The Day of the Doctor", but didn't really expect it. I've even heard a few people suggest (after that fact) that it would've been cool to hold off on announcing Capaldi and just toss him out in the special. Considering how anxious everyone had been getting before they finally revealed who the Twelfth Doctor would be, waiting another couple of months to do it might've caused some to crack under the strain...and let's not even think about the Internet shattering under the weight of the searches that would've been launched based solely on a pair of eyes!
Nope, I think they did it just right. We were aware of Capaldi, but were told he wouldn't appear until the Christmas special...then we hear that exclamation, and we see those eyes, staring out of the screen so intently at us. I do believe the Twelfth Doctor will be a force to be reckoned with.
Nope, I think they did it just right. We were aware of Capaldi, but were told he wouldn't appear until the Christmas special...then we hear that exclamation, and we see those eyes, staring out of the screen so intently at us. I do believe the Twelfth Doctor will be a force to be reckoned with.
The Curator: Even though Tom Baker had slyly told folks a few days before that he was going to be in "The Day of the Doctor", I'd figured it was just Tom being Tom, and he was actually referring to, say, a old clip of him inserted into the special. When they had that big scene where all twelve (no, thirteen!) Doctors show up, TARDISes a-whirling, I more-or-less thought that was it. Then Clara mentioned that the Curator had been looking for the Eleventh Doctor...and then I remembered Queen Elisabeth appointing him as "Curator of the Under-Gallery"...and then we got the slow reveal.
I daresay this was more than a little extra something to make fans giddy: the show now has a canonical way to bring in any actor that's ever played the Doctor. Remember, the Curator (i.e. Tom) said that he was revisiting old faces in his later years, leaving the field wide open for Peter Davison or Sylvester McCoy or even Christopher Eccleston (should he realize in a few decades what he's missing out on) to step in should Tom Baker not be available at some future point. It's been said that none of these guys ever really stops being the Doctor, and now they have a way to continue being part of the show without having to worry about the fact that their hair is thinning or they've got a a paunch (just as the audios allow you suspend disbelief, since all they need for that is a good strong voice). Tom isn't the Fourth Doctor here, he's the First Curator, and who's to say that role requires him to be all teeth and curls? He can be quieter, he can use a cane, he can lay his finger aside his nose like Father Christmas as he offers his younger self a glimmer of hope. If they don't abuse and overuse the gimmick (I'm looking at you, River Song!), we can look forward to the Curator occasionally dropping in on the Doctor in perpetuity, so long as there's former Doctors willing to take on the role. Imagine an elderly Matt Smith playing the Curator in the 100th anniversary special!
And if that notion doesn't blow your mind enough, try this one my husband brought up: the section of the Under-Gallery containing "Gallifrey Falls No More" has old-school roundels along one wall. Any of you recall the legendary Fourth Doctor story "Shada", and how Professor Chronotis (another retired Time Lord hiding in plain sight) made his TARDIS look like a room at Cambridge? Maybe the Doctor nicked the idea in his old age...
I daresay this was more than a little extra something to make fans giddy: the show now has a canonical way to bring in any actor that's ever played the Doctor. Remember, the Curator (i.e. Tom) said that he was revisiting old faces in his later years, leaving the field wide open for Peter Davison or Sylvester McCoy or even Christopher Eccleston (should he realize in a few decades what he's missing out on) to step in should Tom Baker not be available at some future point. It's been said that none of these guys ever really stops being the Doctor, and now they have a way to continue being part of the show without having to worry about the fact that their hair is thinning or they've got a a paunch (just as the audios allow you suspend disbelief, since all they need for that is a good strong voice). Tom isn't the Fourth Doctor here, he's the First Curator, and who's to say that role requires him to be all teeth and curls? He can be quieter, he can use a cane, he can lay his finger aside his nose like Father Christmas as he offers his younger self a glimmer of hope. If they don't abuse and overuse the gimmick (I'm looking at you, River Song!), we can look forward to the Curator occasionally dropping in on the Doctor in perpetuity, so long as there's former Doctors willing to take on the role. Imagine an elderly Matt Smith playing the Curator in the 100th anniversary special!
And if that notion doesn't blow your mind enough, try this one my husband brought up: the section of the Under-Gallery containing "Gallifrey Falls No More" has old-school roundels along one wall. Any of you recall the legendary Fourth Doctor story "Shada", and how Professor Chronotis (another retired Time Lord hiding in plain sight) made his TARDIS look like a room at Cambridge? Maybe the Doctor nicked the idea in his old age...
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot: If "The Night of the Doctor" and "An Adventure in Space and Time" were appetizers, and "The Day of the Doctor" the main dish, then this 30-minute film was the dessert. Rich, sweet, indulgent, and perhaps unnecessary, but darn it, this is a special occasion, so let's splurge! I found some of the jokes near the beginning uncomfortable (the notion of classic Doctors begging for jobs doesn't strike me as funny), but when the piece hit its stride, I had to keep stopping the video because I was laughing so hard. What sent me over the edge was the John Barrowman scenes...and if you missed this film for some reason, I will not spoil this particular gag for you. Just go find it, and prepare yourself for the unexpected.
Now all we have to do is hang in there until the Christmas special airs. Somebody start the countdown!
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