Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways/The Christmas Invasion: A New Leaf

 Hello!

The poor Ninth Doctor only lasted a single season. That was due to creative disputes - Christopher Eccleston did not get on well with the rest of the cast and crew. All the same, Eccleston's acting, and Billie Piper (Rose)'s acting is the reason that the revival has lasted more than one season. So don't skip Nine.  His final adventure involved Daleks. At the end of his life, the Ninth Doctor was travelling with two companions - Rose, naturally, and Captain Jack Harkness, an ex-time-travelling conman. The Tenth Doctor makes his debut in The Christmas Invasion, and spends most of it asleep, as a result of a regeneration gone slightly wrong. 

David Tennant in Nine's outfit actually looks a lot like one of Tennant's other roles - Barty Crouch Junior in Goblet of Fire.

Bad Wolf

Bad Wolf starts with the Doctor waking up in a closet in the Big Brother House. No big cliffhanger from the previous episode. just BAM! Doctor in a closet. As it turns out, it's not THE Big Brother - it's the far future, on a satellite called the Game Station, broadcasting thousands of game shows. There was a transmat which captured the TARDIS, teleporting the Doctor, Rose and fellow companion Captain Jack Harkness onto the station. Rose wakes up in The Weakest Link, with a robotic Anne Robinson presiding over it...or, as Rose realises, the Anne-Droid. Someone was having fun naming that. Jack's been teleported into a future version of What Not to Wear. The Doctor and Rose separately learn what happens to those who lose the games - they get disintegrated. The Doctor is horrified and immediately attempts to leave the Big Brother house by damaging property; he gets evicted, but doesn't get disintegrated, because whoever brought him to the Game Station wants him alive.  He escapes, taking fellow contestant Lynda with him. Jack escapes from What Not to Wear after learning that it also involves radical cosmetic surgery. He meets up with the Doctor and Lynda, and the three of them make it to The Weakest Link. Rose sees them and runs for it, getting disintegrated on the way. After getting arrested and fighting their way out, the Doctor, Jack and Lynda make their way to the top floor of the Game Station. Upon getting there, Jack finds the TARDIS and realises that the disintegrator beam is a secondary transmat system, sending the people being "disintegrated" to a point on the edge of the Solar System. This turns out to be a fleet of Dalek ships; the Doctor and the Daleks have a parlay, where the Doctor promises to save Rose.

The new Daleks

The Parting of the Ways
The Parting of the Ways begins with the Doctor and Jack rescuing Rose. During the course of the rescue, they meet the Emperor of the Daleks, who survived the explosion at the end of the Time War, flung through time. He rebuilt the Dalek race through human remains - with the result that they've gone mad from self-loathing. The Doctor, Rose and Jack return to the Game Station and prepare for battle; most of the contestants and staff are sent back to Earth in shuttles. Some contestants and staff remain to fight, while others stay behind because they're convinced the Daleks are just myths. The Doctor starts building a Delta Wave - a type of super-weapon which fries the brain of anything with a central nervous system. He also sends Rose home using Emergency Protocol One - if the Doctor is facing an enemy which must never get its hands on the TARDIS, the TARDIS will return to a safe place. The safe place in this instance is Rose's home - though that makes sense, as it's the safest place for her. The Daleks arrive and the battle begins; however, they make a detour to kill those who chose not to fight, simply out of sadistic pleasure. Along the way, they also kill all the staff and contestants fighting them, including Lynda. Eventually, only Jack and the Doctor are left standing; Jack empties his guns fruitlessly into the Daleks, then is summarily exterminated. The Doctor completes the Delta Wave, just in time for the Daleks to swarm the top floor; however, knowing that he would doom Earth as well, he can't bring himself to use it.

In the meantime, Rose sees the words  "Bad Wolf" scrawled across a playground and realises it's a message to her. She breaks the TARDIS console open so that she can look into the heart of the TARDIS; telepathically controlling the TARDIS, she pilots it to the Game Station, just in time to save the Doctor. With the entire Time Vortex in her head, Rose can see everything; first thing she does when she reaches the Game Station is send the words 'Bad Wolf' back through time, a message to lead herself to that point. She then curb-stomps the Daleks, disintegrating them into dust. She also resurrects Jack, a little too well; he can now never die, and will always resurrect from fatal damage, given time. The sheer power running through her head starts killing her, and the Doctor extracts it from her head, pouring it into his own instead. Given that holding the Time Vortex in your head, even for a second, is fatal, I assume he used its almost limitless power to heal Rose, then he lets go of that power and releases it to the TARDIS. He carries Rose to the TARDIS and waits for her to wake up; his regeneration is close to starting, and he wants to say goodbye before he regenerates. After a rambling speech, in which he cracks jokes to make both himself and Rose feel better, he finally regenerates. Also, he left Jack behind on the satellite; this was later explained as Jack's new-found immortality being "wrong" to the Doctor. Yes, that's prejudiced - it gets called out when the Doctor and Jack reunite in a later episode.

The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack. This is an earlier adventure

The Christmas Invasion

The Christmas Invasion had a Children in Need Special before it; it featured the new Doctor trying to get Rose to trust him. He's saddened when she doesn't  - perhaps he still remembers Peri, and the fact that he destroyed her trust by trying to kill her, then completely forgot that. In any case, Rose does end up trusting him pretty quickly. His regeneration starts going wrong - but he's (mostly) too manic to care, compulsively speeding up the TARDIS. As it happens, The Christmas Invasion  proper starts with the TARDIS materialising in 21st-century London, bouncing off buildings and almost flattening Jackie and Mickey. That's why.

Zero Room time?

When the TARDIS lands, the Doctor steps out and immediately collapses. He spends the rest of that day unconscious. Late that evening, Rose and Mickey are repeatedly attacked by robot scavengers, trying to obtain the Doctor for spare parts. At around the same time, UNIT receives a message from an alien race, called the Sycorax, who declare their intention to blackmail humanity into accepting them as their new rulers. This is not an empty threat; they captured a space probe containing information on the human race, including a vial of human blood. The probe was sent into space by humans. The Sycorax have a technology which allows them to hypnotise people with their blood; with the handy vial of blood from the probe, they can control anybody with that blood type.

In the early hours of Christmas Day, the Sycorax ship enters the atmosphere. At the same time, the threat kicks in - the Sycorax use their mind-control to force one-third of the population of the world to climb onto high surfaces. The Sycorax make contact with UNIT; the Prime Minister, Harriet Jones, offers herself as the representative of Earth and is teleported onto the ship, along with her right-hand man, a UNIT official, and the man who sent the probe. Rose, Mickey and Jackie, meanwhile, escape into the TARDIS with the Doctor. Jackie heads back outside to get food and the Sycorax teleport the TARDIS onto their ship. Rose, unaware of the teleport, heads outside and gets captured by one of the Sycorax; Mickey hears her scream and follows her. Rose steps forth as representative  of Earth - she came from the TARDIS, so she speaks on behalf of the Doctor. Very well known, by this point, isn't he?

Rose tries her best to bluff the Sycorax - unfortunately, her best just makes them laugh at her. Fortunately, the Doctor's finally woken up! He breaks the hypnosis by triggering the survival instincts of the mind-controlled one-third, then steps forth as Earth's champion, battling the Sycorax leader for the fate of the planet. During the fight, he loses his hand, but regrows it and defeats the leader of the Sycorax; he then makes the rest of the Sycorax promise to leave. The Doctor and his friends get teleported back to Earth, while the Sycorax turn tail; they then get shot down as they flee. The Doctor is livid, promising to tear down Harriet's government with six words; after doing exactly that, he departs to select a new outfit and have Christmas dinner with Rose and her family. It's quite jarring.

Hello!

Goodbye...

Overall, I really enjoyed Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways. It's a lot of fun. One of the best things about the two-parter is the fact that it really demonstrates the Doctor's trauma from the Time War; for instance, during his 'conference' with the Daleks, he declares his intention to wipe every last Dalek out of the sky - he's shouting and practically foaming at the mouth. Another moment is when he's returned to the TARDIS after rescuing Rose; he's slumped motionless against the doors, while the Daleks' chant echoes all around him. It shows how he's still affected by what he saw and suffered in the War, and the pain of losing his people. On that note, he can't bring himself to use the Delta Wave; knowing that it would kill everything on Earth, he can't bring himself to perform a repeat of what he did (or didn't do...) on the last day of the Time War. Similarly, he's so traumatised by losing so many of his loved ones, both during and before the War, that when Rose is seemingly disintegrated, he completely shuts down, making no effort to fight back against the security guards arresting him. Later, when he, Jack and Lynda fight their way out of the arrest, the Doctor takes a break from his usual non-violence and throws a guard into a wall; this sudden violence is unexpected, given the Doctor's usual pacifism, and highlights the fact that the Ninth Doctor is far more embittered than most incarnations of the Doctor, more willing to get violent when he needs to. This anger is further emphasised when one of the staff-members justifies what happened to Rose and other disintegrated contestants as "just doing our jobs"; the Doctor actually shouts at the person making that statement, declaring that they no longer even have the right to talk to him!

Equally, I like the fact that, when constructing the Delta Wave, he wrestles with a pipe for a few seconds, then looks up with an expression of manic glee. Just before he removes the Time Vortex from Rose's head, he says that she needs a Doctor - he can't resist making a bad pun. When he's about to regenerate, he's cracking jokes all through his farewell. In these two episodes, you see a light-hearted side of the Doctor which is present in the preceding series, but with greater scarcity than in the past; as illustrated, this does a good job of presenting a more jaded, cynical Doctor. Conversely, travelling with Rose has made the Doctor happier, it's made him more open to the wonders of the universe again - such that, even on the edge of death, he's staying light-hearted. At the same time, he unflinchingly saves his companion from death, knowing that it seals his own fate as well, because that's who the Doctor is - never cruel, never cowardly, always willing to help people. Indeed, the regeneration scene is one of the only regeneration scenes in the entire show to be unambiguously positive; while other Doctors see their regeneration as, to varying degrees, death, the Ninth Doctor appreciates it as a new opportunity, another chance at life.

I enjoyed The Christmas Invasion; it does a good job of introducing the Tenth Doctor. This despite the fact that he's asleep for most of it! The Christmas Invasion, like Castrovalva before it, focuses primarily on the Doctor's friends, their reaction to his change, and how to save the day with the Doctor incapacitated. Rose's attitude, indeed, is quite different to that of the Classic companions, with the possible exception of Ben. She initially doesn't believe that he's the Doctor; later on, she starts to lose faith in him, due to his being comatose during a crisis. The Christmas Invasion also shows another aspect of the post-regenerative process: while other post-regeneration episodes just depict the Doctor behaving more or less normally by the end, The Christmas Invasion showcases that, when your entire mental and physical make-up is rewritten, you don't actually know what sort of person you are. When he makes his appearance, fully healed, the Doctor rambles about the fact that he doesn't know what he's like; he also, during the ramble, has a go at Rose for losing faith in him. It's harsh but understandable - when you don't even know who you are as a person, the last thing you need is the people who do know you giving up on you. Ironically, that little outburst does illustrate what sort of person the new Doctor is - he's immediately overcome with remorse, fretting that maybe he's become someone who's frequently rude to his loved ones, indicating that, whatever else, he's as compassionate as ever.

Another thing I like about The Christmas Invasion is the foreshadowing of the Doctor's darker side. Harriet does something that he, personally, doesn't agree with, so he tears down her government, changing history in the process. At another point, he readily acknowledges the fact that he doesn't know when to stop - this idea of the Doctor needing somebody to stop him when he went too far becomes prevalent towards the end of his run. There's also the fact that he destroys an innocent woman's career and upends history, then calmly goes off to get changed - the ability to go and do something trivial after doing something like that is borderline sociopathic, and therefore not often something you see heroes do. Equally, just before the Sycorax leader charges him, the Doctor's chattering about satsumas, having found one in the pocket of his dressing gown. He hears the Sycorax leader charging from behind and immediately, unhesitatingly sends the leader falling to his doom, before stating that he doesn't give second chances - the shift from chatty and jovial to mercilessly angry is jarringly swift, and, concerningly, becomes a trademark of that incarnation.

Moreover, what I find interesting about this darkness is that, in some senses, it's a carry-over from the Ninth Doctor; the Ninth Doctor was embittered, cynical, prone to outbursts of anger - such as the aforementioned sequence where he throws a guard into a wall. The Tenth Doctor, despite his fresh perspective on life, still carries some of that darkness - it emphasises that the Ninth Doctor's anger hasn't gone away, just because the Doctor's regenerated. Additionally, it's an interesting reflection of how gaining a new perspective on life won't necessarily heal any trauma you might have, and that's OK. That's something I've found to be true for me. When I was being bullied, I had fairly low self-esteem. I thought my friends didn't care about me; I didn't think I mattered to anybody outside my family. I got a new perspective on that; I know that people do care about me. And still, three years on from the end of the bullying, I still have self-esteem issues; it frustrates me, sometimes, because I know that there's no real reason to doubt. At the same time, stuff like that takes years and years to heal, and it's not always linear - thoughts can be very scarring. So the takeaway is that you shouldn't be frustrated if it takes longer than expected to heal - so long as you are healing, you're on the right path. 

Overall, I'd rate Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways and The Christmas Invasion at 8/10.

Random observations:

-When Rose learns that the Doctor is dying, she asks if there's anything that can be done. As there is, in fact, something Time Lords can do to escape death, and the Doctor's already done it nine times, he's rather offended by the assertion that he's sitting around waiting for death. "Yeah, I'm doing it, now!" is his exasperated response.

-At one point, Rose notes that the Daleks are half-human, being made from the remains of dead humans; all the Daleks promptly start shouting at her for blaspheming. Meta-wise, it's a pretty good indication of the fan response to the Doctor being half-human in the TV movie.

-The Doctor casually mentions being on the Game Station a hundred years previously; Lynda notes that he's looking good for 100+, to which he remarks that he moisturises - it's a reference to a previous episode. It's amusing that he goes with 'long-lived' rather than 'time-traveller'.

-Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways finally explains why the Doctor can't just hop in the TARDIS and use time-travel to solve crises - once he arrives, he becomes part of events; therefore, changing the events will change his own personal time-line, causing a paradox.

-There's two funny moments during Rose's discussion with her mum and Mickey after she's been sent home which I quite like:

-The first is when Mickey, in an effort to jump-start the conversation, says that a new pizza shop has opened, and Jackie's response is "What does it sell?" Surprisingly enough, it turns out that it sells pizza.

-The second is when Rose storms out at the end of the scene - you have to wonder what that looked like to others in the restaurant.

-I actually agree with Harriet regarding the spaceship. After all, the Sycorax would likely go on to enslave more people. Added on to that, their leader - their representative - couldn't keep an oath sworn on the lives of his people. How likely was it that the rest could or would keep their word?

-At one point in The Christmas Invasion, the civilian in charge of the probe remarks that the Sycorax probably aren't Martians; the probe was supposed to explore Mars before getting hijacked. The Major emphatically agrees - for the record, UNIT has met Martians, during the Third and Fourth Doctor's eras. They're tall and clad in green amour, and go by the name Ice Warriors - so look nothing like the Sycorax.

-At the end of The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor says that the renewed travels with Rose will be "Fantastic" - he uses Nine's catchphrase, proving that he is still the same man, in many senses.

-Regeneration count - absorbed the Time Vortex (Ninth to Tenth Doctor). 2 of 12 regenerations remaining. 

Rose: A New Start

 Hello!

Rose was the first episode of the revived series, so named for the introduction of the Doctor's first new companion: Rose Tyler. It featured the return of the Autons and Nestene Consciousness, last seen in the 1970s! It also featured a new Doctor, darker and more brooding in the aftermath of the (at that time) unseen Time War, and implicitly having recently regenerated. Funnily enough, it forms a parallel with Survival; both stories feature a London-born girl working with the Doctor to defeat an antagonist who first appeared in the Third Doctor's era.

Disclaimer: the War Doctor does not actually appear in this episode.

Rose

The War Doctor

The Ninth Doctor

Rose starts with an introduction of the titular character going about her day. It also introduces her mum, Jackie Tyler and her boyfriend, Mickey Smith. Rose works at a clothes store called Hendricks. At the end of her working day, she stays behind to talk to one of her colleagues; while searching for him, she is surrounded by plastic mannequins, which prepare to shoot her down. Suddenly, a mysterious man grabs her hand and tells her to run. It's the Doctor - the Ninth Doctor. He escorts her out of the building before pulling out a bomb and announcing that he's going to blow it up to destroy the Autons in the building. As Rose runs home, she runs past a mysterious blue box...

Rose and the Doctor

The next day, she meets up with Clive, a conspiracy-theorist who has done a lot of research on the Doctor - such as identifying his presence at the assassination of JFK. There are others who have noticed the Doctor cropping up at various points in time.  As the theorists hardly know that the Doctor is a shape-changing time-travelling alien with an incredibly long lifespan, they conclude that the name 'The Doctor' is passed down father-to-son. Not Clive, though - he thinks it's the same guy, and he thinks the Doctor is immortal. It's surprisingly accurate - he even knows that the Doctor tends to turn up in times of crisis. Rose dismisses it as nonsense and storms off. Some time later, she meets the Doctor again; he saves her from Mickey, who's been replaced with an Auton duplicate. The Doctor decapitates the duplicate and runs to the TARDIS, parked nearby, accompanied by Rose; he uses the head to track the signal activating the duplicate, hoping to find the Nestene Consciousness' lair. The Doctor also explains the Consciousness' invasion plan - turn Earth into a food source, because the Consciousness' protein planets were destroyed during the Time War. The Doctor plans to negotiate with it, though if negotiations fail he has a better weapon than waving radio-waves at it - a liquid designed to destroy the Consciousness. They find the Consciousness' lair under the Thames; also down there is Mickey, who was kept alive. During the negotiations, the Nestene Consciousness discovers the anti-plastic on the Doctor's person and triggers the invasion; Rose saves the world by using a chain to swing out over the Autons holding the Doctor and the anti-plastic, shoving the Autons into the Nestene Consciousness. The Consciousness dies a painful death while the Doctor, Rose and Mickey escape. 

Quite the change from tentacles...

Overall, I really like Rose. It's definitely a good jumping-off point for the new series - new Doctor, new companion. The antagonist, while being a call-back to the Classic Era, is obscure enough that it wouldn't confuse new viewers. At the same time, there are enough call-backs to satisfy older viewers - handled more efficiently than in the TV movie. One good example is when the Doctor describes how the transmitter could activate anything plastic, including phone lines. For viewers who have seen the Classic Era, that line is a call-back to the fact that phone lines were controlled back in Terror of the Autons; for newer viewers, it serves as simple exposition. I also like how the episode captures the feel of a new era - the Doctor's changed, the TARDIS has changed, even the companions have changed. The soundtrack reflects that - both the Doctor's theme and Rose's theme create this impression of nostalgia, wistfulness. The Doctor's theme especially - it reflects a weariness with the world, a wish for a time when it was all so much simpler. This ties into the Doctor's more cynical attitude - he's embittered by war, closed off and cynical. Meeting Rose, though, injects a new light into his life, and the soundtrack reflects that, with a more optimistic, energetic twist towards the end. Funnily enough, this also reflects the regeneration process - weariness, followed by renewal. 

On the other hand, Rose has its issues - the primary issue, in my opinion, being Rose herself. While she is open-minded, resourceful, and brave, her first episode doesn't really make her too likeable, in my opinion. She's excellent at taking Mickey for granted; she doesn't notice that he's been replaced, despite spending hours around the duplicate, which is very obviously made of plastic. There's also a scene where she goes to Mickey's apartment to look something up, as she doesn't have her own computer - she goes to his apartment and then ignores him. Another element of this lack of consideration for her loved ones is at the end, when Jackie, barely surviving an Auton firing squad, phones Rose to check she's OK. Rose hangs up on Jackie without responding, leaving Jackie worried for her only child's safety. This ultimately winds up having exactly the impact you'd expect it to - when Rose returns to Earth, thanks to a navigational error with the TARDIS, it's been a year, and Jackie believes Rose to be dead. Moreover, when Rose departs with the Doctor, she basically says "Thanks for nothing" to Mickey; this rudeness to somebody she's known her entire life does not make her look good. This is particularly unfortunate as the narrative neglects to address her unpleasant treatment of Mickey until halfway through Series 2. 

Additionally, other than Rose and the Doctor, most of the characters are kind of two-dimensional; however, given that the episode is mostly focusing on introducing the new Doctor and his new companion, this is somewhat understandable.  

Also, the special effects, while miles above the likes of Time and the Rani, aren't the best - though given this was the first episode of a revival nobody was sure would take off, this is also fair enough.

Overall, I would rate Rose at 6/10.

The Night of the Doctor/The Day of the Doctor: A Change of Face

 Hello!

Here's where it gets complicated. The Eighth Doctor regenerated into the War Doctor - the War Doctor is not counted in the official line-up, even though he is numerically the Doctor's ninth incarnation, because he fought in the Time War. As in, he carried weapons and killed people regularly - big no-no for the Doctor. The Eighth Doctor's regeneration was relegated to a minisode, and there is no post-regeneration episode for the War Doctor. The War Doctor regenerated into the Ninth Doctor at the conclusion of the 50-year anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. The Ninth Doctor, at the start of the first episode of the revival era, is implied to have recently regenerated; when he sees his reflection in a mirror, his comments imply that he's seeing that face for the first time. As a result, the first episode of series 1 is technically also a post-regeneration episode. However, given the length of The Day of the Doctor, a post with both episodes and the minisode would be obscenely long. Also, I've got a pattern of the Doctor's regeneration as the first picture in each review - there's no way to have two pictures of the Doctor regenerating at the top. So I'm reviewing Rose in a separate post.

"Physician, heal thyself!"

The Night of the Doctor

The Night of the Doctor is a minisode, released in the run-up to the 50 Year Anniversary Special. It concerns the Eighth Doctor's regeneration into the War Doctor; by the end of the Eighth Doctor's life, the Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords had broken out. It was endangering all of reality, with both Daleks and Time Lords using time itself as a weapon, and with the Time Lords becoming as bad as the Daleks. In The Night of the Doctor, the Doctor tries to save a woman, Cass, from a crashing spaceship; however, she realises he's a Time Lord and chooses to die rather than accompany him. The ship crashes on a planet called Karn, killing them both; the Doctor is briefly revived. Karn is a planet of people similar to the Time Lords - the Keepers of the Flame of  Eternal Life. They resurrected the Doctor; their leader, Ohila, proceeds to persuade him to regenerate and enter the war. The Doctor regenerates into a warrior, strapping Cass' bandolier on himself.

Over the next 800 years, the War Doctor proved a terrifyingly efficient soldier - both sides feared him. On the final day of the Time War, he finally has enough; he carves the phrase "No More" onto a wall in Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city, and into the cityscape of Skaro's capital. He then steals the Moment from the Gallifreyan Black Archives, containing all the most powerful weapons. The Moment is a device capable of destroying whole galaxies; it developed sentience and "stands in judgement" upon those who would use it. As far as the Doctor remembers, he used the Moment to annihilate both Time Lords and Daleks, destroying Gallifrey and Skaro; the Eleventh Doctor later describes it as "an act which silenced the universe"...

Gallifrey towards the end of the Time War

The Day of the Doctor

The Day of the Doctor is the 50 Year Anniversary Special, released on the 23rd of November 2013. I remember the first time I watched it for my 12th birthday party - I invited most of the boys in my class. It's set during the Eleventh Doctor's era, but features the regeneration of the War Doctor into the Ninth Doctor. The Day of the Doctor is rather complex - it balances two plots at once - a Zygon invasion and the last day of the Time War, as well as being a multi-Doctor special. At various points in the show's history, to mark special occasions, there are episodes where multiple incarnations of the Doctor meet up. The Doctors in this episode are the War Doctor, the Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor. The Zygons are shape-shifting aliens, from the planet Zygor, first introduced in the Third Doctor's era; their home planet was destroyed and they've been looking for a new place ever since. As it turns out, Zygor was destroyed early in the Time War.

It also starts off in black and white

The Day of the Doctor starts with the original theme, before cutting to a police-man walking down Shoreditch Lane in black and white. It then cuts to Clara Oswald, current companion to the Eleventh Doctor, teaching an English lesson. When the class finishes, she travels to the TARDIS; the TARDIS then gets airlifted to the Tower of London by UNIT - Doctor, Clara and all. UNIT wants their Scientific Advisor's advice on a problem - namely empty paintings which used to have figures in them. UNIT is now led by the Brigadier's daughter, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. The Doctor and Clara also see a three-dimensional painting of Gallifrey during the final days of the Time War, called Gallifrey Falls, though that's not part of the problem. The scene then transitions to the War Doctor attempting to activate the Moment; she (yes, she) opens portals in time to the man he'll become if he uses her. It then transitions a second time (trust me, it's not this condensed in the actual episode), to the Tenth Doctor courting the Virgin Queen. He's tracking down a Zygon nest in 16th century England. Both he and Elizabeth are forced to run when his horse turns out to be a Zygon; Elizabeth gets apprehended by another Zygon, who takes her shape. The Doctor catches up with the Elizabeths right before one of the portals opens up; he instructs them to turn and run in the opposite direction to each other. The Eleventh Doctor jumps through the porttal, with the War Doctor coming through shortly after; all three Doctors then get taken to the Tower of London for "bewitching the Queen".

The Eighth Doctor towards the end of his life

The War Doctor towards the end of his life

Clara, meanwhile, is taken to the Tower of London in the present day - she and Kate could hear everything through the portal. The Tower of London is also UNIT headquarters. Under the Tower, UNIT stores all manner of alien technology and weapons in an archive called the Black Archives. This includes time travel technology, which Clara uses to travel to 16th century London to rescue the Doctors. Kate turns out to have been replaced with a Zygon as well.

Upon reuniting, Clara and the Doctors are escorted to the Zygon lair by Elizabeth. She's the real Elizabeth, though she pretended to be the Zygon one to trick the other Zygons. The mystery of the paintings is solved - the Zygons used suspended-animation technology to freeze themselves into paintings, them emerge when the planet was more developed. The real Kate catches up to her Zygon duplicate in the Black Archives. The Doctors and Clara return to the present day, taking a short-cut by way of phoning a member of UNIT in the past, having them move the Gallifrey Falls painting into the Black Archives, then travelling into the painting before it's moved and emerging after it's been moved. This is necessary because the Tower's TARDIS-proof, and wow was that complex to describe! They effortlessly defuse the brewing war. The War Doctor then returns to Gallifrey; the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors arrive shortly after, with Clara accompanying them. They come up with the idea to freeze Gallifrey in a single moment of time, akin to the Zygons frozen in a painting; Gallifrey would disappear, the Daleks firing on the planet would wipe themselves out in the crossfire, and it would seem as if both races were annihilated. After the Doctors have put the plan into action, they part ways. The Eleventh Doctor has a conversation with a mysterious man who is implied to be a future incarnation of the Doctor. The War Doctor, meanwhile, begins his regeneration...

The Curator, played by Tom Baker

Overall, I really enjoyed The Day of the Doctor - it's fun! The plot is quite complex, as indicated by the length of the summary. I will admit, it's probably quite confusing for those who haven't watched much of the show. There's a fair few call-backs and mentions of things in the past - such as the precedent for multiple Doctors. However, I think that sort of continuity lockout is more justified here than in the TV movie - it is a celebration of the show and the show's history, after all! Complaining about the references is kind of like going to someone else's birthday party and complaining when you don't receive any presents. 

One of my favourite things about The Day of the Doctor is the discussion of what makes a good man. The Doctor is of the opinion that a good man is someone who keeps to their moral code, no matter what; an earlier episode had the Doctor stating that 'A good man doesn't need rules. Today is not the day to find out why I have so many.' As a result, the Doctor does not consider himself a good man, as he broke the code he lived by: 'Never cruel, never cowardly. Never give up, never give in.' Moreover, the Doctor is a doctor - he has an oath to help, to save lives wherever possible, not take them. The War Doctor broke both codes - he fought in the Time War, killed millions; the Eleventh Doctor later claims that, by the end of the war, the War Doctor had more blood on his hands 'than any other man'. Additionally, he gave in and decided that the only way to end the War was to commit multiple genocide; the man renowned for finding another way gave up and took the easy way out, or tried to. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that both the War Doctor and his future incarnations view him as 'the one who broke the promise.' Indeed, the War Doctor outright rejects the idea that he's a great man; instead, he asserts that his future incarnations are great men: 'Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame.'

However, it's important to note that, while the War Doctor did break his code during the Time War, it wasn't by choice. He was driven by desperation to end the pain and suffering caused by the War; this in turn demonstrates that, even at his lowest, the Doctor was still a good man. In a later episode, the Doctor notes that one of the signs of a good person is how much value that person places on individual lives. The Doctor doesn't just place value on individual lives, he places value on individual welfare. In that scene, he punches out a racist for verbally assaulting his companion. He's well-known for interfering specifically because a child is crying; Amy Pond once summarised his creed as 'Never interfering - unless a child is crying.' In practically every regeneration episode featuring a companion witnessing the regeneration, the Doctor spends his final moments comforting his companions, reassuring them that everything will be OK; he knows how basically seeing him die and come back will affect them, so he focuses on trying to cheer them up, even as he dies. Indeed, this attention to welfare is demonstrated in The Day of the Doctor - towards the end of the episode, the three Doctors prepare to use the Moment to end the War...and what prompts them to change their minds and find a different solution is Clara, crying at the thought of the Eleventh Doctor, her Doctor, destroying his own people. The Doctor takes value on individual lives up to eleven - and that is what makes him a good person. Indeed, it's what demonstrates that the War Doctor is still a good man; throughout the episode, he's visibly troubled by the knowledge that activating the Moment will kill 2.47 billion innocent children. Similarly, he's ecstatic when he realises that Gallifrey can still be saved without sacrificing the universe. Indeed, the Eleventh Doctor states something similar: the War Doctor was the Doctor 'on the day it wasn't possible to get it right.' In essence, the War Doctor is a good man; he simply had the misfortune of being the Doctor when there were only two (apparent) choices - commit genocide, or sacrifice the universe to preserve Gallifrey.

There's also a fitting connection back to the beginning; the First Doctor's first companions, the ones who stopped him from committing murder, were two teachers. The Eleventh Doctor's companion, the one who inspires him to find another way to end the Time War, is also a teacher - at the same school, no less. I also like the approach Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor suggests - don't waste time, just be a good man. The first sentence uttered in the episode is Clara quoting Marcus Aurelius' famous saying about being a good man. It's a clever way of introducing the debate; moreover, there's something fittingly symbolic about the fact that Clara is the one who quotes Marcus Aurelius, and she's also the one to inspire the Doctors to take a third option. It also foreshadows something which cropped up in the Twelfth Doctor's time as well - the Doctor doesn't know whether he's a good man or not, but his companions are of the opinion that he absolutely is a good man. And I evidently agree with them, given the essay! It's something which makes the Doctor very relatable, as we can all be quite harsh on ourselves at times. I know I do that. I feel like the take-away is to acknowledge our mistakes and flaws, but never assume that we have no positive attributes; remember that how we see ourselves isn't always the way we appear to others. 

Overall, I would rate The Night of the Doctor 8/10 and The Day of the Doctor at 9/10.

Random observations:

-At the start of the Eighth Doctor's life, he pointedly rejected a bandolier; the first thing the War Doctor did was strap on a bandolier.

-There's a lot of great transitions between scenes - for instance, the first transition from the War Doctor to the Eleventh features a split-second burst of flame, before fading from War to Eleven. I really like it, as it gives the impression that the viewer is literally travelling down the Doctor's personal time-stream.

-At one point Elizabeth, in reference to the Zygons, notes that they never even suspected that she was the original, courtesy "the arrogance of their kind (men)". Ignoring for a moment the fact that it makes less than no sense for a woman raised in a patriarchal society to be openly sexist towards men, even if she's the Queen, being rude to men isn't a fair way to respond to sexism towards women and won't change ongoing sexism towards women. Not a detraction from the episode, more a note on the Moffat era's general habit of making that sort of joke.

-The episode never clarifies what happens to Skaro, or the centre of the conflict. I think what happened was both races abandoned the conflict, focusing all of their military strength on the opposing home planet (Daleks attack Gallifrey, Time Lords attack Skaro). This would have destroyed the enemy's resources, making it easier to win a battle of attrition. The Doctors then froze Skaro in a moment of time as well, leaving the Time Lord armies to similarly destroy themselves in the crossfire, then time-locked the entire war.

-There's an amusing bit when the Doctors are apprehended and the Eleventh Doctor calls his past selves "Grandad" and "Sandshoes"; Ten tries in vain to claim his shoes aren't sandshoes, but War takes one look at them and declares that they absolutely are.

-Honestly, most of the Doctor's interactions with himself are amusing - another example is the War Doctor's criticism of the Eleventh Doctor's inability to speak without flapping his hands around. The Eleventh Doctor protests...while flapping his hands around.

-There's some neat synchronicity in the names of the minisode and the anniversary special - night/day. Additionally, this reflects the Doctor, in Night of the Doctor, entering the darkest phase of his life; Day of the Doctor therefore represents the dawning of a new day.

-Regeneration count - spaceship crash (Eighth to War Doctor). 4 of 12 regenerations left

-Regeneration count - old age (War Doctor to Ninth Doctor). 3 of 12 regenerations left

The TV Movie: A Botched Resurrection

 Hello!

In the TV movie, the Seventh Doctor dies fairly early on - he steps out of the TARDIS and into a gang-fight in San Francisco and gets gunned down. So as with Time and the Rani, the story is mostly given over to the Eighth Doctor's adjustment period. The TV movie features the Master as the primary antagonist.

He was in a morgue at that point

The TV Movie (Doctor Who: The Movie)

The TV movie was an American production, made in 1996; it was intended to be the pilot episode for a new series. The new series didn't materialise, sadly. It starts with a voice-over from the Eighth Doctor, narrating how the Master was put on trial and executed by the Daleks. Why the Daleks were in charge of that is never revealed; in any case, the Master's final request was to be taken home to Gallifrey by the Doctor. The other important characters are Grace Holloway, a cardiac surgeon who willingly assists the Doctor, and Chang Lee, a young gangster who's deceived by the Master into believing that the Doctor is evil.

En-route to Gallifrey, the Master causes the TARDIS to crash-land in the middle of a gang war in San Francisco, Earth, December 1999. The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS...and gets shot down. A youth, called Chang Lee, calls 911 (America) and the Doctor is quickly taken to a hospital, where they operate on him. The Master, in the form of a gooey snake, hitches a ride with him in the ambulance and hides in an ambulance-driver's jacket sleeve. The operation on the Doctor goes awry when they mistake his double heartbeat for dangerous fibrillation and he eventually passes away (though not permanently!) The Doctor and the Master both revive at the same time; the Master possesses the ambulance-driver, called Bruce, while the Doctor regenerates. The next day, he meets up with Grace, who operated on him, and together they prove that he is who he says he is, despite his different appearance. That evening, the Master, breaking into the Doctor's TARDIS, opens the Eye of Harmony. He uses it to spy on the Doctor...also, he learns that the Doctor's apparently half-human. The Eye of Harmony is the TARDIS' power source - a star in the process of going supernova. The Doctor immediately freaks out upon realising what the Master's done, declaring that the planet will implode if the Eye isn't closed soon. Which makes sense, given the TARDIS' power source is a black hole.

Convincing Grace of the direness of the situation, the Doctor and Grace hitch a ride to the Institute of Technology and Research, where they have an atomic clock; an atomic clock is the only thing the Doctor can use to close the Eye. Once they have the clock, they head for the TARDIS, with the Master and Chang in hot pursuit. Grace falls under the Master's control and knocks the Doctor out; when he comes to, the Master is preparing for the final stages of a ritual to steal the Doctor's remaining lives. The ritual involves the Eye being opened, which requires a human eye. Chang, at the last minute, realises the Master was lying; the Master then kills him, un-possesses Grace and forces her to open the Eye. She immediately runs back to the console room and takes the TARDIS into temporal orbit, cancelling the ritual and freeing the Doctor. The Doctor and the Master tussle over the still-open Eye, culminating in the Master getting dragged in and Grace getting killed. The Eye revives both Grace and Chang, then closes at last. The Doctor drops them off on the 1st of January, 2000 and bids them farewell.

The Doctor here looks like Bilbo Baggins

And here he looks like Peregrin Took! Ish.

Overall, I think the TV movie is pretty good. There are copious amounts of cheese, courtesy of the Master, but I like cheese. The Eighth Doctor is compelling and fun - like Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann does an excellent job of creating a likable, interesting Doctor. The plot is reasonably easy to follow, provided you have knowledge of Classic-era concepts. However, one definite problem with the movie is the fact that there is little explanation for  these concepts. I've watched it twice, once with my dad; I remember he was slightly confused by some of the things that happened in the movie. It's a problem because it confuses casual viewers. That's a bad idea when you're trying to pitch a revival; indeed, that's probably why Series 1 of the revival succeeded. The first episode featured a villain which was last seen in the 1970s, for all of two serials; the next four episodes featured new antagonists, and it wasn't until half-way through Series 1 that an old enemy returned.

The movie, meanwhile, can't really decide whether it's for newcomers or for fans. As previously discussed, it references Classic era elements such as regeneration without properly explaining them, which would lead to confusion for newcomers. At the same time, they introduce new elements, such as the Doctor being half-human, or the Daleks, of all people, being symbols of justice and order, which would displease long-time fans, due to the clash with prior material. For example, Skaro, the Dalek home world, got destroyed - it has no business being a base of operations for the Daleks. Another big one is the Doctor being half-human, and the Master's lack of knowledge of this little fact. They grew up together - he ought to know! Another element of this is a scene where the Master mocks the Doctor's English accent while eavesdropping on him using the Eye of Harmony. This is despite spending the entire Classic Era using that same accent - there's no real reason for the Master to mock the Doctor for something the Master also did, especially as the Doctor isn't present for that scene.

However, one thing that is good is the cinematography; one of the best scenes is when the Doctor and the Master revive, with the action cutting between the Doctor and the Master. It's also got interesting undertones; the Doctor revives due to a benevolent, natural process which kicks in automatically for his species, while the Master's revival is unnatural and twisted, forcibly stripping life and free will from another living being. Continuing this idea, the two Time Lords' adjustment periods are juxtaposed as well - the Doctor collapses in a semi-well-lit but abandoned room, in the grip of an existential crisis. When selecting his outfit, he takes a cowboy costume from a locker, but pointedly rejects the bandolier with the outfit; this highlights that the new Doctor is someone who will not commit violence. The Master, meanwhile, is calm and confident, self-assured, adjusting in a far neater environment; his character-defining moment, however, comes when he throttles an innocent woman, his host body's wife, just for the sake of convenience. Furthermore, this contrast is emphasised by their companions - both Time Lords have a human companion for the duration of the movie. The Doctor's companion is an adult woman, working in a professional, highly-qualified field as a cardiac surgeon; after initial doubts, she willingly allies with the Doctor. The Master's companion, meanwhile, is a teenage boy, presumably unemployed and part of a gang. The Master forces Chang to work with him by tricking him, and as soon as Chang realises the truth, he outright refuses to work with the Master, who simply murders him in response. The Doctor ends the movie on good terms with both Chang and Grace, while the Master is rejected by Chang and later killed through the combined efforts of the Doctor and Grace. It highlights the contrast between the Doctor and the Master; the Doctor's allies work with him out of loyalty, while the Master's allies are coerced into allying with him. This in turn emphasises the fact that the Doctor respects peoples' free will, while the Master has no such respect, demanding total obedience and desiring total mastery over all living things.

In any case, I would rank it 5/10 - it's a fun watch, though it's not on the level of the likes of Castrovalva.  

Random observations

-By the end of the movie, the Doctor's crossed into the Revival era - only five more years until the start of Series 1.

-I think the half-human thing might be a glimpse into the future - the metacrisis during the Tenth Doctor's time, where the Doctor was, in fact, half-human.

-It's horrifying and darkly amusing that the Master calls Chang "the son I never had", then breaks his neck when he won't obey him.

-There are two botched resurrections in the movie - the Doctor's delayed regeneration, and the failure to revive the show.

-While the Eighth Doctor only suffered one serious negative post-regeneration effect, he did experience several positive/neutral effects, such as the ability to read fates. Pretty interesting.

-There were plans to reboot the show with the Eighth Doctor as the first, not Eighth, and the Cybermen as 'Cybz' - maybe it's a good thing the movie didn't succeed as a pilot...

-The new theme and credits are definitely cool, and look and sound very like the New Series themes. Added to that, the new Time Vortex looks similar to the Series 1-4 Time Vortex.

-Regeneration count - died during a surgery due to complications (Seventh Doctor to Eighth Doctor). 5 out of 12 regenerations left.

Survival: The Inability to Survive

Hello!

Can I just say, there is something so ironic about the final serial of the Classic era being called "Survival". That being said, it's a very good serial. It features two very important characters - the first is the Master, naturally. The second is Ace - I mentioned her in a previous blog. She's one of my favourites of the Doctor's companions. Ace travelled with the Seventh Doctor for almost all of his televised run, meeting him in his fourth serial. The Master, meanwhile, still wearing Nyssa's father's body, got stuck on the Cheetah Planet, a sentient planet populated by Cheetah-people. The original natives of the planet tried to conquer the planet, genetically engineering creatures called Kitlings to be their eyes and ears; however, they were affected by the sentience of the planet, reverting to pure instinct and turning into bipedal cheetahs - the Cheetah-people. The Kitlings and the Cheetah-people could teleport between worlds; they hunted by teleporting to other worlds, capturing prey and returning home. The planet and the Cheetah-people are linked - it's this connection which enables them to return home with their prey. It also means that every time the Cheetah-people fight, the planet starts to decay.

The end of an era...

Survival
The serial starts with the Doctor and Ace turning up in the place where Ace grew up, Perivale. She's initially not enthusiastic about being home, but chooses to take the opportunity to reconnect with old school-friends; only problem is, all her friends have mysteriously disappeared...She soon finds out what happened - she gets taken to the Cheetah Planet by the Kitlings, discovering several of her friends hiding in some woods. The Doctor, upon learning of her disappearance, hitches a ride with another Kitling; once reaching the Cheetah Planet, he meets the Master again. The Master is behind the kidnappings - in order to get off the Cheetah Planet, he needs to teleport with a Cheetah-person who recognises another planet as home. For this, he needs residents of said planet who have regressed, so he's been using the Kitlings to kidnap humans. In time, one of Ace's friends, Midge, regresses the fastest; the Master swiftly uses him to teleport to Earth. Ace, meanwhile, runs off with a Cheetah-person, called Karra; Ace and Karra run and hunt, before Karra scares Ace back to the Doctor by admitting that, if it came to it, she'd hunt her. By this point, Ace has also regressed; she teleports back to Earth, along with the Doctor and her human friends. Using her newly-developed Cheetah-powers, Ace tracks the Master and Midge to the top of a nearby hill, where Midge has rounded up a group of 'friends'. Midge and the Doctor face each other in single combat, which ends with Midge dying and the Doctor getting thrown into the air by an explosion. Karra then teleports to Earth, scaring off Midge's friends, but she gets stabbed by the Master, who runs off and tries to break into the TARDIS. The Doctor catches up with him and they both travel back to the Cheetah Planet for one last confrontation. The Doctor barely resists the temptation to bludgeon the Master's head in, and teleports back to Earth just before the planet disintegrates. The Doctor and Ace have a conversation about the Cheetah Planet before walking away; the Doctor delivers one last speech about the wonders of the universe. And that is the last scene of the Classic Era of Doctor Who, not counting the movie.

The Master

Overall, I really like Survival. It's a fitting end to the Classic run of the show - it combines comedy, drama and enticing characters for one last hurrah before the end. Additionally, for me, it highlights one of the best parts of Doctor Who - the message it imparts to viewers. This can be seen in the parallel with the first serial. As in An Unearthly Child, the Doctor comes close to bludgeoning someone to death; however, he is able to hold himself back in this situation. Indeed, there's a parallel in the fact that outside influences prevented the First Doctor from committing murder, while the Seventh Doctor refrains through his own willpower. Additionally, the First Doctor nearly kills an innocent man out of convenience; the Seventh Doctor refrains from killing a very guilty man, because murder for the sake of convenience is wrong, no matter who you inflict it on. This ties in well with the underlying theme throughout the episode of survival of the fittest, and the fact that this maxim is the rule of the beasts. The Cheetah Planet causes people to regress to their base instincts - over time, people there either adapt, and become Cheetah-people, or they become food for the others. This even applies to Time Lords - the Master is regressing as well, indicated by his new yellow eyes, and he's looking for a cure. It's implied, similarly, that those who hold themselves to ideologies and certain ways of thinking are better able to keep hold of themselves; both the Doctor and Ace, believing that violence is not, and should not be, the automatic answer to problems, are able to resist the regression, despite it initially taking hold fairly easily. Midge, on the other hand, falls very easily; he is impressionable, so easily gives in to his impulses and the expectations of others. The Master is similar; while he does keep hold of himself to an extent, he shows a considerable degree of mutation - fangs as well as yellow eyes. Moreover, he finds it more difficult to resist his instincts than the Doctor does. It can be inferred that this is because the Master's method of retaining his non-Cheetah nature involves reciting how he's stronger than everybody else, because he's a Time Lord - proven demonstrably false by the Doctor also regressing. It's less benevolent than the Doctor's mantra of "no unnecessary violence", being far more arrogant and selfish, making for a weaker defence against the Cheetah-virus. Also, the instinct of "kill any threat" really isn't that different to the Master's usual M.O. in any case.

The Doctor's final speech also reflects his ethos of protection and compassion, contrasting with the Master's more self-serving beliefs. He describes the weird, wonderful universe he's spent centuries exploring and protecting - people made of smoke, cities of song, dreaming rivers. I particularly love the implications of that last one - sentient rivers! It hammers home how beautiful nature is; even though such things don't actually exist, there are so many amazing, miraculous things in existence in real life. Like bears, for instance, with such high quantities of Vitamin A in their livers that it's actually dangerous to eat them (polar bears), or creatures which are immune to terminal velocity (ants). Seas with such high salt content that you can float on them, or forests so deep and dense that practically no light reaches the bottom, places like the Sahara Desert where life can't easily exist...but it exists anyway. There's so much out there to see and experience; we live in a truly amazing world. I think that's something important to remember when everything seems bleak - this world may be flawed, but there's still so much that is breathtakingly amazing.

Another thing about that speech is where the Doctor underlines his duty to the universe - "somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else, the tea's getting cold. Come on Ace, we've got work to do!" The Doctor doesn't just explore the universe, he protects it. That's his job - protecting those wonders from those who are only interested in destroying, such as the Master. At the same time, he includes Ace in that statement - protecting the universe is a duty shared by the Doctor's friends and companions, perhaps because, as fellow witnesses to the wondrousness of the universe, they understand better than anybody else the importance of protecting it. During that same section of the speech, he emphasises his own eccentricities - he also notes the fact that, somewhere out there, the tea's getting cold, suddenly changing the topic from the universe to the fact that tea's getting cold. This emphasises not just the Doctor's eccentricities, but the show's eccentricities as well; Survival aired during a time when "Survival of the fittest" was a common mantra. Doctor Who, however, disagreed - it emphasised the dangerous recklessness of living by such a creed, seen in the fact that the Cheetah-people's power struggles simply hastened the demise of their planet. However, at the same time, the show's failure to survive ironically emphasised the occasional accuracy of such a mantra. By the time Survival aired, Doctor Who was watched only by hard-core fans; over the last eight years, it had failed to adapt with other shows, and failed to maintain its status as the fittest. As a result, it was axed, departing from screens for sixteen years. It's a compelling demonstration that, just as the desire to run imparted to Ace is not malevolent, neither is the notion that, in nature, surviving often requires being the top dog.

Overall, I would give Survival 9/10.