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.
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| "Physician, heal thyself!" |
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"...
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| 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.
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| 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".
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| The Eighth Doctor towards the end of his life |
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| 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...
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| 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
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