Doctor Who (2005): The Day of the Doctor - Part 3

This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm writing about the final third of The Day of the Doctor, the epic 50th Anniversary Doctor Who special. Click one of these links to jump to an earlier part: PART ONE, PART TWO.

Did you know that the title is shiny 3D, not just flat white? That's just one of the awesome observations you'll be getting as I finally finish taking this episode apart.

There will be SPOILERS below, for this episode and earlier ones. Otherwise, you should be safe.

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Previously on Doctor Who:

The War Doctor, the secret ninth incarnation of the Doctor, is having a bit of a Christmas Carol experience with two of his future selves, the Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor. Who are actually the eleventh and twelfth incarnations... unless they're not. Anyway, they all met up due to a time portal created by the Moment, a sentient superweapon that's trying to persuade him not to blow up his home planet of Gallifrey to end the Time War. The Doctors were just in 1562, witnessing an invasion force of Zygons preparing to infiltrate the National Gallery via Trojan paintings that are bigger on the inside. Now they need to get to 2013 in the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS and stop the Zygons from using their shapeshifting abilities and the technology of the Black Archive to conquer the Earth.

And now, the conclusion:

Hey, it really is the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS in here! In the previous anniversary stories The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, they only made use of the current Doctor's TARDIS, which was a bit of a missed opportunity. They did better than Silver Nemesis did though, as it didn't show a console room at all!

I love how authentic it looks. In fact, they've pulled a The Doctor's Wife and brought back the actual coral console room set... well, almost. They've done a good job of hiding it, but this was filmed on a 90-degree slice of the set on display at the Doctor Who Experience. It's missing the multi-level floor with lights under the grating and if they'd tilted the camera up just very slightly you'd be able to see the ceiling... but they didn't do that, so it's fine. I had to do actual research to learn what was different so I've got to give them a thumbs up for this.

The War Doctor's not keen on how much Ten's let the place go. But he can't talk, considering how his own TARDIS looks.

The room glitches because of the three Doctors in there at once and suddenly they're in the War Doctor's console room! It's a pretty bad match cut, but they get away with it because of how fast it is.

This set is supposed to be a bridge between the classic and modern eras, with Ten's console surrounded by the wall panels used in An Adventure in Space and Time for the First Doctor's TARDIS set. Or, to put it another way, they threw it together using whatever they had available because it was the cheapest way of doing it. Hang on, it's not entirely Ten's console... they turned the two discs around the time rotor upside down.

The two future Doctors have a bit of a chat about the roundels, expressing their happiness at seeing them again along with their confusion about what they're for.

They should know what they're for by now, they've had them open enough times.

The Eleventh Doctor gets the room stabilised, leaving it looking like his own TARDIS. Which proves that the TARDIS really does archive console rooms from the future like she claimed! It's a bit of a shame however I reckon, as it would've been nice to have one more adventure in Ten's TARDIS.

Though the point is made: there is only one TARDIS, just like there's only one screwdriver (kind of), and there's only one Doctor. The cases look different but what's inside is the same.

In fact, Ten does an impersonation of the Second Doctor here, saying that Eleven's redecorated and he doesn't like it. That's the thing he always says! Hang on, why is that wedge of floor underneath Ten raised up? That's not how it usually looks... is it? Now I'm just confused.

Anyway, they're about to head to the National Gallery, but Clara reveals that the Zygons are at the Black Archive... a place they're apparently familiar with, even though they're very much not welcome there.

Meanwhile, at the Black Archive, the real Kate, Osgood and McGillop have arrived to face their Zygon duplicates. Just them, no UNIT soldiers, don't think too much about it. The lead Zygon was being themselves for a bit, but he decides to turn back into her and sit down opposite, which is very convenient as it means we get to have this nice mirrored shot.

We finally get the first mention of Osgood's name here, as Kate asks her to explain the security protocols. Of course, Zygon Kate probably already knew about the nuclear bomb below them, set up to annihilate London in five minutes, but she seems a bit surprised that Kate's actually going through with starting the countdown timer.

The Doctor gets on the space-time telegraph to try to talk her out of it, but she's unreceptive to his argument that she'll never be able to live with this choice. Uh, of course she won't, she'll be killed by the nuclear bomb along with everyone else.

Incidentally, I'm not entirely against the idea of rigging the incredibly dangerous arsenal of alien artefacts with a self-destruct device, but why the hell did they put the archive in the middle of London in the first place?

Hey, it's another close-up of one of the boards with all the companions on!

This one's got a bunch of Fifth Doctor companions like Tegan, Nyssa and Kamelion, along with the Brig. I can make out some of the text, and that's Grace Holloway from the TV movie cut off on the top right. I imagine that they didn't have the rights to show her.

It also says which Doctors they travelled with, and they're listed as three-digit numbers. So UNIT's filing system is set up for up to 999 Doctors. I wonder how they'd count the War Doctor.
 

That raised wedge of floor still looks really weird to me. Wouldn't that get in the way when the Doctor is rushing around the console, flicking switches? Not that he has to do that today, with three pilots in the room.

I've figured it out, I know why the floor is raised up! They had to make that bit of the set level with the door for the scene at the start where Clara rides inside on her bike. The mystery is solved and I can relax.

The Doctors are having less success as they can't find a way to get the TARDIS through the Black Archive's anti-TARDIS technology. No one mentions using Clara's vortex manipulator. Sure there's a possibility that it's out of power, but I'm sure there's a charger in the TARDIS somewhere.

Fortunately, the War Doctor has come up with another solution that makes use of that device they picked up from the Zygons in the 1500s.

Eleven gives McGillop a call, in the past, and we get the rest of the conversation he was having at the start of the story.

He tells him to move the Gallifrey Falls painting to the Black Archive. The Doctors are going to use the Zygon Trojan painting technique themselves!

We don't actually see them entering the painting, so it's not clear where or when that happened. It's also not clear why there's a real Dalek in there threatening them, or how they're able to beat it with three sonic screwdrivers. The important thing is that flinging a dead Dalek out of a painting is a very dramatic way to make an entrance.

This shot, on the other hand, is a bad way to make an entrance. It doesn't even look like that's her hand. Honestly, the direction becomes a bit of a mess here, probably because no one could figure out how to show people coming out of a painting.

Also, is that really Kate Stewart on the left, or her stunt double?

I'm being unfair this time, as it looks fine in motion. In fact, I was going to praise the visual effects team for putting two of the same person in such a shaky moving shot, before I checked and found out that they didn't.

Kate tells the Doctors that there's nothing they can do to stop the countdown as it's linked to her voice command, and they're not going to talk her out of sacrificing millions to save billions. The Doctor admits he made that decision himself once* and it turned him into the man he is today. Which is not meant as an endorsement!

*His choice to destroy Pompeii only sacrificed thousands to save millions, so it doesn't count.

Look at him, showing off with his synchronised moves as the countdown timer in the background reaches 55 seconds. The War Doctor can't join in though... the table's not wide enough for him to put his feet up. Also, this is the big moment in the story where he observes who he becomes if he blows up Gallifrey and decides if he's okay with that.

The two Doctors do a simultaneous screwdriver flip and then use them to adjust the memory devices in the ceiling to a new setting. The War Doctor joins in too, because he's stopped being cynical and learned to be the Doctor again. I'm sure they know what they're doing and they're not just reversing and unreversing the polarity with each new screwdriver that joins in.

What they're doing is making everyone forget what side they're on. Presumably, they're also giving the humans some Zygon memories or else it'll be really obvious who is who when only one Kate can remember her alien homeworld and the other has no idea about simple things like how many Zygons are there.

The two Kates both yell to cancel the detonation, and the counter stops with 5 seconds left. Makes me think the Doctor should've probably gotten to the point sooner.

So now there's a room full of people who don't know if they're humans or Zygons, but hopefully know enough to come up with the most perfect treaty in history. It's actually a really good idea, assuming that Kate has the authority to make that happen. She certainly has the authority to nuke London, which takes 'licence to kill' to the next level.

It's maybe a bit unfair to poor Earth that they have to be so nice to invaders and get nothing in return, but peace treaties are almost always better than genocide (except when it's the Daleks, screw those guys). Though we don't actually know what they're negotiating for and that was apparently intentional. The original idea was that they were going to use Black Archive technology to get the Zygons off the planet, but Steven Moffat realised it opened up more story opportunities if he kept it vague.

Either way, the Doctor has finally gotten someone to come up with a treaty without it being sabotaged somehow before the end of the episode! He couldn't help the Silurians but he's helped the Zygons.

One of the Osgoods wonders what would happen if she lost a shoe, which seems like a very human thing to wonder. In the novelisation, she knows that they use an active hologram shell for the clothes and wonders what would happen if she picked up the wrong shoes at a bowling alley.

For a moment it seems like everything could all fall apart, as Zygon Osgood starts to cough and human Osgood offers her the inhaler, making them both realise who they are. But they keep quiet about it! It's a really nice moment that gives Osgood a bit of a resolution and shows that the Zygons aren't one-dimensional villains who are really mean to people for no reason. Well, not all the time at least.

Susan, Ian, Barbara! Mike Yates! Ben and Polly! That's apparently Sara Kingdom with Yates, which is a little weird as her character died five years before he was introduced.

In the book, the Doctors are wandering around as well... taking the batteries out of anything dangerous while the others are distracted. They also watch a VHS copy of the second Peter Cushing movie, Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., while they wait. Because negotiations are boring and take forever, even when the people involved aren't just on the same page, they're the same person.

I have to be honest, I'm not sure I've recognised anything on these shelves yet. I'm a rubbish Doctor Who fan.

Clara goes over to chat to the War Doctor and reveals that she's figured out that he hasn't pressed the button yet. He doesn't have the regret that the other two Doctors have, he doesn't wish that he could find a way to go back and change his decision.

In fact, the War Doctor has been inspired by the regret-fuelled world-saving heroics of the other two Doctors to go back and press the button! He's reached the wrong epiphany because he likes what he'll become! The Moment has been lurking around as a ghost no one else but him can see, so when she hears he's made up his mind she brings him right back to the barn. She didn't even need a swirly portal this time.

Hey, the Moment gave the War Doctor a big red button to press!

She's being very nice to him right now, she even tries to convince him that he is the Doctor, but he doesn't buy it. The other two, they're the Doctor, and "great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame". Man, a guy has to be at a special level of despair and self-loathing to be convinced that the only way he can become a good man again is to load himself up with unimaginable guilt.

He's also having flashes of kids dancing around the maypole as his conscience torments him. Apparently this is a thing on Gallifrey.

The Moment tells him that the sound of the TARDIS arriving brings hope to anyone, no matter how lost. And then he hears it. In stereo.

Two TARDISes! This means that Eleven's TARDIS wasn't stolen when he left the door open like a damn idiot! It also shows off the differences between the two props, the most obvious perhaps being the lighting in the windows. And also the colour, that's pretty obvious too.

The Doctors shouldn't have been able to come here, these events are time-locked, so they figure that it must have been the Moment which let them through. That's a very interesting new bit of information which opens up a whole bunch of possibilities... that they're not going to think about right now.

It turns out that the two of them have realised that the War Doctor isn't a monster and they've accepted that he's doing the best he can in a horrible situation. In fact, they've come here to help him shoulder the blame for pressing the button.
 

Uh... what?

I have no problem with the idea of the Doctors accepting that there was no other way but that acceptance shouldn't come immediately after their speech to Kate and the Zygons about how doing this was wrong! This is probably my least favourite thing in the episode, (aside from that ceiling fan outside the war room obviously), as the story hasn't done the work to get here.

The Moment's definitely putting in the work though, as this time she switches to a projection of the chaos outside so the Doctors can see who they're about to kill. These aren't just hypothetical maypole dancers, they're real.

The Gallifrey street set still looks pretty decent in the daytime.

Clara knew that the Doctor killed all the Time Lords, he's been open about that, but she always thought of it being a different version who pressed the button, not him. Not the Eleventh Doctor. She's not eager to join in and share the guilt, like Donna did in Fires of Pompeii, instead she wants him to do better. A Gallifreyan just came to her world and inspired them to save themselves, so it's only fair that she inspires him to save Gallifrey as long as she's here. She tries to remind him of who he is and the answer's not difficult: he's been a warrior, he's been a hero, and now he's the Doctor.

She knows that the name is like a promise and asks them what the promise actually was. So they tell her "Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in." It sounds like it's from something else and it is! The first half is from the Comic Relief skit The Curse of Fatal Death and the second half is from Galaxy Quest. It's also from The Making of Doctor Who (second edition), written by veteran Who writer Terrance Dicks, when he describes who the Doctor is. It doesn't mention anything about not committing genocide that I'm aware of but they're going to see if they can avoid that too.

This next bit confuses me a little, to be honest. The Eleventh Doctor mentions that he's been thinking about this day for 400 years and he's come up with an alternative solution. Okay great, but why is this information only coming out now?

Suddenly the other Doctors also receive the idea, which is a bit strange. I've just watched The Three Doctors so my first thought was that they did that "Contact" thing where they say "Contact" and then telepathically communicate the information. But no one said "Contact", and viewers who don't know about that power would have to assume that the Tenth Doctor and War Doctor have just come up with the same idea independently, 400 years sooner.

Also, the plan is to use the Time Lord Cup-a-Soup device to put Gallifrey into something like a stasis cube (3d painting) and let the Daleks blow themselves up in the crossfire, so this seems more like a 'thought of it on the spot' kind of scheme rather than a 'for 400 years I have refined my masterplan' type of deal.

But hey, this is a bright sunlit barn and has been all along. The episode was never about the dark night of the Doctor's soul, we already had that. It's the Day of the Doctor and together they're about to save everyone. With any luck.

The General is still in the war room, waiting for the Doctor to annihilate them with the Moment... if the Daleks don't slaughter them first.

He clearly doesn't have a lot of respect for the Doctor, considering him to be a mad genius. Well "mad fool" is his exact phrasing. So when three of them phone up at once to sell him on a plan they don't think will work, he's not overly enthusiastic.

Oh damn, this shot looks terrible. I don't mean that in a Silver Nemesis Cybermen fleet kind of way, it looks fine in a still image. But when the camera flies through this fleet the motion gives away the position and size of the saucers, and it makes Gallifrey look like it's roughly... 6 miles in diameter. Assuming the saucers are a quarter of a mile across.

And it doesn't look any better when the TARDISes start swooping around.

Where are the handholds on the bottom, huh? How is the Doctor going to hang off this TARDIS next time he falls out over London?

Anyway, the Doctor explains to the General that he isn't just utilising the solution he used to get into the Black Archive (stasis cube), he's also making use of the solution he tried to use to get out of the Tower of London (calculations started by his past self). And the really clever thing is, both these concepts have already been explained to the audience so they don't have to slow down the pacing by explaining them now.

Though to calculate how to put the whole of Gallifrey into a pocket dimension space painting, he had to start much earlier than 400 years ago this time...

Surprise, it's all the Doctors! Seven even showed up twice, because why not? The dude probably lived a long time and there's absolutely zero reason why they all have to look different.

These guys have been introduced to modern audiences a little bit at a time during the revival series, mostly shown on holographic screens (though there was the minisode where Five met Ten). Then The Name of the Doctor really brought them back, integrating Clara into clips showing how her time splinters have been helping him all his life. But this time they're actually here, actually having an influence on what's going on right now... even if they're mostly shown on holographic screens. The clips are old, filmed over 50 years of different recording technology, but at least the First Doctor gets a new line from an impersonator which has him saying Gallifrey for the first time ever.

There has been a little bit of discussion recently about the ethics of using the image of dead actors in current projects, due to many legitimate concerns. But there wasn't one damn person watching this scene in 2013 that didn't think it was amazing. This is a textbook example of how to please a crowd.

Except for the General that is, who inadvertantly quotes Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart when he says "I didn't know when I was well off. All twelve of them!" Then someone goes and makes it even worse for him:

"No sir, all thirteen."

For the first time ever, we've gotten a glimpse of the next Doctor before the regeneration story! This was achieved by some real-life time travel, as they shot this bit five months after the rest of the episode, near the end of filming The Time of the Doctor.

We only get to see his hand and his eyebrows, we don't even get to see his sleeves, but it's enough. Peter Capaldi's attack eyebrows are the surprise icing on an already stacked cake. A few fans probably got a bit concerned that Eleven was about to die, but this is pretty much what gets people screaming at televisions in joy.

The scene of the Doctors saving Gallifrey is really just shots of TARDISes swooping around and Doctors in their console rooms pulling switches, with some epic Murray Gold music on top. But honestly, I'd expect to see this in anyone's 'Top 10 Moments in Doctor Who History' list.

On the downside, the Twelfth Doctor's presence does mean that none of the other Doctors will remember this, not even Eleven. But I'm sure all those hundreds of extra years he's added to the calculations are worth it.

Everyone says their catchphrase and pulls a lever, the planet appears to explode, and some sugar falls into a cup of tea.

Though before the bit with the tea, we see a Dalek getting flung off into space. In fact, I imagine a few Daleks escaped this explosion and I also imagine that pressing the button on the Moment would've done a more thorough job of eradicating them. This new information about the cause of Gallifrey's disappearance might explain why the Doctor has kept running into other survivors of a war which should've really only had the one survivor.

Of course, they only know why the planet disappeared, not where it disappeared to. Or even if it survived at all. It's just gone now.
 

Alright, everyone's back in the National Gallery having some tea while looking at that 3D painting of the fall of Arcadia they used to infiltrate the Black Gallery. 'No More', it's called, or 'Gallifrey Falls'. One of the two. No one has a clue how the painting got here, though they're not so sad about there still being mysteries left in the universe.

Incidentally, I like how there are three visibly different TARDISes there now, so you can tell which one is which. They took the inconsistency between the TARDIS props over the years and made it into a virtue. Not just in this episode, earlier stories have confirmed that it changes shape a bit in-universe, but this is the first time we've seen three of it parked side by side.

The other Doctors had already forgiven the War Doctor, and now they know they didn't even do anything they're firm friends. Well, as much as you can be friends with yourself. Unfortunately, he realises that he won't retain the memory, due to how timelines get tangled when you're in the same place as yourself. He also notices that his hand is glowing a bit.

And the episode finally ties together all the Doctors with a regeneration. We got the Eighth Doctor to the War Doctor in The Night of the Doctor, now we're getting the Doctor formerly known as War turning into Christopher Eccleston. Though we only get his eyes, and only for a moment.

This means that this incarnation of the Doctor actually did go out knowing that he did the right thing! It doesn't change anything, the Ninth Doctor will be convinced that he used the Moment and he'll carry the trauma and guilt with him through two regenerations. Plus they're all the same person anyway. I just think it's nice that he realised he was worthy of his name before the change.

Damn though, for the War Doctor to regenerate due to old age is pretty crazy. He must have spent hundreds of years fighting in the worst war there ever was, and in all that time nothing was able to get him. His cause of death was surviving too long.

The Tenth Doctor won't remember any of this either, so he convinces Eleven to give him some spoilers about his future. Eleven tells him about seeing his grave on Trenzalore last episode and Ten isn't keen on that at all. He repeats a line from The Five Doctors saying that it's good to know that his future is in safe hands (Clara's) and then repeats a certain line he's going to say in The End of Time just before regenerating.

I noticed that a lot of viewers weren't keen on Ten's last lines being "I don't want to go", so having him repeat them here as he leaves is a bit cheeky of Moffat. Plus it has me wondering if he's going to say it a third time the next time Tennant makes an appearance.

Anyway. Tom Baker walks in and the episode just stops for 25 seconds to let the audience get over hearing his voice.

This is the gallery's curator, though he's heavily implied to be a far-future version of the Doctor who decided to return to a familiar face during his retirement. So there's a new trick we didn't know he could do.

Are the round things on the wall a clue that they're inside the TARDIS right now? Maybe! Or maybe he just likes the round things. Personally, I would say it's not. Because the guy likes to park the TARDIS in his office, not park his office in the TARDIS. Plus you definitely don't want to park three versions of the TARDIS inside the TARDIS if you can help it.

The Curator explains that he's the reason the painting got into the story at all, and its true title is 'Gallifrey Falls No More'. So it's also heavily implied that their plan worked and they saved Gallifrey! Trouble is that if he really is the Doctor, then Eleven's not going to remember this conversation. That's fine though, he could write himself a note.

Oh damn, someone get the War Doctor back quick! He can avoid 400 years of regret if he just leaves himself a message! Wait, he regenerated already. To be fair, he had to keep the regret or else he'd unravel the last seven series of the show. But Eleven can finally let it go now.

He has something else on his mind now: a mission to find Gallifrey! That's why he has dreams of standing in the mist looking up at the planet with all of his past lives.

These guys look like cutouts of publicity photos, but they're not. They're real people in the proper costumes with the actors' faces pasted onto them. Though I think the Fourth Doctor might be his waxwork double (seriously).

Now that I have a picture of them side-by-side this could be my one and only chance to rank their costumes from best to worst. Anything with mismatched colours, question marks or decorative vegetables is worst. So basically anything from the '80s.

The episode has a unique style of end credits, and everyone who played the Doctor is listed in incarnation order, with John Hurt coming in between Paul McGann and Christopher Eccleston. This means that he's officially recognised as being the Doctor now. It also means that you could shuffle them along so Tennant is Eleven and Smith is Twelve... though I'm glad they didn't. Best not to complicate things.

Speaking of complicating things, there's no credit for the Curator. Or the Moment. Or even Peter Capaldi's Doctor!

And all the credited Doctors also get their faces in the end credits (I brightened them a bit to make them more visible). No wink from the Seventh Doctor this time, and he's not painted silver either.

We'll be up to the Fifteenth Doctor soon, so there have been plenty of new faces introduced in the last 10 years. We're due an updated 60th Anniversary end credits I reckon.

The Day of the Doctor: Behind the Lens

And that's it for Doctor Who's 50th birthday celebration, the episode anyway. The production crew still had to eat the cake.

I love that little crashed TARDIS, especially as it comes with...

The Day of the Doctor: Behind the Lens

... proper Doctor Who pyrotechnics! This series just can't not blow things up, and even its miniature fireballs are still huge.

Hey, the War Doctor's wearing the fez. He really is the Doctor!


CONCLUSION

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The trouble with your average multi-Doctor story like The Three Doctors or The Five Doctors, is that the writer spent more time figuring out how to fit everyone in than exploring the potential in all your lead characters being the same person at different points in their life. They got some comedy out of the incarnations' interactions, but they were shallow stories that seemed reluctant to put the Doctors together too much.

The Day of the Doctor tries to recapture the fun dynamic of The Three Doctors, with Ten and Eleven initially having a bit of friction and the War Doctor being the out-of-character grumpy one, but this time the story is firmly focused on the Doctor, with all the other stuff about Queens, Zygons and paintings existing to help tell that story. It's got a bit of a Christmas Carol thing going on, with the past Doctor learning from the ghosts of a possible future, the modern Doctors confronting a ghost from their past, and everyone coming away from it changed. Even Ten, who changed into a married man on the run.

It's a Steven Moffat story, so a lot of his insightful observations are delivered as insults for easy comedy, with the characters noticing all kinds of things they don't like about each other's appearances. But the guy's clearly spent a lot of time thinking about Doctor Who and that shines through here. Locking the Doctor in a room on his own and having him confront his issues only works when the writer has explored those depths a bit themselves, and I think this worked pretty well.

The episode celebrates 50 years of Doctor Who by bringing back Billie Piper and David Tennant, focusing on a storyline that started 8 years earlier, and pretty much ignoring everything from the classic show. Actually, that's not fair. Sure most of the references to the classic era come from photos in the Black Archive, but it features a villain that hadn't been seen for 36 years, along with plenty of UNIT, Time Lords and Daleks. They couldn't bring back the 80s Doctors as the actors had aged out of their roles, but they found a way to include them anyway with old footage... and then brought back Tom Baker in the flesh for the hell of it! Sure that's nothing new, they all showed up in the last episode as well, but they were used far better here. The scene of the twelve Doctors all arriving at Gallifrey was a proper crowdpleaser and then they went and threw in the Twelfth Doctor's eyebrows as well to make that crowd go absolutely wild.

It reminds me a bit of Deep Space Nine's 30th Anniversary story Trials and Tribble-ations in some ways. It honours the work of previous creators and actors, it goes out of its way to respect the fans' emotional investment and put a smile on their faces... and then it goes and does a bit of a blatant retcon. DS9 just Photoshopped its characters into the background of an episode though. This rewrites the greatest tragedy in the Doctor's life so it didn't even happen! I know that Moffat likes his happy endings, but bloody hell mate.

Though the thing is, at the end of the episode Gallifrey's gone, all the Daleks have been blown up, and the Ninth Doctor is left wracked with guilt and self-loathing, so it's actually impossible to tell whether anything has changed at all. Maybe the Doctor never destroyed Gallifrey. The story really begins with the War Doctor, so his adventure definitely always happened, the question is: was there ever a point where the two TARDISes didn't materialise afterwards and stop him pressing the button? Personally, I'm happier with the idea that this is how things always went, because I don't want the Doctor to have been wrong all those times when he said he couldn't go back in time and save his people. He really couldn't, until he reached the time when he did.

It's funny how this takes the idea that your regrets and mistakes are part of the tapestry of what makes you who you are, and then takes it a step further and says "But you can totally fix those regrets as long as you don't know that you did it!" What really makes the Doctor's solution work for me, is that he still has to pay the Moment's price. The Doctor gets through his trauma the hard way, only being freed from the guilt after he's already allowed himself to forget. The episode spends a lot of time acknowledging and reinforcing how important RTD's Time War has been to the character and the series, before drawing a line after it and saying "But that's done with now".

There was a lot of hype for this story, but no guarantee it was going to be any good. By 2013 Steven Moffat had gone from being the chosen one to an ordinary overworked mortal whose flaws as a writer were now written in plain sight on every over-complicated puzzle box plot and sung in every creepy nursery rhyme. So it was kind of a relief that this turned out to be so good! The episode's just brilliant, start to finish, and it leaves you excited to find out what they'll do with Gallifrey and the Time Lords during the next era of the show.


Anniversary story ranking so far:

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1. The Day of the Doctor (10)
   
2. The Name of the Doctor (8)
   
3. The Three Doctors (6)
   
4. The Five Doctors (6)
   
5. Silver Nemesis (6)
   

Yes, I give out 10s now. I've grown as a person, and if any episode deserves one it's this. It's a much more sophisticated and better engineered story than its predecessors, with ambitions to do more than give the leads a fair share of screen time and some monsters to outwit. It's funny, intelligent and emotional, with some great effects and a fantastic soundtrack, while earlier anniversary stories typically made it as far as 'funny'. Subjectively speaking.

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NEXT TIME

Next time on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm keeping the Doctor Who reviews coming with the first of the 60th Anniversary specials: The Star Beast!

Comments are appreciated!