posted
I have to say, that was good. That was very, very good. And I think that mostly had to do with the fact that it was not what I was expecting at all.
First of all, this was a major game-changer. Gallifrey, in fact, was not destroyed by the War Doctor, but was frozen into a moment of time and lost. Now the Doctor's mission is to find and restore the planet.
Second, Billie Piper wasn't playing Rose at all, but the Moment itself, which presented itself to the War Doctor as a face from his future. To be honest, I think this is the best bit of acting we've seen from Piper yet.
Matt Smith and David Tennant played well off each other, as I expected, but I have to admit, their interaction with John Hurt was even better. I wasn't expecting the War Doctor to have a comedic side.
We sort of get a regeration scene for the War Doctor, in that it cuts away just as you can start to see some of Christopher Eccelston's features. I'd been holding out hope that Eccelston's reluctance to return was a smokescreen, and that he would at least make a cameo, but alas, no.
And I think we've got a lot of fodder for continuing the discussion of just how many regenerations the Doctor has from two specific scenes:
Thirteen Doctors appear (mostly through stock footage), including the Twelfth Doctor, although you only see a close-up of his eyes. I'm going to have to rewatch the episode, because I wasn't expecting the Capaldi cameo, so I'm not sure if the Time Lord general included the word "all" or not when referencing the fact that thirteen doctors were present.
And that brings me to the Tom Baker scene. I have to admit, I was spoiled to the fact he was appearing a day or so ago. On the one hand, hey, great to finally have him interact onscreen with another Doctor. On the other hand, his scene was really confusing. Given his dialogue, I'm given to understand he wasn't actually portraying the Fourth Doctor. Instead, he was portraying a future regeneration that he chose to have look like the Fourth Doctor.
On a side note, after I watched the episode, I went to go watch "The Five(ish) Doctors Rebooted", which was written and directed by Peter Davison. I have to admit, I skipped through most of it when I realized it wasn't actually a Doctor Who episode, but the ending seemed to indicate that Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy actually were in "The Day of the Doctor", underneath the tarps in the museum. Not sure if that was really the truth or not, but it was hilarious either way.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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I believe he did say "all thirteen". Which seems reasonable from a character point-of-view, as the Time Lords may have no reason to think that the Doctor would have more than thirteen different incarnations. Obviously, I also understand that, from a production point-of-view, no-one knows who will play the Doctor after Capaldi, so they couldn't have included any others. But, infortunately, it doesn't make sense from a story point-of-view. If the Doctor was able to contact his future selves, why did he only contact the Thirteenth Doctor (yeah, I said it)? Why not any of the other future Doctors which this story itself confirms will exist by way of Tom Baker's cameo? I'm sure they were just excited to include Capaldi because the opportunity was there, but I think it would have made more sense to just use the first twelve and save him for the Christmas special.
By the way, the best line (and I may have it slightly wrong) : "Again with the pointing! They're screwdrivers! What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?"
Registered: Mar 1999
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"I didn't know when I was lucky. All 12 of them. No, all 13 of them!" So you can read that both ways. Either ALL 13 as in "13 is the maximum", or he was just overwhelmed at the number of Doctors that had turned up.
My thinking for the cameo of Capaldi's eyebrows, apart from it being a "fuck yeah!" moment, is that the Doctor (as he said) had been working on the calculations for hundreds of years. Maybe they asked the Smith-Doctor "so, have you finished", and he replied "almost! I just need a couple more years." So they popped forward a regeneration to get the completed calculations. Which means that the next Doctor is essentially the one that saved the day! (They didn't go forward any more because they were already messing around in their own time line to a dangerous amount. Plus, maybe they didn't realise at that point that they will have more than 13 lives).
Also, that was awesome. So many little bits (Ian is the school governor! Faces during the closing credits!), the interplay between the three Doctors was great, and a nice change from the past of the Time War looming over the Doctor to the future quest to rediscover Gallifrey.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Also, there are lots of people who hate Doctor Who/New Who/Fun who have found every review on the internet and decided to inform the world that they hate the show.
Ah, the internet.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Oh, one (nerdy thing). The First Doctor appears with the line "This is the Doctor calling the war council of Gallifrey". I'm pretty sure all the other lines said by Doctors 1-9 during that bit are episode clips (and I recognised some of them), but that line can't be, can it? Gallifrey wasn't named until the Third Doctors time. Anyone know the source? Soundalike?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I was pleased that the really heavy drama parts were for the most part understated, rather than how new Who typically handles them.
Registered: Jul 2002
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The current thinking is, Capaldi is the 14th Doctor. Making Hurt 9, Eccleston 10, Tennant 11 and 12 (his extra Regen in Stolen Earth) and Smith 13. Which retcons Tennant's reluctance to go as the knowledge that this was his twelfth and last Regeneration. Capaldi is basically the fist of a new series. I think Moffat has said as much - unless they ignore Tennant's extra (!) and have Capaldi eventually granted a new series in return for saving/rescuing Gallifrey.
All this is a bit of a bolt-on and presents a few problems (for one thing, introducing the concept earlier would have injected a bit more jeopardy into the Smith Doctor's doings) - his attempt to regenerate after first being shot by the Astronaut, for example.
But the fact the Christmas special has him going back to Trenzalore suggests that the Doctor is going to die...
quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: Also, there are lots of people who hate Doctor Who/New Who/Fun who have found every review on the internet and decided to inform the world that they hate the show.
Ah, the internet.
Wait... you mean people use the internet to bitch about shit? What the hell?
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
Registered: May 1999
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