WARNING: Mild spoilers ahead!
REVIEW: The Day of the Doctor by Steven Moffat
SERIAL: 50th Anniversary Special, 75 minute special
SEEN IT BEFORE?: No (Reviewed immediately after transmission)
In the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, it was promised that there would be more Doctor Who than ever before. And one of these things was, in the mold of The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors, an anniversary special called The Day of the Doctor. So would Steven Moffat manage to pull off an excellent story? Here's hoping...
In the present day, the Eleventh Doctor is summoned by UNIT to the National Gallery to investigate strange paintings. In Elizabethan England, the Tenth Doctor is caught between a Zygon incursion and a romance with Queen Elizabeth the First. And deep in the Time War, a Doctor who abandoned his moniker has declared 'no more', and has stolen The Moment, the ultimate weapon. How do these three moments intersect? Can three Doctors stop a Zygon invasion? And how can the War Doctor live with his ultimate decision, one that would doom billions of Time Lords to extinction? The Doctor's past is catching up with him in a big way, and he will be forced to confront his greatest failure...
If I have any fault with the story in general, it is that I am not actually fond of the Zygon subplot, which doesn't really do the Zygons the justice they deserve. However, the subplot does tie into the main story enough that I am willing to forgive this. That, and the whole Elizabeth I thing. But otherwise, the story is an excellent examination of the Doctor and his morality, as well as his choices in the Time War, and the ending, while doubtlessly going to be controversial with many Whovians, nonetheless sets things up for a later story arc, as well as resolving much of the new series' history. It is certainly a great celebration, and Moffat, while not quite pulling things off perfectly, does manage to do things right.
Matt Smith and David Tennant are excellent as usual as their respective Doctors, though I think John Hurt as the War Doctor is probably the star of the show. This fine actor would have made an excellent Doctor, and it's a shame he isn't likely to be in it more than this special. Despite being in the Time War, the War Doctor is given nuances, melancholy, and a sense of humour that wasn't expected, and is a very pleasant surprise. Jenna Coleman is a good Clara, Jemma Redgrave makes an interesting return as Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, though I wish that Ingrid Oliver as Osgood was a little more fleshed out. I found Elizabeth I a little irritating, though not due to Joanna Page's performance, I must confess. And finally, Billie Piper makes a return, albeit not as Rose, but as The Moment, a living Gallifreyan weapon. This is a relatively minor spoiler, compared to what's to come, and she is not that far from Surenne Jones' Idris from The Doctor's Wife, albeit less quirky. But she's still pretty damned good.
Production-wise, well, as usual, impressive special effects are the norm in the new series. I watched a 2-D broadcast on the ABC, but even I could tell that the story was meant to be shown in 3-D, with impressive setpieces like 3D paintings and frozen moments. And there's an impressive moment involving a Zygon changing partially back from a human form. What little we see of Zygon tech is a vast improvement over their debut, and while I was not sure about the redesign of the Zygons themselves, they won me over. The story is visually impressive, which is, of course, what it's meant to be. An utter spectacle.
While nowhere near perfect, The Day of the Doctor is nonetheless a pretty damned good celebration of the 50th Anniversary of this great series. And it promises much for the future...
SCORE: 9/10
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(No longer a mod)
On sabbatical...
22 May 2013, 4:45 pm
