Aaaaand,
it’s the big moment! I’ll start with my
overall impressions, nothing beyond light spoilers, and save my comments on the
major stuff for the end.
I’ll
admit – I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. Granted, it was mostly on par for other
multi-Doctor specials. Goodness knows
that “The Two Doctors” is no narrative prize, but I’ll forgive it everything
because Two and Jamie and yay!! In a
way, “The Day of the Doctor” is the same.
So let’s
look at what I did love first. Naturally, the interactions between Ten and
Eleven are fantastic (and yes, I am
sad that we didn’t get Nine; why do you ask?)
I especially like Ten pretending that
Eleven coined “timey-wimey.” David
Tennant slips seamlessly back into the Doctor role. Billie Piper, likewise, is awesome here. I always loved the Bad Wolf, and this episode
gives us a nice twist on that. (Side
note – she looks incredible. Billie
rocks.) Beyond that, all the continuity
moments make me clap and grin from ear to ear:
the big bulletin board o’ companion photos, the vortex manipulator, the
lovely surprise at the end… So much to adore.
On the
flip side, it’s mainly story stuff that bugs.
My chief concern is that it’s somehow too wide-reaching and too small at the same time. The plot feels like Time War! Queen Elizabeth! Zygons!
Doctors ragging on each other! Whee! And it makes everything feel scattered. It seems weird that the Doctors spend so much
time on the Earth stuff (spanning two different eras) when there are such
massive goings-on with the Time War. And
while the Time War plot is obviously a big-ticket item here, the Earth-in-peril
plot feels a bit thin as the A-story for the 50th.
And
now, for the specific squeals and scowls.
Take care, folks – there be spoilers ahead!
I haven’t
quite figured out how I feel about undoing the destruction of Gallifrey. I’m not opposed to it in theory – I mean, the
Daleks have returned from their total annihilation 50 billion times – but that
guilt and loneliness is so crucial to both Nine and Ten. I worry that their episodes will feel diminished
upon rewatch. Though they won’t remember that Gallifrey was saved, they’ll
still be gnashing their teeth over something that didn’t actually happen.
Plus,
it seems like a punk move on Moffat’s part.
In the last two episodes of Who,
he’s 1) inserted his current companion into the Doctor’s entire history, saving
him in every incarnation and even telling One which TARDIS to steal, 2) added a
previously-unknown Doctor to the lineup, shifting the order and potentially
making PC’s upcoming Doctor the last in the cycle – not that we won’t get
around the regeneration limit anyway, but still, and now 3) erased the
character-defining plot established by his predecessor. Ayiyi.
(Although I suppose people who watched classic Who first were mad at Davies for killing off the Time Lords in the
first place?)
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