Warning: This thread will contain spoilers. If you haven't seen Day of the Doctor, you may not want to read this thread, althought chances of any reader being interested this thread who hasn't seen the special are small, I should still probably put that in.
The 50th anniversary special that Whovians have been waiting all year for has finally come and gone. What say the Whovian Sentinels forumites about this special?
I for one was quite pleased with Day of the Doctor. The use of multiple incarnations was more than just a gimmick and helped to expand the Doctor's character and take it in a new direction. Also, while the special was full of references, they weren't all mashed together and forced into the story. It was all very natural to the plot of what was going on.
The only negative thing I have to say is that I have no idea how to chornologically place Tom Baker's cameo. I guess it's possible that he's not the fourth Doctor in that scene, but it seems very unlikely. Oh well, maybe it'll be explained down the road.
Honestly, I had been worried about the anniversary, since the past couple of seasons have not been the most entertaining, in my opinion. Plus all the hype around it, felt like it was setting itself up for disappointment. But... I actually enjoyed it.
I'm liking the fact that we now have a plotline set up for later seasons. Very exciting.
The cameo I think might have been for its own sake, or maybe just a result of timey-wimeyness. Or some combination of the two.
I was pleased with it. I like the direction it is taking the series, and I absolutely loved the opening, with its quick tribute to the diffrerent openings.
I was happy with how they used Billie Piper, I was glad it wasn't another Rose comes back story.
Tennant and Smith were brilliant together, and Hurt fit right in. I honestly jumped up and down as soom as I heard Baker's voice. Just to have him come back to Dr. Who in that much of a role was great.
I'm not worried about how he fits into the story timeline. If they do more with it I'd be ecstatic, anything to get more of Baker in Dr. Who.
I was also thrilled to have them bridge the regeneration gap from McGann to Eccelston, actually showing McGann regenerate was awesome, and McGann's performance was the #2 best thing about the special, he was great, and even though the movie still is crap, I feel better about his being a cannon doctor after seeing him do justice to the role in that scene.
Overall it was very good, but when you start breaking down what it actually did for the series and the characters, it is amazing.
I really liked that they dealt with the personality shift for the new series in such a great way, tied up the Elizabeth drama so wonderfully and gave the series a point to turn and reinvent itself, which I think it needs if it is going to keep going strong. Also they are setting themselves up to break the limit on regenerations (the new doctor should be the last).
I'm going to stop now, I could write so much. The last thing it has accomplished is inspiring me to drag out my notes and try to complete the custom hero based on the second doctor (Troughton is still the best) that I started.
I suppose I should mention that I had no problem with Tom Baker being in the special. He is the face and heart of classic Who. If he's available for an anniversary special, he should be in it. I guess it doesn't really matter how he fits into the timeline, but if they work it out in later seasons, it would be awesome.
I haven't followed the new show much, just seen a couple of isolated episodes (almost all from the Tennant era; I own the single Eccleston season and so that's the only part I'm really familiar with), but I did poke my nose into the Internet to see if I could find a showing for this episode. Unfortunately it doesn't seem as though any of the theaters over here are terribly keen on participating; I could only find one theater that mentioned it in my area, and there were no showtimes listed, so I guess this isn't something I get to particpate in. Still, the very idea of a theatrical release for a TV show episode is pretty cool, and I'm hoping it did well enough that such things may happen again. I've heard it said that the ossification of Hollywood has gotten so bad that many former cinema professionals are making a sort of mass exodus to cable television (eg: Lucy Liu in "Sherlock", though that's far from the best example)...I see this incident as potentially contributing to this movement, and I feel it can't help but be a good thing if it shakes up the status quo for the movie industry.
Well imitation is the etc. etc. of flattery. I've seen one episode of Elementary and found it passably enjoyable, and don't care enough about Holmes to go out of my way to see the other one (or any more of the first one) for comparison purposes.
But yeah, Dr. Who. Up to a baker's dozen of them now, apparently? I swear I know the new guy's face from somewhere, but I'm not getting any hits on his filmography.
Well he's been in Doctor Who before, so possibly from there? :D
Anyway, yes, I thought it was absolutely amazing, but if I start writing an essay on why I fear I'll never stop, so I shall leave my comment at that...
I also enjoyed the anniversary episode :). My partner's favourite Doctor is Tom Baker and at the end, when the Doctor was told that "an old man" calling himself "the curator" was looking for him, my partner went "It's Tom Baker!". How the hell he called that one I have no idea but he was very happy about that final scene just because Tom Baker was in it, lol. Anyway, looking forward to seeing what kind of a job Peter Capaldi does as the new Doctor. Also I suppose, the position of John Hurt as actually being Nine means that all the other Doctors (Eccleston onwards) have to shift along a number. So Matt Smith is actually Twelve, not Eleven. I suppose this makes his first episode's title (The Eleventh Hour) less of a pun that it previosuly was, and means that the song playing in David Tennant's first episode now has an innaccurate title (Song for Ten). Oh well. Now just to wait for the Christmas episode and see how the regeneration comes about (something to do with Trenzalore, it would seem)...
Also whilst mooching around on the iPlayer we found a thing called "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot" I think, which was quite funny - Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy trying to get in on the 50th Anniversary special :).
A fun thought. If McGann -> Hurt is a "real" regeneration, and with the one Tennant's Doctor cheated way back in series 4 (with the Doctor-Donna and all that), The Doctor's had 12 known regenerations. Clearly they're going to have to address the bit of Classic Series lore that says that's it for him.
Or they could ignore it. Always an option.
EDIT: Has regenerated 12 times, which would "normally" result in 13 versions of a Time Lord.
I hated the stupid ret con of "Oh, never mind, Gallifrey is still alive now. We fixed it. It's all better. Remember that huge moral decision that was key in making the new Doctors? Remember that horrible decision he had to make? Never mind it. It's not a problem any more. All that character development goes out the window."
I'm sick of Moffat treating the show like it's his own little fan fiction.
The special would have had a lot more impact and a lot more weight if they had pressed the button. But no, we got ret con.
I disagree. It would have completely broken their characters if 10 and 11 pushed the button too, after all the angsting they've done about it. It's good that they got some closure out of it.
But Hurt's, Tennant's, and Smith's Doctors all have to live with having pusshed the button, because none of them remember what they've done except Smith's Doctor, who lived hundreds of years before that point anyway. The character development isn't lost. Hurt's doctor still had to make the decision to push the button. Eccleston's, Tennant's, and Smith's Doctors still have to cope with that decision, which they did in different ways over time.
Smith's Doctor is now able to move forward with the amazing experience of having fixed the worst moment in his history, but having also lived through four hundred years of dealing with that moment. What will that mean? Will he simply regress? Will there be some new way of looking at the universe that is the result of both having dealt with that horrible decision for four hundred years AND being able to fix it?
I understand the feeling about undoing the time war decision, and the whole "they won't remember it" is a bit of a cop out, but I think more than undoing the fabric of the new doctor it allows the show, after 104 episodes and specials of the new doctor, to evolve, and also to get back a little of the old doctor.
I can't wait to see what Smith does with his new leash on life, and I really think we'll see Capaldi bring back more of the old flavor mixed with the new in what I expect to be a refreshing new take on the series.
Eccelston was as much a trend setter as Troughton was, redesigning the flavor of the doctor and influencing so heavily those that followed.
Now we get a chance to do it again, to see what a Redeemed Doctor would look like.
I saw the Five(ish) doctors reboot, and that was incredible, the number of people he got to sign on for it was great, and it was really well done. The interplay with Peterson CBaker and McCoy was wonderful. I miss those guys, I'm going to have to do a little 5-7 marathon now.
As for counting regenerations, Tennant played around with the regeneration rules a lot, but I believe he only counts as one. That would make Capaldi the thirteenth. I think (like the master before him) the Doctor will receive a new set of regenerations after saving Gallifrey.
I think that is the impetus for the whole save Galifrey story line, to break the regeneration count without breaking canon. It is interesting that right as they run into the cap they let everyone know that the only people who can extend the doctor's life past Capaldi are not dead after all.
