Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor - The Best Anniversary Special Ever

i've just started making digital art on instagram if you like my thumbnails and want to see me do more photoshops now i post daily please consider giving me a follow you'll get access to updates regarding the channel as well as unused thumbnail designs doctors as jedi all kinds of crazy stuff it's gonna be a lot of fun i'd appreciate it so it's may 18 2013. you've just seen the final episode of doctor's seventh season matt smith's third and final season as the doctor and the first for burgeoning companion clara oswalt it's been a disappointing year for who clara became the subject of a tangled misfire of a mystery the lack of two parters meant almost every story featured a rushed conclusion there was a lot of talk of change a new tardis a new outfit but all of these changes were shallow skin deep a distraction to hide the fact that showrunner stephen moffatt was buckling under the weight of a gargantuan task the season had finally wrapped up in a fun if underwhelming single-part finale the name of the doctor and in any other year for the show this would begin the long arduous way to the christmas special but not this time who's that never mind let's get back but who is he the worst kept secret in who fandom had finally been confirmed john hurt would be playing the one doctor who broke the promise he was once cruel and perhaps cowardly he gave up and gave in but why what did he do we would have to wait six months to find out the truth surrounding the war doctor multi-doctor stories have always been very special in who even if some of them were a bit of a misfire the five doctors try four doctors and a glitching powerpoint presentation of tom baker what are you talking about what contract dispute who wants an elseworld story where the doctor meets the cast of eastenders yes it is as bad as it sounds they're gonna be the rage in 1994 no it unfortunately isn't so bad it's good so when it came time for the 50th year of doctor who everyone was expecting the first true big budget multi-doctor special since the show returned in 2005. yes time crush is fun but it's not well this is it after a lackluster season seven and the confirmation that only tenant would be returning from the classic lineup no eccleston no classic doctors this 50th anniversary special had all the potential to be awesome sure but it also could have sucked real bad titled the day of the doctor it saw current dr matt smith meeting both david tennant's 10th doctor as well as the late great john hurts war doctor on an adventure that spanned centuries cole hill school unit the zygons the timelines the daleks and the destruction of gallifrey itself now seven years later on the day of the 57th anniversary i want to look back at day and unpack all of its juicy goodness what did i make of it back in the day does it still hold up what behind the scenes machinations meant this special turned out the way it did was it ultimately for better or for worse i'm matt from full fat videos and this is well just a great big old celebration of dare the doctor doctor who in general and the moth because he deserves it too you know he brought you a lot of good who back in the day back when i was a teenager and really skinny very skinny that is proper skinny this special had me hyped as hell day of the doctor was most exciting event for a fan since the show returned in 2005. i dragged my girlfriend at the time to go and see the special as it was set to play in cinemas concurrent with the broadcast on bbc one this was the first time i'd ever had the opportunity to see doctor on a big screen and i wasn't going to miss it even though it was still clearly a big budget tv episode it felt like an awesome cinematic event they even had special intros shot for the big screen strax gave you a lesson in cinema etiquette and the doctors starred in a funny little skit to warn you about the commercially exploited third dimension in 3d what's good about that is there a budget car i was no fan of 3d so that was going to be irksome but it was worth it to get to see my boys tenant and smith on the big screen stereoscopic vision you might say it adds a third dimension yeah very nice are you i went into it cautiously optimistic as i've said season seven was a proper disappointment for me i had previously absolutely adored moffat's old work with who and i thought series 5 was the best season of the new run it was starting to feel like maybe the moth was starting to get a little bit tired was he running out of steam was this special going to be another missed opportunity only increasing my concern was the announcement that the special was only going to be 75 minutes long the 50th anniversary a special featuring three doctors and what was sure to feature a host of earth-shattering revelations was going to be just a touch longer than the 10th doctor's final solo outing it seemed odd moffat's string of 45 minute stories had left a bad taste in my mouth there was no denying the decision to get rid of longer two-part stories was a mistake so finding out that the special was going to come in short of that did not bode well how on earth was the story not going to buckle under the weight of handling so much we've got to provide the impetus to get to the 100 that's what we've got to do it's the next chapter in the doctor's life and it starts here when you know even a fraction of the problems behind the scenes that year and who it's easy to see why moffat was spread so thin did you know that at one point he wasn't even sure that he would get a single doctor to appear in the special let alone several matt's contract had not yet been renewed and the moth was forced to seriously consider a script that saw clara gallivanting the universe on her own mother would later tell all in a 2015 interview with the radio times the entire internet is finding my email and sending me the most hideous death threats because i haven't got william hartnell back and i'm thinking well one he hasn't answered the phone i don't know why but never mind him i'm not sure if david and matt are doing it either i'm crouched in the corner of my office wondering what the [ __ ] am i going to do it's easy for us to complain about doc 2 when it's bad and so we should criticism is what keeps it competitive but will likely never know to what degree the showrunners are forced into story decisions they don't necessarily want to make we all would have thrown a fit if clara was the only character in the 50th and like everything else back then moffat would have taken the blame even with three doctors it wasn't hard to imagine hating the special but i was actually really happy with day of the doctor for a time it was my most rewatched episode i ended up really enjoying the capaldi years more than i was initially expecting and eventually day just became any other episode in a long catalogue to choose from before it came time to create this video i don't think i'd seen it since maybe 2015. the episode starts with a pretty cool throwback the original credits as they existed in 1963. i can only imagine if you were there for that what a sweet little touch this would have been a police officer walks past a familiar scrapyard and past cole hill school in a loving recreation of the very first scene from the show it's a pretty self-explanatory reference but it turned out to be something more the beginning of some very significant changes across the next two seasons that would tackle some of the failings from season seven as i touched on previously in my video addressing clara oswald's tenure her characterization across the seventh season was woefully undercooked she barely had a home life beyond the aggravating matlan children which were never seen or heard from again good right off the bat the 50th established a job and a location for the companion it's of course very brief in this episode but this facet of clara's life would go on to be the crucial piece of the puzzle in her story across seasons 8 and 9. clara had a purpose a life outside of the doctor she met dany pink lost danny pink and even got to let the doctor into this world every once in a while human beings are not otters exactly it'll be even easier when moffat said the 50th would set up the series going forward he meant it in more than on a macro scale addressing gallifreya's neat but adding some much needed dimension to your flailing companion character was the thing that was sorely needed there was a cold you at the office from your doctor what's the betting that this guy is supposed to be the same character as this guy you remember him right the teacher that 12 thought plara was into because he had matt smith hair in a humorous display of ego and ignorance he has similar matt smith vibes going on what's the betting scheduling conflicts meant he simply got replaced and they became two different characters also you have to wonder is danny pink somewhere in that school teaching pe right now i am not a pe teacher i'm a math teacher clara and the doctor are reunited and it starts off just like any other adventure the tardis gets hoisted up by a crane and flown across london whilst the doctor hangs off the bottom of it i'm just gonna fight right home yeah this part hasn't aged well i don't think it was cool at the time and i totally get why they did it this is a special it needs to signal in the first five minutes that the scale is massive and the fact that they really did suspend matt smith in the air above nelson's column is an impressive feat of practical stunt work and coordination from everyone involved it's just a little bit pointless you know sure it's called hang smith of the tardis but there's no real danger or attention here it's a stunt for the sake of a stunt it's designed to fill you with awe and it does but the effect is pretty shallow plus it's just odd to have all these credits popping up across the screen it's really not very doctor who at all did they run out of budget to give the 50 of her flashy effects sequence featuring all of our principal cast members i suppose it would have been weird given we just had the classic intro but these are like weird american cable tv credits german red graves kate stewart was one of the best additions in series seven and she makes a welcome return here alongside units why am i saluting the doctor and clara quickly ushered into the national gallery by order of the queen that being queen elizabeth the first i think the pair might have a history the under gallery a den of art deemed too dangerous for public consumption awesome also it's cool to take an actual london landmark and suggest it's home to something dangerous and alien just like in the very first episode of new who elizabeth's credentials doctor so we're introduced to a piece of timelord art this painting doesn't belong here not in this time or place it's naturally bigger on the inside and in this case depicts the fall of arcadia in 3d i'm sure these 3d paintings were conceived with the same thinking behind that flashy stunt intro we're doing a special it's going to be in cinemas let's make it 3d let's put some actual 3d into the story it could have been really corny but the 3d paintings actually factor into the plot in a big way and the effect of traveling through them to get to the world they depict works because it still holds up in 2d all these years later that man was me it feels like a plot beat that was created in service of the story even though there was clearly a mandate to be up the 3d aspect of this television event when the doctor lays eyes on it he immediately experiences a heady flashback to his days in the time war the other me director nick haran uses various disparate shots and off-kilter angles to displace the viewer we really get the sense that this is a part of the doctor he is ashamedly locked away the painting is digging it all back up [Music] gallifreyan ruins civilians running in terror the military might of the daleks it's a fantastic little slice of a war we've only heard about this is one of doctor who's most cinematic sequences and probably the only time it's been able to accurately depict the scale and action of a dalek war here the daleks get back a brief glimmer of that intimidating horde they once were imparting of the ways it's been a while since we've seen daleks causing this kind of chaos and for the 50th is very welcome a combination of pyrotechnics stunt work rubble and of course cgi this scene cuts together to give us a glimpse into some who history usually far too epic and costly for a regular episode of the show and yes bringing it down to a military conflict doesn't feel very cosmic and when you hear about things like this you weren't there in the final days of the war a horde of travesties the nightmare child the scarra degradations it could have been king with his army of meanwhiles and never words you want something a bit more weird time lords must have weapons more powerful than rudimentary blasters and cannons right so we cut to the war council in the citadel where the general discovers that the janitor is misplaced more than just a rudimentary blaster the galaxy eater final work of the ancients of gallifrey the moment is an awesome infinity gauntlet style ultimate weapon designed by the agents of gallifrey weapons so powerful the operating system became sentient also very infinity gauntlet well movie infinity gauntlet anyway using the moment will have a terrible cost but rather than it being a destructive physical reaction to its awesome power this is more of a neil gaiman-esque trickster item and we've never used it how do you use a weapon of ultimate mass destruction when he can stand in judgment on you the moment dishes that punishment based on the wishes of the user its consciousness will weigh up what you want to do and what you must lose in order to do so this is where the abbreviated running time starts to kick up a little the most powerful infinity gauntlet to your weapon in the galaxy and it was just chilling in the basement how did the doctor get it so easily maybe in a story with more breathing room we could have seen the war doctor pull off a heist to go get the weapon that would have definitely used action to tell story we would have seen the war doctor being a fearsome warrior rather than just being told about it we would have deduced that this weapon is of incredible power and importance without having the general tell another time lords who would definitely already know what the moment is come on but hey ho we've only got about an hour left so this is just quicker albeit less dramatic that being said the moment is a great idea and the perfect macguffin to make the story work of course this is what the doctor needed to bring about the end of the insane daleks and time lords and of course only the doctor could wield it but not the doctor you were necessarily expecting no more entered john hurt as the war doctor so if you didn't know or you just need a reminder the war doctor was a newly created character for the 50th anniversary who had previously never existed or even been hinted at he is the doctor who ended the time war it is no secret that this was a little bit of a retcon since 2005 it was generally assumed that the ninth doctor was the incarnation that fought in the time war and so it was him who killed both the daleks and time lords that remained until it came time to tackle the 50th moffat clearly needed the ninth doctor front and center to tell the next chapter in the doctor's biggest new plot thread the problem being that ninth doctor actor christopher eccleston had long since fallen out of favor with the show and the bbc at the time he had made it quite clear on numerous occasions that he did not want to come back moffat tried anyway even reportedly managing to secure a few meetings with the thespian staggeringly chris actually said yes and the rest is he said no obviously moffat was left with a choice he could instead go further back to the eighth doctor and fill in the gap by making him the doctor who fought in the time war or he could do something unorthodox to be quite honest i didn't realize what's how big dr who was i thought it was a cult in a conversation with doctor who magazine moffat stated that he didn't really like the idea of either the eighth or the ninth doctors pulling the trigger on the time lords he felt that the ninth doctor's first episode implied he was a new man and therefore he couldn't have possibly pushed the button i don't know i don't think his comments make much sense honestly it seems quite apparent to me that even if nine had recently regenerated he seemed scarred and weighed down by the guilt of the time war it's not hard to see that that specific weary face is pushing the button sean mcgann was a bit more of a romantic doctor but as moffatt himself wrote we are all different people all through our lives is it a stretch to imagine a reborn eighth doctor a changed man in the midst of an endless bitter war paul mcgann is a fantastic actor i'm pretty sure you can get him to do anything bring me knitting mother elected to create an entirely new incarnation making every doctor in new who actually a number higher than previously thought even though the 11th doctor is still branded as the 11th doctor 12 is 12 13 is 13 etc in actuality the 11th doctor is the 12th incarnation the 12th doctor is the 13th incarnation and the 13th doctor is the 14th incarnation i'm sure i don't have to explain to you why this is convoluted and messy right i don't admit all of them there's one life i've tried very hard to forget yes he is the doctor who forgets but to say he doesn't admit to it fear me i've killed all of them i watched it happen i made it happen moffatt was also pretty blase in admitting that part of the appeal of this new time war doctor was the opportunity to draw attention to the special with a big name that's not exactly the best reason for doing anything having said that in cinema and on television i think this ain't no cult john hurts is what moffatt pulled out of the bag and by god he knew that getting john hurt was so awesome such an inspired choice to play the doctor that everyone would forget how awkward and stupid it is to screw up the numbering of the doctors it really was a genius move in terms of his performance you couldn't ask for anything more john hurt was a powerhouse of acting talent and to have been lucky enough to see such a veteran actor grace the show is the kind of treat fans could only have gotten in an anniversary as lofty as the 50th all my gripes of the war doctor really come down to just how little he's fleshed out we don't see him actually fighting in the war per se it's not clear what his stance on guns is sure he does use one but most doctors would be okay with using a firearm to do something passive like this it's not really very clear what makes this doctor so much of a warrior compared to his other incarnations i think it's telling that this role was envisioned for the ninth doctor the audience would have brought their familiarity with him into the day of the doctor instead the audience has to very quickly catch up with war and accept the fact that he's a proto-ecclesian bizarrely moffatt did bring back the eighth doctor in a special eight minute digital release as a surprise just before the 50th and look there's no denying the night of the doctor isn't awesome we get a little insight into ayt's life during the time war and mcgann proved he's still got the wit swagger and humor to boot you have a little under four minutes four minutes as ages what if i get bored it's just so odd that you would feel so strongly about not having eight be the war doctor in the special to the degree that you would create another doctor out of thin air and then you'd give eight his own short film to balance it out seems like you're just adding extra steps there you're telling me mcgann couldn't have held his own against tenant and smith knight of the doctor makes war's characterization even weirder time lord science is elevated here on khan the change doesn't have to be random the fact that it is a special regeneration to make him more of a fighter but then we never see anything particularly different about him in combat or anything what skills did the region actually give him that he didn't already have warrior warrior john hurt is a fantastic doctor but that's just it isn't it he was meant to be playing the one incarnation who was nothing like the doctor at least not until the events of this special again i'm not saying it isn't fantastic that hurt got to be a part of it but i'm not sure the casting really matches some of the plotting an old war general type yeah that works but night of the doctor something written to coincide with this special biomother himself goes to great lengths to imply that the sisterhood of khan will make him a stronger faster more action-orientated body fast or strong wise or angry what do you mean now i'm not saying i needed to see the doctor do a commando impression remember sally when i promised to kill you last that's what majors you did i lied but surely he wouldn't have been quite as lovely as john hurt if you say war doctor to me i'm thinking of british legends that could have had that grit wouldn't it have been really weird enough kilter to have someone like idris elba or tom hardy or tilda swinton in that role all actors that i think suit the doctor but are just that little bit too hard-edged they wouldn't make a great regular doctor but a one-off warrior doctor that makes sense to me i'm not saying i don't think john hurt gave it his all as the doctor and no i wouldn't change it what happens happened it's more the decision to make the war doctor this sort of character doesn't make an awful lot of sense to me when you've said this i don't suppose there's any need for a doctor anymore make me a warrior now that being said the war doctor is the protagonist of the story in spite of starting with smith's doctor it is john hurt's perspective that actually develops into the arc we see the doctor collectively complete the whole story is structured like a kind of multi-doctor christmas carol the war doctor is the driving force our protagonist and doctors 10 11 are the ghosts of two different eras in his life albeit both two different moments in the same future like the ghosts of the original story each doctor comes to represent different perspectives on the horrible choice our lead will soon make as the moment so eloquently puts it the man who regrets and the man who forgets the moment allows the war doctor to go and meet his future selves so that he can decide whether or not he is going to push the button upon his return should he be ready he will finally execute the daleks and timelords and this is where i think the special really comes into its own the setup is genius we've had at this point eight years of new who and tons of adventures with three doctors to wind back the perspective to a doctor that is just at the cusp of where we began our journey in 2005's rose to suggest that all the stories we've seen are not set in stone but one possible future in this man's life it's history for them all decided they think their future is real they don't know it's still up to you it's one of the neatest ways of showing that yes time can be rewritten even the doctors always eight years of established cannon for the audience is just one of many what ifs for the war doctor in his presence everything from new who we've come to know and love is up for the chopping block in the eyes of the war doctor none of this has to necessarily happen it's still just a choice for him the stakes are set for an incredible multi-doctor story i'm looking for the doctor well you've certainly come to the right place this special does a great job at highlighting the essence of each doctor in their respective tenure tenants doctor is still the romantic this is full tilt girl in the fireplace swashbuckling hero moody charmer tennant and that comes right down to the royal lover and horse companion oh and of course stephen moffatt wrote both it's also good matt smith at a time when matt smith's doctor wasn't very good and this is coming from a guy who thinks series five smith is peak who it really is the flanderization that took place a little in series six and a lot in series seven is all well and present here are you capable of speaking without flapping your hands about yes no yes you can you used to remember when you were eccentric but moody as well and you weren't just insanely goofy all of the time this is my space hat which i wear throughout the episode uh can't tell you why i was it's very exciting david tennant has been a who fanboy since birth so i can only imagine he knew full well how exciting it would be to see the 10th doctor return in the anniversary special i'm slightly nervous of knowing what it would feel like again sort of being able to key back into it i've missed all that i missed the fun of it the joy of it the kind of energy of it after a few good years of the man who was the face of doctor who uh not being the face of doctor who i must say it was strange to see the old guard stepping on matt smith's toes i'd grown up with tennant but smith was my doctor i knew i'd enjoy a tenant coming back how could i not but i was unsure to what degree he would mesh with the more recent style of the show what was most unexpected and awesome about the 50th was rekindling my love for the 10th doctor also can microwave frozen dinner from up to 20 download comics from the future i never know when to start i think it's easy for 10 to get written off sometimes because he's the mainstream doctor he's the one that people from my generation say they've watched and he's by far the most human of the post-time war iterations but calling him the most human doctor is an oversimplification of his charm gravitas and intensity i'd honestly forgotten what a joy this character is and it reminded me that nine and ten are responsible for unearthing my love for this show even if smith is my doctor tennant is my doctor too honestly the only thing i think they messed up on here is that haircut i'm sure david had to keep his hair a certain length for another role he was signed up for at the time so they went with this bieber cut over his original spiky look it's fine it's just when i want to see the tenth doctor come back i want to see 10 hair and all not david tennant in the doctor's suit he changed his hair enough in the show that i can buy it but it's a shame we didn't get that spiky gelled look one more time fingers crossed the controversy is rectified in the 60 of eh his chemistry with smith was electric they don't just copy each other and finish each other's sentences stand a tiny whimey fair but they also come into conflict throughout they challenge the other's viewpoints and the lies they believe this is not a decision you will ever be able to live with they both complement the gruffa war doctor burdened with the darkest thread of the story although even he gets a companion of sorts somebody there it's nothing it's just a wolf billy piper's role as the moments was one of the most surprising aspects to the 50th when tennant was announced as making his return the same press release also confirmed billy piper's return we of course all assumed that rose would be joining the doctor unless it was likely that the tenant we were getting was going to be somewhere from his series two days in the end it was confirmed that 10 would be around 906 placing him somewhere during the 2009 specials meaning rose was out unless she was going to cross the void again [Music] if you were looking forward to seeing billy piper back in the show i think you'd probably be a bit disappointed she's so kooky and weird at the moment that i don't see rose at all plus the fact that her and david share basically no scenes together still it's a pretty neat way of getting billy piper back without getting tangled up in continuity her role as the moment really ties the whole thing together and it's wonderfully inventive to see the oft-mentioned bringer of gallifrey and doom turn out to be a conscious living benevolent being the last thing the moment wants is for the doctor to destroy the people of galifrey she leaves the choice down to him but does everything in her power to convince him otherwise to see piper in this guiding role is a sweet reversal of the relationship rose had to the doctor her rapport with john hurt is really fun and they bounce off of each other well what's wrong the interface is hot well i do my best it's hilarious to see the quirky self-actualized box irritate this grumpy old man didn't you want to see it who to see it's also a fitting marriage between old and new john hurt is playing an old weary doctor the last of the original line of heroes if you will billy piper is synonymous with the reinvigoration of the show in 2005. in the 50th anniversary we see not only the doctors past and future collides but the two disparate spears of the show as well i'm sure moffitt's intention here was to make the doctor who is the least doctor still a madman with a box proving that even at his worst he is still in essence the doctor even if he doesn't realize it yet tenant meeting smith is pretty much exactly the skit he thought it was going to be complicated for what oh horny bbc evening telly humor there's a fair bit of that devoted here so much for history 10 is definitely way cooler than 11 but to be fair eleven does wreck him what are you doing here i'm busy oh busy i see is that what we're calling it eh one of them is a zygon i'm not judging you the tenth doctor is in the midst of facing off against shapeshifters known as zygons this makes for an awkward exchange when he mistakes queen elizabeth for other monsters [Applause] [Music] it was the horse moffat clearly has a soft spot for the zygons and is having a lot of fun with the shape-shifting superpowers in this special i am the oncoming storm the bringer of darkness and you are basically just a rabbit aren't you we get an epic doctor speech in the 50th and it's a joke which is great suddenly the doctor is saying all this stuff in front of a rabbit and it sounds a lot more like pretentious narcissistic nonsense than how it usually appears look how bruised he is the doctor also has this funky machine to spot zygons ding what's that it's a machine that goes ding such a fun addition i love the dr sonic but it's always exciting to see him cobble together some gadgets using his wacky ingenuity it's very dark brown and once again fits right in with ten's original davies run the zygon plot thread in the 50th anniversary is terrific on the surface it might seem like an odd choice the creatures only appeared once in 1975's terror of the zygons and had been off screen for 38 years at that point but moffat was well aware of their cult status amongst fans stating they were only in it once but everyone remembers them i get the desire to have the doctors big bads in a grand old anniversary special there is of course a temptation to throw in the master or the daleks or the cybermen or the weeping angels but by taking a look at a monster that has yet to cross into new hoo it's giving us something fresh it's once again evocative of what made doctor who in 2005 such a success mother is reminding you of all those great times rtd and the moth rebooted an old monster now it's the turn of the zygons and they get the honor of being in the special mother is the perfect writer to make full use of their powers most notably in a scene featuring two queen elizabeths vying to prove that they are real it's not working a creamer call it impertinent a queen would feel compelled to admire the skill of the execution before arranging one i like that in spite of being big old strong monsters with alien technology they often elect to stay in disguise at all costs only transforming when the advantage will be gained by doing so the effect is the perfect level of call and goofy that is the lifeblood of doctor alien design the idea that they are hiding away as refugees in the past using tidal technology to hibernate and wait for the planet to simply be well worth actually invading is a great motivation for a doctor villain making them survivors of the time war thematically ties them in with the rest of the special even if their presence in it is incidental they aren't just bloodthirsty monsters as we'll find out further down the line and as with clara's new life the zygom threat in this episode sets up the next wave of stories paying off big time with one of the best capaldi stories of his tenure how many lives shattered how much blood will spill until everybody does what they're always going to have to do from the very beginning sit down and talk mother is being clever by having multiple scenes with shapeshifters trying to work out who is the real you whilst a man who meets himself tries to uncover his true face amongst all the denial misdeeds and overconfidence nick haran uses the same angle for elizabeth versus elizabeth and osgood vs osgood as he does when the 10th and 11th doctors size each other up it also showed a great amount of restraint on moffat's part as well as some maturity in his writing no longer was he banking on bringing together every who villain imaginable to up the ante it would have been oh so easy to do this once again the 50th could have been a cluttered mess instead the dalek presence is stripped back to the time war and they don't have any agency in the narrative the zygons are front and center it was unexpected for mother and a welcome change sure enough these monsters are some of the coolest things in the episode for mother bringing them back was something of a personal dream he told the radio times that he'd actually been trying to get them back in every single season since 2010. when it came to the 50th he thought they were the perfect candidates to celebrate who he thought their old designs were beautiful and noted that the production did a little to change the essence of the look from 1975. they make for a great b plot featuring claren osgood too the creatures hunting down the unit characters whilst the doctor tries to get back from 1562. the zygons are also a pretty clever way of saving budget no you can afford to have far less shots and shoot days with those bulky costumes and instead use gemma redgrave or joanna page of course are you his companions the war doctor is a terrific meta way for old who to clash with knew who with tongue-in-cheek blom he takes a swipe at all the ridiculed tropes like the excessive use of the screwdriver in confrontations there's screwdrivers what are you going to do assemble them cabinet as well as the prolific use of wibbly wobbly timey wimey rhymes dude timey wimey thing tiny what time me why me i've i've no idea where he picks her stuff up and also the doctor hitting puberty is there a lot of this in the future it does start to happen yeah so the trio will get captured and it's a chance for the adventure to slow down and for the doctors to sit down and talk why are we all together why are we all here the writing and performances strike a perfect balance between making me buy that each doctor is oy whilst also clearly being the same being unit hq they followed us there in the black archive and it does this beyond just hijinks and quips do you have to talk like children what is it that makes you so ashamed of being a grown-up i love that the trick shot in the doctor's decision to use the moment revolves around the children of gallifrey ask them what you need to know did you ever count how many children there were on gallifrey that day in moffat's second ever episode of show runner 2010's the beast below a poignant parallel is drawn between the time lord and the ancient star whale and the very last of your kind you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry moffat clearly feels that the doctor's place as a hero for children is something that should be reflected in the stories themselves so what better way to examine the atrocities of the time war than to get the doctor to confront his darkest truth it adds another chilling dimension to a story that has been prominently mentioned for many years we always hear about how the doctor killed the time lords but it's usually followed up with a bunch of detail about how gallifrey had gone mad and have become just as bad as the daleks oh look on the bright side i'm not a dalek who can tell the difference anymore but to sit our hero down and get him as well as the audience to ponder the children that were lost that day casts new light on the more ambiguity of his actions to have stopped the daleks and the time lords innocents had to die we've always known that but here we see the doctors get uncomfortable about it for perhaps the first time in the show the time war isn't used to show what the doctor has lost but what he took from others did the ends justify the means could the doctor save the universe by any means necessary would he really kill those children in the final days of the time war are there exceptions to be made even by the doctor i think these are things i should hold off on answering myself before we see what moffatt thinks i have absolutely no idea rule one the doctor lies except usually the only person in the room who definitively knows that is himself that still rings true actually ten knows that they counted and he has no qualms pushing his future self 2.47 billion you did come ten is a man who's still reeling from the events of the time war he feels guilt anger and frustration both for his actions as well as for the shameful acts committed by his own species but 11 has been without the time lords for much longer he's had more relationships and challenges to pull him through naturally that time has given him the breathing room to heal and move on with his life ten hasn't felt that time he hasn't lived it he can't comprehend or empathize with the idea that one day all of this burning anger will just leave and it's almost insulting to be told that when you're standing there so compelled by it so all consumed by the choices you made 11 isn't just someone telling him to get over it he is the 10th doctor after a bunch of whimsical scenes where the special hammers home their similarities their differences here are stark and laid bare the doctors couldn't feel further apart so what single idea could possibly hope to unite them same software different case the sonic screwdriver has always been more than just a tool it's the doctor's magic wand the physical manifestation of his intellect and ability it stays with him even as he changes it makes sense to define all the screwdrivers as really just the same screwdriver it might look different from time to time but we should be reassured that it's still the thing we know and love i also like the idea that the sonic would do pretty much anything if given the time dissolving a door sure would be useful but the doctor is unfortunately always in too much of a hurry the war doctor got his very own sonic just for the special it's essentially the classic design with a touch of the modern aesthetic that being the lighty whitey plus 10 points for the show following star wars lightsaber colouring rules blue then green for a fancy change and of course red to represent the darkness capaldi should have wielded a purple sonic screwdriver but really the whole point of this distinction between screwdrivers is to let the audience know what is going on inside the doctor's head you really are me that calculation is still going on indeed is still going on it started with war 400 years through to 10 and 11 2. i have had 400 years to think about this even though for some of them the choice to destroy gallifreys in the future others the past they still think about it they're still deliberating calculating counting the children that died all the things they could have done differently no matter what he might say he has been making this calculation for 400 years same software different face the core principle behind wars sonic the design from classic with a touch of new who was true of his costume and tardis as well he has a double-breasted waistcoat and a weathered leather jacket this all feeds into hertz performance he has the posh gravelly thing going on that gentlemanly veneer from eight with a war weary grittiness that's ripped straight from nine i think this whole merging two doctor costumes together thing was perhaps the impetus behind going from this to this to this smith's second outfit seems to prelude his more minimal sense of style as 12. so even though i think the outfit is a misfire i like it once again because it reinforces the notion that he is one being changing not because of regeneration but because he grows as a person wars tardis is basically nines tardis but with one special edition from classic i love the round thing what are the round things no idea considering how quickly hurt was cast i can only imagine the design team and costume departments didn't have very long to come up with all this so hats off to them the same software different case theme crops up again when the doctors take a ride in the 10th doctor's tardis desktop is glitching three of us from different time zones is trying to compensate so it would be worth it alone just for the awesome visual of seeing the doctors cycle through these designs in seconds a clever line of technobabble feasibly explaining why we arrive at the current interior but it's also suitably wibbly-wobbly it's strange to think the doctors spend the majority of the special intense tardis when without context you would assume it as elevens but it's all designed to just bring you to the conclusion that in actuality this is just the tardis that's just the doctor it's the same machine the same face no matter how it might appear mother even manages to resist pointing out how clever he's being oh you've redecorated i don't like it love ten's face that is really a david tennant expression for the ages isn't it and i like that he then looks to clara and she seems to find it funny the same way she finds eleven's buffoonery funny it's a nice little reminder in the edits that clara sees ten as much a doctor as her own i also think moffat resisted another habit much like his reliance on cramming in too many villains and cameos so too did the moth have a tendency to cram too many locations and ideas into one story sometimes when moffat tries to do epic we end up with something like the wedding of river song now i don't mind that episode and seeing eleven travel across cd bars and crypts is cool but it moves from one place to the next so quickly that you can barely drink it in the day of the doctor sees a multi-doctor spanning epic spend most of its run time in a present-day art gallery and a forest in 1562. sure we go to gallifrey but the time we have there is well spent the barn is a great location to anchor the action and it never outstays its welcome the doctors aren't hopping between planets and realities and finding weird ship for the sake of it like sentient skulls you get a sense of each time period without it being overbearing so that the focus can remain on the interplay between tenant smith and hurt it's also helped by some strong supporting characters who drive each setting the general on gallifrey kate stewart and osgood in the present and queen elizabeth the first in the past the general isn't a particularly sympathetic character he's all pomp and circumstance and is meant to represent the ineffective and delusional gallifreyan high commands the officer that sends you into the fire as danny pink would say he's not so much an antagonist as an obstacle for the doctor to overcome ken bones sells the character's war weary stern presence and it was great to see him return in series nine queen liz is a bit of a badass she kills his icon with a tiny little knife and then most impressively poses their leader frees the doctors procures the tardis and explains their plan you would destroy london to save the world yes i would kate stewart stands up against the zygom menace risking literally everything in a bid to stop them how many times have you made that calculation once turned into the man i am now even as three doctors are busy trying to save the universe all the other supporting characters hold their own and for a writer that was often criticized for some of his characterization when it came to female characters it should be noted moffat does good work here cait stewart is one of his best reimaginings of an old character osgood is great in the capaldi years where ingrid oliver's character was given a proper three-dimensional personality her character goes through one of the few doctor who resurrections that really work and the zygom plot surrounding the twin osgoods is oz fantastic oz great it sounds great osgood is funny day of the doctor but doesn't have an awful lot to do however her final moment is a great teaser of what's to come the doctor starts the special divided but in the black arc i've seen it's full tilt doctoring they're mirroring all their movements they are the same man and the war doctor knows it this smile is just everything understood sir but why would i take it there it also features a really nice moffett trope aping the big bang the doctor uses his mastery of time to pre-establish some events and break into the black archive the result is stunning three doctors in the painting standing down a dalek and striding into the portal to london just in time to stop a nuclear detonation just don't ask what those lasers coming out the screwdrivers are never seen that before never will again once again the zygons parallel the doctor's internal journey because what i did that day was wrong just wrong because i got the setup with the painting being moved as well as the plot point about the staff of the black archive having their memories wiped come crashing together in a really satisfying manner both kate stewart's want what is best for their people not necessarily a sinister decision and both see only two ways to resolve the problem kill or be killed the doctor realizes there is a third way until we decide to let you out no one in this room will be able to remember if they're human or zygote the doctor makes the case forget who is zygon and who is human meaning neither can feasibly detonate the bomb and know for certain they are serving their cause what a smart way of resolving a huge conflict in the story in seconds just in time to keep things moving to the real meat of the narrative then all things considered each time i grew up the war doctor makes a difficult call he decides that he must sacrifice his chance to be a good man so that his future selves can achieve good things great men are forged in fire it is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame gallifrey's fate is all but confirmed the moment gives the doctor one last nudge you know the sound the tardis makes that sound brings hope wherever it goes the doctor is a weary traveler just passing through helping out where he can learning and the stories that spread word of his good deeds spread the word of that awesome sound too of course it wouldn't just be able to bring hope to the galaxy but to the doctor himself however lost even you damn probably one of the best nuggets of moffat dialogue i think so the oldest and closest companion the tardis a nice little reprisal of one of the most important moments from who cannon under moffat's tenure [Music] never cruel or cowardly after eight years of lamenting the loss of his species after losing every single chance to find someone just like him he needed a win never give up second chances are rare but the doctor deserves it after everything he's saved after everything he's lost he has earned the chance to hope again this story can sometimes be overlooked as just a romp but it really works on an emotional level and what am i have you really forgotten yes maybe yes this is a story where the doctor is the protagonist he goes on an introspective journey and faces his ugliest self to come out reborn then what do i do be a doctor he's not the man who forgets he's the man who forgives in spite of the time lords going wildly out of control at the end of the war they don't deserve to be destroyed the alternative is burning and i've seen that and i never want to see it again in just 75 minutes smith's doctor is given reason enough to complete his journey and begin his regeneration i don't think he had that before this special i have had 400 years to think about this i changed my mind calculation complete the doctor has an entirely joyous moment and gets to share it with himself twice there's something those billion billion daleks don't know because if they did they'd probably send for reinforcement watching tenant smith and hurt finish each other's thoughts as they hop around the room is corny i've been thinking about it for a century it is good that is brilliant but doctor who is allowed to be corny sometimes you don't like those faces cute frozen in an instant of time except we're going to commit to a whole planet but the dialect will be firing on each other they destroyed themselves in their own crossfire the anger and the post time were angst was great and it propelled doctor who into the 2000s but mother understands that the show needs to keep moving forward and change up the status quo i think it was time everybody lives rose just this once everybody lives after all the loneliness and the misery for the doctor to get his people back we have nothing you would have hope and this is going to take all of the doctors this multi-doctoring without bringing them back using stock footage thing is handled much better in this than in the name of the doctor the production team wisely chose to keep them behind holograms here and use the o to show off the scale of the scene as all 12. oh yeah the very first shot of capaldi's doctor one unexpected surprise back in the day i was kind of hoping moffitt would pull a tiny whimey and have this multi-doctor story incorporate a fully formed 12th doctor from the future i thought surely if we've seen capaldi's announcement that was back in august of the same year it would be a shame for him to start his run and miss the multi-doctor special by a whisker it would be like him cropping up without an origin story you get a little vertical slice of what this doctor is in the special and then later when smith regenerates you get to see how he became that man but now looking back on it i'm just happy we got those attack eyebrows i don't think this episode could have handled any more doctors as evidenced by this scene epic as it is could you imagine 75 minutes of this many mouths commencing calculations that divide one universe i think three is a good sweet spot for the amount of doctors in a special in one scene anyway i'm happy with the decision to bring gallifrey back i think moffat was right to do so there's just one little detail we disagree on the way this is supposed to work is that the doctor only ever thought he'd use the moment to kill the time lords so i won't remember that i tried to save gallifrey rather than burn it i have to live with that he forgets the events of the special and only assumed that he had gone through with it living with that decision as we have seen predominantly across the ninth and 10th doctor's arcs by the time we get here is 11 the doctor knows that it always went down this one way he always did the right thing and changed his mind moffat's reasoning was i don't care he's just not going to do it i don't really like this i think it robs some of the weight behind those seminal early years of who that's just it don't you see donna can you understand if i could go back and save them then i would but i can't it's one thing to suggest that he's screwed up and later earns the chance to fix it is another thing entirely for him to have never screwed up in the first place but ignorance dictated he thought he did the arc of this episode is so powerful because of that moment where the doctor finally says no he's thought about it for so long he's moved on he's done it all now all that stands is the question of whether or not he can still do something about it sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones but you still have to choose well nope not here how many worlds has his regret saved do you think and that's what makes this a tragedy this pain is the thing that propels him to do so much good across new who that is his thrust to make sure he is a doctor again i know he still thought this was the case destroying gallifrey and everything but it just seems unnecessary to say he never got it wrong rather than just showing that he got a second chance to do it all over again but hey head cannon is a good cure-all for most things just needs a little tweak i still think that ultimately the day of the doctor sends who in the right direction in the war doctor's final scene moffatt the self-described box set man gives us the missing regeneration he gave us john hurt as the doctor and now we finally see john hurt turn into well we see the beginning of him becoming christopher eccleston shame they couldn't get nine but it's still really cool john hurt gave us an incredible one-off doctor he's one of britain's greatest actors and no matter what could have been it was truly special that he became a part of this for this moment i am the doctor again john hurt manages to make himself an established part of a 50-year dynasty on the eve of the anniversary in little over an hour i hope he knew just how fantastic he was and how much joy he brought to this character on such a special occasion hurts passing in 2017 left a legacy of masterful work across over 200 screen rolls the doctor is just scratching the surface of what he did so that was day of the doctor all things considered i'm really happy with the way it turned out moffat did a great job oh of course i'm going to talk about the curator i never forget a face i know you don't it was always going to be tough to bring in a classic doctor without scratching credulity how do you explain why the doctor no longer looks like the doctor but moffat provides a great workaround here imagining the final incarnation of the doctor taking up one of his favorite old faces growing old and curating some alien paintings is exactly the retirement plan that would suit this ancient old wizard even though the show will never get there the wheels will of course keep turning it's an awesome what-if ending that feels like the perfect fit for the rebel time lords it isn't just fan service either baker's curator actually provides the final piece of the narrative puzzle it's all one title gallifrey falls no more the best part old tom has still got it who knows who knows oh and we're all in agreement that the national gallery is the curator's tardis right the whole thing it's a tardis the day of the doctor managed to achieve the impossible more than once from having no doctors in the 50th to all of them and then some retconning a doctor into existence managing to just about stick the landing moffett managed to celebrate doctor who and challenge the material at the same time it is a celebration of 50 years of doctor who but actually it's moving the whole doctor who legend forward the 50th anniversary special features all the references and callbacks to get you giddy but it never loses sight of what it should really be about this is about the doctor as a romp it's a fun adventure bolstered by a wicked smart script that's full of zingers and clever ideas as an emotional journey it provides a new window into the doctor's head and closes out a long-standing arc with a bold new direction ultimately this special acts as a statement are not just smith's doctor but moffat's tenure as showrunner in just 75 minutes moffat distills the essence of what makes the doctor the timeless hero we've loved for generations when quizzed on the importance of such a milestone moffatt spoke about the enduring nature of the show and the tenacity with which it managed to get the big five-o what can one say about 50 years of doctor who well first of all one could be pedantic doctor who hasn't been on for 50 years owing to the outright stupidity and unforgivable blindness of the bbc there was a 16-year gap that gap is important though it confers something very special on this most special of all shows immortality doctor who is the show that comes back ax it at your peril someone like me is going to call you a fool in the end i thought let's just try to make it a really really good one do what james bond did with their 50th a story that's so good in its own right that it stands up as a 50th special it remains to be seen if moffat managed to set up.2 for the next 50 years but all that matters is that you know he tried his best and his best is more than enough never cruel or cowardly never give up never give in happy birthday doctor who the full fat podcast is back join me as i catch up on the latest episodes of the mandalorian and delve into concept art from the cancelled star wars battlefront 4. you can get it wherever you get your podcasts and there will be links provided in the description below hi guys matt here thank you for watching another full fat video don't forget to click that subscribe button and hit the bell so you know when a new video drops if you'd like to get in touch with me why not follow me on twitter at full fat videos or on instagram at full underscore fat underscore videos a big personal thank you to our full fat tia patrons dr chike jax merrick and cyrus salker your ongoing support keeps the lights on until next time keep it full fat

Channel: Full Fat Videos

Views: 825,827

Keywords: The Day of the Doctor - The Best Anniversary Special Ever, the day of the doctor, day of the doctor, best doctor who episode, doctor who, 57th anniversary, 50th anniversary, tenth doctor, eleventh doctor, david tennant, matt smith, war doctor, john hurt, explained, review, breakdown, steven moffat, jodie whittaker, chris chibnall, ninth doctor, 11th doctor, 10th doctor, gallifrey, dalek, zygon, full fat videos, worst doctor who, the doctor, multi doctor, the master

Id: aEtW8B0Z5Lk

Length: 55min 1sec (3301 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 23 2020