Doctor Who Review: The Day of the Doctor

It was a long time coming, but The Doctor has finally reached his 50^th Anniversary.  And with the anniversary, naturally, comes the Anniversary Special.  This just-over-an-hour long episode of Doctor Who, ‘The Day of the Doctor’ was, in my opinion, one of the best showings that the series has made in a long time.  Some may complain about the liberties that Steven Moffat and the writers took with regards to altering the story of The Doctor, but to me ‘The Day of the Doctor’ was nothing less than pure genius.

The episode begins with our current Doctor, Matt Smith running to grab Clara from her regular world job so that they can head out on yet another adventure.  Of course, this gets sidetracked, as plans often do for The Doctor and his companions.  U.N.I.T. snags up the T.A.R.D.I.S. and brings the pair in to help them with a problem they’re having.  As it turns out, a painting depicting the fall of Gallifrey has been sent to The Doctor from none-other-than Queen Elizabeth (the 1500s version).  But that’s just the beginning.

Switch to the war on Gallifrey, sometime in The Doctor’s past (and present, and future).  We see another Doctor, the one played by John Hurt.  He’s busy battling Daleks and the Time Lords are losing the war.  So he heads off to get “The Moment”, a weapon of mass destruction that will end the existence of both sides in the conflict.  But to get it to activate, he first has to convince the weapon that it should go off, as The Moment happens to be self-aware.  Before he can blow everything up, however, a fez comes flying through a worm-hole.

Then off we go to see David Tennant, back in the The Doctor’s shoes.  He’s hanging out with Queen Elizabeth and tracking down a shape-shifting monster.  And then he too gets a worm-hole fez delivery.  Thus, all three Doctors come together.  Using their combined wit, the trio must figure out a way to stop a war between the shape-shifters and humans.  And when that’s done, they have to figure out an answer to the bigger question of how to stop the Time War, preferably without blowing up Gallifrey in the process.

And that’s all I’ll say about the plot.  If you haven’t seen it yet, I don’t want to throw out too many spoilers.  Let’s just say that every Doctor (including our future incarnation, Peter Capaldi) gets at least a small bit of screen time.

All-in-all, this was one of the funnest experiences I’ve had watching the show.  The chemistry between Smith, Tennant and Hurt was absolutely amazing.  The story was well-conceived and even the “changes” it makes to the time-line will cause the show to become more interesting.  The multiple story arcs were integrated well and I never felt like there was too much going on to pay attention to the bigger picture.  We got a fun ride this time around, with the best of Doctor Who’s comedy, action and seriousness all rolled together.  I have to scratch my head at why they haven’t tried to do more multi-Doctor episodes before, as the benefit to the show is blatantly obvious.

Just one more episode for Matt Smith - the upcoming Christmas Special, ‘The Time of the Doctor’.  Given the way the Anniversary Special ended, there are a few complications that need to be dealt with before Capaldi can make an appearance.  I’m eager to see how they resolve these issues.  For a quick look (as in a measly 11 seconds long) at ‘The Time of the Doctor’, head over to this site and see the teaser.

Photo Credits -           

Day of the Doctor courtesy of doctorwhotv.co.uk