TV Review: Doctor Who - Day of the Doctor
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Ok guys, I promised you I would get back to Beview at some point and here it is. I owe you yet another apology. Thing is, it's not like I have writer's block, as I'm constantly thinking "ooh here's a brilliant thing I could write about!"...and it's not like I don't have time because everyone has 10 minutes to spare in their busily busy lives. The problem is not logging on and getting down to it in the first place. And that is where I owe you the apology.
Soppy heartfelt stuff out the way, let's begin! Also, there was no way I could possibly watch the 50th Anniversary episode of one of my favourite shows and not write a hugely enthusiastic review/beview on it. Impossible.
Speaking of impossible things...let's talk Doctors. Three of them at the same time, which is kinda impossible. Matt Smith, the quirky eccentric one with the bow tie and fez. David Tennant, one of my first loves and eternal ambassador of Converse. Also slightly eccentric. And John Hurt, the mysterious man. And mass killer? We always knew the Doctor had a troubled past, but it was always portrayed in a way that meant we didn't think twice or lose sleep over it.
(I should probably mention now that this review contains spoilers. Lots of them. Stop reading now because you deserve to watch it without it being ruined. Also *geeky Doctor Who joke alert* I am no River Song and I don't keep spoilers to myself.)
Anyhow, back to Doctor Who. I watched this in my local cinema to get the wholesome feel and experience; there's something about the buzz and energy of everyone around you that is hard to escape, especially when everyone's in their 3D glasses oohing and aahing at the screen and chuckling quietly at the in-jokes. With special recordings from the cast - and one funny Sontaran clip - it was worth every penny. Having said that, I'll still watch it on the telly again one of these days. Doctor Who on your TV screens is always a welcome thought. Even after 50 years.
Anyhow, back to the actual plot. It was much more light-hearted than I expected. In my head, it was all doom and gloom and I even predicted a major death and regeneration, even though Moffat and co. have been promising a Christmas regeneration into "12th" Doc Peter Capaldi. I wasn't disappointed by what I did see, however. Tennant and Smith had this amazing chemistry as you laugh at their similarities eg. the glasses, and John Hurt plays the older man laughing at his younger self brilliantly. Even though technically he is younger. Timey wimey stuff gets confusing sometimes. Nevertheless, we see present-day art gallery action with U.N.I.T, mysterious paintings and evil monsters, Elizabethan weddings, and most importantly a lot of Galifrey/Time Lord stuff from the Time War. All the stories interact with each other and scenes jump seamlessly from one to the next.
So we have this dilemma: does the Time Lord end this war and commit genocide? Or does he stand by and watch his people suffer? For ages, the Doctor has had this heavy burden of being the last of the Time Lords and the one responsible for pressing that big red button of mass death. But, *spoiler alert*, Steven Moffat did say ahead of this episode that it would change everything. And boy, didn't it just! New Option 3: Freeze em and save em. We had a glimpse of this from David Tennant's farewell ep "The End of Time" several years back, and now we find out how. Frozen paintings. It's a clever little device really, and one that leads nicely onto the future, and changes how we look at the past too. Add Bad Wolf Billie Piper, nice girl Clara adding an important and timeline-changing voice (whilst allowing Doctors to take centre stage), Zygons who weren't actually very scary, and a few subtle - and not so subtle - nods to the 50 year history, and you have one helluva Doctor Who celebration.
After all, it was a celebration. Teamwork, companions, saving the day and "being a Doctor"... It was heartwarming to see hope splashed about so prominently. Even John Hurt, who I thought would be a dark and dangerous fella, had a character we all felt for in his state of hopelessness. I had been half-expecting the David Tennant Doctor to be the one trapped in the parallel universe with Rose, but the fact that it was fascinating. And yes, he did marry Elizabeth I. At least we have closure from that episode aaages ago. And I'm beginning to ramble now; the Tom Baker cameo was lovely. I'm sure fans had been expecting more appearances, but I understood that the storyline would surely have dragged on if we found places for all past Doctors and companions. It was great to see the Doctors (even if by special effects) all working together...including Capaldi! In fact, when his eyes flashed on screen, I'm fairly certain you could have heard the gasp in unison from outside the cinema.
There's probably more I can say about it. But I'd be rambling even more than I am already. My afterthoughts (apart from "wow") were that:
1) I've really missed David Tennant. I started watching Doctor Who because of him and he really was magical, slipping straight back into those shoes.
2) It was dramatic without feeling too dramatic. The world is constantly in danger in the world of Doc Who, and this was no different except it didn't quite feel like it...
3) I'm excited by the future of the show. There's a lot more on the way and this ep has proved that Doctor Who is still going strong after all this time.
4) It felt like a celebration of the show. I left the building with a smile on my face.
Overall, a very good episode! I feel like I can't quite compare it with the usual ones, and it should be viewed as a spectacle in its own right. And you know what? I enjoyed it. I really did. What's next in the weird and wonderful land of sonic screwdrivers?
*Spoilers*
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