Strax Saves the Day (webcast)

Strax Saves the Day
Main character(s):	Strax
Featuring:	Vastra
Main setting:	13 Paternoster Row, Victorian London
Key crew
Writer:	Steven Moffat
Director:	Dan Starkey
Producer:	Emily Cook
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	21 March 2020
Premiere network:	YouTube
Format:	Introductory scene
The Day of the Doctor introductions
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Strax Saves the Day was a short webcast introduction to The Day of the Doctor produced by Emily Cook in 2020 to go along with a scheduled screening of said story as part of the Doctor Who: Lockdown! self-isolation watch-along programme due to the outbreak of COVID-19 worldwide.

Conceived as a successor to the original Strax-focused portion of the original cinema introduction to The Day of the Doctor, Cook reached out to Steven Moffat for pointers and permission to use Strax, and Moffat went as far as to write the story itself, which was then filmed in under twenty-four hours. Due to these contraints, Dan Starkey — Strax's actor — wasn't able to get into prosthetics, so an alternative was utilised; Strax would be represented by a unique prototype plushie created by BBC Worldwide that was never greenlit. Starkey later profused that his father had found it very odd that one of the props in the introduction — a punchbowl complete with a peace-lily which had belonged to his great-aunt — was now a canonical part of the Doctor Who universe. However, this Wiki does not treat it as part of the Doctor Who universe, as we deem this source invalid as it ostensibly breaks the fourth wall.

Publisher's summary

Thank you Strax for introducing today's viewing of The Day of the Doctor.

Plot

A shrunken, doll-like Strax walks on-screen, greets the "human scum" in his audience, and explains that he has just come from "deadly combat" with the Spy Master. He is confident that he escaped unscathed, but rather confused about why all the furniture in Vastra's house suddenly appears so much bigger.

Strax moves on to explain that the version of The Day of the Doctor they are about to see has been "enhanced" from the original 3D into "groundbreaking 2D". If anyone wishes to experience the story in its original format, they are advised to "develop a mild headache whilst sticking their fingers in their eyes", he claims.

The Sontaran butler explains that "as you know, all the original Doctors assembled to make this episode" before admitting that this is "except for most of them", and advises viewers to look out for "John Hurt's return to the role and Billie Piper's long-awaited return to a completely different role" as well as Tom Baker, appearing as "who was that supposed to be, anyway?!".

Finally, Strax expresses doubts as to whether history was actually changed by this story, but professes perhaps-unfounded faith in the fact that one thing is known for sure: the Time Lords are back for good…

Madame Vastra then calls from another room for Strax to put the kettle on, to which Strax hurries off.

Cast

• Strax - Himself
• Vastra - Neve McIntosh
• Dan Starkey - Dan Starkey (uncredited)

Crew

• Writer - Steven Moffat
• Producer - Emily Cook
• Assistant to Mr. Strax - Dan Starkey
• With Thanks To — Brian Minchin, Peter Ware, Doctor Who Magazine

Worldbuilding

• Strax has ostensibly experienced tissue compression following his face-off with the Spy Master.
• Strax refers to the Master as the Doctor's archenemy.
• The "Morbius" Doctors appear on screen when Strax mentions that "most" of the Doctor's faces are missing from the special.

Story notes

• This webcast's title is a play on the hashtag "#SaveTheDay" that became trending around the original 2013 broadcast of The Day of the Doctor, as well as the Doctor Who: Lockdown! watch-along of the story in 2020.
• Strax's point that in the end, only a small fraction of all the past Doctors appeared in The Day of the Doctor (a point illustrated by photographs of the "Morbius" Doctors) rode the wave of the controversial reinstatement in the then-latest televised Doctor Who story, The Timeless Children, that the Doctor had lives before being the First Doctor and that the faces seen in The Brain of Morbius were indeed the Doctor's.
• For the sake of comedy, images of John Hurt and Billie Piper from other roles entirely than The Day of the Doctor are used when Strax mentions them. The picture of the Curator is, meanwhile, one of an action figure rather than of Tom Baker in costume.
• A brief gag is played around the Coronavirus panic hoarding of toilet paper, as seen when 3 rolls of toilet paper are stacked next to Strax.
• The Radio Times article covering the short (written by Huw Fullerton) suggested that the fiendish device which transformed Strax into the living doll seen in the film was not the regular Tissue Compression Eliminator, but a "Plushie Compression Eliminator". This was mainly due to the TCE rendering people into immobile "porcelain"-like figurines of their former selves, whereas this Strax doll was given mobility and voice, and appearing to be a plushie-toy.
• On top of being Steven Moffat's first Doctor Who television script since 2017's Twice Upon a Time and his first Doctor Who material altogether since 2018's The Day of the Doctor novelisation, the introduction was also the first time since Deep Breath in 2014 that Dan Starkey and Neve McIntosh appeared as Strax and Madame Vastra in an audiovisual production, although the first only appears as a miniaturised doll, and the latter is only heard from outside the frame.
• The prototype plushie was given to Dan Starkey by Julie Holmes, who used to work for BBC Worldwide.

External links

• Strax Saves the Day at the official BBC America Twitter account
• Strax Saves the Day at the Doctor Who: Lockdown! wiki