Twice Upon a Time (TV story)

Twice Upon a Time
Doctor:	Twelfth Doctor
Featuring:	First Doctor, the Captain, Bill, Thirteenth Doctor, Polly, Ben, Rusty, Nardole, Clara
Main setting:	Antarctica, December 1986; Villengard; Ypres, Christmas 1914
Key crew
Writer:	Steven Moffat
Director:	Rachel Talalay
Producer:	Peter Bennett
Release details
Story number:	276
Premiere broadcast:	25 December 2017
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x60 minute episode
Official trailer
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Another official trailer
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Memorable moment
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Another memorable moment
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
One more memorable moment
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Behind the scenes video
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
More behind the scenes stuff
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Another behind the scenes moment
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	The Doctor Falls
Christmas specials
← Previous	The Return of Doctor Mysterio

Twice Upon a Time was the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special. It was the final episode under showrunner Steven Moffat's tenure, and featured the last regular appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor.

Concluding the end of the Twelfth Doctor's life teased in World Enough and Time and shown throughout the events of The Doctor Falls and this episode, the ending showed the Doctor's regeneration and introduced Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, marking the first female incarnation of the Doctor in the series history.

After a surprise appearance at the end of the last episode the First Doctor had his first full appearance on the programme since The Five Doctors. Here, he was portrayed by David Bradley, who had previously played William Hartnell himself in An Adventure in Space and Time. This was the first televised interaction between a "classic" Doctor and a BBC Wales era Doctor since 2007's Time Crash. Archival footage from The Tenth Planet is used to bookmark the First Doctor's place in this story. The special also introduced Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, credited as "the Captain", a new member of the Lethbridge-Stewart family.

Ben Jackson and Polly Wright make a brief re-reappearance in the programme for the first time since their exit in 1967's The Faceless Ones. Bill Potts joins the two Doctors, and Captain Lethbridge-Stewart, as a Testimony glass avatar. Past companions Nardole and Clara, briefly, make similar appearances. The "good Dalek" Rusty, from Capaldi's second episode, Into the Dalek, makes his second appearance—in Villengard, a location mentioned only once before on television, in 2005's The Doctor Dances .

Synopsis

Two Doctors stranded in a foreboding snowscape, refusing to face regeneration. In the final chapter of the Twelfth Doctor's adventure, he must face his past to decide his future. It is the end of an era, but the Doctor's journey is only just beginning...

Plot

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
• The Doctor - David Bradley
• Bill - Pearl Mackie
• The Captain - Mark Gatiss
• Clara - Jenna Coleman
• Nardole - Matt Lucas
• Helen Clay - Nikki Amuka-Bird
• German Soldier - Toby Whithouse
• Polly - Lily Travers
• Ben - Jared Garfield
• Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

The Tenth Planet

• The Doctor - William Hartnell
• Polly - Anneke Wills
• Ben - Michael Craze

And introducing Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor

Uncredited

The Tenth Planet

• General Cutler - Robert Beatty
• Krail - Reg Whitehead
• Cyberman Voices - Roy Skelton, Peter Hawkins
• The Doctor - Patrick Troughton

Invasion of the Dinosaurs

• The Doctor - Jon Pertwee

Arc of Infinity

• The Doctor - Peter Davison

The Happiness Patrol

• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy

The Night of the Doctor

• The Doctor - Paul McGann

The Day of the Doctor

• The Doctor - John Hurt

The Parting of the Ways

• The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston

The Pandorica Opens

• Cyberman Voice - Nicholas Briggs

The Waters of Mars

• The Doctor - David Tennant

Journey's End

• Davros - Julian Bleach

Crew

to be added

References

to be added

Story notes

• The Twelfth Doctor's regeneration has a new visual effect, and even sound effect, to those used previously in the BBC Wales series. Resembling slow, elongated golden lightning, it is the first regeneration for the Doctor, since the Seventh Doctor's in 1996, to use an effect which is visually distinct from that seen in The Parting of the Ways, with the Ninth Doctor up to The Doctor Falls.
• Toby Whithouse is the second person involved in the BBC Wales series as both an actor and a writer, following Mark Gatiss.
• This is the third consecutive regeneration story to include the word "time" in the title, following The End of Time and The Time of the Doctor.
• This is the second multi-Doctor story to feature a regeneration, and the first in which it is the current incarnation of the Doctor who is shown to regenerate. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• Nikki Amuka-Bird is credited as "Helen Clay" on-screen, and as "The Glass Woman" in Radio Times.
• When Bill's glass avatar and the Doctor talk and she restores his memories of Clara Oswald, the music from The Husbands of River Song when the Doctor and River were on a date before the Singing Towers of Darillium plays.
• Nardole having invisible hair was already jokingly stated by Steven Moffat in a BBC post episode interview. There he also stated that Nardole was the only one able to see it through his glasses and that it was purple.
• The Twelfth Doctor's final lines about his name and how humans would understand it are directly taken from a theory Capaldi stated at a press screening interview of The Pilot.
• The Twelfth Doctor's line "don't eat pears" is from an unshown scene of Human Nature.
• This is the first regeneration story in the revived series to not have any direct connections to the Last Great Time War.
• This is the third multi-Doctor story, after The Two Doctors and Time Crash, that's not an anniversary special.

Ratings

• 5.70 million (UK final)

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• The Twelfth Doctor mentions Bill's Cyber-conversion and apparent death, (TV: World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls) and Bill explains how Heather saved her. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
• Bill reminds the Twelfth Doctor about Heather and the sentient oil. (TV: The Pilot)
• Despite remembering that Heather saved her, Bill is unaware of Heather's current whereabouts, implying her own transformation from human to sentient oil is considered her 'death' by the Testimony, as this is the point at which her memories run out. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
• The Twelfth Doctor tells the Testimony that the Earth is defended and comments on how "that almost never works" when the Testimony retreats briefly. (TV: The Eleventh Hour et. al) The First Doctor is surprised by this, causing the Twelfth Doctor to remember that he is "early days."
• The Twelfth Doctor is well aware of the consequences that would arise from the premature death of his predecessor and the resulting erasure of his deeds. (TV: Turn Left, The Name of the Doctor)
• The First Doctor remarks on his successor playing the electric guitar. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice, Hell Bent, The Pilot)
• The Doctor was present for the Christmas truce of 1914 earlier in his first incarnation (PROSE: The Little Drummer Boy) as well as during his fifth (PROSE: Never Seen Cairo) and ninth incarnations. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
• The First Doctor is unfamiliar with the sonic screwdriver. (TV: Fury from the Deep et. al)
• The Twelfth Doctor goes to the abandoned weapon forges of Villengard, to find an old ally. The Ninth Doctor previously told Jack Harkness that he had once visited Villengard, when the main reactor went critical, and vaporised everything. Jack's sonic blaster was made here. (TV: The Doctor Dances)
• The First Doctor explains why he ran away from Gallifrey. (TV: Heaven Sent)
• The Twelfth Doctor meets Rusty again. (TV: Into the Dalek)
• The Doctor mentions that Earth is a "level 5 civilisation". (TV: City of Death, Voyage of the Damned, The Eleventh Hour)
• Helen Clay is from New Earth. She founded the Testimony Foundation in 5,000,000,012, just a few years before the Tenth Doctor and Rose first visited. (TV: New Earth, Gridlock)
• The Doctor holds a Dalek eyestalk. (TV: The Wedding of River Song, The Time of the Doctor)
• The Doctor is referred to as "the Doctor of War". (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor , Hell Bent) The Testimony also calls the Doctor by other titles associated with conflict, as did the Daleks, (TV: The Parting of the Ways, Asylum of the Daleks, PROSE: Engines of War) and the Great Intelligence. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
• The Doctor meets his first incarnation. He has met him before and also struggles to remember the encounter. (TV: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Day of the Doctor)
• The Doctor once more pilots a previous incarnation's TARDIS. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• The Doctors banter about their differences. (TV: Time Crash, The Day of the Doctor)
• The First Doctor still calls the TARDIS "the Ship". (TV: The Daleks, The Sensorites, PROSE: Time and Relative)
• The Twelfth Doctor favourably remarks about the desktop theme of the First Doctor's TARDIS. The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors did the same regarding the War Doctor's TARDIS. Likewise, the First Doctor criticises the Twelfth Doctor's desktop theme just as the Tenth did the Eleventh's. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• The events of The Tenth Planet are referred to.
• The Testimony shows the Doctors the amount of times they have become associated with wars. Notably, events from The Waters of Mars, Journey's End, The Day of the Doctor, The Name of the Doctor.
  • The Testimony also show snippets of the Doctor's previous incarnations: the Third Doctor (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs), the Fifth Doctor, (TV: Arc of Infinity), the Seventh Doctor, (TV: The Happiness Patrol), the Eighth Doctor, (TV: The Night of the Doctor) and the Ninth Doctor. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
  • The Testimony also shows Davros. (TV: Journey's End)
• The Eleventh Doctor's conflict at Trenzalore is mentioned by the Testimony, (TV: The Time of the Doctor) as is the Pandorica, (TV: The Pandorica Opens) the Last Great Time War, (TV: Dalek et al.) and the destruction of Skaro. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
• The Testimony tells the Doctor that he is in the shadow of The Valeyard. (TV: The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids, The Ultimate Foe) The Valeyard had previously cause the Sixth Doctor to regenerate. (AUDIO: The End of the Line, The Red House, Stage Fright, The Brink of Death)
• The Twelfth Doctor repeats River Song's favorite phrase of "spoilers" to his predecessor. After the First Doctor is surprised to learn that Earth is defended, he calls the First Doctor "early days," the same phrase used by River to refer to the Tenth Doctor. (TV: Silence in the Library)
• The Twelfth Doctor remembers his promise to "never be cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in." (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
• The Twelfth Doctor uses his astral map (TV: The Web Planet) and the TARDIS data-bank (TV: Castrovalva)
• The Twelfth Doctor mentions the Daleks' Pathweb. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, The Time of the Doctor)
• The Twelfth Doctor once more references River Song's words from her diary. (TV: Extremis, The Doctor Falls)
• The Doctors promise to check up on the family of Lethbridge-Stewart. (TV: The Web of Fear, et al.)
• The Twelfth Doctor regains his memories of Clara. (TV: Hell Bent, For Tonight We Might Die, The Pilot)
• Regeneration energy has previously dealt severe damage to the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The End of Time)
• The Twelfth Doctor mentions Bill's Christmas gift of a rug. (TV: The Pilot)
• The final shot of the Twelfth Doctor is a shot of his eyes, echoing his first appearance (TV: The Day of the Doctor) His ring also falls to the ground shortly after regenerating, mirroring when his predecessor's bow tie fell to the ground as he regenerated. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
• The Twelfth Doctor says "Doctor, I let you go" before regenerating. Before he blew up the Cybermen on the Mondas Colony Ship, he previously told himself to let go. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
• The First Doctor chides Bill for swearing, echoing how he did similar with his own granddaughter Susan when she made crude remarks. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
• The Twelfth Doctor recalls where the alcohol is stored in the TARDIS, having seen River access it. (TV: The Husbands of River Song)
• The Twelfth Doctor tells his successor not to eat pears. The Seventh and Twelfth Doctor previously expressed a distaste for pears. (PROSE: Human Nature, TV: Hell Bent) Though the human John Smith was seen eating a pear in TV: Human Nature, footage which is used, sped up, in that same episode, included the Tenth Doctor himself warning Martha not to let his human counterpart eat pears.
• The Thirteenth Doctor expresses delight when she sees her new reflection in the TARDIS view screen. The Twelfth Doctor previously expressed approval when Clara suggested he could become female. (TV: Death in Heaven) The Eleventh Doctor also expressed enjoyment at being a woman when he switched bodies with Amy Pond. The Doctor noted that "Time Lords don't really worry that much about what sex they are." (COMIC: Body Snatched) He also mistakenly thought he had regenerated into a woman shortly after his own regeneration. (TV: The End of Time)
• The TARDIS doors fly open after the Doctor has regenerated and the TARDIS is malfunctioning. (TV: The End of Time)
• Shortly before regenerating, the Twelfth Doctor salutes Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, something that the Brigadier always wanted the Doctor to do. (TV: Death in Heaven)
• The glass avatar of Bill Potts mentions that the Doctor "serves with the pleasure of the human race." (TV: Thin Ice)
• Nardole telling the Doctor that "if he dies then everyone in the universe would go cold", resembles the Eleventh Doctor telling his old companions Sarah Jane and Jo Grant that "if he died then he thinks the whole universe might just shiver". (TV: Death of the Doctor)
• The Twelfth Doctor says "Snap" to the First Doctor when revealing that he's his future self, in a similar fashion to when the Sixth and Second Doctors met. (TV: The Two Doctors) The Tenth Doctor also did the same when comparing how similar he was to the Fifth Doctor. (TV: Time Crash) "Snap" was also a phrase River Song told the Tenth Doctor after showing him her screwdriver (TV: Silence in the Library)
• The First Doctor threatens Bill with a "jolly good smacked bottom." He told Susan Foreman she also deserved "a jolly good smacked bottom." (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• The Twelfth Doctor wears his sonic sunglasses again. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice et al)
• The Twelfth Doctor gets concerned when the First Doctor asks what browser history is. He previously warned Osgood and Bill not to look at his browsing history. (TV: The Zygon Inversion, Smile)

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

Digital releases

to be added

External links

• Official Twice Upon a Time page on the Doctor Who website