The Day of the Doctor (TV story)

The Day of the Doctor
Doctor:	Eleventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Clara
Featuring:	Tenth Doctor, War Doctor
Main enemy:	Zygons, Daleks
Main setting:	London, the 21st century England, 1562 Gallifrey, the Time War
Key crew
Writer:	Steven Moffat
Director:	Nick Hurran
Producer:	Marcus Wilson
Release details
Story number:	239
Premiere broadcast:	23 November 2013
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x75-minute special
Doctor Who television stories
← Previous	The Last Day
Production order
← Previous	The Name of the Doctor
Next →	The Night of the Doctor

The Day of the Doctor was the fiftieth anniversary special of Doctor Who. It was shown on both television and in cinemas across the world at 7:50 p.m. GMT, 23 November 2013, exactly 2 hours and 34 minutes. The BBC in fact credited it as the largest simulcast in television history. It was the first episode of Doctor Who to be produced in 3D, and the first televisual multi-Doctor story since 2007's Time Crash.

The episode featured the return of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, and the appearance of John Hurt as a previously unseen incarnation of the Doctor, the War Doctor. Furthermore, the War Doctor was shown beginning a regeneration into the Ninth Doctor, resolving the matter of where and when this incarnation originated from that had stood unanswered since his debut in 2005.

The special also included the surprise debut of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, as well as a cameo by an elderly Tom Baker, the former Fourth Doctor, whose role was kept ambiguous as either the Doctor or someone else entirely — the Curator.

Synopsis

The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure in this 50th anniversary special. In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor's own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.

Plot

The plot intertwines three threads related to present day England, Elizabethan England, and the fall of Arcadia, Gallifrey's second city, and the last day of the Time War. At Coal Hill School (the school attended by Susan Foreman in the first transmitted episode of Doctor Who, where Ian Chesterton is now Chairman of the Governors and W. Coburn is the Headmaster) Clara Oswald receives a message from the Eleventh Doctor and returns to the TARDIS, which is by royal order airlifted to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Preserved instructions from Elizabeth I of England (revealed to have been married to the Doctor) are shown to the Doctor, along with a 3-D portrait of the Last Day of the Time War, entitled "No More" or "Gallifrey Falls", and other 3-D paintings. The instructions also name the Doctor the National Gallery's 'curator,' to protect treasures Elizabeth I felt no one else could preserve. The other 3-D portraits' glass has been broken from within and figures in the paintings have disappeared. It transpires that the shape-shifting Zygons, preserved in old images, are invading. To defeat them, UNIT plan to detonate a nuclear warhead in London, from within their base, which contains a number of artifacts and is TARDIS-proof. In the meantime, in the midst of the Time War, the War Doctor - a hitherto-unknown "hidden" or "dark" incarnation of the Doctor (who bridges the gap between the original and 2005 series, and is unrevealed until this season) - watches Gallifrey falling to a Dalek invasion, and decides to trigger a weapon of mass destruction called the "Moment", which is described as a "galaxy eater" and will destroy both races completely. The weapon is sentient - it appears with the form of past assistant Rose Tyler to challenge whether this mass killing is truly right, by showing him what will become of him and the consequences, if he proceeds. In Elizabethan England the Doctor and a young Elizabeth I also find themselves under threat from Zygons. Locked in the Tower of London, the Doctor communicates to his present-day companions the code to activate a time transporter at UNIT, allowing them to escape the Zygons. Joined by his previous incarnation and the War Doctor, they enter UNIT by entering a picture in the same way as the Zygons. The Doctor triggers a memory eraser, causing humans and Zygons to forget which of them is human and which merely shape-shifting human appearance, forcing them to discuss peace rather than extreme solutions. The War Doctor, believing he now knows the consequences and has decided what is right, proceeds with his intention of detonating the Galaxy Eater. However his other two present incarnations convince him to change his mind and seek an alternative resolution. Instead they summon all of the Doctor's incarnations (including a not-yet-shown future incarnation seen fleetingly) who, working together, time-lock Gallifrey in an unknown location leaving the Dalek invaders of that planet to destroy themselves by the intensity of their own attack, now without a target. The War Doctor expresses approval of the incarnations he will become, and both he and the Tenth Doctor depart in their respective TARDISes, and the War Doctor is seen beginning to regenerate, echoing the First Doctor by saying that his body is "wearing a bit thin". Due to the disruption of time streams, they know they will not remember the War Doctor saving Gallifrey; both will remember him as destroying it. At the end, the Eleventh Doctor meets the mysterious Curator of the museum—played by Tom Baker (who played the iconic Fourth Doctor)—and is told that the painting's actual name was neither "No More" nor "Gallifrey Falls," but the singular "Gallifrey Falls No More", and '"Who" knows', hinting that the plan to save Gallifrey had worked, and the Doctor's future involves finding it. The episode ends with a nod to the series' history when the Doctor describes a dream he's had—one where the entire range of Doctor incarnations are seen together and the Doctor determines he will seek out Gallifrey once more.

Cast

• The Doctor - Matt Smith
• The Doctor - David Tennant
• The Doctor - Christopher Eccleston
• The Doctor - John Hurt
• The Doctor - Paul McGann
• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• The Doctor - Peter Davison
• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
• The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
• The Doctor - William Hartnell
• Clara - Jenna Coleman
• Rose - Billie Piper
• Tom - Tristan Beint
• Kate Stewart - Jemma Redgrave
• Osgood - Ingrid Oliver
• Time Lord soldier - Chris Finch
• Androgar - Peter de Jersey
• The General - Ken Bones
• Arcadian father - Philip Buck
• Time Lord - Sophie Morgan-Price
• Elizabeth I - Joanna Page
• Lord Bentham - Orlando James
• McGillop - Jonjo O'Neill
• Atkins - Tom Keller
• Zygons - Aidan Cook, Paul Kasey
• Voice of the Daleks & Zygons - Nicholas Briggs
• Dalek 1 - Barnaby Edwards
• Dalek 2 - Nicholas Pegg
• Voice over artist - John Guilor
• The Curator - Tom Baker (uncredited)
• The Doctor - Peter Capaldi (uncredited)

Crew

• Writer - Steven Moffat

References

• The Zygon homeworld was destroyed during the first part of the Last Great Time War.
• It is revealed that sometime during the 9th or 10th Doctor's lifetime, the Doctor spent one horrible night calculating how many children were killed when he destroyed Gallifrey as the War Doctor. The death toll of 2.47 billion children haunted the Tenth Doctor, while the Eleventh Doctor chose to move on and attempt to forget it. The question of how many children were killed was also the driving force behind the War Doctor choosing to meet his future incarnations. By the end of this episode, all the Doctors are relieved to know their actions prevented the deaths of so many innocent lives.
• Jack Harkness' vortex manipulator was saved in the Black Archive of UNIT. It later ended up in the possession of the Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald.
• The Doctor's age
  • While confronting a rabbit in Elizabethan England he briefly believes to be a Zygon in disguise, the Tenth Doctor says he is 904 years old.
  • When asked how old he is by the War Doctor, the Eleventh Doctor says he doesn't know and has lost track, settling on "Twelve hundred and something, I think, unless I'm lying." He goes on to say that he is so old he couldn't remember if he was lying about his age.
  • At this point, shortly before the end of his life, the Doctor who fought in the Time War says he's 400 years younger than the Eleventh Doctor when he gives his age as "Twelve hundred or something", making him somewhere between 800 and 900 years old.
• Kate Stewart asks for one of her father's files. She says it may be filed under the 70s or the 80s referencing the UNIT dating ambiguity.

Story notes

• The story uses the original opening sequence, modified to include a BBC logo.
• With the regeneration of the War Doctor into the Ninth Doctor, every incarnation of the Doctor up to his current life has been depicted onscreen.
• This episode marks the sixth televised Multi-Doctor story, not counting the times he meet his past or future self in the same regeneration.
• Two specially recorded scenes were shown before the special in its showing in cinemas. The first featured Dan Starkey as Commander Strax, accompanied by his Sontaran clone batch, lecturing the viewers on cinema etiquette. The second featured Matt Smith and David Tennant as the Eleventh and Tenth Doctors instructing viewers to put on their 3D glasses.
• Along with Rose, Smith and Jones, and Partners in Crime, this is the fourth episode of the revived series to not have a pre-credits sequence.
• Discounting the appearance of the Valeyard in The Trial of a Time Lord, this is the first story to feature a future Doctor before their official debut.
• The brief scene that features the Ninth Doctor saying "And for my next trick" is recycled from one of the opening moments in his final episode, TV: The Parting of the Ways.
• The Eleventh Doctor is seen wearing Amy Pond's reading glasses in different spots of the episode.
• Clara is able to shut the TARDIS doors by snapping her fingers. This was an ability only seen previously used by the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors.
• When Clara drives away from the school a clock is shown with the time 5:16. This was the exact time the first episode of Doctor Who began on 23 November 1963.
• The method used by the Eleventh and Tenth Doctors to get the Zygons and UNIT personnel to negotiate is based in no small part on philosopher John Rawls' veil of ignorance.

Production errors

• As Osgood receives a call from the Eleventh Doctor, for Kate Stewart, she is heard talking on the phone but is seen running with the phone held out from her body.
• When the Tenth Doctor proposes to Queen Elizabeth, a horse can be seen in the background. As he accuses her of not being human, the horse can be seen having changed positions to face them and back between camera shots.
• The Space-Time Telegraph refers to the Brigadier's last name as "Left-Bridge" Stewart.

Continuity

• Clara is now a teacher at Coal Hill School. A sign shows that Ian Chesterton is chairman of the school's Board of Governors. The sign for 76 Totter's Lane is still in existence next to the school. (TV: An Unearthly Child)
• The Tenth Doctor's wedding with Elizabeth I is shown (TV: The Shakespeare Code, The End of Time, The Beast Below). Presumably, the fact he tells her he'll be "right back" yet shows no intention afterwards of returning to his new wife is what results in her antagonism towards him when they next meet. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
• The Eleventh Doctor refers to his fate on Trenzalore. (TV: The Wedding of River Song, The Name of the Doctor)
• As he begins to regenerate, the War Doctor hopes for a "less conspicuous" pair of ears. The body into which he regenerated, though, had rather large ones, even compared to the War Doctor. It was in fact one of the first things he noted when looking at himself in a mirror in Rose's flat. (TV: Rose, The Empty Child)
• Just before leaving, the Tenth Doctor says, "I don't want to go." Eleven quips, "He always says that." (TV: The End of Time)
• The Tenth Doctor, when returning to his own timeline, tells the Eleventh Doctor that he is glad his "future is in good hands." These are the exact same words the First Doctor says to the Fifth Doctor upon the former's departure. (TV: The Five Doctors)
• When the War Doctor enters the Tenth Doctors TARDIS he says he really "let it go", the Eleventh comments that this was his grunge phase. When the Eleventh Doctor enters the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS console room he loads his own "desktop" changing the TARDIS design, The Tenth declares he doesn't like it. Both of these reference the Second Doctor when he saw the Third Doctor's TARDIS (TV: The Three Doctors), and the Eleventh Doctor when visited Craig Owens in his new home. (TV: Closing Time) The TARDIS told the Doctor that she archived past and future versions of the console room in The Doctor's Wife. While changing the theme, the console room briefly features a hybrid of the Tenth Doctor's console room and the original TARDIS roundel design. The War Doctor's TARDIS is later seen using this theme during the envelopment of Gallifrey.
• This is the first televised appearance of the Zygons since TV: Terror of the Zygons.
• Prior to regenerating, the War Doctor comments that his body is "wearing a bit thin", repeating the line spoken by the First Doctor immediately prior to his regeneration into the Second Doctor. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
• The Black Archive of UNIT appears. (TV: Enemy of the Bane, COMIC: Don't Step on the Grass)
• A pair of red heels identical to the ones River wore on the Byzantium are seen in the Black Archive. (TV: The Time of Angels)
• This is the first time all the Doctors of all regenerations come together.
• The Tenth Doctor asks the Eleventh where he's going and the Eleventh Doctor replies, "Spoilers." (TV: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead et al.)
• The Tenth Doctor uses a machine similar timey-wimey detector; (TV: Blink) this one detects shapeshifters.
• The Eleventh Doctor calls to Clara through a wormhole, referring to her as the "Wicked Witch of the Well". Hila Tacorien was previously referred to by this name due to the wormhole in Caliburn House. (TV: Hide)
• Clara had not previously visited the Black Vault. However, she was surprised to find she had previously been vetted and granted high-level access. Photos of her and Kate Stewart are pinned to a board showing all of the Doctor's companions; however, this is the first time they have met from Clara's point of view.
• Kate asks Osgood to tell "Malcolm" to change the batteries in the robotic ravens outside the Tower of London, and later calls Malcolm to request some of her father's files. This could be a reference to Malcolm Taylor, a UNIT scientist the Tenth Doctor met during his time on San Helios with the Swarm. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
• The Time Lords in the War Room mention that the High Council are holding an emergency session, and that they have plans of their own. This session is presumably the one depicted in (TV: The End of Time), in which the Lord President planned to use the Master to allow Gallifrey and the Time Lords to escape the time lock.
• The War Doctor and his successors were plagued by the children they killed by using the Moment. When the Eleventh Doctor took Amy Pond to Starship UK, he couldn't stand the sound of children crying. (TV: The Beast Below)
• Confronting the War Doctor as he prepares to use the Moment, the Tenth Doctor notes that they shouldn't be here because of the time lock. (TV: The Stolen Earth, The End of Time)
• When the Doctor calls from the TARDIS phone, his telephone number once again is 07700900461, as it was in (TV: The Stolen Earth).
• The activation code for the vortex manipulator is 1716231163 - 17:16 23/11/63, the airdate and time of (TV: An Unearthly Child).
• Before regenerating ,the War Doctor expresses the wish that his next incarnation's ears be less conspicuous. The Ninth Doctor was known for having prominent ears.

Footnotes