The Day of the Doctor (TV story)

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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.[1] 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

to be added

Cast

Crew


References

  • The Zygon homeworld was destroyed during the first part of the Last Great Time War.
  • 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

Footnotes

  1. Doctor Who fans around the world await 50th anniversary special at BBC News
  2. The televised closing credits name John Hurt among one of the actors to play "the Doctor." The BBC iPlayer notes credit John Hurt's character as "the Other Doctor"
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Plays a Zygon duplicate as well as the original


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