The Power of the Doctor (TV story)

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The Power of the Doctor was the 2022 Doctor Who Centenary Special, broadcast as part of the BBC 100 celebrations. Marking the end of Jodie Whittaker's tenure as the Thirteenth Doctor, this was also the final entry to be penned by Chris Chibnall as showrunner. It saw the return of the Spy Master and Ashad, following their apparent demise at the end of The Timeless Children, and marked the first time the Master, the Cybermen and the Daleks all worked together onscreen.

Several past Doctor Who companions returned for the special, most prominently Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka, Sophie Aldred as Ace, and Bradley Walsh as Graham O'Brien. Appearing in cameo roles were Bonnie Langford and Katy Manning as Melanie Bush and Jo Jones, with Langford returning to the television series for the first time since her exit in Dragonfire, and Manning returning to for the first time since her character's last appearance in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor. Notably, joining Langford and Manning in a cameo role was William Russell as Ian Chesterton, marking the character's first onscreen appearance in the television series since The Chase in 1965, which Guinness World Records marked as the longest gap between appearances of a character still played by their actor.[source needed]

Also returning in mental manifestations of the Doctor’s consciousness were David Bradley, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann, all reprising their roles as their respective Doctors, and Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor.

The story notably marked the first onscreen retro-regeneration, after the Master taking over the Doctor's existence with his own regeneration, something he failed to do before to the Eighth Doctor, with this brief possession being the first forced regeneration since The War Games and causing the possessed Doctor to take on the Master's appearance. With the Master using the name of the Doctor, this technically makes Sacha Dhawan the first actor to have portrayed both the Master and the Doctor onscreen in the same story. The special also marked the second time the Doctor was seen to regenerate more than once within the same television story, following Twice Upon a Time, if one was to count the Timeless Child as a different entity from the Doctor, who underwent no less than six regenerations in The Timeless Children.

In a twist, the special introduced Tenth Doctor actor David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor in its closing moments, marking the first time on-screen that the Doctor regenerated into a different incarnation with the same appearance as a previous one, after such a phenomena was forshadowed by the Curator in The Day of the Doctor.

Synopsis

Famous paintings have been mysteriously defaced around Earth, seismologists have gone missing, there is strange activity occurring in volcanoes and across the stars a bullet train is pursued by CyberMasters. The Doctor doesn't understand how it all connects. All she has is a message from an old enemy - "this is the day you die"...

Plot

The Doctor and her companions rescue a space-going bullet train from a Cyberman attack, but Dan is nearly killed during the escapade. The Cybermen manage to escpe with the train's cargo, which seems to be a young human child. Having developed a sense of his own mortality, Dan parts ways with the Doctor in order to get back to living his life. A renegade Dalek contacts the Doctor, claiming to have decided the Daleks need to be destroyed due to them being a perversion of the Kaled race. It offers information about a plot to destroy humanity, promising to communicate a time and location. Kate Stewart also contacts the Doctor and informs her that various pieces of famous artwork have been defaced with the Master's visage and several seismologists abducted.

After briefly reuniting with former companions Tegan Jovanka and Ace McShane, the Doctor confronts the Master and learns he and his CyberMasters have teamed up with the Daleks and enslaved the child the Cybermen captured, who is in reality an energy being called the Qurunx, to end humanity by setting off eruptions from all volcanoes on Earth simultaneously. The Doctor meets the renegade Dalek, but discovers it had been allowed to contact her in order to lure her out, leaving the Daleks including their commander to kill the traitor and capture her.

The Master is arrested by UNIT, but reveals he sent a miniaturised Ashad to Tegan, pretending to be the Doctor. The miniaturised Ashad enlarges and acts as a portal to bring a fleet of Cybermen into UNIT HQ, freeing the Master. The Daleks take the Doctor to 1916 and hand her to the Master, who uses Gallifreyan technology to force her to regenerate into him. An AI program the Doctor created, taking the images of the Fifth, Seventh, Fugitive, and Thirteenth Doctors, leads Ace to meet with fellow former companion Graham O'Brien and destroy the Dalek volcano machine, Tegan to destroy the Cyberman converter created in UNIT HQ and destroy the CyberMasters before they convert Kate, and Yaz and previous ally Vinder to capture the Master and force him to undo the Doctor's transformation. Defeated, the Master mortally wounds the Doctor with the Qurunx' energy beam, causing her to begin her regeneration.

The Doctor takes Yaz home. Yaz meets with a group of former companions including Graham, Dan, Ace, Tegan, Ian Chesterton, Jo Jones, and Melanie Bush. The Doctor finds a cliff to regenerate upon. She says a fond farewell to her current self before saying to her next self “Tag, you’re it” and regenerates into her next incarnation. After the explosive regeneration finishes, resulting in a male incarnation once again and also a change in his clothes, the Fourteenth Doctor immediately realises something isn't right. By checking his teeth, he realises out loud in a very familiar voice and accent that he actually he knows the feeling of his new teeth. Alarmed by this, the newly regenerated Doctor begins to examine his new body. Recognising his new hands before noticing his predecessor's clothing has also completely been altered by the regeneration, the Doctor feels the shape of his new face and discovers to his shock that he has regenerated into a body virtually identical to his tenth incarnation. The new Doctor — or should that be the old Doctor? — can only exclaim in amazement and utter confusion "What? What? What!?"

Cast

And Introducing David Tennant as The Doctor

Uncredited cast

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

The Doctor's clothing

TARDISes

Culture

Locations

Story notes

Contradictions with expanded media

Details from script release

  • The bullet train pre-credits sequence has many changes:[14]
    • The CyberMasters entered in the wrong carriage because Train Marshal Halaz deliberately shuffled the carriages.[14]
    • On the train, Dan and Yaz reminded the Doctor that she forgot to tell them the plan.[14]
    • When Dan's helmet got hit, his face got suctioned toward the rupture and his nose plugged the gap.[14]
  • Dan's departure speech was completely different, with the Doctor giving a response.[14]
  • During its first meeting with the Doctor, the Dalek traitor revealed more of its background such as identifying itself as an elite biological combat engineer whose mission was to devise strategies to ameliorate any Dalek defeat in battle, its work resulting in a genetic code which was to activate and self-execute Dalek creatures in the event of a threat to Dalek supremacy in battle, causing their casings to flood with toxic radiation and detonate, fatally damaging all enemies within a broad radius.[14]
  • To start the Rasputin song, the original scene had the CyberMasters activate panels on their arms and the Master used an old iPod to play the music instead of the TCE.[14]
  • Originally, three planets were at war instead of two and the devastation would be seen up close.[14]
  • The Eighth Doctor Guardian was seen as a separate figure instead of being part of the one figure in the final version.[14]
  • The original script had the Master arrive in the Tunguska forest in Russia in 30 June, 1908. Additionally it had a whole scene with a Russian woman watching in horror as the "first experiment" with the cyber-planet went wrong and squashed many miles of forest. The Master claimed he sent himself to Siberia as "punishment".[14]
  • Tegan was seen more heavily injured after her fall, with an injured her ankle and wrist, whereas she only had a slight limp in the final version.[14]
  • The feedback was revealed to only have knocked Ashad unconscious and an additional scene showed Ashad wandering the UNIT hallways as the building collapsed around him.[14]
  • The original script had a scene, set after he was returned to his old body, with the Master as Grigori Rasputin meeting with Russian Prince Yusopov, who, in keeping with historical fact, would have "Rasputin" shot and put in a sack by two henchmen to be dumped in the river, only the bullets were not seen hitting.[14]
  • During the companion support group scene in the script the laptop was suggested to be for Martha Jones, Ryan Sinclair or, somehow, Jackie Tyler.[14]
  • The Thirteenth Doctor's final scene in the script was originally different, with the Doctor sitting rather than standing, and her last lines being switched around, with her final words being, "I bet it's going to be brilliant.", echoing back to her first words "Oh, brilliant." in TV: Twice Upon a Time.[15][14]
  • Due to the fact that Chris Chibnall did not know anything about the future of Doctor Who, the regeneration scene was left open ended, with the last shot being the Doctor mid-regeneration.[14]

Ratings

  • Overnights: 3.71 million[16]
    • Regeneration: 4.04 million[16]
  • Consolidated: 5.30 million[17]

Myths

  • Yasmin Khan would be a victim of the Tissue Compression Eliminator. (This turned out to be false. The rumour started when a promotional picture was released of Sacha Dhawan as the Master holding a tiny figurine resembling Yaz)
  • Dan Lewis would die. (This ended up being false. The rumour came about as no promotional material depicted Dan outside the space bullet train mission)
  • Kate Stewart would either die or be converted into a Cyberman. (Both of these ended up being false. Although she was shown going through the conversion process, which was halted by Tegan)
  • Vinder and Bel was to be revealed as the Doctor's parents. (This was proven false [this rumour had been circulating since "Once, Upon Time"])
  • The Doctor was to regenerate on top of a cliff or drown in the ocean. (Cliff was proven true)
  • The Doctor's regeneration was triggered by being shot by Yaz, who was under the influence of the Master. (This was proven false, although the Master was responsible for the Doctor's regeneration)

Filming locations

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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.
  • The Master's incarnation of the Doctor loses the Thirteenth Doctor's earring after changing his clothes. It momentarily returns during one scene, before disappearing once more until Jodie Whittaker's return to the role where it returns permanently without explanation.
  • On the ABC, "Qurunx" was misspelt as "Quaranx" in the subtitles.

Continuity

External links

Footnotes

  1. https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/latest-doctor-who-episode-starred-7744832
  2. https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-2022-specials-chris-chibnall-newsupdate/
  3. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11325209/amp/Jodie-Whittaker-distraught-filmed-final-Doctor-scenes.html
  4. 4.0 4.1 https://twitter.com/NicholasPegg/status/1584288414907498496
  5. 5.0 5.1 https://twitter.com/dorsetmuseum/status/1584279562623406080
  6. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-63378170.amp
  7. https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/liz-truss-resignation-helps-jodie-7727285
  8. https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/doctor-who-fans-treated-return-28310752
  9. https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/sacha-dhawan-rasputin-doctor-who-dance-exclusive-newsupdate/
  10. https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-classic-companions-interview-exclusive-newsupdate/amp/
  11. Edited version of Melvyn Bragg's interview of Dennis Potter on March 15 1994
  12. https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/bbc-and-disney-branded-television-join-forces-on-doctor-who
  13. https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-david-tennant-regeneration-costume-twist-newsupdate/
  14. 14.00 14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 14.05 14.06 14.07 14.08 14.09 14.10 14.11 14.12 14.13 14.14 14.15 https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/documents/doctor-who-the-power-of-the-doctor-chris-chibnall.pdf
  15. https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a41748744/doctor-who-jodie-whittaker-final-line-different/
  16. 16.0 16.1 Overnight ratings - UK
  17. UK Final ratings