And now it’s celebrating 50 years in style. To the point it almost overshadowed the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. Note I said almost. So, how did Doctor Who celebrate? Let’s reverse the polarity, fire up the sonics and set the TARDIS into motion for…
Day of the Doctor or "THE FEELS! THE FEELS!"
Bad Wolf guides the War Doctor through his biggest decision ever. Ten courts Elizabeth I trying to fight the Zygons. And Eleven joins Clara and the Brig's daughter to solve a mystery. But they all gather together to save Gallifrey. ALL of them.
The special opens with the original opening from 1963. It’s a great touch. As is the fact that Clara is teaching at the same school Susan attended, where she met Ian and Barbara. Her class gets out as someone runs in to tell her she has a message from her doctor. Clara asks if he left an address and he must’ve because she zooms off on her motorcycle. She passes a clock that says “5:16,” which was the time the first episode of Doctor Who started.
Clara drives right into the TARDIS as the Doctor reads. He says there’s a draft. So she snaps her fingers and the doors close. She wonders where they are going before the TARDIS takes off. But the Doctor says the engines aren’t moving. Instead, it’s being airlifted by a helicopter over London.
We go to the Tower of London, where UNIT is headquartered. An older blonde woman sits on a bench as a younger woman in a white lab coat and a very familiar scarf runs up holding her phone. She hands it to the blonde woman, who remarks about changing the batteries in the crows. Oh, UNIT. Anyway, the woman takes the call…which is from the Doctor. He calls her by her full name—Kate Lethbridge Stewart. Yes, she’s the Brig’s daughter! How great! She and the Doctor talk about how she’s having the TARDIS airlifted…and then she realizes the Doctor is still inside the TARDIS. She apologizes but the Doctor’s busy hanging out above London while Clara holds on to his legs. Kate orders the TARDIS to be taken directly to Trafalgar Square. I’ve been there!
The TARDIS is dropped in front of the National Gallery. The Doctor exits, saluting the UNIT soldiers before wondering why he was doing that. He greets Kate and tells her assistant, named Osgood, that he likes her scarf. Kate hands him a letter from Elizabeth I, who he said he married at the start of “The End of Time.” And who wanted his head in “The Shakespeare Code.” Kate also says there is something Elizabeth wanted him to see in the National Gallery. The Doctor, Clara and Osgood follow her in.
Kate leads them to a painting. The Doctor recognizes it while everyone is amazed. It’s 3-D, which probably works better on the 3-D broadcast I’ve heard existed. Anyway, it shows a city under attack. A city the Doctor knows. He also knows the painting, saying it is called “No More” or “Gallifrey Falls” depending on the source. That it uses Time Lord artistry, hence the 3-D aspect.
As the Doctor looks at it, we go back to Gallifrey’s last days at the height of the Last Great Time War. The city has fallen to the Daleks. Because it would not be a Doctor Who anniversary without those genocidal maniacs. Terrified citizens run through the rubble of their city as the War Doctor (John Hurt) shows up. He grabs a gun and burns a message into the side of a building: No More. Word reaches the Gallifrey general that the Doctor is on the planet. And he’s not thrilled.
The War Doctor retreats to a distant planet with a box. A box which is essentially a big red button. This is it, the moment the Doctor destroys Gallifrey. And who is with him? Rose Tyler! Well, not really. She’s the box’s interface. In Rose’s Bad Wolf form. You remember Bad Wolf, right? I sometimes refer to that form as “Mary Sue.” She tells the War Doctor that the interface picked the visage of someone from his past. Or future. The interface isn’t so good with those terms. The War Doctor pretty much ignores her. He’s making a big decision here. She, though, wants to help him and show the repercussions of what he’s about to do.
Back at the National Gallery, Kate brings the Doctor and Clara down to the Undergallery, which was set up by Queen Elizabeth. And she appointed the Doctor in charge of it. How convenient! Anyway, as they leave, once of the UNIT underlyings gets a phone call. He says that the caller just left but then exits off screen, following the caller’s directions. Kate brings the Doctor and Clara to a painting of Elizabeth I and David Tennant.
Which brings us to some place else! Where Ten is frolicking with Queen Elizabeth. And she falls under his spell like thousands of Doctor Who fans before her. But Ten has a reason to flirt with her—he thinks she’s a Zygon. A red alien with lots of suckers which can take the shape of anything it…sucks. I need to find a better word. Anyway, he scans her with a machine that goes “ding.” Queen Elizabeth better not say “actually”! (If you get that reference, then you’ve been watching “America’s Next Top Model” a long time). He realizes he’s with the real Elizabeth and his horse is the Zygon. So they have to flee through the woods. But as they do, Elizabeth meets up with…herself. One’s a Zygon, one’s the real Elizabeth I. The Doctor will figure it out…
After he figures out why there’s a hole in time. A fez lands at his feet.
Back in the Undergallery, Kate opens the door to another room and the Doctor notices there is sand on the floor. He picks some up and hands it to Osgood, instructing her to run tests on it. She heads off to obey his orders. Turning around, the Doctor spots a fez in a glass. Naturally, he puts it on. Clara notes that one day he’ll pass by a fez and not put it on. The Doctor scoffs at this. The hole in time appears in the Undergallery. Eleven recognizes it and tosses his fez in. It lands at Ten’s feet. So Eleven jumps into the Time Hole. Ten and Eleven meet face-to-face and have a bit off a show down. Especially when it came to sonic screwdrivers. Meanwhile, there are still Zygons running around. Not to mention Clara and Kate back in the Undergallery. Well, Kate leaves for a bit as she orders someone to find one of her father’s old files.
It lands at the feet of the War Doctor. Bad Wolf is like “That’s an interesting development.” The War Doctor is about to meet his other selves. This should be fun!
Of course, they aren’t happy to see him. After all, they’ve tried to forget him. And there are still Zygons about, one who may be masquerading as Queen Elizabeth. Guards surround the Doctors and believe the hole in time and space is witchcraft. Eleven goes with it, telling them that the Witch of the Well will curse them. (A callback to the episode “Hide”). Kate tells Clara he means her and Clara’s none-too-happy about being a witch. But she threatens to turn the guards into frogs and they’re scared. So they arrest the Doctors and take them to the Tower.
Back in the National Gallery, Kate tells Clara they need to go back to her office—the Tower. As they leave, we go see what Osgood is up to. She is waiting for the results the Doctor asked for when something attacks Osgood. No, I like her! Don’t hurt her! And suddenly, there are two Osgoods. Don’t worry, Osgood is fine and she’s not going down without a fight. Those Zygons won’t know what will hit them.
Back in the past, the Doctors are in a cell with a locked door. Bad Wolf is still hanging around the War Doctor but the other two can’t see her. Countless Ten/Rose shippers cry out in despair. She wonders if they ever counted how many children were on Gallifrey when it went BOOM! and if it ever haunted them. So the War Doctor asks them as the Doctors try to work out some way to open the door. Eleven says he doesn’t know. Ten rattles off the number without hesitation. Bad Wolf tells him to look at his future selves: the one who regrets (Ten) and the one who forgets (Eleven). Does he want to become these men?
At the Tower, Kate leads Clara down to a very special storage room, the Black Archives. Also a very secret one. People who work there have their minds erased every day. To prove the point, Kate says hi to one of the guards. He responds and explains it’s his first day. When they walk away, Kate informs Clara that the man has been working there for many years. That memory wipe really works. Hope his wife never asked him to pick up something after work. Anyway, Kate reveals Clara has been there before but the memory wipe was used on her. Turns out UNIT has a tendency to vet the Doctor’s companions. Wonder what they thought of Donna?
Inside, Kate shows us a board filled with past companions. Whovians, geek out! She then leads Clara into a room with Captain Jack’s vortex manipulator. It was gifted to them after Jack’s death. Well, one of them. Though it must’ve been big if Jack had a will. That went into effect. Kate says they just need an activation code to get them to be able to use it. An activation code which is in the jail cell that the Doctors are being held. Quelle coincidence! The Eleventh Doctor writes the code down and it appears for UNIT to use.
At this point, though, the two Osgoods crash through and Clara realizes the truth. Zygons have taken on the form of UNIT officials, including Kate. They need the vortex manipulator to help take over the Earth, a conquest they started in Elizabethan times. But while Osgood struggles with the Zygons, Clara uses the code to jump to the Doctor.
In the cell, Bad Wolf helps the War Doctor formulate a plan to bust out of the Tower. How? In order to open the door, the Doctors need to come up with a mathematical formula that will take years to calculate. But, as Bad Wolf reminds the War Doctor, the sonic screw driver is always the same. Only the outside changes. So if he starts the calculations, by the time the sonic gets in the hand of Eleven…it’s done! The three Doctors team up and aim their sonics…just as Clara opens the door. She points out the door wasn’t locked. Way to go, Doctors!
Elizabeth then enters the cell. She reveals she left the cell open to see how clever the Doctors were. I guess they failed. And the question still remains—is this the real Elizabeth or the Zygon!Elizabeth? That’ll be answered in due time. First, more Zygons! Because why not? Elizabeth tells the Doctors the Zygons’ plans. They are hiding in the Gallifreyan paintings in order to invade the planet. Clever. So, this is the Zygon!Elizabeth, right?
Wrong! It’s the real Elizabeth. She’s tricking the Zygons to learn their plan. Very clever. Clara reveals that the Zygons are back at the Tower in the future, so the Doctors have to go rescue everyone. But first, Ten has to marry Elizabeth. He does so with Eleven and Clara as their witnesses. Then he runs off, saying he’ll be back. It’s a nice call back to “The Five Doctors.”
All the Doctors—and Clara—pile into the TARDIS. It is the familiar desktop theme from the Davies era. I miss it still. The Doctors reminisce about the white circle design of the classic Who era before Eleven goes to his TARDIS. Ten hates the new desktop. Or maybe he’s jealous?
But they cannot materialize into the Tower of London. So what does the Doctor do? Remember that call the underlying received earlier? It was from the Doctor! Uh, Eleven! He asks the underlying to bring the painting to the Tower of London. Why? Because the Doctors have hidden themselves in it in order to get into the Tower. And they destroy a Dalek to do so. It was quite a badass scene. And they arrive just in time! Kate has activated nuclear warheads buried under the Tower in order to prevent the Zygons from invading Earth. The Doctor believes Kate has gone mad. So how does he stop her? By triggering the memory wipe machines. Now no one knows who is a Zygon and who is human, except Clara as there is no Zygon replica of her. The two Kates stop the self-destruct sequence and everyone sits down to work out a treaty. It’s a bit tense but things start to work out. The two Osgoods stand off to the side, staring each other down. One starts wheezing and the other Osgood hands her her inhaler. Wheezing!Osgood realizes she is the human and the other one is the Zygon. Zygon!Osgood puts her finger to her lips.
Clara meanwhile goes to talk to the War Doctor. She notes that he hadn’t blown up Gallifrey yet. How? It’s his eyes, she says. They look young. Bad Wolf watches the entire exchange. Too bad no one else can see her. It would be nice to see Clara and Rose interact. And Ten. Anyway, the War Doctor comes to a conclusion: He’s going to push the big red button and blow up Gallifrey. When no one is looking, the War Doctor and Bad Wolf disappear.
In the abandoned warehouse, the War Doctor stares down the big red button. Bad Wolf continues to talk. She reminds him about the sound the TARDIS makes and how it is the sound of hope to so many people. And that it includes himself. Because we here the familiar whirr as Ten’s and Eleven’s TARDISes arrive in the abandoned warehouse. The two Doctors, and Clara, troop out to confront the War Doctor. Or that’s what Clara thought they’d do. Instead, the Doctors agree to push the button together.
Clara is horrified. She says she always knew the Doctor blew up his own planet, but she never thought she’d see him do it. And she tries to talk him out of it. She asks if there is something else they can do. Turns out there is. All three Doctors come up with an idea. They decide to freeze Gallifrey in a moment of time and move it from its current position, like a painting. Gallifrey will disappear, the Daleks will blow themselves up, everyone will think Gallifrey was destroyed in the process and the Time War ends. But what about the Time Lords? According to “The End of Time,” they had become a bunch of douches following supreme douchecanoe Rassilon. Or are we ignoring that? I guess we’re ignoring that.
Bad Wolf is smiling wide and why aren’t you Rose Tyler? Sorry. The War Doctor tells her he could kiss her and calls her “Bad Wolf girl.” This does not go unnoticed by Ten, but he still can’t see Billie Piper sitting behind him. Neither Eleven or the War Doctor notice his surprise as they go on about the calculations needed.
The Doctors contact the generals down on Gallifrey. Needless to say, they are not pleased to see the Doctors. Nor do they think their plan will work. The general argues that the calculations alone will take forever and a day. All the Doctors agree but reveal they’ve been working on it forever. The one by one, more blue police boxes fly to Gallifrey as the past Doctors appear on screen. Nine gets a full shot rather than an appearance on a view screen, so we get to see Christopher Eccleston full on. Yay, Nine! Anyway, the general is like “Great, it’s all twelve of them.”
Then one of the best moments of the special happens. We hear a voice say, “No, sir. All thirteen!” We then got a close up of Peter Capaldi’s eyes. Brilliant!
They remove Gallifrey and then go back to the National Gallery for a spot of tea. How British! They ponder the painting before the War Doctor says his goodbyes. He notes that he won’t remember that he saved Gallifrey, I guess to preserve continuity. But he steps into his TARDIS and starts to glow gold. Regeneration time! As he awaits his transformation, he hopes the ears are a bit less this go around. Oh, leave poor Eccleston alone!
Ten also takes his leave and Eleven reveals he went to the place where they die—Trenzalore. His predecessor says they have to change their destination. Because he “doesn’t want to go.” (Ten’s last words repeated…or what it be foreshadowed?) Eleven tells Clara he always says that. She wonders if they should be going, but Eleven wants a few minutes alone. He thinks he could enjoy being a curator of a museum one day. A voice says he might just make that dream come true.
Who does that voice belong to? Tom Baker! While I would’ve loved to have more past Doctors involved beyond archival footage, I understand why Baker was the one chosen to play a part. He’s one of the most iconic Doctors. Osgood is wearing his scarf. Even non-Whovians recognize him.
Anyway, the Curator hints the Doctor will probably regenerate into a few familiar faces (both explaining Baker’s appearance and possibly leaving the door open for a prior actor to return) as he grows older. The Doctor asks him about the name of the painting and the Curator reveals that time has scrambled the true title. It is really called “Gallifrey Falls No More.” The Doctor realizes that this means that their plan worked—Gallifrey is safe out there.
The episode ends with this little monologue from the Doctor, which I have opted to quote in its entirety:
Clara sometimes asks me if I dream. “Of course I dream”. I tell her. ”Everybody dreams”. ”But what do you dream about?" she’ll ask. "The same thing everybody dreams about." I tell her. "I dream about where I’m going." She always laughs at that. "But you’re not going anywhere - you’re just wandering about." That’s not true. Not any more. I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone’s. It’s taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I’m going, where I’ve always been going. Home. The long way around.
As this voiceover plays, Eleven steps out onto a platform where he sees Gallifrey floating in space. He joins his other incarnations—all twelve of them—in watching the planet they call home. View it here:
And thus ends the 50th anniversary! Did I like it? Yes. Was it everything I wanted? No, but that was a tall order for an episode to deliver. Because I wanted more appearances from past Doctors and companions. But I guess that would’ve left little room for a plot. And I did get to see David Tennant as the Doctor again. While Eccleston was my first and I like Smith, Tennant will always be my Doctor.
Congrats, Doctor Who! Here’s to 50 more years!
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