This is the third in my Day of The Doctor trilogy. The first covered my impressions of the fanbase that watched TDOTD screening. The second is the formal review of the episode. This one is a question session, where I ask things of you, who may be smarter than me, to help me figure things out I did not quite get about the episode.
As I rewatched DOTD, I could not help notice some things that struck me as a bit peculiar, almost odd (or Ood, if you prefer). With tongue slightly in cheek, I thought it would be nice to ask some questions and point out some things that to me, didn't make sense or contradicted both Classic and NuWho (and perhaps, even contradicted DOTD itself). I hope that this 'investigation' is taken with the humor it is intended to have, and that any questions about plot holes or continuity errors or other such matters can be answered by readers.
I realize this is a very long article (unnecessarily so, perhaps). To skip over important points, check out the selections in green.
I think a good title for this story should be The Two and a Half Doctors. What do you think?
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| Moffat, if you are willing, take this cup from me... |
We start with The Name of the Doctor, where Eleven remembers the figure before him in his time-stream as one of his other selves (of which we the viewer know nothing about). Before fainting, Clara however, doesn't recognize him even though she's been popping in and out of his time-stream and seeing his other selves. How could she not realize that John Hurt wasn't the Doctor? Who else would be running around the Doctor's time-stream?
In The Night of The Doctor, we see Paul McGann's Eight Doctor for the first time since his one-off television movie. Night of The Doctor, if accepted as Canon (which I don't, Canon to me being only what is broadcast on television, not webisodes or audio adventures, though I won't belabor the point), contradicts the NuWhovian idea that The Name/Day/Time of The Doctor is a trilogy based on the titles. NOTD has the same title structure as Name/Day/Time, (Blank of The Doctor) so how does a trilogy have four parts?
The Eight Doctor says he was not and hasn't been part of the Time War. Does this mean that fighting was optional? Also, for someone who hasn't been fighting in the Time War, Eight is 'looking a bit tired, don't you think'?
The Sisters of Karn tell Eight that he was found dead. How does the Sisterhood manage to bring back the dead (unless we have yet another example of Moffat's 'dead-but-not-dead' writing style)?
The Day of the Doctor begins with Clara as a teacher at Coal Hill School, where the very first Doctor Who story An Unearthly Child begins. We ended the last episode of Doctor Who, The Name of The Doctor, inside the Doctor's time-stream in his tomb on Trenzalore. How did both Eleven and Clara manage to leave the time-stream and get back to Earth? Or is this taking place within his time-stream? Is this all just a dream? Where did Madam Vastra/Jenny/Strax go? How did they end up back to Victorian-era London? The Doctor must have dropped them off, but again, how did Eleven and Clara get out of the time-stream and Trenzalore altogether?
The sign at the school reads that the Chairman of the school's governing board is a certain I. Chesterton. If it is THE Ian Chesterton who served as the First Doctor's first Companion (along with fellow teacher Barbara Wright and the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Foreman), should he really be working at his age? The most generous estimation of Ian's age when he began would be around mid-30s, so that would mean he's somewhere between 83-85 if indeed it is the same Sir Ian. If we go by William Russell's actual age, Ian Chesterton is still tottering around at 89!
Is it odd that while Clara is working at the same school the Doctor's granddaughter Susan was when they came to Twentieth Century Earth and where his first Companion Ian is still tottering about, the Doctor apparently a.) never tells Clara about Ian or b.) never bothers to visit or even look in on Ian when both are in proximity to each other? The Doctor's a bit of a dick!
Clara started out as a nanny (in contemporary and Victorian times...so much for that 'Moffat is a sexist pig' nonsense). Now she is a teacher? How did she get hired? What are her credentials? Did she use psychic papers to verify certification?
Has the TARDIS lost its ability to dematerialize? The Doctor never starts or even bother to attempt to release the TARDIS from the helicopter's clutches. In fact, the Doctor looks genuinely confused as to how he is managing to fly. I'll grant the Eleven is by far the most stupid of all the Doctors, but would he not even attempt dematerialization in order to escape this bizarre abduction?
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| No, Osgood, I wasn't talking about NHS Doctors.... |
Why does Kate Stewart's phone have the ringtone of a parking brake?
Why does Osgood have Kate Stewart's phone at all?
Is Osgood calling Kate Stewart "Ma'am" or "Mom"?
The spotting of the TARDIS must have been completely by chance, given that the helicopter was not aware anyone was inside. Therefore, how long would it have taken to send a helicopter to pick the TARDIS up? Did some random person just call up and say, "Hey, I was driving down an empty road and happened to notice an old police box just standing by the side of the road?"
"We had no idea you were still in there," Kate tells Eleven. Why weren't they aware? Why weren't any UNIT agents monitoring the TARDIS prior to it being picked up to see if anyone came around to it? If they were, they would have known that at least Clara was inside and thus putting her at great risk. UNIT didn't bother informing Kate of this, even though it is more than likely that the helicopter would have spotted a lone motorbike speeding into the TARDIS (since the area around was flat). Yet the TARDIS must have been under some form of observation since, after all, it would have taken time to get the helicopter, get authorization from Kate, and fly the helicopter to the TARDIS' location.
Eleven nearly falls out of TARDIS, so I guess it doesn't have some protective force field. In The Beast Below Amy is able to float in deep space and breathe without difficulty, and in The Time of Angels River Song was able to float to the TARDIS from another spaceship altogether. Still, the Doctor is left hanging on for dear life. (OK, on this one, he probably has to set the mechanism for it, but why wouldn't the Doctor just take the phone call inside the TARDIS rather than hang precariously on the ledge).
Clara is kind of a bitch by just standing there, admiring the view rather than help the Doctor who is clearly inches from falling to his death.
***I was the only person who cheered in The Day of The Doctor screening when John Hurt's name appeared. Not a continuity error/plot hole, but just a mention nonetheless***.
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| New Meaning to 'Degenerate Art'... |
The Protocols came from Queen Elizabeth I, so I guess Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II doesn't have to be informed of anything really.
We are shown Elizabeth I's credentials: a painting called either Gallifrey Falls or No More. Gallifrey Falls/No More came to Her Majesty exactly...how? Who painted it? When was it painted? When did it become part of Her Majesty's collection? Why is THIS Gloriana's credentials? She's the Bloody Queen...why does she need to prove anything to him? Hasn't the Doctor ever heard the phrase "royal command performance"?
Why would one of the titles be No More? The graffiti the "War Doctor" (or as I call him, Doctor 8.5) put up wouldn't have been visible in a painting that large, so where did that particular title come from?
"Elizabeth told us where to find it and its significance" (Kate Stewart). So Liz I knows about Time War? Why would she have knowledge about that?
The Fall of Arcadia (Gallifrey's second-largest city) is very Star Wars-like visually, isn't it?
The Daleks stop killing in battle that they are winning because the Doctor is detected? No wonder they keep losing!
The TARDIS bursts through a solid wall rather than dematerialize? I didn't know the TARDIS was now a battering ram.
After the Doctor steals The Moment, the last unused weapon of the Omega arsenal, he takes it to an undisclosed location (probably where they hid Dick Cheney). Where exactly is Doctor 8.5? In a hereto unknown Gallifreyan desert?
The Doctor steals a Doomsday Device he doesn't know how to operate? How would he know it wouldn't just kill him by mistake?
Doctor 8.5 is in the middle of an isolated desert where anyone coming would be visible for miles around, so why does he think someone could sneak up on him without him noticing?
The Moment's conscience (aka Bad Wolf) is right: why DID the Doctor park the TARDIS so far away? Why take that long desert walk, dragging the Doomsday Device with him when the TARDIS could have easily landed him inside this hut hidden deep within some isolated desert?
**Just a side note. Sorry, Billie Piper, but you were hideous in The Day of the Doctor. You gave a bad performance and were shockingly unattractive. If it's any comfort, I would say exactly the same about David Tennant**.
Why is the Interface Conscience in the shape of Rose? Doctor 8.5 wouldn't know what Rose Tyler looks like or frankly care. If the Conscience knows all about all the Doctors past present future, how did she get the form the War Doctor would recognize wrong?
The War Doctor has been fighting this war for a very long time, yet he's apparently never been injured because he hasn't regenerated since the events of The Night of The Doctor (the second part of a four-part trilogy).
Bad Wolf/The Moment Conscience, to prevent the War Doctor from using the Doomsday Device, resorts to using the Gallifreyan version of this...
Bad Wolf opens windows in time and knows all about the Doctors past/present/future, but is unaware of the fez or Eleven's fez fetish.
Back to the National Portrait Gallery in London. Why is Gallifrey Falls/No More proof Elizabeth I is writing to Doctor? Wouldn't the age of paper and Her Majesty's seal be enough to prove it was from Good Queen Bess?
Given how in The Shakespeare Code, Elizabeth I referred to The Doctor as "my mortal enemy", it is surprising that in Gloriana's wrath and rage she never once decided to destroy anything connected with her 'husband'. How fickle is woman...
Her Majesty names The Doctor (or rather, the Tenth Doctor) as Curator of The Undergallery. Undergallery of What? She can't be referring to the National Portrait Gallery, as that was founded in 1856, a mere 253 years after Elizabeth I's death.
All those years with UNIT as their Scientific Advisor and never once did UNIT inform the Doctor of either the Undergallery or that he was the Undertaker to Gallery!
"Should any disturbance occur within (the Undergallery's) walls, it is my wish that you be summoned," (Elizabeth I). The guy can travel through all time and space--how exactly will UNIT or any non-Time Lord 'summon' him? Bat-Signal? The Time Lords have the ability to recall their errant renegade, but how will UNIT do so? Come to think of it, how will Elizabethans, Georgians, Regency-Era, Victorians, or Second Elizabethans be able to 'summon' the Doctor? Torchwood wasn't formed until the Victorian Age, and UNIT wasn't created until the 1960s, so how would anyone prior to those 'summon' the Doctor? Also, how could one compel the Doctor to accept such a summons if he didn't want to go?
McGillop receives a call from the future. First use of timey-wimey to get out of things.
The Tenth Doctor MUST have posed for this portrait, but when? Where would he have sat for this? Why would he pose for this portrait in the first place? Portraits, even now, take days to make, and it isn't like the Elizabethan Court wouldn't notice some strange figure at Her Majesty's side.
It is England, 1562. Elizabeth I would have been 29 years old and Gloriana would have been on the throne for a mere four years, with the security of her throne still on shaky ground.
Given her lifelong passion for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, it is strange that she accepted the Doctor's proposal so quickly. Also, Elizabeth I would drag out marriage negotiations for years and would be very hesitant to take action on many fronts, so her whirlwind romance with Ten is completely out of character for Good Queen Bess.
"You nearly took my head off. It's normally me who does that." In reality, Elizabeth wasn't fond of executions and was quite moderate of them (especially compared to her half-sister Queen Mary I). In fact, she agonized over the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots and was always troubled by that act of regicide.
"I have wars to plan". Again, Elizabeth I was a reluctant warrior, fighting only when there were no other alternative. She was by no means a belligerent in matters of war.
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| What's that? I'm NOT King?! The Doctor said I WAS! |
"I'm going to be King". So says Ten upon learning that Elizabeth I has accepted his marriage proposal. I don't think that's how monarchical succession occurs. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha didn't become King when he married Queen Victoria. In fact, Parliament, the public, and even Vicky herself didn't think Albert should take much of a role in government affairs at first. When HRH the Duke of Edinburgh (formerly Prince Philip of Greece and/or Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten) married Heiress Presumptive Princess Elizabeth, he didn't become King Phillip upon her Ascension to the Throne as Queen Elizabeth II. At the most, The Doctor would have become a Prince Consort (though again I leave that question up to constitutional scholars). Therefore, where'd he get the idea that he was going to be King of Anything?
The Undergallery is where Elizabeth I "kept all art deemed too dangerous for public consumption." Given that the idea of 'public art' did not exist in Elizabethan times this is quite forward-looking for the Monarch. Art was held in private collections of aristocracy and wealthy merchants, with the only 'public art' being that found in churches. Given the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of her father Henry VIII it is curious that Elizabeth would have thought art would be seen by the common man. Furthermore, how would Elizabeth go about collecting said 'dangerous art'. Where would this 'dangerous art' come from? How would she find it?
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| The Doctor's Con-Fez-Sions |
Among the articles in the Undergallery is a fez. Why is a fez considered 'dangerous art'? Furthermore, that fez is remarkably well-preserved given that the fez is only 451 years old.
When the time fissure appears in the Undergallery, Eleven has vague memories of it, but not of saving Gallifrey itself. The Doctor has quite a selective memory.
In the Undergallery Kate Stewart says that nothing's out of place and nothing's got out. Didn't she just tell us that 'figures' got out of the paintings?
Wouldn't Eleven remember his interactions with Elizabeth I? Given the timeframe Day of the Doctor must take place prior to Shakespeare Code.
Exactly how many time fissures are there? Eleven throws fez that goes to 8.5 but again his memory of all this is a bit sketchy.
Oddly, while the Tenth Doctor quickly realizes the guy with the big chin and fez is a future version of himself, Doctor 8.5 doesn't and mistakes both of them for Companions.
Curiously, the fez apparently can travel in one direction, but fez and 8.5 can travel in both. HOWEVER, when opportunity comes to escape when fissure between Elizabethan and Elizabethan eras occur, no one thinks of going through it to escape Good Queen Bess' guards.
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| Lo, how the mighty have fallen... |
In Undergallery the Zygon Osgood knows of her prettier sister, but exactly how does she come upon this information? The Zygon doesn't actually touch Osgood. Getting ahead of myself, while the Zygon Osgood knew the thoughts of Osgood, the Zygon Elizabeth I didn't know about the knife Liz kept for her protection.
The Black Archive is located in the Tower of London. Given that the Three Doctors who are there 451 years earlier carved the Activation Code of the Vortex Manipulator, how was it that no one in over four and a half centuries ever came across this mysterious writing? Furthermore, isn't it strange that no one in 451 years found the Activation Code scratched on the walls but that in less than an hour McGillop's Zygon clone managed to find it.
Kate Stewart says that everyone has their memory wiped when leaving the Black Archive. Kate therefore must be the exception, otherwise how would she know both about the memory wiping and what the Black Archive was? There HAS to be someone/something that would allow someone with their memory wiped to be able to enter B.A., right?
Among the Black Archive photos is one of Kamelion, a Fifth Doctor Companion. Kamelion appeared in two stories, the first during King John's reign, the second on another planet altogether. How exactly Kamelion came to the attention of UNIT remains unknown given he never worked for UNIT, existed before even Elizabeth I's reign, and never came back to Earth.
The Vortex Manipulator was bequeathed by Captain Jack Harkness, so he knew of Black Archive and thus, didn't have his memory swiped?
Clara was given the Activation Code to the Vortex Manipulator and nothing else. Therefore, how did Clara find the exact time and place where the Two and a Half Doctors are? She's never used the Vortex Manipulator and at most she knows only the year (1562) and location (the Tower of London). She doesn't know either the exact location of the Doctors or the date, so how does she manage to use the Vortex Manipulator and find the Doctors with the greatest of ease?
Back on Gallifrey, the children are burning. You'd think Gallifreyans would have sent their children to safety during Time War. The British sent their kids away from the bombing, but somehow the Gallifreyans never thought to do the same. Therefore, Time Lords are dumber than the British.
The Eleventh Doctor tells Ten "Spoilers" (one of River Song's many catchphrases) when Ten asks Doctor where he was going. However, why would Ten react so angrily to "Spoilers" when he probably would have heard this line just once since Ten's first meeting with River was her last meeting with him?
"It's the same screwdriver", says Bad Wolf to explain how doing calculations would be going on after 8.5 started them. Is this the same screwdriver that was destroyed in the Tenth Doctor story Smith & Jones and the Eleventh Doctor story The Eleventh Hour? Obviously it cannot be the same screwdriver (and DOTD establishes 'same software, different hardware', paralleling 'different faces, same Doctor), but unless the calculations weren't uploaded unto the TARDIS how would the calculations keep going on devices that had been destroyed (and this isn't counting the Fifth Doctor story The Visitation, where the sonic was destroyed).
Why is the door to their prison unlocked or no guards at the door? Elizabeth says to see how Doctors got out of this, so does this mean Liz just let Clara wander around?
When Osgood comes across Kate Stewart, she calls out, "Kate! Goodness you're not actually dead." Therefore we find that Osgood is not Kate Stewart's daughter, otherwise why call her "Kate" at this point?
How did Zygons get a hold of both Stasis Cube and Time Lord art? Why is Elizabeth not just wiping out Zygons rather than allow them to invade her realm? Why not mention all this when Liz appoints Doctor as Undertaker? Why doesn't Elizabeth just allow the Zygons to enter the paintings and then destroy them rather than keep them around even though she knows of their insane invasion plans?
So the Zygons themselves can't tell the difference between the copies and the humans, otherwise they would know Elizabeth was NOT a Zygon.
Is the Doctor a bigamist? He's married to Queen Elizabeth I and married to River Song, but is it at the same time?
When War, Ten, and Eleven all enter the TARDIS, the TARDIS console changes twice. 8.5 comments that "Three of us from different time zones. It's trying to compensate." Oddly enough, when the Second and Third Doctors in The Three Doctors and when the First and Fifth Doctors in The Five Doctors shared the same TARDIS console, there was no 'compensation' in the TARDIS structure.
Even by Black Archive standards, wouldn't the Guard at B.A. be puzzled as to how there are now TWO Kate Stewarts and Company? Do the memory wipes work THAT fast? If they do, why isn't Kate Stewart's memory swiped?
Next to the Brigadier's picture on the board who is next to him? It looks like either Nyssa or Peri, but it can't be either because the former is a Traken who was left on Terminus (and visited Earth only three times, and only once in what can be called 'contemporary times'). Peri was last seen living as Queen to King Yrcanos in Mindwarp, so when did she or Nyssa get interviewed by UNIT?
Since Doctors 8.5, 10, and 11 don't have Gallifrey Falls/No More in front of them, how'd they get into the painting?
If the humans and Zygons don't know who is who, how do they set terms for negotiating?
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| Companions All... |
Among the photos Clara admires of past Companions we have a bevy of beauties. Let's examine some:
Susan Foreman: the Doctor's Granddaughter. She was last seen in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, living on a Dalek-ravaged Earth in the far future with her husband. As a Time Lord herself (she was the only Companion to immediately recognize Gallifrey in The Five Doctors, and was the figure running off with the First Doctor in The Name of the Doctor), it is unknown whether she too perished in the Time War. However, given she left the Doctor before UNIT's formation, how would they know of Susan?
Possibly thanks to two other Companions, schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. Given how Ian and Clara are known to UNIT, it is strange that UNIT wouldn't mind having TWO Companions work in the same vicinity. However, Ian and Barbara left the Doctor again prior to UNIT's creation.
Two more figures are Able Seaman Ben Jackson and Swinging Sixties girl Polly. Doctor Who established that Ben Jackson and Polly (nicknamed "Duchess" by the Cockney sailor) were returned to Earth by the Second Doctor on the same day they left with the First Doctor. For all intents and purposes, neither Ben Jackson or Polly really 'disappeared' (compared to Rose Tyler, who went missing for a whole year). Therefore, why and how would UNIT (which once again wasn't created until AFTER Ben and Polly left the Doctor) know of either of them?
The biggest question involves the last photo. It has a picture of Captain Mike Yates and Security Officer Sara Kingdom apparently together. Captain Yates would be known to UNIT, as he worked for UNIT and the Third Doctor. HOWEVER, while it is good that Sara Kingdom has firmly been established as a Companion (a point of fierce debate within Whovian circles), she was with the First Doctor in one story only (The Daleks' Master Plan) and technically was both not born and already dead by this time. Therefore, a.) when did Sara Kingdom and Mike Yates meet, and b.) how did UNIT know about Sara Kingdom (let alone managed to get a photograph of her and Captain Yates together)?
"You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning?" Bad Wolf Rose tells 8.5. You mean this sound...
You mean, people derive hope from the sound of a parking brake?
What happens when people hear the parking brakes of the TARDISes of The Master, or The Rani, or The War Chief, or even The Meddling Monk...all of whom apparently 'leave the parking brakes on'?
The Time War is time-locked, so while I can accept that perhaps Bad Wolf could let them in, one wonders why she didn't just take them to the start of the Time War and stop all this nonsense before we got started. I guess certain 'fixed points in time' are 'time-locked'...unless the plot requires them not to be.
Given how Doctor 8.5 left his TARDIS far from the hut in the desert, how'd he get back? I guess Bad Wolf spirited him away back to the time-locked Last Day of the Time War, but if she could do that without either the time fissures or Gallifrey Falls/No More, it does seem a waste to go through all those hoops, then doesn't it?
Ten hears the name "Bad Wolf" but then the matter gets dropped immediately afterwards. Eleven has no reaction to it.
Not being overtly familiar with the events of The End of Time, how does sealing Gallifrey up in stasis affect the Tenth Doctor's stopping of the High Council from bringing Gallifrey to Earth's atmosphere?
The Two and a Half Doctors come up with a plan to freeze all of Gallifrey, like in a painting, to save it and have the Daleks (who really never seem to ever die out: anyone know how many times they themselves have been 'exterminated') destroy themselves. Is it me, or is freezing Gallifrey (and the CHILDREN! Won't someone PLEASE think of THE CHILDREN?!) just as bad as letting them burn, unless they mean like when one plays 'Freeze' and they are basically 'frozen' in an instant rather than literally frozen, so I can let that slide.
So how did Doctors 8.5, 10, and/or 11 contact the First Eight Doctors, plus Nine and Twelfth to have them all coordinate this Master Plan to save Gallifrey? Did they cross their own time-streams to reach out to The First Doctor and tell him, "OK, here's the deal: Gallifrey is about to be destroyed, so we, the Future Yous, are here to tell you to start calculating the figures to save Gallifrey from total destruction. Also, you have to keep the calculations going throughout all your regenerations and even though they won't be finished in your First regeneration, or your Second, or Third...or really they won't be finished until your Twelfth and Final regeneration, we'll give you the exact time and place to meet all of your versions to lock in together and coordinate all our TARDI simultaneously."
Wouldn't the Ninth Doctor, cantankerous as ever and still overwhelmed with guilt, be a little dubious to see his future selves (A Dandy and a Clown) tell him this tale? Wouldn't Twelfth, for whom this is long in his past, know that Gallifrey is still out there?
With Peter Capaldi's Doctor being declared the Thirteenth, wouldn't that basically invalidate The Time of The Doctor where Eleven declared himself the Thirteenth and Final Regeneration? With this calculation, the so-called War Doctor really is the Ninth, which pushes Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor to the Tenth, Tennant to Eleven, Smith to Twelve, and Capaldi to Thirteenth and Final regeneration. However, in TOTD Smith declares that Tennant's abortive regeneration was indeed an actual regeneration where he could keep his prior appearance (which must have come as a surprise to all previous Doctors when/if they were told). If Tennant is TWO regenerations, shouldn't there have been TWO Tennant Doctors flying about in space?
Curiously, the Zygons in The Day of The Doctor pretty much disappeared after they went into the Black Archive. It does seem a bit of a waste to not use the Memory Swipes to defeat the Zygons, but we never do learn the end results of their negotiations, do we?
Oddly, while Gallifrey Falls/No More is still in the Undergallery, it doesn't make much sense now does it? After all, Gallifrey is frozen, so then how did Arcadia fall? I also wonder exactly how Gallifrey Falls/No More get to Earth?
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| So we won't remember this either? |
The War Doctor's regeneration is unique in Doctor Who history in that it is the only regeneration NOT caused by either imminent death or Time Lord interference (as was the case with the Second and Sixth Doctors). It just sort of...happens. There is also no guarantee that The War Doctor will regenerate into what had been previously known as the Ninth Doctor (back when it was thought McGann had regenerated into Eccleston). Yes, there is a suggestion that Hurt will turn into Eccleston (the ears comment) but on the whole, given we've already been introduced to a hereto unknown version of the Doctor, what's to guarantee there really weren't more between Hurt and Eccleston?
In The Name of The Doctor, the Doctor arrives in his tomb on Trenzalore (which Eleven tells Ten about, which is OK since he won't remember it), but in Time of the Doctor the Doctor doesn't actually die. On the contrary, he gets a whole new set of regenerations thanks to Time Lord pixie dust. Therefore, doesn't TOTD already contradict both NOTD and DOTD?
Elizabeth I had appointed The Doctor as Undertaker of the Gallery...I mean, Curator of the Undergallery. Clara heard all this earlier. However, she now tells him that the Curator is looking for Eleven. IF this Curator is an older version of the Doctor (more than likely the Fourth Doctor, maybe the Watcher), then really what is a Time Lord's retirement plan?
**As a side note, I think this is less about honoring the past and present by having the Fourth and Eleventh Doctor meet and more to coddle Tom Baker's ego and possessiveness towards the part of the Doctor. Baker had turned down flat a request to appear in The Five Doctors and agreed to appear in the 30th Anniversary Dimensions in Time (part of the Children in Need special) with the proviso that he be featured alone and not share scenes with former Doctors or Companions. Baker's appearance in The Day of the Doctor is unique in that he is the only Classic Who Doctor to have any role in the 50th Anniversary Special, even if technically he isn't playing the Fourth Doctor. His appearance does beg the question, if they could squeeze in Tom Baker for a cameo, what was to prevent Peter Davison, Colin Baker, or Sylvester McCoy from doing likewise? Only reason I can think of is that it would have irritated/infuriated Tom Baker, who in the Twentieth Anniversary events similarly refused to share the stage with his predecessors/successors. Time has softened Baker somewhat, but apparently not enough. Then again, this is just speculation on my part.**
With all the Doctors joining for a brief scene, it does look nice, but again it's puzzling why they just stood around together, looking at what appeared to be Gallifrey.
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| I'm with Stupid. |
Well, there it is: a jolly jaunt through The Day of The Doctor, which is being hailed as one of if not the Greatest Doctor Who story of All Time. Having seen the story twice, I think it is not a 50th Anniversary Special. It's not even an 8th Anniversary Special. It is a celebration of Steven Moffat's vision of Doctor Who, a celebration of Matt Smith's Era and David Tennant's fandom.
I gave it a grade of 3/10 and in retrospect, that might be too high.
Again, all this was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but if people can be nice enough to give explanations to certain points without being mean or abusive, I'd appreciate it very much.
All I ask is that explanations not resort to 'timey-wimey'...
And in case anyone was wondering, I think I'm not the only one who picked up on a few things...
Moffat doesn't have a clue about writing drama!
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