The Day of the Doctore Review Thread (Spoilers?)

Discussion in 'Doctor Who' started by Brefugee, Nov 23, 2013.

?

So what did you think?

Poll closed Dec 21, 2013.
  1. Brilliant: Geronimo.

    188 vote(s)
    77.7%
  2. Very Good: Bow Ties are Cool!

    38 vote(s)
    15.7%
  3. Ok: Come along Ponds.

    10 vote(s)
    4.1%
  4. Passable: Fish Fingers and Custard.

    5 vote(s)
    2.1%
  5. Terrible: Who da man?

    1 vote(s)
    0.4%
  1. Gov Kodos

    Gov Kodos Admiral Admiral

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    The Five(ish) Doctor's makes funny reference to that.
     
  2. PorthosShadow

    PorthosShadow Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It's going to take me a little while to process this but I do have this to write. It seems as if everyone is saying Rose wasn't our Rose but I beg to differ. Given she had the whole of The Time Vortex within her and that she scattered clues for her self through out time and space it's not all that unlikely that she would have appeared to The War Doctor.

    So I suppose technically, it was her but not her. I think it would have made more sense if the consciousness of The Moment had been Clara since there is a version of Clara running around on Galifrey somewhere.
     
  3. Mr. Adventure

    Mr. Adventure Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That was a lot of fun, Tennant never felt intrusive or out-of-place, and Hurt was quite entertaining. The interplay between the three Doctors was nicely done with Hurt being able to take the piss out of both the others at times. Billie worried me for a minute when she started using funny voices but worked out OK.

    My only complaint, if you'd call it that, is that it was an odd tonal shift after the last episode.
     
  4. Mr Pointy Ears

    Mr Pointy Ears Captain Captain

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    Wasn't as good as I thought it would it,love see the fourth doctor? back on the small screen.
     
  5. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    But Moffat's policy for writing DW has always been that the Doctor doesn't really know how old he is anymore, and he had Smith's Doctor say that outright. Which makes sense - how does a Time Lord gauge their own age? It's not like he had even Gallifrey's orbit to refer to for the passage of time, and after you've been from one of the Universe to the other (both in time and space), what does "age" mean anymore? The fact that there were about 400 years between Hurt's Doctor and Smith's Doctor is a guess, at best, both in-universe and out-of-universe.

    Good point. The previous episode had Smith's Doctor in his own timestream, holding Clara, and this one opens with Clara working as a teacher and the Doctor in the TARDIS. What happened in between? Did the Doctor just walk back out of his timestream to Trenzalore and the waiting Paternoster gang?
     
  6. PorthosShadow

    PorthosShadow Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I'd like to think there is a huge blackboard somewhere in the TARDIS with a 1000+ hash marks :)
     
  7. Pavonis

    Pavonis Commodore Commodore

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    When would he know to make a mark, though? ;) And what does he need to know his age for?
     
  8. Timelord Victorious

    Timelord Victorious Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Well, I would assume that back in the day the TARDIS would at all times maintain a relative connection to some kind of master clock on Gallifrey maybe.
    Once The planet is stuck in time stasis that connection is lost and the Doctor couldn't track his age anymore.
     
  9. Relayer1

    Relayer1 Admiral Admiral

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    I would think there's a chronometer in his screwdriver, measuring off his personal timeline...
     
  10. Australis

    Australis Writer - Australis Admiral

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    Your definition of spectacular is completely different to mine then
     
  11. Gov Kodos

    Gov Kodos Admiral Admiral

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    All maintained by sexy, who might be vain enough to lie about her age.
     
  12. PorthosShadow

    PorthosShadow Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Remember how annoyed she was about her doors not being opened correctly? I don't think lying about her age is completely out of the question.
     
  13. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    Me, too. As soon as I heard the first syllable of Tom Baker's lines, I started tearing up.

    Tom Baker's Doctor was concerned about his ears, too. He had a funny scene with Harry Sullivan, where he was looking at himself in a mirror and going on about Harry being a "busy man, and you don't have time to listen to me burbling about my ears."

    Except that the Fifth Doctor's sonic screwdriver was destroyed in the episode "Four to Doomsday." So they're not continuous incarnations of the exact same one unless the Fifth Doctor had a backup somewhere.

    This is a problem for me, in that the next time I rewatch the Eccleston stories, I'm going to listen to the Doctor telling Rose about the Time War and how horrible it was and that he's the last of his people and the lone Dalek is the last of its people... and feel cheated, because oops, it never actually happened, haha.

    But he couldn't sacrifice himself (as in die permanently), because in that case, his future selves would never have existed. They're not all separate people; they're the same person. Permanently kill a younger version, and the older versions all cease to exist as well.

    I found this episode so confusing, partly because I never saw any of the episodes with Clara and have absolutely no idea what the most recent Matt Smith stories have been about. But I'm so happy that Tom Baker was in this, I don't even care what it means.


    All told... I gave it a middling grade. The parts that were good were wonderful, and the parts that were confusing were just plain annoying. And even though I've enjoyed John Hurt's performances ever since I saw him many years ago in I, Claudius, I just don't feel he's right for the Doctor. I really wish they'd had Paul McGann instead.
     
  14. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    In a sense the Doctor did use the Moment to end the time war, just not in the manner in which we were led to believe.

    He had activated the Moment in order for the consciousness of it to appear. Don't forget the implication was that the Moment judged who could use it or not. So it made sure that The Doctor used it in a manner inkeeping with the personality of The Doctor.

    Previously it was just an assumption it was a big red button that obliterated the Dalek fleet and Gallifrey. When in a way it was the Moment using The Doctor to end the Time War.
     
  15. Count Zero

    Count Zero No nation but procrastination Moderator

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    The Doctor's age probably isn't that important to him, anyway. I can relate to that and I'm not a Timelady.

    I watched the special on the big screen and in 3D. I loved the two clips before the actual start of the special.

    Then it started with the original theme. That was awesome.

    And then, Moffat kinda rebooted modern Who, only he didn't. But now that Hurt will remember that he tried to save Gallifrey (but not if he suceeded), Nine/Ten won't be the same guilt ridden person we saw. It also clashes with "The End of Time", specifically with what Ten/Eleven says about the destruction of Gallifrey. This only happens a couple of years (I think 2?) after "The Day of the Doctor" from Ten/Eleven's point-of-view so even if it slipped from Nine's memory he should still remember it. On the other hand, he probably remembers both versions of history.
    Also, the communication between the Timelords seems to be lacking, considering the generals didn't know what the High Council was up to even though they held this huge gathering. However, one of the generals mentions that the Council was useless so maybe their plan had already failed and the generals were aware of that.

    Anyway, this made me really happy. There's a lot of fiction out there right now that conveys the message that you sometimes have to do evil to do good and I appreciate that this special had the opposite message, that there is an alternative.

    I also liked Osgood's little ark, going from hoping the Doctor will save her to saving herself. The scene between her and her Zygon counterpart was nice, too.

    I definetely will have to watch it again. I thought it was great even though I didn't have high hopes for it, having not warmed to the Moffat era at all.
    It was also great to see my favourite Doctor again, and on the big screen to boot. I felt he gave his Doctor a bit of a darker touch than during his run but I might be misremembering. Then again, that would make sense since this plays out in the span where he's on the run from his fate.

    Oh, and extra points for having Hurt chew out the others for holding their screwdrivers as if they were guns (although Ten doing it was anachronistic, this started under Moffat's reign). I hate that.

    :lol:
     
  16. PorthosShadow

    PorthosShadow Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Basically, everything plays out pretty much the same save for Gallifrey being destroyed. The Doctor used the same trick to cheat his own death in a supposed fixed point at Lake Silencio. Apparently you can't alter a fixed point but you can make a substitution :p

    My only question is are the events of The Time War still time locked?
     
  17. Emperor-Tiberius

    Emperor-Tiberius Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    [​IMG]
     
  18. PorthosShadow

    PorthosShadow Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Was there some reason they couldn't use Christopher Eccleston's regeneration face from "Bad Wolf". It wouldn't have been too difficult to insert.
     
  19. YellowSubmarine

    YellowSubmarine Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Time vortex or no time vortex, the Moment Interface smiling makes it feel that there is more to it than a sentient Moment being happy, plus some of her remarks are quite uncharacteristic for a Doomsday machine, sentient or not. Besides, she's credited as Rose.

    Or they could be the same thing. The Time Lords never figured how the Moment got its sentience, did they? Perhaps now we know.
     
  20. Gov Kodos

    Gov Kodos Admiral Admiral

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    They might have to get him to agree to the usage, I guess?