I can't see it until Sunday at the earliest when I'm back in Brussels. Ironically, I'm on holiday in London but I was at a concert tonight.
Giving it four out of five (which is my "excellent", basically). Some lovely moments, such as the one where Lambert and Hussein hug each other after the ratings are released. Reece Shearsmith's Doctor Two was spot on, also (though how accurate that was to Troughton himself, I'm not sure). The bit at the end took me out of it somewhat. I wonder if we'll be seeing that scene in a different context before the end of the year.
I hope they don't change the context. At it stands, it's a sweet, almost tender moment. I like it just for that allow. Don't need any extra context.
That moment at the end didn't quite work for me. A transition over to Smith's own goodbye to the modern console to close it out would have worked a lot better if their intent was for a 'passing of the torch'/'and it continues to this day' moment. As it is, it kinda just looks like Matt Smith traveled back in time and walked on set. Really my only complaint about the whole thing. I never would have thought I could enjoy it as much as I did. Well written, well acted, fantastic production values all around and damn near tear-jerking. If Gatiss could bring that level of pathos to the actual show, I say give him the reigns tomorrow.
That was quite lovely. I smiled and giggled in a few places, and yes, even shed a few tears toward the end. Spoiler: Spoiler "I don't want to go." I'm sure over the next few days we'll read about how this scene didn't happen, or that bit wasn't quite right. But for now, I'm quite pleased with it as a wonderful tribute to the show we all love. Excellent.
i thought it was really great. i loved some of the little things like the Cyberman smoking and Hartnell looking at a real police box.
That wasn't really the point of the scene. Hartnell is rumoured to have held the belief when the show started that it would be a big success and go on for many years. This scene was a symbolic representation that his beliefs came true, that despite having to leave the role those beliefs have been vindicated and his legacy set the course for the future. So not really passing the torch in the classic sense of the phrase since it wasn't really meant to be the 11th Doctor showing up.
It doesn't really watch that way though. It was just kind of awkward. My thought process was: "Oh hey, there is Matt Smith. Wait, does he actually see him there? I wonder if we'll transition to a dramatized scene of the modern production. Oh, guess not. Huh, that was odd." They had a lot of options for that scene. A transition through each Doctor on his own TARDIS as Hartnell looks on before finally finishing on Smith where they share that moment and it comes back to him on his own set would have been a lot more effective.
Yeah I've seen other people say they should have shown all the Doctor's but they would have had to use clips for that which would have taken away from the beautiful simplicity of the scene - it was a fleeting magical moment in a great drama, it didn't need anymore than that to get over the point they were making.
It could fade between all of them in a few seconds. or even just have the audio, or have him glance over at "Troughton" before cutting over to Smith, Like I said, there were options and what they picked just didn't work for me. Oh well, I'll live. It was one bad choice in an hour and a half of good ones.
I wasn't alive in 1963 but my parents were and they passed Doctor Who onto me as a boy. I grew up with the show on reruns all the way from Hartnell to McCoy. I loved the idea of a character that will always be there for us no matter who plays him. The final scene made me cry my eyes out.
IMDB says that Moffet was supposed to play Tom Baker. There was a plan, possibly on the cutting room floor, or this was misdirection.
I nearly lost it when Hartnell said "I don't want to go". Pretty sure Gatiss intentionally mirrored Tennant's line from The End of Time there.
Exactly. Most of the time less is more. I thought the Kennedy/Dalek scene was chilling as well, and the "I don't want to go" could have seemed trite, but I thought Bradley played it spot on. So William Russell was the doorman? I didn't spot Carole Ann Ford, but nice to see Jean Marsh in there.