The Day of the Doctore Review Thread (Spoilers?)

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

It was utterly brilliant and tied everything together for me without any continuity problems...


well.. there is one thing.

We are told the Daleks killed themselves completely in the crossfire.
And we know that those events were time locked.
How does that jive with what we learned about the Dalek's fate during Parting of the Ways and Stolen Earth?
So the Time War is STILL time locked, even though it ends differently than we thought?
And Dalek Caan still broke through the lock and pulled out Davros before they all blew themselves to bits?

 

[JoeZhang]

Surely the Doctor will find some way around the limit, but it won't be a given. I suspect Capaldi's Doctor's personality will be shaped by his awareness that he's the last

Eh? he knows he's not - that's the whole point of the scene with Tom Baker.

 

[Jax]

So, now that The Doctor has legitimized his (actual) Ninth Incarnation (John Hurt, The War Doctor), does that mean we can OFFICIALLY renumber Eccleston through Smith and refer to Capaldi as the Thirteenth Doctor?

I thought Moffat stated the numbers won't change. Sure the Doctor is on life number 13 after the X Mas Special but there still has only been 12 Doctors at that point (including Capaldi). John Hurt's "War Doctor" still is a warrior the polar oppostie to the others, born for war and bloodshed + he still took part in brutal battles and killed during the war up to the events of the moment.

He may be accpeted as part of them as a 1200 year old + lifespan but he will never truly be one of the Doctor's.

 

[Pavonis]

@Timelord Victorious: Dalek Caan retrieved Davros from the jaws of the Nightmare Child, during a battle in the "first year" of the war (how many years does a Time War have?). Dammit - I hate fast-moving threads! :laugh:

 

[Gov Kodos]

It was utterly brilliant and tied everything together for me without any continuity problems...


well.. there is one thing.

We are told the Daleks killed themselves completely in the crossfire.
And we know that those events were time locked.
How does that jive with what we learned about the Dalek's fate during Parting of the Ways and Stolen Earth?
So the Time War is STILL time locked, even though it ends differently than we thought?
And Dalek Caan still broke through the lock and pulled out Davros before they all blew themselves to bits?

They happened and didn't. It might be something akin to Amy asking how she remembered the soldiers who disappeared into the crack?

 

[zarkon]

We are told the Daleks killed themselves completely in the crossfire.
And we know that those events were time locked.
How does that jive with what we learned about the Dalek's fate during Parting of the Ways and Stolen Earth?
So the Time War is STILL time locked, even though it ends differently than we thought?
And Dalek Caan still broke through the lock and pulled out Davros before they all blew themselves to bits?

Davros died during the first year of the time war, so Caan entered the time war at a point well before the events of this ep.

I'm more interested in the daleks that weren't blockading Gallifrey. Are they alive now that the moment wasn't used? Are the skaros degradations, the could've been king, the nightmare child, etc, floating around out there somewhere?

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

@Timelord Victorious: Dalek Caan retrieved Davros from the jaws of the Nightmare Child, during a battle in the "first year" of the war (how many years does a Time War have?). Dammit - I hate fast-moving threads! :laugh:

Good point.

And the war had many years, since the Hurt Doctor said he fought it for a long time.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

And I suppose it's a good question -- should we call Capaldi the Twelfth Doctor or the Thirteenth? And what do we call Hurt now? Or, for that matter, Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith? We could go in real-world order of casting, but then that would make Hurt the 12th. This is so confusing.

Well, the first time someone has explicitely mentioned the Doctor's number in dialogue was in "The Name of the Doctor", so it's not as if these things really come up that often.

 

[Mitty]

Clara was actually surprisingly awesome. And the Rose "Bad Wolf" character was kind of cool as well. Would have been nice if we'd gotten Donna though as well

 

[Yminale]

He may be accpeted as part of their life but he will never truly be one of the Doctor's.

The ending of the "The Day of the Doctor" implies otherwise. Regardless the number of Doctors is moot right now and something only fanboys care about. With the eminent return of the Time Lords, there will probably be more regenerations.

 

[The Wormhole]

Well, that was a blast to watch, although at the same time I feel kind of let down. The episode felt like a rush job, we start off with Clara now a school teacher with no explanation of what the hell happened after the cliffhanger scene in Name of the Doctor. That kind of annoyed me.

I've been trying all summer to "correct" people who claim John Hurt is just a replacement because Christopher Eccleston turned things down, feeling that with the way the cliffhanger scene played out they would have had Hurt there anyway, but now I'm not so sure. Yes, Hurt was awesome and perfect for the role but it really kind of felt like it was originally written for Eccleston.

Okay, so the big problem with Gallifrey being back is that Rassilon is still Lord President, since all this takes place before all we saw in The End of Time. And since he's bent on eradicating all time and space, well, won't he still try to do that? Doesn't this sappy "think of the children" reset button kind of ignore the fact that the Time Lords posed just as much a threat as the Daleks did? For that matter, isn't everything we just saw in The End of Time now undone?

Now onto the Nitpicks:

-Upon hearing "timey-wimey" the War Doctor is shocked and asks "do you actually talk like that?" However, back in Time Crash (which is canon according to Moffat) the Fifth Doctor recognized the term and even used it.

-Likewise, upon seeing the Tenth Doctor, the Eleventh comments "I've never seen you from the outside before." But again, the Fifth Doctor did.

And finally, a question. They aren't exactly too clear but is John Hurt's regeneration supposed to be the result of natural causes?

Fun to watch with various nods to the classic era, great revisiting Tennant, even cool to see Capaldi and Tom Baker's cameo was a nice moment. But not really a perfect episode. But then, what could be?

Oh, almost forgot, what are our predictions for when the Doctor will find Gallifrey? I'm thinking it'll be the arc for Capaldi's first season.

 

[Jax]

Well Moffat gets the official say at show runner though the next show runner can change it though fans can disagree of course and do waht they want but if memory serves right The War Doctor is its own category and the numbers do not change for the others...Am happy with that to be fair.

I would like Moffat to address that Capaldi's Doctor is techinally the final regeneration in terms of using up that energy but an easy way out is the return of the Time Lords can grant him more lives lets say another 13

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

And I suppose it's a good question -- should we call Capaldi the Twelfth Doctor or the Thirteenth? And what do we call Hurt now? Or, for that matter, Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith? We could go in real-world order of casting, but then that would make Hurt the 12th. This is so confusing.

Well, the first time someone has explicitely mentioned the Doctor's number in dialogue was in "The Name of the Doctor", so it's not as if these things really come up that often.

In The Five Doctors, Hurndall says something like "so there are five of me now"

In The Lodger, Smith points to himself and says "the eleventh" during the mind-meld scene.

 

[JoeZhang]

And finally, a question. They aren't exactly too clear but is John Hurt's regeneration supposed to be the result of natural causes?

He was worn out, hence the use of the first doctor's regeneration line.

 

[Pavonis]

@Timelord Victorious: Dalek Caan retrieved Davros from the jaws of the Nightmare Child, during a battle in the "first year" of the war (how many years does a Time War have?). Dammit - I hate fast-moving threads! :laugh:

Good point.

And the war had many years, since the Hurt Doctor said he fought it for a long time.

Yeah, but it's a Time War - a war fought across time itself. Which years count as part of a time war, then?

Frankly, as nice as it was to get a glimpse of the Time War and a war-ravaged Gallifrey, I was a bit disappointed, too. The mystery of the Time War, fought by "two almighty civilizations" as the Master put it, was that we really couldn't comprehend what that kind of war would be like. But apparently it's just a bunch of Daleks shooting at soldiers. Could've been any war from any era. Took a lot of mystery out of it.

As I was typing this, I noted to myself that we don't number the Masters, and I wonder if we'll stop "numbering" the Doctors now. Saying Smith's Doctor rather than the Eleventh Doctor is just as clear, and less confusing, since Hurt's Doctor is the ninth, and so is Eccelston's (as I said to my wife - "the ninth Doctor regenerated into...the Ninth Doctor..."

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

In The Five Doctors, Hurndall says something like "so there are five of me now"

Not quite the same thing, though, is it?

In The Lodger, Smith points to himself and says "the eleventh" during the mind-meld scene.

Ah, I didn't remember that. Anyway, it's not as if it were a common occurrence. And I do believe that the expression "nth Doctor", which we use so often to talk about the show, had never been used on the show before "Day of the Doctor".

 

[Marc]

And I suppose it's a good question -- should we call Capaldi the Twelfth Doctor or the Thirteenth? And what do we call Hurt now? Or, for that matter, Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith? We could go in real-world order of casting, but then that would make Hurt the 12th. This is so confusing.

Well, the first time someone has explicitely mentioned the Doctor's number in dialogue was in "The Name of the Doctor", so it's not as if these things really come up that often.

In The Five Doctors, Hurndall says something like "so there are five of me now"

In The Lodger, Smith points to himself and says "the eleventh" during the mind-meld scene.

But at the time the First Doctor made the comment we hadn't see the War Doctor or the timewar so the count is correct (as far as contradicting claims that the 1st Doctor wasn't the first that arose after Brain of Morbius).

The scene from The Lodger was still at a point where the existence of the War Doctor was still being denied (very Symbiosis Commission of the Doctor).

 

[Yminale]

And finally, a question. They aren't exactly too clear but is John Hurt's regeneration supposed to be the result of natural causes?

He said he felt worn out so I would say yes.

Oh, almost forgot, what are our predictions for when the Doctor will find Gallifrey? I'm thinking it'll be the arc for Capaldi's first season.

I hope so since I think the Silence and maybe the Time Crack arc will conclude with Smith's final episode.

 

[Darth_Daver]

It was bloody brilliant! Oh for god's sake, Gallifrey stands!

- What will happen to Rasillion and co?
- How did the older doctors knew to come, did they use the Moment to break the timeline there as well?
- Beside the beautiful meta-meaning of Tom Baker being there, who was The Curator?

 

[MacLeod]

Well the Master had used up his regenerations by the Fourth Doctor. But he just refused to die.