Of course, the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who means the 10th Anniversary of the 50th Anniversary special1, The Day of the Doctor. And what a time that was to be a fan, eh? As we head closer towards The Star Beast and we discover what else RTD has in store for us – Tales of the TARDIS has already been, Destination: Skaro dropped just last night, and The Daleks – in Colour! is still to come – I can’t help feel that Doctor Who’s Diamond Jubilee is a more low key event than it’s Golden one. And that’s probably down to how spoilt we were during the 5oth in 2013.
The 50th was my first proper anniversary year – oh, sure, I was there for the 30th, but how proper was that? Apologies to you Dimensions in Time fans out there: I love everything about that story, what it stands for, how it came to be, and dearly wish we’ll see a proper release for it one day, but it’s by no means the most accomplished bit of Doctor Who. At this point the show was cancelled, forgotten about & ignored, making the celebrations something along the lines of the birthday party for the distant cousin that you go to because you feel you have to, even though you find them a bit weird. But at least we had that party: come the 40th there wasn’t even that – I wasn’t in to Big Finish enough to register what they were up to.
But by 2013 that had all changed. RTD had brought Doctor Who back with a BANG! and Steven Moffat had pushed it forwards to even greater heights. Doctor Who was once again in the nation’s psyche, and there was the willingness & budget to do something really special to celebrate one of the jewels in the BBC’s crown. And so the boat was pushed out – OF COURSE we would have a special anniversary episode, and OF COURSE it would be multi-Doctor, with the previous Doctor coming back to play with the current one. But we also had missing episodes coming back! We had surprise appearances from old Doctors!! We had a special drama about the genesis of the show!!! We had Brian Cox doing science!!!! Doctor Who was EVERYWHERE: it was all across social media with #SaveTheDate, it was on billboards and buses, there were trailers and adverts galore – and it was in the bloody cinema, in 3D. It was genuinely the most exciting time to be a Doctor Who fan.
And it was in the bloody cinema that I watched Day of the Doctor for the first time; and what an amazing experience that was! Dressed in my 4th Doctor hat & scarf – not knowing who would be popping up at the end – I went with the only other Doctor Who fab I knew at the time (well, the only one daft enough to be seen out with me in that get up & at the end of Movember…). I’ve not yet been to a BFI screening, so this is as close as I’ve got to watching Doctor Who as a communal experience. There were two clear moments that got the reaction from the audience: “No, sir, all thirteen…!” followed by those eyes, and then that first note of Tom Baker’s unmistakable voice from offscreen…
Moffat had his hands tied with who he could bring back for his 50th special. David Tennant was an easy sell, but he couldn’t quite persuade Chris Eccleston to come back, while the BBC themselves knocked back his attempt to get Paul McGann. That left him with 2 Nu Who Doctors for the Anniversary Special itself; as the rest of the Classic Doctors now looked too old to play the role they did in the way that a traditional script would require them, how could he fit them into the celebrations? Paul McGann did, of course, got the amazing treat that was The Night of the Doctor, as well as The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot along with Peter Davison, Colin Baker & Sylvester McCoy; that just left Tom Baker to cover off.
In true Tom Baker style he let the cat out the bag ahead of his appearance in the episode, but luckily I totally missed this and was well and truly surprised when he turned up at the end. What a truly magical moment: to have the face of Doctor Who for so long, the man who was so many people’s childhood Doctor, back on screen in the role. Of course, Moffat has to do some mental gymnastics to explain how he looks now – unlike Chris Chibnall, who took the “fuck it, lets just put them in” route to much better effect in Power of the Doctor – but if nothing else it gives Big Finish a new toy for the sandbox. It’s a beautiful scene, one that’s just as charming and elegant today as it was surprising and emotional the first time I watched it.
But if the BBC wouldn’t let us have a full story with Paul McGann, they did insist that we have another Doctor in this story – albeit played by an actor they felt would be more of a draw. Enter John Hurt as the War Doctor, Moffat cleverly making use of the fact that we never saw McGann regenerate into Eccleston and inventing a whole new way of counting2… Of course Hurt fully vindicates this decision, sprinkling his star quality all over every scene he’s in. He excels as the grumpier, older Doctor who strips away the veneer of cool that has built up in the modern series by this point & exposing it’s sillier elements – “What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?!?” But he’s also excellent in the slower moments, observing how the other two Doctors react to him, chatting with Clara, engaging with The Moment.
Moffat’s script is, of course, a delight: nothing less than you’d expect, the dialogue between the three Doctors sings as they bicker and/or work together. “Same software, different face”: the concept of regeneration, the mainstay of keeping the show running for 50 (60 now) years, explained in just 4 words. Brilliant. This is a laugh out loud script, but it also has some wonderful, emotional moments. There’s the end, of course, as all 13 Doctors come together to save Gallifrey & then stand together to admire their handiwork, but before that we have the scene in the Tower dungeon. Moffat has never been a fan of the Time War it feels, not really dwelling on it much, but here he explores it in depth. Although Rusty coined the thing, he was always best pleased to keep it at a distance, with snatches of mentions of what happened here & there, preferring to explore the effect it had on The Doctor rather than the actual events. Moffat stops to examine the human (or Gallifreyan) cost of the War, both here and in Night of the Doctor and The Last Day. The Doctor who counted the children who died & the Doctor who forgot is heart breaking, and it’s little wonder Moffat wanted to undo it: although it provides amazing drama throughout the RTD era, it’s no one’s idea of The Doctor. And undoing it leads to the hero moment of all hero moments, that scene of all 13 Doctors coming together; it’s a cheat for sure but we do get all the Doctors together in the end. Beautiful!
This story is written as a love letter to all us fans, with more Easter Eggs than the seasonal aisle at Asda in April: from the very opening, as the black & white credits give way to the shadow of a policeman in Totter’s Lane, through to the UNIT dating reference & everything else in the Black Archive, you can watch this episode again and again and again and still not pick up on everything. And it is endlessly rewatchable & enjoyable. Moffat had something of an impossible job, to produce a story that was the equal of the ones that had come before it, with less of the resources of his predecessors; but he pulled it off, and gave us something even better. Something that was the crowning glory in a truly diamond anniversary celebration.
Over to you, Russell…
COMING TOMORROW: “Right!!! Cut it open…!!!”
Skies Full of Diamonds 