Yes, I know, we already celebrated Doctor’s Who’s 60th anniversary a few years ago. It’s all a bit wibbly wobbly timey wimey. But this epic post for the bank holiday weekend is part of my ongoing series of reviews for all the series in the modern era, as I’ve been rewatching them in order. Recently I wrote about Series 7 (Part 1 & Part 2), and the cliffhanger at the end of it directly leads into the 50th anniversary specials, so naturally I wanted to move straight on to those.
The 2013 specials mark the end of Matt Smith’s stellar reign as the 11th Doctor. Some people had doubts about him when he took over from David Tennant – who also appears in the anniversary story, along with John Hurt as the War Doctor – but he really made the role his own, and showed he was capable of everything from chirpy humour to dark intensity. So he’s been very much missed ever since the brilliant send-off he had in these specials.
Meanwhile Jenna Coleman (who dropped the “Louise” from her name from this point onwards) continues to be a wonderful companion as Clara Oswald, with the mystery of why she’s the ‘Impossible Girl’ having been resolved at the end of Series 7. And there’s the welcome return of Billie Piper as a version of Rose that we’ve never seen before.
The score by Murray Gold is sublime as usual, so I’ll be picking out some of my favourite pieces from his soundtrack album in these reviews. And of course everything was overseen by showrunner Steven Moffat, who somehow managed to fit it all in alongside Series 7 of Doctor Who and Series 3 of Sherlock. Plus there was a biographical drama about the origins of the show, written by Mark Gatiss and featuring music by Edmund Butt, that I’ll also be reviewing in this post.
Altogether there’s a lot to mention from the Blu-ray set, along with additional stuff that wasn’t included in that release, and as always I’ve put together an extensive playlist of clips, behind the scenes material, music, interviews, reactions, conventions and much more. So I hope you enjoy celebrating this key milestone in the show’s history with me.
Contents
Blu-ray Steelbook
As with the other series, I own the Blu-ray steelbook edition of these specials, which has some pretty cool artwork, although again they’re using the Doctor Who logo from the time the steelbook was released in 2021, rather than when the specials were broadcast in 2013.
Originally I had owned the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and the separate DV release of An Adventure In Space And Time, but the steelbook merges those into one complete set for convenience, meaning it’s much more compact on the shelf and it sits nicely alongside the other steelbooks.
There are 4 discs altogether, along with a double-sided flier listing their contents. The headshot of Matt and David’s Doctors standing back to back is replicated on the interior of the steelbook behind the discs.
The menu for Discs 1-3 simply shows the Tardis flying through the time vortex, while the full version of the theme tune from the end of the anniversary special is played. It feels a bit lazy compared to the more specific visuals we’ve had for previous series, showing views inside the Tardis or clips from the show, but it still looks nice anyway. For An Adventure In Time And Space, however, there is a dedicated menu image on that disc, as shown later in this post.
What’s particularly surprising and disappointing, however, is that there’s no audio navigation and audio description available for visually impaired people. It’s a very strange oversight on such a major release, given that those features are provided for the series before and after it.
Prequels
The Name Of The Doctor
This full-length 45-minute episode is the finale of Series 7. It’s duplicated in this box set because it reveals the legendary John Hurt as a secret incarnation of the Doctor at the end. You can read all about it in my Series 7 review.
The Night Of The Doctor
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- Released Online – 14 November 2013
- First TV Broadcast – 16 November 2013 (Red Button service)
- Duration – 6:50
- Links – BBC / interview / Youtube / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This features the surprise return of the 8th Doctor, played by Paul McGann, who had only previously been seen in the 1996 movie (which is about to be re-released as a special edition Blu-ray). So it’s a real treat for the fans. I therefore love his opening line – “I’m a Doctor, but probably not the one you were expecting” – as it’s a message to the viewer as well as the person he’s addressing in the story. The episode went out on Paul’s birthday, although that was actually a week earlier than intended because it was about to be leaked.
The Doctor has boarded a spaceship that is hurtling out of control towards the planet Karn, to try and rescue a lady called Cass (played by Emma Campbell-Jones, who had previously played Dr Kent in the Series 6 finale). However, when she discovers who he is, she angrily turns down his help because of the involvement of the Time Lords in the Time War.
The ship then crashes on the planet, killing them both. But the Doctor is revived by Ohila (Clare Higgins), a member of the Sisterhood Of Karn, a group who previously appeared in the 1976 story The Brain Of Morbius. Ohila would later return in the opening and closing episodes of Series 9.
She tries to persuade him to take a special potion that can determine the type of person he becomes after his regeneration, instead of leaving it to chance as usual. He initially refuses, having deliberately stayed out of the war until then. But as he is unable to save Cass, and knows the dire state the universe is in, he eventually reluctantly agrees to become a warrior.
He then credits the companions from his audio stories for Big Finish to honour them, the first time that Big Finish adventures have been acknowledged in the TV series. He also quotes “Physician, heal thyself” from Luke 4:23 in the Bible, because Luke was a doctor. Finally, he regenerates into John Hurt, who is shown using a 1979 photograph where he looks much younger, and says “Doctor no more”. The words “no more” become very relevant again in the anniversary special.
So it’s fantastic that we have this mini-episode to put things into context and finally show the 8th Doctor’s regeneration. And this isn’t the last time we see Paul McGann. As well as a cameo in the spoof episode The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, discussed later in this post, he also makes another surprise appearance alongside other former Doctors in Jodie Whittaker’s final story The Power Of The Doctor in 2022.
The Last Day
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- Released Online – 19 November 2013
- Duration – 3:43
- Links – Youtube / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This is shot from the POV of a new soldier on Gallifrey during the Time War, who has woken up from surgery to find that he’s been fitted with a headcam, which records everything he experiences by using part of his mind as storage space. He has some terrifying visions as a side-effect, but is told to just dismiss them as hallucinations, not premonitions. He’s then taken to a monitoring area in Arcadia to keep an eye on the sky trenches, which are considered to be impenetrable – only for Daleks to start pouring in, killing him and many others.
Specials
The Day Of The Doctor
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- First Broadcast – 23 November 2013
- Duration – 1:16:38
- Links – BBC / Interviews / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
- Steven published a Target novelisation of this story in 2018.
Expectations were incredibly high for this 50th anniversary special, and it’s safe to say they were exceeded. It’s an amazing episode – well, a film really – that celebrates the history of the show by featuring all the previous Doctors and lots of callback references, and sets things up perfectly for the future, courtesy of a truly epic adventure across time and space. It easily beats the 60th anniversary specials, as great as they also were.
It was incredibly popular with the fans too, and set a new Guinness World Record for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama, by being shown in 94 countries across 6 continents. That included a TV audience in the UK of over 10 million viewers on the night, along with eager viewers in over 1,500 cinemas.
Paired with the prequel The Night Of The Doctor, the story fills in the gap between the 1996 movie and the 2005 reboot. It deals with the unfortunate absence of Christopher Eccleston very effectively by inventing the War Doctor (for whom John Hurt brings so much gravitas), and resolves the events of the Time War that have weighed heavily on the Doctor’s mind since the relaunch, before giving a new focus for the Doctor’s story going forward. It’s also the first full-length multi-Doctor story in the TV show since it came back, not counting the Time Crash sketch from 2007.
It opens with the original black and white title sequence and music from the very first episode, An Unearthly Child, with the current BBC logo added. It then mirrors the opening shot as well, with a policeman walking past a sign for 76 Totter’s Lane before we see Coal Hill School, which is where Clara is now working.
Clara receives a message from the Doctor, and heads out on her motorbike to see him, driving it through the open door of the Tardis. But their happy reunion is interrupted when a helicopter picks the Tardis up to take it into London, on the orders of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart from UNIT, who I’m delighted is in this. She’s accompanied during the episode by scientist Petronella Osgood (Ingrid Oliver), who appears in a few more episodes later on too.
The airlift is so unexpected and rocky, however, that the Doctor ends up sliding out of the open door and hanging from the bottom of the Tardis as it flies along – and it was really Matt Smith doing this, harnessed up of course. It makes for a great sequence as the opening credits are displayed.
When they land in Trafalgar Square, Kate takes them into the National Gallery, explaining that the Doctor has been sent a message from Queen Elizabeth I. The monarch has proven her legitimacy by supplying a special painting that depicts the fall of Arcadia on the last day of the Time War, which goes by the names of “No More” and “Gallifrey Falls”. And naturally, being of Time Lord creation, this is no ordinary piece of art. It’s a stasis cube, which is bigger on the inside than the outside, that has captured a moment in time and is displaying it in 3D.
We’re then taken into the painting to see the tragic events of that day unfolding, in a huge and explosive action sequence that looks really cool. As people flee in terror, including families with children, The War Doctor crashes his Tardis into some of the Daleks to destroy them as he makes his escape, leaving behind a message on a wall saying “No More”. He then steals the most destructive weapon that the Time Lords have left – The Moment – which is so advanced that it’s become sentient and can cast judgement on whoever uses it.
The War Doctor takes The Moment to a remote barn, where the interface is revealed to be the Bad Wolf version of Rose Tyler, generated by the device because it’s relevant to his future. She talks to him about the decision that he’s going to have to make, and tells him that if he goes through with it, she’ll make sure he survives the explosion. He’ll then have to live with the knowledge of how many people, especially children, his act of genocide has wiped out. They’re both confused, however, when a portal opens in the air and a fez falls out of it (this proves to be great visual plot device to help the audience keep track of the order in which things are happening).
Back in the present, the 11th Doctor opens the message from Queen Elizabeth I, who explains that following their last encounter, where he had pledged himself to the safety of the kingdom, she made him the curator of the Under Gallery, with orders for him to be summoned if any of the deadly dangers held within should cause a problem. She also refers to him as her “gentle husband”.
The Doctor and Clara are then shown a painting of the 10th Doctor with the Queen, while another scientist called McGillop gets a phonecall telling him to move the previous painting they had been looking at (he’s played by Jonjo O’Neill, who had starred with Billie Piper in a play called The Effect at the National Theatre the previous year).
We then get another flashback, this time to the English countryside in 1562, where the 10th Doctor and Queen Elizabeth I leave the Tardis together on a horse. Her Majesty is played by Joanna Page, who I’m currently very much enjoying in Series 21 of Taskmaster. They stop and have a picnic, where she observes that he’s a man who has been at war in his past. He then proposes to her, believing it to be a way of tricking her because he thinks she’s a shape-shifting Zygon (who were originally seen in the Classic era story Terror Of The Zygons). He even has a machine that goes “Ding!” to prove it, or so he thinks (which reminds me of the machine that goes “Ping!” from the Monty Python film The Meaning Of Life). Unfortunately, the Zygon turns out to be the horse, so the Doctor realises he’s got engaged to the Queen for real.
The Doctor and the Queen split off and run, but she’s caught by the Zygon. Hearing her scream, the Doctor dashes through the woods, and mistakes a rabbit for the enemy, going into a powerful speech about who he is – similar to the one he gave in Voyage Of The Damned – before he realises he’s mistaken. He does then track down the Queen, only to find there’s two of her, meaning that one is the Zygon, having kept the real one alive in order to sustain its cloned image of her.
Back in the present again, the 11th Doctor and Clara are taken to a room in the Under Gallery, with the Doctor picking up a fez he sees in a display case along the way. The paintings are again in the same 3D format as the one about the Time War, but this time the figures that were in them have smashed their way out and are now roaming free somewhere. Before they can do anything about it though, another portal opens in the room, and the 11th Doctor vaguely recalls where it’s from, tossing the fez into it before jumping through himself.
He lands in the woods in 1562, encountering the 10th Doctor and the 2 Queens. The interaction between the two Doctors is very funny, as the 10th figures out who the stranger is, they compare their sonic screwdrivers, and they tease each other about their appearance, with Eleven also getting in some little digs about Ten unwittingly dating a Zygon. It’s amazing to see Matt and David together here and throughout the rest of the story, because they have such fantastic chemistry. They are both unmistakeable as the Doctor, yet they both have very distinct personalities and approaches to the role.
The 11th Doctor then throws his fez back into the portal to see if they can make the return journey the same way, but Clara doesn’t receive it. Instead, the War Doctor comes through the portal with it, much to the alarm of Ten and Eleven. There’s also more amusement here as the War Doctor processes who he’s going to become, initially asking the pair if they’re his future companions, and then mocking their use of the sonic screwdrivers.
The trio are then arrested by the Queen’s soldiers, who believe the monarch has been bewitched. Knowing that Clara and Kate are still listening through the portal in the gallery, Eleven gets Clara to pretend to be a witch, and makes sure Kate knows that they’re being taken to the Tower of London.
The 3 Doctors are then put in a cell, where they get a chance to talk more fully, while Eleven works on carving a message into a wall. It’s a wonderfully acted and interesting scene, during which there’s tension between Ten and Eleven, as the latter can’t remember how many children died on Gallifrey and Ten demands to know where his future self could possibly have been to make him forget that. What’s particularly incredible is that Matt Smith is the youngest actor, yet is playing the oldest Doctor, and you fully believe it, as you can really feel how time has weighed upon him. He even jokingly remarks that this is what it’s like when he’s alone, as they air their differences, meaning he always has that inner conflict in his head.
Back in the present day, Kate takes Clara to the Tower of London, and to the Black Archive, which holds the most dangerous alien technology that UNIT has acquired. It’s so sensitive that anyone who enters has their memory wiped upon leaving, so even the guard thinks he’s only just started there despite having been employed for a decade. And to her surprise, Clara learns that she’s already been there once before, because she has clearance to enter. She sees a photo of herself as proof of this, among many pictures of other people who have accompanied or worked with the Doctor over the years, so for fans of the show it’s something they can freeze-frame to examine closely. The archive also holds a variety of props from previous stories.
They then look at a vortex manipulator that was taken from Captain Jack Harkness after one of his many deaths (a nice nod to the character, although it’s a pity he’s not actually in this special). They can use it to travel back in time and rescue the Doctors, but it needs an activation code – and that’s what the 11th Doctor has been carving into the wall of their cell back in 1562.
Kate receives a photo of the code from a scientist who has found it, but then Clara discovers to her horror that Kate is actually a Zygon, along with Osgood and McGillop who have also entered the archive. Fortunately, however, Clara is able to tap the code into the vortex manipulator and teleport safely away.
Back in 1562, the 3 Doctors figure out a plan to escape, thanks to The Moment dropping a hint to the War Doctor (Ten and Eleven don’t know she’s there). They need to make a calculation to change the frequency of the atoms in the door to disintegrate it, but it’s so complicated that it would take hundreds of years to do it – and as it happens, there’s a span of around 400 years between the War Doctor and Eleven’s ages. So by implanting the calculation in the software of the sonic screwdriver held by the War Doctor, which is then left to tick away over the centuries, it turns out to be finally solved in the 11th Doctor’s model.
Just as they prepare to put it to use, however, Clara opens the door from the outside, revealing that it was never locked in the first place! It makes the whole calculation feel completely pointless, but having one Doctor launch a calculation that only completes with a later version of himself is crucial for later in the episode.
The Queen then appears, revealing that she left the door unlocked as a test, and now that Clara’s fallen into the trap as well, she can show them her plan. The Zygons’ world was destroyed during the Time War, so they now want to take over Earth. But as the 16th century is too primitive, they’ve hidden themselves in stasis-cube paintings, like the one for the Time War earlier, so they can bide their time until civilisation is advanced enough for them to emerge, hence escaping in the present day. They had disguised the commander as the Queen to enable them to get away with it.
The 10th Doctor says he can tell she’s a Zygon because of various unflattering characteristics about her – only to find to his humiliation, yet again, that she’s the real Queen after all, and she’s actually tricked the Zygons rather than the Doctors and Clara. She urges the 10th Doctor to save the world, but insists that he honours his proposal first. So they get married, Clara throws confetti over them, and Eleven responds to the War Doctor’s question that kissing does tend to happen a lot in his future.
The three Doctors and Clara then head back to the 10th Doctor’s Tardis, and it’s great to see that old interior again (which the 11th calls his “grunge phase” that he grows out of). But with 3 Doctors present, the Tardis gets confused and changes the layout to the War Doctor’s “desktop theme” – which has the roundels on the walls, even though they have no clue what they’re for. Eleven is then able to stabilise it so his layout takes over, which Ten says he doesn’t like (a callback to a few other Doctors who have made a similar remark when seeing a later Tardis than their own).
They make contact with the Black Archive in the present day, where the 11th Doctor is angry to discover that the Zygons have infiltrated the space, while the real Kate wants to activate the nuclear warhead that’s been installed there for an extreme emergency, to destroy London so that nobody else can have it. The Tardis is unable to land there, however, because the Tower of London has been Tardis-proofed. So instead, they fly to Arcadia on Gallifrey in the War Doctor’s timeline, so they can be present in the snapshot captured in the painting. The mysterious phonecall to McGillop earlier in the episode turns out to have been from the 11th Doctor at this time, telling him to take the painting to the archive. They’re then able to burst out of the painting at the appropriate time, which looks very heroic with all 3 of them together, plus Clara of course.
With the real and cloned Kates fighting over the nuclear detonation, the Doctor uses the memory modifiers to temporarily make everyone forget if they’re human or Zygon, which convinces the Kates to stop the countdown and negotiate a peace treaty. Clara, meanwhile, talks to the War Doctor about the pain she’s seen in the 10th and 11th Doctors about what he did during the Time War. It’s not enough to convince him though, and when The Moment tells him the time has come to decide, he’s transported back to the barn on Gallifrey by himself.
As he steels himself to commit genocide by pressing the button, The Moment reminds him that the noise of the Tardis materialising is one of hope to all who hear it, and that includes him. The 10th and 11th Doctors both arrive in their machines, with Clara in tow, thanks to The Moment having allowed them through the time lock. The 2 Doctors are prepared to carry out the act with the War Doctor, to give them peace of mind that he was never truly alone in that tragic moment.
Clara’s humanity, however, brings an emotional punch to them all, as seeing her own Doctor getting involved in such a horrific act is deeply upsetting for her. She persuades him to “be a Doctor”, reminding all of them of the promise they made when choosing that title. It triggers a brainwave from Eleven that is then picked up on by the other two Doctors, and they realise that there is an alternative solution.
The final scenes of the episode are then nothing short of glorious, with everything having built up beautifully to this point.
Their idea, which they communicate to the War Room, is to freeze Gallifrey in stasis – much like the snapshots captured in the 3D paintings, but scaled up to a planetary level. It would disappear from space and time into its own little pocket universe, leaving the Daleks shooting at and destroying each other. The General doesn’t like the idea of them being shut away like this, but agrees that it will give them hope at least, even if he can’t understand how it’s possible given the enormity of the calculations required to pull it off.
But having learnt from their experience with the sonic screwdriver in the prison cell, the Doctors have realised that it’s possible for a complex problem to be solved over many centuries, if it’s set off early enough. So they summon all of their previous incarnations, who have allowed the equations to run over all of their lifetimes, and their Tardises surround the planet. This truly iconic moment is a spectacular way to involve every single Doctor in the anniversary special, with carefully chosen footage and dialogue from past episodes (plus a newly-recorded line for the First Doctor by John Guilor) that makes it look like they’re all contributing. It’s also an incredible feat by the editing team who had to track it all down.
And then, just as the General expresses his bewilderment at seeing all 12 Doctors, the 13th appears as well, so we see the hand and eyes of Peter Capaldi. This was another huge surprise when the episode was first broadcast, because although he had been announced as the next Doctor, there had never previously been an occasion where a new incarnation had been seen in the series before the current one had regenerated.
After Gallifrey disappears in a massive explosion, the 3 Doctors and Clara return to the National Gallery in the present day, having no idea if their plan actually worked. But even if it didn’t, they agree that they tried doing the right thing compared to the alternative.
The War Doctor feels comforted by this, and is happy to refer to himself as Doctor again, even if he can only enjoy it briefly, as neither he nor Ten will remember these events due to their timelines being out of sync. So the War Doctor bids a fond farewell to his future selves and Clara, and departs in his Tardis, where he regenerates. With his parting words he expresses a hope that “the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time”, a wish that we know doesn’t come true! But ultimately, it’s lovely to see that he’s happy and at peace with regenerating, knowing that everything worked out for the best in the end. We don’t actually see him turn into the 9th Doctor, as Steven Moffat reasoned it would be disrespectful to fake it given Christopher’s wishes not to be involved, but it’s still made clear in the story that’s who he becomes.
The 10th Doctor then presses the 11th for information on where he’s headed, given that he won’t remember it, and Eleven tells him about Trenzalore. As Ten then prepares to leave, he says the destination needs to change, because he doesn’t want to go, which is a nice nod towards his future regeneration.
Clara then respectfully gives her Doctor some private time to spend with the painting of the Time War, telling him that an old man, the curator of the museum, has been looking for him. The Doctor sits and muses happily about the idea of retiring and becoming the curator – only for a very familiar voice to say that he might just do that one day. I love the Doctor’s reaction to this, as you can immediately see the look of realisation in his eyes as his smile fades, and he takes his time in staring in disbelief at the new arrival, before slowly rising to approach him and say “I never forget a face”.
To his surprise it’s Tom Baker, who was a shock for most of the audience too. He had revealed his involvement to the Huffington Post a few days earlier, without specifying exactly what he would be doing, but the vast majority of viewers (including me) hadn’t been aware of that. And the scene between him and Matt is really sweet to watch, with perfectly scored music as well. Tom had previously played the 4th Doctor in the series, and has remained one of the best-loved in the role ever since, but this time he’s a future incarnation who is now the Curator. He tells the 11th Doctor that over time he might revisit a few of his favourite faces again, which was later proven by David Tennant returning for the 60th anniversary.
The Curator also enlightens the Doctor that everybody has got the title of the painting wrong – it’s not “No More” or “Gallifrey Falls”, but rather “Gallifrey Falls No More”, implying that the plan worked. He can’t tell the Doctor where his home planet is or how to find it, but encourages him that there’s a lot of work to do. The Doctor is buoyed by this information, understanding that he now has a new mission – to find and restore Gallifrey to the universe.
Granted, it’s not actually that long before we do return there in the series, because as Steven Moffat has rightly pointed out in interviews, looking for a planet isn’t much of a story in itself. The important thing about this story is that it resolves the events of the Time War and reassures the Doctor that Gallifrey was saved.
In a final dream sequence he steps out of his Tardis, saying that he now understands his journey has been taking him home the long way round, and joins all of his previous incarnations as they pose together, all facing the planet as it looms large overhead. The Doctors are all arranged in a semi-circle, apart from the First Doctor who stands proudly in the centre just behind them. It’s a perfect final image.
The closing credits then use a great new version of the theme tune created exclusively for this special, featuring the middle 8 for the first time since Matt Smith’s first episode (The Eleventh Hour). The credits also begin by listing all 12 people who have played the Doctor to date, and their faces are interspersed between the other groups of names. Peter Capaldi is neither shown nor credited despite his cameo. Billie Piper is credited as playing Rose, but really she’s The Moment, which has taken on the form of the Bad Wolf version of Rose.
Sadly, that version of the theme tune isn’t included on the soundtrack album by Murray Gold. But the first disc does contain 23 other tracks that he composed for this special, lasting almost an hour. Some of it wasn’t actually used in the end though, as the producers incorporated several pieces from earlier stories as well.
I would say my top 10 tracks are:
- It’s Him (The Majestic Tale), from the Doctor’s flight to Trafalgar Square.
- He Was There, which starts off calmly then gets more dramatic in the second half.
- Who Are You?, with its recognisable motifs from Rose’s Theme.
- Two Doctors & Three Doctors, from the fun scene where the Time Lords meet in the woods.
- 2.47 Billion, a sombre track with elements of The Doctor’s Theme, reflecting on the number of children lost on Gallifrey.
- Man And Wife, which has an Elizabethan air to it before segueing into a shortened version of I Am The Doctor.
- We Are The Doctors, which was going to be used when the Doctors walked out of the painting in the Black Archive, but was instead adapted for The Zygon Invasion in Series 9. In the special, I Am The Doctor was used for this iconic moment instead.
- This Time There’s Three Of Us (The Majestic Tale) – The longest track on the album, this is a 7-minute masterpiece with a nice change in rhythm partway through, that was used when the Doctors are putting their plan together in the barn. As the title suggests, it finishes with part of The Majestic Tale (Of A Madman In A Box).
- Song For Four/Home – Originally composed for the curator scene and the Doctor’s speech at the end of the episode, this beautiful track was instead used in Deep Breath, the first episode of Series 8, when the 11th Doctor phones Clara to put her mind at rest her about his successor. In the special, the final scenes were instead scored by a variation of The Wedding Of River Song.
The Time Of The Doctor
- Writer – Steven Moffat
- First Broadcast – 25 December 2013
- Duration – 1:01:05
- Links – BBC / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
- This is the 800th episode of the show.
Matt Smith’s final adventure as the Doctor gives him a decent send-off, by wrapping up various story threads from across his time on the show, and dealing with a long-term problem regarding regenerations.
A message is being sent across the universe from one particular planet, which has drawn the attention of many different spaceships, including the Tardis, even though nobody can understand it. The Doctor boards a couple of nearby vessels to see who’s joined the fray in orbit, only to discover Daleks and Cybermen, so makes a hasty exit in both cases.
He also has an old Cyberman head with him, which he’s modified so that he can request information from its databanks when necessary. It’s a futuristic equivalent of Alexa, basically, but it’s nicknamed Handles, and is voiced by Kayvan Novak. It’s somewhat unreliable and needs to be given very specific instructions, otherwise it keeps asking questions to clarify things, but the Doctor has a fondness for his creation.
While all of this is going on, the telephone on the outside of the Tardis rings, and the Doctor asks Handles to remind him to reroute it through the Tardis console, as it’s very inconvenient to open the door to answer it. The caller is Clara, who pleads for him to attend the Christmas dinner she’s making for her family, as she’s lied to them about having a boyfriend.
When he arrives and Clara enters the Tardis, she’s alarmed to find that he’s completely naked! He uses a holographic filter to give himself some clothes though, and she takes him indoors to meet her family. It’s a strangely awkward encounter, which confuses Clara until the Doctor informs her that he hasn’t activated the filter for them too, so they can still see his nudity! She takes him out of the room very quickly, using the excuse that he’s Swedish, and persuades him to help her cook the turkey properly, so they put it under a panel in the Tardis to cook it using the time winds.
He then takes her to see the planet where the message is coming from, and Handles announces that it’s Gallifrey, which the Doctor knows is wrong because he would recognise it. An invitation then comes from Tasha Lem (Orla Brady), the Mother Superior on a floating church called the Papal Mainframe, and they go on board. They require everyone to be nude, so Clara has to take a holographic pill as well, so that it still looks to herself (and to us) like she has clothes on, even though Tasha can see she’s actually nude.
Tasha talks to the Doctor in private about the message, while Clara is approached by members of the Silence and immediately forgets having seen them (as Amy, Rory and River experienced in Series 6). He and Clara are then sent down to the planet’s surface, where they’re attacked by Weeping Angels hidden in the snow. It’s the first time that Clara’s encountered them, and the Doctor fears what could happen given that he lost Amy and Rory to them. Tasha had forced the Doctor to give her his Tardis key, so he couldn’t take his machine down to the planet – but he knew she would do that, so he reveals a spare key hidden under his hair, which turns out to be a wig covering his shaved head. So he’s able to make the Tardis materialise around him and Clara safely.
After donning some proper clothes to keep warm, he and Clara head to a village called Christmas, where the planet’s truth field causes them to say embarrassing things to a couple they encounter. The mysterious message is then tracked down to the clock tower, and when they go inside, the Doctor is unnerved to discover the glowing crack in time that had been such a big element of Series 5. The cracks had been caused by his Tardis exploding in the finale of that series, and while the universe had been reset after that event, scars like this still remain.
Handles confirms that the message coming through the crack is of Gallifreyan origin, which explains why he had said Gallifrey earlier. And when the Doctor uses a Gallifreyan artefact he once took from the Master to enable Handles to translate the message, it is revealed to be “Doctor who?”, repeated on an endless loop.
The Doctor realises that the Time Lords have been using the crack to broadcast the message across all of space and time to get his attention, from the pocket universe he sent them to in the previous episode. If he says his real name, they’ll know that the crack is in the right place so they can come through. He’s the only person who knows the answer to that question, and they’ve ensured that he can’t lie about it because of the truth field.
However, the translation also reaches the enemy spaceships surrounding the planet, so they now also know it’s the Time Lords trying to come back. The Doctor therefore realises that if the Time Lords come through, the Time War will start up again, and he can’t let that happen. Tasha is also aware of that possibility when she contacts the Doctor, and he learns from her that the planet is Trenzalore, which we know from the Series 7 finale is where he dies.
The Doctor is therefore in a difficult position, because his enemies up in the sky want to destroy the planet, while the Time Lords also want to come through, which will trigger the Time War again. So as the only person who can prevent those things from happening, he proclaims himself the sheriff of Christmas, promising to defend all the innocent residents from the enemies above for as long as he lives. And for the next 300 years he does just that, by eliminating any invaders who get close, while also forming a close rapport with the villagers, especially the children who look up to him, with one in particular called Barnable (played by Jack Hollington in his TV debut).
Of course, he wants Clara to be safe too, and early on he tricks her into boarding the Tardis so it can take her home. But she puts her key back in the lock as it dematerialises to return to the Doctor, and holds on tight as it flies her through the time vortex. It therefore has to increase its shielding to protect her, which slows down the journey, hence when she lands the Doctor is 300 years older than when she left. He’s living in the same room as the crack, with lots of drawings by the local children on the walls celebrating him and his adventures, as he’s had time to tell them lots of stories about his life. It’s a nice way of representing his stories over the past few series.
There is some initial anger between them, as she didn’t like being left behind, and he didn’t want her coming back to somewhere so dangerous. But they quickly make up for it, as he’s delighted to see her again after so long. The years have taken their toll on Handles, however, who develops a fault and shuts down, with his dying words reminding the Doctor to patch the phone through to the Tardis console.
The Doctor takes Clara to the top of the tower to watch the sunrise, as the daylight doesn’t last long on Trenzalore, and they have a lovely chat, during which he explains why he can no longer regenerate. He says that Time Lords have a limit of 12 regenerations, meaning they can only have 13 lives, and he as the 11th Doctor is now in his 13th incarnation. There appear to be 2 numbers missing there, but one of them is the War Doctor of course. The other is the 10th Doctor’s aborted regeneration in the Series 4 finale, where he was able to repair himself without changing his face (the 11th Doctor says he had “vanity issues” at the time), and that’s deemed to have used up one of his regenerations.
This confirms something that has been debatable in the show’s history from way back in the Classic era. Sometimes it’s been hinted that a regeneration cycle could be infinite, but on other occasions the 13-life limit has been suggested. So this story makes the latter canon. I think a lot of keen fans from the old days of the show had been talking about it, so Steven Moffat felt duty-bound to deal with it.
Tasha, who hasn’t aged a bit, then invites the Doctor back up to the Papal Mainframe to discuss a possible truce, and Clara joins him. It has now been converted into a church for the Silence, who act as priests who people can confess things to before later forgetting they’ve done so. However, as the Doctor and Tasha talk, it becomes clear that she and her colleagues were recently killed by the Daleks and turned into their puppets – much like the crew of the crashed spaceship had been in Asylum Of The Daleks at the start of Series 7. Although the Daleks had forgotten the Doctor at the end of that story, the information they gleaned from Tasha’s brain reminded them of him, and that’s made them all the more determined to stop him. The Doctor gets him and Clara out of it though, by making Tasha angry with him so that her real mind can take control of her body again and fight off the Daleks.
The Doctor then tricks Clara into being sent home by the Tardis yet again, and this time she’s unable to go back with it, so she returns to her family feeling very upset. Meanwhile, the Doctor, the soldiers of the church and the members of the Silence become close allies, and fend off all the invaders apart from the Daleks over a further 600 years.
Only a few minutes after she landed back on Earth, however, Clara hears the Tardis returning, and excitedly runs to it, only to find Tasha flying it. She was able to get inside because she still had the key she’d taken from the Doctor earlier on, and she says it’s easier to fly the machine than the Doctor himself. She takes Clara back to Trenzalore so that she can be with the dying Doctor in his final hours, not wanting him to be alone. He now looks very old indeed and his memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but they spend some tender moments together, before the Daleks loudly summon him to face them at the top of the tower. They know he’s dying and are revelling in that fact.
Clara, however, is having none of it, and approaches the crack, pleading with the Time Lords to save him. The name of the Doctor, she explains, should tell them all they need to know about who he is, and if they really love him, they will help him. The crack in the wall then closes, and opens in the sky instead, from which a burst of regeneration energy flows into the Doctor’s mouth. Rejuvenated by this, he’s able to use the power of that energy to destroy all of the Daleks in a triumphant, explosive finale. This Doctor really goes out with a bang here, as he rightly should, it’s glorious.
Once everything has died down, Clara goes looking for him. She finds the phone off the hook outside the Tardis (which becomes relevant at the start of Series 8), and replaces the receiver, before heading inside. She finds the Doctor looking young again, like the man she always knew, but he explains it’s only the reset. His body’s still adjusting to the new regeneration cycle before it fully takes effect.
Unlike when the 10th Doctor regenerated with great distress, not wanting to go, the 11th Doctor is happy and at peace with the change that’s about to happen to him. He tries his best to comfort Clara though, who is very upset that he’ll be leaving her. He then gives a really beautiful closing speech, and we have the surprise reappearance of Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), the first face he ever saw in this incarnation, who appears in a vision to him, saying goodnight to her “raggedy man”. It’s lovely that she was able to be part of his closing moments, and we get a glimpse of the child Amelia Pond as well.
Incidentally, for the 3 adults in that scene, it’s also amusing to know that only Jenna has her real hair. We already saw that Matt was bald earlier in the episode, so he’s obviously wearing a wig. But Karen was also wearing a wig (made of her own hair so it looked perfectly natural), because she had shaved her head for the role of Nebula in Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Anyway, all of a sudden after Amy’s farewell, the Doctor jerks back and becomes Peter Capaldi. Unlike all the previous regenerations in the modern era, there’s no drawn-out transition with plumes of energy bursting out in all directions here. Instead it just happens instantly, which is a bit of a shame. But he did use his new energy to obliterate all of the Daleks and then gave a beautiful closing speech, so that does make up for it. And it does mean the snap change is a shock for us just as it is for Clara, who is then further confused when this strange older-looking man appears to hate the colour of his new kidneys. Her bewilderment then turns to fear as explosions rock the Tardis and it goes out of control, and he asks her if she knows how to fly it!
And with that, Matt Smith’s reign as the Doctor is over, although we will see him one more time, just briefly, in the first episode of the next series. He was a wonderful Doctor, a very worthy successor to those who had gone before, so I’m glad he was able to be part of the 50th anniversary and then had an epic finale.
The second disc of the soundtrack album by Murray Gold has 18 tracks relating to this episode, lasting just under 40 minutes. My favourites in the earlier parts of the episode include Handles, Papal Mainframe and The Crack. But naturally Murray saves the best until last, with tracks like Snow Over Trenzalore (Song For Four), Beginning Of The End (which incorporates Clara’s theme) and Never Tell Me The Rules (for when the Doctor is granted new regeneration energy).
There’s then a wonderful medley leading up to the Doctor’s regeneration, inaccurately called Trenzalore/The Long Song/I Am Information (Reprise), because the other pieces after Trenzalore are actually called Infinite Potential and My Silence. And then Hello Twelve is a nice little track to welcome the 12th Doctor.
An Adventure In Space And Time
- Writer – Mark Gatiss
- First Broadcast – 21 November 2013
- Duration – 1:23:03
- Links – BBC / Interview / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This biographical drama has its own distinct menu that plays the theme tune of the programme and shows artwork of the first Doctor, as it originally had its own separate release, which has been merged into this box set. The artwork remains the same throughout the menu system, apart from the last screen of the special features, which carry the unrelated programmes The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot and the Proms concert, so that page shows the Tardis in the snow instead. I’ve also kept the leaflet from the original DVD release I owned, because it contains a foreword by Mark Gatiss and some nice imagery.
The drama is described by Mark Gatiss as his “love-letter to Doctor Who”, and it shows on screen, it’s beautifully put together. It tells the story of how Doctor Who began and became a success in the 1960s, despite the obstacles that threatened to scupper it. Some aspects of the story have been changed, invented or omitted for dramatic purposes or due to lack of time, as is always the case with programmes of this nature, but the general course of events is true.
It focuses on 4 people, and at the end of the programme there’s a brief update on what happened to each of them afterwards, accompanied by photos of the real people alongside the actors portraying them.
William Hartnell, who was the first Doctor, is played magnificently by David Bradley, encapsulating his talents, temper and troubles really well. William is sometimes quite demanding to work with and finds the job increasingly difficult as his health deteriorates, but ultimately he’s a caring guy who embraces the role and gives it his all, and you really do feel for him, especially when he learns he’s going to be replaced. Seeing him burst into tears as he says “I don’t want to go” – a deliberate nod to the famous line David Tennant says as the 10th Doctor – is absolutely heartbreaking.
David had previously played a buccaneer called Solomon in the Series 7 episode Dinosaurs On A Spaceship, and prior to that he’d had a voice role in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures called Death Of The Doctor. But he earned a lot of admiration for his portrayal of Hartnell’s Doctor, so he later played him again in a few episodes of Doctor Who and in audio stories for Big Finish.
The star of the drama, however, is the genius that is Verity Lambert (played by Jessica Raine, who guest starred as Emma Grayling in the Series 7 episode Hide). She was the first female producer at the BBC, and the youngest, and Doctor Who was the very first show assigned to her. So she had to overcome misogyny and opposition from some of the men in the corporation, who didn’t take her seriously, but she stuck to her guns and proved the doubters completely wrong. This drama is therefore a great tribute to her work, and she went on to have further success with many other programmes. If it wasn’t for her, Doctor Who may very well not exist today.
She was accompanied by Waris Hussein, the first director of the show. He worked very closely with her, even if he didn’t always understand her ideas and decisions, and he also had to overcome prejudice from others, due to racism in his case. He’s played here by Sacha Dhawan, who later became The Master in Jodie Whittaker’s era of Doctor Who.
And then the other key piece of the puzzle is the BBC’s Head of Drama Sydney Newman, played by Brian Cox. Verity had worked with him as a production assistant over at ABC, so when he took up his new position at the BBC, he appointed her to produce Doctor Who because he had a lot of respect for her. She took some of his ideas on board, but also had to push back sometimes, pleading for the first episode to be repeated as most people had missed it due to JFK’s assassination, and fighting for the Daleks to be included as he didn’t want robots and “bug-eyed monsters” in the show.
So they’re all really good, as is everyone else in the drama, and it’s very interesting to watch overall. It really does transport you back in time and it’s quite eye-opening to see what was involved in bringing the show to life.
And then of course there’s that very touching moment at the end where Matt Smith makes a silent but significant cameo (or Ncuti Gatwa in the 60th anniversary re-edit in 2023, which is the current version on iPlayer). With just a look and a smile, he thanks William Hartnell for creating the role that he now has the honour of inhabiting, and reassures him that the programme will continue to be a success because of the solid foundations he laid.
It’s a complete surprise when you first see it, and it’s such an emotionally charged scene because you wish for Hartnell’s sake that it had really happened. It was really difficult for him to step away from the part, and he could never have fully appreciated the impact he had or how much bigger the show would go on to become. It’s also lovely that we see the real William Hartnell delivering the Doctor’s farewell speech after this as well.
Incidentally, as well as the Ncuti Gatwa cameo, the 2023 version was also edited to remove dialogue from An Unearthly Child, the very first Doctor Who story. It was written by Anthony Coburn, but his son Stef inherited the rights after he died, and has since prevented the BBC from streaming the serial online, or using content from it in the new edit of this docudrama, which means it’s been butchered to accommodate that. DVD releases seem to be unaffected, suggesting the BBC comfortably holds the home video rights at least. In the old days streaming wasn’t a thing of course, so could never have been anticipated.
The issue relates to Stef’s claim that his father invented the Tardis, and he tried to sue the BBC for the copyright of it, demanding that they either stop using it in the show or pay him for every time it’s been used, neither of which is practical, clearly. It’s difficult to know how true or legally correct his claim is, as the whole issue is very complicated. But this is a man who described the casting of Ncuti Gatwa as an “outrage” as part of “corrupted BBC filth” (and similarly hated drag queen Jinkx Monsoon), has said he wants to sell the rights to An Unearthly Child to Russia as an “enemy” of the BBC just to spite them, has shared conspiracy theories about Covid, and appears to have been suspended from X for his posts (which is quite something considering the content that gets allowed there these days). So that’s the kind of mindset the BBC are up against there. It’s nigh on impossible to negotiate with someone like that.
The beautiful score for this drama was written by Edmund Butt, who released a soundtrack album containing 25 tracks. The first few set the tone nicely – Main Title Theme, The Right Man & The First Woman Producer – while some of my other favourites include The Daleks (well worth listening to with headphones for the bouncing stereo effect in the background), Sydney Newman (which has a jolly air to it), JFK Assassinated (which is inevitably very dramatic), Goodbye Susan (which is suitably sweet) and The New Doctor (from the scene where he sees his future incarnation).
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
- Writer & Director – Peter Davison
- First Broadcast – 23 November 2013
- Duration – 30:54
- Links – BBC / Interview / Wikipedia / Tardis Wiki
This hilarious adventure is a wonderful complement to the other stories, with former Doctors Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy & Colin Baker trying to get a role in the 50th anniversary episode, but nobody seems to care. Peter’s children are more interested in the modern era of the show, Colin’s family hate it altogether and try to escape when he puts it on, Sylvester’s colleagues working on The Hobbit can’t understand his obsession with it, and showrunner Steven Moffat won’t return their calls.
So they make their way to Cardiff, where they sneak into the studios and disguise themselves as Daleks, taking part in a scene that’s ultimately cut from the special. Then at the end we see that they also managed to get into a gallery scene as Zygons hidden under shrouds, but it’s not known if they actually were present in that way in the final edit of The Day Of The Doctor.
What makes this even more fun are the huge number of cameos along the way. I’m not going to mention the whole cast, but my favourites include:
- Steven Moffat being such a great sport as the villain of the piece, as he would rather play with his dolls of the 10th and 11th Doctors than involve the older ones. Other members of his production team who worked on The Day Of The Doctor also appear.
- Sean Pertwee (son of 3rd Doctor Jon Pertwee) and Olivia Colman (who played the mother in the 11th Doctor’s first episode) star in the very first scene, chatting about their latest projects and how they didn’t get a part in this special.
- Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman, along with Janet Fielding (former companion Tegan), who appear in Peter’s dream (as does Steven).
- Several other former companions appear in a nightmare that Steven has.
- David Tennant and his wife Georgia Moffett. Georgia was the producer on this special, as Peter Davison is her father, and during David’s time as the 10th Doctor she played his daughter Jenny. The actual family members of Peter and Colin also feature in the special.
- Paul McGann, the 8th Doctor, who is also looking for a role in the anniversary special. He initially says to Peter, Colin and Sylvester that he’ll join them, but doesn’t need to in the end as he gets to be in the prequel.
- Jon Culshaw does a very good impression of Tom Baker for his voicemail message. Tom couldn’t appear himself due to his role as the Curator in The Day Of The Doctor, which he had to keep secret. He had refused to appear in The Five Doctors in 1983 as well though, so it’s consistent with that situation.
- From the set of the Hobbit movie in New Zealand, director Peter Jackson and Gandalf actor Ian McKellen remark on Sylvester’s absence and decide to carry on filming without him. Incidentally, there’s also a very funny video that Peter Jackson made in 2015, called Home Invasion on Facebook, where he and his daughter talk about the fact that Steven Moffat keeps sending emails asking him to direct an episode of the show. Peter Capaldi then turns up as the 12th Doctor, with a contract from Steven that he pleads with Jackson to sign, but the Doctor is then scared away by a Dalek. Jackson never did direct the show in the end, but has said he would still like to do so.
- John Barrowman (known for playing Captain Jack Harkness). He has a surprising secret in his car, and pushes recordings of his music on to Peter, Colin and Sylvester.
- Nicholas Briggs (Dalek voice artist), David Troughton (son of 2nd Doctor Patrick Troughton) and Frank Skinner (the comedian who would later appear in Mummy On The Orient Express). They’re preparing to play the Daleks, but are locked in their room to prevent them from doing so.
- Russell T Davies (the showrunner for the relaunch in 2005), who sends himself up brilliantly by leaving a long voicemail for Peter Davison, suggesting how he could be involved in this special, only for Peter to delete the voicemail without listening to it.
There isn’t a behind the scenes documentary for this special, despite a moment in the story that jokingly implies otherwise. But there is footage of Peter Davison talking about the project at conventions, where he explains how it began rather by accident. When asked by a fan at one event if he would be in the 50th anniversary special, he had flippantly replied that if he wasn’t then he’d make his own. That comment circulated among the fanbase, so when another person asked him about it at another convention, he figured he would do it after all, and it grew from there. Indeed, he’s also stated that it was made for the fans, to make up for the fact that the Classic Doctors weren’t in the anniversary episode. So for some die-hard devotees of the Classic era, the Five(ish) Doctors is the official anniversary special in their eyes.
Peter Davison also had an idea for a sequel for the 60th anniversary, but it had to be scrapped due to the compromises he was asked to make on some of the jokes, as people he showed the concept to found it “utterly unacceptable”. It’s a shame but, as Peter said himself, getting everyone together again would have been difficult, and it probably wouldn’t have been as good as the original given the high bar that it set.
Blu-ray Extras
Behind The Scenes
While Doctor Who Confidential is sadly missed, as it would have been great to have for this occasion, we still get some nice backstage features on the Blu-ray:
- The Name Of The Doctor:
- Behind The Scenes (4:11) – Copied from the Series 7 release.
- The Day Of The Doctor:
- Behind The Lens (13:08) – This is a fun, if all too brief, look at how various aspects of the special were made. It’s narrated by former Doctor Colin Baker as well, which is a lovely touch, and several Doctors give anniversary greetings at the end.
- Script To Screen Read-Through (15:06) – This is a nice feature looking at the episode and some key aspects of the story, combining interviews with clips from the read-through, the filming and the completed episode. Interestingly, the episode clips use the quiet background music from the documentary rather than the score from the actual episode, so the dialogue and sound effects are much more prominent, especially in the scene featuring all 13 Doctors saving Gallifrey.
- The Time Of The Doctor:
- Behind The Lens (12:46) – Similar in style to the extra for the anniversary special, this is a nice look at how aspects of the Christmas special came together, and the emotional send-off Matt received after filming his final scenes. It’s not narrated by a former Doctor this time though. Instead, the voiceover is by Matt Botten, who would go on to narrate the behind the scenes extras for Series 8.
- Deleted Scene (0:36) – This very short scene takes place as the Doctor and Clara leave the Tardis to head to her home for Christmas dinner. They briefly talk about celebrating the festive season with her family and have a nice reunion hug, while the Doctor is also amused about his nakedness (though due to the holographic filter we see him with clothes on). It’s a fun little moment, but doesn’t really add anything, so I can see why it was cut. There’s also a brief deleted scene from The Day Of The Doctor that people have shared online, but that’s not in this set.
- Farewell To Matt Smith (43:32) – River Song actress Alex Kingston narrates this BBC America programme celebrating Matt’s time on the show. It’s a pity that River wasn’t in his final specials, but she does get a quick mention when the Doctor is talking to Tasha at one point in the Christmas episode. Anyway, in this documentary we hear from Matt as he reflects on his time on the show, the impact it’s had on his life and his interactions with the fans. His co-stars and members of the production team also share anecdotes and pay tribute to him, and a selection of American fans give their thoughts. So it’s a nice way of celebrating his tenure as the Eleventh Doctor.
Just like the behind the scenes features for Series 7, the two Behind The Lens features for the specials have also been posted online by the BBC. However, they’ve also shared a lot of other short features that aren’t on the Blu-ray, which are fun to look through too.
Trailers
A couple of trailers for the 50th anniversary are provided on the Blu-ray:
- 50 Year Trailer (1:02) – This spectacular, cinematic and highly detailed trailer, created by Red Bee Media, incorporates all the Doctors (including William Hartnell in high-resolution colour for the first time) and countless other elements from the show’s history, so you can see something new every time you watch it and it’s worth freeze-framing. It also has a very cool and dramatic interpretation of the theme tune underscoring it.
- Early Trailer (1:30) – This is a regular trailer using clips from the special, one of a few trailers that really ramped up the excitement at the time.
Cinema Intros
As part of its simultaneous broadcast across 94 countries, The Day Of The Doctor was shown live in 834 cinemas around the world, out of 1,559 cinemas that presented it in total, and was screened in 3D for many audiences. Those events, along with the TV airings and iPlayer streams, all combined to make it the most watched drama of 2013.
Audiences at the screenings were treated to a couple of amusing introductions, which are both on the Blu-ray:
- Strax (4:03) – The Sontaran gives instructions on proper etiquette for the audience, showing a few people who he’s taken prisoner for their transgressions. He gets a bit upset, however, when he’s informed that the film is about the Doctor, not him.
- The Doctor (3:17) – After mistakenly believing that people are there for the 100th anniversary special with 57 Doctors being shown in 12D, the Doctor welcomes everyone to the screening. He also warns that there are Zygons present, and instructs audience members on how to check the people next to them are real using their 3D glasses. He then activates the 3D, which also reveals the 10th Doctor, before the War Doctor appears between them with his back to everyone.
The Ultimate Guide
This epic 2-hour documentary covers all the essentials about the show and its history, with contributions from Steven Moffat, five former Doctors, other cast members from across the decades and celebrity fans. If you’re already well versed about it all, like me, then there’s nothing new to learn here, and it’s not essential to watch it all, although it is nice to see the cast members again and there are plenty of good clips. It’s more essential if you’re new to the world of Doctor Who, as it explains it well and shows what you’ve been missing.
The most significant aspect, however, is a new scene with The Doctor and Clara that tops and tails the show. At the beginning, the Doctor has lost his memory, so Clara finds his massive diary for them to look through. Then at the end he’s back to normal, but is upset about all the companions he’s lost and the deaths he’s witnessed. So Clara reminds him that he’s saved billions of lives, and reassures him that he’s a good person who is widely loved and respected.
Tales From The TARDIS
This is a nice 43-minute documentary produced by BBC America, where former Doctors and companions reminisce about working on the show, alongside various clips from the series and behind the scenes footage. So they talk about being offered the role of the Doctor or companion, dealing with the high level of fame it entails, and the many other aspects of the job beyond just acting on screen (e.g. promotional work, conventions, etc). They also discuss regenerations, each Doctor’s fashion choices, filming in the Tardis and its changing interiors, and the popularity of the Daleks. So it’s a good mixture, with lots of great people being interviewed, and there are some interesting insights along the way.
The Science Of Doctor Who
A Night With The Stars: The Science Of Doctor Who is a very entertaining hour-long lecture by Brian Cox in front of a live audience at the Royal Institution. It’s still available on BBC iPlayer at the time of writing, with audio description and sign language, as part of the Whoniverse collection that was launched for the 60th anniversary.
It’s divided into 3 parts, bookended and interspersed with a few amusing scenes of Brian meeting the 11th Doctor in the Tardis:
- Time Travel – Brian looks at whether we could ever actually travel through time, by making reference to the works of Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, John Harrison and James Clerk Maxwell, and conducting experiments by Faraday and Einstein with the help of actor Dallas Campbell and physics professor Jim Al-Khalili.
- Aliens – Brian examines the likelihood of life on distant planets by talking about the Fermi paradox and how astronomers can look for heat and chemical signals from the far reaches of space, demonstrating the latter with the help of actor Charles Dance.
- History – Following on from the first part, Brian looks more closely at whether the doors to the past are firmly locked, by discussing the speed of light, our future and past light cones, and black holes. His illustrative experiment for this section involves sending comedian Rufus Hound to his doom with a big clock on his back.
Ultimately, it’s a lot of fun and very interesting, and Brian proves that we’re all time travellers, sort of, who have touched alien worlds in some small way.
The First Doctor
An Adventure In Space And Time has 25 minutes of extras dedicated to it, which isn’t a lot but they’re worth looking through.
- William Hartnell: The Original (5:03) – This interesting little feature shows extracts from an interview with Hartnell 3 months after he left Doctor Who, saying how he’ll shake off the role of the Doctor by doing other things and talking about his debut in pantomime. The footage is watched by his granddaughter Jessica Carney, who talks about the impact of Doctor Who on William and their family, and the filming of the 10th anniversary story The Three Doctors. There are also recollections from various people who worked on the show with him, and tributes by later Doctors Peter Davison and Matt Smith.
- The Making Of An Adventure (10:55) – Carole Ann Ford, who originally played Susan Foreman, presents this feature, which is effectively a behind the scenes look at the behind the scenes docudrama. It includes interviews with writer Mark Gatiss, lead actor David Bradley and other members of the cast, as well as Doctor Who’s first director Waris Hussein and actor William Russell (who had played Ian Chesterton).
- Reconstructions (6:15) – The cast of the docudrama recreate a few moments from the original series, most notably scenes from the pilot and episode 4 of An Unearthly Child, complete with imperfections like bumpy camera moves and the misbehaving Tardis doors. There’s also the regeneration from William Hartnell into Patrick Troughton, followed by another into Mark Gatiss, who fancied giving it a go. And finally we see David Bradley delivering the Doctor’s farewell speech to Susan from The Dalek Invasion Of Earth and the Christmas greeting from The Daleks’ Master Plan.
- Deleted Scenes (1:28) – Here we get a couple of brief scenes that were cut from the docudrama. One shows Delia Derbyshire (played by Sarah Winter) creating the sound of the Tardis and the theme tune in the Radiophonic Workshop, which would have been nice if they’d kept it in. The other is a moment from Verity Lambert’s leaving party that doesn’t add anything of interest, so I can see why they cut it.
- Title Sequences (1:21) – The original Doctor Who title sequence compared with the version created for the docudrama.
Doctor Who At The Proms
The second & third concerts of the 2013 Proms season at the Royal Albert Hall, on 13 & 14 July, were dedicated to Doctor Who to mark its 50th anniversary. They follow on from the 2006 celebration in Cardiff and the Proms in 2008 & 2010.
They were broadcast live on Radio 3, and then a special edit lasting an hour and a quarter was shown on TV on 26 August, so it’s that version which is on the Blu-ray and iPlayer. A further 25 minutes of highlights were then shown on 21 November in an Encore programme on the Red Button service, but that’s no longer available, sadly.
It’s another spellbinding performance anyway, with Ben Foster conducting the BBC National Orchestra Of Wales and the London Philharmonic Choir, as they perform Murray Gold‘s amazing music from the series and some other pieces.
The programme begins with Murray and Ben, along with Steven Moffat, Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman, talking about their excitement for the Prom and why they love the music in the show. We occasionally hear from some of them during the show as well.
The setlist is then as follows, with the music by Murray unless otherwise stated.
- The Mad Man With A Box – A superb opening number with gorgeous vocals.
- I Am The Doctor – I love this theme for the 11th Doctor. Villains from the series enter the auditorium during this number, until they’re scared away by the Doctor’s Pandorica speech at the end.
- The Doctor’s Arrival (Sketch) – The Doctor didn’t get tickets for his own Prom, but has a special body swap ticket that can get him and Clara into the venue. They end up in the orchestra, which the Doctor finds quite fun. Clara, however, notices his shaven hair, which he blames on the ticket, but it’s really because Matt had shortened it for his role in a film called Lost River. So it was a fun way of explaining it. They then dash off stage so the show can go on.
- Cyber Shard – After we see the actors having their prosthetics fitted, Madam Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and Strax (Dan Starkey) introduce this medley of music from The Bells Of Saint John and Nightmare In Silver, as Cybermen walk menacingly among the audience.
- The Long Song – Kerry Ingram and Allan Clayton beautifully perform this song from The Rings Of Akhaten, with the choir joining in towards the end.
- All The Strange, Strange Creatures – Another of the very best themes from the series, played after Strax logs a report commenting on all the “human scum” in the room. More monsters make their presence felt during this, including an Ice Warrior emerging from a block of ice, while footage from the Classic and modern eras is shown on the screens.
- The Impossible Girl – Introduced by Matt Smith, this lovely, delicate piece was first heard in Asylum Of The Daleks.
- Classic Medley – Introduced by Peter Davison, to the audience’s delight, this 8-minute sequence begins with the classic Tardis sound effect, and features music from the Classic era by Tristram Cary, Martin Slavin, Malcolm Clarke, Dudley Simpson, Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell & Mark Ayres. Peter and Mark are present on stage, and there’s a short video insert where they and Ben Foster talk about putting the medley together. As someone unfamiliar with the Classic episodes, this is quite interesting for me to listen to, and to see the clips accompanying it. Later on a 50th anniversary box set of music from across the show’s history was released in various formats including an 11 CD set with nearly 300 tracks, but I didn’t buy that because I don’t know the Classic era material.
- First There Were Daleks – Dramatic music from episodes including The Stolen Earth and Asylum Of The Daleks, introduced by the Daleks themselves of course, who have taken great offence to this celebration of their enemy. Ben Foster tries to fend them off with his sonic baton that the Doctor had gifted him, but the Daleks tease him for overacting and force him to conduct their music.
- The Name Of The Doctor – 7½ minutes of music from the end of Series 7, introduced by Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan Foreman, the Doctor’s first companion.
- Doctor Who Theme – Obviously they couldn’t end without this! It sounds absolutely magnificent with a full orchestra and choir.
Several pieces have been omitted from that edit of the concert though, which thankfully I’ve been able to hear on Youtube instead, including:
- More music by Murray Gold – The Companions Suite, The Final Chapter Of Amelia Pond and Vale Decem didn’t make the cut, sadly. Nor did Song For Fifty, an incredible 10-minute composition to mark the big milestone, which received its world premiere at these concerts. It’s such a shame that wasn’t included.
- Classical pieces – Habañera (from Carmen) by Bizet, Toccata (from Toccata & Fugue In D Minor) by Bach and The Girl With The Flaxen Hair by Debussy, which have all appeared in the show in some form. Habañera is the most recent example, as it’s listened to by Oswin Oswald in Asylum Of The Daleks.
- Create A Soundtrack competition winners – Two short pieces composed by children, played with footage from The Snowmen. The first is called “You’re going to have to take those clothes off” by Gabe Stone and Matthew Owen, while the other is entitled “I never know why, I only know who” by William Davenport and Jordan Picken.
Also unavailable officially online or on the Blu-ray is Radio 3’s documentary from the interval, The Soundworld Of Doctor Who. But I’ve also heard that on Youtube as well, and it’s a fun look at the sound design of the show across its 50-year history. Matthew Sweet interviews dubbing mixer Tim Ricketts, sound effects editor Paul Jefferies, voice actor Nicholas Briggs and the show’s original sound technician Brian Hodgson, as they discuss the iconic noise made by the Tardis, the voices of the Daleks and Ice Warrior Skaldak, and the sound design of the show in general. Meanwhile over on Radio 4, a few days before the concerts, Murray Gold was interviewed on Front Row about his music and the Proms.
Other Content
There’s lots of other material from the anniversary that isn’t on the Blu-ray, and I’ve added all sorts of bits and pieces to my Youtube playlist. I’m not going to mention absolutely everything that was produced by the BBC or others of course, but here’s a fair selection.
Promotion
Apart from trailers showing footage from The Day Of The Doctor, the BBC promoted the 50th anniversary special in many other ways on TV and online, including:
- A video of the Doctor encouraging people to use the hashtag #SaveTheDay. A Save The Day website containing bonus content was launched to go with it, and there were several stings shown between programmes to remind people of it.
- Interruptions to BBC One idents, with the Doctor giving a brief teasing message from the Tardis before the announcer introduced the next programme. There were four interruptions altogether, of which the BBC have uploaded two to Youtube (“The moment is coming”, “The clock’s ticking”, “It’s all been leading to this” and “The moment is here”).
- Field reports from Strax commenting on Queen Elizabeth and the Zygons, plus a message on the day itself telling people to stop using social media and watch the movie. He did a couple of field reports for The Time Of The Doctor as well.
- Happy anniversary messages from Matt Smith and Steven Moffat.
- An introduction video from Steven Moffat and the cast.
- An amusing introduction by David Tennant showing the silly props he uses.
- An image of all 11 Doctors lined up, which looks really nice.
- Downloadable wallpapers of the iconic poster image of the 3 Doctors in the special.
- BBC Worldwide trailers to celebrate the 50th anniversary and the Classic era DVD range.
- Other bonus videos on the BBC’s Youtube channel.
- Videos by friends of Doctor Who shared by the BBC.
Graham Norton
Around the time of the anniversary I had a hard drive recorder connected to my TV that could copy things on to DVD, so I made a bonus disc for myself with a few of the programmes I had recorded that didn’t make it on to Blu-ray. They included The Culture Show and The Next Doctor, which are mentioned a bit later in this post, as well as the special episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks from 2009 that I mentioned in my Series 4 review.
But I also included a couple of extracts from Graham Norton’s chat show. I didn’t keep the full episodes, as there was no need to, and there wasn’t enough room on a single disc with everything else anyway. So I just edited them down to the relevant sections, as my recorder allowed me to trim bits as well.
- Matt Smith & David Tennant (22/11/2013) – My recording of this also includes another of the ident interruptions, with the Doctor saying “The moment is coming”, before Graham, David and Matt regenerate into each other to start the show. Then, once they’ve been introduced properly, Graham makes fun of David’s plaited hair for his stage role as Richard II, Matt and David obviously talk about the 50th anniversary special, and they compare their Tardises and sonic screwdrivers. Then for the Big Red Chair at the end, where audience members have to say or ask something interesting to avoid being tipped out, there’s a guy called Matt who looks uncannily like Matt Smith (and he shared a vlog about his experience), a lady dressed in an impressive Dalek costume, and a man who has a big tattoo signed by most of the Doctors, so David adds his autograph to it.
- Peter Capaldi (26/09/2014) – This is Peter’s first appearance on Graham’s sofa since he took over the role of the Doctor, and it doesn’t give anything away about his first series, only how he got the part. So I figured I would add it to the disc as I had just enough room for that extra 15 minutes. Graham talks to Peter about how much he’s enjoying the role, the funny reaction of a shopkeeper after his announcement, his rude character Malcolm in The Thick Of It compared to The Doctor, getting an injury in The Musketeers, the band he used to be in, how he wanted to be the President of the Doctor Who Fan Club as a kid, his old modelling photos, and meeting a young fan of the show in the Czech Republic after he was cast in the role. Some of it is amusingly embarrassing for Peter, but that’s typical of Graham’s style and he takes it in great spirits.
There’s also a compilation of Matt’s best moments from the show online, as well as highlights for David that were posted in 2023 and 2025. And there are other chat show appearances I’ve included on my playlist, where the 50th anniversary or Matt’s departure is mentioned, including appearances on the Jonathan Ross Show by David and Matt, and Matt on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in America. Plus I’ve added a lot of other interviews from a wide variety of sources towards the end of the playlist as well.
The Afterparty
Oh boy…
I mean, to be fair, this isn’t as bad as I remember…
No, it’s worse. Much worse. I either blocked most of it from my memory or perhaps I didn’t even bother sitting through all of it at the time.
The Afterparty was an hour-long live event from the BFI Southbank that was broadcast on BBC Three immediately after The Day Of The Doctor. It was billed by the BBC as “the ultimate celebration of 50 years of Doctor Who”, but it became notorious among the fanbase for being anything but that.
Having just rewatched it for the first time since it was broadcast (it’s unofficially on Youtube and the Internet Archive at the time of writing), it’s utterly baffling how this catastrophe was allowed to happen, especially considering what a superb job the BBC had done with the anniversary special and all the promotion surrounding it. So I’m not at all surprised they haven’t shared it themselves since then. This is cringeworthy car crash TV of epic proportions, which of course makes it weirdly fascinating, often painful and sometimes unintentionally hilarious.
Presenters Zoe Ball and Rick Edwards remained steadfastly enthusiastic from start to finish, despite no doubt wanting to crawl into a hole, but the lack of preparation and rehearsal was readily apparent, the banter with the guests often felt awkward, and the atmosphere in the studio was rather lacklustre.
Matt Smith, Jenna Coleman, Steven Moffat and John Hurt were the big stars present of course, so they had the longest interview, although they only just about managed to squeeze on to the small sofa together. Matt was interviewed on his own first of all, and even that didn’t start well. Rick incorrectly stated that Zoe had Matt with her when he passed over to her, Zoe spoke to the wrong camera before turning to the correct one to introduce Matt, he was presented with fish fingers and custard (in honour of his first episode) only to remark how stale the fish fingers were, and then he had to correct Zoe about the number of countries the special had been broadcast in. The rest of the interview with him, Jenna, Steven and John was reasonably ok, but ultimately only formed a small part of the show.
However, it was while those stars were on the sofa that Zoe then attempted the infamous live link-up with boyband One Direction in Los Angeles, who were in the middle of their own promotional Youtube livestream for what they were calling 1D Day (and there is a clip online of the linkup from their perspective). There was no good reason for this whatsoever, other than it being an attempt to pull in a few younger viewers. And when introducing them, Zoe uttered the fatal words “fingers crossed this is gonna go well”. Suffice to say, it didn’t. It went so badly in fact that Steven Moffat had his head in his hands!
For a start, the boys hadn’t seen the anniversary special (despite Zoe saying they had in her intro), which made their questions meaningless. It wasn’t even clear if they’d ever watched Doctor Who at all for that matter, as they didn’t sound particularly excited to be part of the show. But it was the long delay in the satellite transmission that really screwed things up. We could hear Zoe talking to them a second time as her voice came out of the speakers in L.A. up to 15 seconds after she’d spoken in the studio. And it quickly got to a point where the sound from both sides was being echoed back and forth across the connection, resulting in a cacophony of noise that forced Zoe to cut it off early. It’s laughably awful.
Back in the studio, meanwhile, there were also a lot of actors who had played the Doctor’s companions over the 50 years of the show. It was incredible to have so many in one room at the same time, but they weren’t given the respect and attention they deserved. Some of them were spoken to by the presenters, but only very briefly, primarily to ask what they thought of the special, and many of them were addressed by their character names rather than their actual names. And some of them were just ignored entirely. How can you have legends like Bonnie Langford in your presence and not talk to them?
Then we had the sorry sight of poor Katy Manning almost being pushed off her stool as Rick disrespectfully squeezed past her to talk to someone else. And the companions were made to play an utterly pointless game, being asked to sit down if their characters had done certain things on the show, to the point where Mark Gatiss told the presenters to just let them all sit down. So it was really a complete waste of time for them to be there, sadly.
There were another 3 Doctors who did get a better interview though, with Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy promoting The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot.
There was also a video feature from Alex Kingston about the Doctor’s relationship with time travel (which was an excuse to show various clips), a pre-recorded chat with Tom Baker (where Rick didn’t know how best to react to his humorous remarks), and K9 presented some mildly interesting and occasionally surprising stats about the Doctor’s life (after amusingly trying to come in far too early with his “warning” cue while interviews were taking place).
And then the event was padded out by the reading of tweets that weren’t important, predictable feedback from fans in the studio and overseas who loved the special, hearing anniversary greetings from random celebrities, seeing how the media had mentioned the anniversary, being shown the Ood serving at the bar, and meeting couples who were about to get married or renew their vows. So a lot of stuff could have been cut to spend more quality time with the many stars of the show who were there.
Finally, they began to slice an impressive Tardis cake and there was a closing montage celebrating the show’s history, which was actually quite nice. But that was then offset by everybody singing Happy Birthday completely out of tune and out of time with the house band (who weren’t very good anyway). So I bet they were all quite glad it was over after the credits had rolled!
The Celebration
An official celebratory convention was held at the Excel in London in the days around the anniversary (22-24 November), with a screening of The Day Of the Doctor, Q&A panels with stars from the Classic era and the new special, lots of cosplay, and much more. So it sounds like it was a lot of fun.
There are several clips from it on the Doctor Who Youtube channel here and here, including a half-hour compilation of Matt Smith’s final Q&A panels, where he’s joined by Jenna Coleman, Steven Moffat and director Nick Hurran, which is fun to watch. So I’ve included those videos on my playlist, along with a selection of others from fans who attended the event. You can also see blog posts about the convention by Doctor Who News, Trap One, Plucky Kelly and Deal J, and there are some nice press photos on Getty Images too.
The Culture Show: Me, You And Doctor Who
I’m very surprised that this Culture Show special didn’t make the cut for the Blu-ray, and is no longer available on iPlayer, as it’s really good. There are just a few short clips on the Doctor Who Youtube channel. Thankfully, however, I included it on the DVD I recorded for myself at the time, as I mentioned earlier, so I’ve been able to rewatch it in full.
This hour-long documentary, presented by Matthew Sweet, explores why Doctor Who is such an important and intrinsic part of British culture, and how it’s evolved over the years. There are also nice interviews with people who have worked on the show, either newly recorded for the programme or taken from the archives.
It looks at how the show started thanks to people like C.E. Webber, Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman, how the Daleks by Terry Nation became a big craze among the fans, the iconic arrangement of Ron Grainer’s theme tune by Delia Derbyshire, the innovative incidental music by Dudley Simpson, the politics in the show, the interference of Mary Whitehouse, the involvement of Douglas Adams, how producer John Nathan-Turner capitalised on the power of the brand, the mid-80s break that led to the song Doctor In Distress, how the fans kept the show alive in the so-called Wilderness Years, and how the modern version of the show has stronger female roles and is more inclusive of sexuality thanks to Russell T Davies. Obviously they can’t go too in-depth in just an hour, but it’s put together really well.
The Next Doctor
We were introduced to Matt Smith’s successor in a special half-hour live show on 4 August 2013 called The Next Doctor, which I also included on the bonus DVD I made for myself. Again it’s hosted by Zoe Ball, but it’s not a disaster like the Afterparty turned out to be a few months later!
They build up to the reveal of course, and in the studio Zoe talks to various guests including Peter Davison (the 5th Doctor), Liza Tarbuck (who did a voiceover in the animated spin-off The Infinite Quest), Daniel Roche (who I know as Ben from Outnumbered), Bernard Cribbins (who played Wilf) and Rufus Hound (who embarrasses himself by getting some key facts wrong, for which he later apologises, but redeems himself with a nice assessment of the show, and he later got to appear in the Series 9 episode The Woman Who Lived).
There are also pre-recorded segments, in the first of which Matt Smith reflects on his time on the show, alongside lots of clips of him in action, and shares his feelings on his departure. Then there’s a montage featuring 6th Doctor Colin Baker, some of the companions and lots of famous fans talking about the Time Lord’s various incarnations, and which ones are their favourites. Finally, Steven Moffat talks about casting the next Doctor, with celebrity fans giving their thoughts as well – during which the possibility of a female Doctor is mentioned, with Steven Moffat saying that it’s very possible, and Stephen Hawking saying he’d like to see a female Doctor with a male assistant.
So there’s a lot of padding for nearly 25 minutes, but it’s entertaining enough to watch, and it’s lovely to hear Matt’s final thoughts about the role of course.
Then, at long last, Peter Capaldi is revealed as the new Doctor. He was already well known for The Thick Of It and various other things, so he was a popular choice from the outset. He talks about keeping it a secret, preparing for the audition, what he was doing when he found out he’d got the role, being a big fan for such a long time that he wrote a letter to the Radio Times as a child, and his lovely message to the fans. Matt Smith sends him his best wishes as well.
Comedy Shows
A few topical comedy shows gave a nod to Doctor Who during the year:
- Mock The Week: Scenes We’d Like To See – This clip is from the first episode of Series 12 on 13 June 2013, and is from the traditional final round where the comedians come up with funny scenarios that would never actually happen. This was the second time they had riffed on the topic of Doctor Who, as it had previously been part of the same round in Series 5 Episode 3 on 26 July 2007, after the end of Doctor Who Series 3.
- Have I Got News For You: Trailer – Series 46 was promoted by a clip of Ian Hislop and Paul Merton coming out of the Tardis near the Houses of Parliament.
- 8 Out Of 10 Cats: What Are You Talking About? – Here the panel have a funny discussion about the show, during a round about the most popular topics of the week, including a rant by the late great Sean Lock.
Fan Videos
A few examples of videos posted by fans in the anniversary year include:
- Wholock – This is a remarkably clever piece of editing by John Smith, bringing Sherlock into the Tardis to meet the Doctor. By his own admission it’s not perfect – the Doctor’s facial expressions and mannerisms aren’t always very natural for instance – but it’s still impressive regardless, with very well chosen shots and dialogue, and there’s a brilliant visual effects breakdown video to show how it was put together. There was no AI back in those days, so this involved real talent, effort and time to make it work. He also produced a 3D trailer for the 50th anniversary, for which there is a VFX breakdown as well, and a fun Christmas greeting from a Dalek. Plus he was interviewed by Christel Dee about his work for the official Fan Show. Best of all though, he was later hired to produce visual effects for Doctor Who for real between 2017 and 2022, including Jodie Whittaker’s title sequence and regeneration.
- Wholock: The Musical – This is a completely unrelated project to Wholock above, posted by AVBytes in January 2014, with a meeting of the 11th Doctor and Sherlock portrayed in song form by two actors. There is also a behind the scenes video.
- The Doctor Games – A trailer spoof of The Hunger Games, with all 13 Doctors pitted against each other, that has had over 1 million views.
- Wanna Be Doctor Who-ed – A very upbeat song by Kristen Quintrall with various references to the show.
- Regeneration Carol – An enjoyable parody of Baby, It’s Cold Outside to mark the 11th Doctor’s regeneration. The guy playing the Doctor is Matt Elliott, who also appeared in the red chair on The Graham Norton Show that year as mentioned above.
- Doctor Puppet – A cute stop motion animated adventure series featuring the 11th Doctor, and they went on to make some videos about the 12th too. There are behind the scenes videos and other extras on their channel.
- 50 Years Of Time And Space – A nice animated tribute by Richard Swarbrick, which has been put to the A-Ha song Take On Me by another Youtuber called Flixx.
- Super Café – An amusing cartoon showing the Doctor meeting Superman and Batman.
- Doctor Whose Line Is It Anyway? – This animation was posted in 2016, but is relevant because it involves the 10th and 11th Doctors, who are forced by the Daleks to appear on their version of the improvisation gameshow.
Conclusion
So that’s it for this epic celebration of Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, I hope you enjoyed that.
It is very sad to say farewell to Matt Smith, because he’s been amazing. But he still gets involved with conventions and other things related to the show, which is great. He even presented an online quiz with Billie Piper during lockdown, which is among the hundreds of clips on my playlist to go with this post. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he ends up recording audio adventures, but in the meantime Big Finish have recently produced a collection of stories about the Eleventh Doctor voiced by Miles Taylor. They also have several stories featuring the War Doctor as well.
Next I’m going to review the 30th anniversary Blu-ray release of the 1996 movie starring Paul McGann, which is being released on May 25th. That’ll be very interesting for me, as it’s been rather a long time since I last saw it. And as I’ve never owned it on physical media before, it means all the special features will be completely new to me. Then when that’s done, I’ll have a bit of a break to watch and write about other things, before I then dive into Peter Capaldi’s episodes. So keep an eye out for all of that, and I’ll see you next time!
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