As I am
typing these words, I am still reeling from having experienced one hour and
sixteen minutes of awesomeness. I’m actually considering bumping this post to
somewhere near the head of my expanding cue of unpublished posts.
I have just
watched The Day of the Doctor. It was
sad. It was funny. It was scary. It was epic.
Now, how do
you suppose I could do a review of something without any spoilers? Spoilers
are, as I frequently remind people who are never actually listening, against my
religion. I can’t. But I can talk about my experience.
Doctor Who first aired on November 23rd 1963. The Day of the Doctor is a commemoration
of the show’s 50-year anniversary. Personally, I am relatively new to the
series.
It was
recommended to me by a friend from Nevada with whom I share another passion.
Actually, “recommended” is a bit of a misnomer. She just never shut up about
it, to the point where, just to know what she was going on about, I had to find
out. Knowing the series was old, and that finding traces of the original
episodes would be akin to re-forging the One Ring, I asked her if there was
another starting point. “Begin with the ninth Doctor,” she said.
Unsurprisingly, that is the same advice I give to people who are interested in taking
up Doctor Who.
And so it
was that I found myself watching a young British lady get attacked by plastic
mannequins before her in-extremis rescue by a man whose only utterance was
“Run!” I haven’t shut up about it since. Ask Cindy.
The Doctor
is an amazing individual. A Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, he is an
explorer who travels through space and time in his T.A.R.D.I.S. (Time And
Relative Dimensions In space), a “ship” that looks like a blue telephone box (a
Police Box, actually) and is bigger, way bigger, on the inside. The former is
due to the fact that the ship’s chameleon circuit, which allows the
T.A.R.D.I.S. to blend with its surroundings, was damaged when the Doctor
visited 1963 London. The latter is a common feature of Time Lord technology.
 |
| No, seriously, that thing is huge. |
As
a Time Lord, he has the ability to Regenerate (12 times) when his body fails:
every cell in his body changes. This influences his appearance and personality.
This is the plot device that allows different actors to portray the character
and bring their own interpretation of the role to bear.
He reacts
to every new thing he encounters with a sense of wonder, with no hint of
judgement, which was what set the series apart in my eyes. Even when confronted
with something that is actively trying to kill him, he will seek first to
understand, and then to reason, again and again. His favourite tool is a sonic
screwdriver, precisely because it, in his words, “Doesn’t kill, doesn’t wound,
doesn’t maim.” However, despite this Gandhi-like approach to problem solving,
the Doctor has routed armies, faced down invaders, tricked pseudo-deities and
saved the universe(s) countless times.
Don’t let
his pacific nature make you believe it’s all philosophy and no thrills. Far
from it. Oh, far, far from it. Just
like thinking of Friday the 13th
will make you think twice about camping, Doctor
Who will make you think twice about mannequins, shadows, boxes, Christmas
trees (heck, Christmas altogether),
cracks in your walls, Wi-Fi and stone statues (hint: they’re only statues when
you’re looking).
The Day of the Doctor was no exception. The hype had been
building since the end of season seven, and even a part of me worried that the
anniversary episode might not live up to expectations. I need not have worried.
It was every bit as unexpected as I expected. I seriously don’t know how they
keep doing that. But I can’t talk about it (for… religious reasons; see above).
I can’t tell you about the lead up the reunion between two of the most beloved Doctors.
I can’t tell you about the riveting climax, the tear-inducing resolution, or
the mind-blowing implications. You’ll just have to watch it, if you want to
know (yes, that was my plan all along; start with the 9th Doctor,
please).
What I can
tell you about was the sense of awe and gratitude I felt at the very end.
Technology has finally managed what had so far been impossible. All the faces
of the Doctor, living and departed, present in the same moving shot. In a semicircle, facing
outward, stood eleven of them. Matt Smith, the latest, and David Tennant before
him. Then Christopher Eccleston, John Hurt, Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Colin
Baker, Peter Davison, Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton. And,
standing at the center of the semicircle, the man who started it all, William
Hartnell, the First Doctor.
