Perfect Anniversary

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 I’m actually considering bumping this post to somewhere near the head of my expanding cue of unpublished posts.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 23^rd 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 13^th 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 9^th 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.