My Review: 50th Anniversary Mini-Episode
The Night of the Doctor
This was a special mini-episode for the 50th anniversary which shows how the 8th Doctor regenerates into the War Doctor. This was only the 2nd proper TV appearance for the 8th Doctor (Paul McGann) and an introduction for how the secret incarnation of the Doctor came to be.
Of course Steven Moffatt had retrospectively invented the War Doctor and slotted him into the Doctor's timeline due to being unable to convince Christopher Eccleston to appear. Moffatt apparently felt it would be out of character for the 8th Doctor to carry out the apocalyptic end of the Time War so came up with the idea of another more warlike incarnation. The coup of getting John Hurt to be that Doctor was fantastic and well worth the required invention of an extra Doctor.
This little story makes perfect sense as the Doctor is on the point of death and is given a choice of regeneration characteristics by the Sisterhood of Karn who had previously appeared in the classic 4th Doctor story The Brain of Morbius. He realises a different kind of person is required to fight in the Time War and so becomes the War Doctor. We get a little glimpse of a younger John Hurt as the newly regenerated Doctor.
The excitement of this idea and of showing Hurt arrive is matched by the thrill of McGann finally getting a TV appearance to follow on from his mostly audio based stories. His incarnation needs more screentime and this was at least a bit more of that following on from his TV Movie appearance. It is joyous and well done in every way.
My only criticism is it is too short by far. McGann deserved more. A 25 minute episode, at least, to match single episodes of classic Who or audio stories would have been great and seems not much to ask but all we get is this tiny snippet.
My Rating: 9.5/10.
The Night of the Doctor
This was a special mini-episode for the 50th anniversary which shows how the 8th Doctor regenerates into the War Doctor. This was only the 2nd proper TV appearance for the 8th Doctor (Paul McGann) and an introduction for how the secret incarnation of the Doctor came to be.
Of course Steven Moffatt had retrospectively invented the War Doctor and slotted him into the Doctor's timeline due to being unable to convince Christopher Eccleston to appear. Moffatt apparently felt it would be out of character for the 8th Doctor to carry out the apocalyptic end of the Time War so came up with the idea of another more warlike incarnation. The coup of getting John Hurt to be that Doctor was fantastic and well worth the required invention of an extra Doctor.
This little story makes perfect sense as the Doctor is on the point of death and is given a choice of regeneration characteristics by the Sisterhood of Karn who had previously appeared in the classic 4th Doctor story The Brain of Morbius. He realises a different kind of person is required to fight in the Time War and so becomes the War Doctor. We get a little glimpse of a younger John Hurt as the newly regenerated Doctor.
The excitement of this idea and of showing Hurt arrive is matched by the thrill of McGann finally getting a TV appearance to follow on from his mostly audio based stories. His incarnation needs more screentime and this was at least a bit more of that following on from his TV Movie appearance. It is joyous and well done in every way.
My only criticism is it is too short by far. McGann deserved more. A 25 minute episode, at least, to match single episodes of classic Who or audio stories would have been great and seems not much to ask but all we get is this tiny snippet.
My Rating: 9.5/10.