The Day of The Doctor - Rate and Discuss

[Rob McCow]

'One impossible day...'

[dalekkiller]

At the back of my mind I'll be thinking I bet people will think this is crap

[Anthony Williams]

Well, it was marvelous - but who'd have thought that Moffat would bring back the Bandrils as the real main villains for the 50th!?

[dalekkiller]

Yes indeed it was marvelous

[Andrew Curnow]

Having avoided any spoilers and the like, I had no expectation of what the Special would be like - but I can only say, absolutely extraordinary. I can't think the last time an episode made me laugh quite so loudly, or gasp in surprise quite so much, or get quite so teary. From the fanboy moments (Cromer, "the round things", Mike Yates & Sara Kingdom, Headmaster I Chesterton); to the cheeky jokes (the kissing, "timey-wimey"); to the spectacular set-pieces (the TARDIS swinging through the air; Clara's motorbiking); to the moments of Anniversary delight (Hartnell... Capaldi... Tom!!!!!)... It was just a roller-coaster of extraordinary unpredictability, celebrating the show by celebrating the Doctor.....

I loved it, just a superbly-judged celebration of this most extraordinary programme!

[dalekkiller]

Seeing Tom just made me punch the air

[Andrew Curnow]

What I'm really enjoying now is remembering bits & pieces - the use of the original opening titles, for example, was a simple idea but really lovely. And to credit all the Doctors at the end was just right. Even the idea of things coming out of paintings, that's the sort of thing that when I was an 8 year old would have really fascinated and intrigued me. And the 'scarf lady' being called Osgood. And.... Gah, just too much to take in in one go. Even the "I don't want to go"/"He always says that" made me laugh.

And Hurt's Doctor being disapproving of his future selves (ie, having a sly dig at the new series) was cheeky fun - the kissing, the constant waving of the screwdrivers, etc. ("You must be his companions - they get younger all the time"). Hurt was so good, bit like Sir Derek Jacobi's Master, I would really liked to have seen a lot more of him.

Gah! Too much - brain overload!!!

[WhiteCrowNZ]

In the past, I've always held off going higher than a 9, because things have come close to 10, but not quite. I now have a 10 baseline.

A lot complicatedly went on, but it was just so full of moments. I just feel a little sad to see John Hurt as the Doctor because he was just so amazing, I want more.

[WileyKat]

About half way through, I was saying "This is all pretty good, but it doesn't feel that Anniversary-ish" And then the plot stopped making sense, there were more Doctors than you could possibly reasonably use, and Mad Uncle Tom was there being... well, Mad Uncle Tom and I thought now this is more like it. Also, John Hurt was bleeding marvellous.

[Alex]

Absolutely loved it, and seeing it at the cinema was an amazing experience that I'll treasure for a long time. I'm so glad I managed to avoid most of the spoilers as well as everything came as an incredibly pleasant surprise. I was expecting it to be a bit darker than it was (due to Hurt being 'The War Doctor', I guess) but loved the tone of it, and it made me laugh out loud several times.

My only (very minor) complaint is that I wish we'd seen a few more old faces (I was secretly hoping that David Bradley might pop up as the first Doctor in this as well) but other than that it was fantastic. 9/10 from me, but only because I annoyingly never rate anything as 10/10!

[Junkyard]

Loved every minute! This is probably the only time I will give a 10. The only sad note for me is that we will probably never see the John Hurt Doctor again. Or will we?

[dalekkiller]

Well the friends all liked it. Just out of interest since if we include Night of the Doctor and Tom Baker's cameo and all the archive footage used at the end does that mean Si Hart's a happy bunny?

[SiHart]

It certainly does! My two favourite Doctors on screen together. Fabulous. More later!

[dalekkiller]

Sorry I meant Si hunt

[SiHart]

Don't worry that happens a lot.

[brandynigma]

10 out of 10.

For the first time in years, we had a plot written by Moffat which is tight and stands up to scrutiny. Actually, we had two plots, with the central idea, the Doctor learning how to be the Doctor again by watching other Doctors and listening to his companions, tied the two plots together perfectly.

More like this please.

[Simon R]

What happened to the Zygons in the end?

[WhiteCrowNZ]

A couple of minor oddities - but nothing major. But I noticed in the "Time War" none of the Daleks get destroyed by anyone but the Doctor. I wonder if the Nation estate are sticking to their "no-one can destroy the indestructable Daleks" contract.

The second one was that the Time Lords supposedly "went bad", and now the Doctor has saved them. Hmmmm - but glad they are back. The scenes on Gallifrey are amazing.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Oh the episode was full of amazing bits, but this bit was just so beatifully executed ...

[Martin Curnow]

Has to be a 10/10 doesn't it!

Moffat had us all fooled. Saying how hard is it to have a celebration party sort of an episode and then giving us just that in the last 1o minutes or so.

I nearly exploded when the first Doctor was "Calling the War Council of Gallifrey" but when they said "No sir; all 13" and we had a glimpse of Peter Capaldi - a "squee" moment if ever there was one.

Loved the Tom Baker cameo (as a future Doctor!? I bet Gallifrey Base is imploding over that) and the line up at the end.

Not so sure about the Time Lords still being out there. Prefer the Doctor as the last of the Time Lords - is that what SM was on about the gamechanging aspect of the special?

One thing left up in the air - what about the Zygons?

[Stephen Morgan]

That sure was fantastic and amazing stuff, maybe not a classic of "Nu Who" but enjoyable stuff nonetheless. Good to see the recent incarnations of the Doctor together, there were a few comedy gems there I think. John Hurt, as expected, was wonderful, it would be marvellous if we saw more of his "lost Doctor" as I felt we didn't see enough of his character.
The cinema experience was lovely, there was this air of expectation, and a few laughs along the way from the rest of the audience. Moffat promised an emotional wallop towards the end, and boy! wasn't it, there certainly was an audible gasp of surprise when Tom appeared, and then that line up of all the Doctors.
Now! what about the ratings? It should have done well, the BBC said it was to be the biggest simulcast ever, the two screens that showed it in my local Vue were packed to the rafters, the manager said he wished it was like that every night, such is the power of Doctor Who, let's hope it beat X Factor on TV.

[MacNimon]

It was a great experience seeing it in 3D at the cinema. Those who thought that people would talk all the way through it should have been at the cinema I went to...the audience was silent from the moment Strax appeared with his warnings about obeying cinema etiquette...his warnings must have had some effect! Apart from a cheer for Matt when he appeared for his intro explaining about 3D then a bigger one for David when he joined in, the audience was pretty silent apart from laughs at the jokes and a BIG cheer when Capaldi when he made his brief appearance...that went down well! Overall I thought the 3D shots were pretty amazing, particularly the ones involving scenery and the TARDIS interior etc rather than the big battle special effects.

This was one of the most enjoyable new series stories in quite some time, filling in a number of gaps. I think it was more accessable to a casual viewr than I expected it to be, particularly with it NOT being a direct continuation from the S7 cliffhanger but being set at some point in the future - which itself was initially a bit confusing (simply because I expected it still to be set on Trenzalore and in the Doctor's timeline). I liked the resolution which apparently changed the Doctor's history but really didn't...because Hurt's Doctor had no memory of saving Gallifrey means that each of the 9th-11th Doctors only thought that they had destroyed Gallifrey and also explained how it became trapped in a time bubble of its own...all timey-wimey stuff that actually made sense for once and tied up a lot of loose ends. But I was surprised that Matt's Doctor didn't comment on the subject of Gallifrey when David wondered if they would ever find out whether their plan actually worked or not...

That minor quibble along with a slightly unsatisfactory and sudden end to the Zygon storyline were my only real complaints. And to be honest, the way they featured all the old Doctors in the storyline was the only way they really could conceivably do it, wasn't it? Although the surprise appearance of Tom at the end possibly opens up the possibilities of cameos from other Doctors in the future...

Overall, very enjoyable with much more to enjoy than complain about...and Hurt was great, wasn't he? I'd love to see more of him but I've got a feeling that if we were to see a story of him in his earlier days, he would be a rather unpleasant and unlikeable character caught up in all the death and destuction surrounding him! It was nice seeing him being brought back from the brink and finally becoming a 'real' Doctor again before the end...

Initially a 9/10 but only a repeat viewing in plain old 2D will tell if it was actually as good as it seemed on the big screen!

[MacNimon]

Too bad I'm unlikely to be around for that 100th Anniversary special...in 12D and featuring all 57 Doctors, it sounds really fantastic!

[Andrew Curnow]

The more and more I think of it, the more I love the totally inexplicable appearance of Tom at the end.

I noticed on second viewing (or rather, joined the dots on second viewing) that Elizabeth's letter near the start refers to her appointing the Doctor as her museum's curator.... which is of course what Doctor Tom was at the end. There've been all sorts of theories over the years to explain Troughton's age (not to mention his 'incorrectly' being a Time Lord agent) in The Two Doctors, and I reckon Tom last night comes under the same sort of heading... Lovely to speculate over, but magical to watch anyway. Is he an alt-Doctor? A bonkers old man? A fourth Doctor a la The Dark Dimension? I hope we never know, but I look forwards to many years of discussing it.

And, I forgot to say it yesterday, not only was it a thrill to see him - but he was great wasn't he. When he shook Matt's hand ("congratulations") it was as moving as when Tennant said Davison was "my Doctor" in Timecrash. I'm so glad Moffat did it, I'm so glad Tom did it, and I'm so glad I didn't know it was coming.

[Perry Vale]

First impressions, a decidedely 'average' from me. I've said before that I have no interest in a Time War story, and I have even less interest in the origins of the Elizabeth I one. The Zygons plot seemed very pointless, and just there as an elaborate David Icke joke. Billie Piper and Tom Baker seemed shoehorned in.

Where The Five Doctors suffered from the absence of Tom, I felt this suffered with the absence of Eccleston. As a viewer I felt no empathy with Hurt's character, and not enough with Clara for her to be the moral compass at the end.

Some great moments here and there, but if I was Steven Moffat I'd have either a) gotten Terrence Dicks to write it, or b) gotten Joe Ahearne to direct it (to get Eccleston onboard)

...and Hurt was great, wasn't he? I'd love to see more of him but I've got a feeling that if we were to see a story of him in his earlier days, he would be a rather unpleasant and unlikeable character caught up in all the death and destuction surrounding him!

Does he in fact have 'days'? I was under the impression he just came into being for 'the last day' of the Time War?