Story: The Night of the Doctor
Written By: Steven Moffat
Length: 7 Minutes
Year: 2013
Happy anniversary! Beyond the latest trailers (including the really cool 50 years celebration one with a hint of all Doctors), this is the first real big Doctor Who event since the reveal of John Hurt at the end of the 7th series finale. And boy does Moffat deliver! Those words he wrote are also wonderfully delivered...by PAUL FRICKIN' MCGANN!
Paul McGann first played the Doctor in 1996, and unfortunately that's all we really got to see of him. Now while it is a good thing that Fox series never got picked up (that TV movie was not good, despite the wonderful TARDIS set and McGann's casting), it has always been a bit sad that such a perfect actor for the role has been minimally seen. McGann has of course been playing the part in audio plays for 13 years with Big Finish, and I highly recommend them, because he has developed his version of the Doctor wonderfully and plays the part fantastically.
Now it helps this mini-episode to no end that McGann has been consistently playing his take on the Doctor for over a decade now, because he is very much the Doctor in every second of this 7 minutes. From his entrance to his final moments...the man is the Doctor, and it was wonderful to see this Doctor I have been listening to for years come to life on the screen yet again.
The plot is pretty thick for how short it is actually. A ship is about to crash, and the Doctor shows up to save the young female pilot, and she seems like the perfect kind of companion for our Doctor, that is until she realizes he has a TARDIS...and is a Time Lord. She chooses to crash and die instead of join a Time Lord and their war.
We discover the Eighth Doctor has actually actively avoided the war, which actually makes more sense than him joining the fight if you've listened to his audio plays. The Doctor goes down in the crash with the woman, and both die...but they've crashed on Karn (featuring the Sisterhood of Karn who were last seen in "Brain of Morbius" and last visited by McGann himself in an audio titled "Sisterhood of the Flame") and the Sisterhood bring the Eighth Doctor temporarily back to life in order to convince him to join the Time War and end it.
The Doctor, after seeing the pilot's dead body, realizes he can't stay out of the war forever and the Sisterhood give him an elixer to force him to regenerate into a Warrior...the John Hurt version of the Doctor (who is only briefly seen in a reflection, and much younger than we have already seen).
The story is great, McGann proves just what a great Doctor he was, is, and could've been in such a short period of time. The new costume designed for this story looks like a variation on his TV Movie costume, yet like it has been worn by a constant traveler, all ruffled and dirty (in short, it suits this version of the Doctor perfectly). This also finally gave us closure on the Eighth Doctor...we get to see him again, and we finally see how he met his end and regenerated. It was also a lovely touch that McGann pays tribute to all the Eighth Doctor's past companions from the Big Finish range (fans of the novels and comics may feel cheated, but I've always been more of a Big Finish guy, so I LOVE it).
This is also a truly great prequel and lead into the 50th special, "The Day of the Doctor", giving us some solid background on how the "War Doctor" came to be, how the numbering system for the Doctors doesn't change because he doesn't think of himself as one of the Doctors (Doctor no more...), and gets you super pumped to see what happens next.
I've been cheery all day since I first watched this, and I've watched several times just today. Great to see McGann in top form, and exciting as to what comes next. If McGann can finally return and get his regeneration...there's still hope to see how Hurt becomes Eccleston!
See the whole Minisode on the web at the official BBC YouTube, HERE.
NEXT TIME: The Moment is Coming
Happy anniversary! Beyond the latest trailers (including the really cool 50 years celebration one with a hint of all Doctors), this is the first real big Doctor Who event since the reveal of John Hurt at the end of the 7th series finale. And boy does Moffat deliver! Those words he wrote are also wonderfully delivered...by PAUL FRICKIN' MCGANN!
Now it helps this mini-episode to no end that McGann has been consistently playing his take on the Doctor for over a decade now, because he is very much the Doctor in every second of this 7 minutes. From his entrance to his final moments...the man is the Doctor, and it was wonderful to see this Doctor I have been listening to for years come to life on the screen yet again.
The plot is pretty thick for how short it is actually. A ship is about to crash, and the Doctor shows up to save the young female pilot, and she seems like the perfect kind of companion for our Doctor, that is until she realizes he has a TARDIS...and is a Time Lord. She chooses to crash and die instead of join a Time Lord and their war.
We discover the Eighth Doctor has actually actively avoided the war, which actually makes more sense than him joining the fight if you've listened to his audio plays. The Doctor goes down in the crash with the woman, and both die...but they've crashed on Karn (featuring the Sisterhood of Karn who were last seen in "Brain of Morbius" and last visited by McGann himself in an audio titled "Sisterhood of the Flame") and the Sisterhood bring the Eighth Doctor temporarily back to life in order to convince him to join the Time War and end it.
The Doctor, after seeing the pilot's dead body, realizes he can't stay out of the war forever and the Sisterhood give him an elixer to force him to regenerate into a Warrior...the John Hurt version of the Doctor (who is only briefly seen in a reflection, and much younger than we have already seen).
The story is great, McGann proves just what a great Doctor he was, is, and could've been in such a short period of time. The new costume designed for this story looks like a variation on his TV Movie costume, yet like it has been worn by a constant traveler, all ruffled and dirty (in short, it suits this version of the Doctor perfectly). This also finally gave us closure on the Eighth Doctor...we get to see him again, and we finally see how he met his end and regenerated. It was also a lovely touch that McGann pays tribute to all the Eighth Doctor's past companions from the Big Finish range (fans of the novels and comics may feel cheated, but I've always been more of a Big Finish guy, so I LOVE it).
This is also a truly great prequel and lead into the 50th special, "The Day of the Doctor", giving us some solid background on how the "War Doctor" came to be, how the numbering system for the Doctors doesn't change because he doesn't think of himself as one of the Doctors (Doctor no more...), and gets you super pumped to see what happens next.
I've been cheery all day since I first watched this, and I've watched several times just today. Great to see McGann in top form, and exciting as to what comes next. If McGann can finally return and get his regeneration...there's still hope to see how Hurt becomes Eccleston!
See the whole Minisode on the web at the official BBC YouTube, HERE.
NEXT TIME: The Moment is Coming
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