#also I know for a fact that RTD has wanted to steal that bit from Pyramids of Mars since 2005

[pennamesmith]

The Devil’s Chord is immediately on my list of all-time favorite Doctor Who episodes.

[the-desolated-quill]

The Day Of The Doctor - Doctor Who blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

50 years, huh? Extraordinary.

Going into The Day Of The Doctor, I was already lowering my expectations. Not just because Steven Moffat was writing it, but also because multi-Doctor anniversary specials are generally never very good. Once you get past the novelty of Doctors meeting each other, you quickly realise that the stories are often weaker than a nun’s piss. While The Day Of The Doctor does fare slightly better than previous multi-Doctor stories, there are still a ton of problems with it.

Let’s start with the Doctors themselves. I was a little bit cross that there were no classic Doctors coming back (and no, the Curator doesn’t count). I wouldn’t have minded except apparently Moffat never even asked any of them. Some fans have given the excuse that you can’t use the original actors because they’re not as young as they were, which caused me to scoff and roll my eyes. Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee were both considerably older when they returned to play their respective Doctors in The Five Doctors over a decade after they left the role, but nobody batted an eyelid. It was just really cool to see them again. There’s no reason why you couldn’t have brought the classic Doctors back. Okay Tom Baker and Colin Baker have both put on a considerable amount of weight since the 70s and 80s, and neither Peter Davison nor Sylvester McCoy are as young and spry as they used to be, but once they’ve got the costumes on, nobody’s going to care about that. Ever heard of suspension of disbelief?

So the Doctors we end up getting are Eleven, Ten and Eight And A Half, aka the War Doctor. (The Ninth Doctor was originally intended to appear, but Christopher Eccleston turned it down, hence the creation of an all new Doctor. Why Moffat couldn’t have just used Paul McGann, I don’t know). It’s about what you’d expect. Three Doctors coming together and criticising each other’s attitudes and tastes in clothing, and admittedly it’s fun for about five minutes before you start getting bored and want Moffat to get the fuck on with it. I think I’ve mentioned numerous times now how annoying I find Matt Smith to be, so i don’t think I’d need comment on that further. While I don’t like Ten as much as everyone else does, it is good to see David Tennant again after all this time. It’s like he’s never been away. He’s got that same boundless energy and enthusiasm that you can’t help but find endearing. This story does however play at odds with where Ten is in his story. Remember for Ten this takes place between The Waters Of Mars and The End Of Time Part 1, where Ten is running from his own impeding death. Surely seeing his future self would affect him somewhat, right? Perhaps that was what all that ‘some new man goes sauntering away’ stuff in The End Of Time with Wilf was about.

As for the War Doctor... I must confess I’m slightly torn. I’ve mentioned before how I really don’t like the idea of a War Doctor that Eleven can conveniently blame so that he can stay as the pure saint with the unsullied past because it just simplifies the character to an insulting degree. And it’s funny because if you stop to think about it, outside of the big decision he has to make with the Moment, the War Doctor doesn’t actually have a character. We never really learn anything significant about him or what really differentiates him from his other incarnations. And yet I can’t help but find myself really liking the War Doctor. And I think that’s for two reasons. One is because of the late, great John Hurt. He gives an extremely good performance and he’s the one that keeps you engrossed in the character even when the writing doesn’t. And the second is that... Look, I have quite a few issues with New Who, and one of them is the more manic interpretations of the Doctor. And yes I know the Doctor has always been an eccentric, but it feels as though New Who have been pushing it to its absolute limit and beyond, to the point where we’ve now got Matt Smith’s Doctor who is just the most obnoxious character I’ve ever come across (in fact there’s a scene where the War Doctor pretty much sums up all my problems with Eleven by asking him “why are you so ashamed of being a grownup?”). And I recognise this is more of a personal taste issue. If you like that kind of manic Doctor, more power to you. I honestly don’t mind it in small doses. The thing is I grew up with the classic series (I used to watch them on old VHS tapes when I was a kid) and while I recognise the War Doctor isn’t very well written and that the reasons for his inclusion are incredibly stupid, I can’t help but instinctively be drawn to that kind of witty, reserved Doctor who can be a bit serious at times, but his hearts are always in the right place. That kind of Doctor just resonates with me more somehow and it’s a kind of Doctor that I really wish we could see more of in New Who.

Plot-wise, it’s all a bit so-so. Let’s start with the B story. Out of all the monsters Moffat could have picked to bring back for the 50th anniversary, why in God’s name did he pick the Zygons? I know classic series fans really like the Zygons, but for the life of me I can’t see why. They’ve only ever appeared in one story, Terror Of The Zygons, which, lets be honest, wasn’t really very good. Yes I know David Tennant loves the Zygons and I’m sure he was pleased as punch to get to work with them, but for the 50th anniversary? Are you fucking joking?

For the benefit of @captainivyb and others who are unfamiliar with the classic series, here is what the original Zygons looked like:

And now here are the new and improved Zygons:

It’s funny, isn’t it? State of the art special effects and a slightly bigger budget, and yet somehow the new Zygons look just as shit as they did back in 1975. I’m going to choose to believe that these new Zygons look deliberately shit so that they could pay tribute to the rubber latex monsters of Who’s past because if I have to accept the possibility that the New Who team honestly thought these new designs were good, I may have to sit in the corner and have a little cry.

I do like the idea of the Zygons hiding inside paintings. Wouldn’t it have been cool if maybe the Doctors went inside the paintings and had a bit of a gander? But no. Instead we get the really bizarre twist that the Zygons, a race of shapeshifting aliens, destroyed a bunch of statues and ground them into dust so they could hide underneath large sheets when UNIT arrives. Yeah, it’s a bit hard to be scared of monsters that have the same mindset as a child who think they’re invisible just by covering their eyes.

And why are the Zygons inside the paintings? Because they want to invade the Earth. Why they don’t just invade medieval Earth, I don’t know. Surely that would be easier than invading present day Earth. Less guns and nuclear bombs for one thing. Elizabeth the First (or at least a version of her that has been Pompadoured into the sassy, flirty woman that exists in all of Moffat’s stories) says that the Zygons are used to a certain level of comfort, but that’s bollocks, isn’t it? What could the super advanced Zygons with their biotechnology possibly want from present day Earth? It can’t be the Black Archive. How would they even know it exists before taking Kate Stewart’s memories? Do they want to borrow our Wi-Fi or something?

Cut to present day Earth and there is a genuinely good moment where Kate stands toe to toe with the Zygons and threatens to destroy the whole of London to prevent them from using the Black Archive. Jenna Redgrave gives a great performance here, channelling the Brigadier very effectively. It’s such a shame Moffat doesn’t do more with her character. (You may have noticed I haven’t mentioned Osgood yet... Well spotted). Then the Doctors show up to chastise Kate for her actions, using their own experience in the Time War to explain why before using the memory eraser thingy to make everyone forget whether they’re human or Zygon, forcing both sides to form a peace treaty. Yeah, because evil aliens hellbent on taking over the world are bound to stick to that once they get their memories back. (Also there’s a major continuity blunder here. Earlier we see a Zygon attack Osgood and assume her form, stealing her asthma pump. Osgood manages to escape and steal the asthma pump back. But at the end, Zygon-Osgood gives the asthma pump back. Huh?).

All of this is meant to cack-handidly tie into the Time War storyline and the Moment, which admittedly is slightly better. But first... is that it? Is that the Time War? Remember all the references that were made in the RTD era? The Jaws of the Nightmare Child. The Could Have Been King and his Army of Never Weres. People trapped in time loops, forced to relive their own deaths over and over again for all eternity. What do we end up getting? Some spaceships, a few lasers and explosions, and some screaming civilians. The Last Great Time War. The war to end all wars... and this is the best they could come up with? Sigh. I guess some things are best left to the imagination.

Also I could have done without Rose. Well... except she’s not Rose. She’s the Bad Wolf. Well... except she’s not the Bad Wolf neither. She’s the same Moffat female we’ve seen millions of times before (Has Moffat only ever met one woman is his life? That’s the only explanation I can think of for why all his female characters sound and behave the fucking same). Billie Piper does an okay job with the material she’s been given, but really, you could have picked anyone to play the Moment. Billie Piper is really only there for fanservice. (Moffat reportedly did not want to bring the Rose character back because he felt her story was wrapped up and he didn’t want to add anything to RTD’s arc. I want you to remember this people. It’ll become relevant later on).

The Day Of The Doctor is really about the redemption of the War Doctor. Him standing at the brink, prepared to make a terrible choice and is shown the consequences of his choice, whilst his future selves learn to accept and finally come to terms with the horrible decision they made. This aspect at least is done reasonably well. I liked the scene with the sonic screwdrivers and the ‘same software, different case’ metaphor. And by far the most powerful scene is when Ten and Eleven arrive to help the War Doctor push the button. It was incredibly moving and actually made me really emotional because it shows the Doctor at his core. It’s something I’ve been saying for years. He’s not a soldier or a hero or a warrior. He’s just some guy. To make the decision to destroy his own species in order to save the rest of the universe would be incredibly traumatising even for a trained soldier. For a simple traveller like the Doctor, it’s practically unbearable. So to soften the blow by allowing his future selves to come along and help him press the button so he doesn’t have to suffer alone is extremely touching. Plus the War Doctor is now reassured by the fact his future selves will do everything in their power to make things right and not allow others to make the same terrible choice.

...

How does Moffat fuck it up?

Oh yeah. You knew it was going to happen. Moffat is so insecure and so determined to trick his audience that he’s prepared to butcher perfectly decent stories in order to shove in some bullshit twist. And this is no exception. Rather than allow The Day of The Doctor to end on a sombre, but powerful note, Moffat decides to do the unthinkable and takes a great big shit all over it. Thanks to an intervention from Clara (ugh), the Doctor changes his mind and decides to use a stasis cube to trap Gallifrey inside a pocket universe, causing the Daleks to destroy themselves in their own crossfire, saving the Time Lords and everyone gets a happy little ending. Now look, I’m not necessarily angry that the Time Lords have been brought back from the dead. I’ve suspected the whole last of the Time Lords thing wasn’t going to be permanent since way back in 2005. What I am angry about is the insulting way in which Moffat does it. Remember when Moffat said he didn’t want to add to RTD’s arc? Well he seems more than happy to undo it completely just because it doesn’t fit with his vision of who the Doctor is. A vision that is utterly warped. Moffat has deluded himself into thinking the Doctor is this all powerful saint that can do no wrong and would never dream of doing something like destroy his own race, even though the show itself completely contradicts that. The Doctor has made morally dubious choices before. The Doctor has resorted to violence before. Okay he’ll always try to find a diplomatic and peaceful solution when he can, but when push comes to shove, he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. The Time War is just the most extreme example of that. Yes it’s a horrible choice, but what’s the alternative? Letting the whole of time and space burn? As Eleven himself said, it wasn’t possible to get it right. And the psychological ripple effects of this choice makes the Doctor a far more interesting character. By erasing all of this, all of that complexity and character development as a result goes with it. Moffat tries to cover himself by saying that none of the past Doctors will remember this because of Moffat logic, but that just makes it worse because now Nine and Ten are suffering from PTSD and psychological trauma for no reason.

What The Day Of The Doctor proves without a shadow of a doubt is that Steven Moffat doesn’t in any way understand the show he claims to be a fan of. And if you need further proof of that, in the final monologue where we see Matt Smith standing in front of a really bad photoshopped ensemble of previous Doctors, the Doctor talks about how he dreams about going home. That has got to be the most unDoctorly thing I’ve ever heard.

War Doctor: “If I grow to be half the man that you are, Clara Oswald, I shall be happy indeed.”

Oh go fuck yourself Moffat!

[nileqt87]

Big Finish: Ten x Rose

http://gallifreybase.com/forum/showthread.php?t=245111&page=7

If we were getting more than 3 audios per year, I'd be far more willing to give up the every-other-year Catherine/Billie dynamic for new companions or solo adventures here and there. It pains me already that if Freema comes in that it wouldn't be until 2020 that we'd see Ten/Rose again (2019 is bad enough!). I realize it's next to impossible to get David + Catherine or Billie's high-demand schedules worked out for anything more than what we're getting, but this already feels like the limit of how long to wait between the next batch of either companion. It's different with these audios, given we get so few, than it is for, say, the Classic Doctors or ranges that get far more audios per year. And for some like Tom and Paul, it's way more. Obviously, Tom's age makes him a priority (ditto William Russell in The Companion Chronicles range before he retired) and they're trying to build him up to where Peter, Colin and Sylvester are. If David was doing 8+ audios per year like Tom, weird little forays into other dynamics or a wider variety of companions would be fine. But with it being every other year already for 2 companions at a mere 3 audios each, the fewer companions to split between, the better. Best to make it the ones the audience most wants more of until the actors are willing to spend more time in the audio booth. Sadly, that might take a decade or more. I also note that Billie was on the show before the utterly massive deluge of media started getting produced for DW. It actually picked up dramatically during series 3. More Rose isn't actually giving her wildly more than Martha or Donna, given there are far fewer Ten/Rose books and NSA audio exclusives (didn't exist) than many later Doctor/companion dynamics got. There's also the fact that when Rose is placed with a Doctor for some kind of multi-Doctor comic, comic range or anniversary book collection, she gets given to Nine for lack of other choices for him, which means that Ten hardly ever gets to be with Rose for comics or books beyond the ones that were published during series 2. Despite the enormous fan following of these two (to this day!), it's a surprisingly under-served era in media. If we want to do a different dynamic, I'd suggest Metacrisis!Ten II and Rose (I'd suggest that Big Finish allow more mature character work), given they're an entirely blank slate and the story could ultimately be taken anywhere with no inevitable conclusion. I note that Camille's Short Trips are the first foray into exploring them. And that's another thing, it's obvious that Camille wants to do a lot of Big Finish and she really needs David and/or Billie. You can only have so many adventures of Jack and Jackie while the Doctor and Rose are away! LOL. Speaking of character work, as great as these adventures were, we need more character building. One thing that RTD did even in the most inane episodes was to put some big character moment. Even in the seemingly naff filler Fear Her, we have Rose reacting to Ten saying he's been a father before. These moments and the will they/won't they tragedy of it all are what make the era beloved by the people who actually love the era. Play to the audience that loves them in the first place. It would be a mistake to placate the haters of even the faintest whiff of romance or mutual attraction (most of these fans don't even care to buy Tennant-era anything). Obviously, it never got to the point of mutual declarations of love (despite 3 broken sentences about to say it and a Dalek declaring it), but it would be a mistake for Big Finish to eliminate the more soapy dramatic aspect of the Tennant era that was absolutely present and should carry over into audio form. Big Finish has this huge opportunity to play with this audience to build up to Army of Ghosts (not to mention the Metacrisis open-ended story) with a dynamic that coyly played with the audience to the point where how far the relationship had gotten is left a complete mystery up to a point. There's a lot of wiggle room. RTD pointedly gave the audience WTF moments like Rose mentioning the baby on Bad Wolf Bay that ended up being Jackie's pregnancy, but it was still played up for shock value with both the audience and the Doctor's own reaction. The relationship was at least serious enough that the Doctor had Rose's shirt with him in the console room and arguably was more blatant about his feelings for Rose after she was gone (using it to shove distance between himself and Martha and then making a big deal out of being only mates with Donna) than when she was there. Big Finish has options up to a point on how far they want to play with that. Of these audios, Zaross and Chevalier clearly give the most in terms of character depth and personal moments. More of that, at the very least. The 'shippiest thing here was probably Ten and Rose dressing up as a Harlequin and a devil (there's a flirtatious moment there with "you little devil") for the 1791 masquerade ball and Ten trying his hardest and failing to impress Rose with his swordsman skills (fangirl fantasies fulfilled). So far, the book that catered to the fangirls the most was The Stone Rose (Ten kisses Rose at the end in his exuberance at not being a stone statue), which is why you'll find it so popular in the community. That's an example of tie-in material knowing its audience and trying to do what RTD did rather than just [insert Doctor] and [insert companion] generic adventures. Zaross also had great stuff for Rose and Jackie, especially regarding Marge's classism and comparing her daughter at Cambridge to both 'runaway' Rose and 'cashier' Jess. The message that everyone has worth and you don't need fame or the greatest education/success/wealth felt very RTD. My suggestion to Big Finish is to do less generic, cookie-cutter adventures with Ten/Rose. Do things that are more personalized to their very unusual dynamic in the Whoniverse and follow RTD's character-centric approach. Even RTD's fillers had character moments, but the best episodes were ones that challenged the characters on a personal level. Remember that David excels at being a dramatic Shakespearean actor (Billie and Catherine are also strong at it). If anything was missing in these audios, it was perhaps that we didn't see enough serious, dramatic material. Perhaps if these were 2-hour adventures, we'd get scenes in between the madcap adventures that are quiet conversations with opportunities for something a bit more meaningful. Every RTD episode had some moment that was dead serious. Big Finish needs to remember that in the future. There was more to series 2 Ten and Rose than just happy-happy. Ten blowing a gasket over the Wire stealing Rose's face or his "you wither and you die" immortality speech are examples where even the Doctor at his most happy and love-struck is still the PTSD-suffering Oncoming Storm and Lonely God who is afraid of losing everyone he [loves]. Big Finish needs to remember this element of Ten in the future. The closest we got to it in this batch of audios was Zaross when Ten realizes that the villain has not only killed the few humans permanently, but has also killed others on many planets in their quest for fame. More of this, but remember that Ten also had such serious moments with his companions, too, not just villains.

My favorite scene, F.Y.I., was actually the callback to The Mind Robber and the Land of Fiction. You just know what name-dropping Ten would be like in such a meta world of fictional characters (think Babes in Toyland and Once Upon a Time on psychedelic LSD). I'd be pleased as punch if we got to see Ten and Rose journey through the Land of Fiction. Hey, maybe she can meet fictional!Jamie from Six's City of Spires tetralogy, given that Jamie was name-checked in Tooth & Claw, and I could have my two favorite companions together! Also, Scottish accents on parade.