A witty 50th for Doctor Who

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Publication: Donegal News
Date: 2013-11-29
Author: Paul Bradley
Page: 39
Language: English

THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR BBC1, SATURDAY, 7.50PM

I know, I know: there'll be another huge episode of Dr Who along in just a month's time. Perhaps he'll go looking for the Hanging Gardens. But for the moment I think even people who think they never see it have been guzzling apples every day, so intense has BBC's 50th-anniversary promotion been of late. Admittedly 50 years is an impressive achievement, and the live broadcast of The Day Of The Doctor to 90-odd countries across the world (the biggest simulcast ever) was a considerable task, which by all accounts has worked well. It might well be "the biggest TV event of the year" in that technical sense at least. But still-enough.

What about the episode itself? Well of course we got to see (at least) three different versions of the Doctor - John Hurt, Matt Smith, David Tennant-sharing screen time and being snarky with one another, as well as various other faces and references from the past.

There's some fun in that, and I must say it was probably one of the wittiest episodes I've seen, although trying to summarise a plot involving Elizabethan murder plots, a painting in London's National Gallery, the Time War, and the destruction/undestruction of Gallifrey is a pointless task.

There's certainly enough here to keep fans entertained, even for those who like to pore over it frame-by-frame afterwards looking for references to the ghosts of Doctors past. The three main actors obviously enjoy working together, and the surprise appearance of Tom Baker will surely set Whovian tongues flapping; the plot was the usual clever/silly mix, but the effects were noticeably better than usual. Still, Steven Moffatt has pushed the show so far in the direction of children's TV that he's removed almost anything shadowy or serious in favour of jittery energy, with the result that it's become hard to care. And while he was true to his word that the plot would change the Doctor forever, it's also removed some of the character's remaining mystery and gravity, and implied that nothing in the series' entire history, no matter how final and tragic and long-standing, can't be jettisoned or entirely reworked. Still, that saving-Gallifrey device does open up new futures; as indeed does the next Doctor, Peter Capaldi, whose glowering eyes made a two-second appearance here, suggesting a darker, angrier Doctor next time around. Can he rescue it from its frivolous grave?

Caption: The Day Of The Doctor on BBC, celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who.

A witty 50th for Doctor Who

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