Doctor Who's 50th anniversary episode breaks the Timelord's number one rule and re-writes history - and reminds us why Matt Smith and David Tennant were so irritating
By JIM SHELLEY
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It was the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, one of the classic programmes in the history of British television.
The BBC commemorated it with The Day Of The Doctor, an episode that was 75 minutes long, transmitted simultaneously in 94 countries, screened in hundreds of cinemas across the UK in 3D, and featured several Doctors, including John Hurt as the War Doctor, the legendary Tom Baker and the return of David Tennant, as well as Billie Piper as Rose, the Daleks and 1970s vintage shape-shifting aliens, the Zygons. Apart from that ? Hardly anything.
Yes Steven Moffat was taking no chances, throwing everything but the kitchen sink in the TARDIS at the occasion, which was number 799 in a programme that will presumably run for time immemorial.
Special episode: The 50th anniversary who featured multiple Doctors, including David Tennant (left), John Hurt as the War Doctor (middle) and Matt Smith
Given that it was so special, it made the decision to screen it at 7.50pm after Strictly and directly opposite The X Factor all the more perverse and, frankly, annoying.
On the one hand, the Beeb was clearly trying to blow The X Factor out of the water and send Simon Cowell a message – namely ‘you just haven’t earned it yet baby. This is what a TV great looks like. Get back to us in 40 years.’
On the other, ultimately scheduling clashes only feed the egos of the TV executives and really affect the viewers, denying us the chance to watch one of the weekend’s big TV events live.
As for the episode itself, The Day Of The Doctor was typical of the way Doctor Who has regenerated during Moffat's time: a clever, chaotic, infuriating combination of nifty, knowing tiny detail and big, hollow, pompous bluster.
Depending on how you feel about the series or sci-fi generally, the plot Moffat came up with was fantastically audacious/ingenious/ridiculous, or possibly all three. It had so much going on, it was like several episodes jammed into one: The Doctor and Queen Elizabeth, the return of Rose (Billie Piper), and, mostly, the return to grace of The War Doctor.
Clocking back on: Billie Piper came back as companion Rose
Essentially, this was Doctor Who’s equivalent of the shower scene in Dallas – when it turned out that what we thought we’d been watching in previous series hadn’t happened at all.
For years now, The Doctor has been tormented by his decision to ‘save the universe’ from being conquered by ‘billions of daleks’ by destroying the planet of Gallifrey, the setting for The Last Great Time War between the daleks and the Time Lords, wiping out his own people in the process.
It has been the one thing to haunt him; condemned him to an eternal life of solitude and penance.
Here, through an alliance of three generations of The Doctor (John Hurt, David Tennant and Matt Smith), that decision was reversed.
This was basically Moffat re-writing Doctor Who history, TV history - which was ironic because re-writing history (saving The Titanic, Pompeii, stopping Hitler etc) is the one thing The Doctor is always saying he can’t do.
Of course, complaining about the credibility of anything that happens in Doctor Who is intrinsically absurd and to be avoided, but it did seem a bit rich and probably inadvisable.
Being responsible for a holocaust surely gave The Doctor an added depth.
Still, the merits of Moffat’s move are best left to the Whovians.
For the rest of us, as usual the show was decidedly hit and miss – never scary or funny enough.
The opening helicopter shots of the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, and Tower Bridge were blatantly for the American audience.
The scale of the flashback to The Last Day Of The Time War seemed all wrong – shot on a huge set, full of extras and packed with lavish, blockbusting special effects, slow motion shoot outs and explosions.
The sub-plot in which David Tennant as The Doctor married Queen Elizabeth I was worthy of BlackAdder and other scenes were like a parody of Game Of Thrones.
The scene in which the two most recent Doctors, Matt Smith and David Tennant met each other and struggled to understand their identical identity was excruciating, like watching mime artists doing the identical mirror mime.
Tennant and Smith were enjoying themselves far too much so the scene became more about the actors – not the character. The one thing a drama should never do.
Since his departure, Tennant’s accent had become decidedly more Cockney – such an alarming mix of Arthur Daley, Michael Moon and Ray Winstone that even Smith’s Doctor sarcastically called him ‘Dick Van Dyke.’
In return, Tennant’s Doctor called Smith’s ‘chinny.’
When Smith started talking about ‘time’ as ‘timey whimey’, even John Hurt’s Doctor asked ‘do you have to talk like children ?’
It was all far too Zany.
Hurt acted both Tennant and Smith off the screen and his appearance was, if anything, a mistake for the simple reason he gave the part of the Time Lord what it most needed: gravitas; wisdom.
As for the part played by Clara Oswald and Billie Piper as Rose – the Doctor’s conscience – in persuading the three Doctors to change history, I’m sure someone can explain it. A ten year-old child no doubt.
The over-riding moral of the 50th Anniversary episode was that, in Doctor Who, any thing is possible – even after we’ve seen it, it might not be ‘real.’
It was also a timely reminder how irritating David Tennant and Matt Smith were as Doctors.
It’s a shame John Hurt didn’t play him for a lot longer, but he and Tom Baker’s enjoyable cameo reminded us of the type of man The Doctor should be.
Bring on Peter Capaldi.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2512488/Doctor-Whos-50th-anniversary-episode-reminds-Matt-Smith-David-Tennant-irritating.html#ixzz2lWQW4DSr
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