11.45: The Day of the Doctor

In which the 10th Doctor snogs a Zygon.

Broadcast: November 2013

Watched: January 2022

“That was the day he did it. The day I did it. The day he killed them all.” The themes – the action, the denial, the inability to fully take responsibility – all laid out in one line.

The most impressive thing about it is that John Hurt doesn’t just create an entire incarnation, he’s the *lead character*. (One theory is that the script was designed to lure Eccleston back; it didn’t work, but it meant the earliest Doctor gets all the drama.) In the same way some of Moffat’s Christmas specials are about the Doctor’s effect on people, this is about his effect on himself. 

The other (this is going to happen a lot) most impressive thing about it is it’s not just a romp – in its examination of identity, responsibility and regret, it’s one of the most worked out stories ever. I love the music cue on the screwdriver bit – same software, different case – that feels like a way of highlighting that this is what the episode is about without quite saying it. I love, even more, the way it turns out not to matter because Clara bursts in because the door wasn’t actually locked.

THEN it does the all past Doctors fanboy moment, THEN the eyebrows, THEN it gives us the surprise Tom cameo... it does all the cheesy anniversary stuff, but only after it’s earned it.

The odd thing watching it now is – it beautifully sets up a whole bunch of stuff that the show will almost immediately ignore. The Marcus Aurelius quote at the start suggests that this is the show closing down the debate about whether the Doctor is actually a hero... then it’s the theme of the entire next season. It sets up a journey home arc... which takes less than two years. Moffat burns through story a lot quicker than he seems to think he will.

But anyway, loads of observations on this so I’m going to sort them by heading.

The ideas! 

• Bloody hell this has a real density of the things. The smashed up statues. People hiding in paintings. Time Lord art. The mildly sinister memory wipe, which basically reframes Liz 10’s story from The Beast Below as a joke. 

• The fall of Arcadia, which is basically Time Lord Manchester, is very well done but not very Time War-y. 

• Love the sentient weapon that judges you/ tries to talk you out of using it (feels like one of those literalisations Moffat likes?). Love even more that it mocks the Doctor.

• “It’s not a chair, it’s the most dangerous weapon in the universe.” “Why can't it be both?” The Moment is *far* hotter than Rose ever was. Also, it’s really funny that this episode pairs Billie with Hurt and never lets her speak to Tennant, even once. 

• Great the way the script plays on the idea Elizabeth could be replaced by a Zygon because she never had kids... but it’s even better that Liz kills the Zygon and then pretends to be him.

Some observations about plot and structure!

• Basically the entire story is a flash forward told from the Hurt Doctor's point of view, which is quite brain melting to think about. As with Library, I find myself wondering if Moffat has read Cold Fusion. [Lance Park’s 5th Doctor novel, which also features the 7th Doctor and his companions from the New Adventures.]

• The War Doctor’s TARDIS is darker and battered because he uses it to twat Daleks. Also the Time Lords still call him “the Doctor”.

• “The High Council is in emergency sitting, they have plans of their own” – i.e. Timothy Dalton is off being a dick somewhere off stage. Also, from the way he says “To hell with the High Council” it's clear that the general is a good guy. 

• The Zygon plot doesn’t just stop, it is sorted... but it has a deeply undramatic ending, of people talking to each other nicely, which feels odd as it’s a mismatch with normal Doctor Who alien invasions. Though I sort of love that decided to make Zygons good-ish guys and do a sequel.

• McKillop’s first and last lines are the same. Cool.

• Also cool, the use of old themes – the Daleks’, the 10th Doctor’s, the music from Waters of Mars when they're about to press the button… The Heaven Sent music is here, and that hasn’t even been used yet.

Some references!

• The Hartnell theme at the start, obviously. The policeman walking past Coal Hill, where Clara now teaches (one of Moffat’s less nonsensical “new jobs for companion to show the passage of time” moves), and where Ian chairs the governors. Why is “W. Coburn” the headmaster? Who is W.? [The very first Doctor Who story, set partly in Coal Hill, was written by Anthony Coburn.]

• I said that the motorbike from Bells was never seen again, and may have been wrong. But I’m not sure this isn't the same one? Anyway, Clara leaves at 5.15 or, more likely, passes a clock that's stuck at 5.15, which is the time of Doctor Who’s first ever broadcast. 

• I have no idea how Osgood got that scarf. Lee Evans, from the worst Doctor Who story of the RTD era, still works for UNIT (“The ravens are looking a bit sluggish. Tell Malcolm they need new batteries”).

• Oooh roundels on the gallery wall.

• LOVE the random picture of Mike Yates and Sara Kingdom, and also Clara looking at pictures of Susan. 

• Weirdly there are a couple of random Hide references? The wicked witch of the well, Gallifrey being hidden in a pocket universe.

• Not really a reference, but not sure where else to put it. The cast list runs: “Matt Smith, David Tennant, Jenna Coleman with Billie Piper and John Hurt”.

• Ditto the fact that the TARDIS airlift is the entirely gratuitous “look it's the 50th anniversary” bit.

Some Moffat fanboy things! 

• Tennant’s gets all the fanboy lines (“You've redecorated! I don’t like it”). 

• His last line doesn't change.

• Also Moffat insists on showing us both Hurt’s regenerations (you can just about see Eccleston about to pop up before they cut it, presumably just in case anyone ever wants to do something else there? Or because they needed permission?). Sort of love the way the War Doctor regeneration is like getting a cold the day after a big deadline, like he’s been holding it back until he’s used the Moment.

• Funny the helpful way the Doctors do or don’t remember stuff from multi-Doctor stories, depending on plot convenience. At one point the current Doctor says “I remember this. Almost remember” – Moffat is having his cake and eating it.

Some lines I just really like:

• “Ooooh, it was the horse! I’m gonna be king.” Thank god we get a parody comedy Tennant, not the lonely god one. [Presumably he’s back this November.]

• “Malcolm, I need you to send me one of my father’s incident files. Codenamed Cromer. 70s or 80s depending on the dating protocol.”

• “We’re confusing the polarity.”

• “Brave words, Dick Van Dyke.”

• “Am I having a midlife crisis??”

• “They’re screwdrivers, what are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them?”

• “Think about it. Americans, with the ability to rewrite history?”

• “Look, the round things!” “I love the round things”

• Tom’s delivery of “Lost. SSSH!”

Everything else I just couldn’t find headings for!

• The Doctor on UNIT: “I work for them”. Present tense. 

• Osgood really shouldn’t have just announced that she knows it’s the zygon under the dust sheets should she? 

• Kate is clearly replaced at point where nips out to call Malcolm – means “Dear god that man’s clever” is a Zygon.

• The arrogance of the Zygons in not questioning Elizabeth mirrors that of the Doctors in not trying the door.

• Exciting to see popular Big Finish character the Curator. The way we hear Tom before we see him is *perfect*.

• This episode is so full of stuff that you totally forget the Doctor casually marries Elizabeth I halfway through. 

• The undergallery is where Queen Elizabeth I kept dangerous art, which is very clever because it clearly didn’t exist in the 16th century.

• ”Sandshoes” – is this a Scottish thing?

• Sky trenches!

• Is this the only episode that has a voiceover from the Doctor? [It is not. Deadly Assassin and the TV Movie, for a start.]