I just re-watched the whole episode, and despite my confused reaction last night I now believe that final scene with Tom Baker was inspired. Actually brilliant. And the idea that the Doctor, in his twilight years, may revisit his old faces (even only the favourites...) is beautiful - and opens up cameo possibilities in the future.
What a performance from Tom as well. I mean hell we know what an actor he is of course but still. His command of the screen! What a captivating presence. Every word so beautifully spoken and loaded with history! Among all the whizz bangs and exploding daleks and Smith/Tennant comedy it is this scene which remains most vivid.
What a performance from Tom as well. I mean hell we know what an actor he is of course but still. His command of the screen! What a captivating presence. Every word so beautifully spoken and loaded with history! Among all the whizz bangs and exploding daleks and Smith/Tennant comedy it is this scene which remains most vivid.
Exactly! From the second you hear his voice!! Brilliant performance, and a wonderful ending to the episode.
Last night I did enjoy the Day Of The Doctor. But I must admit I did feel a little underwhelmed. It may have been the hype, it may have been the storyline.
But now, having just watched it a second time today, I "got it". I saw things I missed and I also could enjoy the episode more.
.
I feel the same. Watching it for a second time I didn't have to concentrate on the plot so much and could notice all the little dialogue nods to the past, and the wonderful interplay between the three Doctors.
Also, Queenie was a bit less irritating. And Baker's appearance seemed to fit in better.
I'm glad I didn't vote last night. Now I can vote "Excellent", and start looking forward to Christmas.
Can anyone tell me if the door being open all the time while they were trying to get out of the Tower was a reference to something else? I feel I've seen that before somewhere, but I can't think where.
I feel the same. Watching it for a second time I didn't have to concentrate on the plot so much and could notice all the little dialogue nods to the past, and the wonderful interplay between the three Doctors.
Also, Queenie was a bit less irritating. And Baker's appearance seemed to fit in better.
I'm glad I didn't vote last night. Now I can vote "Excellent", and start looking forward to Christmas.
Can anyone tell me if the door being open all the time while they were trying to get out of the Tower was a reference to something else? I feel I've seen that before somewhere, but I can't think where.
I've been wracking my brains about that bit. Its comes from somewhere I am sure but I can't think where.
After a spectacular night of global celebration for Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary, Executive Producer and Head Writer Steven Moffat was presented with the Guinness World Record for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama, following a global campaign from BBC Worldwide that saw The Day of the Doctor broadcast in 94 countries across 6 continents.
...
On receiving the award, Steven Moffat says: “For years the Doctor has been stopping everyone else from conquering the world. Now, just to show off, he's gone and done it himself!”
...
No, just visiting family for a few days - I might not have time to come on here.
Enjoy! I woke up feeling a bit fed up today. That Boxing Day feeling. Thank goodness for the Xmas Special being so near. I actually think that episode will be a truly dark one and a nice contrast to last nights fun romp!
Enjoy! I woke up feeling a bit fed up today. That Boxing Day feeling. Thank goodness for the Xmas Special being so near. I actually think that episode will be a truly dark one and a nice contrast to last nights fun romp!
Thanks, I will. And yes, the Christmas episode will be quite tense, I think. I do hope there's lots of Capaldi, though.
To be honest, and I don't want to sound too "negative", I think I'll feel very flat after Christmas when we'll have months till the next series.
Can anyone tell me if the door being open all the time while they were trying to get out of the Tower was a reference to something else? I feel I've seen that before somewhere, but I can't think where.
Reminded me of One Foot in the Algarve - they arrive at their holiday villa, but believe that it's a detention centre and end up staying in a room, thinking it's a cell.
Well oddly enough I was able to watch TDotD slightly early (albeit by an hour or so) as my DVD arrived from Amazon and was waiting for me when I got home...not really sure why, as nobody else I know or have heard of seems to have got theirs?
I really hate to say this, but I actually found The Day of the Doctor to not only be underwhelming, but rather average in general. It was an opinion I really hoped I wouldn't have, as I didn't get myself hyped up beforehand and in a rare break from self-tradition I even avoided many of the clips and spoilers that began filtering through this past week.
There were many things I liked for sure, don't get me wrong. I thought the cameos from Tom Baker and Peter Capaldi were lovely, the footage of London and the special effects were stunning, the acting was superb from all the main players, and I enjoyed the little classic touches such as the opening credits and the school.
I find leading the way in what I didn't like was the story, and I think it was overly typical of Moffat. I used to enjoy the limitless possibilities of the 'time can be rewritten' idea, but after around A Christmas Carol the concept was just so heavily overused that it now comes across as lazy writing. Moffat is a genius of a writer and I know he can produce works of written art, but this for me was not an example of that. In fact aside from a few nods it disregarded the first 42 years of the show and essentially rewrote elements of the past eight. Once again, we were faced with a dramatic story that had no clear face to the villainy and so it's impossible for the story to ever really escalate and pay off... we had The Great Intelligence in Series 7, which was Moffat's one-and-only attempt at establishing a big bad. This story could have used one... the Zygons were ultimately inconsequential and the Daleks weren't given a specific identity either. It robbed the story of a climatic set piece, and so I found that on a visual level at least it was the first ten minutes that really shone...not a sign of promise in a 75 minute episode.
The acting was superb, but the characters in question were heavily flawed. Billie Piper clearly had fun playing an interestingly different role, but why did The Moment appear as just her? It was the perfect sort of plot device that would have allowed more than just the one former companion to return regardless of their continuity...we could have seen Donna, Jack, Jo or even Ian or Susan? Any of them even briefly, and it doesn't matter how much fanw*nk this would have brought to the table as the episode was all about that anyway! I saw it as a massively missed opportunity, whilst also making The Moment a rather underwhelming plot device. And as if the Tenth Doctor would have heard 'Bad Wolf Girl' without more of a reaction! I think Piper's return failed to serve the Rose fans, and was a matter of indifference for non-Rose fans...ultimately pointless.
The War Doctor also seems to be a bit of a pointless creation too, not that it's a reflection on the simply sublime John Hurt. But we had Paul McGann - a brilliant Doctor mostly confined to a not-at-all-brilliant movie - who was more than willing to appear in the 50th Anniversary and was instead confined to a mini-episode. It was a superb mini-episode, but imagine the kind of surprise it would have been to see Paul McGann turn up at the start of The Day of the Doctor - an in-episode return like he truly deserved. All The War Doctor has done is confuse the numbering system and divided fans in that regard quite massively. Those are not my only problems with the War Doctor - he was introduced with such angst and such an ominous tone in The Name of the Doctor, but this wasn't followed through in The Day of the Doctor. The Doctor spent so long keeping his war incarnation a secret out of "dread" of him, and yet descended into witty banter with him in the very first scene he shared with Tennant and Smith. All that hate that was built up in his reveal in Series 7 was very quickly wasted. It was a poor, rushed exploration of The Doctor's character.
Speaking of The Doctor's character, the Tenth Doctor once again did nothing for me. He was, like Eleven has sometimes teetered on becoming, a caricature. Like The Specials proved in 2009, his character is dull to me, and so overly human that he needs an interesting companion at his side to work properly... and though this point is entirely subjective, I think Smith and Hurt acted the pants off him
Queen Elizabeth was another annoyance. I remember when Doctor Who used to add a rich sense of character to the historical figures that appeared...where the famous faces of the past were the story rather than just caricatures within one. Now we get Elizabeth I, the latest in a growing line of poorly done famous faces of the past - Richard Nixon, Nefertiti and (to a lesser extent given the controversy around him) Hitler have all appeared in recent years, but add nothing in the way that Dickens, Victoria or Agatha Christie did when they showed up.
I had a few other smaller problems as well. They bothered to show Hurt's regeneration without the inclusion of Eccleston, and I know it's nobody's fault but it lingered so long that it was a tease that failed to deliver. And the final shot of the Doctor's was understandable in its inclusion, but they looked like action figures and it was just cheesy.
Overall it disappointed me, as you could probably guess. I wanted to like it so much as I was watching, and felt like I was missing out on something spectacular. But to be frank, I was bored by about half hour in - I can't recall how many times I'd glance at the clock and realise that my hopes of liking it ebbed away more and more with each passing minute. It generally felt like three or four separate episodes that had been awkwardly stitched together and never really felt like it came together as a coherent piece. As a tribute to the past I felt that The Name of the Doctor was a lot more impressive with its nods to the past (and An Adventure in Space and Time was even more impressive still...I absolutely loved that little gem and have pre-ordered the DVD already!). There were things to like, but they were vastly outweighed for me by a story that just didn't do enough... the first ten or so minutes kept me interested, but were by no means sensational. Beyond that, the whole thing just gradually slipped away from me, and offered glimmers of greatness in an otherwise massively flawed and overblown story that I hope isn't the level of quality I should expect for Smith's final outing.
It wasn't The End of Time or The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe levels of disappointing, but it felt very much like a representation of Series 7 - great in places, but so frustratingly let down in other aspects that drag the whole thing down. And a minor thing... I was really hoping that the "paintings" aspect would take a nod back to An Unearthly Child, with the painting that the First Doctor inexplicably picks up in the junk yard during the very first episode. That would have been sensationally clever, and I think I banked too much on Moffat trying to do something exceptionally clever... alas, no. I don't dislike The Day of the Doctor - I like it for what it did do, and my criticisms aren't about what it didn't do, but about what it could have done with the potential it had!
I'd give it a 6.5/10...maybe a 7 at a push, but I'll rewatch first
Reminded me of One Foot in the Algarve - they arrive at their holiday villa, but believe that it's a detention centre and end up staying in a room, thinking it's a cell.
That was funny, but I don't think that's what I'm thinking of.
I loved it, I think it was the best DW episode for years. I thought it was a great celebration of the series, and a great story. No surprise at how great David and Matt were together - I'd expected nothing less - but Hurt was just as good. Shrieked with joy at the glimpse of Capaldi's eyes, and cried at Tom's lovely, emotional chat with Matt. Simply wonderful, and I can't wait for Christmas.
Can anyone tell me if the door being open all the time while they were trying to get out of the Tower was a reference to something else? I feel I've seen that before somewhere, but I can't think where.
One review mentioned that this was recycled from Moffat's Tintin script.
I am just wondering, why they didn't included Martha Jones instead of Kate Stewart? She also worked in the UNIT and it was a good chance to remand her as an old companion...
I am just wondering, why they didn't included Martha Jones instead of Kate Stewart? She also worked in the UNIT and it was a good chance to remand her as an old companion...
The unlocked door bit made me think of Derren Brown...when he did the trick with people in a room. He never told them but they all presumed the door was locked. It wasn't. David Tennant was one of the people.
Comments
Who knows eh? Who knows...
Exactly! From the second you hear his voice!! Brilliant performance, and a wonderful ending to the episode.
I feel the same. Watching it for a second time I didn't have to concentrate on the plot so much and could notice all the little dialogue nods to the past, and the wonderful interplay between the three Doctors.
Also, Queenie was a bit less irritating. And Baker's appearance seemed to fit in better.
I'm glad I didn't vote last night. Now I can vote "Excellent", and start looking forward to Christmas.
Can anyone tell me if the door being open all the time while they were trying to get out of the Tower was a reference to something else? I feel I've seen that before somewhere, but I can't think where.
I've been wracking my brains about that bit. Its comes from somewhere I am sure but I can't think where.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. If you find out, could you PM me, please? - I'm going away for a bit and I might not see it on the forum.:)
Not for too long I hope!
No, just visiting family for a few days - I might not have time to come on here.
GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR
Enjoy! I woke up feeling a bit fed up today. That Boxing Day feeling. Thank goodness for the Xmas Special being so near. I actually think that episode will be a truly dark one and a nice contrast to last nights fun romp!
Thanks, I will. And yes, the Christmas episode will be quite tense, I think. I do hope there's lots of Capaldi, though.
To be honest, and I don't want to sound too "negative", I think I'll feel very flat after Christmas when we'll have months till the next series.
Reminded me of One Foot in the Algarve - they arrive at their holiday villa, but believe that it's a detention centre and end up staying in a room, thinking it's a cell.
I really hate to say this, but I actually found The Day of the Doctor to not only be underwhelming, but rather average in general. It was an opinion I really hoped I wouldn't have, as I didn't get myself hyped up beforehand and in a rare break from self-tradition I even avoided many of the clips and spoilers that began filtering through this past week.
There were many things I liked for sure, don't get me wrong. I thought the cameos from Tom Baker and Peter Capaldi were lovely, the footage of London and the special effects were stunning, the acting was superb from all the main players, and I enjoyed the little classic touches such as the opening credits and the school.
I find leading the way in what I didn't like was the story, and I think it was overly typical of Moffat. I used to enjoy the limitless possibilities of the 'time can be rewritten' idea, but after around A Christmas Carol the concept was just so heavily overused that it now comes across as lazy writing. Moffat is a genius of a writer and I know he can produce works of written art, but this for me was not an example of that. In fact aside from a few nods it disregarded the first 42 years of the show and essentially rewrote elements of the past eight. Once again, we were faced with a dramatic story that had no clear face to the villainy and so it's impossible for the story to ever really escalate and pay off... we had The Great Intelligence in Series 7, which was Moffat's one-and-only attempt at establishing a big bad. This story could have used one... the Zygons were ultimately inconsequential and the Daleks weren't given a specific identity either. It robbed the story of a climatic set piece, and so I found that on a visual level at least it was the first ten minutes that really shone...not a sign of promise in a 75 minute episode.
The acting was superb, but the characters in question were heavily flawed. Billie Piper clearly had fun playing an interestingly different role, but why did The Moment appear as just her? It was the perfect sort of plot device that would have allowed more than just the one former companion to return regardless of their continuity...we could have seen Donna, Jack, Jo or even Ian or Susan? Any of them even briefly, and it doesn't matter how much fanw*nk this would have brought to the table as the episode was all about that anyway! I saw it as a massively missed opportunity, whilst also making The Moment a rather underwhelming plot device. And as if the Tenth Doctor would have heard 'Bad Wolf Girl' without more of a reaction! I think Piper's return failed to serve the Rose fans, and was a matter of indifference for non-Rose fans...ultimately pointless.
The War Doctor also seems to be a bit of a pointless creation too, not that it's a reflection on the simply sublime John Hurt. But we had Paul McGann - a brilliant Doctor mostly confined to a not-at-all-brilliant movie - who was more than willing to appear in the 50th Anniversary and was instead confined to a mini-episode. It was a superb mini-episode, but imagine the kind of surprise it would have been to see Paul McGann turn up at the start of The Day of the Doctor - an in-episode return like he truly deserved. All The War Doctor has done is confuse the numbering system and divided fans in that regard quite massively. Those are not my only problems with the War Doctor - he was introduced with such angst and such an ominous tone in The Name of the Doctor, but this wasn't followed through in The Day of the Doctor.
The Doctor spent so long keeping his war incarnation a secret out of "dread" of him, and yet descended into witty banter with him in the very first scene he shared with Tennant and Smith. All that hate that was built up in his reveal in Series 7 was very quickly wasted. It was a poor, rushed exploration of The Doctor's character.
Speaking of The Doctor's character, the Tenth Doctor once again did nothing for me. He was, like Eleven has sometimes teetered on becoming, a caricature. Like The Specials proved in 2009, his character is dull to me, and so overly human that he needs an interesting companion at his side to work properly... and though this point is entirely subjective, I think Smith and Hurt acted the pants off him
Queen Elizabeth was another annoyance. I remember when Doctor Who used to add a rich sense of character to the historical figures that appeared...where the famous faces of the past were the story rather than just caricatures within one. Now we get Elizabeth I, the latest in a growing line of poorly done famous faces of the past - Richard Nixon, Nefertiti and (to a lesser extent given the controversy around him) Hitler have all appeared in recent years, but add nothing in the way that Dickens, Victoria or Agatha Christie did when they showed up.
I had a few other smaller problems as well. They bothered to show Hurt's regeneration without the inclusion of Eccleston, and I know it's nobody's fault but it lingered so long that it was a tease that failed to deliver. And the final shot of the Doctor's was understandable in its inclusion, but they looked like action figures and it was just cheesy.
Overall it disappointed me, as you could probably guess. I wanted to like it so much as I was watching, and felt like I was missing out on something spectacular. But to be frank, I was bored by about half hour in - I can't recall how many times I'd glance at the clock and realise that my hopes of liking it ebbed away more and more with each passing minute. It generally felt like three or four separate episodes that had been awkwardly stitched together and never really felt like it came together as a coherent piece. As a tribute to the past I felt that The Name of the Doctor was a lot more impressive with its nods to the past (and An Adventure in Space and Time was even more impressive still...I absolutely loved that little gem and have pre-ordered the DVD already!). There were things to like, but they were vastly outweighed for me by a story that just didn't do enough... the first ten or so minutes kept me interested, but were by no means sensational. Beyond that, the whole thing just gradually slipped away from me, and offered glimmers of greatness in an otherwise massively flawed and overblown story that I hope isn't the level of quality I should expect for Smith's final outing.
It wasn't The End of Time or The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe levels of disappointing, but it felt very much like a representation of Series 7 - great in places, but so frustratingly let down in other aspects that drag the whole thing down.
And a minor thing... I was really hoping that the "paintings" aspect would take a nod back to An Unearthly Child, with the painting that the First Doctor inexplicably picks up in the junk yard during the very first episode. That would have been sensationally clever, and I think I banked too much on Moffat trying to do something exceptionally clever... alas, no.
I'd give it a 6.5/10...maybe a 7 at a push, but I'll rewatch first
That was funny, but I don't think that's what I'm thinking of.
One review mentioned that this was recycled from Moffat's Tintin script.
Oh, and it's nice to be reminded of all the twaddle that gets posted on these threads - especially during the episode!
:eek:
http://24.media.tumblr.com/ffe07296115cbef17a02dbf87aad518f/tumblr_mwqt6k0BNB1smxcs3o1_1280.png
and Mickey Smith was last seen with her,
Yes, and him too.