I still think Moffat will pay fitting tribute to the entire fifty years. He will just find a way to do it that doesn't resemble an expensively shot backstage documentary about a Doctor Who convention. He knows full well how bad it would look. But he is a fan. He will find another way to celebrate without old men in ill fitting costumes and tagged on cameos that clutter up the story.

The Five Doctors is a nice curio for fans but is not a classic by any stretch of the imagination. And since that was made you need to more than double the returning characters and villains.

I mean no disrespect to Classic Who. I love it. Its what got me into the show. But their legacy lives on in the actual episodes they made. And whether they appear or not they are still part of the celebration as they helped make the show what it is. We can recognise that without Tom Baker turning up with some Jelly babies and winking at the camera.

And those saying why bring back Ten...well its obvious. He is box office. And his casting offers no problems as far as appearance goes. And we have Zygons! And who knows what else!

OK here goes I think I posted this kind of idea somewhere before, but anyway...

It involves the cast of Eastenders, the Master and the Rani... oh wait......


Ok, here's the real one.

Pick a baddie- any baddie. Lets say The great intelligence, since he/that/it has been involved recently. Perhaps he gets killed off in the the finale to 7b. But they could always give him some kind of escape (like how Davros or the Master keep turning up), or just something he 'left behind' poisons the doctor. The main thing is he gets poisoned, and perhaps he sends Clara to the other side of whatever town they are in for some item/to get an ambulance or something.

Realising something is not right, he stumbles around trying to analyse himself and finds out what is wrong. He mst concoct a cure, He asks a passer by in the street where the nearest pharmacy is. It's a first Doctor lookalike. They tell him where it is. He gets to the pharmacy, rummaging on the shelves to find a part of the cure and takes it to the till. Tom Baker is at the till and runs it through the till. He asks is that all? The Doc rubbs his eyes and says yes, yes please hurry. Tom Baker says "Ok, but would you like a Jelly baby?" *big grin*.
"No thank you, but do I know you from somewhere?"

"I don't think so, but I do have one of those faces"

He gets out the shop and looks around the streets trying to find the next part of the cure. He makes it to a small supermarket style shop and wanders round the aisles. Sophie Aldred is stacking the shelves there and she asks what is he looking for. So she helps him find the Irn Bru he's looking for. He runs for the exit. David Tennant is by the Tills and shouts after him " Oi, ur ye no gonnae pay fur that pal"? He looks for the security guard (possibly John simm?), but he is too busy arresting Sylvester McCoy for shop lifting.

Meanwhile the Doc is stumbling down the street. HE bumps into Colin Baker walking his dog and says "ahh just what I need". He whispers something to the dog and then pulls a hair out of it's back. He thanks Colin and Colin is very confused but the Doc runs off before they can talk about much and says "need to go, just need a little more".

He's running/stumbling now while shuffling abou tin his pockets and doing something with all the ingredients he's bought. He crashes straight into Peter Davison and both fall to the ground. Nicola Bryant is nearby and asks if they need help. The Doc is saying " oh no, oh no, it might not work now, as the Irn Bru bottle is fizzing from the lid, leaking out the 'cure'. Peter gathers himself and tries to help. The Doctor is trying to drink what's left of the cure from around the lid and saying thre's one chance left, if I can only get... only get... a ..... and he passes out.

An ambulance arrives and paramedics Paul McGann and Sherridan Smith get out. They examine him and try to figure out what's wrong with him. Perhaps some other companions could be in the crowd that has gathered as they try to revive them. The paramedics eventually shock him after some CPR and he sits straight up and burps. " that did the trick, thanks for that" and runs off again.

A conspicuous person in the crowd (Kate O'Mara? or Lala Ward, or whoever they can get ) rings someone on their mobile. says "It's him, he's back again.... Yes definitely, the paramedics said they could hear a double heartbeat and thought their equipment was faulty. ....OK keep me posted"

Flash to where Clara is Sean Pertwee, wearing a UNIT badge or something, hangs up the phone. "sorry about that miss, but you can't expect me to just mobilise everything on your say so. These things have to be checked out." ( maybe he's not really unit, but working for some baddies).

Clara gets a call. It's the Doctor calling from the Tardis phone. The Tardis materialises where she is and she gets in.
Sean Pertwee tries to ask some questions but they go without answering.

the Docto is puzzled #. They talk about what happened and they decide they need to find out what's going on at UNIT.

At the end he could say that his subconscious must have been trying to tell him the answer and leading him somewhere all along.

Cue next time trailer for Chsristmas involving UNIT firefights with other UNIT members and a hint of whatever mystery of the UNIT 5th column is going on for Chsristmas.



OK- that's not really lots of DOCTORS in there. but what do ya think.

Its a definite A plus for effort here Kyler. You should get a go at at least one episode for S8!

You are missing my point the 5 doctors plus all the aliens plus companions proves it can be done. You don't need all eleven of course but more than just bloody tennant.

I think at least the 8th Doctor should've been brought in along with the 10th Doctor for this.

I like Moffat but I think this is a poor decision and I can understand why some are annoyed.

I now know why Steven Moffat left Twitter, he would have been roasted alive on there had he remained. There's a few people remaining positive after this news (mostly on here in fact) but many of the other sites (and Twitter) have reacted angrily to this news. Many people feel that this is a two-figured salute to the Classic Series (and I sort of agree I'm afraid)

I've been a big supporter of Steven Moffat but I'm seriously struggling at the moment, I've lost the faith in the Moff

And if he does attempt to name the Doctor in the finale... well, it'll make meltdown that was Chris Eccleston's departure announcement look tame.

WOOHOO, where do I sign?

Oh, and when will my paycheque arrive?

Being realistic, the general public might only vaguely remember Paul McGann doing an American TV Movie 17 years ago. The demand for his return comes entirely from fans.

Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy are associated with the failure of the original series. And they look different now.

That leaves us with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant as the 'popular' Doctors. Tom and Peter look nothing like they did in the early 80s and Eccleston is unavailable. So that makes David Tennant the ideal choice for a credible return.

I think the sane rational thing to do is wait until after the 50th anniversary episode has taken place; and only then we can heap praise or give it the kicking it deserves.

Ultimately I agree with this. Big Finish is by far a better format for a multi classic series doctor 50th anniversary special. And Big Finish are doing one. Happy days.

It is sad that alot of the Classic Who fans are sharpening their knives already. Even a certain 'super fan' who despite his myriad idiosyncrasies I have alot of time for has been stirring up discontent on his Twitter and Facebook. It was always going to be the impossible job for Moffat but it seems like its going to be even harder than we thought.

Of course no doubt millions will tune in and love every moment. Those people who care little about the Rani and Eight etc. I just hope they aren't drowned out by the 'Doctor in distress' gang.

9 million people watched the Movie though. It still would've been nice to have seen at least 8 on screen with 10 and 11.

I'm not knocking the 50th but it's hard not be a little dissapointed though.

Bit disappointed...Bit relieved...All eagerly anticipating!

Can't wait for a 10/11 scene. Less is more!

Look!
Someone trying to be sane and rational.
String em up!!!!!!

Really though- that's exactly what people need to do- Where's the point in believing how crap it's going to be when the thing isn't even finished filming.


I am sure millions WILL tune in and enjoy it.
I hope I enjoy it and I'n looking forward to it. While it would have been nice to see McGann or McCoy or insert name here again in some form I'm not going to get my sniper rifle out if it doesn't happen.



................(Hear that Moffat- I've got a sniper rrifle ready, so McCoy and Aldred better be in it- or else )

Watch it! Things get taken literally on teh interwebs.

An Armed Response Unit will be surrounding your home at this moment.

I know this might not be everyone's ideal solution, but there is still the possibility of a...














...CHARITY SPECIAL for Children in Need, leading into the 50th anniversary episode.

[Ducks]


To be honest, a 'skit' would probably be my favourite way of including the Doctors who look completely different nowadays.

I'd have had no problem with them not doing a muti-Doctor story. I don't care for them much anyway.

But they needed to do none or all of them. Just bringing back Tennant... sorry, that's shit. In fact, I swore blind they wouldn't do that and scorned people for suggesting that they would. More fool me. Or hopefully, more fool all of us and it's a ruse... I'm still not 100% convinced they won't be represented by their voices at least (original material; old clips don't count); there's an obvious story way this could happen, with things we already know about the episode, that has already been well mooted.

In my opinion the BBC misjudge Tennant's popularity. Some people seem to think Doctor Who only became popular when he took on the role. Actually, it's always been one of the BBC's most successfull shows, for the past 50 years (isn't that what the anniversary is actually about?*). It often hit the heights of 12 million plus viewers. It was brought back very successfully with Chris Ecclestone in the title role. It continued it's success with Tennant and is continuing its success with Matt Smith. The Tenth Doctors era was business as usual for this juggernaut show, and yet, there is this idiotic myth of David Tennant being 'the most popular ever'. Every current Doctor gets voted favourite.

Moffat's 'all about the future' quote rings hollow when he is actually bringing back the previous Doctor... with Rose nonetheless! How is that not trading on past glories? What the Hell do they have to do with the future of the show? It's a blatant contradiction.



*Nope, it's about quids and glory for the BBC, where they get to boast about this show they never respected and grudgingly made, an attitude they retain to this day. I'd love to see the BBC's apathy towards Doctor Who reflected in this 'Adventure in Time & Space' drama but we know there's no way in Hell it will be. Gatiss will suck it like a good boy.

I say bring in David Bradley & have an anniversary special with the present version of the Doctor confronting his origins by going back to the very start of it all. That's the only *multi-doctor* (god I hate that word) story that has some interesting drama in it.

To me, that's a great way to celebrate the 50th year of the show.

McGann can look as old as he wants; since we never had a regeneration episode for him, we don't have a maximum age/maximum old look beyond which we wouldn't accept him. Even if he were eighty in real life, without the regeneration episode, they could always say that he was even older when he regenerated.

But, if Less is More, then think of how much More More is.

Yeah could have gone completely wrong bringing them back. Bit relieved really.

I am disappointed if I'm honest, if it turns out that there won't be any good representation of the original run of the series.

I can fully understand why some would be against a full on Classic Doctor Who 'wankfest'. But to replace it with a post 2005 ****fest represented by David Tennant and Billie Piper is just as bad, if not worse.

I'm sure it will be okay I suppose. But what a wasted opportunity. 50 year anniversaries don't come around that often.

Totally agree with all of this.

Every single episode could have gone wrong. That's why they hire writers who they think can make each episode go right.

If it's a 50 year celebration I would have thought that the whole point of that is in the words '50 year celebration'.

'New viewers won't care about Doctor Who from before 2005'.
That's all right. Not a problem. New viewers won't have known or cared much about Zygons, Cybermen, or The Great intelligence, but had no problem being introduced to these old characters for the first time.
Stories don't just automatically run out of time in each episode a new character to them is introduced. If that were the case they'd never get anywhere.
Autons, Weeping Angels, it's all the same to a viewer who has seen neither before.

This should be the perfect opportunity to enlighten new viewers to what the show was built upon and provide them with a bit of Doctor Who history, which I'm sure they'd appreciate in a well written story, as they'd appreciate any well written story.
It's also an opportunity to further diminish the notion of old Who and New Who and get viewers to think of the show as just Doctor Who even more.
I don't see why it would be so difficult to please all viewers of all ages and yet still create a thrilling story with lashings of nostalgia as well.