Before anyone says, "hey, this is a blog about movies not TV!", I will kindly point out that this is my blog and if I decide to write something about a TV program, I will. Besides, for all intent and purposes, Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor is a TV movie since, at 80 minutes, it runs longer than a normal show. Plus it got showings in movie theaters. Besides, one of these days, I'm going to review Spielberg's Duel, which was also a TV movie.
Anyhow, this was the 50th Anniversary episode of the show, shown originally on the actual 50th Anniversary. Like all the decade anniversary episodes of Doctor Who, it was a multi-Doctor story. And like the last decade anniversary episode, the infamous 30th anniversary episode Dimensions in Time, it's in 3D.
For the three people in the world who have never heard of Doctor Who, the show started on the BBC on November 23, 1963. The premise was that The Doctor was a time traveling alien who zipped through time and space in a machine called The TARDIS (which stood for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space). The TARDIS looks like an old London police telephone box. The Doctor always has a companion, usually human and usually female. The companion is the audience surrogate, there to be placed into danger and have said danger explained to them by The Doctor. Every few years, The Doctor dies and regenerates into someone else. There have been 11 Doctors playing on the TV show over the years, with a 12 Doctor (Peter Capaldi) just taking over the reigns. In addition, Peter Cushing played The Doctor in two movies in the 1960s which were adaptions of episodes of the TV series. The original series ran from 1963-1989, making it the longest running Sci-Fi show of all time. There was an attempt to do an Americanized version of the show in 1996 with a Fox TV movie that was to serve as a pilot. It failed but 9 years later, the BBC revived the series, which ultimately allowed for this particular episode.
Okay, history lesson over. On to the actual review.
There's an A and B story going on in The Day of the Doctor. The A story involves the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith) investigating weird happenings at the London Gallery, events that are the result of a Zygon invasion. The Zygons are big rubbery monsters with suckers all over their bodies that were last seen in a 1970s episode featuring the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). It turns out that the invasion actually began in England in 1562. The 10th Doctor (David Tennant) stumbles on the Zygons first and is eventually joined by the 11th Doctor and the War Doctor (John Hurt). The B story is of the last day of the great Time War between the Doctor's people (The Time Lords) and his greatest--or at least most famous--enemy The Daleks (aliens that look like salt and peper shakers--I kid you not). On that day the War Doctor has stolen a Doomsday device known as The Moment and is planning to destroy all participants in The Time War, Time Lords and Daleks alike. Problem is, The Moment has a
conscience and takes the form of one of the Doctor's future companions in an effort to talk him out of what he's planning. The two stories intersect when the three Doctors meet. At first bickering (as always happens when in multi-Doctor stories), the three eventually team up and work together. They discover that the key to disrupting the Zygon's plan is also the key to ending the Time War.
If you're what's known as a Whovian (the Doctor Who equivalent of a Trekkie), this episode is, to put it bluntly, your wet dream. It's riddled with Easter eggs from both Classic and Nu Who. From the opening credits (and opening shot) basically duplicating the opening credits and shot of the very first episode to a line Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor) had in two of the anniversary specials to a "machine that goes ding", and so on. However, if you've never seen an episode of Doctor Who but want to watch this because you're a 3D fan or a John Hurt fan or whatever type of fan, forget it. You'll miss most if not every reference in the episode. I'm a Who fan and I missed some of the references. Curiously, the minisode that acts as a prequel, Night of the Doctor, has the same thing. If you know Who, it's the greatest minisode you'll ever see. If not, you just won't get the references.
That's not to say it isn't a good film. It's an excellent episode, even if it does have it's issues. For instance, the Zygon plot is kind of just dropped without actually being resolved. That, in fact, is the single biggest knock on the program. However, the three leads are wonderful to watch, playing off each other in a better way than any other multi-Doctor storyline had. Come to it, this is probably the best of the multi-Doctor stories. Although the Time Crash minisode that had the 10th Doctor meet the 5th Doctor is pretty amusing, too.
Hurt himself threatens to steal the show from Smith and Tennant. His War Doctor is weary and at first shocked and dismayed at his younger selves. "Am I having a mid-life crisis?" he asks when he realizes Tennant and Smith are later regenerations of him. Over time, however, he grows to respect and admire them. As for Tennant and Smith, they start out with fear and loathing of the War Doctor. He is, theoretically, the Doctor who committed Double Genocide. Again, they soften and are even willing to help him do the terrible deed at one point. The chemistry between the trio is marvelous and makes the entire episode worth watching again and again.
However, this isn't a boy's only show. Jenna Louise Coleman as the 11th Doctor's current companion Clara and Billie Piper as The Moment both play Jimminy Cricket to the Doctors and do so fantastically if differently. Who fans know Piper as the first companion on Nu Who, but she's not playing that character here, which is just as well. That character's arc was over during the fourth season. Interestingly, Piper only interacts with Hurt the entire episode.
As for the 3D, it was revealed that this was the BBC's last experiment in 3D (for now at least). That's a shame since, being actually shot in 3D (as opposed to post converted), it looks great. Point in fact, it looks better than some big budget 3D movies that get released. And it has a few fun gimmick shots. It may actually be one of the best modern 3D films you'll get to see. So if you can see it that way, by all means see it. The 3D Blu Ray is properly stunning looking and loaded with bonus material, including two minisodes, behind the scenes material, and a handy special about the history of the show called Doctor Who Explained.
If you love Doctor Who, this is probably the best of the Anniversary specials and one of the best of Nu Who, making it a must watch and own. If you've never seen Who, the episode is still enjoyable--especially in 3D--but you'll miss out on a lot. Of course, that just means you'll have to go back and watch all those episodes so that when you re-watch it, you'll get it.
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