theatlantic: Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary Episode: Delightful,...

theatlantic:

Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary Episode: Delightful, Fan-Servicing Chaos

How many TV shows could pull off having their main character be both the protagonist and the villain of the same episode, while being played by three different actors?

Saturday’s 50th Anniversary Special of Doctor Who aims for two lofty goals: to celebrate the show’s history, and to deliver a story with some kind of change and growth for its leads. On the first score, it is, in a word, fantastic. Pretty much the entire thing falls under the category of fan service—David Tennant and Billie Piper are back! We get to see the Last Great Time War! That UNIT scientist is wearing a Fourth Doctor-ish scarf! We find out why Queen Elizabeth I was so mad at the Tennant’s Tenth Doctor at the end of “The Shakespeare Code”! And OMG TOM BAKER!

As for the story, it’s a fun romp that hits some strong emotional notes and does show our hero(es) making some life-altering choices. Previous multi-Doctor stories have been notoriously not very good, even by the production-value standards of their respective eras. “The Day of the Doctor” sailed over that bar with light years to spare. The plot actually gets set in motion by a rather banal scheme by a rather banal, C-list Who monster, the Zygons, who hid themselves in paintings until Earth proved itself worthy of invasion by developing streaming video and the iPhone 5.

But the true bad guy of this story isn’t the Zygons: It’s the long-unmentioned (OK, retconned) version of the Doctor played by John Hurt.

Read more. [Image: BBC]

via Tumblr http://kulwicky.com/post/68063747369