The Night of the Doctor

Physician, heal thyself

One of the often cited mistakes of The Doctor Who Movie is that spent too much time showing the transition from the Seventh Doctor to the Eight Doctor, for whom this was supposed to be about. Russell T. Davies did not repeat that mistake with Rose but it also meant that the end of the Eighth Doctor was left in shadow. With his playing of the timeline by adding the War Doctor, Steven Moffat finally gave fans what they had been speculating about for years.

Plot Summary

The Eighth Doctor materializes on a ship that has been damaged and preparing to crash into the planet Karn. He tries to save the pilot, Cass, but when she realizes that he is a Time Lord, she rejects him and refuses to leave the ship, declaring him to be just as evil as the Daleks. He also refuses to leave and the ship crashes into the planet, killing both of them.

The bodies are recovered by the Sisterhood of Karn and the Doctor is revived. Informed of his death, his only hope is to regenerate with the aid of the Elixir of Life brewed by the Sisterhood. He initially refuses as he cannot go on knowing what he must become if he is to stop the Time War. But the head of the Sisterhood, Ohila, points out how they need him and the Doctor, seeing Cass's body, recalls how she hated him as much as a Dalek. He then agrees, noting that a healer was no longer needed and that he must become a warrior.

The Doctor is brought a cup of Elixir and informed that it will make his next regeneration a warrior. He banishes everyone from the room and drinks the draught. He then regenerates and dons Cass's bandolier proclaiming himself the Doctor no more.

Summary

This was fairly nice send off for the Eighth Doctor who was always given something of a short shrift. Granted, there has been much success in the Big Finish audio dramas, but as far as the viewing public is concerned, the Eighth Doctor is an unknown. This short gave him a chance to have the send off he never really got.

Now, despite the sentimentality, it is not perfect by any stretch. To keep this secret, it was shot quickly and that is rather reflected in it. The CG is a little off and in a regular episode there would have probably been a mix of CG and model rather than all CG. Likewise, the crash site was a bit sparser than you might expect. It's just a lot of little things that remind you that this was done without the regular time that a full episode might have gotten.

Time is another small problem with this episode. The short is only about seven minutes long, but the material feels like it could have gone for anywhere between ten and fifteen minutes. Most of the characters seem to speak very quickly and there is a rushed cadence to nearly everyone's dialogue. Some of that is to be expected given the situations of either a crashing ship or a four minute race against death. But without any moments of breath, it gives it a rushed feeling. This rushed feeling extends to the actor's performances and a couple feel subpar as a result. Only the Doctor feels natural when acting in a rushed manner and I chalk that up to the Doctor's character and the quality of Paul McGann's acting.

However, this is a nice story and it's good to see how a good man could be converted into the War Doctor. It is also especially nice to see the Eighth Doctor get some proper respect. The inclusion of thanks to his Big Finish companions was another nice nod to the Eighth Doctor's body of work and the medium he perpetuated his adventures in. My overall wish is that this story could have been a little longer and a bit more drawn out. Nothing needed to be added to the story, I just think a lack of rushing would have given a bit more savoring time as well as improved the performances of the secondary characters. Series Nine demonstrated this when it brought back Ohila.

But given that I've now watched this mini-episode for the fourth time, I can't say that I don't enjoy watching it and wouldn't watch it for a fifth time.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5