C+Q - The Night of the Doctor (2013)
One of the many gifts given to us as part of Doctor Who's 50th birthday party was, at last, an end to the Eighth Doctor's story. I can still remember the feeling I got when I first watched this minisode. I was fortunate enough to see it within the first five minutes of it being uploaded, before any spoilers got out. When Cass turned to reveal the figure of Eight standing behind her leaning against the wall of her crashing ship, it took me a while to fully register what I was seeing, but when the name Paul McGann came whooshing its way down the Time Vortex at me, my first reaction was to stand up out of my chair and run through the house to tell my family. My second reaction was that my family aren't massive nerds and thus wouldn't give a shit, leaving me standing in front of my computer for the entire runtime of the special. If anyone from the NSA happened to take a look through my webcam that evening, they would have seen me load up YouTube and then arise for the return of our lord and saviour.
The big revelation this minisode gives us, and the justification for bringing back McGann (in case you were the sort of person who thought such a decision needed any justification), is that, between Eight and Nine, there was the War Doctor: a brand new incarnation played by the magnificent John Hurt. The main reason for this is that apparently Steven Moffat couldn't imagine the Eighth Doctor, the romantic Edwardian hero type, committing such atrocities as genocide, and indeed in The Night of the Doctor we learn that Eight spent a long time attempting to avoid the Time War. Despite having new combat boots to replace his dress shoes as well as a shorter haircut, he still wears his waistcoat, cravat, and frock coat, clinging to his outdated image as a swashbuckling adventurer despite the universe no longer having a use for him. In this story we see him finally give in and become the antithesis of his moral code: a warrior created to wade into battle on the front lines.
I love Steven Moffat's ability to retcon a string of casting decisions dating back to the 1960s into a coherent character arc, like the idea that the youngest Doctors were trying to act older to be taken more seriously in Time Crash, or the idea that the New Who Doctors represent different stages of grief after the Time War in The Day of the Doctor. It makes the character far more complex and nuanced, with each incarnation representing an evolution in the character that follows on logically from the previous body. Because of this, I love the addition of a new Doctor to represent the Time War affect on the character. It's a retcon, just like all the other good parts of Doctor Who's contradictory mythos, but it means that the Time War itself can now never be retconed away. No matter how whimsical or light-hearted the character gets, no matter how many times they regenerate, the Doctor will always have been John Hurt. There will always be a version of the Doctor who was moments away from committing genocide. By introducing the War Doctor, Steven Moffat has made it impossible for any future writer to ever reverse the effects of the Time War, because it's a part of the character now. This minisode lodges the Time War firmly in the Doctor's DNA, which is only fitting given how much of an impact the Time War has had on the character's New Who persona.
For a script that was apparently thrown together over a weekend, The Night of the Doctor is incredibly well-written. It's clear that Steven Moffat is a fan of Big Finish, not only because of the references to Charley, C'rizz, Lucie, Tamsin, and Molly, but because of the ease with which he manages to nail the character of the Eighth Doctor. Paul McGann effortlessly slips back into the role after years of being off-screen and reminds us that he is not only an amazing Doctor but also an amazing actor. I know it's never going to happen (until at least the 60th anniversary), but I'd love to see more of the Eighth Doctor's adventures on TV. Then again, perhaps we're better off being able to fill in the blanks with our imaginations. I love the gap between Survival and Rose because it's a stretch of time we know next to nothing about. At some point there was a crossover with Eastenders, the Doctor became half-human on his mother's side, there were lots of multi-Doctor stories, two regenerations, and a Time War. And an echo of Clara Oswald was probably involved somehow.
It may only be seven minutes long but The Night of the Doctor is a very important chapter in the Doctor's story. With this and The Day of the Doctor, we've now seen all of the Doctor's regenerations and the Eighth Doctor has been properly tied in to the ongoing plot of the show. That, and it's debatable that Big Finish is 'canon' now (if Doctor Who had such a thing as a 'canon'). Moffat has said in interviews that he doesn't want there to be an Eighth Doctor spin-off because he wants to get back to just having one Doctor at a time, but I'm certain this won't be the last time we see Paul McGann. Now that we have his first and last adventure, I think it's time we saw something in the middle.
Next: The TV Movie