Happy Doctor Who anniversary week everyone! I apologise in advance for any non Doctor Who fans among my readers – I’m still on a major Doctor Who mania at the moment! It will pass, honest.
Day of the Doctor written by Stephen Moffat
Genres: Sci-Fi
Format: iTunes Season Pass, Blu-Ray DVD
Starring: Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt
Length: 75 minutes
Buy from Amazon • iTunes
(anticipated)
As I mentioned last week, I picked up the iTunes season pass for the Doctor Who 50th anniversary celebration. Although neither An Adventure in Space and Time nor The Day of the Doctor have been released yet, I have been enjoying the other items on the pass such as the reboot Doctors revisited. It would have been nice to have had The Night of the Doctor on the Pass as well, but never mind.
I thought I’d write down my thoughts and predictions for the 50th and Christmas specials so that you can have a good laugh at me once it’s aired. I’ve not seen any spoilers (except for how Matt Smith regenerates) – they’ve done a good job keeping it under wraps – so I’m just basing it on previous episodes, the Night of the Doctor, the trailer and some comments by Moffat. The main comments of Moffat’s I’m thinking of here are that “the name of the Doctor” also refers to the Doctor’s reputation and that the 50th will set up the next 50 years of Doctor Who, i.e. that it’s a gamechanger.
We know that “the fields of Trenzalore and the fall of the Eleventh” as well as that of the Silence is still waiting. We know that the Time War is a key focus of the 50th in which it is assumed some version of the Doctor committed double genocide by pressing the button that destroyed the Daleks and the remaining Time Lords. It’s clear from the trailer for the 50th that Eleven knows this day is coming (because his previous Hurt incarnation witnessed it earlier in the Doctor’s time stream) and is dreading it. We know from A Good Man Goes to War that Eleven has a propensity for excessive violence and River goes so far as to warn him that the meaning of “Doctor” could change if he doesn’t rein in his impulses. Eleven says in The Name of the Doctor that the name a Time Lord chooses is a promise he makes and that John Hurt’s Doctor broke his promise. From the minisode The Night of the Doctor we know that the Hurt Doctor’s chosen name is The War Doctor and that McGann’s Doctor chose his next incarnation specifically to end the Time War.
Putting all of this together, I believe we’ll learn that the promise Hurt broke was the promise to be strong enough to end the Time War. From the trailer comment by Hurt that “good men are born in fire; it’s the privilege of lesser men to light the flame” I think it will be down to Eleven to push that big red shiny button we see in the trailer. Hurt will have done all the setup but, without River talking him down, having to make that choice will break Eleven somewhat. It may even go so far that Ten, Hurt and Clara have to actually imprison the mad Doctor at Trenzalore. The happy, feely Christmas special will be all about bringing Eleven back to sanity so that he can die/regenerate at peace with himself. I feel the Silence issue will be that until now the Doctor’s violent/genocidal streak has been kept secret so that people look to him for help. I believe that is what will be broken so that we’ll see more of the Cass type of reaction “you’re no better than a Dalek.” I think a major theme of the Capaldi Doctor will be restoring the Doctor’s good name.
So there you go! Do you think I’m onto something? Let me know in the comments. I guess we’ll find out in a few days!
Added to my library this week
Since the copy of The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom I won from GoodReads has not yet arrived, I picked up a copy from Audible. To be perfectly honest, I’m really not enjoying it so far. It has more overtly religious overtones than The Time Keeper that I did enjoy. I will of course do a full review when/if I finish it
On one of Audible’s daily deals this week I picked up Her Royal Spyness, the first in the Royal Spyness series. It sounded an amusing concept and is narrated by Katherine Kellgren whose narration I’ve enjoyed before. I’ve not listened to it yet, but of course I’ll let you know my thoughts.
From Amazon I picked up Catty Corner (Humorous & Romantic Magical Cool Cats Mysteries) by Mary Matthews. It was free on Kindle, so decided to add it to my library.
What have you added to your library this week? Let me know in the comments.
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