Then, aaa, that nostalgic opening sequence! (even though it, uh, doesn't actually hold any personal nostalgia for me, it was still lovely to see.) And apparently Clara is a teacher now, in the same school Ian and Barbara used to work in. In fact, if you look at the sign, apparently Ian is still a governor of that school (I gather he was made immortal?), so maybe the Doctor put in a good word for Clara and made sure that, you know, she wouldn't get fired if she unexpectedly didn't turn up to work for a few days or weeks or months. It must have been a couple of years or so since we last saw Clara then, if she's all settled into a new job (presumably this means the Maitlands got another nanny at last)? Also apparently the Doctor gave Clara his motorbike - because, yes, that is the exact same one from The Bells of Saint John.
As for other continuity nods that I as a mostly new Who fan was able to fully appreciate: Malcolm was mentioned! Remember him, from Planet of the Dead? Which was admittedly not a particularly amazing episode, but Malcolm was one of the best things about it and I really liked him. It's great to hear that he's still going strong working for UNIT. And apparently designing robotic ravens, presumably for surveillance or something. Heh.
Then there's how the number that the Doctor phoned the UNIT guy on is still exactly the same number that he had back in The Stolen Earth when all his companions were trying to phone him. (I actually half-recognised it on the guy's phone the first time that scene was shown, leading me to wonder if maybe the Tenth Doctor was phoning him - and, well, I wasn't too far off.) Although the number the Tenth Doctor had back then was actually Martha's mobile phone, rather than the TARDIS herself - I guess when she changed desktops she incorporated the mobile phone into her console and took on that number for herself? Or something.
And, very interestingly if you happen to be me, the Tenth Doctor getting married to Queen Elizabeth I was something that he mentioned during his run. Specifically, it apparently happened in the gap between The Waters of Mars and The End of Time, in which he went on a whole bunch of adventures to run away from the inevitable death that he knew awaited him when he landed on the Ood Sphere. Additionally, he says he's 904 here, but he was 906 in The End of Time - so apparently he was running away for quite a while.
Also the Zygon-detecting device was so reminiscent of the timey-wimey detector and a number of other cobbled-together contraptions that the Tenth Doctor used to use so many of; it was fun to see that side of him again. And then just seeing him and the Eleventh Doctor together - their bickering was priceless. Meanwhile the War Doctor's bemusement at the two of them almost seemed like a representation of classic series fans, making friendly jabs at some of the new series' tendencies, with all the sonic-waving and the kissing and the Doctors appearing younger than previously. It was all very fun.
But yes! Even aside from all the delightful indulgence in references and nods, the actual story was also very well-told and the perfect thing to have the 50th be about. Essentially there were two separate stories, one about the Zygons and the other about the Time War, but I really like the way the two were weaved together, both in having plot elements from one turn out to be vital to solve the other, but also in having the human-Zygon conflict be something of a parallel to the conflict in the Time War itself. The Moment definitely knew exactly which parts of the War Doctor's future would best help him make up his mind - or rather, would help his future selves change their minds. Unlike a few other people here, I'm actually quite happy that Billie Piper wasn't really playing Rose. It's not that I have anything against Rose, but I don't think they could have done anything particularly interesting with her in the context of this episode. However I really like the idea of a sentient weapon of mass destruction that guilt trips the person attempting to use it and ultimately helps him realise there's better way, and I think Billie played that well.
I really like the way 3D was incorporated into the story, too. I'd heard Steven Moffat saying he'd done that, but I didn't quite see how it could be possible as more than a superficial thing before I watched the episode. But the paintings weren't just 3D for the hell of it; their 3D-ness was used as a neat way to take us from the Doctor and Clara in the gallery and zoom right into the War Doctor on Gallifrey. I've always thought 3D media shouldn't be about having things poking out of the screen, it should be about drawing the viewers into what's happening. Those shots of the battle for Arcadia looked absolutely amazing in 3D.
Meanwhile, character-wise, it was interesting to get a look at the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors together and see their different ways of trying to deal with the guilt of what they (thought they) did in the Time War. The Tenth Doctor did always tend to be more openly emotional and not hide the way he felt from himself as much. When he became the Eleventh Doctor, however, it seems he'd grown tired of constantly feeling all that guilt, so he did his best to block it out, even though he never truly forgot and it never really got any less painful in the moments he was forced to bring it up. I don't think he'd actually forgotten how many Gallifreyan children he killed; he just didn't want to think about it. The War Doctor's comment about how the two of them must act like big kids so much because they're ashamed of being grown up was very hard-hitting, and especially appropriate for the Eleventh.
I said in my last post that the War Doctor probably wasn't a bad person at all; I was happy to see I was pretty much right about that. Having the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors come to admit that he was still "the Doctor", and that they were only ever pretending he wasn't to try and block out the pain, was something I'd been very much hoping would happen. It must have been spending time with him in this episode that forced them to remember what it was like to be him and therefore realise they'd been lying to themselves all this time. It's interesting how they didn't even notice that the War Doctor here hadn't actually used the Moment yet (until Clara told them); they don't have that outside perspective to be able to see it in his eyes like she could, and meanwhile they must have seen that face and instantly associated it with the worst thing they ever did while wearing it. Once they found out, it was very brave of the Tenth and Eleventh to actually go back and join the War Doctor in pressing the button. It would have felt like killing all those children all over again, but the gesture served to reassure the War Doctor that it's not that he did it because he's a horrible person not deserving of being called the Doctor; he did it because it had to be done and any other Doctor would have done the same in his position.
Or so they all thought at the time. Like Will-powered Spriter, I would have also felt okay with that being the ending of the episode; it would have been bittersweet but ultimately satisfying. It hadn't even remotely occurred to me, during all these years of the new series, that at some point it might be possible for the Doctor to change time so that Gallifrey never fell in the first place. Even the Doctor himself seemed to feel similarly thanks to how much he'd had to get used to the reality of what he'd done; though he must have always wished he could have found another way, it still didn't occur to him that there actually was one even once the three of them were all together, at first.
It's so very him that it took one of his companions to help him realise this and encourage him to be the Doctoriest Doctor he could possibly be. In some ways I feel like any companion in Clara's position would have done much the same thing she did, but in other ways I think it is appropriate that it was specifically Clara here. Nowadays she just seems to understand her Doctor so very well; she's very perceptive of his feelings even though he's the one that tries the most to hide them. Though Clara wasn't really focused on much this episode what with everything else going on, I do like the glimpses we got of how close she and the Doctor have become - it seems he'll talk to her about nearly anything, and he even instinctively went to hold her hand when the No More painting was giving him traumatic flashbacks, despite that being the kind of thing he'd usually just keep to himself. I feel like, although he usually does a pretty good job of seeming like he's moved on from the Time War, this episode and meeting his War self and everything just dragged him right back into that state of mind and left him confused as to what kind of person he's supposed to be. So yay for Clara reminding him of the promise he made as the Doctor, and though I never thought I'd say this, yay for all those years he spent travelling alone, since they were what he needed to be able to come up with a way to end the Time War without destroying Gallifrey.
All of which led into the absolutely amazing climax with all of the Doctors helping to save his own planet. I bet the Daleks increased their firepower in that moment due to being absolutely terrified at detecting so many of the Doctor all in one place. Even if was just stock footage for most of them, it was great to see every single one of him taking part, all thirteen! I have to mention the moment where we saw the Twelfth Doctor, even though everyone else already has. It was just exhilarating, as if we were looking into the very future itself. I can't wait to get to know the Twelfth Doctor and see for myself his awesomeness which was implied in just those few seconds here. And the music that played during that whole scene was perfect for it - it's a piece called The Majestic Tale (of a Madman in a Box). Isn't it just!
And then right near the end, a certain someone's appearance as the Curator was another really lovely nod to the past, even if I'm not entirely sure what was going on there. It appears to be implying that eventually the Doctor will get so incredibly old that he'll start regenerating into some of his old faces out of sentiment, and retire to become the curator of a museum. Which is all very well and technically possible, but on the other hand his future is supposed to involve dying in battle on Trenzalore. And all the signs point to it being the Eleventh Doctor who dies on Trenzalore as things currently stand, yet since we saw the Twelfth Doctor, a future in which the Eleventh is not the end already exists. So the Doctor appears to currently have at least two, maybe three possible futures, all existing at once? Huh. That makes no sense; hopefully it will eventually.
So now the Doctor's life is hugely changed. For the first time ever, he's actually going to be wandering through time and space with a purpose! I'm really intrigued to see what's ahead, though I'm sure he'll still end up having plenty of ordinary adventures in random places along the way. And if he ever does find Gallifrey, bear in mind that the Time Lords themselves - or some of them, at least - were half the reason he wanted to use the Moment in the first place. The war council we saw here seemed to consist of reasonable Time Lords who just didn't want to be killed by Daleks, but the corrupt High Council we saw in The End of Time was actually mentioned here as also convening somewhere else on Gallifrey at the same time, so those less-friendly Time Lords are still there and will be something the Doctor will have to deal with once he finds his home planet again. If he ever finds it - but I hope he does, eventually. These events will have helped get rid of a lot of his guilt about the Time War, but I still don't think he'll be fully at peace about it until he actually finds Gallifrey and rescues it from the frozen moment it's currently trapped in.
So here's to fifty more years of adventures through time and space!
