eve11 | The Day of the Doctor (Reply)

It took two or three viewings for me to catch everything, but here are some thoughts.

I thought that it would be a continuation of the Name of the Doctor; but I guess that they got back out of the Doctor's time stream okay? With no ill consequences? That threw me. I thought the whole special might be inside Eleven's time stream.

The whole backdrop of the abandoned shed in the middle of nowhere, and the moment, I thought was so well done. I really loved that scene. That something so huge and horrifying is started from a simple place. "Why is there never a big, red button?" was when I realized John Hurt's Doctor was still the Doctor in all the ways that counted.

I thought Billie Piper and John Hurt were absolutely fantastic in their scenes together. "This interface is hot!" "Well I do my best." And there are quite a few kind of recycling themes and tropes in this story (Ten Oncoming Storm-ing to the rabbit reminds me of Eleven's response to the footballers when they mention annihilating the other team, the three hands on the button evokes Ten and Donna with the Pyroviles, the science-y tech extras remind me of the guy who liked Quartermass in the Planet of the Dead, the Zygons-hiding-as-statues was very reminiscent of the Angels in the Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone), but I really liked the idea of a weapon of mass destruction so advanced and powerful that it develops a conscience. That seemed new to me, and I thought its actions, as a strange form of life and power, were well and convincingly done.

The idea that he walks miles and miles away from the TARDIS because he doesn't want her to see or know what he's doing, is kind of heart-breaking.

It does also get a bit wacky after that. I don't know if it was just that I wasn't used to it, but Ten seemed a teensy bit off. Maybe it was the setting; he was already on his 'joyride' run from death at this point and was being a bit more indulgent. The gratuitous shot of Elizabeth's chest as he fed her grapes was a liiiiiittle over the top for me. But "the horse!" was fun, as was "I'm going to be king."

Eleven jumping into the vortex and meeting Ten was fun, though. Enough with the sonic screwdriver jokes! But "I'm not judging you" was perfectly delivered. I also thought Hurt's old school cantankery and complaining was pretty hilarious. "Am I going through a mid-life crisis?" and "Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols!" I admit, I LOL-ed.

So then Clara plays the witch for no reason, really, and I think this is when Kate gets taken over by the Zygon (Oh no wait, that was earlier, when she was on the phone). And then the boys get locked up in the Tower of London.

Same software, different device. "Same software, different face," and Rose's smile. It never actually meant anything to the plot, except in the metaphorical sense. But it was a wonderful little vignette and the best way to end that scene. I like how this story is really and truly from the War Doctor's POV that way. "It's history to them, it's already happened."

Oh, oh, on second viewing I realized it was Clara's prior visit to the Black Archive... that they memory wiped her for! Good grief, UNIT! Not cool! At first viewing I thought that it was just that Kate was messing up the timelines and Clara hadn't visited yet.

I am overly distracted by Elizabeth's eyebrows when she is explaining the plan. I think normal people don't move their eyebrows that much when they speak? But anyway, all of the zygons are just letting her go on with saying she's not their commander... and then they stop for a wedding? So is it that they figured they couldn't take on the Zygons in the 1500s? Um, why not just wait for the Zygons to all translate themselves into the pictures, then load the pictures onto the Doctor's TARDIS for safe keeping? Unless it was because of foreknowledge already that the undergallery existed. Or if it's just because Ten wanted to run away from being married. Or heck, this was also three guys who didn't bother to check to see if the door was unlocked, what makes us think they'll figure out the best way to defeat picture-translating Zygons?

Someone mentioned this messes up Elizabeth's continuity, as why would she entrust the undergallery to the Doctor's care if she was later ready to shoot arrows at him in The Shakespeare Code? But I think that Elizabeth wrote her letter and made her undergallery very soon after the wedding... Ten did say "I'll be right back". And maybe a few weeks/months/years passed by while he abandoned her, and she rightly figured out he was being a jerk, though also rightly figured that he was the only one who could stop the Zygons once they broke out, and didn't feel like writing another letter calling him a horse's ass (or a Zygon's sucker, as the case may be).

Nothing much came of inhaler-scientist-fangirl's inhaler thing, except that we know she knew she was a human, and the other one then was a Zygon in the vault (too many vaults in this episode!). But the whole Zygon invasion didn't really mean much did it? Except what is actually harder to realize, and subtler than it should be, is that the orchestrating of the peace between Zygons and humans, stopping them from making the terrible choice that is being thrust upon him, is what impresses the War Doctor about his future selves. It's a difficult task to have him take the piss out of them for comedic effect but at the same time be affected by them to the point that he is ready to bring on the Moment and let his future happen, let himself be the lesser man who lights the fire--or at least he thinks he is ready.

And yeah, he is so lost, staring at that button, and the TARDIS-es both come to his rescue, and the projections of the people on Gallifrey and Eleven asking, "Who am I then, what do I do?" and the absolute and utter joy that the War Doctor has in realizing that there is another way. I loved how it came together with the mirror of saving Gallifrey like the Time Lord paintings were saved. And I thought that was all well played. It gave them hope, and it was another way, and that is what the show is about, the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism :)

How much of the interface was the interface and how much was the Bad Wolf? Because I don't think the interface on its own could un-lock a time-locked event and let the three doctors come together?

I don't have much of a problem reconciling Gallifrey secreted away with the End of Time continuity. Gallifrey's past is time locked; that doesn't change if at the end of the war it is secreted away into a limbo. Now, the point is that Gallifrey has a future as well. Gallifrey's history is fixed and unchanging, but inaccessible to time travelers. Its future, now, is wide open.

As soon as Clara said her "by the way" at the end, I knew it would be a Tom Baker cameo. I took it as, the Doctor later on can change himself back to old faces? (Revisiting some favorites) And well, if he retires to the National Gallery (and gives fangirl-scientist her scarf, and comes across the Gallifrey Falls No More painting), then he can't die in battle at Trenzalore, can he?

Christmas... oh, I am not ready. ((Hugs Eleven tightly))