“The Day of the Doctor” is a special episode of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, marking the programme’s 50th anniversary.[2][3][4] It was written by Steven Moffat,[5] an executive producer alongside Faith Penhale.[6] It was shown on BBC One on 23 November 2013, in both 2D and 3D.[7][8] The special was broadcast simultaneously in 94 countries,[8][9] and was shown concurrently in 3D in some cinemas.[10] It achieved the Guinness World Record for the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama[9] and won the Radio Times Audience Award at the 2014 British Academy Television Awards.[11]
The 77-minute episode shows the last day of the Time War, in which the War Doctor (John Hurt) chooses to kill both Daleks and his own race of Time Lords to end the destructive conflict, paralleling this with a present-day choice by paramilitary organisation UNIT to destroy London rather than allow an alien invasion. Revising the back story, the Doctor succumbs to Clara Oswald‘s plea to change his mind; and instead, at the last instant of the Time War, he hides his war-torn home planet in time, rather than destroy it. Unfortunately the time distortions incurred causes all but his latest incarnation to have no memory of his changed decision.
The episode starred Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and Jenna Coleman as his companion, Clara Oswald. Previous lead actors David Tennant and Billie Piper returned for the episode, Tennant reprising his role as the Tenth Doctor, while Piper portrayed a sentient doomsday weapon called the Moment, projected as an image based on her character Rose Tyler. She is invisible and inaudible to everyone but the War Doctor (John Hurt). Other appearances included a very brief glimpse of the then-upcoming Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), and a guest appearance by Fourth Doctor actor Tom Baker, in his late 70s. Rounding out the guest cast were Joanna Page as Queen Elizabeth I[12] and Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, the daughter of 1970s central figure Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.[13] The special also featured the return of the Daleks[14] and the Zygons, shape-shifting aliens who had previously appeared only in Terror of the Zygons (1975).[15]
As the episode celebrates fifty years of the programme, it references and alludes to various concepts featured throughout the show’s run. It received positive reviews and has been described by series producer Marcus Wilson as a “love letter to the fans” and by the controller of BBC One, Danny Cohen, as an “event drama”.[5][16]
EXCERPT FROM THE EPISODE
PLOT
he Eleventh Doctor and Clara Oswald aid the military organisation UNIT, headed by Kate Stewart, in investigating a mystery at the Undergallery, a secret vault housed at the National Gallery. Three-dimensional paintings, made with Time Lord stasis cubes, appear to have been broken from within; the figures previously in the paintings are now missing. While examining the paintings, a fissure in time opens above them and the Doctor jumps into it.
Meanwhile, within UNIT’s Black Archive, Clara learns that the Zygons from Elizabethan England have entered the three-dimensional paintings in the Undergallery and have emerged in 2013, taking the forms of UNIT members so that they could utilise UNIT’s weapons and technology. While the three Doctors are in their cell, The Moment encourages the War Doctor to ask them the questions he needs answered before he decides whether to destroy Gallifrey. After a tense exchange, the Doctors devise an escape plan. They then encounter the real Queen Elizabeth and learn through her of the Zygon scheme to conquer Earth. Kate Stewart also learns of the Zygon plan and locks herself in the Black Archive with the Zygons, starting a countdown that will detonate a nuclear warhead underneath the archive. The Doctors, unable to land a TARDIS in the Black Archive, instead use the stasis cube technology to enter a painting. They exit the painting in the present and use the archive’s mind-wiping equipment to render the UNIT members and Zygons temporarily unaware which of them are which. The countdown is stopped and all present negotiate a perfectly fair peace treaty, as they no longer know which way to skew it.
The War Doctor, now convinced that detonating the Moment will save many more lives in the longer term, is returned to his time by the Moment. The other two Doctors follow him in their TARDISes with the intention of helping him so as to share his burden. After Clara reminds them of their choice of the title “Doctor” and what it stands for, the Doctors devise an alternative solution. They plan to use the stasis technology to freeze the entire planet of Gallifrey in a single moment in time, which would be kept in a pocket universe. When Gallifrey disappears, the surrounding Dalek warships would obliterate themselves in the inevitable crossfire and both species will appear to have been wiped out. The Doctors relay their plan to the Time Lords and then surround Gallifrey, which erupts in a bright light.
—The Eleventh Doctor
The Doctors and Clara return to the Gallery, unsure whether the plan worked. The War Doctor is content to think that he failed in doing the right thing before realising that neither he nor the Tenth Doctor will remember what happened and will continue shouldering the guilt. The War Doctor departs in his TARDIS and begins to regenerate. The Tenth Doctor departs in his TARDIS after persuading the Eleventh Doctor to reveal that he is going to the planet Trenzalore. The Eleventh Doctor, now alone, begins to muse about retiring to become the museum’s curator, when he is interrupted by the museum’s actual curator. As they talk, the curator reveals that the painting’s title, which was thought to be either No More or Gallifrey Falls, is in fact Gallifrey Falls No More.
In the closing scene, the Doctor describes a recurring dream in which he and his previous incarnations are looking together upon Gallifrey and states that he is going home.
