Thursday, 28 November 2013

Who Reviews The Night of the Doctor by Jeffrey Zyra



Written by Steven Moffat

"4 minutes? That's ages. What if I get bored? I need a television, a couple of books. Anyone for Chess? Bring me knitting!"

Holy Cow!!! OMG!!! Or what other expletive you may use when something surprises the hell out of you.   Well The Night of The Doctor did just that. It surprised the hell out of me to the point that I could not believe what I was seeing and had to rewind the video I was watching to see it again immediately.  What a lovely surprise and what a way to get the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who started.

The Night of The Doctor had a really big surprise. Paul McGann was The Doctor in it!!!!!  How many of you teared up, cried, fist pumped the air or jumped out of your seat for joy when you saw the 8th Doctor appear on the screen.  I mean there was Paul McGann on the screen as The Doctor again.  It was freaking amazing seeing him there.  It was like watching your favorite sports team winning the championship that’s how I felt and I sure did fist punch the air in excitement.  It was such a mind blowing moment that it just got me really excited for next weekend and the 50th Anniversary special.

Now that I’m over the love fest for Paul McGann returning what about the overall story for The Night of The Doctor?  Well I loved it.  I really did.   The Night of The Doctor gave us so much in the 7 minutes that it made me want more.  I wanted to know more about that era with the 8th Doctor and why he has avoided The Time War.  It seemed so interesting seeing him all ragged and with stubble on his face as if he’s been through some tough times.  I liked the mystery it has opened for the 8th Doctor’s era and hopefully someday we’ll find out.

What The Night of The Doctor did so well was explain what was happening during the Time War.  From Cass we discover that the Time Lords are no better than the Daleks. That both races are destroying the universe in their petty war and have no concern over the other races.  We see this from the fear that Cass has of the Time Lords when she discovers that The Doctor is a Time Lord.  She would rather die than go off and be saved by The Doctor in his TARDIS.  In fact she was happy with the thought of The Doctor dying with her as it made her day that she was taking out a Time Lord.

The Sisterhood of Karn makes a return to Doctor Who in The Night of The Doctor.  They were last seen in the Tom Baker story The Brain of Morbius where we discover that they have an Elixir of Life that has the power to prolong your life or sometime help heal a Time Lord with his regeneration. Well the Sisters have been busy and have made up a whole bunch of Elixir’s that can make a Time Lord become any type of person he dreams of being.  This time they bring him back from the dead for four minutes pleading to him to help in ending the Time War.  They offer him a choice to be whatever he wants to be and he chooses warrior.  This seems to be very unlike The Doctor becoming a warrior that it opens up a lot of speculation as to what the John Hurt War Doctor is like.  I liked this aspect of the Sisterhood blackmailing him into helping them as they knew he would choose life but what was surprising was the warrior bit. I guess it explains all the stuff we do know about The Time War from the series already and it does in a way make sense.

The Night of The Doctor was more than I was expecting from Steven Moffat. In truth I was expecting something silly and stupid from which you cringe while watching.  Well like most of the Doctor Who prequels that have been well mediocre as of late.  Well this one made up for all of that.  It gave us Paul McGann and it also made mention of his Big Finish Adventures companions it was a very telling story of a choice that a man has to make whether it be one he agrees with or not.  It was a story that whets our appetite for the 50th Anniversary and now I truly cannot wait to see it.

Grade A




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