‘Day of the Doctor’ (Photo: BBC)
Trying to create a storyline that celebrated and venerated 50 years of Doctor Who was always going to be a tall order. There are so many things fans would expect (or quietly hope) to see, and yet they would also be the first to complain if the story was not thrilling enough, or failed to live up to the show’s imperially high standards. A high stakes game, then, and the world was watching.
Luckily “The Day of the Doctor” delivered on all fronts. It managed to reference the past and celebrate the future, tie up loose ends and create thrilling new additions to the mythology. It’s a story that allows the Doctor to put the guilt of the past behind him without deleting any of the things he did while wracked with that guilt in the first place. It’s a story that forgives the Doctor for having to do a dreadful thing, then reminds him exactly who he is, all twelve—no, thirteen!—of him.