The Doctors are Coming, the Tenth Returns!
Sheba Wood ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff
BBC has recently released two trailers for the upcoming 50th Anniversary Special of Doctor Who, “The Day of The Doctor.” The Doctor Who fandom has exploded. There are many feelings in the air surrounding the content of the trailers, but the main focus is based upon the mystery of each character’s involvement. In the trailer, we have three Doctors (John Hurt, David Tennant, and Matt Smith), Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), Queen Elizabeth I (Joanna Page), and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).
Matt Smith’s Doctor speaks about how there is one of his past lives that he has tried to suppress, and we know from “The Name of the Doctor” that that is John Hurt’s regeneration. In the Doctor’s timeline, between what we knew to be his eighth and ninth regeneration, he fought in what is known as the Time War. The Time War was fought between the Time Lords and the Daleks. Both races were essentially exterminated, but none of these events were viewed in the show until the trailer! John Hurt’s Doctor says, “Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame.” Is this the part of the Doctor that makes him so self-loathing from time to time?
To offset the darkness that comes along with the images of the Time War, fans are delighted to see Billie Piper in what appears to be her Bad Wolf persona from the first season of the new series. Sure, she has that Rose Tyler smile of happiness in one shot, but in the others she seems more nature-like and the smile is absent when she speaks about the approach of something ominous.
We also have the quirky interactions between Tennant and Smith, which are adorable to say the least. They use similar silly gestures to remind us that they are playing the same man; Tennant, the younger version of Smith, is judging Smith’s interior decorating abilities, and they compare sonic screwdrivers like teenage boys. Amongst all of these wonderful moments, there is a sole shot of Elizabeth I running away and a few shots of a new outer space threat. We hope the trailer reflects the grandeur of the episode in the sense of content.
This episode, which will air simultaneously around the world on November 23rd and be shown in movie theaters in the Boston area on November 25th, has the potential to be one of the greatest episodes of the entire series.
The most exciting thing about this episode is, of course, David Tennant and Billie Piper are back! Each Doctor has their own personality, but it is important to always remember that they are the same person, same memories, same essential values. Tennant, hereafter referred to as Ten, was the first Doctor for many fans between high school and college ages and thus holds a special place in most of the fandom’s hearts, remembered as a mixture of everything that makes the Doctor the Doctor.
The Doctor is clever, wise, tortured, compassionate, fun, childish, loyal, and passionate. Essentially, Ten. Ten is the Doctor he’s always striven to be. He is clever as shown by his method of communication through DVD Easter Eggs in “Blink,” which is also one of the most well known episodes, written by current head writer of the show, Steven Moffat. He understands that intelligence comes from creation and healing instead of destruction and hatred as seen when he tries to help a half-human, half-Dalek being in “Daleks in Manhattan.”
Tortured… No one has to mention how many times he has to go through losing Rose, then being forced to wipe Donna’s (Catherine Tate) memory when she has the mind of a Time Lord in her head. He loses people quite often. Which, reaching back to the trailer, is why it is so heart breaking that when Ten asks Eleven what his future is like. Eleven refuses to tell him, and since we are unsure of when in Ten’s timeline we are, we’re left wanting. He is compassionate, in part thanks to his relationship with Rose, but exhibited in how he came to care for Reinette in “Girl in the Fireplace,” in which he also kept his promise to protect her from the monsters under her bed, even when she grew up. As for the fun and childish side of him, literally, every episode. You will see it.
Related: Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor
So, new and old Whovians alike, get excited! In two weeks, we shall hopefully have answers to this whole John Hurt business, we get our David and Billie back, and we get to begin preparing ourselves to say goodbye to Matt Smith after the Christmas Special in December. Cherish this, because there may not be a special of this nature until the seventy-fifth anniversary special. And remember, “Don’t blink. Blink and you’re dead.”