It’s the milestone 50th year for the iconic British television show DOCTOR WHO, and to celebrate there will be a special episode broadcast Saturday 23rd November on television and cinema screens worldwide in order to mark the occasion. The episode will unite both the tenth and eleventh doctors played by David Tennant and Matt Smith for a feature length adventure that will both honour the past, and look forward to the future.
Now DOCTOR WHO has well and truly taken over our television screens this past week, to the extent that you can’t take a look anywhere on the TV guide without seeing something who-related in the days leading up the big one this Saturday. To celebrate and make the wait a little bit easier, here are the top 5 things I’m hoping for in the monumental episode THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR on 23rd November.
5. Banter between the two Doctors
Steven Moffat has stated on many occasions that David Tennant and Matt Smith make a superb double act both on and off-screen and have in fact formed a close friendship, so lets hope that this comes across in THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR. After all every Whovian knows that when the Doctor breaks the rules and crosses his own time-stream in true wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey fashion, its tradition that each iteration of the character mocks the other. The opportunity to see both the tenth and eleventh Doctors mock and poke fun at each other in true DOCTOR WHO fashion is what every fan expects and from the look of the trailers, this will most certainly come to pass. If in doubt look no further than ‘ah you’ve re-decorated…I don’t like it’ from the most recent trailer.
4. Davros
With all the talk of the Zygons and Daleks returning for the anniversary special people seem to have forgotten who created the dastardly pepper-pots in the first place. It was of course of the deadly Davros who looks like a cross somewhere between Darth Vader and Freddy Krueger. The character first appeared in the 1975 episode of the show ‘Genesis of the Daleks‘ starring the fourth Doctor Tom Baker. Davros was however brought back in the new series and memorably portrayed by Julian Bleach in 2008’s ‘The Stolen Earth‘ and ‘Journeys End’ starring David Tennant. Davros is easily one of the most terrifying DOCTOR WHO creations from his appearance alone, however he is also one of the most iconic and deserves a comeback after he was so quickly forgotten following ‘Journeys End’. The character would also be a good fit for the episode given that viewers will witness the time war, a battle in which the Daleks play a pivotal role meaning that their creator is bound to be present somewhere.
3. Captain Jack Harkness
John Barrowman’s immortal, omnisexual, time-hopping hero was one of the most popular characters of the Russell T Davies era of DOCTOR WHO that ran from 2005 – 2010. Captain Jack was so popular that he even received his own spin off series TORCHWOOD that was aimed at adult fans of its parent show. I believe that it’s important for the character to make a return in the celebratory special because he was as instrumental in introducing new fans to DOCTOR WHO as the Doctor himself. Captain Jack is now iconic in his own right rather than just as a companion of the Doctor and has legions of fans to rival that of the famous timelord himself. An appearance from Barrowman’s promiscuous time agent would certainly be welcomed as the man that bridged the gap between children and adult fans of DOCTOR WHO. So let’s hope that Moffat has a few surprises up his sleeve!
2. A solution to the Doctor’s ‘regeneration’ limit
One of the most frequently talked about topics within the DOCTOR WHO community is the amount of times the Doctor can cheat death and regenerate, as the original series stated on more than one occasion that he is limited to twelve times. This means that we will have a total of thirteen Doctors before the character finally meets his demise, however there are a few discrepancies the show has yet to deal with. If indeed John Hurts ‘War Doctor’ is counted in the chronological order of regeneration’s, this means that Peter Capaldi’s iteration of the time lord will be the characters last. This is of course not including David Tennant’s dodging of a regeneration at the beginning of 2008’s ‘Journeys End‘ by using the energy of his severed hand. If THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR is going to look ahead to the future of the show as Moffat has constantly reiterated, then this is an issue that needs to be resolved quickly and it may just happen this Saturday.
1. Appearances from past Doctors
Well, we all knew that this one would take the top spot after all it’s what every DOCTOR WHO fan young and old wants from the 50th anniversary special, for past Doctors to make an appearance in some form during THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR. We already have my personal favourite David Tennant and Paul McGann has recently reprised his role after 17 years in the special minisode ‘The Night of the Doctor‘. How many more of the previous actors to portray the rebellious timelord have secretly reprised their roles?, Steven Moffat is well known for being notoriously secretive to the extent that he has openly stated that he lies in interviews. Would the show runner really disappoint millions of fans and not include previous incarnations of the character in the celebratory adventure? I don’t think so for a minute. Obviously some of the actors have aged considerably since they played the Doctor but I trust Moffat to devise an ingenious way of incorporating them into THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR. Only time will tell if there are indeed secret cameo appearances from any past Doctor, but Moffat has managed to pull the rug from under the audience with surprises on more than one occasion before.
Whether any of the things on this list come to pass remains to be seen but it’s always fun to speculate and on such a huge milestone why shouldn’t we?. In any case we only have less than a week to wait now and I think it will prove to be more agonising than ever with the 23rd November so close we can practically smell it.
Maybe the other who-related shows this week will make the wait seem a little bit shorter with ‘Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide‘ on BBC3 tonight, AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME Thursday on BBC2, (click here for our spoiler-free review and feature from the BFI Event with Mark Gatiss and David Bradley) plus David Tennant and Matt Smith on The Graham Norton Show this Friday. One things for sure we’re all in for one thrill of a ride this Saturday!.
Don’t forget to also check out our All-Time Top 20 Episode countdown over here, it’s rather good!
