Twice Upon a Time

"He is the Doctor of War."

Writer: Steven Moffat
Format: TV
Broadcast: 25th December 2017
Series: 2017 Christmas Special

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, First Doctor

Synopsis

The South Pole. 1986. The Cybermen have just invaded and Mondas has disintegrated. They are defeated. But the Doctor is frail and weak, regeneration is imminent. For both of him. Frozen in time and joined by a World War One captain and Bill Potts, the Doctors must encounter Testimony and decide whether regenerating is worth the cost.

Verdict

Twice Upon a Time was a great Christmas Special but despite my high rating and enjoying of most of the episode, I can’t help but feel a little down. Just a few seconds of the episode have left a sour taste in my mind and I’m honestly struggling to believe why the First Doctor was presented as a sexist character. This is not how I expected to be starting my blog entry today and I’m bitterly disappointed by it. I just really can’t comprehend why Steven Moffat would present this incarnation across in that way. Just because he was the Doctor in the sixties, it doesn’t mean that he was from there. The attitudes of society have certainly changed since the broadcast of The Tenth Planet but the First Doctor does not represent the ideologies of that time and I’m quite gutted that it was presented in a completely different way. I absolutely loved William Hartnell’s Doctor and the sweet old man full of humour was a great contrast to what he would become. The throwback to the First Doctor’s final story was excellent and I loved the recreation of the final scenes where the Doctor headed for the TARDIS as regeneration was imminent. I must admit, I thought the presentation of Polly and Ben was very poor and the essence and likeness of their characters, however little they appeared, was bitterly disappointing. Justice was not done there at all in my opinion. Now then, onto what I actually liked about the episode and there was a great deal! David Bradley did a decent job of bringing the First Doctor back to life and whilst I thought some aspects of his presentation were a little shaky, overall he did a good job. It’s a mightily difficult task to take on which I can fully appreciate but the moment the two Doctors meet was terrific. Some of the dialogue between the two Doctors, so far apart in the timeline, was brilliant and I really liked how excited the Twelfth Doctor was to be reunited with his first self. The First Doctor’s reaction to the current TARDIS interior was good and I really liked the brandy gag. I thought the recreation of the very first TARDIS was great and the reproduction of the interior was superb! That really was a highlight. Mark Gatiss played the Captain wonderfully well and the revelation of the links to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was another wonderful touch. I adored that. The concept of Testimony was intriguing and the reaction of the Twelfth Doctor when he found out the plan wasn’t evil was quite humorous I must say. I also enjoyed the First Doctor’s reaction to Bill’s asking of where he was running to when he stole the TARDIS. The reaction to him calling it the ship was magnificent too. The return of Rusty was quite unexpected but it was a great little throwback to Into the Dalek and I liked how the Twelfth Doctor hinted to the First Doctor about the Dalek mutants that were scurrying around. The idea of the First and Twelfth Doctors meeting together at the point where they refused to regenerate was fantastic and I liked how they helped one another go through with it. It showed just how contrasting their stage of life was with the First Doctor being scared of changing for the first time and the Twelfth questioning whether he should go on. Everybody has their time. I thought the closing scenes once the First Doctor had departed to regenerate were excellent and despite it being a multi- Doctor episode, I’m glad Capaldi got his moment to sign off in style. He had a touching moment with Bill where she, through Testimony, granted him his memories of Clara back and also brought back Nardole to say goodbye. The farewell speech of Capaldi’s Doctor was quite incredible and whilst I don’t think it quite rivals Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor speech in The Time of the Doctor, I thought it was sublime. It summed the Doctor up brilliantly and the idea of only children being able to learn his name was a lovely inclusion I must say. I really liked that. The regeneration itself somewhat resembled The End of Time with the power behind it and the first scene depicting Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor was fantastic. I liked how different it was and her reaction to becoming a woman was one of joy. But immediately she had her problems and after a short opening statement, she fell out of the TARDIS that seemed to be getting damaged badly. I’m sure that will set up the new episode and series nicely come autumn and I’m so excited for that now. However, this was about saying goodbye to the Twelfth Doctor and saying hello to the First Doctor once again. The former was sublime as always and I’m just a little bit gutted about the sexist elements of the latter. The scene of the episode for me though was when Testimony showed the First Doctor why he was the Doctor of War and Bradley’s reaction was absolutely phenomenal. He was horrified of what he would become and that idea is something I very much liked. Overall, a great episode but it’s just a shame that the First Doctor wasn’t written particularly well. 

Rating: 8/10