Doctor Who and the Time War

"The Moment happens. The universe sings. The War ends."

Writer: Russell T Davies

Format: Short Story

Released: 26 March 2020

Printed on: Doctor Who Website

Featuring: Eighth Doctor

Synopsis

"This was never meant to exist.

Way back, maybe early 2013, Tom Spilsbury, the editor of Doctor Who Magazine, asked me if I wanted to contribute to DWM's great 50th special. Maybe addressing that huge gap in Doctor Who lore, how did the Eighth Doctor regenerate into the Ninth?

I said well, yeah, no, but, isn't that best left to the imagination? If I write a script, it would be too real, too fixed, too canonical. But Tom's never one to give up. He said okay, what if you wrote, say, the final pages of a Target novel? About the last days of the Time War. The Doctor's final moments. And we could present it like a surviving fragment of the Novel That Never Was, so it exists in that half-real space of the spin-offs, possible but not factual, just slightly canon, if you so choose."

Verdict

Doctor Who and the Time War was a tremendous read and a sublime look into the window of what might have been regarding the Time War if The Day of the Doctor hadn't occurred and introduced the War Doctor. I didn't start watching Doctor Who until The Lazarus Experiment until 2007, but once I'd learned of all the show's history and everything that came with it, one thing that really bugged me was not knowing how the Eighth Doctor's story ended and how the Ninth Doctor came about. Yes, we knew it was the Time War, but that's so generic. This little extract of what might have been a Target novel was fantastic! Russell T Davies really does know how to write and he captured so much of the essence of the Time War in such a short amount of time. It was incredible to be honest. Finding out that this would have been printed in Doctor Who Magazine was great and I loved the idea of it being potentially presented as a fragment of a Novel That Never Was. I'd have loved that back in 2013, but I think it would have made me long for the whole book! Of course, much of the Time War's gaps have been filled in with the War Doctor and numerous audios, comic strips and novels, but back then it was quite the unknown. I still find it incredible that Doctor Who Magazine rejected the idea of doing a regeneration comic strip story prior to Rose's broadcast, and that ties in nicely with this adventure sort of serving as a prequel to it. I wasn't able to take part in the #TripOfALifetime watch-along of the first revived episode, but after listening along to The Chimes of Midnight as part of #PlumPudding, I am keen to catch up on all of the content I've missed and take part in future watch-alongs. It's a wonderful way for fans to come together at this difficult time. I do hope they go for a Classic story soon! Anyway, back to this one and the similarities some elements had with The Day of the Doctor in their descriptions and colour was intriguing given that Davies had no knowledge of what was to come on 23 November 2013. The description of the moment when the Moment was used to end the Time War was superb and I loved how the Doctor could feel the time lock coming into effect. I also really loved the idea of explaining the inconsistencies with the Doctor's age and how he'd been aged and then regressed before finally deciding on 900 years old as we'd see on television. Really good stuff. With the Doctor falling after ending the War and Gallifrey Original burning to a crisp, the idea of the TARDIS coming to save him and that familiar blue was magnificent and quite touching. Even at his most desperate moment, the TARDIS was there to save him. The idea of them both wanting a change was a nice moment of touching humour, and this would seem to indicate that the Doctor's regeneration cycle would have been reset here. I really liked that and I bet Moffat would have enjoyed that being canonical when it came to writing The Time of the Doctor. The actual regeneration itself was quite quick but impactful which was good and now we potentially know the Ninth Doctor's first word was 'blimey'! So there it was, the regeneration that was held in mystery and the emergence of the Ninth Doctor. The Classic era into the modern. A wonderful insight into what might have been. Of course, The Night of the Doctor came along then in such magnificent wonder, but this was tremendous to look at. 

Rating: 10/10