"I've had many faces, many lives. I don't admit to all of them. There's one life I've tried very hard to forget. He was the Doctor who fought in the Time War, and that was the day he did it. The day I did it. The day he killed them all. The last day of the Time War. The war to end all wars between my people and the Daleks. And in that battle there was a man with more blood on his hands than any other, a man who would commit a crime that would silence the universe. And that man was me."
Episode #250: The Day of the Doctor.
Companions: The 10th Doctor, The 11th Doctor, The War Doctor and Clara Oswald.
Air Date: 23rd November 2013.
The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure in this 50th anniversary special. In the 21st century, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor's own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.
It's all been building to this, the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who. It has certainly been worth the wait. Moffat did not disappoint with this one. The story revolves around the War Doctor really, as he steals an ancient Time Lord weapon called The Moment and plans to use it to destroy the Daleks and his own people. The Moment, however, is sentient and tries to show the War Doctor what will happen if he uses it. Somehow able to manipulate events so that the War Doctor joins with his 10th and 11th selves. Lets him see who he will become if he uses the weapon and on a side adventure stops a bunch of Zygons from taking over the Earth.
The Zygon plot is a little shoehorned in as a means of getting the Doctors together and getting them to where they need to be. It is nice to see the Zygons return though as another throw back to the classic show and we learn about their world being destroyed in the Time War. That ties in well with the events from Terror of the Zygons.
The real story is about the Time War and it is long overdue in coming. Although we still don't know about the strange horrors of the Time War we do at last see the Time Lords and Daleks fighting it out. This has been hinted at for years so it is nice to see it visited for the anniversary episode. In any case, it does the story justice and again we learn more about the Doctor though this. The more the show continues the more we are being shown about the Doctor's life and who he really is, and whatever you may feel about Russell T Davis and Steven Moffat, you can't fault that they have done wonders pushing that aspect of the show in a good way.
The culmination with the appearance of all 13 Doctors is just a huge squee moment. I remember watching this episode on the TV and just getting so excited, especially with the brief appearance of the 13th Doctor! I still get some of that excitement watching it still.
Another really cool thing about this episode was that it was broadcast to UK cinemas at the same time as it went out on the air. I didn't manage to go see it there but that is a great idea for the BBC to do.
This is a really fantastic adventure and it fully lives up to the title of a 50th anniversary episode. This is one you have to watch.
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