"I'm a Doctor, but probably not the one you were expecting". With all the media attention, as well as the fanbase, focused on David Tennant, Matt Smith & John Hurt appearing in the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who, The Day of the Doctor (and rightly so), the last thing anyone expected was for Eighth Doctor Paul McGann to star in a prequel to the episode. As well as being a very nice surprise, The Night of the Doctor contains a plot with a remarkable amount of substance given it's modest run-time of six and a half minutes.
The story opens just the way you'd expect with Doctor Who. The Doctor comes to the aid of a young woman in mortal peril, in this case the pilot of a crashlanding spaceship named Cass. But soon our expectations are subverted by Cass refusing to go with the Doctor when she discovers he's a Time Lord. This gives us some much needed insight into how the rest of the universe views the Time Lords and the Time War. They're seen as no different to the Daleks (which is quite a statement), to the point where Cass would rather die than travel with one, even if he claims to be "one of the nice ones". It also says a lot about the Eighth Doctor that, in spite of being capable of escaping via the TARDIS, he still stayed with Cass on the ship when it crashed on the planet Karn.
It's at this point that we meet the Sisterhood of Khan (a nice callback to the Fourth Doctor story The Brain of Morbius), who retrieve the now-dead Doctor and revive him temporarily for four minutes. Through the following scene, the main crux of the story becomes clear. The Night of the Doctor is about how the Doctor (quite literally) became a warrior, about how he was forced into the Time War despite trying his best to uphold his morals. This prequel does an excellent job of setting the Doctor on the path that led to his decision to wipe out the Daleks & the Time Lords, as well as finally answering the question of just what caused the Eighth Doctor to regenerate. It's rewarding for the fans as well as a compelling story. And the scene where the Doctor salutes all the companions he had during this incarnation was a nice gesture to fans of the Big Finish audio series that starred the Eighth Doctor.
Paul McGann is brilliant in his return as the Eighth Doctor, giving a charismatic performance as the Time Lord. While he means serious business throughout this episode, he's not above memorable lines of quirkiness, "bring me knitting!" Emma Cambell-Jones & Clare Higgins also provide compelling turns as Cass & Ohila respectively. The production aspects of the episode are surprisingly good. The sets are haunting and atmospheric and the visual landscape of Karn is well realised considering the modest budget this episode had in comparison to the 50th special, not to mention the clever use of archive footage of a young John Hurt. Overall, this was a wonderful send-off for McGann's Doctor as well as a nice linking up of the classic series with the new. I only wish McGann had established a catchphrase I could use to round this review out with. Oh well, Allons-y!
