Doctor Who Prequel: The Night of the Doctor Review!

Hello everybody, Donlinedude here and welcome to my review of The Night of the Doctor,

 "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!

Score: 5.0/5.0

*Updated* The Rumour About John Hurt's Character in the Doctor Who 50thAnniversary Special

*Update* It is now confirmed that Hurt will be playing "The Doctor" (that's all that the titles said anyway). This has sort of shot my theory in the foot as the Eleventh Doctor is shown to be aware of Hurt's Doctor, which means that it's unlikely that his character will attempt to deceive the Tenth & Eleventh Doctor's in the special, though he could be messing with their memories, but that's just speculation. It pleased me to hear the Valeyard mentioned by the Great Intelligence however, and maybe it's still possible that the John Hurt could be playing the Valeyard.

 

*Original article*

So there's a rumour going around that John Hurt is actually playing the Ninth Doctor in the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who. Apparently the other Doctor's have forgotten that he existed due to Hurt's Doctor supposedly being the incarnation most involved with the Time War. If this is true, then that would make Christopher Ecclestone the 10th Doctor, David Tennant the 11th Doctor and Matt Smith the 12th Doctor, which would mean the Doctor would only have one regeneration left due to Time Lords having thirteen total incarnations. Naturally, this has got a lot of the fanbase riled up, but I think there is more to this than meets the eye.

Hurt has said in an interview already that he plays "part of the Doctor" in a "kind of trinity", so that confirms that his character is at least closely tied to David & Matt's Doctor's. But that doesn't necessarily mean he is the Ninth Doctor. This "rumour" is likely an intentional leak to stir up anticipation for the special, and very likely is a fake-out.

It's my theory that Hurt's "Doctor" will eventually be revealed as the Valeyard, an evil version of the Doctor that exists somewhere between the Doctor's latter incarnations. The character first made an appearance in the Sixth Doctor story "Trial of a Time Lord". Toby Jones previously played a version of the character in the Series 5 episode "Amy's Choice". He will likely appear to the Tenth & Eleventh Doctor's claiming to be the Ninth Doctor in a bid to manipulate them for some unforeseen scheme, revealing his true identity near the end of the special.

I know this is all speculation on my part, but it would certainly make sense for a twist and I don't think anyone can argue that the Doctor being the main villain (in a way) would be an awesome idea, especially if it's John Hurt playing the role. Steven Moffat has stated that the special is about looking forward as well as looking back, and perhaps one could interpret that as resolving past aspects of the series that are still prevalent today. There's already enough evidence to suggest that Moffat is looking to resolve the Doctor/Rose relationship so it isn't too much of a stretch to assume that he's also seeking to shed more light on the events of the Time War.

Besides, this story was originally reported by The Sun, so I think we should take this with a pinch of salt anyway ;)...