Time
for the iconic Doctor Who Christmas episode. An episode that not only brings us
a new regeneration but also has the first Doctor and the 12th Doctor together
for most of the episode
And
I liked a lot of these dynamics - I love how Doctor #1 is clearly not as
reliant on the tech and toys that Doctor #12 is (yet is still effective despite
that) and how much the Doctor has grown and changed to become the creature he
has
I
am more leery with Doctor #1 being not just a crotchety old man but talking
down to Doctor #12 because of it. I mean, Time Lords must be used to people
being so many centuries older than them while looking younger. I even imagine
meeting a future/past incarnation of yourself may be not entirely out of the
realm of possibility (how many times have the Doctor done it after all?).
Doctor
#1’s sexism - yes it was played for heavy humour, yes it was a nod to the fact
the first season of old Who was waaaay back in 1963 and like any show that old
there are Problems. And Doctor #12’s utter cringing embarrassment in the face
of it was kind of amusing: but we’re still seeing a species of aliens that has
somehow adopted human sexism despite a) being ancient enough and wise enough to
know better and b) coming from a species to whole, if gender as a concept is
even relevant, will be waaay different from what we can conceive of)
We
start going back 709 episodes ago (and am I the only one geekily thrilled by
that number? And am I further the only one living in horror of the fact I
haven’t watched half of these and now I need to watch them all! MUST WATCH THEM
ALL) with a really really good mash up of original footage and modern actors
playing the role of Doctor #1 and Polly and Ben.
Way
back then, Doctor #1 is also resisting the urge to regenerate, same as Doctor
#12 - and both of them end up together in Antarctica.
Doctor
#12 recognises his old sense and the whole regeneration denial thing but is
then completely lost in the joyous nostalgia of his younger self still calling
a Tardis a “ship” (and not recognising sonic technology). In a moment of slight
hypocrisy, Doctor #12 is horrified that doctor #1 may die and change history so
11 incarnations of the Doctor didn’t exist
This
is another major theme of this episode wove subtly through it: The Doctor
matters. He is important.
But
before they can get into this they’re joined by a British soldier from World
War 1. Through Time Shenanigans he has been transported from his deadly yet
moving stand off in a crater facing off against a German soldier, neither
wanting to fight, neither wanting to communicate - he has now been dumped in
the middle of a multi-doctor argument and invited onto the Tardis: Doctor #12’s
Tardis (as he says: Always remember where you parked! And oh how the Doctor
needed to learn that lesson!)
Doctor
#1 is not amused by how the Tardis has been redecorated. Nor about regenerating
without a little more youth.
The
Captain is also quite upset by Doctor #12 referring to World War “One”. oops,
spoilers.
Doctor
#1 is also not entirely on board with how Doctor #12 refers to the Earth: It Is
Protected (Doctor #1: It is? By who?!)
They
are captured by the alien species behind the time shenanigans and pulled on
board their ship - The Chamber of the Dead which has advanced time travel
technology and people made of glass (again interesting look at how the Doctors
operate: Doctor #12 waving around his Sonic Screwdriver while Doctor #1
examines the glass being closely and sees it’s asymmetrical: a computer
generated construct would not be). Doctor #1 is also very very disturbed to
hear that he’s referred to as “The Doctor of War”.
The
people of the Chamber of the Dead want him them to hand over the Captain in the
ship and in exchange they will let him speak to “her”
“Her”
would be Bill - and damn I hoped. Yes I hoped. I really hoped that some wand
had been waved and she was back with us. Yes I wanted this - and so did Doctor
12 who ran down to embrace her. Before facing reality: Bill became a Cyberman.
She sacrificed herself to save people she barely knew. This isn’t Bill - and
the Doctor considers any imitation of Bill in all her awesomeness to be an
insult, a mockery and intolerable.
I
kind of agree with him a lot. But also want Bill. So much want Bill. But he
exposes this by pointing out the huge holes in her memories. He walks from her,
demanding to know who is stealing the faces of the dead.
The
aliens call themselves Testimony. They take what they need from people near
death using their Time Travel tech then return them to the point of where they
died. They were ready to return the Captain but there was a Time Travel
schnaffu (That would be the Doctors. Yes, a race with advanced time travel tech
is completely derailed by one Time Lord’s personal drama)
The
Captain, nobly, realises on some level that Testimony is asking for his life
and sort of offering to spare Bill’s in exchange, wishes to say he’s ok with
this. Because he is IMPOSSIBLY noble and good. But Bill, being both impossibly
noble and unbelievably awesome is not having that at all
And
Doctor #12 is certainly not having that either. In fact he announces to the
Testimony that they’re definitely going to escape and then he’s going to find
out what they’re doing and if he doesn’t agree with it he will STOP THEM!
Doctor
#1 is horrified by all of this: he asks who he he thinks he is, why he’s
boasting and why he has to announce his plans to everyone?!
And
lo we have one of the awesome differences between Doctor #1 and what happened
over the next 15 centuries leading to Doctor #12. Doctor #1 fled from Gallifrey
on a stolen Tardis for shenanigans; Doctor #12 has saved the world, the galaxy,
the universe and space time itself on a near weekly basis, thousands of times;
often with nothing more than a screwdriver and his own sheer awesomeness. And
yes he is the Doctor who can walk unarmed into a war zone and bring the war to
an end
Basically,
Doctor #1 is nervous and risk averse. Doctor #12 is arrogantly confident of his
own ability to make entire species back down in the face of his own
Awesomeness. And he’s not entirely wrong. And I just love to see this character
growth so clearly written large.
Testimony
responds with memories and images from all of the Doctor’s 12 incarnations much
to the growing horror of Doctor #1 as he hears the many terrible titles the
Doctor has earned and truly what the “War Doctor” means.
They
do escape, because Doctor, and head to Doctor #1’s Tardis (and hats off to
Doctor#12’s “over to you Mary Berry”. All Hail Mary Berry).
Oh
Bill also escaped with them and is happy to poke the antiquated opinions of the
Captain and Doctor #1 with her Black lesbian-ness
The
plan now is to track down whose face the glass-woman Testimony is wearing and
to do that they need access to a huge database of people’s faces. Time to
travel (and yes, Doctor #12 can fly the Tardis better). They land in a horrible
dystopian world full of face huggers where access to this database is - owned
by someone who hates the Doctor. Doctor #12 leaves Bill and the Captain behind
after a heartbreaking moment with Bill clearly wanting to believe she’s real
but knowing she isn’t - and it seems sadly he’s right as when he’s not watching
her she has a glass-body.
Them
left behind also gives the Captain chance to be more impossibly noble and
understanding and powerful while talking about his own inevitable death
The
Doctor #12 does use his dying body as a way to get to see the boss since
they’ll want to see him die in person; leaving Doctor #1 behind so the database
can’t kill two of them and cause a very very very messy paradox.
The
Database is a Dalek - because all Dalek’s are connected to the Dalek hive mind
which is huge beyond huge. He is the Only Good Dalek - (he objects to this: he
declared the Doctor is a good Dalek since he’s good at the whole genocide
thing). This is a Dalek that the Doctor and Clara had all kinds of shenanigans
with in the past. He’s willing to talk to the Doctor (and even ripped off his
gun to talk to him) and give him access to the database since it will hurt the
Daleks which he’s definitely here for.
While
he gets that answer; Doctor #1 talks with fake Bill about why he left
Gallifrey: he says he was looking for an answer about good and evil. Because
evil should always win: good is not practical so how does it prevail?
Bill
answers this by postulating that there’s “some bloke” wandering around space
and time putting things right when they go wrong holding everything together.
Doctor
#1 finds this dubious and asks if any of his future incarnations has learned
that lesson - and Bill thinks no. That Doctor #12 and all the Doctors before
haven’t truly grasped the effect and power he has on the universe. Though
everyone who has ever met him knows.
Which
is when Doctor #12 gets his answer from the database about the Testimony: they
use time travel to harvest memories - copy the memories of people who nearly
died so they can be remembered forever and even uploaded into glass bodies so
people can interact with their dead loved ones and ancestors.
Which
is… awesome. And… good?
That
kind of derails Doctor #12’s righteous indignation because the Testimony is…
not evil. And he doesn’t really know what to do about non-evil plans
Also
it’s an organisation called “Testimony” which takes people just before they
die, “harvests” what they need before returning the people harmlessly is… kind
of obvious? Right? Ok “harvest” was an unfortunate choice of words and the
whole kidnapping was super dubious - but they’re even called “Testimony”. This
does not take the combined intelligence of two Timelords to figure out
Which
is when Doctor #12 confronts Bill to learn, YES she is Bill Pots, no she isn’t
a spy and yes she is Testimony. Since she is made up of all of the memories of
Bill then she is Bill - what else is a person but the sum total of their
experiences and memories. Also she reminds him not everything is evil - he
isn’t the only kind one left in the universe.
They
agree to return the Captain, even though Doctor #12 is torn over losing someone
else, on top of his endless sea of loss. But because he’s the Doctor and knows
his dates, the Captain isn’t returned to his death - but the beginning of the
Christmas Truce, therefore saved.
That
captain is also a Lethbridge-Stewart. That would make him part of the
Brigadeer’s family (I’m not going to say who the Brigadeer is; because you
know).
That
leaves Doctor #1 and Doctor #12 time to talk - with Doctor #1 moving on from
his fear of regenerating since he can see what one day he will become and he
likes that. He also learned what “War Doctor” means: a doctor who will enter a
war zone and save lives.
Which
is nice and noble, but the Doctor also earned that title by literally wiping
out entire armadas.
Bill
and Nardol, another glass memory thing arrive to hug the Doctor - who refuses
to accept that memories alone make a person - though they also give the Doctor
back all his memories of Clara which had been erased from his mind. Which was
nice to have him remember that but I kind of expected more of a reaction? I
mean Clara has been the longest running companion hasn’t she? Didn’t she
deserve more than a “oh yeah. Clara, I remember that.”
But
Doctor #12 isn’t refusing to regenerate because of fear like Doctor #1. He is
tired. If the Testimony took HIS memories they would explode because his
memories are now so huge and overwhelming. Everyone else moves on - weighing
him down with loss - but when does he get to rest
I also wonder at this point - given his time shenanigans and extra regenerations- what is the usual lifespan of a Time Lord? Does the whole species commonly live for 2,000+ years?
I
think we have themes established for the next season: The Doctor is a force for
awesome good in the universe. But he’s also Tired. Very very very tired: tired
of loss, memory and still going. Tired of being the answer to that question:
“how does good prevail”? To the point of Bill having to remind him that there
are other kind things in the universe; which is a lesson only someone really
really jaded needs to learn. Or someone watching the news in 2017.
He
doesn’t know if he can go on… but one more lifetime can’t hurt. Yes,
regeneration time. Complete with an awesome message for the next Doctor:
Never
be cruel, never be cowardly. Hate is always foolish. Love is always wise. Be
nice, be kind and don’t tell anyone your name (except for some weird rambling
about children). I can‘t help but think this is Moffat yelling at the next show
runner “don’t do it! Don’t you do it!”
And
then Doctor #13 arrives and she pushes a button and the Tardis all goes wrong
over London.
The
very first neckbeard who spouts a joke about female drivers will be castrated
with rusty garden shears.
I
do quite like the theme because it promises a more positive Doctor Who
season mixed with both the pathos which often comes with the Doctor, perhaps
with her finding her joy again (and I’d like some joy back - Who is awesome
with joy) mixed in with a strong acknowledgement that the Doctor is a force for
good whatever missteps the Doctor has taken
