# The Day of the Doctor Watch-along Thread (Open Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2013, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636 "2013-11-23T19:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/81 "2013-11-24T15:49:15Z")
I wanted to see the Nightmare Child and the rest of the Atrocities. Oh, well, maybe they’re still trapped with Gallifrey, and the next Doctor can take 'em on. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/82 "2013-11-24T16:11:17Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > … Yesterday we were looking at TimeLord Military HQ, not at the Council. It now creates that bit of an ambiguity there – in End of Time we already know Gallifrey was not truly destroyed but merely banished from reality, but the High Council had already made contingency plans in case that happened, a “backdoor” escape hatch that involved The Master. They of course also outdid War Doctor on the genocide front in the end, by figuring on destroying all existence in time itself so they could transcend it eternally (and thus be safe from being trapped in or out of it). End of Time made it look like that happens _after and while_ Gallifrey was time-isolated, now we can wonder if that is actually happening right before, just as, or after Gallifrey falls. … The line in The End of Time was “That’s what they were planning … in the final days of the war. I had to stop them.” After an exposition that along with Gallifrey coming through so would all the rest of the Hell of the war. End of Time sets up a reality that all of Gallifrey and the war is pocketed away, timelocked, not all killed by The Moment. I think we are better off pretending that End of Time never happened than trying to make it fit. Yes, they are trying to throw us the Council was doing its own thing as a way to reconcile the storylines but it does not work. So just don’t think too hard; it suffers for it. They won’t reconcile the Valeyard either or the limited number of regenerations. We who enjoy the show just need to appreciate it for what it is and a fully formed internally consistent fantasy world it aint; a fun show it is. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/83 "2013-11-24T16:39:08Z")
I’d just be repeating what’s already been said if I posted anything here. But I will say that I loved the 50th, I loved the Davison short, and I love the series. I will be a fan forever. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/84 "2013-11-24T16:46:11Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > We waited 50 years and they give us a 1 hour 16 min episode? With a cast like this I was expecting a movie. > > Its getting a limited theater run next week. You’d think they’d at least make it 2 hours. > > The tv movie about the beginnings of Doctor Who was longer. Sort of. Day of the Doctor didn’t have commercials. Add them in, and you’ve got a two hour movie. ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/85 "2013-11-24T16:59:40Z")
I recorded both the globalcast and the rebroadcast. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/86 "2013-11-24T17:53:25Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I wanted to see the Nightmare Child and the rest of the Atrocities. Oh, well, maybe they’re still trapped with Gallifrey, and the next Doctor can take 'em on. Me too - I was expecting something a big more… Lovecraftian, I suppose. We’re taking about a billion-year-old race with unrivaled mastery of space and time; you’d expect combat would involve something more than soldiers shooting machine guns at flying saucers. At least show us a fleet of combat TARDISes or something. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/87 "2013-11-24T18:16:14Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > I really wish Christopher Ecclestone had been in it, it felt like he was missing. I suspect they tried really hard to persuade him. > [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > He kind of (sort of) was in it twice. 🙂 Yep. He’s seen but not heard. There’s a blink and you miss him moment around the 1:07 mark. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/88 "2013-11-24T19:41:06Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I thought Christopher Eccleston’s absence was an elephant in the room, and I think it’s weird he wouldn’t be willing to participate, but whatever. He was punting in Cambridge and couldn’t be retrieved from his timestream. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/89 "2013-11-24T19:59:59Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I won’t argue with you, glee, but due to the paradoxical nature of the events in Blink, I would consider Sally and the doctor equally responsible. After all, she did all the work. Any bright ideas he had were off-camera and therefore not pertinent. I’m happy to agree with your compromise. 🆒 The Doctor provided the technical information - but Sally faced up to the Angels, did all the running and provided the transcript. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/90 "2013-11-24T20:06:56Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > I wanted to see the Nightmare Child and the rest of the Atrocities. Oh, well, maybe they’re still trapped with Gallifrey, and the next Doctor can take 'em on. In ‘The Day of the Doctor’, one Timelord did say “Haven’t we used everything?”, which was a reference to all their ‘weapons’. Presumably the Nightmare Child is a Being, not a weapon? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/91 "2013-11-24T20:30:18Z")
> [@urban1a](#): > > Paul McGann did the 6 minute mini-episode where he regenerated into the War Doctor, although it wasn’t very clear who he became. Extremely excellent acting from him in that. It doesn’t look like he didn’t want any part of it. This is [it.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U3jrS-uhuo) > Bob Yes (thanks). I was going on the fact that neither McGann nor Eccleston has (that I’m aware of, anyway) appeared in any of the promo-documentaries in the past few years. Here in the US, at least, we’ve seen perhaps a dozen of these shows–one on the Companions, one on the Villains, various ones recapping particular seasons, and of course the 50th-anniversary-years specials on each Doctor. (And probably more that I’ve forgotten!) I’m glad to learn that McGann has participated to the extent he has, acting in some of the 50th anniversary films (the one you mention, and Peter Davison’s film). But from the evidence of the documentaries, he doesn’t seem much interested in talking about his participation in the franchise. (Not that he’s obliged to, of course!) ---
**Author:** ![anyrose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/54ee81/32.png) [@anyrose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anyrose)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/92 "2013-11-24T20:58:35Z")
True - neither McGann nor Eccleston participated in their “Doctors Revisited” specials. I’m sorry there was such bad blood between Eccleston and the production team. But then The Day of The Doctor would have had a different plot if Nine had been involved - maybe the same ending but not how they got there ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/93 "2013-11-24T21:05:12Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > He was punting in Cambridge and couldn’t be retrieved from his timestream. I hate it when that happens. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/94 "2013-11-24T23:46:47Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > I loved John Hurt’s grumpy doctor exasperated with the antics of his successors: “Stop pointing it like that! It’s a scientific instrument, not a water pistol!”. What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them? Heh…😃 > [@aceplace57](#): > > This episode reminded me how much I miss the tenth doctor. It’s not just the actor. The character of the tenth was so much better. I liked his brown suit. Everything was better. > > I wish somehow he could come back. Even if it was prior to his death. but I guess that’s a pipe dream. Wouldn’t even have to be prior to his death, as apparently it is now canon that some day the Doctor will revisit some of his old faces. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/95 "2013-11-25T02:17:28Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > I hate it when that happens. It wouldn’t be the first time… ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/96 "2013-11-25T02:18:53Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Me too - I was expecting something a big more… Lovecraftian, I suppose. We’re taking about a billion-year-old race with unrivaled mastery of space and time; you’d expect combat would involve something more than soldiers shooting machine guns at flying saucers. At least show us a fleet of combat TARDISes or something. But this was the very last day of the war after all had already been lost. The nightmare child, the could’ve-been-king and his army of neverweres, the degradations of skaros, etc. All that stuff already happened, it’s down to the last defenders of gallifrey shooting machine guns at flying saucers. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/97 "2013-11-25T02:26:10Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > What are you going to do? Assemble a cabinet at them? Heh…😃 \ > [@TBG](#): > > Wouldn’t even have to be prior to his death, as apparently it is now canon that some day the Doctor will revisit some of his old faces. And I about go nuts wanting to grab the powers that be and shake them while informing them that they can have any of the last 3 or 4 doctors, and any of their companions back because if you ignore the annoying liking for story arc programming and go back to monster of the week programming YOU CAN DO ANYTHING BECAUSE THEY TIME TRAVEL. You are not locked into the next episode being Trendalore [or wherever and whenever] because you just pick up a quick visit by Rose and #9 [if you could lure him back] to Moscow in time for Napolean’s attempted visit. Or a family outing with River, the Ponds and the Doctor to one of London’s frozen Thames River Fairs. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/98 "2013-11-25T02:35:43Z")
> [@anyrose](#): > > True - neither McGann nor Eccleston participated in their “Doctors Revisited” specials. I’m sorry there was such bad blood between Eccleston and the production team. But then The Day of The Doctor would have had a different plot if Nine had been involved - maybe the same ending but not how they got there I have a feeling that the whole reason John Hurt’s Doctor was created was because Eccleston did not want to be involved. I’m guessing the plot line was started with Nine in mind and then changed to be the new War Doctor (8.5?) because they couldn’t get Nine. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/99 "2013-11-25T04:51:43Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > But this was the very last day of the war after all had already been lost. The nightmare child, the could’ve-been-king and his army of neverweres, the degradations of skaros, etc. All that stuff already happened, it’s down to the last defenders of gallifrey shooting machine guns at flying saucers. I think it worked well because it _wasn’t_ about the galaxy-spanning space battles fought across dimensions by time commandos, it was terrified families fleeing gunfire in the streets: this part of the war it wasn’t vast and mythological, it was human - well, Gallifreyan - and personal. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636/100 "2013-11-25T04:56:52Z")
So I DVR’d it and watched it today. The plot was good and I enjoyed it a lot. But they have to be careful about bringing in really good actors. John Hurt was just so much on a different level of acting it was jarring. Tennant is good enough to hold his own, but the new Doctor and the chick and the weekly extras just stood out as lightweights mugging for the camera. And the one-on-one between Hurt and Piper were just excruciatingly out of balance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-day-of-the-doctor-watch-along-thread-open-spoilers/674636.md?page=6)