Tomorrow, I shall blog on some highlights from across the revival up to the end of 2014 but in the meantime, here are some of my picks of the stories from 2005 onwards.
THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR (2013)
Recently voted the favourite all-time story by readers of Doctor Who Magazine - even beating The Caves Of Androzani (1984) - this is pretty much "New Who"'s own The Five Doctors (1983). The 1995 Special Edition of 20th anniversary special was my full-on introduction to the series. It works pretty well as a stand-alone (well enough to convince someone in their pre-teens of the series' value) although the original cut is slightly clunky when watched as part of a broadcast-ordered marathon.
The Day Of The Doctor was a 3D 75-minuter which garnered a theatrical release (winning a place in the UK Box Office Top 10) and pays off an arc that tailed off with the departure of David Tennant (the Time War) and paid off a mystery teased in the Series 7 finale, The Name Of The Doctor (2013) - that of a previously unseen Doctor (John Hurt). Had there not been a surprise cameo by impending Doctor Peter Capaldi, this would have served as a satisfactory finale to the series as a whole and a good point to end it indefinitely again. If one watches this at the end of a run through everything since 1963, it might seem like everything had been building up to the scene in which every Doctor returns (albeit thanks to stock-footage and someone impersonating the voice of William Hartnell) to save the day. It ends on a positive note with an optimistic reversal of the original premise of the Doctor being an intergalactic exile.
Besides the perhaps obvious use of the Daleks (courtesy of the Time War), the special also amusingly revived the Zygons (did Moffat have a hat with some pieces of paper in it?) for a long-non-awaited sequel to Terror Of The Zygons (1976) which seemingly ended in an apparent path to peace with the human race.
A Doctor-team up had previously occurred in the Children-in-Need skit Time Crash (2007) and, sort-of-but-not-quite in the festive special The Next Doctor (2008) but this is the first instance of "New Who" (a division which I hope to drop this week) has carried on in the tradition of teaming up Doctors during the anniversary year with particular resemblance to The Three Doctors (1972-1973). It perhaps suggests the best team-ups are at least two at once - Tennant and Smith work well together (it also serves as a bonus David Tennant story) while Hurt is more of a supporting role. It's a bit of a pity that Eccleston could not join the line-up and than McGann could not have been an alternative fill-in to make the link between "old and new" but Hurt's Doctor works in bringing back some mystery and brought some new mythology not only to the show, but to the Doctor.
THE ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN (2012)
Some of those who know me probably know about my thing for Karen Gillan and this was the official final episode with Amy Pond (barring a hallucinogenic cameo in Matt Smith's send-off). The "mid-season" finale ending a set of stand-alone episodes (which had no relation to the Silence arc of Series 6 and set-up the future mystery of Clara Oswald), this is arguably the bleakest episode since The Caves Of Androzani, both in tone and (at one or two points) in the score and has two beloved characters making the ultimate sacrifice in order to defeat New Classic monsters, the Weeping Angels. Reminiscent of Rose Tyler's departure in Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday (2006), it sends the characters off to an apparent point of no-return, thanks to the power of wibbly-wobbly-timey-whimey (which fans have tried to work their way around).
BLINK (2007)
A fan favourite, this is basically the "Gospel tract" of Doctor Who. A "Doctor-lite" episode with more supportive appearances from David Tennant and Freema Agyeman as companion Martha Jones, this is very much from the point-of-view of one of the best-companions-never, Sally Sparrow (Cary Mulligan). Watched again as part of a marathon, it also comes across as a prototype Matt Smith episode (thanks to some music that would be used in an Eleventh Doctor computer game and only recognised on a subsequent viewing). It has a hint of the future "dark fairy tale" tone that Moffat would use for Smith's first series. It begins with our heroine breaking into an abandoned house, has her battling against living stone angels and concludes with the implication that the monsters can be found around us in our everyday surroundings. The go-to episode for winning a convert to the series (at least from the "revived" lot).
LISTEN (2014)
Steven Moffat's second Blink. It sets up a mystery that turns out to what might be nothing at all, this is one of the best directed episodes of the revival. Going from a child's bedroom in the past to a lonely time-travelling astronaut at the end of the universe (before concluding in the childhood bedroom of a lonely time-traveller), it has the kind-of "domestic horror" (i.e. bringing it into the home) that I'd like to see more of in the future and can be seen in earlier serials such as Terror Of The Autons (1971) and Survival (1989), whilst also returning to the "dark fairy tale" not seen for about four years. If Blink has a monster at the end of the garden, this has the monster under the bed.
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