Review: The Night Of The Doctor

SPOILER WARNING: This review will reference story elements that you will REALLY want to be a surprise. I'm not including any images in order to preserve the surprise, but honestly - don't read this until you've seen the mini-episode...


Well... I warned you...

There it is - technically a prequel to the main event, but possibly the greatest birthday present that Who fans could want. Six minutes and forty-nine seconds that we've been waiting to see since 1996.

We start aboard a crashing spaceship. The pilot, Cass, is requesting help. A voice on the comms suggests that she needs a doctor. She declines, but then a voice behind her says "I'm a Doctor... but not the one you expected."

And the camera cuts to Paul McGann.

What a wonderful misdirection, with the actor so vehemently denying that he was in the main episode that the possibility of him being in a prequel (which had long been mooted) was almost forgotten. But there he is - his hair is shorter, his costume more tattered, but still undeniably the eighth Doctor, just as full of life as he had been on that wonderful day in 1996 when he entered our homes for the only time.

It's astonishing how well McGann returns to the role - immediately he takes Cass' hand and drags her from the cockpit. "Where are we going?" she asks. "To the back of the ship," he replies. "Why?" she asks. "Because the front of the ship crashes first, think it through," he replies.

And a million Doctor Who fans punch the air - that is exactly the Doctor that we remember from the TV Movie.

But when Cass sees the TARDIS, she refuses to go with him. Because she distrusts the Time Lords because of their actions in the Time War. The Doctor insists that he is no part of the war, but Cass still refuses to come with him.

And, of course, because he is Eight, The Doctor refuses to leave her side. The ship crashes on Karn, and both The Doctor and Cass... die.

The Sisterhood Of Karn (in a second "punch the air" moment for Who fans), revive The Doctor, and tell him he has four minutes. Four minutes to decide if he wants to regenerate (and to decide if he wants to be a man or a woman - cheeky Moffat...). And after a painful debate, The Doctor decides that he will regenerate into a warrior - he will be the man needed to end the Time War.

"Will it hurt?" he asks (sneaky little pun, there...)

"Oh yes," say the sisterhood.

"Good," says Eight.

And then, just before his regeneration, he namechecks all his Big Finish companions, well and truly dragging them into the main canon (by this point the air is beaten into submission by the fans, and the ref enters to count it out).

He regenerates, denounces the name of The Doctor, and we catch sight of his reflection.

He's John Hurt... and he's young. He's going to be fighting this war for a long time.

It's less than seven minutes, but it gives us a regeneration, a return of a popular race, shocks, continuity and heart.

But most of all, it gave us back Paul McGann, something that, no matter how hard we wished and hoped, most of us never realistically expected to see. And he was magnificent - the perfect blend of childlike glee and innocence, turning to despair as Cass refuses to come with him, to defiance on Karn, before his heart - and his spirit - breaks, and he is forced to move on, to make way for the next Doctor. It was said of the TV Movie that McGann was astounding in just how instantly he captured the spirit of The Doctor, even in what amounted to less than an hour of screentime.

Well in The Night Of The Doctor, he does it again - he is even more perfect as The Doctor here, and with less time to play with.

The Night Of The Doctor makes us weep for all the potential adventures we never got to share with this wonderful incarnation of The Doctor. But more than that, it is an absolute joy in that we get to be there with him again, finally, at the end of his life. He didn't go alone - we were with him.

The Night Of The Doctor is a perfect gift to Who fans. It was - for the first time in a long time thanks to our internet information age - an episode that threw up genuine, shocking surprises, and brought us all back to that wonderful childhood feeling that anything could happen next.

And there's a hell of a lot more to come...

Geekin' Out Verdict: 10/10 (for long-term fans), 9/10 (for everyone else)