Live from Master Closet Studios, you’re listening to the only podcast on the internet hosted by basically three versions of the same guy: It’s the Noobs and the Whovian!
My name is Austin and I’m the Whovian, and these are my sons Corbin and Tripp and we’re the noobs!
This is the podcast that introduces a whole new generation to Doctor Who by watching an episode each week and discussing it from the perspective of a dad who’s seen it before, and two sons who haven’t.
Welcome to Episode 112 covering the 50th anniversary special: The Day of The Doctor
This is the one where the Doctor and Clara and the Doctor and Queen Elizabeth and the Doctor and Billie Piper having an identity crisis all team up to NOT actually destroy all the Time Lords, but actually destroy all the Daleks, except for the thousands and millions that we already know actually survived. But don’t worry, we won’t remember any of this later, it’s all very timey-wimey.
Production notes
- Story # 240
- Originally aired November 23 to everyone. Just, every single person.
- Actually, there were 12.8 million live viewers on BBC and 3.2 million iPlayer requests. BUT! It was almost shown live in over 1,500 movie theaters in 94 countries, shattering viewership records all over the globe!
- You’ll remember that Adventure in Space and Time was like 2.71 million viewers just 2 days before
- Written by: Steven Moffat
- Directed by: Nick Hurran
Misc Trivia
- This was the first episode of Who to be shot in 3D. It was released in 3D in some theaters.
- Also the first episode to use an old version of the intro.
- At one point, the only actor under contractual obligation to appear for the 50th Anniversary Special was Jenna Coleman. Just in case, Moffat started on a script called… The No Doctors.
- A 2014 Doctor Who Magazine poll named Day of the Doctor as the readers’ favorite episode of the first 50 years!
Checklist
- Name of the episode spoken in dialogue?
- nope
- Creature of the week
- Zygons – shapeshifting creatures that take on a LOT about their duplicates, not just looks.
- Bow ties are cool
- Amy’s reading glasses
- Eleven popped them on, Ten popped on some specs.
- How did we NOT get a “SNAP!” here?!
- Hats
- Return of the fez!
- The wiki points out this is the last televised appearance of Eleven in a fez…
- Well
- Well, you’ve certainly come to the right place (to find the Doctor)
- Allons-y!
- We got one!
- Two!
- Geronimo
- Before jumping into the time fissure
- Before freezing Gallifrey
- Running count – 15
- Stuff the Doctor loves
- Jiggery Pokery
- Sonic
- Same software, different case
- TARDIS
- That shot of Clara riding the bike into the TARDIS was AMAZING
- Wait, Clara closed the doors with a snap?!
- To which one of the Noobs said “So I guess she like Clara now?”
- You’ve let this place go a bit. Ah, it’s his grunge phase.
- Oh, the round things! I love the round things! What are the round things? No idea…
- Oh, you’ve redecorated. I don’t like it.
- Psychic paper
- Random
- Time Lord art, bigger on the inside. A slice of time, frozen.
- It’s a machine that goes ding, lights up in the presence of shapeshifting DNA. Also can microwave a dinner from 20 feet away and download comics from the future. I never know when to stop!
- They’re like a cup-o-soup, except you add time if you can imagine that. No, no one can imagine that, forget I said “cup-o-soups.”
- Sonic
- The Question/Doctor Who?
- You call yourself the “good man”. I call myself the Doctor. To you it’s the same thing. (Night of the Doctor).
- It’s a promise. What is the promise? Never cruel or cowardly. Never give up. Never give in.
- Termy-wermy
- You, are you sciencey?
- Timey-wimey? What is that? I don’t know where he picks this stuff up.
- Adventures in Closed Captioning
- The War Doctor is referred to as Old Doctor. Apparently, this is how he was credited in marketing materials and such, same with Billie Piper being referred to as “Rose” in the credits
- On a related note, no mention of Capaldi in the credits, which is sad.
- The Last Great Time War
- The Zygons homeworld burned in the first few days of the Time War.
Other stuff we noticed
- Alien technology plus human stupidity.
Who’s Who?
- Who is the Moment?
- Oh nothing, it’s just a wolf…
- She chose this form from his past, or future, I always get those mixed up.
- In this form, I’m known as Rose Tyler, no, Bad Wolf.
- Who is the War Doctor?
- First off, wow! They treated the War Doctor with more care and forethought that maybe any other Doctor ever!
- We got a regeneration scene from 8 to War in The Night of the Doctor.
- He got his very own sonic!
- He got an amazing costume that speaks volumes about who he is without ever saying a word.
- He got his own look of the outside of the TARDIS, all beat up and war-torn
- He got his on TARDIS console room! A whole desktop theme for a guy we see in ONE episode and who’s console room is on screen for like 3.5 minutes!
- AND he got a proper regeneration scene, with the exception that we didn’t actually see him turn into Nine. Although, he started to peek through at the last second.
- On this, the wikia had this to say: “Furthermore, the special depicted the War Doctor’s regeneration into the Ninth Doctor, completing a missing link in the chain of incarnations that started when Christopher Eccleston debuted in the 2005 relaunch of the series, Rose. The process of resolving the regenerations issue was being enforced by executive producer Steven Moffat, as he wished to have a “complete set” in time for Matt Smith’s upcoming final episode.[source needed] Moffat also chose to requisition actor Paul McGann for one more outing as the Eighth Doctor in a mini-episode production, The Night of the Doctor one week after production wrapped on the anniversary special, resulting in a second former Doctor returning to the screen as part of the festivities. McGann filmed his own regeneration into Hurt’s version of the Doctor, cementing the lineage of all Doctors up to Smith’s incarnation onward.”
- I want to take issue with one thing: there is still the gap between Two and Three…
- The day he did it, the day I did it. The last day of the Time War, the war to end all wars between my people and the Daleks. And in that battle was a man with more blood on his hands than any other. A man who would commit a crime that would silence the universe. And that man was me.
- He’s a fool! No, he’s a madman!
- Stuck between a girl and a box. Story of your life…
- He thinks 10 and 11 are young to be COMPANIONS!
- They’re screwdrivers! What are you going to do, assemble a cabinet at them!?
- What is that, the way you look at me? I’m trying to find a better word than dread.
- They’re you. The man who regrets and the man who forgets.
- Great men are forged in fire. It’s the privilege of lesser men to light the flame.
- Pretending you weren’t the doctor, when you were the doctor more than anybody else. You were the Doctor on the day it was impossible to get it right.
- Wearing a bit thin. I hope the ears a bit less conspicuous this time.
- First off, wow! They treated the War Doctor with more care and forethought that maybe any other Doctor ever!
- Who is the Tenth Doctor?
- Apparently, he is somewhere between Waters of Mars and The End of Time, perhaps on his farewell tour?
- I’m the Doctor, I’m 904 years old. I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation Kasteberous. I am the oncoming storm, the bringer of darkness and you are basically just a rabbit aren’t you?
- That’s a time fissure, a tear in the fabric of reality, anything could happen! Like, for example, a fez.
- Eleven: oh that’s skinny! That’s proper skinny! I’ve never seen it from the outside, it’s like a special effect. Oi, matchstick man!
- Me and Chinny, we were surprised
- Trenzalore? We need to find a new destination because… I don’t wanna go.
- So it’s STILL his final words as the Doctor!
- Until the 60th anniversary I guess…
- Who is the Eleventh Doctor?
- I’d be brilliant at having a job!
- I’m 1200 years old, I’ve never stepped in anything that wasn’t important.
- I demand to be incarcerated, along with Sandshoes and Grandad.
- He’s 1200 and something. Unless I’m lying. I’m so old I can’t remember if I’m lying about my age.
- We may have had our differences, which is frankly odd, in the circumstances, but we are incredibly clever.
- Look at you, the warrior, the hero, and you. What am I? Have you forgotten? We’ve got enough warriors and any old idiot can be a hero. .
- Who is the Curator?
Can we talk about Nine?
- I was originally gonna have this in the last section and call it “Where is the Ninth Doctor?”
- We’ve talked in the past about Eccleston’s falling out with the BBC. I don’t know enough about it to comment on the controversy. However, it is a crying shame that he wasn’t in this (except for that one clip during the “all 12 of them” scene.
- That being said, it is amazing what they were able to do instead. Especially leading up to this story and placing little hints along the way, especially especially in the Name of the Doctor.
- Moffat originally wrote this story with Nine in the role that eventually became the War Doctor. Eccleston said “no” and so Moffat tried to use some other previous Doctor but was shot down by the BBC. So he invented the War Doctor and the whole backstory and reasoning behind his being missing/unknown till now.
- In regard to not putting Nine in the regeneration scene, Moffat said this:
- It was one thing to include him among all the other archive Doctors, as they flew in to save the day — in fact, it would have been disgraceful to have left anyone out — but placing him in that scene might have given the impression he’d actually turned up for filming, which would have been crossing the line. Not taking part in the 50th was a difficult decision for Chris, taken after a lot of thought and with great courtesy, and not respecting his wishes would have been grossly unprofessional and disrespectful to a good man and a great Doctor. Number 9 may not have turned up for the celebrations, but there would have been no party without him.
- This also stands as the only time Eccleston was credited as The Doctor, because they always credited him as Doctor Who during Series 1, as with Hartnell.
Classic Who Connection
- Opening shot is very similar to An Unearthly Child with a police office walking by a sign that says 76 Trotter’s Lane and one for I.M. Foreman scrap yard
- Then it moves to Coal Hill School and bonus points for those who saw that I. Chesterton is now the chairman of the school’s Board
- We’ve talking about riding motorcycles into the TARDIS before
- Kate said there was a precedent for having three Doctors all together. That happened in The Three Doctors
- In The Three Doctors Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (said in reference to having three Doctors present) “Three of them, eh? I didn’t know when I was well off.” That was echoed by the Gallifreyan General.
- The Tenth Doctor comments that he does not like the Eleventh Doctor’s desktop theme. This is common and goes clear back to The Three Doctors
- The Tenth Doctor said to the Eleventh Doctor that he was glad his future is in safe hands. This was also expressed in The Five Doctors
- The line “Wearing a bit thin” spoken by the War Doctor before he regenerated is an echo from the First Doctor before he regenerated into the Second Doctor.
- The Zygons
- Only seen in Classic Who in Terror of the Zygons with the Fourth Doctor
- They control the Loch Ness Monster and live on a spaceship in the Loch
- Their goal is to take over Earth
Overall impressions
- Overall rating out of 10 –
- Jared – 9 multiple versions of the sonic in the same place
- Austin – 9.999999999999999999 missing Ecclestons
- Corbin – 9.9 Gallifrey falls no more
- Tripp – 11 old doctors
- Creep Level – out of 500
- Jared – 50
- Austin – 125
- Corbin – 10
- Tripp – .01
Theories
- There were roundels on the wall in the National Galery. Is that the Curator’s TARDIS?!
Listener Input
- We haven’t gotten a new review since August. Just sayin…
The Game Plan
- Next week, we jump into the 2013 Christmas Special: The Time of the Doctor.
Closing
Noobs and the Whovian is a production of Master Closet Studios, where it’s always smaller on the inside. Your Senior Producer is Austin Reason. Our Audio Engineer is Tripp Reason. Corbin Reason is our Production Editor. Special thanks to tardis.wikia.com for the trivia, and to Jared for the Classic Who Connection. Shout outs to Victor, Jared, and James for their Patreon support.
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