When this episode as first broadcast it would surprise me if several fans spontaneously combusted with excitement at the first minute of it. After 50 years we finally see the moment when the first Doctor and his granddaughter, Susan, steal the TARDIS and run away. As if that wasn't exciting enough, somehow Clara is there too. And we see she has been in the Doctor life throughout time as various clips of previous Doctor's are used with Clara added into the scenes. And yet the Seventh Doctor's actions in Dragonfire still make no sense!
After the warning given by Dorium at the end of the last season, the Doctor finds himself going to Trenzalore, the planet where is grave is located. He is forced to go there by the Great Intelligence who has kidnapped Vastra, Jenny and Strax.
I'm never really sure where this story falls in the timeline of the Great Intelligence. We see the birth of the Intelligence in The Snowmen and it seems to be that this if the final story for it. So after the events if the Snowmen, the Intelligence must travel to Tibet where it tries to take over the world with Yeti, then travel to the London Underground in 1967 and try to invade again before eventually kidnapping the Doctor's friends and leading him to Trenzalore...and turning back into Richard E Grant for some reason. The Intelligence effectively kills itself in this story by throwing itself into the Doctor's time stream in order to rewrite his entrie history to "deliver pain to your every breath!" Wow, that's some serious revenge going on there.
Now I must admit first of all that I was fairly drunk when I watched this episode. Don't judge me, I'm on holiday and there was drink in the house. As this challenge comes to an end I am finding more and more moments that get me a little emotional (again there was the drink). As the Doctor enters his tomb we see a column of swirling and dancing strands if white light. As the Doctor explains, he has travelled so much through time that this is effectively his scar tissue left in the universe from his travels.."my path through time and space, from Gallifrey to Trenzalore." This really resonated with me as this is also the journey I have gone on. The final episode which I will be watching on Saturday is also set on Trenzalore so my journey has also gone from Gallifrey to Trenzalore. Started to get choked up at this moment.
Then as if that wasn't bad enough, the Doctor points his screwdriver at the light and we hear ghostly echoes of his previous adventures, from the first Doctor asking "have you ever wondered what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?" to the third Doctor commenting that "it was the daisiest daisy I ever saw." Again this just made me think about all the stories that had come before this one and how it will all soon be over.
The mystery of Clara is solved as she also throws herself into the Doctor's time steam in order to save him and put right all the things that the Great Intelligence has meddled with. The Doctor reaches in to save her and we are given one last treat as we see various Doctor's running past her in the misty landscape. Then something massive happens! Something which blew the mind of everybody watching this episode. One more figure appeared with his back to us. Clara does not recognise him and the Doctor tells her that the figure is in fact him but not the Doctor. He goes on to explain that the name "Doctor" is a promise that he keeps and this man is the one who broke the promise. Clara faints and then we hear the figure speak.
"What I did, I did without choice, in the name of peace and sanity"
To which the Doctor replies "but not in the name of the Doctor". Then the figure turns around to reveal John Hurt (who at this point we already knew was cast in the 50th anniversary special) and a caption introduces him as the Doctor. Oh....my....God!
As exciting as this is, won't somebody please think of the numbering system!! At this point we didn't know where Hurt's doctor fitted into the timeline of the previous Doctors but given what he said about trying to preserve peace and sanity it seemed fairly obvious to me that he was the Doctor who fought in the Time War, which would make him the ninth Doctor and Eccleston the tenth and so on. Dear me! What a mess this has got us into. A brilliant mess nevertheless!
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