Doctor Who 50th, thoughts and feels

The Day of the Doctor was for the fans, one hundred percent -- and that's the way it should have been. So props for that, Moffat.

This was immensely fun to see in a theater packed with very responsive fans -- we got all the jokes, and cheered for all the cameos. Doctor Who has often been at its best when it makes references to its own rich history, leading to great comedic and dramatic moments on the show. (The time when Ten put on the gas mask and said "Are you my mummy?"... Just wonderful.) The 50th was jam-packed with such references and that was often the most fun.

The biggest laugh may have come from this line after Eleven said "timey-wimey" and John Hurt gave him a look: "I don't know where he picked that up," said Ten. All of the banter between the three docs was pure gold.

There was of course a huge cheer for Tom Baker and also for the small flash we got of Peter Capaldi, soon to become number 12. Or thirteen?

This guy can definitely pull off "the oncoming storm."

The plot of this special focuses on what happened after Classic Who left off and before New Who picked up -- what happened was John Hurt, or Doctor number 8 and a half: The Warrior. The one who killed all the time-lords, making himself the only one left -- and extremely angsty about it for the next three regenerations.

The plot was intricate and coherent and intriguing and just about everything you'd want, until, well... the end.

I'm not sure how I feel about the big plot twist. To me, the fact that the Doctor killed his entire race has been integral to his character since Nine. Obviously we don't lose what already happened -- a convenience since they apparently won't remember the big stunt that every single regeneration was in on. That's a lot of memory loss. How do you forget something you've done twelve times?

Honestly, I'm not sure what the Doctor's motivation is anymore. I've always seen him as someone so guilt-ridden and self-loathing that he has to keep moving and running and saving planets and collecting young companions and being goofy. If he stops for a moment to really think about what he's done, well -- that can't ever happen. To me, that's what New Who is all about -- that darkness and how he deals with it and how it occasionally bleeds through. And this big plot twist cheapens the darkness of the past seven seasons, since the Doctor apparently had nothing to feel guilty about at all.

Did I mention that the special effects were stunning?

My verdict is that if this had been the series finale, and series in the American sense as in no more Who, it would've been flawless. Don't get me wrong, as an homage to this show and its fans, it did a fantastic job. But I have trouble seeing where we go from here. Where Eleven (and Twelve) will go, no longer with the darkness in his eyes that Clara spoke of. "Home," Eleven said. But what does that mean? Will he un-freeze Gallifrey? And how does that work? Is the Time War not over, then, just on pause?

I suppose there are plenty of questions left to warrant another 50 years as everyone's hoping for.

However, if there's not a really, monumental, noticeable shift in the Doctor's persona from here on out I will feel extremely cheated. Moffat, if you're going to rewrite history you have to stick to it and commit. The Doctor's not the same guy anymore. We have to see that in what's left of Eleven and definitely in Twelve -- who I was actually expecting to be a really dark Doctor. So much for that.

I guess I have to accept that the days of Tennant and Russel T Davies are gone, with Ten saying, for what's got to be the last time, "I don't want to go." (The only really painful moment of the show -- I nearly died.)

I don't want you to go, either, but this is a show that's always moving forward and maybe we'll get to Trenzalore someday and see what that's all about... but it's hard not to look back with nostalgia. The 50th let us do that (especially for Tennant, ughh), but reminded us that while the show's past is great, the future has a lot of potential.