In many ways, the Doctor Who team had already satisfied the desires of fans with the fact-based drama An Adventure in Space & Time, written by Mark Gatiss and broadcast a few days earlier, which covered the inception of the programme and the troubled departure of its first lead actor, William Hartnell. A nicely judged piece, it indulged only slightly in sentimentality, and neatly wove stolen phrases from the later history of Doctor Who into the lives of its creators. Many fans had expected it to be the highlight of the celebratory week — and it was, until a marvellous online 'mini-episode' appeared, involving a former Doctor, to set up events for the anniversary story. It is fair to say that expectations were duly raised.
The plot of 'The Day of the Doctor' — finally revealed in the largest ever worldwide TV simulcast on 23 November — was intricate, and gleefully embraced the opportunities of time travel: doubtless parents across the world had it explained to them by their eight-year-olds, and I will not try to recap it all here. Basically, we see the Time War between the Doctor's people and their great foe, the daleks — a cataclysm that has shadowed the series since its return to TV screens in 2005. And we encounter the forgotten, lost 'War Doctor' (played by John Hurt) who had brought the conflict to an end. The story plays cleverly on inconsistencies in previous accounts of what happened: the Doctor believes he was forced to commit genocide on his own people to save the Universe, but it now transpires that, with the benefit of regeneration and hence centuries to work out a better solution, he is able to remove his entire planet from time, and cause the daleks to destroy themselves. The tricks used in the resolution are foreshadowed in the subplot played out earlier in the episode, involving an old enemy's attempt to take over the Earth.
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