Gallifrey Falls No More: A Review of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special

Let’s go ahead and get all the screaming out now, shall we? I’ll give you a minute.

You good?

Alright, let’s talk about some Doctor Who.

We know the story from 9 on, right? How he felt so horrible and guilty for committing genocide of his own species during the Time War. But we never actually saw what happened in the Time War.

Until yesterday.

When Moffat introduced John Hurt at the end of series 7, a lot of people had many questions. Mainly, “What the hell is going on?” But The Doctor said that he tried to black that regeneration out, because he did something The Doctor would never do. So of course the rumors started flying. To all of you who called it, I applaud you.

It was lovely to see Tennant back in action, and I loved how they incorporated Rose as Bad Wolf as The Moment. And, let’s be real, IT WAS COMPLETELY AMAZING TO SEE THE TIME WAR AND GALLIFREY EVEN IF IT WAS ON FIRE. John Hurt was fantastic, as well. But then again, it’s John Hurt, how could they really go wrong?

Even though Moffat is pretty much known for doing everything wrong, I feel like this time…this time, he got it mostly right. He got Tom Baker, y’all! How cool is that? And I LOVED seeing the High Council freak out over three Doctors, but then all thirteen (THEY INCLUDED PETER CAPALDI) showed up and saved the day. Like always.

So, even though John Hurt didn’t push the button, since the timelines got all kinds of wibbly-wobbly, none of the old Doctors can remember. So Nine will still have survivor’s guilt, even though he shouldn’t. And I really hate that they didn’t show that regeneration through to the end. I held on to a tiny shred of hope that Eccelston would’ve been down for a very brief appearance.

But we got Ten, we got Eleven, we got Rose (sort of), and we got Four. Overall, I think it went as well as it could have. We even got Zygons!

Who doesn’t love a giant tongue monster?

My only question/problem is…who was the girl with Four’s scarf?

PS: They got a Guinness World Record for having the largest ever simulcast of a TV drama. So there’s that, too.

With enough throwbacks to classic Who, a great special appearance by Tom Baker, and a rewrite of the Doctor’s history that I feel pretty damn okay about, I give the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary special 10 stasis cubes out of 10.

—Ley