Night of the Doctor

Spoilers ahead!

With the anniversary weekend upon us, I'm going to take a look at the two prequel mini episodes that have been recently released by the BBC, as a build up to the anniversary episode Day of the Doctor.  I'll also be offering my review of An Adventure in Space and Time, the First Doctor docudrama featuring David Bradley as William Hartnell.

Up first, The Eighth Doctor returns to television, in the Night of the Doctor.

Main Cast-
The Doctor - Paul McGann
Cass - Emma Campbell-Jones
Ohila - Clare Higgins
The War Doctor - John Hurt

Synopsis-
Set during the Time War, the Night of the Doctor begins with Cass, a young pilot who's spaceship has been damaged and is about to crash into the planet Karn.  The Eighth Doctor (in his first television appearance since the TV Movie) arrives with the full intention of rescuing Cass.

However, once Cass realized that the Doctor is a Time Lord, she refuses his help and the ship crashes onto Karn with both Cass and the Doctor aboard.  It seems the Time Lords have become a hated race due to the ongoing Time War with the Daleks.  The Doctor, unlike the rest of his race has chosen to remain uninvolved with the Time War.

The Sisterhood of Karn and their leader Ohila retrieve the Doctor and Cass from the wreckage of the ship.  The Sisterhood cannot save Cass, but are able to temporarily revive the Doctor.  The Doctor will die a second time, but if he drinks one of the Sisterhood's potions, it will trigger the regeneration process.  The potion will guide the regeneration, giving the Doctor whatever he needs.  After seeing Cass' body, he asks for the potion that will make him a warrior.   After drinking the potion, the Eighth Doctor regenerates into John Hurt's War Doctor.

Review-

Doctor Who fandom, of course, went crazy when this was released last week.  Seeing Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor return to television screens was going to do that.  It's also quite impressive that McGann, producer Steven Moffat and the rest of the cast and crew were able to keep this thing secret for so long in the age of the internet.

This is, by far, the better of the two mini episode prequels.  McGann is, of course, excellent as The Doctor.   The mini episode does have a lot of exposition, since it clears up a great many details.  John Hurt's War Doctor, for example, slots in between Eight and Nine.  The Time War clearly was/is a major cataclysmic event that affects every known corner of the universe.  Finally, it's clear that the Doctor only participates reluctantly.

Of course, much has been made of the fact that the Eighth Doctor, prior to regenerating, mentions his Big Finish audio companions by name.  It's a nice touch, especially for a Doctor who really became known to fans via the Big Finish audio plays and legitimizes the Big Finish audios by making them canon.  Personally, I already considered the Big Finish audios to be canon, but I realize that other fan's mileage may vary.

In the end, Night of the Doctor was a wonderful salute to the Eighth Doctor and, by extension, the Classic era of Doctor Who.  The biggest problem with Night of the Doctor is it simply leaves one wanting to see even more of Paul McGann's Eight Doctor.