History YMMV / DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor

* HillariousInHindsight: The Curator suggests to the Doctor that he may end up revisiting a few old faces in the future. Just three regenerations later, he finds himself wearing [[Creator/DavidTennant a very familiar face]].

** Creator/BilliePiper as the Moment's InterfaceWithAFamiliarFace. Some don't mind it, others still have issues over Rose. Although, there were some who disliked Rose as a character but thought Piper as the Moment was fantastic. And, technically speaking, the Moment wasn't ''actually'' Rose, but the Bad Wolf entity (which possessed Rose). Then there were people who were unhappy Rose wasn't in the special nor ended up interacting with Ten or Eleven, and then there are others who felt that a classic companion (or several) should have been used as the interface instead.

** And then, the whole episode becomes this after the events of "Spyfall", the premiere of Series 12, where we discover that the Master destroyed Gallifrey, seemingly making him and the Thirteenth Doctor the only living Time Lords in the entire universe. Though at least one other was shown to have survived in Series 13's "Survivors of the Flux", and given the lack of a time lock and the presence of multiple TARDISes on Gallifrey, the possibility of others being out there remains.

** Creator/BilliePiper as the Moment's body. Some don't mind it, others still have issues over Rose. Although, there were some who disliked Rose as a character but thought Piper as the Moment was fantastic. And, technically speaking, the Moment wasn't ''actually'' Rose, but the Bad Wolf entity (which possessed Rose). Then there were people who were unhappy Rose wasn't in the special, and others who felt that a classic companion (or several) should have been used as the interface.

** And then, the whole episode becomes this after the events of "Spyfall", the premiere of Series 12, where we discover that the Master destroyed Gallifrey, seemingly making him and the Thirteenth Doctor the only living Time Lords in the entire universe.

** The next episode, ''The Time of the Doctor", reveals that Eleven never makes it home, but rather spends a millennium defending Trenzalore and ensuring Gallifrey cannot return to the main universe, which ends with him regenerating.

** And then, the whole episode becomes this after the events of "Spyfall", the premiere of season 12, where we discover that the Master destroyed Gallifrey, making him and the Doctor again the only living Time Lords in the entire universe.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Moffat fleshes out the Moment considerably in the novelization, showing ''why'' it developed a conscience. It tells the War Doctor that it could absolutely destroy the Daleks and then giggles when it realizes that the War Doctor knows and accepts what would happen to all the Time Lords along with them.

** Having the Queen pretending to be the leader of the Zygons, somehow knowing exactly what their plan was, and pulling it off well enough to fool the other Zygons.
** As cool as it was to have all thirteen Doctors join forces to save Gallifrey, some have questioned the credibility of the scene. How in the hell did they manage to summon all thirteen Doctors at once, and got them to agree to come over? Did Eleven travel back and visit each of them himself, or did the Moment bring them altogether? And what about the major repercussions of crossing his own timeline? Given that three Doctors was catastrophic enough already, having all thirteen together alone would destroy reality. Or repair it. The episode, however, establishes that past Doctors are unable to retain the memories of interacting with their future selves, which also offers a retroactive fix-it for all past multi-Doctor stories going back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors the very first]]. There is also an element of RuleOfCool and SureLetsGoWithThat involved; this scene is the only real involvement of any pre-modern era Doctors in the story and, as noted elsewhere on this page, a substantial subset of classic-era fans were already somewhat disgruntled by the narrative's heavy focus on the modern era at the expense of the classic era in what was supposed to be the 50th anniversary special. While involving them all may have created some credibility / plot headaches, ''not'' involving them all would have provoked a pretty powerful fan backlash.

** Creator/BilliePiper as The Moment's body. Some don't mind it, others still have issues over Rose. Although, there were some who disliked Rose as a character but thought Piper as The Moment was fantastic. And, technically speaking, The Moment wasn't ''actually'' Rose, but the Bad Wolf entity (which possessed Rose). Then there were people who were unhappy Rose wasn't in the special, feeling they should have had her and Doctor 10.5.

** Clara suddenly being able to close the TARDIS' doors with a snap of her fingers, doing cool stunts on her motorcycle and managing to talk the Doctor down from burning Gallifrey again. Audience reactions ranged from "Wow!" to "What the hell?!" She's becoming very divisive in the fanbase. Part of the issue is that the finger snapping to close the door was a big deal for the Doctor to do, so for Clara to just casually do it is a bit off-putting. That and it marks the fact that the TARDIS has apparently done a 180 on its opinion of her (it had previously blatantly hated her) [[FridgeBrilliance because the paradoxes surrounding Clara have been resolved!]] It's probably also because Clara (i.e. the Gallifreyian version of her) introduced the Doctor to his TARDIS. Though that brings up it's own issues since the TARDIS explicitly stated it chose the Doctor.

** The reveal that the Doctors saved Gallifrey instead of destroying it. Some thought it was perfectly in character for the Doctor to TakeAThirdOption instead of needlessly killing millions of innocent lives. Species and characters who seem to be KilledOffForReal only to be NotQuiteDead or BackFromTheDead have always been a staple of the series since day one. After all if the Daleks, Cybermen, Davros, the Master (and the planet Skaro) can keep coming back after being destroyed time and time again, why not the Time Lords and Gallifrey? Still diehard Russell T. Davies fans were ''furious'' at what they saw as Moffat needlessly tampering with what they saw as an essential part of the Doctor's backstory (for the new series at least).
%% Moments have their own pages, at Awesome/DoctorWho, Heartwarming/DoctorWho, and so on.

* HarsherInHindsight: The hopeful ending and Eleven's monologue about returning to Gallifrey "the long way 'round" is a '''lot''' more bittersweet, if not bitter, thanks to the events of later seasons. Boy, where do we start ...
** The next episode, ''The Time of the Doctor", reveals that Eleven never makes it home, but rather spends a millennium defending Trenzalore and ensuring Gallifrey cannot return to the main universe in the very next episode, which ends with him regenerating.
** Then came the three-part finale of Series 9, that reveals that Gallifrey does return to the main universe at a much later point in its lifespan... but also sees the Time Lord powers-that-be betray the Twelfth Doctor, arranging for his capture and inadvertently paving the way for Clara Oswald's death. From there, the Doctor is DrivenToMadness with grief and rage and fights his way out of his torture chamber he's imprisoned in -- and back to Gallifrey -- over four-and-a-half billion years. There, he is almost executed on Rassilon's orders, but instead is able to bloodlessly overthrow him thanks to his reputation as the man who ended the Time War. And then he chooses to forsake his homeworld and people in a BatmanGambit to save Clara from the grave, even shooting the General and forcing him/her to regenerate to make a getaway with her, feeling he is owed her revival after everything he's done for Gallifrey and the universe -- even as his acts risk all space and time. In the end, he is once again a renegade from his homeworld, on the run from his people, and he loses Clara ''and'' many of his key physical/emotional memories of her for good as well by way of returning to his best self. And while he does get his memories of her back, he's still on the outs with his people and he never does get Clara back. Poor Doctor...
** And then, the whole episode becomes this after the events of "Spyfall", the premiere of season 12, where we discover that the Master destroyed Gallifrey, making him and the Doctor again the only living Time Lords in the entire universe. It seems that the 13 Doctors just postponed the inevitable... unless some Gallifreyans evacuated the planet.

* HollywoodHomely: Osgood. The Zygon version notes how jealous Osgood is of her prettier sister, but the actress playing her is a pretty actress in nerd garb.

** The debut of Creator/PeterCapaldi as the Twelfth Doctor.
* ShipTease: Clara and the Eleventh Doctor act like a couple at the start of the episode, even discussing going on a date for cocktails on Future Mars (though the actual word isn't used). At the end of the episode, she also kisses the Doctor on the cheek and strokes his face.

* SignatureScene: Thanks to the huge amounts of fans [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQuASQh36gI rejoicing]], the [[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x17nw7w_gallifrey-falls-no-more-the-day-of-the-doctor_shortfilms scene]] where all thirteen doctors save Gallifrey is becoming this, with Creator/PeterCapaldi's cameo adding more fuel to the joy.

* TearJerker: Creator/TomBaker returns to Doctor Who after ''thirty-two years''.
** The War Doctor's thousand yard stare, the way he's clearly haunted by all he's seen and done. He's also, when about to push the button on the Moment with the help of the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, who've just accepted him for the first time ("You were the Doctor more than any of us. You were the Doctor on the day it wasn't ''possible'' to get it right."), he's clearly on the verge of tears.
** The night this aired, social media was abuzz with women tweeting and posting that [[ManlyTears their husbands were crying]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: How they got all thirteen Doctors together would have been a fun story. And as of the ending of Series 10, how and when Twelve was able to participate ''still'' hasn't been revealed. He's only able to exist because the Time Lords give the dying Eleven a new cycle of regenerations in the next story, so it involves a StableTimeLoop of some kind. And presumably Clara can't be with him at the time. Given what the Time Lords do to Twelve and by extension Clara in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]"/ "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]", the fact that where this special falls in his time line hasn't yet been revealed begs the question: If the Twelfth Doctor is summoned '''after''' that story unfolds, why does he save the people responsible for his betrayal and torment? Is it just to keep the time loop intact, or does his still genuinely care for them despite their evil? Or did he save Gallifrey solely for the sake of the ''ordinary Gallifreyans'', and the Time Lord elite just happened to get dragged along for the ride?
** The "13 Doctors" issue is at least somewhat justified in that, of the thirteen actors to play the Doctor on TV, at the time of filming three had passed on, one was in his early 80s (and thus likely would not have been able to participate much more than what we got), one had made clear his lack of interest in participating and several of the others had all also aged quite significantly since appearing on the show. This meant that that a true "The Thirteen Doctors" would have been quite difficult to pull off in a way which pleased everyone to begin with, plus the fact that WordOfGod states he was deliberately avoiding the "throw everything together" mishmash/fangasm of "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]", which got mixed reviews for just that reason.
** As mentioned above under BrokenBase, some fans view the whole special as one of these with regards to the classic series, as outside of background references (several of which are blink-and-you-miss-them), stock footage and a handful of cameo appearances, the special as a whole tends to focus on plot points and developments introduced in the new series. To some critics, this reaches the point where it may seem like more of a celebration of the new series than the show as a whole. As an example, while the War Doctor was generally well-received several of these critics have argued that his role in events (as the Doctor who fought in the Time War) could have easily have been filled by the Eighth Doctor, and that there was arguably no real reason to create an all-new Doctor to 'represent' the classic series rather than using an actual classic series Doctor (even if, as mentioned above, using all of them might have been impractical). For what it's worth, Moffat did reportedly consider bringing back the Eighth Doctor, but this was vetoed by BBC higher-ups as it was felt he lacked the necessary star-power for such a high-profile episode.

** The [[Creator/PeterCapaldi Twelfth]] Doctor.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Clara driving her motorcycle into the TARDIS, in one continuous shot. You'd swear the thing really is bigger on the inside. Although the transition had actually been introduced earlier (in "The Snowmen") this upped the ante by incorporating a moving vehicle.

* MemeticMutation: CAPALDI INTENSIFIES!

* ShockingMoments: It goes without saying that Tom Baker's return to the series after thirty-two year shocked many fans.

** Sadly averted with regards to Ten and Rose, due to the fact that Billie Piper does not appear as Rose (though she is still credited under this character name), but rather a WMD disguised as Rose Tyler. Furthermore, only the War Doctor can see and hear the manifestation of the Moment, so even when Ten and Rose/Bad Wolf/The Moment appear in the same scene, Ten is not aware of it. Other than the expression on Ten's face when the War Doctor addresses the Moment as "Bad Wolf girl" and he realizes just who the War Doctor is seeing, there is no opportunity for any revisiting of the ship tease between those two characters.

** The rabbit in the woods [[ItMakesSenseInContext that was just a rabbit]]. Many fans jokingly claimed he was the UltimateEvil and the true villain of the series.

** As mentioned above under BrokenBase, some fans view the whole special as one of these with regards to the classic series, as outside of background references (several of which are blink-and-you-miss-them), stock footage and a handful of cameo appearances, the special as a whole tends to focus on plot points and developments introduced in the new series. To some critics, this reaches the point where it may seem like more of a celebration of the new series than the show as a whole. As an example, while the War Doctor was generally well-received several of these critics have argued that his role in events (as the Doctor who fought in the Time War) could have easily have been filled by the Eighth Doctor, and that there was arguably no real reason to create an all-new Doctor to 'represent' the classic series rather than using an actual classic series Doctor (even if, as mentioned above, using all of them might have been impractical).

** The "13 Doctors" issue is at least somewhat justified in that, of the thirteen actors to play the Doctor on TV, at the time of filming three had passed on, one was in his early 80s (and thus likely would not have been able to participate much more than what we got), one had made clear his lack of interest in participating and several of the others had all also aged quite significantly since appearing on the show. This meant that that a true "The Thirteen Doctors" would have been quite difficult to pull off in a way which pleased everyone to begin with, plus the fact that WordOfGod states he was deliberately avoiding the "throw everything together" mishmash/fangasm of ''Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors,'' which got mixed reviews for just that reason.

** The "13 Doctors" issue is at least somewhat justified in that, of the thirteen actors to play the Doctor on TV, at the time of recording three have passed on, one was in his early 80s (and thus likely would not have been able to participate much more than what we got), one had made clear his lack of interest in participating and several of the others had all also aged quite significantly since appearing on the show. This meant that that a true "The Thirteen Doctors" would have been quite difficult to pull off in a way which pleased everyone to begin with, plus the fact that WordOfGod states he was deliberately avoiding the "throw everything together" mishmash/fangasm of ''Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors,'' which got mixed reviews for just that reason.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The hopeful ending and Eleven's monologue about returning to Gallifrey "the long way 'round" is a '''lot''' more bittersweet, if not bitter, thanks to the events of later seasons. Boy, where do we start ...

** The "13 Doctors" issue is at least somewhat justified in that, of the thirteen actors to play the Doctor on TV, at the time of recording three were [[AuthorExistenceFailure no longer with us]], one was in his early 80s (and thus likely would not have been able to participate much more than what we got), one had made clear his lack of interest in participating and several of the others had all also aged quite significantly since appearing on the show. This meant that that a true "The Thirteen Doctors" would have been quite difficult to pull off in a way which pleased everyone to begin with, plus the fact that WordOfGod states he was deliberately avoiding the "throw everything together" mishmash/fangasm of ''Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors,'' which got mixed reviews for just that reason.

** Creator/BilliePiper as The Moment's body. Some don't mind it, others... [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment still have issues]] over Rose. Although, there were some who disliked Rose as a character but thought Piper as The Moment was fantastic. And, technically speaking, The Moment wasn't ''actually'' Rose, but the Bad Wolf entity (which possessed Rose). Then there were people who were unhappy Rose wasn't in the special, feeling they should have had her and Doctor 10.5.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: How they got all 13 Doctors together would have been a fun story. And as of the ending of Series 10, how and when Twelve was able to participate ''still'' hasn't been revealed. He's only able to exist because the Time Lords give the dying Eleven a new cycle of regenerations in the next story, so it involves a StableTimeLoop of some kind. And presumably Clara can't be with him at the time. Given what the Time Lords do to Twelve and by extension Clara in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]" / "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]"/ "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]", the fact that where this special falls in his time line hasn't yet been revealed begs the question: If the Twelfth Doctor is summoned '''after''' that story unfolds, why does he save the people responsible for his betrayal and torment? Is it just to keep the time loop intact, or does his still genuinely care for them despite their evil? Or did he save Gallifrey solely for the sake of the ''ordinary Gallifreyans'', and the Time Lord elite just happened to get dragged along for the ride?

** As cool as it was to have all thirteen Doctors join forces to save Gallifrey, some have questioned the credibility of the scene. How in the hell did they manage to summon all thirteen Doctors at once, and got them to agree to come over? Did Eleven travel back and visit each of them himself, or did the Moment bring them altogether? And what about the major repercussions of crossing his own timeline? Given that three Doctors was catastrophic enough already, having all thirteen together alone would destroy reality. [[JustifiedTrope Or repair it]]. The episode, however, establishes that past Doctors are unable to retain the memories of interacting with their future selves, which also offers a retroactive fix-it for all past multi-Doctor stories going back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors the very first]]. There is also an element of RuleOfCool and SureLetsGoWithThat involved; this scene is the only real involvement of any pre-modern era Doctors in the story and, as noted elsewhere on this page, a substantial subset of classic-era fans were already somewhat disgruntled by the narrative's heavy focus on the modern era at the expense of the classic era in what was supposed to be the 50th anniversary special. While involving them all may have created some credibility / plot headaches, ''not'' involving them all would have provoked a pretty powerful fan backlash.

** While the episode was largely well-received by the fanbase, a common complaint (particularly from fans of the classic series) is that, for an episode supposedly celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the show, at times it seemed more like a celebration of the new series by itself rather than the entire series. While the classic series isn't entirely ignored within the episode, the central focus of the plot is mainly characters and plotlines introduced in the new series (such as the Time War, the destruction of Gallifrey and the War Doctor), and elements from the classic series are largely relegated to "blink-and-you-miss-it" FreezeFrameBonus moments.

** As cool as it was to have all thirteen Doctors join forces to save Gallifrey, some have questioned the credibility of the scene. How in the hell did they manage to summon all thirteen Doctors at once, and got them to agree to come over? Did Eleven travel back and visit each of them himself, or did the Moment bring them altogether? And what about the major repercussions of crossing his own timeline? Given that three Doctors was catastrophic enough already, having all thirteen together alone would destroy reality. [[JustifiedTrope Or repair it]]. The episode, however, establishes that past Doctors are unable to retain the memories of interacting with their future selves, which also offers a retroactive fix-it for all past multi-Doctor stories going back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors the very first]]. There is also an element of RuleOfCool and SureLetsGoWithThat involved; this scene is the only real involvement of any pre-modern era Doctors in the story and, as noted elsewhere on this page, a substantial subset of classic-era fans were already somewhat disgruntled by the narrative's heavy focus on the modern era at the expense of the classic era in what was supposed to be the 50th anniversary special. While involving them all may have created some credibility headaches, ''not'' involving them all would have provoked a pretty powerful fan backlash.

** As cool as it was to have all thirteen Doctors join forces to save Gallifrey, some have questioned the credibility of the scene. How in the hell did they manage to summon all thirteen Doctors at once, and got them to agree to come over? Did Eleven travel back and visit each of them himself, or did the Moment bring them altogether? And what about the major repercussions of crossing his own timeline? Given that three Doctors was catastrophic enough already, having all thirteen together alone would destroy reality. [[JustifiedTrope Or repair it]]. The episode, however, establishes that past Doctors are unable to retain the memories of interacting with their future selves, which also offers a retroactive fix-it for all past multi-Doctor stories going back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors the very first]]. There is also an element of RuleOfCool and SureLetsGoWithThat involved; this scene is the only real involvement of any pre-modern era Doctors in the story and, as noted elsewhere on this page, a substantial subset of classic-era fans were already somewhat disgruntled by the narrative's heavy focus on the modern era at the expense of the classic era in what was supposed to be the 50th anniversary special.

** As cool as it was to have all thirteen Doctors join forces to save Gallifrey, some have questioned the credibility of the scene. How in the hell did they manage to summon all thirteen Doctors at once, and got them to agree to come over? Did Eleven travel back and visit each of them himself, or did the Moment bring them altogether? And what about the major repercussions of crossing his own timeline? Given that three Doctors was catastrophic enough already, having all thirteen together alone would destroy reality. [[JustifiedTrope Or repair it]]. The episode, however, establishes that past Doctors are unable to retain the memories of interacting with their future selves, which also offers a retroactive fix-it for all past multi-Doctor stories going back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors the very first]]. There is also an element of RuleOfCool/SureLetsGoWithThat involved; this scene is the only real involvement of any pre-modern era Doctors in the story and, as noted elsewhere on this page, a substantial subset of classic-era fans were already somewhat disgruntled by the narrative's heavy focus on the modern era at the expense of the classic era in what was supposed to be the 50th anniversary special.

** As cool as it was to have all thirteen Doctors join forces to save Gallifrey, some have questioned the credibility of the scene. How in the hell did they manage to summon all thirteen Doctors at once, and got them to agree to come over? Did Eleven travel back and visit each of them himself, or did the Moment bring them altogether? And what about the major repercussions of crossing his own timeline? Given that three Doctors was catastrophic enough already, having all thirteen together alone would destroy reality. [[JustifiedTrope Or repair it]]. (The episode, however, establishes that past Doctors are unable to retain the memories of interacting with their future selves, which also offers a retroactive fix-it for all past multi-Doctor stories going back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors the very first]].

** Clara suddenly being able to close the TARDIS' doors with a snap of her fingers), doing cool stunts on her motorcycle and managing to talk the Doctor down from burning Gallifrey again. Audience reactions ranged from "Wow!" to "What the hell?!" She's becoming very divisive in the fanbase. Part of the issue is that the finger snapping to close the door was a big deal for the Doctor to do, so for Clara to just casually do it is a bit off-putting. That and it marks the fact that the TARDIS has apparently done a 180 on its opinion of her (it had previously blatantly hated her) [[FridgeBrilliance because the paradoxes surrounding Clara have been resolved!]] It's probably also because Clara (i.e. the Gallifreyian version of her) introduced the Doctor to his TARDIS. Though that brings up it's own issues since the TARDIS explicitly stated it chose the Doctor.

* SkyHeist: UNIT sends a helicopter to pick the TARDIS up from Trafalgar Square and deliver it to the Tower of London. What they didn't know was that the Doctor and Clara were still inside it at the time.