YMMV / Doctor Who 50th AS "The Day of the Doctor"

Warning: As with the Recap page, spoilers are unmarked.

• Alternative Character Interpretation: 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.
  The Moment: Oh, I could do it. I'd love doing it. Slaughter is my favorite high; I'm a slave to my endorphins.
• Ass Pull:
  • Having Elizabeth 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 should 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 the very first. There is also an element of Rule of Cool and Sure, Let's Go with That involved; this scene is the only real involvement of any classic 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.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Billie Piper as the Moment's Interface with a Familiar Face. 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 never interacts 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.
  • The idea of the War Doctor. Some say John Hurt was fantastic in the role, others believe that the character could've been filled with either Paul McGann (as number 8) or Christopher Eccleston (as number 9). While both Doctors do appear in the story in brief but crucial roles, it's only through stock footage, and the former already made an appearance in a lead-up mini-sode.
    • Moreover, Eccleston declined to return for the special. Thus, we never get to dwell on his Doctor finding out he never really destroyed his own planet and people, though he's going to forget anyway. It would have been fitting as he's the first Doctor shown to bear that guilt ever since the show was revived.
    • The Ninth Doctor was also implied to have recently regenerated way back in Series 1 (surprised to see his big ears), so it was naturally assumed the Eighth Doctor ended the Time War. Regardless, Moffat was having trouble picturing the Eighth Doctor fighting in a war because of what his character was like, even when Eight started turning darker. Which led to a prequel mini-episode with a regeneration scene for his Doctor to explain away the War Doctor's existence, so it's still a win in the end for fans who wanted to see Paul McGann again, along with making his Big Finish Doctor Who adventures canon. And John Hurt's Doctor even goes out on a line that links back to Nine's ears comment.
• Broken Base:
  • 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) because the paradoxes surrounding Clara have been resolved!
  • 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" Freeze-Frame Bonus moments and stock footage. While there may be an element of practicality to this (see below under "They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot"), there is nevertheless a subsection who argues that the classic series could have nevertheless been included more prominently than it was.
  • Relating to the above, the War Doctor is a similar bone of contention; while many certainly appreciate the hook of an unknown incarnation of the Doctor played by a legendary actor like John Hurt, a section of the fandom argued that his role — essentially a classic series Doctor commenting on the new series Doctors — could easily have been filled by an actual classic series Doctor (the Eighth Doctor being a common suggestion) rather than a completely new incarnation created by the new series. The fact that appearances of the actual classic series Doctors were relegated to stock footage and audio cameos at the end also grated a bit for these viewers, as for them it strengthened the impression that the classic series was being treated a bit dismissively — including, notably, some of the actors who played said Doctors themselves, who expressed some public disgruntlement at not being invited back. Even the fact that Tom Baker returned for a cameo at the end didn't entirely help, as it was pointed out that he was also playing an entirely new character, not the Fourth Doctor.
  • The reveal that the Doctors saved Gallifrey instead of destroying it. Some thought it was perfectly in character for the Doctor to Take a Third Option instead of needlessly killing millions of innocent lives. Species and characters who seem to be Killed Off for Real only to be Not Quite Dead or Back from the Dead 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).
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Osgood the fangirl.
  • The rabbit in the woods that was just a rabbit. Many fans jokingly claimed he was the true villain of the series.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: When the soundtrack album for the special was released, it turned out a lot of original scores were left on the cutting room floor in favor of reuses from the Moffat-era soundtrack. More than a few "rescored" clips or entire recuts of the special have since surfaced attempting to restore them, with some preferring them to the original version.
• Harsher in Hindsight: 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 the Eleventh Doctor 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.
  • 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's death. From there, the Doctor is Driven to Madness 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 Batman Gambit to save Clara from the grave, even shooting the General and forcing them 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.
  • 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.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The Face of Boe's message in "Gridlock" that, "You are not alone," can take on a much more positive meaning with this episode, since it can be interpreted now as a message that Gallifrey is safe.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: 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 a very familiar face.
• Hollywood Homely: Osgood. The Zygon version notes how jealous Osgood is of her prettier sister, but the actress playing her, Ingrid Oliver, is a pretty actress in nerd garb.
• Memetic Mutation: CAPALDI INTENSIFIES! ^Explanation Twelve's brief appearance here focuses on his eyebrows.
• Narm: Invoked by the Moment, who didn't find the War Doctor's proclamation of "No More" to be all that dramatic.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Tom Baker as the Curator.
  • The brief debut of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor.
• Ship Tease: Clara and the Eleventh Doctor act like a couple at the start of the episode, even discussing going for cocktails on Mars in the same vein of two people planning a date. At the end of the episode, she also kisses the Doctor on the cheek and strokes his face.
• Shocking Moments: It goes without saying that Tom Baker's return to the series after thirty-two years shocked many fans.
• Signature Scene: Thanks to the huge amounts of fans rejoicing, the scene where all thirteen Doctors save Gallifrey is becoming this, with Peter Capaldi's cameo adding more fuel to the joy.
• Squick:
  • Ten being snogged by the Zygon impersonating Elizabeth.
  • The Zygon impersonating Kate's transformation. Eurgh.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: How they got all thirteen Doctors together would have been a fun story.
• Unexpected Character:
  • The Twelfth Doctor shows up in a silent cameo.
  • Tom Baker as the Curator.
  • The Moment, too — while Billie Piper's involvement with the episode was highly publicized, most fans assumed she would be returning as Rose Tyler.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: 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.

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