Doctor Who: “Physician, heal thyself”: Celebrating 5 years of the most important minisode ever
By James Aggas
5 years ago to the day, The Night of the Doctor was released. And it was a minisode that changed Doctor Who history forever.
A crashing spaceship. A woman sending a distress call. The TARDIS coming to the rescue. It’s a classic Doctor Who opening and an easy way to begin an episode. Not exactly special, by the show’s standards, but we knew what to expect: a short little teaser for the fiftieth anniversary, nothing more.
But then, just after the woman tells her computer to “stop talking about doctors”, a familiar voice speaks. One that echoes exactly what we are all thinking in that moment.
"I’m a Doctor…but probably not the one you were expecting!"
Paul McGann. The Eighth Doctor. Not David Tennant or Matt Smith, but someone who hadn’t appeared in the TV series in over seventeen years. To say that The Night of the Doctor was suddenly major is an understatement.
A surprise return
And it was a major moment that happened entirely by surprise. No one had expected Paul McGann to actually come back, not really. It’s not that we thought he didn’t want to. After a decade playing the role on audio, McGann clearly enjoyed playing the Eighth Doctor, regardless of media.
But at the same time, we knew that he wasn’t appearing in the fiftieth anniversary special. Both he and Moffat essentially said as much. And, technically, they were both telling the truth. McGann didn’t appear in The Day of the Doctor. Of course, neither of them said anything about the Eighth Doctor not coming back in his own regeneration episode!
It was a story that many of us had waited a long time for. A story that, for various reasons, had been well worth the wait…
The Eighth Doctor’s regeneration was certainly an emotional moment for fans of his Doctor, for many reasons.
(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
The end of an era
I’ve lost count how many times I’ve watched The Night of the Doctor. To be honest, I lost count that first day.
If you’ve followed my numerous articles on the Eighth Doctor’s adventures, including a retrospective look that began with Storm Warning to celebrate twenty years of his Doctor, then you know just how much of a fan I am of Paul McGann’s Doctor. Despite having so little on television, his performance in the audios has always been consistently brilliant.
So, naturally, you can imagine just how much The Night of the Doctor meant to me. Not just because it was his long-overdue return. But also because we finally found out how his Doctor regenerated. Something that had been kept secret since Doctor Who came back with Christopher Eccleston in the lead role instead of McGann, but it had been finally revealed at last.
More than that: Big Finish got mentioned in an incredibly direct way. In just one single line, the Doctor referenced several companions directly from his own audio stories. Not only was it a huge link that, at the very least, clearly made those stories canon.
It also let us know instantly that, for fans of the Eighth Doctor on audio, at least, it was our Doctor that we were watching regenerating. Not just any version of the Eighth Doctor, but the one that confessed his love for Charley; spent six hundred years on Orbis; reunited with his granddaughter; lost so many friends and family in one day. It was a huge moment for all the fans who had followed his adventures.
Despite being an incredibly short episode, The Night of the Doctor was also a surprisingly satisfying one, too.
(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.
Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)
A short but brilliant episode
But it’s not just the fact that The Night of the Doctor is so important that makes me love it. It’s also the fact that it’s a genuinely good episode. Perhaps one of Steven Moffat’s most impressive efforts, in fact.
More from Winter is Coming
- For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
- Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
- Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
- Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
- Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”
In just a little over six minutes, with The Night of the Doctor, Moffat worked in the following elements: introduced the Eighth Doctor to a new audience; revealed exactly how the Time Lords were seen during the Time War; revealed how the Eighth Doctor died; set up the “origin” of the War Doctor.
The fact that he also includes moments of both humor and drama during this time is actually amazing. We have wonderful lines from the ever eccentric Eight such as “Bring me knitting!”
But we also saw what happened when, after facing a lifetime of hurt and pain, he was finally broken at the end of it all. No matter how hard he had tried to remain the Doctor, in the end, he knew the universe didn’t need a Doctor anymore. It’s both a wonderful metaphor for the long Wilderness Years when there was no Doctor Who on television, as well as a moving death scene in its own right.
Five years on, and I still haven’t gotten tired of watching The Night of the Doctor. I doubt I’ll get tired of it ten years after it’s broadcast, or twenty, or fifty. It was a huge piece of mythology that we really needed. But, more than that, it’s a great final episode for a great Doctor.
Next. Historicals: Three locations I’d like to see. dark
Do you agree with our thoughts on The Night of the Doctor? Are you a fan of the story? Do you think it served McGann’s Doctor well? Let us know in the comments below.