With exactly six months to go until Doctor Who‘s 50th anniversary special airs, here are five things we’re hoping to see…
The Time War
It is at the top of our list and yet perhaps we are half joking as it is quite difficult to imagine how the conflict could be depicted on screen, in our limited number of dimensions. Mind you, the special will benefit from 3D so that is one up on a regular episode…
John Hurt incarnation of the Doctor, to which we have recently been introduced, appears to have committed an atrocity “in the name of peace and sanity”. Odds on his actions were part of the almighty temporal conflict… but how many unspeakable things can the Time Lord have done? If it is the death of the Time Lords and the Daleks, surely this has been covered between ‘The Parting of the Ways’ and ‘The End of Time’? We can’t wait to find out more in November.
The UnDoctor
Of course, this alternate form of our hero begs a plethora of questions. Is he simply the product of a regular regeneration or something more complex? Was he perhaps conjured into form by the Time Lords as a soldier to fight the war? They resurrected the Master, so nothing seems above possibility.
Regardless of his status we hope the adventure, which brings this disparate element of the Doctor’s past together with geeky Ten and quirky Eleven, will resolve with the current incarnation learning to love his other self. Who couldn’t love a version of yourself with the voice of Merlin’s dragon?
The Bad Wolf vs The Impossible Girl
If Eleven and Clara are meeting Ten and Rose, rather than post-‘Journey’s End’ Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor 10.5, last seen abandoned in a parallel dimension, then we could be up for some fireworks. In the second series, Rose and the Tenth Doctor had a tendency towards being smug; riding high before they were torn apart in ‘Doomsday’.
For all her impossible girl antics, Clara remains pretty well grounded and certainly does not take it all for granted. While there is a little romantic fission between her and the Doctor, it is nothing on the loved up Rose/Ten relationship.
There was tension when Rose encountered Sarah Jane Smith, although this broke into a friendship. Can the meeting of Rose and Clara end so smoothly?
Something monstrous
It takes a certain level of threat to bring more than one Doctor into a story. ‘The Three Doctors’ saw a face off with Omega, one of the architects of Time Lord society who sought his revenge and escape from an anti-matter universe. ‘The Five Doctors’ saw a Lord President go bad and break out time scoop technology from Gallifrey’s dark times in a quest to gain immortality. A little more randomly ‘The Two Doctors’ (not an anniversary tale) brought Troughton and Colin Baker together against the Sontarans and their quest for the secrets of time travel.
While one returning classic foe has been announced already, we hope that the Doctors will be battling something truly remarkable. Could we see a return of the alliance of foes from ‘The Pandorica Opens’?
Other Doctors
While we can be reasonably certain that Paul McGann and Tom Baker have not been smuggled in for filming, it would be churlish not to expect some nods to the past and Steven Moffat recently teased that “all I’ve ever revealed about what we’re doing is anything we filmed outside”.
‘The Name of the Doctor’ showed that Mr Moffat is not afraid of providing some fannish thrills. Following Clara’s interaction with William Hartnell and a host of other Doctor cameos, all bets are off!
Also, despite protestations to the contrary, the 50th would be an ideal time for a regeneration. Should we be expecting a teasing glimpse of the future, or even the reveal of the next Doctor?
What do you want to see in the special? Let us know below…
> Buy Series 7 Part 2 on DVD on Amazon.
> Buy Series 7 Part 1 on DVD on Amazon.
Watch the Series 7 Part 2 trailer…