Twice Upon a Time

I had seen the trailers and certain online spoilers for this episode and waited with eager anticipation. I finally sat down to watch and man did it live up to the hype. I agree that it was a tiny bit slow in parts but the nostalgia aspect maintained the episode's watchability. Parts of this story were set along the Western front during WW1, 1914... at Christmas time - so if you know your history, you will notice some foreshadowing for the upcoming narrative. Everyone knew, myself included, how the story would end (Unless you have been living under a rock... on Gallifrey!) but it was still nonetheless captivating and goosebump-inducing to witness. Peter Capaldi's Doctor had really grown on me, his delivery of some really laugh-out-loud lines with expert timing endeared himself to this viewer. That said, I am very eager to see where the cliffhanger takes Jodie's incarnation of The Doctor in season 11. 8/10

This episode features David Bradley recreating the First Doctor (originally played by William Hartnell and recreated prior to this by Richard Hurndall in 1983) and accompanying Peter Capaldi in his final adventure before his 12th Doctor regenerates into Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor. The episode begins with a beautiful clip from Hartnell as the 1st Doctor starting to feel his regeneration coming before a slightly unnecessarily noticeable transition to Bradley playing the 1st Doctor. The tiny flaw in this transition is quickly forgotten as Bradley does a fantastic job throughout the episode.

Bradley is a supremely good actor and his quality shines through in this sparkling, humorous, magical and mostly respectful portrayal of the Doctor. Capaldi is on absolute top form in his swan song and the story is thoughtful, moving, funny, interesting and works really well in all departments. I also loved Mark Gatiss' role of the Captain who joins the adventure and turns out to be of lovely significance.

The element which lifts the story even more into greatness is the inclusion of the Great War (now, of course, more often known as World War I) and the movingly beautiful scenes and thoughtful ideas presented with brilliant acting all round. Excellent stuff.

This episode is like classic series Doctor Who in many ways; it is not a non-stop roller-coaster of action, it is more slow, character based drama. I love that style when done well and the script, plot and acting in this episode carries off the slower paced, less action oriented story superbly well.

The 13th Doctor's arrival at the end regeneration scene was rather dramatic. I think I would have preferred a less shocking introduction and it gave more ammunition to online negative commentators who latched onto the scene as evidence of the female Doctor 'ruining their show'. This episode, though, was about Peter Capaldi signing off as the 12th Doctor and he really finished on a high. His acting was superb and the writing gave him a great send off.

Moffatt chose to have the 12th Doctor suffering a sort of identity crisis throughout his time, I guess you could argue the new cycle of regenerations given to the Doctor could cause this or just the chain of events could have made him question himself in a kind of mid-life crisis type situation. I loved that in Capaldi's farewell Moffatt allowed his Doctor to have a feeling of resolution and renewed faith in himself. Maybe this was overdue but it was done very well indeed.

I feel I should address the accusations some make that this episode rewrites the 1st Doctor as a sexist. I do think that it is a slight shame he was portrayed as a bit outdated in his attitude a few times. It is unfortunate that Moffatt's modern ideology and comedic/dramatic aims make people feel the 1st Doctor is being misrepresented and it is a slight issue for me but I did not find it a big issue. A few comedic comments here and there do not, for me, damage the 1st Doctor overall. I found it was a light hearted and very minor aspect of the episode. It did detract slightly but I felt that overall this portrayed the 1st Doctor as equally admirable and wonderful as Hartnell's original performance. It just infers he was rather patriarchal in a relatively harmless way which is actually very similar to how Richard Hurndall came across to me in The Five Doctors and not hugely out of keeping with the way the 1st Doctor (or the 3rd or 6th) sometimes acted. It just was a rather unnecessary addition when other sources of humour could have been better and less controversial.

Bill popping up in the episode is typical Steven Moffatt and is yet another reminder of his refusal to let companions go. This repetition of bringing companions back is slightly tiresome and along with the sexism jokes are the main reasons why I rate this 9 rather than full 10 in my personal ratings. However, Pearl Mackie is so good and Bill is such a great companion that she still adds quality to the episode.

The merging of this story with The Tenth Planet and involvement of original Mondasian Cybermen as well as the wonderfully acted recreation of the First Doctor just give this story a magic and nostalgia which combined with moving First World War elements and a very good script make this a mostly great episode and a fitting send off for the brilliant Peter Capaldi.

Thanks to Peter Capaldi for being such a perfect actor to portray the Doctor and thanks to Steven Moffatt for his service to the show. His era as showrunner was not always to my taste but it brought quite a few really excellent episodes to enrich the show, including this one.

My Rating: 9/10.

Series 10 Episode Ranking: 6th out of 14.

This unfortunately the final true Doctor Who episode, the warmth, the beautiful scores by Murray Gold and characters you actually cared about all come to a close here, Peter Capaldi will be missed as one of the best Doctors in the modern who era.

It has to be said this really did feel like the end of a chapter, and a goodbye was said to all from the Steven Moffat/Peter Capaldi era, fond farewells to Clara, Bill, even Mark Gatiss, who's been somewhat a fixture in the show's return was given a great send off. Fortunately the last hurrah was absorbing from start to finish, a wonderfully clever story, dazzling effects, and a proper nod to the show's history.

Capaldi ending his time in style, he was exceptional in this episode, his character has become incredibly well balanced, strong and humorous. David Bradley once again utterly on point in Hartnell's shoes, doing true justice to the first Doctor. A really fine performance from Mark Gatiss also (If you're reading more League of Gentlemen PLEASE!)

Nice touches the whole way through, that poignant moment where the Christmas day ceasefire was remembered, such a powerful moment.

Funny, moving, intriguing, sentimental, the list goes on, the show what it should be, the best thing on at Christmas. 10/10

Capaldi made the role all his own (he was quite dislikeable in his first season though), Once the moon birthed a thing and was flown, The hybrid made no sense, The forest was too dense, Skovox Blitzer too daft to condone (as were the sleep monsters).

The breakout was pure genius, Dalek sewers creating new genus, The monks hypnotised, The Master disguised, Rassilon forced to leave and egress.

Mr. Pink had potential to grow, Clara Oswald a precious cargo, Bill brought us perspective, Made time more connective, Nardole always full of gusto.

Missy stole the show as the Master, Hat's off to the person that cast her, The sparring as good, As it possibly could, Where will it all go from hereafter.

A change is as good as a rest, Let's hope Jodie is one of the best, With a new innovator, Just where will he take her, New companions alongside and abreast.