Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor

For the reviewer who said that the webisode would be incomprehensible to modern fans, I'm not even a fan and I found it comprehensible. All you really need to know to appreciate it is that Paul McGann was the Eighth Doctor but only appeared in a TV Movie back in 1996.

Because it's been seventeen years, he's made enough of a physical change for him to look as if he's been hardened or wisened by events. McGann gets a much better change to acquit himself and remind everybody that he's a very good actor. Far from being the chirpy boy in the TVM, the Eighth Doctor is now world weary. He's still chivalrous but his dashing charms fail to win over space fighter Cass (Emma Campbell Jones).

Seven minutes is barely enough time to establish anything and yet this is still a poignant webisode. The Doctor is known for being a good and trustworthy figure so it's a surprise when we meet someone with a reasonable distrust of him. The whole thing is much darker and whilst there is humour (McGann's opening lines being the best), it's more serious and more interesting than the main series. To use another fifty-year-old series as an analogy, McGann graduates from being a George Lazenby to Timothy Dalton.

The whole thing sent me running to the TVM and Big Finish audios. Though it might be made more for the purpose of filling in blanks and slotting Hurt's Doctor into the canon, it's a terrifically tantalising glimpse of what could have been.

This was a mini episode that got buried away on the BBC Red Button at first but Doctor Who fans will know its true importance and worth as it is the episode where we finally see what became of the 8th Doctor, who we met all too briefly in the 1996 TV Movie.

It acts as a good episode in itself, but also as a very important link between the series as a whole. It sounds odd, but we as an audience do need to see the regeneration of a Doctor, however painful that change can be (I'm happy to see Capaldi's regeneration now though - I've not enjoyed his time in the TARDIS). This mini episode gives us the closure we needed with the 8th Doctor.

The Doctor crash lands on Karn, when ship's pilot Cass learns that Doctor number eight is a timelord she chooses the fate of death rather then spend time with him.

I know Paul McGann only gets minutes in the role, but we are given a glimpse of how amazing he could have been if he's been given a proper stint, surely there could be a means to bring him back one day. I would also like to commend Clare Higgins, she's an excellent character actress, good that she returns in The Magician's Apprentice.

It was a huge surprise that Paul got to play the Doctor, even for a small part, and it look a wee bit recycled, but it wet the appetite enormously for the big special, 8/10.

I was just catching up on the big 50th anniversary show but heard of this little prequel so decided to watch it first. I was a bit surprised to see that it featured Paul McGann (a very short-lived Doctor) and also a bit put off by how very cheap the effects looked in the beginning. This faded though because this little prequel is nicely tough and intense in its presentation, thanks mainly to the delivery from McGann. He does some silly lines but even then he keeps his intensity in his performance and I liked what he did for this short film.

The content I am less sure of but it does at least provide a bit of a link to a version of the Doctor who so far all I know is that he is played by John Hurt – a fact that, annoyingly, the previous episode pushed while still inside the narrative. At least in this case we focus on him as a character or how his character came to be – even if Hurt is only present in a reflection edited in from something else. We'll see if this dark tone can continue into the full special but I'm hoping that it can manage it while also not holding my breath.

The War Doctor's regeneration. Primed for battle after strong fermentation. As the Sisterhood of Karn. Spin the warrior's new yarn. Built for conflict and total devastation.