Monday, September 7, 2015

The Night of the Doctor

Dear Gary—
“I’m not injured; I’m crashing. I don’t need a doctor.”
I usually don’t write about the mini-episodes, but The Night of the Doctor is not only brilliant it is almost essential viewing prior to The Day of the Doctor.
Cass, a fighter pilot in the middle of the infamous Time War utters those lines as cited above; but it could be the Doctor Who universe speaking. The brief minutes of The Night of the Doctor manage to bridge deep chasms and answer numerous questions within that universe, and it does so in most elegant fashion.
The enigmatic Ninth Doctor emerges from the TARDIS in Rose with deep angst, and only slowly do we get pieces of his dark history and the tragedy of the Time Lords. At the end of The Name of the Doctor we are introduced to the mysterious non-Doctor persona of the Doctor. In Night we get the transitional tale explaining the creation of this inscrutable character as well as finally getting closure on the Eight Doctor.
The linchpin making all of this work is Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor. Paul McGann is the best thing, possibly the only good thing, about Doctor Who the TV Movie. It is wonderful to see more of him as the Doctor. Even in these fleeting moments of screen time Paul McGann is the Doctor.
The story starts out in typical Doctor Who fashion with the Doctor materializing in the midst of danger to save the day. Cass is crashing and there is no hope. The Doctor arrives and leads her to safety; leads her to the TARDIS. Except to Cass the TARDIS is not a symbol of hope and the Doctor is not her savior.
“You’re a Time Lord,” she accuses as she turns from him in contempt.
This is what the Time War has wrought.
Rather than leave without her, the Doctor crashes along with Cass on the planet of Karn where the Sisterhood awaits. I always wondered if the Sisterhood of Karn with their Elixir of Life would make a reappearance. They once saved the Fourth Doctor (The Brain of Morbius), and now they again stand ready with their potion to bring him back from the dead and to trigger his regeneration.
The little we get of McGann shows glimmers of that Fourth Doctor. “Four minutes?” he considers when he learns that is all of life he has left. “That’s ages. What if I get bored, or need a television, couple of books? Anyone for chess? Bring me knitting.” And then when he realizes where he is and with whom: “You’re the Sisterhood of Karn, Keepers of the Flame of utter boredom.” Yes, he comfortably inhabits the Doctor.
 “It’s not my war; I will have no part of it,” he tells Ohila as she urges him to put an end to the Time War. “I help where I can. I will not fight,” he adds. Paul McGann’s delivery of these simple lines expresses the overwhelming weariness that weighs upon him. But standing before the dead body of the woman who refused his help and with the words of Ohila ringing in his ears, the Doctor can no longer ignore the screaming universe: “I’m not injured; I’m crashing. I don’t need a doctor.”
“Make me a warrior now,” he says as he resigns himself to the inevitable. Calling upon his companions of the past, he drinks the potion.
“Doctor no more.”
A very young looking John Hurt stares back in reflection and we're ready for the battle ahead.
So much is told in these few minutes, Gary. Paul McGann very well could have rivaled Tom Baker in my heart given enough time and given the right production team.

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