‘Doctor Who’ 50th Anniversary Special review: John Hurt’s Time War, Tom Baker, and Gallifrey

From the closing seconds of “The Name of the Doctor” earlier this year, we first knew that the “Doctor Who” 50th Anniversary Special was going to air on Saturday, November 23. This was easily the most-anticipated episode in the history of the BBC One series: Not only did you have the return of David Tennant and Billie Piper, but there was also the appearance of John Hurt as what is being referred to as the War Doctor.

So what does this name mean? For the first time, we had some real, substantial footage of the Time War, and the move that this man (not really The Doctor) made to take the lives of millions. Meanwhile, the Zygons in the present were causing quite the calamity, and it was all courtesy of a situation back in the 16th century … where we learned that the 10th Doctor apparently married Queen Elizabeth.

The first thing that you really have to mention here is that this special was not necessarily our favorite episode of the series even though it has so many of our favorites, but, it was still spectacular. Do we understand the critiques on Twitter already about the special being a tad confusing? Sure, but we feel like over the course of the 70 minutes, we started to understand how this was really the story about how the War Doctor made the decision to kill so many, and creating the blood that all future versions of the character would carry with them.

There were a plethora of funny quips that came in here, especially in between Tennant and Matt Smith, but there was also a great sense of pain and suffering. Steven Moffat has said for years that he is interested in showing off the character’s dark side, and this certainly was that and then some. It was the impossible decision to either destroy his own people, or allow the world to burn. There was seemingly no other way … but then there was.

This is the beauty of “Doctor Who”: The creativity and the imagination of it all. In turning Gallifrey into what was basically a living painting, the planet could still exist. The Daleks could look like they destroyed each other, so many lives could be saved to go about living, oblivious as to the moves that really happen. The planet was frozen within a place in time, stuck in its own pocket universe. This isn’t ideal, but it’s a heck of a lot better than murdering millions. John Hurt’s character finally had his redemption, though it was brief.

So with this big move for The Doctor, we had a brilliant move to close what ended up being a brilliant special, save for a nice cameo from Tom Baker and a cliffhanger regarding The Doctor’s journey now to find his home and try to save it yet again. This still goes down in the top ten episodes of all time in our book, and while it started slow, it ended with more than just a bang. It ended with a flourish of nostalgia and genre joy that brings out the “Doctor Who” fan in all of us. Grade: A-.

If you want to look ahead at the “Doctor Who” Christmas special, just click here to read what Matt Smith had to say about the event, and signing off as the iconic character.

Photo: BBC One