I was blown away by the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special,\u00a0\u201cTwice Upon a Time, written by Steven Moffat. It begins with \u201cPreviously on Doctor Who\u201d followed not by a recap of the last episode, but \u201c709 Episodes Ago\u201d and both original footage and new from the classic episode \u201cThe Tenth Planet,\u201d which featured the first regeneration<\/a>. Unfortunately holiday travels delayed my watching it and blogging about it, and so I apologize that I am only getting this onto my blog today. The post includes spoilers, if you haven\u2019t seen the episode yet.<\/p>\n The\u00a0story\u00a0is not\u00a0exactly\u00a0what I guessed it would be back in June 2017<\/a>, but I am still struck that I was on the right track about so much. The premise is that Doctor refused to regenerate at the south pole \u2013 and did so twice! I loved that they both included scenes from \u201cThe Tenth Planet\u201d<\/a> and also redid some and added more with David Bradley as the First Doctor<\/a>, who did an excellent job, I thought, just as he did in An Adventure in Time and Space<\/a>. Apparently in the original script for \u201cThe Tenth Planet,\u201d in a scene that was never filmed, the Doctor initially resisted regeneration<\/a>. Moffat was drawing on a very deep knowledge of Doctor Who in this episode.<\/p>\n The episode begins with the two Doctors meeting, soon followed by them encountering a WWI soldier who has been lifted out of his time, a foxhole in Ypres in 1914<\/a>. Therein, two soldiers\u00a0(one English one German) are holding each other at gunpoint. The English one (referred to until the end of the episode simply as \u201cthe captain,\u201d played by Mark Gatiss) says he has no wish to kill except in self defense. Then time freezes, a\u00a0translucent female figure appears, a \u201ctimeline error\u201d warning sounds, and then he is transported to the south pole, where falling snow has also frozen in midair.<\/p>\n There was a lot of excellent humor of the sort that is required when more than one Doctor appears in an episode. The captain\u2019s words \u201cI don\u2019t suppose either of\u00a0you is a doctor\u201d gets an appropriate response from the current Doctor, who asks, \u201cAre you trying to be funny?\u201d When the captain responds to the Doctor\u2019s mention of \u201cWorld War One\u201d\u00a0by asking \u201cwhat do you mean by \u2018one\u2019?\u201d he replies with an echo of River Song\u2019s phrase: \u201cSorry \u2013 spoilers.\u201d And it is fun when the First Doctor discusses the electric guitar, sonic screwdriver, and sunglasses.\u00a0Given the Doctor\u2019s early tendency to turn his female companions into \u201cassistants,\u201d it was great to see the First Doctor invent a role for his future self as his assistant, his\u00a0\u201cnurse.\u201d The episode uses the presence of the First Doctor to tackle the sexism of the earlier show (as in most if not all TV in the 1960s). The presence of strong female characters in the episode \u2013 including the return of Bill Potts and later Clara Oswald, as well as the Doctor herself after the regeneration \u2013 provides the strongest challenge to that legacy.<\/p>\n The mysterious translucent figure\u2019s ship takes the TARDIS on board. She introduces herself and the other entities of which she is a part as\u00a0\u201cwhat awaits at the end of every life\u2026We are testimony.\u201d They travel back from the future to harvest something from those who are about to die \u2013 memories. The interaction with the show\u2019s past and future makes this theme of memories a powerful one about the show as well as within the narrative. The reference to the \u201cDoctor of War\u201d as\u00a0Testimony shows the First Doctor his future reminds us of how the Doctor\u2019s actions have evolved over the years through the classic as well as the modern series. And when \u201cthe Shadow of the Valeyard<\/a>\u201d mentioned among the Doctor\u2019s many names, it is not merely an allusion to the classic series<\/a>, but one that strikes at the very heart of the Doctor\u2019s shadow side.<\/p>\n When the Doctors and their companions end up in the First Doctor\u2019s TARDIS, the Doctor finds he needs access to a bigger database than is there. He mentions the Matrix on Gallifrey, then reconsiders, as\u00a0there is something bigger than the Matrix. They then travel to the center of the universe where one can apparently find the most comprehensive database in the universe. There is just one problem \u2013 its owner\u00a0wants to kill the Doctor. That individual turns out to be the \u201cgood Dalek\u201d whom the Doctor nicknamed \u201cRusty\u201d in the episode \u201cInto The Dalek.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 The Doctor persuades Rusty to give him access to the Dalek database so that he can identify the person whose transluscent image had been appearing to them.<\/p>\n Bill Potts asks the Doctor what he was running to\u00a0<\/em>rather than what he was running from when he left Gallifrey. When he tells her that is a good question, she says,\u00a0\u201cQuestions are kind of my thing.\u201d His response is that by\u00a0any analysis, evil should always win. \u201cGood is not a practical survival strategy\u2026so why does good always prevail?\u201d The Doctor went looking for an answer to the question of whether there was some force at work behind the scenes. When it becomes clear that he has no idea who or what that might be,\u00a0Bill suggests that there might be a bloke holding it all together, which the Doctor dismisses as simply a fairytale. This is Doctor Who at its most theological, as it contemplates the possibility that a being with a kind heart, a long life, and a time machine could in fact produce the kind of thing we see in the universe, one that has a tendency towards chaos and evil and yet in which good regularly claws its way in that direction. Later in the episode, this divine or mythical aspect of the Doctor is highlighted as the current Doctor tells his original self,\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re right. The universe generally fails to be a fairy tale. That\u2019s where we come in.\u201d<\/p>\n Consulting the Dalek database, they\u00a0learn that the person represented in Testimony is Prof. Helen Clay\u00a0from New Earth, who would live in the year 5,000,000,012. She refers to their efforts to gather the memories of all who die and preserve them (an effort very reminiscent of the Matrix of the time lords). The statement\u00a0\u201cThis is heaven on new earth\u201d highlights the theological aspect of that endeavor, too. The Doctor is struck that what he is dealing with is not an evil plan, and says he doesn\u2019t really know what to do under such circumstances \u2013 at which point he is reminded,\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re not the only kind one in the universe.\u201d It turns out that the Doctor trying to die twice caused a temporal disruption. As he returns the captain to his own time, when he is supposed to die, the captain asks him to look in on his family, and it turns out that he is the ancestor of Brigadier\u00a0Lethbridge Stewart. The Doctor, however, had brought him back a few hours later to save his life. Just as he and the other soldier are likely to shoot each other, we hear the\u00a0sound of Stille Nacht sung by German soldiers, then the English responding with Silent Night. The Doctor says that it is\u00a0\u201cChristmas 1914 and a human miracle is about to happen\u2026It never happened again in any war, anywhere.\u201d The latter is not quite true, but the event is still a striking one, historically speaking, and makes a beautiful point within the episode, as it is\u00a0a spontaneous\u00a0expression of kindness which the Doctor witnesses rather than causes.<\/p>\n The importance of memories (of the show as well as on the show) is a central theme of the episode. Bill is said to be a \u201cduplicate\u201d but she responds by asking what anyone is but a collection of memories. As Testimony seeks to emphasize the importance of memories, the Doctor is given his memories of Clara back. The Doctor says that his own memories, his testimony, would shatter all their glass vessels. The inevitability that all lives and all stories must end, including his own, offers a complementary rather than contrasting focus on mortality, one that goes hand in hand with the emphasis on memory in conjunction with the question of whether a collection of memories simply is an individual rather than a copy or imitation. The Doctor asks, \u201cCan\u2019t I ever have peace? Can\u2019t I rest?\u2026A life this long is a battlefield, and it\u2019s empty because everyone else has fallen.\u201d He goes on to say that it is\u00a0\u201ctime to leave the battlefield.\u201d Furthermore he refers to the\u00a0\u201csilly old universe. The more I save it the more it needs saving. It\u2019s a treadmill.\u201d But ultimately he decides that \u201cOne more lifetime won\u2019t kill anyone\u201d \u2013 other than himself.<\/p>\n The Doctor then offers a speech that is rather like the testaments known from within the Bible as well as extracanonical Jewish and Christian literature. In this case, however, the speech is not addressed to descendants but to the Doctor\u2019s own future self. In it he says things such as the\u00a0\u201cHate is always foolish and love is always wise.\u201d The Doctor also says that\u00a0no one can be allowed to hear his name<\/a>, and no one would understand it anyway. He then qualifies that statement, however, by saying that children can hear his name if their heart is in the right place and the stars are too. This makes a direct connection with the ability of children to appreciate fairy tales when adults often fail to.\u00a0Eventually he says, \u201cDoctor, I let you go,\u201d and we get a depiction of his regeneration. As his hands change size, the Doctor\u2019s\u00a0ring falls off, in an echo<\/a> of the effect of the first regeneration as seen in the episode \u201cPower of the Daleks,\u201d the first to feature Patrick Troughton as the Doctor<\/a>. And as Jodie Whittaker<\/a> steps into the role, her first words as the Doctor turn out to be\u00a0\u201cAh, brilliant.\u201d\u00a0The episode ends with quite a cliffhanger, as the TARDIS dumps books and eventually also the Doctor out through its doors! This might be striking symbolism of the way the show has regularly jettisoned the old even while maintaining an element of continuity. Some of the continuity is even audible in the use of music, as we hear strains of the Doctor\u2019s theme music from previous seasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n The language the Doctor used very early in the episode, that \u201cwe must change and go on or die as we are,\u201d was poignant for more than one reason. The introduction of\u00a0regeneration involved a serious risk for the show back in the 1960s, just as changing the gender of the Doctor does today. While most fans are simply delighted by this as all other instances of continuity and change, some then as now would prefer that the show die rather than change in ways that make them uncomfortable. But Doctor Who \u2013 both on screen and behind the scenes \u2013 is all about having the courage to change nonetheless.<\/p>\n I found this to be a wonderful episode. What did you think of it?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was blown away by the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special,\u00a0\u201cTwice Upon a Time, written by Steven Moffat. It begins with \u201cPreviously on Doctor Who\u201d followed not by a recap of the last episode, but \u201c709 Episodes Ago\u201d and both original footage and new from the classic episode \u201cThe Tenth Planet,\u201d which featured the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":42621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[14992,1918,2394,2395,2765,14826,6502,8805,8991,10126,11908,11910,13753],"class_list":["post-42619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-doctor-who-science-fiction","tag-bill-potts","tag-clara-oswald","tag-dalek","tag-daleks","tag-doctor-who","tag-jodie-whittacre","tag-lethbridge-stewart","tag-patrick-troughton","tag-peter-capaldi","tag-regeneration","tag-steven-moffat","tag-steven-moffatt","tag-william-hartnell"],"yoast_head":"\n