I was very nervous going into this episode. Twice Upon a Time is the last episode to be produced by Steven Moffat and the last to star Peter Capaldi as the Doctor. I really wanted it to be good so that both men could leave the show on a high note. At first I was worried that the return of the First Doctor might distract from the departure of the Twelfth. Some of the early publicity and previews put me off as well as they emphasized the First Doctor's sexism. After I finished watching this episode I was much happier.
Twice Upon a Time is a story about deciding when to let go. When the First and Twelfth Doctors meet at the South Pole, they are both trying to stave off their regenerations and cling on to their current identities even if it means they will die. We discover that the First Doctor is afraid of the first change while the Twelfth just wants to stop after all the deaths he has seen. The Doctors are joined at the South Pole by the Captain, a World War One Soldier whose death has been postponed by an error in the timeline and is now being pursued through frozen time by glass people who are seeking to harvest his memories. As the Doctors try to protect the Captain's life they begin to consider whether to regenerate or not, just as the Captain considers whether he will die or not.
Due to the introspective nature of the story, there isn't really a villain at all. The Doctors discover that the Glass People, known as Testimony, are not really antagonists after all. Their reason for seeking peoples' memories is to preserve that person after physical death. It is actually the Doctor at fault because his decision to not regenerate caused the timeline error that drew the Captain to them. Some viewers might be disappointed at the lack of an antagonist but I found it a refreshing change. Not every Doctor Who story has to have a villain.
Bill Potts appears as the avatar for the glass people to get close to the Doctor and find out who he is. I thought this was a good way of including Bill in the story as it did not undo the fate of the real Bill. Her memories could have been preserved at some point after she became human or perhaps just before Heather made her a puddle person. Either way it works and Pearl Mackie is always great as a foil to both Doctors.
Ultimately all three men face their destinies. The Captain chooses to face his death in Ypres but the Twelfth Doctor adjusts the time to occur at the beginning of the Christmas truce so that he is spared.
It was a nice way of including Christmas and the scene of hope in a bleak place gives the two Doctors the motivation to carry on and face their regenerations. The act of kindness from the Twelfth towards the Captain makes the First Doctor see that the good in the universe is caused by the Doctor and gives the Twelfth Doctor motivation to carry on. I had guessed that the truce would be referred to but I was worried that Steven Moffat was going to make the Doctor the cause of it. Thankfully, this did not happen.
The First Doctor's regeneration stays the same and the shots of David Bradley at the console are a nice homage to the original. it is a shame that his final line had to change as I would like Steven Moffat to have kept the keep warm line.
The Twelfth Doctor's regeneration in the Tardis is alright. His final speech was like a resolution to his future self. We get the return of the ‘Never Cruel or Cowardly’ by Terrence Dicks as well as the dislike of pears from Human Nature. ‘Doctor, I let you go’ worked both as a final line for Capaldi playing the Doctor and for Steven Moffatt handing over the creative reins to Chibnall. It is fitting that the last thing we see of the Twelfth Doctor is his eyes and forehead which were the first things we saw of him in The Day of the Doctor.
The first moment with the Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor was very good indeed. Rachael Talalay builds up the tension by giving us brief glimpses of the new Doctor before we see her face.
First is a glimpses of her hand and the old ring dropping off her finger in a homage to the Second Doctor's first appearance. Then we get a blurry POV shot, which is unusual in the show, and a reflection in the scanner screen. Jodie’s first word was good. It was brief enough to keep people hooked. I also liked the ‘To Be Continued’ graphic. These words reinforce the idea that although the era is over the story as a whole is not over. It is slightly let down by an exploing Tardis sequence that feels awfully familiar. Still, Jodie herself looks interesting.
The Captain was a likeable character and it was a nice, if slightly predictable, twist that he is an ancestor to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. He is well played by Mark Gatiss. He showed the stiff upper lip of a British Army Soldier without turning it into a caricature like something from his wonderful comedy series The League of Gentlemen. This character’s appearance makes up for the incident of the Cyber Brig at the end of Death in Heaven.
David Bradley does a good job portraying of the First Doctor. A lot of the character’s ticks are in place including the way he calls the Tardis the ship, his use of a monocle, and calling people ‘my dear’. Some of Moffat’s writing overstates the characters’ sexism and misses the point of the smacked bottom line. Nevertheless this Doctor does get a great speech about trying to find the reason for good in the universe. It is also refreshing to see a less grandstanding Doctor who has yet to gain the titles that his future selves do. It is also fun seeing him puncture some aspects of his future self such as the sonic sunglasses. The inclusion of William Hartnell footage at the beginning and the end reinforces that this is a tribute performance and not an attempt to replace the original leading man.
Of course, the real focus of this episode is Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor who is, of course brilliant. He is funny when he is bantering with his older incarnation and his reaction to seeing Bill again is heart-warming. You really get the sense that his Doctor cares about the people around him
This episode also featured a surprise cameo by Rusty, the ‘good Dalek’ when the Doctor goes to him for knowledge about Testimony. It might have seemed quite self-referential but there is something fitting in the idea that the Doctor should meet someone from his earliest adventure. Twice Upon a Time highlights the importance of the Doctor as a force for good so it is interesting to compare the olderTwelfth Doctor, a dark, pragmatic Time Lord who didn’t care about the deaths of other soldiers to the Doctor that we see now who is trying to protect the life of the Captain
The only other cameo appearance s of note were Nardole and Clara, manifested by the glass people to say goodbye to the Twelfth Doctor. It was nice to see Nardole back. As with Bill, I am glad that this departure looking after the children of the colony ship has not been overwritten. One might surmise that he was finally got at by the Cybermen or perhaps he held off the Cybermen long enough to die of natural causes. There is perhaps room for a future tie-in comic, novel or audio to bring him back. Clara’s final words were good even though she was obviously on green screen. At least it clears up the issue of the Doctor’s memory problems so he remembers her.
Rachael Talalay is to be congratulated for making the regeneration and the entirety of the episode, work so well. The original series had Douglas Camfield and Graeme Harper as their best directors and Rachael Talalay is equal to those in being able to make the show look better in a way her contemporaries couldn’t manage. The Tardis has never looked so gorgeous as it does here She recreates Derek Martinus’; shot of the First Doctor standing over the Tardis. Her use of ‘John Smith’ for VFX is a wise one as the time vortex looked amazing as did the transition from black and white Hartnell footage to the widescreen David Bradley footage. There are also beautiful shots such as when the Twelfth Doctor raps his coat around him in the cold battlefield. I hope that Rachael comes back for the Chibnall era but if not she will be missed.
Murray Gold reuses a lot of old themes here including ‘Vale Decem’ and the ‘Flavia theme’ but if this is to be his last story then he deserves to make it a greatest hits package. He has done a lot for the show after all so he is allowed this one indulgence. He has been the only composer from the show’s return in 2005 so his departure would be a momentous event for the series.
Twice Upon a Time doesn’t quite reach the heights of Heaven Sent or The Doctor Falls but it was a nice, acceptable end to the Steven Moffat era and a good send off to the wonderful Peter Capaldi. We can look back at the Capaldi era fondly as we go into the Chibnall series and the onus of producing good Doctor Who falls to him. Congratulations to Steven Moffat and Peter Capaldi.
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