Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time (2017 Christmas Special)

Okay! Yeah, I enjoyed that. I wouldn't be me if I didn't have my complaints, and as always, let's start with those.

Cons:

The original Doctor being a sexist old man really did not work for me, and there are a few reasons why. First off, I have no idea if this is true of the original character or not, but even if it was, it doesn't make sense. Time Lords are ancient beings from a society wholly different from earth. Would they really have the same stupid hangups about gender? Specifically considering that Time Lords have malleable genders? But I actually have a bigger problem with this. See, it's not necessarily the worst thing in the world to have a sexist character in the story. But this guy isn't just some random old codger. He's meant to be the Doctor. We're meant to connect to him and sympathize with him. So if he's going around saying sexist stuff, there needs to be a real reason behind it. Oh, hey, I've just thought of a reason - the Doctor, as in, our current Doctor, doesn't want to regenerate, because he's afraid of continuing on, of growing and changing. Maybe seeing this old version of himself, with very backwards ideas about gender, could remind him that change is often a very good thing. That over time, he can learn and grow as a person and be better for it. There! I've just attached a simple, sensible moral to the whole "sexist original Doctor" bit. The problem is, they didn't do that! The sexist comments were just played for a laugh! Pulease.

It was cool to see Nardole and Clara there for a tiny moment at the end of the episode, but these moments were so fleeting that they felt a bit like prizes granted to the Doctor for good behavior. I remember Tennant's farewell tour as the Tenth Doctor had his final moments, where he went around and saw all of his companions one last time before regenerating. You want to know why that worked? Because these companions did not appear magically in front of him and tell him how amazing he was. He went and saw them in their own lives, doing their own thing, living on without him, and he got to see the way that life moves on.

There's one other thing I want to say before I turn to the good stuff, of which there is plenty. There's this philosophy in Moffat-era Doctor Who that I've always strongly disliked, that the Doctor is a special snowflake who is uniquely suited to saving the universe and holding everything together. I always liked the idea of him just being an idiot in a box who is a fundamentally good person at heart, and does what he can to help... but the idea of him being the glue that holds it all together smacks of the strongest hubris to me. I've always hated that idea, so I thought I should bring it up here, as it does get talked about.

Pros:

Let's start with the Christmas Armistice of 1914. I've seen this moment fictionalized a billion times, and it never fails to make me weep. I know it's manipulative, I know it's trying to appeal to some base sentimentality inside of me, but whatever. It works. I loved the idea of this poor captain being pulled away in a fantastical adventure, only to be returned to the spot of his death... and then for a purely human miracle to occur and save his life anyway. Also, nice touch about this guy being related to some of the earlier Doctor's companions. As someone who never watched any of the original run of the show, I can't say that the reference resonated for me personally... but it was a cool moment nevertheless.

Mark Gatiss gave a very fine performance as the Captain. In some ways this was his Doctor Who swan song as well as it was Moffat's, and since I don't hate Gatiss as I do Moffat, it was nice to see him get this final moment to stretch his acting wings. He gave a very understated, simple performance as a man out of his own time, and one who is, quite naturally, scared of dying. I love that in the beginning, he's quite willing to trade his spent life for Bill's, but that later on he admits to real qualms about the end of his life. There isn't room in a single episode, or indeed at all in a show like Doctor Who, to delve deep into the tragedy of the First World War. I like how they suggested the scale of this tragedy by having two soldiers, one British and one German, face each other down, holding their weapons on each other. Both are scared. Neither can understand each other. Neither needs to die, and because of the spontaneous armistice, neither ends up losing their life on that particular night. It's a simple way of evoking a complex situation. Very well done.

This episode didn't have much of a plot, and by that I mean it didn't have an "evil plot" that the Doctor had to overthrow. In fact, when he realizes what the glass figures are doing, he's at a loss - how is he supposed to respond to something benevolent and good that's ultimately doing no harm? I like the idea of memory collection in order to preserve the history of life. I also quite like that this episode didn't explore the negative or scary connotations of such an idea. Sure, things can be taken to extremes and go terribly wrong, but in this particular case, everything is actually okay. The conflict of the episode, instead, is the internal one inside of the Doctor - both the original, and now so many years later, the Twelfth. Neither is ready to move on and regenerate, but both must ultimately make the choice to do so.

Capaldi gave a brilliant final performance. I didn't get weepy in his final moments, but I did feel a strong connection to his parting words. There was something understated and lovely about his final acceptance of the regeneration. He's alone in the TARDIS, and he directs his final remarks to the next version of himself, telling the next Doctor to be kind, to choose love over hate, and all of that kind of stuff. And while these words might seem generic, there is something undeniably Doctor Who-ish about them. I enjoyed the first few chaotic moments of the new Doctor, but I won't discuss that here - we'll have to wait and see how things shake out in the new season before making any real judgment.

I'll miss Bill, and there was a very real part of me that hoped she could somehow return and continue on with the new incarnation of the Doctor. Perhaps her memory-self, or even her actual self traveling around with her immortal girlfriend, can pop back up in a future episode to visit. I like the potential of companions that can come back and say hi. For obvious reasons, a lot of them can't. But Bill? Why not!

I suppose in the end this episode was emotionally poignant, a strong farewell to a beloved Doctor and a good jumping-off point for whatever comes next. I certainly will not miss the corrupting influence of Mr. Moffat, and I'm excited to maybe get back to some of the invigorating feeling of Doctor Who in the early revival days, with a new show-runner at the helm, and a new lead taking us on new adventures!

8/10