Media Essays: The Day of the Doctor Rewrite

Written by The Wandering Fox

Oh boy, we’re back everybody with another Doctor Who essay and who else is doing it than The Wandering Fox, eh? Yeah, it’s me, I’m back with another for the TARDIS to take in and materialise an alternate universe where this rewrite happened instead and who knows, maybe it wouldn’t have led to the crap we are stuck with today?

Those of you that don’t know, The Day of the Doctor was the 50th anniversary special celebration episode which saw David Tennant and Billie Piper return as well as Tom Baker to the series, with us meeting the War Doctor properly and resolving the Last Great Time War that had been a big driving plot in the series in its revival history of eight years. I remembered being excited and went to the 50th anniversary convention in London on the day itself and got back home to watch it. And at the time I liked it but then as the days went by I began to pick it apart and I realised it wasn’t anywhere as good as I thought it was. I’d even say Moffat did a disservice to the years prior to the show’s revival and had some bull crap excuse of “Oh, the Classic Doctors are too different and too old to come back, and I don’t want it to be a overdone party!” Heh, yet you brought back Tom Baker, you casted Sir John Hurt and Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, and hey, say what you want about Chibnall, but he brought them back and made it work.

The problems I have are obviously it didn’t do enough to celebrate fifty years of Doctor Who and just celebrated the last eight with the Zygons and Tom Baker thrown in and the Classic Doctors that did appear weren’t even played by their actors in voice cameos. If the Moment could turn into anybody why did it turn into Rose? What about Adric or maybe Romana? David Tennant could easily be removed from the plot and very little would change and I think it’s here I began to become annoyed with Tennant in Doctor Who because he was only here just to get extra arses on the seats to watch the episode. It didn’t even feature a character who should be in these anniversaries and Moffat and RTD couldn’t be bothered: Susan Foreman, the Doctor’s granddaughter. The anniversary itself also aged horribly come Hell Bent which saw Moffat lazily do nothing with the setup of this episode. The anniversary itself also led to problems that people have with Doctor Who today like:

David Tennant coming back.

Tom Baker playing an alternate future Doctor leading to Tennant’s wasted return as an alternate future Doctor.

A mystery Doctor that led to the Timeless Children and the Fugitive Doctor.

Wasting any potential storytelling that could have worked, like bringing back Gallifrey and doing bugger all with it that led to Chibnall binning it.

With the 60th anniversary being the same and just tossed in the Toymaker, Mel, Beep the Meep to say “WE HAVEN’T FORGOTTEN 60 YEARS!” there has been debate back and forth of which anniversary was better, acting like The Five Doctors doesn’t have a say in it. We can all agree that it’s better than Dimensions in Time, but to me Moffat, being the arrogant guy he is, didn’t do us a proper service.

It’s why I’m here to rewrite The Day of the Doctor. If you like the episode, good for you. I didn’t and this is me telling you how I think it could have gone.

Let’s start with who we are cutting out:

Bye David Tennant, bye Sir John Hurt.

Im sorry, but to me Tennant didn’t have to be in it. What the heck did he contribute to the story? Nothing but “Ergh my gawd, it’s David Tennant and Matt Smith, they’re so hot!” And “Hey, Matt’s screwdriver is bigger than David’s!” And he’s just there to bring arses to the seats. That’s all he was there for. David, next time you want to come back to Doctor Who, try and contribute something instead of just being a glorified trophy.

Sir John Hurt, I’m sorry as well as I do like him and he had a great legacy as an actor, but he was just brought in to replace McGann and Eccleston because Eccleston didn’t want to return and had issues with the way Moffat wrote his Doctor, and McGann there’s two things: Moffat said “Oh, I can’t imagine the Eighth Doctor being a fighter and being in a battle” and then it was “The BBC didn’t want McGann in the episode because they thought nobody would be glad to see him”. Firstly, Moffat, you canonised the audios in which the Eighth Doctor DID DO THOSE THINGS! Go listen to Blood of the Daleks and come back to me, Stephen. Secondly, the BBC are just grimy idiots in suits, what do they know about Doctor Who’s characters? Aw, still upset you didn’t make America with the TV Movie? But that’s the thing, John was just brought in to replace them and even then his affects on Doctor Who lasted very little as by the next episode his whole existence was resolved by the Time Lords giving the Doctor extra regenerations. And then Chibnall came along.

Bye Billie Piper.

Moffat just brought her back because he thought he was being clever by saying “Oh, it’s Rose from the Parting of the Ways, she projected herself back to the Moment and the Bad Wolf talked to the War Doctor”. Why didn’t it just have it be the Moment was separate from the Bad Wolf and it just took on different forms of those the Doctor lost?

With that done, who am I bringing in?

Susan. Adric. Romana. The First Doctor. And the Eighth Doctor.

I see people complain Susan didn’t get to do much in the Five Doctors and I’m like “Well. This is your chance, you’re doing the Time War, bring her back”. It helps as well Carol Ann Ford has worked with Paul McGann at Big Finish and they seem to have a good relationship. You want to reintroduce her, then instead of The Night of the Doctor, have it be about Susan battling the Daleks and we find out what happened, just have her slip in a quote of “The Daleks returned years after grandfather left me, and they took away so much from me. I joined this fight to be rid of them”. Then have the Eighth Doctor appear at the end, telling Susan he needs her help. Susan would see what the Doctor is doing and is horrified he wants to destroy all of them, the Daleks, the Time Lords, and she tries to him to find another way, but he is sticking to it, though while this happens, Susan has her own scenes with the Moment, which turns into the First Doctor, he asks how he could live to become like this: the angry and tired Eighth Doctor and the trying to live on and forget it all Eleventh Doctor. He then has Susan remember her family that she lost and think of the other families on Gallifrey, which she finally gets through to the Eighth Doctor. Susan chooses to remain on Gallifrey to see to it it’s restored after the Doctors warp Gallifrey out of the Dalek fleet. And with this, under me, Susan would come back in series 9. For her relationship with the Eleventh Doctor and Clara, Susan can tell the Eleventh Doctor is pained by seeing her and his weariness as he doesn’t know what did occur with her disturbs her a bit but Clara does assure her he’s been well looked after and she wants to see to it he’s freed of the thought of killing the Time Lords.

Adric and Romana can appear as illusions the Moment is making, both questioning the Doctor what he’s doing. Adric reminds the Doctor of those he lost. Romana reminds him of the wisdom she had held on with in the Time War and the sacrifice she made to save others, this really makes the Doctor question himself again if this is what he wants.

The Eighth Doctor easily could have worked as the War Doctor. Let’s just pretend Moffat didn’t get up himself or cowered before the executives. Think of how McGann could’ve been? If it was him that appeared in Name of the Doctor, to see him all grimy, tired, haunted and darkened it would have excited people even more to find out what became of the happy, upbeat and smiley Doctor we met in the TV Movie. Then think of how he’d compose himself to Tennant and Smith, he wouldn’t be suddenly “Oh, hey, you’re my future selves!” he’d be “You are my futures….I can see I smartened myself up after the fighting. But judging by your faces I think I’m not fondly remembered”. By the end to see the Eighth Doctor smiling and happy that he didn’t destroy Gallifrey and his memory will be looked back fondly would really feel like you just watched the last Classic Doctor get a happy ending and finally see him regenerate into Eccleston.

The Eighth Doctor would have his Dark Eyes Sonic Screwdriver and shoulder bag. Image taken at a convention.

The First Doctor would appear as an illusion by the Moment that Susan talks to with David Bradley playing him. It makes sense as Bradley was casted as Hartnell for An Adventure in Space and Time, he’d have that wisdom he ended up having in his adventures and it reminds Susan of who the Doctor was once and his kind wisdom of urging Susan to make her case against the other Doctors would be amazing and it’s the First Doctor in the 50th.

I’d keep Tom Baker in the story, but instead of him being a future Doctor, he’s the Moment now appearing to the Eleventh Doctor, telling him Susan is out there with Gallifrey waiting for him to find them.

The TV movie TARDIS can easily come back, just have the console, rotor and pillars in a dark room, stick some bookcases up and focus filming exactly around the console. Easy.

There’s who’s in it, who isn’t, let’s get on with the story.

It’s mostly the same.

It begins with the Eleventh Doctor and Clara being taken to the art gallery by UNIT, they meet Kate and Osgood who show him a strange portrait of there being two Queen Elizabeth I’s. The Eleventh Doctor vaguely remembers this and we start to see the Time War. The Eighth Doctor gets the Moment with Susan covering him with a gun, shooting a few Daleks and they escape in the TARDIS. They arrive at the shack where the Doctor and Susan debate on what to do with it, Susan wants the Doctor to rethink this but the Doctor says the Time Lords aren’t any different from the Daleks, they’ve been manipulating him for so long that they began the Time War and want to eradicate all life in the universe to ascend. Susan then sees the First Doctor and starts talking to him while the Eighth Doctor sees Adric and then Romana, both of whom remind him of all he lost. Romana has the Doctor recall how she held back the council’s corrupt enough to save as many children as she could before she died and the Doctor feels it was all for nothing. A portal then opens to the Elizabethan era and the Eighth Doctor and Susan go through, with the Doctor bringing his TARDIS through so the Moment is close by within. The Eleventh Doctor goes through and encounters Queen Elizabeth I who tells him she’s being chased by an imposter. The Eleventh Doctor realises this is before he met her as the Tenth Doctor. He is then confronted by the other queen and he is struggling to deduce which is real. The Eighth Doctor and Susan arrive and use the tech they have to force the fake queen being revealed as a Zygon. The Eighth Doctor tells Susan to go with the Queen to fetch some guards and find the Zygon, who flees. The Eleventh Doctor isn’t happy to see the Eighth Doctor.

The Doctors are then captured and thrown in a cell with Susan as the Queen isn’t sure of what to make of all this and wants answers. The Eighth Doctor explains at which point he’s from and the Eleventh Doctor is emotionally shut off but scolds the Eighth Doctor not thinking of Susan. As they argue, Susan is then joined by the First Doctor who is disappointed in his futures but thinks there os a way to help them both. Susan then forces the Doctor’s to stop arguing and reminds them of the Zygon, if there’s a Zygon impersonating the Queen, there could be more impersonating her guards. The Doctor’s escape with Susan and the plot resumes as normal with UNIT and Clara. The Eighth Doctor does feel a bit nostalgic being with UNIT and feels good to have helped stop the Zygons but Susan, feeling that her grandfathers shouldn’t have the burden of Gallifrey’s destruction, goes back to end it herself. The Doctors and Clara follow her and the Eleventh Doctor apologises to the Eighth and tell Susan to step aside. However, Clara chats with Susan and finds out about how hers and David’s family were killed by the Daleks and how she joined the fight to stop them. Eighth Doctor asks then what happens next, the Eleventh Doctor doesn’t remember. Then they start thinking. If they don’t truly remember thanks to the Eleventh Doctor’s presence then maybe they can change the end of the fight. The Moment appears as Adric and Romana and smile to the Eighth Doctor, the First Doctor urges Susan to stand with Gallifrey. Susan tells both Doctors she will stay on Gallifrey to help it and hopes they will come. Both Doctors then unite with their other selves and save Gallifrey.

If you want to at least have the other Doctors return, actually have Tom, Davison, Colin, and Sylvester return. If you want Tennant in it, just have him make a little cameo as he’s in his TARDIS and he gets a telepathic call to do the work of saving Gallifrey and briefly sees the Eleventh Doctor and is thankful to see his future self is doing well.

The Eighth Doctor thanks them all for helping him find another way and goes in his TARDIS to regenerate. The Eleventh Doctor is met by the Curator and is told Susan is alive and Gallifrey is out there. Then the episode ends. And you know what? Have it end with Susan on Gallifrey, she then looks and sees the TARDIS and she smiles as she sees the 12th Doctor step out. They both smile at each other and Susan ends the episode with “I knew you’d come back”, then you end it.

There, see? You could have had it like this.

If only we could have had this instead. If you love The Day of the Doctor, that’s okay, but this to me is how it could have been instead.

I hope you liked this and do leave a comment below. I’m the Wandering Fox and I’ll see you next week for my Sonic Prime rewrite.