Doctor Who 2017 Christmas Special - Twice Upon A Time - Review
Starring: Peter Capaldi, David Bradley, Pearl Mackie & Mark Gatiss
Written By: Steven Moffat
Directed By: Rachel Talalay
You
know, compared to every other actor's tenure on the show, it's Peter
Capaldi's era where I have the clearest and greatest number of
memories. While I grew up watching Christopher Eccleston, David
Tennant and Matt Smith's Doctors, I was really too young at the time
to remember things like casting or departure announcements. Yet I can
still clearly remember the announcement of Peter Capaldi as the
Doctor when I was fourteen years old. I can just as clearly remember
the day I first sat and enjoyed Deep Breath in
the following year. And even though I'm now sitting down to
review Twice Upon A Time at
eighteen years old, these years have literally flown by, and I
can't quite believe it's the end of his tenure. But here we are, and
it's time to finally say goodbye to the 12th Doctor...
Having
arrived in the South Pole, the injured and dying 12th
Doctor refuses to regenerate. It's here where he encounters the 1st
Doctor, who is also approaching the end of his life yet refuses to
regenerate. As the two Doctors meet, they find something has gone
very wrong with time... it quite literally appears to have frozen.
When they encounter a WWI British Army Captain, lost and with no idea
what's happening, the two Doctors have one last job to do: to discover
what's brought time to a halt and what it has to do with some
mysterious glass people...
If
there's one thing I knew I could pretty much guarantee about Twice
Upon A Time, it's that it
would look incredible. No matter what the quality of the script she's
been given to work with, any episode with Rachel Talalay in the
director's chair looks stunning. Even the abomination Hell
Bent at least looked
beautiful, and she's probably the best director to have graced the
show since Graeme Harper. The five months this episode spent in
post-production certainly paid off, with the production values
throughout maintaining a pretty high level. The snowy South Pole
landscape, Testimony's spaceship, the original TARDIS console room,
the crimson-tinted skies of Villengard, or even the WWI battlefield –
it all looks fantastic, especially together with Rachel Talalay's
gorgeous direction. (Spoiler Warning!) I
have seen some criticism aimed at the CGI used to create the glass
people, but given what they're eventually revealed to be, I personally think they're stylized appearance suits
them and feels appropriate.
We
also have a brilliant cast in Twice Upon A Time
and everyone does a terrific job with what they're given.
Surprisingly, I find myself having to give special mention to Mark
Gatiss for his role as the Captain. While I knew full well that he
was a great actor, having proved himself in episodes before this like
The Lazarus Experiment,
I still wasn't expecting just how many emotions his performance here
was able to get out of me. That moment when the Doctor tells the
Captain he's from 'WWI', and he doesn't understand what the Doctor
means by 'World War One' really struck a chord with me. This poor
man, who thinks he's fighting the war to end all wars, suddenly
learns it's for nothing – it's such a powerful moment, as is the
WWI Christmas truce this episode depicts. In his last outing as the
Doctor, it's great to see Peter Capaldi on his usual top form,
managing to be funny, dramatic and heartfelt, particularly as the
episode draws towards a close. The re-appearance of Bill, while not
strictly necessary, did make me realize how much I'd missed her and
the 12th Doctor's dynamic, and once again, Pearl Mackie keeps things grounded,
injecting some laughs while also giving a very natural, enjoyable
performance.
However
it's easily David Bradley who has the hardest job here, as he has to
put up with a very misread interpretation of the 1st
Doctor. I'd been worried about this in the lead-up to this episode,
with Steven Moffat describing the 1st
Doctor in interviews as being hilariously un-PC. It feels like he's
mixing up William Hartnell as an actor, with the 1st
Doctor as a character. Sure, William Hartnell could say things that
wouldn't sit well in a modern context, but that wasn't really the
same with the 1st
Doctor, who's cranky exterior would quickly fade away. Apart from the
already frankly weird and out of place “jolly good
smacked bottom” line that he
says to Susan in The Dalek Invasion Of Earth,
the 1st
Doctor I remember is the pacifistic alien that saw above petty human
hatred, not a stereotype from the 60s. It is thankfully David
Bradley's fantastic performance that saves the day, and he approaches
the role with the same respect, dignity and faithfulness as he did in
An Adventure In Space & Time.
The scenes that the character shares with Bill are another highlight,
with that discussion and hug they share while on Villengard being
properly heart-warming. We were also treated to a very powerful
moment when the 1st
Doctor learns about his future from, as we got to see the difference
between what the Doctor first set out to achieve all those years ago,
and what he eventually ended up becoming.
It
is a shame however that while there are plenty of moments of
brilliance like this throughout Twice Upon A Time,
the overall plot they're set against is remarkably thin. A good 50%
of the hour-long runtime is made up of scenes that don't remotely
concern the main plot, and are just characters talking to each other
about themselves. The glass people storyline that had been teased in
the trailers ended up incredibly forgettable and inconsequential.
(Spoiler Warning!) The
fact that Testimony's purpose is to extract people from their
timeline at the moment of their death to archive their memories,
would be an interesting one if it weren't for the fact that it's been
done before. For one last time it seems that Steven Moffat is
borrowing from himself again, and recycling ideas about the afterlife
from Dark Water and
Death In Heaven.
And given what that two-parter established about what happens when
people die, the Doctor Who universe
now has one very over-complicated afterlife.
Seeing
as this is Steven Moffat's last Doctor Who episode,
I was preparing myself for a lot of references, surprise appearances
and throwbacks in Twice Upon A Time,
and make no mistake, there are tons of them. While I know I've grown
weary of the countless lazy references the show keeps making as of
late, and how they've gradually isolated the casual viewer, for once
I actually welcomed them. Maybe it's just because this is Steven
Moffat's last chance as head writer to get it out of his system, or
maybe I'm just going soft. (Skip ahead now to the next
paragraph to avoid spoilers!)
But to see scenes from The Tenth Planet
re-broadcast on prime time BBC One fifty-one years later is just
wonderful. Then as we follow an incredible transition from 4:3 black
and white footage to 16:9 full HD colour, we see moments from that
story gloriously re-created, that even feature Ben and Polly. One
callback I certainly wasn't expecting was
for Rusty from Into The Dalek to
show up. At first it felt like a very strange decision, but I
actually really liked the direction that Steven Moffat took with
Rusty. The idea of Rusty becoming this legendary figure for revolting
against the Daleks, and having to spend centuries in hiding defending
himself from Daleks that have come to kill him … I really like it.
What makes it even more interesting is the fact that Rusty's isolated
years appear to have made him resent the Doctor just as much for what
he did. Then of course Steven Moffat has to pay tribute to past
characters too, revealing that the 'Captain' is in fact one of the
Brigadier's ancestors, most likely his granddad. And to mark the 12th
Doctor's departure, we also get a cameo appearance from Clara, which
I'm sure will have triggered more than one of her less than
enthusiastic fans. Even though I was always fairly middling about
Clara, her appearance here was kept short, sweet and it even managed
to get a smile out of me, and the same applies to Nardole's
reappearance. There was undeniably a lot of nostalgia in Twice
Upon A Time, and it could
even be picked up on in subtler ways, such as in Murray Gold's music.
Rumour has it that this will also be Murray Gold's last outing for
Doctor Who too, and he
brings back a lot of his classic tracks to go out on. The music from
the end of Doomsday,
as well as the stunning track from the 'breaking the wall' scene in
Heaven Sent are
just your starting point. You also hear the beautiful 'Vale Decem' at
the start of the 1st
Doctor's regeneration, as well as hearing the 9th
Doctor's theme for Jodie Whittaker's first scene as the Doctor.
(Skip
ahead now to the next paragraph to avoid spoilers!) Speaking of
Jodie Whittaker, there's no way I could wrap up this review without
talking about the regeneration itself. Peter Capaldi's last five
minutes as the Doctor make for a fitting end, and you can really feel
the emotion and meaning that he applies to every single word. His
last line, “Doctor, I let you go”, I particularly liked as
it can be read as both this incarnation of the Doctor finally coming
to terms with what lies ahead, as well as Peter Capaldi and Steven
Moffat being able to let go too. As the regeneration process finally
begins, I have to commend Rachel Talalay's fantastic work again. The
TARDIS looks stunning, with some incredible cinematography and
lighting as the Doctor regenerates in a climactic explosive burst of
energy. And finally Jodie Whittaker makes her debut, and with just
her first words, “Ohh brilliant!”, I'm already grinning
like an idiot. The smile she gives, as well as the fact that she gets
to keep her Northern accent for the role, have my hopes set high. We
end the episode with a dramatic cliffhanger as the new Doctor is
thrown out of a struggling, exploding TARDIS. It brings back memories
of The Eleventh Hour and I'm looking forward to seeing
what kind of resolution Chris Chibnall will deliver.
To
conclude, Twice Upon A Time is
a fairly solid special, at least when judged against the standards of
Doctor Who's previous
Christmas episodes. It's too self-indulgent sure, but for once given
the occasion, I can enjoy and forgive that. While the weak,
paper-thin story and some of the characterization does let this one
down, the great cast, wonderful direction and Peter Capaldi's final
performance as the Doctor is enough to just about save it. Steven
Moffat, it's been an ... interesting journey – thank you. Peter
Capaldi ... you were a wonderful Doctor, and I'm really going to miss
you from the show. Jodie Whittaker, Chris Chibnall ... I have faith
in both of you and I'm really looking forward to what's to come in
the show's future.
Twice Upon A Time
7/10