The Day of the Doctor
Source: ScienceFiction.com
That’s the title of the upcoming Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special, as announced by the BBC. They also indicated that “The Day of the Doctor” will be 75 minutes long (that’s an hour and fifteen minutes for those who are a little slow at mathematics), which, as I recall, is about the length of the final episode of David Tennant’s era, “The End of Time, Part 2.” So, not quite feature length, but certainly a bit longer than the average episode.
There are some other goodies for BBC viewers to enjoy around that time, too, including Mark Gatiss’ docudrama “An Adventure in Space and Time,” which looks back at the show’s origins, as well as lectures, documentaries, and special programs. For those of us in the US, I’m not sure how much of this we will get. I’m fairly confident BBC America will make Saturday, November 23rd “Doctor Who Day,” but I hope there’s more to their celebration than re-runs of old episodes, the Special, then re-runs of the Special. I would like to think we’ll get the docudrama, and perhaps some other Who-related shows.
Whatever ends up happening, be sure to be watching at 7 pm GMT, 2 pm ET, 11 am PT on Saturday, November 23rd for THE DAY OF THE DOCTOR! As for my family, we’ll be watching with my Mum, who is planning on visiting us from the UK in November, which will make it even more special! Meanwhile, my younger brother will be in London watching at the official celebration, along with Matt Smith and all the other guests and hundreds of Who fans.
Do you have plans for celebrating Doctor Who’s Fiftieth?
Unlike a great many of my family and friends, I don’t watch Doctor Who–but! Before you freak out, this is mostly because I don’t watch TV at all. I’ve also never really been a sci-fi person. (Like, for instance, the weird cat people in that one episode–I could handle those in a fantasy setting (probably…maybe…) but once you put them on a spaceship I start to have issues.)
Sometimes I call myself an honorary fan because I got to see David Tennant and Catherine Tate perform Much Ado About Nothing live. (It was AWESOME oh my gosh it was so funny I cried.) Who fans always freak out when I tell them that. 😛
Wow–that’s awesome, Susan! I’m sure they were hilarious–they really do work well together. Can you imagine what it would be like watching them for a whole season of Doctor Who? Does this not tempt you at all to check out Season Four? 😀
In all honesty, I think calling Doctor Who sci-fi is a bit like calling Harry Potter fantasy. It is, but it’s not, and it’s so much more. And you can watch episodes online, so you don’t need to be a TV-watcher. Sold yet? 😀
You can’t blame me for trying…
I can’t believe I’ve never seen this show. Anytime I see or hear it mentioned, I feel like I’m missing something. I want to know what the scarves and telephone booths are about.
Doctor Who in a nutshell: It’s a show about a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels through time and space in a spaceship called the TARDIS. The TARDIS is bigger on the inside than on the outside, and is supposed to change its appearance to fit its surrounding. However, on a visit to England in the early 1960s, it changed into a police telephone box and got stuck in that form. Like all Time Lords, when the Doctor dies his body regenerates. Since the show started in 1963, the Doctor has gone through 10 regenerations. He’s currently on #11, and is about to change into #12 at Christmas.
The show went off the air in 1989, and aside from a 1996 TV movie, no episodes were made until the show was revived in 2005. Pre-2005 Doctor Who is known as “Classic” Who, and the 2005+ series is known as “New Series” or the “reboot.”
If you’re interested in getting completely sucked into this world (trust me, it happens), I recommend you start with Season 1 of the re-boot starring Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor and work your way through to the present. Very wisely, when they rebooted the series, they assumed the audience knew nothing of the show’s history, so all the key concepts and backstory are introduced gradually.
Oh, and as for the scarf thing–the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker from 1974-1981, was known for wearing an incredibly long, multi-colored scarf. It became iconic particularly of his Doctor.
So, that’s Doctor Who in about as brief a nutshell as I can manage. You really ought to check it out sometime, Medeia. It’s such a lot of fun, excitement… and some really good story-telling. 🙂
I am SO excited for this. I don’t normally have access to BBC America, so this is the first time ever I’ll get to watch an episode live. One of my roommates (who I, incidentally, introduced to Doctor Who) and I have plans to curl up in front of the TV and watch together.
In a way, it’s such a shame Doctor Who is on BBC America since that limits its exposure–but on the other hand, unless it was pulling 20-30 million viewers, I doubt any of the major networks would let it broadcast an episode live, so being on BBC America has its advantages.
How exciting for to get to see a Who episode the day of broadcast, at last. And even better–this one you’ll get to see AT THE EXACT SAME TIME it’s broadcast in the UK!! That’s so cool it’s liquid nitrogen! 😀
I might, just might, watch this episode live. Normally, I record them to watch at my leisure, but I might celebrate by watching it as it happens. With it recording, too, so I can watch it again later! I’m quite excited about it, but I’m determined to not read anything that might hint what will happen so I don’t spoil it for myself.