Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor

In 1989 the BBC canceled the old Doctor Who show. In 1996, Fox TV broadcast a two-hour one-shot, intended as a pilot for a revival, starring Paul McGann as the Ninth Doctor. Alas, it didn't take and it wasn't until 2005 that the show was successfully revived.

In the meantime, Paul McGann was the official current Doctor: in magazines, comics, spin-off novels and audio releases from Big Finish Productions, Paul McGann was the Doctor. Fans, of course, argued the point, but that's what fans do. However, the current BBC has clearly accepted McGann's appearance as canonical in various ways, starting with 2007's "Human Nature".

It's great to see Paul McGann appear in this prologue to next Saturday's Fiftieth Anniversary Special. It's fun for me, as a fan of the new and classic shows, to see McGann finally get a chance to officially reprise the role and to mention some of the companions that accompanied him in those years of exile. It feels like vindication.

However, there is so much crammed into its six minutes -- McGann, Karn, the Last Great Time War, the companions and more -- that I had to watch it twice to catch all the references. To a fan of the modern show, unfamiliar with McGann, it will be utterly incomprehensible.

Still, as an act of personal sentiment, I'm glad it was done. It's also a nice teaser; did McGann film this as part of a super-secret appearance in the 50th Anniversary Show? I'll have to wait a week to find out.

The War Doctor's regeneration. Primed for battle after strong fermentation. As the Sisterhood of Karn. Spin the warrior's new yarn. Built for conflict and total devastation.

For the reviewer who said that the webisode would be incomprehensible to modern fans, I'm not even a fan and I found it comprehensible. All you really need to know to appreciate it is that Paul McGann was the Eighth Doctor but only appeared in a TV Movie back in 1996.

Because it's been seventeen years, he's made enough of a physical change for him to look as if he's been hardened or wisened by events. McGann gets a much better change to acquit himself and remind everybody that he's a very good actor. Far from being the chirpy boy in the TVM, the Eighth Doctor is now world weary. He's still chivalrous but his dashing charms fail to win over space fighter Cass (Emma Campbell Jones).

Seven minutes is barely enough time to establish anything and yet this is still a poignant webisode. The Doctor is known for being a good and trustworthy figure so it's a surprise when we meet someone with a reasonable distrust of him. The whole thing is much darker and whilst there is humour (McGann's opening lines being the best), it's more serious and more interesting than the main series. To use another fifty-year-old series as an analogy, McGann graduates from being a George Lazenby to Timothy Dalton.

The whole thing sent me running to the TVM and Big Finish audios. Though it might be made more for the purpose of filling in blanks and slotting Hurt's Doctor into the canon, it's a terrifically tantalising glimpse of what could have been.

This is a prequel to the much anticipated 50th anniversary special of DOCTOR WHO and the striking thing is how much potential the 8th Doctor played by Paul McGann might have had if the 1996 American TVM had gone o a full series . Brooding with all the charisma of Lord Byron himself the 8th Doctor is the perfect antidote to the zany shouty wouty eleventh Doctor and the mockney geezer tenth Doctor . For a brief moment in time the audience are treated to a what could have been glimpse of the eighth Doctor

The story itself is relatively unimportant just setting up the premise of the anniversary special while dropping hints that it ties in with The Time WAR between the Daleks and The Time Lords which ties in with the resurrection of the show away back in 2005 . It also contains a nod to the classic series by introducing The Sisterhood Of Karn who made a sole appearance in the 1976 story The Brain Of Morbuis

In short this is a disposable prequel to the big event on the 23rd of November . If you don't see The Night Of The Doctor it probably won't affect your opinion of The Day Of The Doctor but this mini episode was both intriguing and appreciated

A couples weeks ago I was trying to rank all of the doctors. As I had seen no Paul McGann Doctor Who stories, I placed him last. Then I showed the list to my friend who said you could watch The Night of the Doctor on the BBC Youtube Channel, so I decided to watch it. From that short film, I placed Paul McGann above Colin Baker, John Hurt, Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy. He is amazing in The Night of the Doctor. He is funny, serious and is The Doctor that we know and love. You don't even need to see any other 8th doctor episodes or films to watch this. Definitely recommend.