The Black Archive #50 - The Day of The Doctor by Alasdair Stuart
Publisher - Obverse Books
Published - Out Now
Price - £5.99 paperback £3.99 eBook (for more details go to 50. The Day of the Doctor – Obverse Books )
“She didn’t just show me any old future, she showed me exactly the future I needed to see.”
A puzzle. A key. A superstructure and, arguably, the most important Doctor Who story ever made. The Day of the Doctor is all these things and much more. For this 50th Black Archive, Alasdair Stuart examines the 3D storytelling at the heart of the show’s 50th anniversary tale from 2013.
Doctor Who I’ve mentioned before is very much a key part of how my tastes and love of reading evolved. A show that has lasted over fifty years and reflects changing tastes in SF as well as often it’s problematic elements but often has the bravery to start saying yep we got this wrong and learn from it. I don’t love every story, era and Doctor and that’s OK I have lots of other things these days to keep me busy but in a few days I’ll be tuned to watch The Doctor face her greatest enemy The Daleks. Speaking of which Alasdair Stuart digests and reports back on the special fiftieth anniversary tale The Day of The Doctor shown back in 2013 where a story ties to wrap up ancient and recent storylines while doing the whole fifty years a fine celebration (after the review I’ll tell you memory of that night…it was unusual!)
Alasdair Stuart is one of the UK’s best genre critics able to pic k apart a story and explore how it resonates not just with today’s culture but the storyline’s of the past and isn’t afraid top explore what something gets wrong (or often continually wrong). Hence in the Black Archive’s ongoing series of critics reviewing famous Who stories Stuart is a very suitable choice as this story plays both with the past and future of the show.
For this it’s less about the production dramas of the show although some are mentioned but how this story reflects Who. In this we get a fascinating walkthrough of the Doctor’s evolving character throughout the classic and Nu Who series exploring how the War, Tenth and Eleventh Doctor get examined and played with throughout the story. Stuart explores the relationships of the Dales, The Time War, The Time Lords and the shows often clumsy handling of female characters. This also allows Stuart to start noticing seven years later how the show evolved further with the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctor moving the show onwards and using this story as a jumping off poi nt.
Very much a story for Who fans old and new but one I think that just as much as Day of the Doctor celebrates the show and acknowledges that not everything in the past is glorious but also so so much good to enjoy. Highly recommended and also a great example of wonderful genre criticism
Bonus feature - How I watched and nearly didn’t see Day of the Doctor
So at the time I knew a few people from an olde worlde internet forum for SFX Magazine. A small group had evolved into actually meeting people from the internet and its occasionally nice to see people in meatspace (oh my has 2020 underlined that). The group rented some cottages in the middle of the countryside in November - nothing near us. The idea was to chill, geek and have fun. It was indeed all of that.
This time the complex scheduling of people led to the weekend of Day of The Doctor and a mass watch with lost of Who fans sounds fun! Small issue…remote countryside cottages have erratic power. On the evening we got one shortage and then a few minutes from the tv show we lost all power. We ran from cottage to cottage trying to find some power but then a Whomas miracle with only losing one minute we found a working TV and did not leave that room until it was done!! Memorable viewing indeed!
