Thirty Years Since "There are worlds out there...", and other Doctor Who memories

So here's an interesting little anniversary; it's thirty years ago tonight that Survival, the last official episode of the original run of Doctor Who (dubbed "The Classic Era" these days) aired.  The end of a 26 year run.  I was at an event at the BFI a few Saturdays ago, a special screening of The Curse of Fenric to big up the release of the Season 26 Blu Ray set (now due out in early January), part of it was a Q&A with Ace herself Sophie Aldred, and the show's script editor Andrew Cartmell.  In the Q&A, Cartmell said that it wasn't an official, outright cancellation, it was that the BBC were effectively "ghosting" them, just saying that they were putting the show on hold for a bit... and just never answering the question about when it was going to start up again.  As such, John-Nathan Turner asked Cartmell to add in a little speech to the end of the last episode to be broadcast, Survival, and that has become one of the most well remembered parts of the show to a lot of fans...

I came into Who fandom during the period when the show was off the air, what's now called the "Wilderness Years" (which is oddly reflected in what the Doctor says about "the Wilderness" in this clip).  Apart from the TV movie, this was the end of the road on TV for a while, but it did lead to an explosion in creativity across spin-off books (like The New Adventures line), comics like the one in Doctor Who Magazine, and the Big Finish audios.  Quite a few of the fans who contributed to those would later shape modern Who, and it's interesting that if you watch Survival and Rose back to back, they do feel more than a bit stylishly similar, like Russell T Davies was intentionally picking up right where the regular show left off. (Not counting the trip to San Francisco of course.)  I have fond memories of that time, even when there wasn't Who on TV, the spin-offs and video releases all came at a good rate for me to keep up with.  Doctor Who hadn't died, it had simply regenerated.  And of course, now it's coming back stronger than ever, with New Series 12 starting on New Year's Day!  Plus, more goodies to look out for, like that Blu Ray set I mentioned (seriously, 26 is perhaps my single favourite season of all of Doctor Who!), and Sophie Aldred has written a novel where Ace returns to meet The Thirteenth Doctor!  Wicked!

Still, whilst I'm on this Who mood, I'm going to borrow an idea from Who blogger and podcaster Liz Myles, and talk about my five favourite episodes of New Who from this decade, now that the 2010s are wrapping up.  I've recently decided that I don't really enjoy putting things in definitive rankings, especially with how often my opinions change, so rather than putting them in Top Five order, they are just five favourites in chronological order.  Let's see how this goes...

The Eleventh Hour

I saw this on a big screen at the official Doctor Who Appreciation society launch party on the day of airing, with a huge pub full of people, including a couple of special guests Philip Madoc and Katy Manning.  A great atmosphere like that obviously adds a lot to my good memories of this one (as it does to one other I am going to mention), however I still think this one is just a tonne of fun, an ideal introduction to a whole new era of Who.  It established the different tone, style, and goals of the Moffat era, Matt Smith gets to hit the ground running, and it has instantly iconic moments.  It was actually very close between this one and The Woman Who Fell to Earth, for similar reasons, but this one won by a nose.  Mind, give me one more viewing of that latter episode, that might well change...

The Day of the Doctor

Yeah, I know, obvious choice, but how could I not include this one?  It's a fantastic celebration of the show's lore, which manages to juggle a lot of balls incredibly well, and has lead to some superb stories and moments later on, especially Series 9's Zygon two-parter.  John Hurt is an incredible presence as the War Doctor; he's effectively a massive retcon, but that doesn't matter, you buy him as The Doctor in a (double) heartbeat, like he was there from the very beginning.  I got to see this on the big screen at the BFI recently, and what a cinematic experience it is, with some real punch-the-air crowd pleasing moments.  Who else saw this in a room where everyone completely lost their shit when "no sir, Thirteen!" happened?  Oh, and I can't not mention the best trailer/prequel ever, in the form of The Night of the Doctor!

Mummy on the Orient Express

I was sold on this one from the word go with "steam trains in space", finally following up on a line from The Big Bang, and from being written by the same mind behind the underrated Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel (and three more favourites of mine!).  The fact that it has some much more to enjoy too, from a fantastic gimmick for the titular monster, to the fact it actually made mummies scary again, is just icing on the cake.  It's the sort of the absurd, throw everything in premise that Doctor Who is somehow often able to make work; what other show would even try half of what this episode does?

The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar

I am a sucker for a good episode featuring Davros, and this has perhaps some of the best ever TV moments for him since Genesis of the Daleks, tying in nicely to the more contemplative, self-analysing nature of the Twelfth Doctor.  What's more, with the presence of Missy, I get an extra kick out of this seeing how much this reflects Moffat's first TV episode The Curse of Fatal Death!  There are great additions to Dalek lore in here, and in a way that ties nicely into the character work; this episode keeps reminding us that the Daleks are Davros' children, so with what we learn about them (like how they treat their... elderly, and the indoctrination their machines place on them), that tells us a lot about him!

Heaven Sent

Again, another obvious choice, but it's one I have to respect, for being perhaps the best moment of "You can do this in this show?" since Blink.  There has never been an episode with quite a structure like this, the Doctor fully solo, and the fact that it's him at a moment when he's been given no time to grieve, makes Capaldi's performance in this one that much more intense.  Furthermore, the sheer scale, and the implications of it's revelations are staggering, not least for how it ties into Series 9's revival of the "Cartmell Masterplan" concept of giving more mystery to the Doctor again.  It's superbly directed too, so I shall give an extra shout out to say that I love all the episodes Rachel Talalay directed, especially Capaldi's final three.

Just for the record, the episodes currently having a big punch up in the car park for the honour of episode number six which I haven't mentioned yet are A Christmas Carol, The Doctor's Wife, Asylum of the Daleks, The Snowmen, The Bells of St. John, The Husbands of River Song, The Return of Doctor Mysterio, Thin Ice, Rosa, and Kerblam!  Oh, and a little shout-out to An Adventure in Space & Time and the Sarah Jane Adventures episode Death of the Doctor; I know, they don't count, but I'd be remiss not to at least give them a nod!  Phew, that was fun, nice to balance out the melancholy of "cancellation day"!  To end, let's have that speech again, in a different context...