50th Anniversary of Doctor Who – Yes, spoilers and Confusion ahead..

While many people enjoyed the Episode “The Day of the Doctor” on Saturday, having decided to take what I was paying for cable TV and increase my internet speed I was without BBC America and a DVR so I patiently waited. I appreciate my friends who kept their Doctor Who posts to a minimum or at least removed me from those posts.  *Spoilers* you know.  I have purchased the 5Oth Anniversary Collection on iTunes but had bought tickets to see the episode in 3-D at a local theater. Yes, the same theater I saw “Into the Darkness” and they had some of the same technical glitches before they started the show. That said there are a few things I would want to add before trying to unknot a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.
First if you haven’t there are a couple videos floating around that you should take some time to watch. The first is a wonderful little parody in which the previous incarnations of the Doctor try to get into the production…

It is rather amusing with lots of in jokes…

The other video is a prequel which explains what happened to the 8th Doctor (Paul McGann) and how John Hurt got mixed up in the whole thing.

This was a great way to explain what was going on in the time war an how it impacted the universe.

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So the theater experience was great, a theater filled with Whovians all excited to see what was going to happen.  They had two screens, one 3-d , one not.  I still have no idea what the big deal is with 3-D, but that’s me.

Lights go down there’s a few yells about how there is no picture, but sound… that get’s all straightened out and the audience is ready for the typical, “silence your cell phones” stuff and instead we get Strax.  Strax goes on to explain appropriate ettiquette and what will happen to you if you don’t in his own Sontaran way – the best part was as he describes the joy he has at the custom of eating popcorn – “remember popcorn can feel pain.”  It got everyone in the mood.  The screen goes white and Matt Smith appears welcoming us to the 100th anniversary in 12-D.  David Tennant takes his place for a moment and then the 3-D is turned on the the story begins.

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I’l just say you need to see it. While I will mention things that happened I’m not going to go plot point to plot point.  If you’ve seen it you’ll understand if you haven’t… it will give away some stuff or confuse the daylights out of you.  This is mostly for me to ask some questions that have been bouncing around in my head since coming home.  Let’s start with what I was expecting-

At the end of the last season on Trenzalore they were battling the Great Intelligence and jumped into the Doctor’s time stream.  This was what I was expecting.  I was expecting the great battle through the various incarnations to save the universe and the Doctor.  I figured that it would start a grand adventure… I’m not thinking that all that running and saving happened in the quick bits during the end of the episode.  That the Great Intelligence was defeated off camera.  Leaving us with only the mysterious Doctor played by John Hurt.  It was like the whole danger played up about going into your own time stream wasn’t and how the doctor got out just happened – off camera.    So first point of confusion- nothing to do with the actual “Day of the Doctor.”

The quandary about the fez-  OK so we have the fez flying around in the time stream (because fezzes ARE cool).  We see the fez being picked up by Matt Smith and thrown into the time stream at the National Gallery from the collection of Elizabeth I.  It lands in England with David Tennant and Elizabeth I.  Where it gets thrown to through the time stream to John Hurt, and makes it’s way back to Elizabeth… where’d the fez come from?  Elizabeth put the fez in safekeeping in the National Gallery, after it had been thrown from the National Gallery where it had been stored for hundreds of years by Elizabeth I… Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey.

That was a minor spoiler… Now to the end.  Did I miss something?  Matt Smith is now going to find Gallifrey- huzzah!  Didn’t David Tennant stop Gallifrey from taking the Earth’s location in his last episode (the one with the Master and Timothy Dalton- The End of Time)?  So didn’t David Tennant already know that Gallifrey was in a pocket universe not bothering anyone since he sent it back to save the Earth?  He may not have known HOW it got there, but he knew it was around… I guess I have some episodes to watch again.

These are the two little questions I have right now… I’m sure as thoughts bounce around in my head I will have more.  All in all a great episode, lots of wonderful things going on and surprises.  I’m looking forward to figuring out what is going to happen in December.