YMMV / Doctor Who 2017CS "Twice Upon a Time"

• And You Thought It Would Fail: There were huge splits on the idea of Jodie Whittaker playing the Thirteenth Doctor even before she even appeared. Then she appears after regenerating and, from the expression she gives to her being thrown out of her own TARDIS, many of the skeptical fans (though again, not all) were given assurance that all will be well.
• Awesome Music: Appropriately, given that composer Murray Gold is leaving the series, the episode features some of Gold's most recognizable pieces:
  • "All the Strange Strange Creatures" (during the Previously on… segment)
  • "A Good Man?", "The Majestic Tale", and "I Am the Doctor" (when the Glass Woman shows One his future)
  • "Doomsday"
  • "Vale" (during One's regeneration)
  • "The Shepherd's Boy" (during Twelve's regeneration)
  • The Ninth Doctor's theme (during Thirteen's first scene)
  • "A Pressing Need to Save the World"
• Broken Base:
  • The Gender Swap of the Doctor, which split the fanbase from the moment it was announced.
  • Omitting River Song from Moffat and the Twelfth Doctor's finale in favour of bringing Clara Oswald back sparked Ship-to-Ship Combat between some fans. Interestingly, while River does not appear in Paul Cornell's Novelization either, there are several references to Twelve's relationship with her and love for her (she's the key reason he doesn't want One seeing the browser history on the sonic sunglasses!), with his ring explicitly called "his wedding ring" — a rather big All in the Manual detail for an item he had throughout this particular incarnation. (It may well also be a reference to the real life reason this Doctor had a ring: Peter Capaldi didn't want to take off his wedding band while filming, thus a costume ring was designed to fit over it.) Of course, fans are free to interpret Clara as the reason for Twelve's browser history and as Twelve's real true love.
  • The characterization of the First Doctor and his overt sexism. Is it a valid deconstruction of the sexist underpinnings of the character based on his 1960s origins and his influences from nineteenth-century adventure literature, a well-intentioned but hamfisted Flanderization, or Steven Moffat smugly derailing a character who was Fair for Its Day in order to score some cheap political points or deflect criticism from his own sexist attitudes?
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • The Testimony offers an easy way to involve any dead character so long as they're human according to the Novelization. And even then, Human Alien / cyborg Nardole managed to get through by guilting it after it made a mistake, so...
  • The restoration of the Doctor's memories of Clara Oswald definitively allows for stories in which Thirteen and beyond meet her again.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Doctor mentions to the Testimony (glass people) that trying to become him would shatter them; later the Doctor regenerating inside the console room causes the glass casing housing the time rotor in the TARDIS console to suffer stress fractures. Then the TARDIS tilts sideways and literally shakes her loose, through the open doors and into freefall just before the glass shatters completely and the Time Rotor explodes.
  • Rusty's feelings towards the Doctor at the end of Into the Dalek and the meaning of his "You are a good Dalek" remark were both up in the air until this episode showed quite clearly that the Dalek-hating maniac saw "you are a good Dalek" as an insult, and that he still hates the Doctor with a passion, though not as much as he hates the Daleks.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • This episode confirms at last that there is a benevolent Artificial Afterlife in the Whoniverse, for humans at least — partially alleviating the sadness of basically every death of a human character on the show, and washing away the sore taste of the reveal in Death in Heaven that the only confirmed Heaven in the Whoniverse so far was actually part of an evil scheme by the Master. ^note Though to be fair, it's left up to the viewer's interpretation how reliable the Testimony is; despite Bill's protests that she is, for all intents and purposes, the real thing, the Doctor remains distant, insisting that they're only partially-accurate duplicates who don't quite have the originals' personalities. And there is also the fact that the fact that they created a Bill Potts duplicate suggests they don't quite keep up to date when someone else pulls a Brain Uploading-based Back from the Dead as Heather did. The novelization explains that the Testimony edited the avatar's full memories so she'd interact with him "properly", and in fact counted all of her later life with Heather as valid. Still it's sadly possible that, for instance, Danny Pink might not remember his Heroic Sacrifice as a Cyberman, and there might be a Glass Ashildr who only has her memories up till her physical death, prior to the Doctor putting the resurrection chip inside her — unless she wasn't quite done for at the time.
  • In addition to all the fan theories of just why the First Doctor lightened up so much so that his future incarnations came to view the Earth as their chosen home under their personal protection, we get one right from canon: who wouldn't be moved to protect a species capable of something like the Christmas Truce?
  • The Doctor's friendship with the Brigadier throughout all of his lives becomes sweeter when one realizes that, perhaps indirectly, he's keeping his promise to Archibald.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The episode of Game of Thrones that aired the same day that Jodie Whittaker's casting was announced features a scene where David Bradley peels off his face to reveal a young woman; said woman coincidentally played Ashildr in Series 9.
• I Knew It!: Most fans had figured out that the Captain was somehow related to the Brigadier long before the special aired.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Many fans were not in favour of the decision to Gender Swap the Doctor. This includes many who shipped the Twelfth Doctor and Clara (and were not shipping a continuing relationship with a female regeneration despite Clara's escapades with Jane Austen); many of these folks indicated they only tuned in to see if the two would reunite ahead of the regeneration.
  • Conversely, some fans who had become disillusioned with the show's quality during Moffat's tenure (or at least during Capaldi's tenure as the Doctor) and were excited for a change in showrunner and/or Doctor only watched to see the regeneration of Twelve into Thirteen!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Thirteen didn't last very long...
  • She set the TARDIS on fire and fell to her death, minutes after regenerating. She's definitely the Doctor!
• Older Than They Think: Although David Bradley had already played William Hartnell, this is not the first time someone had the idea to go one step further and have him play the First Doctor. Bradley and the rest of the cast of An Adventure in Space and Time had also re-enacted several scenes from the original series during the production of that film, which appear as extras on the DVD. Additionally, the Big Finish audio plays in which Bradley plays the First Doctor alongside the rest of the AAISAT cast had already been green-lit before Moffat even thought of having Bradley play the Doctor on television, although they were recorded and released after the filming of "Twice Upon a Time".
• Shocking Moments:
  • First came the reveal that the First Doctor will be heavily involved in Twelve's regeneration story.
  • This time, the Doctor's new incarnation is female.
  • Bill and the Twelfth Doctor reunite!
  • Clara Oswald and the Twelfth Doctor reunite! (Sort of) And the Doctor confirms all his memories of her have returned!
  • Mark Gatiss has a substantial role in the story as a WWI-era relative of the Brigadier.
  • The First Doctor had a major reason for disappearing in the middle of his regeneration story!
  • The regeneration to Thirteenth was something that people expected and were amazed by. And then, of course, she's thrown out of the TARDIS ala Cliffhanger!
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The powerful moment where the Doctor reunites with (a Testimony replica of) Clara and gets his memories of her back is slightly undercut by the terrible green-screen effects used for Jenna Coleman's cameo. It practically looks like Clara exists on a separate plane of reality from the rest of the scene.
  • The awe-inspiring reveal of the female Thirteenth Doctor is compromised a bit by the TARDIS being crudely photoshopped into the forest setting.
• Tear Dryer: The Twelfth Doctor's final monologue reminding himself to be kind is followed by Thirteen admiring her new self before being blown out of the TARDIS. It also serves as a transition from Steven Moffat to Chris Chibnall.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • The Running Gag of the First Doctor's sexism didn't sit well with quite a few fans (as well as professional critics) who felt that such instances of it in the series, back in The '60s, was less a part of the First Doctor's own character and more a product of the mindset the writers of the show had at the time, itself a reflection of contemporary societal views on gender and gender roles. This rather unfortunate element wasn't changed or merely ignored but outright acknowledged and Flanderised as an actual part of the First Doctor's character (while he did drop the occasional chauvinist remark back in the day, it was far from something that happened several times every episode). The "smacked bottom" line is particularly glaring, as it is a reference to a line delivered to his teenaged granddaughter and in context clearly comes across more as a somewhat out-of-touch grandfather failing to realise she's outgrown such babying; still paternalistic and condescending, but hardly a fair basis for representing his attitudes towards women in general. This came across to fans as needlessly making One into more of an old-fashioned jerk both to make Twelve — and by extension Steven Moffat's tenure as showrunner, which was often criticized for not being progressive enough — come across as more progressive in comparison (he sounds incredibly appalled at One's sexism, doing everything in his power to shut him up out of shame and embarrassment and warning him that he'd offend basically everyone he'll ever deal with from The Present Day onward) and to make One a Straw Fan for the parts of the fanbase unhappy about the Thirteenth Doctor being a woman. The Brig's ancestor also turns out to have a touch of chauvinism due to laughing at One's comments, but that's justified since he's from 1914.
  • Coming from above, the First Doctor doesn't say anything racist despite that arguably being more prevelant than sexism in his era and Bill is black. Which does put the "accuracy" claims into contention regarding his sexism in this episode.
  • There have been some minor grumbles about the lack of attention to detail recreating Polly and Ben — making Polly's dress pink, for example, when there are colour photos showing the original was red. The recast Ben bears almost no resemblance to the original, being six foot plus when Michael Craze was actually shorter than Anneke Wills.
  • The Gender Swap on its own also qualifies, even though the incumbent is only on screen briefly.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • A few people were hoping that Ben and Polly (among the worst affected by missing episodes and generally overshadowed as companions) might play a bigger role in the plot, but instead they only get a glorified cameo and almost no dialogue not from "The Tenth Planet". Production photos/articles and the subsequent confirmation that the special has a lot of Deleted Scenes suggest that they had a little more to do in the original script.
  • Possibly the second most-wanted character for a cameo in this story (after Clara Oswald, who did appear) was Susan Foreman to finally fulfil the First Doctor's departing promise to her onscreen and provide a bookend to her photo being on Twelve's desk in "The Pilot". The Eighth Doctor returns to her in Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays and even takes on her son Alex as a companion for a while (he ultimately is killed in "To the Death"), but Susan's final fate remains unknown and possibly tragic. Peter Capaldi once said that he wanted the Mondasian Cybermen and Susan to reappear before his tenure was over. His wish was granted in the case of the former, but Susan doesn't warrant so much as a mention, much less an appearance, here. Despite a rumor that Carole Ann Ford (who played Susan) would appear in the special and get a heartwarming moment with Capaldi, in the end it probably would have confused viewers who were unfamiliar with the character and been difficult to work into the plot. (The Novelization confirming that the Testimony only stores human memories — Nardole is an exception to the rule only because they mistook him for human initially — means she couldn't have appeared as an avatar.)
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Though this episode got a very positive reception, many reviewers and fans expected something more eventful for a Doctor's Grand Finale — especially a multi-Doctor one — rather than a story with No Antagonist where Poor Communication Kills is the crux of the crisis and the only dangling plot threads tied up are Twelve regaining his memories of Clara and learning that Bill didn't die as a Cyberman, with the only non-companion returning character Rusty the Dalek. As such, a frequent complaint of the story is that it is anti-climactic and does not really go anywhere.
  • A particularly popular theory was that this story was going to be the First and Twelfth Doctor's sides of "The Day of the Doctor". The Twelfth Doctor was first seen in that special helping to save Gallifrey, and after three seasons it remained a mystery as to when that happened from his perspective. Given that it may have been after his people horrifically betrayed him in Series 9 there was huge potential for drama in why he would still put in his hand to save them beyond the whole Stable Time Loop business of his existence.^note Admittedly, the fact the TARDIS interior was still teal during his scene in "Day" implies it took place when he ran off during the end of "Deep Breath"
  • There were a lot of loose ends from the Moffat era that could have been wrapped up (discounting ones that got All There in the Manual or Expanded Universe explanations: the Hybrid's identity, Orson Pink's parentage, Rassilon's vengeance, and the Doctor's relationship with Ohila post-"Hell Bent"): his status with Gallifrey and the Time Lords, the unresolved fate of Madame Kovarian in the restored timeline, the Karma Houdini villains behind "Mummy on the Orient Express", the identity of the Minister of War, who it was who altered the Doctor's confession dial, what became of the Vault, etc. Now, this doesn't mean they won't be covered — Chris Chibnall has been an active part of the show about as long as Steven Moffat has, so chances are likely he's left his successor some crib notes to follow on those story points, or Chibnall might be inspired to write his own explanations, or we might get a Jamie Matheson treatment like with "Mummy on the Orient Express" being spun out of one teeny tiny comment (from the ending of "The Big Bang") about something intended to be just a Noodle Incident in its initial form.
    • Series 12 established that the Doctor apparently never revisited Gallifrey post-"Hell Bent" until the next Master's message instructed Thirteen to, revealing it's been razed and all its inhabitants appear to be, once again, no more.
  • Some fans hoped the Twelfth Doctor would somehow find out that Missy made a Heel–Face Turn after all, given that she was the one constant in his Myth Arc, but others feel that it would have undercut the fact that she truly died "Without hope, without witness, without reward" (although, when she made the decision to go back and stand with the Doctor, she was presumably planning on actually standing with him, letting out the "without witness" part and possibly with the reward of the return of his good opinion and affection, but not voiding the "without hope" part). Since this episode, a new incarnation of the Master made their debut in the second season of Thirteen's tenure, and has been even nastier to the Doctor than previous incarnations with no initial explanation why — though it is eventually revealed that they found out that the Doctor is the Timeless Child (aka the unwitting progenitor of the Time Lord race), became bitterly jealous of them, and gave up any desire for goodness or friendship.
  • The long-awaited onscreen appearance of, and visit to, Villengard (originally brought up in "The Empty Child", the first of Moffat's onscreen Who episodes) implies it was commandeered by Daleks until the Doctor stepped in and blew it all to kingdom come, and then Rusty was drawn to the location to hunt for the survivors (as seen when a few casing-dispossessed Dalek mutants creepily scuttle across the factory ruins). That itself is a coveted groundwork for a story plot. But there's something else here: the Ninth Doctor said it had a banana grove afterward... where's the banana grove? It's forgivable if he was joking all along — but not even a nod to the joke? After the episode aired, a Titan Comics anthology that covered Doctors One-Twelve as a prelude to Series 11 included a short story revealing that there was a banana grove — during the Last Great Time War, the War Doctor destroyed the factory with a weapon that would leave the seeds for one behind, noting that fruit would be off-putting to weapon-loving Daleks.
• Unexpected Character: No fewer than three: Rusty the Dalek (by far the least expected of the bunch), Clara Oswald, and Nardole. Also, as an honorable mention, that's not the Brigadier being played by Mark Gatiss — it's actually his ancestor!
• The Un-Twist: That the Captain would turn out to be an ancestor of the Brigadier was the most popular fan theory based on what few details were released about him. One of those details — that he was from World War I — also inspired speculation that the Christmas Truce would be a plot point, since every Who Christmas Episode acknowledges the holiday in some way.

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