3. One Day, I Shall Come Back
With the 50th anniversary coming up, speculation was rife. Would Tom Baker come back? Would Paul McGann come back? (Yes, on both counts.) However, no one even bothered to ask whether William Hartnell would come back, since hed been dead for 38 years. So the opening of The Name of the Doctor caused mass squawks of disbelief as technical wizardry saw the First Doctor brought face to face with Clara Oswald. To be honest, though, the wizardry isnt 100% convincing, but its the sheer chutzpah that staggers. This wasnt just a cameo, either. The episode dared to suggest that the Doctors TARDIS theft was aided (or at least, advised) by Clara. The subsequent appearances by other past Doctors were mere details following the initial shock of Hartnells scene and later that year The Day of the Doctor was so emboldened that it brought them all back again, even going so far as to hire a voice artist to make the First Doctor say brand new lines (notably, the word "Gallifrey"). It's the stuff Whovian dreams are made of.
Christopher Bryant
Contributor
I teach literature of all types but when I write, it tends to involve "Doctor Who". My fiction can be found in unofficial anthology "Seasons of War"; my non-fiction in the "You and Who" books as well as the forthcoming "Hating to Love" and "Blake's Heaven".
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Christopher