The dramatic impact of the War Doctors reveal at the end of The Name Of The Doctor was lessened by the prior announcement that John Hurt would appear in the 50th Anniversary Special and some fans guessing that he would play the Doctor in some way, but there was plenty of drama to come as the months wore on and the 50th Anniversary arrived. The Day Of The Doctor was originally conceived as a three Doctors story that united the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors. But when Christopher Eccleston declined to return, Steven Moffat changed his approach. The first episode of Series 1 implies that the Ninth Doctor has not been in his new body for very long, casting doubt on whether it could have been him who ended the Time War, and although Paul McGann was happy to return and indeed did make a comeback, Moffat couldnt see the more romantic and Byron-esque Eighth Doctor being the one to commit a double genocide. So the War Doctor was born along with the inevitable backlash. There were four main reasons for some fans being against the creation of the War Doctor. The first and most minor is that it contradicted the long-held assumption that Eighth Doctor had been the one to end the Time War. But also, there was a consensus amongst some that it was doing Paul McGann a disservice by relegating him to a minisode in favour of stunt casting a big name to bump up the episodes ratings. But the two biggest reasons for the split opinion over the War Doctor is that it is considered by some to be an egotistical move by Steven Moffat to write one of his own characters into what has become such an integral part of Doctor Who history, and to use up the last of the Doctors Regenerations so that he could be the one to write around the limit. Though these criticisms are largely limited to the vocal minority of anti-Moffat fans and Hurts performance (if not necessarily the character) was very well received by fans and critics alike.
JG Moore is a writer and filmmaker from the south of England. He also works as an editor and VFX artist, and has a BA in Media Production from the University Of Winchester.
