5. The Night Of The Doctor
Another of the great 50th anniversary extras came in the unexpected form of a online mini-episode released one November lunchtime. Plugged as a prequel to 'The Day of the Doctor' featuring one of the Doctors (presumed to be either Smith, Tennant of Hurt), a few seconds into this seven-minute long adventure Paul McGann's Doctor introduced himself! Long thought of as 'the George Lazenby of Doctor Whos', McGann's Eighth incarnation had only previously appeared in a US/UK co-produced TV Movie in 1996, although he had been revived in a long-running series of audio dramas for Big Finish. To have Paul McGann back on board would have been thrilling enough but as it turns out, this was a regeneration story. Finally unable to run away from the horrors of the Time War any longer, the Eighth Doctor chose to become 'a warrior' and regenerated into John Hurt's so-called 'War Doctor.' This minisode (hey, Matt Smith used the term first) is certainly one of the big Doctor Who treats of this year as it both provides a closing chapter to one of Doctor Who's great hanging mysteries and introduces us to a rather important figure...