4. The Time War Is Still Shown In Glimpses
"The last day of the Time War, the war to end all wars. The war between my people and the Daleks. And in that battle, there was a man with more blood on his hands than any other. The man who would commit a crime that would silence the universe... and that man was me." Ever since the beginning of NuWho history, we've been teased and taunted with little pieces of information involving the biggest moment in the recent canon: The Time War. When The Day of The Doctor was approaching, everyone was speculating we'd see the moment The Doctor used The Moment: the "galaxy eater" that would end the war between his people and The Daleks, thus making him the last of the Time Lords. Sure enough, we got a pretty nice look in the beginning, only to eventually see The Doctor change history and render the Time War null and void (at least, we are lead to think this more on that later). This grand, traumatic, probably expensive looking event finally looked like it was going to get its due, and finally show us the true extent of this linchpin moment of The Doctor's modern history. Only, it didn't. The Time War was once more glossed over and shown in a slice of history, rather than an extended sequence of fan service that would have at least had a purpose. There's no real excuse for this, as the special was originally announced as 90 minutes long and that still could have been extended to a 2 hour running time. It's not like the fans are going to say "Gee, this anniversary special is too long and too epic. I don't think they should have went this way." Of course, part of the problem was also in the fact that another plotline was taking up room that could have been occupied by this story thread.