Doctor Who Regenerations: A Tribute To 11 Epic Changes

7. November 2013: Eighth/War Doctor

Like the Seventh Doctor, the Eighth also had to wait for his moment in the sun. But the Eighth waited for that moment longer than any other. The moment came only a few short minutes after the Eighth Doctor was revealed in the pre-50th anniversary online-only mini-episode The Night of The Doctor in November 2013. It shed some light on at least some of what he'd experienced since he was last seen on air on 1996. He was a different man. Older. Bitter and resentful. The flowing locks were gone, the Hartnell-inspired outfit replaced with something more contemporary, more befitting someone lost in the midst of a war they'd prefer to avoid. For fans who'd longed for the on-screen return of Paul McGann for seventeen years, The Night Of The Doctor was a revelation. Crashing on a planet not heard of in Doctor Who lore since the mid-70s and temporarily revived from the dead, the Eighth Doctor is offered a way of cheating death by the Sisterhood of Karn - an elixir that will ensure his regeneration into whatever form he chooses to take, in order to help end the Time War. Honouring the names of numerous of his non-televised companions, the Doctor opts for the 'Warrior' potion and, uttering "physician heal thyself", begins to regenerate. Once the process is complete, a young War Doctor's reflection is shown in some shiny gold object in the vicinity and John Hurt's gravelly tones declare "Doctor no more". Memorable? Absolutely! After seventeen years how could it not be? In 2005 the question of what happened between the movie and Christopher Eccleston's debut was almost immediate and it lingered. Linger no more. No more. It was an important question to have answered in the final days approaching The Day Of The Doctor. It was an important question to have answered, yet again, for the sake of fan closure. But it was memorable for those reasons alone. At just seven minutes long it was far too short - the equivalent of just 24 seconds of the Eighth Doctor for every year since 1996 - to have more impact. Had the Eighth Doctor never had another outing following the 1996 movie, had the many years of original novels and audio adventures never transpired, this might not have been such a momentous moment. Without that strange, non-televised history that McGann's Doctor etched for more than a decade, this moment wouldn't have been nearly as important as it was.