Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time

8.3
2017 1 hr 0 min Adventure , Science Fiction

As the Twelfth Doctor nears regeneration, he stumbles on his first incarnation, also refusing to change. It takes a captain, a glass avatar and a familiar face to convince the Doctors the universe still needs them.

  • Cast:
    Peter Capaldi , David Bradley , Mark Gatiss , Pearl Mackie , Nikki Amuka-Bird , Toby Whithouse , Lily Travers

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Reviews

Diagonaldi
2017/12/25

Very well executed

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Cubussoli
2017/12/26

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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Derrick Gibbons
2017/12/27

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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Billy Ollie
2017/12/28

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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fcabanski
2017/12/29

Capaldi was a 10. He was brilliant, as always, as the Doctor. Everything else - crap.The portrayal of the First Doctor had nothing but the look. It was an empty shell as the actor captured few of Hartnell's mannerisms, and the character served no purpose other than to highlight the reimagined morality of Doctor Who.In this, Doctor 1 is a sexist fool. They prove it by having him treat Horse Faced Biww like he treated his granddaughter. Not that it's sexist to treat a granddaughter like a child. The writers made sure we knew Doc 1 was a cad by having Capaldi's doc express horror at Doc 1's attitude towards Biww.Anyone who saw any of the Doc 1 episodes know the reimagining of him as a sexist fool who hasn't yet developed a passion for helping people is ridiculous. Doc 1 often insisted on helping people when others wanted to get back in the TARDIS to leave. But in SJW reimaginings, everything from the past is wrong and bad.Speaking of Biww, this episode included an obligatory "Biiww declares she's gay" scene. It also had lots of the actresses horrid acting - she uses the same horrified face to show fear, love, sadness, any emotion.The overall message is everything is relative, so if we'd just stop fightiong the world would be like a fairy tale. That ignores that fairy tales are most often good vs evil rather than moral relativity/ There is evil in the real world, and Doctor Who used to have a message of fighting that evil. If the cause is good, fighting doesn't corrupt the fighter.But now the "War Doctor" is only about peace.Tell that to the people liberated from concentration camps and to people saved from Hitler's tyranny. It was people with guns, fighting and doing violence for good,. who made WW2 end up like a fairy tale - evil vanquished, good people saved.But in reiimagined Who where gender is backwards, so the Doctor has to be a woman; it's so great that Biww is gay that she has to declare it every episode; and there are generally no protagonists the only good is in recognizing that everyone is the same - there is no evil, it's all relative.Evil works hard to make people think that. Doctor Who has gone from being a fairy tale full of good overcoming evil to a nightmare of SJW, leftist drivel.One more thing - the companion who saved every Doctor in every story, who's more important than the Doctor, Clara is back in a short cameo at the end. She utters some nonsense about being insulted that the Doctor forgot her, even though it was her who made him forget.TL/DRDoctor Who has been reimagined into leftist, unwatchable garbage.

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jvm0393
2017/12/30

A little bit of backstory in the writing of this episode, Chris Chibnall (who is now the showrunner and Executive producer of Doctor who) was originally supposed to write this episode however decline, so Moffat was left to write this episode and it really shows. I watch this with my dad on the day after Christmas and within ten minutes of the show my dad fail to sleep, that's how exciting this episode was. The story is non-existent and the plot is paper thin, I don't think I can even explain the plot to you it's that weak. Basically the story involves the two doctors (12th and 1st) they get abducted by a ship run by a glass-like holographic computer, they escape to another planet where the 12th Doctor gets information from said computer from a Dalek of all things, they return to 1914 Earth and say farewell to each other before regenerating in their respected tardises, that the story in a nutshell. The Characters are no better, we are introduce to a WWI British field captain whose name isn't even reveal to us until the end of the episode and the First Doctor played this time by David Bradley. I like David Bradley in this, he plays William Hartnell's Doctor really well, however because Moffat is a complete Jerk he decided to make the First Doctor sexist which is pretty disrespectful to a man who has been dead for 42 years, not only that but William Hartnell never said or did anything sexist on the show. The whole thing comes across as a bit mean-spirited and should have been left out. Bill the Lesbian makes a comeback and her reason on why she has returned only makes sense through the eyes of Moffat. First she turns into a Cyberman, then she turns into a puddle girl, now she is made out of glass and we don't know if that's really her. Humpty Dumpty look alike Nardole comes back only to say farewell to the Doctor as do Bill and Clara (a Character I hate). You would be mistaken to think that this was written by multiple people as the episode doesn't have any real purpose other than for the 12th Doctor's companions to say goodbye which was done in The Doctor Falls which if you see my review wasn't a great story either. Everything that you see in this episode is unoriginal and has been done before though much better. Even the regeneration is unoriginal, the whole combustion whilst the Doctor (or whoever) holds his/her arms in a cross like position has been done so many times now that it's beyond tiresome not to mention destroying the Tardis whilst regenerating which was done far better in the End of Time. I like that they use the morphing effect on Capaldi's eye as it transitions into Whittaker's eyes and the use of the Bad Wolf theme not use since the End of Time, 7 years ago. The last three minutes of this episode is probably the best part, the Doctor (now played by Whittaker) presses a button and the Tardis blows up and then she falls out of the Tardis, I don't know why but I found that whole scene amusing especially the way she's falling. After watching this episode I rewatching previous regeneration stories in DW and I noticed a glaring error with this episode, the Doctor (mainly the 12th Doctor) isn't heroic. In all other regeneration stories the Doctor is always heroic despite the odds that are against him, we saw him face his fears in Planet of the Spiders, save the universe in Logopolis, risk his life to save Peri in Caves of Androzani and stop his own people from destroying the Earth in The End of Time. Here not only is the Doctor withholding his regeneration because he doesn't want to, but he also sends the WWI captain (yeah did you forget about him?) back to Ypres so he would die, fortunately for the captain he doesn't die because of the Christmas truce. Ohh as for the Captain's reveal it turns out his the Grand Uncle of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart which is just shoehorn in.

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Chris DonnieDarko Jee
2017/12/31

The usual fun. The usual amazing acting from Capaldi. The main issue was that it was trying so HARD not to be discrimate towards women. It was so cringey and in your face. I don't see me liking the new direction with a female doctor. It just don't feel right. I will certainly give it a chance but who knows. All in all a solid episode but kind of a nothing episode as it was all rather meaningless....?

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bob the moo
2018/01/01

Twice upon a Time is the title of this episode, which sees a nice bit of casting by drawing David Bradley from the depiction of the actor William Hartnell, to here play the character he was most famous for (while Bradley himself is more famous for Game of Thrones now). This is one of the many positive things that this special held out; a final outing for Capaldi, a final appearance for Mackie (somehow), and a regeneration into a new Doctor. Lots on offer, so it is frustrating that it doesn't really hit many high notes as it goes.The plot sees time frozen, but it is the tone that seems the most awkwardly stuck between two stools. It knows it has to be 'important' but at the same time it also kind of knows that it should be entertaining too. Any time it tries to do one, it seems overly conscious not to move too far from the other; the end result is something that is very middle-of-the-road and lacks conviction in what it is doing. Capaldi deserves a stronger bow out than this; he gets his moment on screen but the episode itself doesn't build up as well as previous exits have. Bradley's Doctor isn't used particularly well at all; there is a novelty of seeing him but mostly his character is not great - which is a fairly poor situation if you are going to bring the original Doctor back. As a story there isn't really a pace to it, and I didn't find myself held by it as it unfolded. Returns and references for many characters just felt like they were throwing things at the screen, not that the story made sense to have them all.This weakness meant the more important moments felt fake, or at very least unearned. The use of the WWI setting and famous moment is corny, the references/connections to other characters are clunky as usual, but what bothered me more was the way that themes were not delivered on as they could have been. More could have been made of the two Doctors being there - more could have been done to engage that reflective tone, and to bring it round to be a conclusion and decision to start afresh. At times it seems to be looking for this, but the show doesn't have the determination to go for it.

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