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Saturday, 9 November 2013

My Predictions for the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special #SaveTheDay


"Original British Drama"
Those may not be the first words to come to mind when you think of Doctor Who, but they are the first words in the show's official 50th Anniversary Special Trailer.

As this is a post fraught with spoilers, click here to read at your own risk:

As an avid fan, I get eMails from the BBC about DW. Their latest email announced the long-awaited official trailer with this very dramatic description:
"The Doctors embark on their greatest adventure in this 50th Anniversary Special: in 2013, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion.
"All of reality is at stake as the Doctor's own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.
"The moment is coming...
"#SaveTheDay"
~~~ 
Using the BBC-provided teaser above and the TV trailer, plus the specially-shot (SS) trailer, here's what I predict we will see on the 23rd. First, let's go over both the trailers.

Here is a transcription of the SS Trailer and then a list of things seen in it:
11: I've been running all my lives
Dalek: Exterminate!
11: through time and space, every second of every minute of every day for over 900 years. I've fought for peace in a universe of war. Now the time has come to face the choices I have made in the name of the Doctor. Our future depends on one single moment of one impossible day: the day I've been running from all my life. The Day of the Doctor.
And now, an analysis of the visuals:

  • A Cop ("An Unearthly Child" opens with that cop.)
  • Totter's Lane sign (the First Doctor and Susan had the TARDIS parked)
  • A Fez
  • Ten's Sonic Screwdriver
  • Several TARDIS keys
  • First Doctor
  • A Dalek exterminating a UNIT soldier
  • Four's Sonic Screwdriver with Two playing his recorder in the background.
  • Four falling to his regeneration in "Logopolis", jelly babies and all, with Three's sonic
  • An I-beam that seems to read "NO MORE"
  • K9
  • Sarah Jane holding a glass ball. Inside is Three sword-fighting the Master inside the TARDIS.
  • In the background, we see Big Ben with a flying saucer near it, Daleks, and Classic-era Cybermen.
  • We zoom into the ball and then out again, and Clara is holding it. Her leaf is next to her, as well as unidentifiable debris in the air. We pan away and see the following:
  • Seven and his umbrella
  • A Weeping Angel
  • Five throwing a ball
  • An Ice Warrior
  • A Silent discharging electricity
  • Six's back
  • Nine
  • An Ood
  • Another Dalek
  • Rose (facing the Ood)
  • Eight (between the Ood and Rose) 
  • An Auton "behind the Ood)
  • A digital clock-looking thing reading 17162311. Apparently, this is the time that "An Unearthly Child" aired, 17:16 (5:16 pm) on 23 Nov
  • The chests of modern Cybermen
  • Bessie (Three and Four's car, AKA the Whomobile)
  • Someone's back, I have no idea.
  • Ten, standing there all awesome
  • Shards, which look like the pieces to the Key to Time
  • The Golden Gate Bridge (a reference to the telemovie, which took place in California)
  • Another tower
  • Eleven's sonic, among other sonic devices, which Eleven grabs

Quite the list.

Now, a transcription and list of the TV Trailer:
11 (VO): I've had many faces; many lives.
Dalek: Exterminate!
11 (VO): There's one life I have tried very hard to forget
VO John Hurt: I'm looking for the Doctor
10: Well, you've certainly come to the right place
Rose: The moment is coming
John Hurt: I'm ready
11: Geronimo!
Alright, now here's what we see:

  • A well-loved TARDIS on orange sand with footprints leading away from the door
  • A plethora of Dalek ships with laser-y things flying out of them
  • A close-up on Matt Smith's eye
  • The Citadel on Gallifrey. Note that the glass dome around it is broken and there is smoke coming from it.
  • Some sort of awesome battle with lasers
  • A Dalek behind fire saying "exterminate"
  • People falling into a blast of fire, yelling.
  • A brooding Matt Smith
  • John Hurt's face
  • John on orange sand, looking much like the sand the TARDIS was parked on. He faces mountains under an orange sky, a trait of Gallifrey. His voice says "I'm looking for the Doctor"
  • David standing next to Matt, David saying, "Well," in this signature way, "you've certainly come to the right place." There are in a very green area, perhaps a forest.
  • A TARDIS flying through space.
  • Matt and Jenna inside the TARDIS holding hands.
  • A red-head in Victorian-era clothes running through the woods.
  • Close-up on a very glamorous Zygon.
  • An explosion in some sort of lab-looking room. A person there is wearing a scarf reminiscent of Four's.
  • Matt in the Amy Pond glasses and fez with David. They are in some sort of forest place, agreeing on some good idea one of them had.
  • An explosion!
  • Rose looking all pouty, her eyes gleam for a split second all bad-wolf like.
  • Matt (? possible David, SOMEONE male....) riding a horse out of the Tennant TARDIS. (Is Arthur back?)
  • Someone falling over a city-scape, presumable London. By the look of the hair and green light near his hand, likely Eleven.
  • Clara turning around, her hair like a l'Óreal commercial
  • Daleks!
  • A Zygon breaking glass
  • Daleks falling after what looks like an explosion.
  • Clara playing with something on her wrist, perhaps a time vortex manipulator
  • John Hurt looking over some sort of red gem.
  • Rose says, "The moment is coming." There is an out-of-focus face which looks like John's
  • John about to touch the red gem. Inside it, there is a time-vortex looking thing, à la Nine and Ten's opening credits. He says, "I'm ready."
  • John at a TARDIS concole that does not look like one we've seen before.
  • David flipping a switch at his TARDIS
  • A TARDIS in the vortex
  • more Dalek ships like the beginning
  • Matt, at his TARDIS's console, flipping a switch and yelling "Geronimo!" Note the curves in the upper right and lower left. He appears to be in the focus of a camera of sorts.
  • More starships firing, but not Dalek ships.


Phew. Now that we've got run-downs of all the hints, let put the pieces together.
In all honesty, the visuals in the SS trailer doesn't seem to give us much hints. Every item and person there, we have seen in a story so far. The only things are the glass ball Clara and Sarah Jane holds, and the mountainous area surrounding it--which looks like the place John stood in the orange sand). I did not recognize the I-beam gratified with "no more," but I think I may have not seen the episode it was in.
BBC mentions London's National Gallery. I predict that the gem we see Hurt reaching for is in the Gallery.
In the TV trailer, when Eleven mentions the life he's tried to forget, we see John Hurt's face, so perhaps the rumours are true and he is the Doctor from the Last Great Time War (I'm gonna abbreviate that LGTW). We also see the Dalek ships, and we know that the Daleks and the Time Lords fought the LGTW. There is the broken citadel, and a Dalek yells "exterminate," the we see people screaming about to fall into a fire. I predict that this is the Burning of Gallifrey. The next question is, what of that gem? Perhaps it is what the Doctor used to destroy Gallifrey, and Ten and Eleven must stop him from using it. If Hurt is a 8.5 of sorts, then the thing is that the Ten knows what happened with the Gem and Eleven knows that he helped Ten with the Gem.
Then there is the Zygons and Rose and the red-head and the horse. That, I don't have any answers for. But I promise you, if I have any brain blasts, I'll be sure to edit this post to include them. Please comment with your ideas!!

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