On Galifrey the time war with the Daleks rages on-with the time lords fighting a losing battle and the incarnation of the doctor encountered on Trenzalore wanders amid the carnage. He is granted a great weapon that was one of the last works of Omega referred to as "the moment",which had the ability to destroy Galifrey and end the war. While he tries to understand it's use it takes the form of Rose Tyler,his future companion,as a verbal interface. As the doctor debates with the moment (as it were) as to the morality of what he is about to do,a bright vortex appears and a red fez flies out at him. The same thing occurs with the tenth doctor,Elizabeth 1 and her Zygon clone. The eleventh doctor in the meantime confronts a top secret UNIT fascility where Elizabeth once stored dangerous art which,as it turns out is all time lord art. The doctor reveals that all this art are actually frozen moments of time meant to contain figures of people. But the figures have gone. In this facility,along with many personal effects of his past he locates his fez and,upon exiting finds a floor of broken glass-blown to the ground from the painting on the inside out. Suddenly the same vortex appears above the doctor and Clara. The doctor throws in his fez and leaps through-only to emerge before his tenth incarnation.
The doctor and the moment have also followed suit-arriving at the same place as each of the three incarnations are unsure how to each relates to the other. Meanwhile the queen has all three arrested and taken to the towers of London to be imprisoned. Meanwhile in the future Clara is taken by Stewart and her assistant Osgood to the towers of London as well,where they find many of UNIT's most sacred treasures among which is the vortex manipulator used before by Torchwood's Captain Jack Harkness. At the revelation that Stewart and Osgood have both been co-opted by Zygons as well,Clara uses the manipulator. She finds herself in the same location in the 16th century while the three doctors debate how to sync their sonic screwdrivers to open the door when Clara simply waltz in and allows for an escape. In lieu of Elizabeth actually manipulating the Zygons into thinking she was the clone,she and the tenth doctor marry after which he,the eleventh and the doctor set to destroy his world all use Zygone technology to incorporate themselves into the 'Galifrey Falls",arranging with the employee by phone to have the painting moved.
Upon arrival in the 21'st century Towers Of London the doctors,Clara and the moment find themselves confronted by the Zygons-who had been using the paintings in the same way to emerge to conquer Earth for their colonization seeing as their world was too destroyed. This of course when Earth had the proper level of technology to do so. Clara finds the actual Kate Stewart and Osgood trapped in the queens vault. The actual Kate and her Zygon clone wind up in a stand off-with the real Kate electing to blow up the towers and all of London with a nuclear device beneath them to save their entire world. The doctor prevents this by temporarily erasing the memories of both Kate Stewart,Osgood and their Zygon clones so neither knows who the other is-therefore allowing them to talk peace. The "time war" doctor suddenly returns back to where he started from while talking to Clara. So she,the 11th and 10th doctors go in their TARDIS to make sure that their predecessor doesn't have to destroy their world alone.
Meanwhile Clara's encouragement brings the 11th doctor to make a decision to use a series of calculations,that apparently he'd been working on in all his incarnations to bring all 12 of the doctors TARDIS's to mask Galifrey behind the same type of freeze in time used in the paintings. The Daleks therefore destroy each other-thinking they've destroyed Galifrey as well. Upon returning to 21st century London,the tenth doctor and the "time war" incarnation return to their respective time. Before departing with Clara,the 11th is visited by the museums curator,a man who resembles and whom he believes to be his 4th incarnation,who informs him that the name of the painting has been misunderstood and is actually "Galifrey Falls No More",meaning the planet is saved and the doctor breaks the time streams one more time to join all his other past incarnations in viewing a Galifrey that is no longer dead,but awaiting a rebirth in some future time.
Being the 50th anniversary story,this episode represents for the contemporary version of Doctor Who what The Five Doctors did for the original series on its two decade anniversary thirty years ago. It ties together as many elements as it possibly can,including the return of David Tennant as the tenth doctor-resulting in repartee between him and Matt Smith easily on a par with the silly sparring between the second and third doctors in the past two multi doctor stories. The return of the Zygons,
absent from Doctor Who for 37 years is also a highlight. John Hurts "time war" doctor calls back into question something once suggested in The Brain of Morbius-that the doctor has many incarnations he rejects for different reasons as part of his history. In this case,a guilty conscience. During the climactic scene we also see a brief glimpse of the eyes of Peter Capaldi,slated to play the doctors next incarnation. But it won't be the last. The doctor played by John Hurt makes it clear the doctor can actually regenerate more then 12 times. Tom Baker's extremely surprising appearance at the conclusion of this story is probably the most exciting part of it all. And because the story behind the doctors personal secrets are becomming more and more unraveled during his current incarnation,this epic story represents not only a secure future for Doctor Who but also a superb golden anniversary story. And,if I may say so in terms of scope,epic plotting and writing one of the most vital and strong stories Doctor Who has yet delivered.
*As a bonus for this 50th anniversary "after party",as it were on this blog I am including a very special bonus video I made on YouTube-in which I'll be talking about my top 25 Doctor Who stories,action figures and the new book Doctor Who-The Vault:Treasures From The First 50 Years. Enjoy this review,enjoy the video and a big happy birthday to Doctor Who. All too happy and proud that I could be enjoying the show for this big event!
***Coming soon. Here's A Link In The Meantime***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuZ2BpgmQJQ
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