REVIEW OVERVIEW: WHAT CONSTITUTES A GOOD ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL?

Having premiered this new style of entry about a month ago, I felt it was time to explore its ideas and concepts a bit more. This time, we'll be looking at what Anniversary Specials best accomplish the task of being Anniversary Specials! 

November is a wonderful month, isn't it? Fall is creeping into winter. Christmas is just around the corner. But, most importantly, there's the anniversary of JFK's assassination to celebrate! Or the death of C.S. Lewis. 

Kidding.  

This year, our favorite program turns 57 on November 23rd. Not much longer before we hit another decade. Hopefully, the show will be around to celebrate it. It's always sad when an anniversary goes by and it's off the air. So many wonderful things can happen in an anniversary special. In fact, one might even say there are a certain number of boxes that must be ticked to make an anniversary special so good. 

As I make my second attempt at a REVIEW OVERVIEW essay, I'm going to look at all the elements that seem to be needed to make an anniversary special really shine. I will see which adventure does the best job of incorporating all these necessary ingredients.  Once again, the actual overall quality of the story will also have an influence in the effectiveness of the tale. I am, in a sort of backhanded way, reviewing these stories. So how much I like them should be a determining factor in all of this. 

In my first essay of this nature, I tried to create a sort of format for presenting my points. I thought to myself: "Yeah! I'll structure all my REVIEW OVERVIEW essays this way!" I should have guessed right then that my quirky, inconsistent temperament would not fall in line with this idea. So, this time, I'm attacking this subject in a totally different manner. Maybe later essays will use that format I employed in the first effort. But I doubt it. Chances are, I'll just be all over the place!   

The first thing I should do, of course, is list all the stories that I consider anniversary specials. 

Tenth Anniversary: The Three Doctors

Twentieth Anniversary: The Five Doctors 

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary: Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis     

Fiftieth Anniversary: Day of the Doctor    

SPECIAL NOTE: While Silver Nemesis is considered the official Twenty Fifth Anniversary Special, many fans feel Remembrance does a better job of celebrating the occasion. Overall, they consider it a better story, too .Which strengthens their convictions all-the-more that this should be the adventure that commemorates the event rather than Nemesis. Obviously, we'll take a more detailed look at this and see which story comes out on top.   

OTHER SPECIAL NOTE: Some of you might be asking: "Gee Rob, why haven't you listed Dimensions In Time as the Thirtieth Anniversary Special?!" The answer would be: "For the same reason I don't acknowledge K9 and Company in any essays that deal with K9!" I just don't want to accept anything so bad as being part of Established Canon! 

Okay, with that out of the way, we can now get on with listing all the necessary traits for a good anniversary special and how well each story on the list uses these traits. 

Let's see how they do.

Vital Ingredient #1: The Nostalgia Factor

This is the biggest and most obvious one. The Special must take some considerable time from its plot to indulge in its own past in some way. Sometimes, at the expense of the story, itself. The Five Doctors, for instance, has a pretty threadbare plot. Borussa is secretly manipulating multiple incarnations of the Doctor to win the Game of Rassilon for him so that he gains immortality. Not really much going on there. But with so many past incarnations and companions and villains and monsters appearing in the adventure, we don't really care much. We needed something simple so that we could include so many past elements. A more complicated plot would have gotten in the way of things!    

Obviously, your multi-incarnation stories will score well, here. There's nothing more nostalgic than bringing back previous leads to reprise their roles. Three and Five Doctors accomplish this nicely. As does Day of the Doctor. Of these three stories, however, some do a better job than others at bringing in the nostalgia. 

The Three Doctors ranks very low on this particular tier. Yes, Patrick Troughton returns as Doctor Two (and, pretty much, steals the show). William Hartnell also comes back. Albeit, in a somewhat reduced state. But, beyond their inclusion, the story really doesn't dwell too much on the show's past. Which is odd, really. Since there really isn't much of a plot to this adventure, either. Rather than using nostalgia to mark time, they rely on Troughton acting completely frivolous and silly in any number of scenes. Fortunately, he is absolutely hilarious during those moments and actually keeps the story entertaining. 

Day of the Doctor succeeds much better in this department. We get three particular incarnations interacting with each other and then an awesome cameo of all the other Doctors coming in, briefly, to help save the day. So that aspect of nostalgia is handled as well as it could be (it would have been impossible to devise a plot that gave equal amounts of time to all twelve incarnations that existed during this period). Day of the Doctor then goes on to incorporate a few other things from the show's past. UNIT is brought back (yes, UNIT was in Three Doctors but it was a current aspect of the show rather than something from its past). The Zygons also return. As do the Daleks. Rose Tyler is brought back in a strange twisted way, too. We also go into the Time Wars quite a bit and discover what the Moment is. The episode even goes to the trouble of showing more of the story between the Tenth Doctor and Queen Elizabeth the First. That's quite a bit of contemplation of its own naval going on! 

But The Five Doctors is the clear winner, here. Not only does it succeed in dividing itself into four distinct plot threads that give past incarnations equal screentime, it brings back an endless array of old friends and enemies. To list them all individually would just take up too much time. But it's great how there's even illusions of companions that appear at one point just to give us that little bit more nostalgia. UNIT is also briefly revisited and K9 gets a cameo. I even like how the Castellan is given the line: "The Doctor wants revenge!" to show that Terrance Dicks even bothered to check out what had happened between the two characters during Arc of Infinity. 

Truly, nothing beats the nostalgia trip that The Five Doctors takes.

Remembrance of the Daleks hinges greatly on the events of An Unearthly Child. To the point where it can almost be considered a sequel to the story. We visit the key locations of that very first episode and show that there was much more going on at the time than we knew. The Seventh Doctor also gets great lines like: "I rigged something like it once on Spiridon." and discusses Yetis in the Underground and the Zygon Gambit with the Loch Ness Monster. Dialogue that is purely meant to be fannish and celebrate the show's past. 

Silver Nemesis, in this category, is completely at the bottom. It does reference a previous adventure of the Doctor's - but it's not one that we actually saw. It also seems to deal a bit with Time Lord history. But, again, it's stuff we didn't really know anything about until that particular story. The Nostalgia Factor is present. But in a weird, convoluted way.    

In this particular category, our Twenty-Fifth Anniversary stories rank only so well. It's not to say that they don't reference the past at all, but it's considerably less than Day of the Doctor and The Five Doctors. I will note, however, that they're about on the same level as Three Doctors. As mentioned, Three does bring multiple incarnations together. But, beyond that, there's not much nostalgia. The 25th anniversary specials don't give us past Doctors, but indulge more deeply in the show's legacy than Three. So it kinda all comes clean in the wash.  

Vital Ingredient #2: Re-writing History

While a nostalgia trip is very important for a good Anniversary Special, something should also be thrown into the plot to indicate that there's more to the Doctor's past than we've realized. New aspects of continuity that even upset established canon need to be revealed and explored. Hidden layers should be given to the title character that we've not seen up until that story. 

Silver Nemesis did poorly in the first category, but it does much better, here. This is, in fact, the story that deals most directly with what was commonly-referred to as The Cartmel Masterplan. This was a special arc that was being built into the series that would ultimately reveal that the Doctor was more than just a mere Time Lord. That he was actually a sort of re-incarnation of the Other - a special figure from Gallifrey's ancient history. Lady Peinforte is given some very succinct dialogue in the final minutes of Episode Three that indicates all of this. As Ace and the Doctor are playing chess in the final scene of the story, we all find ourselves' wanting an answer to the question that the young rebellious girl is asking. 

"Who are you, Doctor?!" 

This story does a great job in creating a whole new aspect to established continuity that was never really heard of until this moment.  

Some would claim that Remembrance of the Daleks does the same thing. Which would reduce the impact of Nemesis since it precedes it  by several episodes. I would argue, however, that the hints Remembrance makes about the Doctor being the Other are far too subtle to give the adventure that much merit in this department. Even if the famous deleted scene of the Doctor claiming he is "more than just a Time Lord." was factored in, it really doesn't actually hint all that strongly at the Doctor's hidden past. It could just as easily come across as a mere brag. Like if someone came up to me and said: "You're a writer." and I come back with: "I am more than just a writer!" This could easily be construed as me trying to say I'm really awesome at writing. And not me trying to claim that I have some strange connection with some ancient writer from literary history. 

So, yes, Remembrance of the Daleks is making some effort to reveal a hidden past to the titular character. But it's negligible compared to the full-on approach that Silver Nemesis does later on in the season. So Nemesis scores more strongly, this time. But Remembrance can't be completely ignored. 

However, Day of the Doctor does better in this area than both 25th Anniversary Specials, combined. The sudden revelation that there was a whole secret incarnation of the Doctor is, technically, revealed at the end of Name of the Doctor. But it's left as a complete mystery as to how such an incarnation exists. Night of the Doctor does answer some questions Name creates. But the real exploration of the character happens in Day. A whole new dimension is added to the Doctor's past as we fully understand the role this secret incarnation played in the Time Wars. This is one of the hugest plot twists in the whole history of the show. The entire numbering of the Doctor's incarnations has to suddenly be altered. You really can't re-write history in a bigger way. 

Three and Five Doctors, however, do not even dip a toe in this particular category. No hidden twists about everything we ever knew about the show get revealed in either story. So they score no points at all, this time. 

Vital Ingredient #3: A New Direction

This is another area where some Specials succeed very well and others don't undertake in the slightest. It is the idea that a good Anniversary Celebration should create a big change of emphasis in how the show should play out from this point, onward. 

The Three Doctors - which has been doing poorly, so far - does very well with this element. At the end of The War Games, the Doctor is regenerated and sentenced to exile on Earth. For three solid seasons, earthbound stories become the center of the show. Aside from the occasional special mission the Doctor is sent on by the Time Lords, our hero is either dealing with alien invasions or "homegrown baddies". To be quite frank, it's starting to get kinda tiresome by the time Season 9 rolls up! 

Thank God the Time Lords give a functioning dematerialisation circuit to the Doctor as The Three Doctors ends. The show is restored to its original formula. Which, after three years of exile to Earth, becomes a whole new change in direction for the program. It's a great moment that changes things radically. 

Day of the Doctor, however, achieves this point just as effectively. 

Having believed for seven seasons that Gallifrey was destroyed in the Time Wars, the Doctor suddenly learns that it was actually saved by him at the last Moment (see what I did, there, with the word "Moment" - pretty punny, eh?!). His new somewhat haphazard mission in life is to go find his homeworld and return it back to our universe so that the Time Lords can prosper again. This quest actually begins in his very next story and slowly-but-surely plays out over the next few seasons. To me, this is as bold a move as the one Three Doctors makes for changing the thrust of the show. Gone is the Doctor's despair over being one of the last of his kind. He's going home, again.   

We can say that Remembrance of the Daleks does a bit of a change-up at its conclusion, too. Nothing quite so large-scale as Three Doctors or Day of the Doctor, but it's still a fairly significant alteration of the Core Formula. This is the first story where we see the Seventh Doctor being very devious and pro-active. From this point onward, the character becomes much darker. He employs methods that make him almost as reprehensible as the villains and monsters he's defeating. Up until this adventure, the Doctor tended to just wander into trouble and blunder his way back out of it. Now he's more of a strategist. Devising plans to ruthlessly beat his enemy before he even arrives in their point in time and space to fight them. Elements of this Doctor's character would even frequently "echo" into various interpretations of the role during New Who. Not so much the pro-active traits (although we do see some of this still happening in episodes like Impossible Astronaut or Witch's Familiar), but the Doctor is definitely much more deceitful and manipulative in most of the incarnations that we see after the events of Remembrance. So I do think this constitutes a fairly significant change in the direction of the series. 

Silver Nemesis, however, does not accomplish the same. The Doctor is already the Cosmic Chess Player by this adventure. He's just doing some more of what he already does. 

The Five Doctors also doesn't really score any points in this category. Yes, the Doctor does become Lord President, again, at the end. But, like the Doctor having his existence erased from Dalek Memory in Assylum of the Daleks, this action is quickly undone a short while later. The Doctor attempts to use his status as Lord President to sway the Bandrels' decision to destroy Karfel in Timelash, but this has no real effect. In Episode One of Trial of a Time Lord, he learns that he's been deposed. So, in the end, no actual change to the formula. The Doctor being re-instated in this political position has no legitimate consequence.  So this doesn't truly institute a New Direction for the show. It vaguely hints at one, but that's as far as it goes.   

Vital Ingredient #4: There's Got to be Some Gallifrey Stuff

This would be one that shows up in all the anniversary tales. But manifests itself in many different ways. 

As we are celebrating a milestone in the show, it makes sense that we take some kind of look at the planet and the culture the Doctor hails from. To either re-enforce or even expand his origins. It's just a sound way to commemorate the occasion. 

Day of the Doctor does this very well by simply having a good portion of the story take place on Gallifrey. We even get to see locations that we'd never really seen before. Like Arcadia, the second city of Gallifrey and the little barn out in the wasteland that we would only find out later has a strong role to play in the Doctor's past. This is also the story that gives us the deepest look into what happened during  the Time Wars. A pretty crucial moment in Time Lord history. 

The Five Doctors, however, also scores very strongly. Even better than Day. The Doctor spends more physical time on Gallifrey than he does in any other anniversary special. We get to see another new location in great detail as his incarnations wander all across the Death Zone. But what really puts Five Doctors at the top of this category is how much Time Lord history we learn about. There's quite a bit that gets divulged about Rassilon and the general ruthlessness of Time Lords back in the Ancient Times. 

The Three Doctors also gives quite the account of Time Lord history as we discover the role Omega had to play in the whole thing. We do get quite a few scenes taking place on Gallifrey, but the Doctor never really goes there, himself. Yes, the First Doctor has a bit of a conversation with the President at one point. But he's still stranded in a Time Eddy and only speaks to him through a screen.

One might almost be lead to believe that the 25th anniversary specials don't do well with this element. But I would point out that they accomplish the task in a very different manner. The Doctor does not go near Gallifrey in either of these tales. Nor do we see the planet in scenes that are independent of him. But both of these adventures take pretty deep cuts into Time Lord history. The Doctor using ancient Time Lord relics to influence cosmic events also puts an interesting new spin on his origins. Aside from The War Games, any story involving Gallifrey (be it an anniversary tale or not) tends to make the Time Lords seem like ineffectual elder statesmen. Even episodes that offer us glimpses into the Time Wars show us a people that are out of their depth. Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis make the Time  Lords of the Ancient Times seem very deadly and powerful. They possessed technology that could easily wipe out entire galactic battlefleets in seconds or even poke a small hole in the universe by inducing supernovas They do a great job of rebuilding the sense of mystery and genuine potency that the Time Lords once possessed. Which, to me, gives the stories very strong links to Gallifrey without ever having to actually go there. 

Still, if I had to come up with a winner in this category. It would probably have to be The Five Doctors. It really does deal the most with Stuff About Gallifrey. Day of the Doctor is a fairly close Second. Three Doctors and the 25th anniversary specials all tie for Third. 

Vital Ingredient #5: High Stakes

As it is an anniversary special, the Doctor ought to accomplish something fairly amazing. The threat he is combating should have huge deadly consequences if he doesn't succeed. 

The small scale stakes we've had in regeneration stories, of late, are always a refreshing change. It's nice to see the Doctor just protecting small colonies in Time of the Doctor and The Doctor Falls rather than saving the entire Earth like he did in End of Time or even stopping the destruction of the Universe like he did in Logopolis. But, while it's nice to change up the scale of things during a regeneration story, I do feel like there should always be some fairly big things going on during an anniversary special 

The Three Doctors wins this one. At first, it only seems to be Gallifrey that's in danger when the first three incarnations of the Doctor are brought together to combat the threat of the mysterious Black Hole. But as Two and Three enter the Singularity Point and find Omega, the situation changes pretty radically. Upon discovering that he's now merely a shadow of himself, Omega decides he must destroy the universe. The power of the Singularity Point appears to make this possible. So, as the Second Doctor drops his recorder on the floor, he has probably just saved the whole of creation with his clumsiness! 

Day of the Doctor does pretty good, here, too. Gallifrey is definitely rescued from the peril of the Time Wars. But, if we think about it, the Time Wars were a threat to all of Time and Space. Bringing the Time Wars to an end by hiding Gallifrey in a painting does, sort of, insinuate that the Universe gets saved here, too. 

The Five Doctors doesn't quite hit the same threat level. Borussa does point out early on in the adventure that use of Death Zone is draining the Eye of Harmony to the point where it is endangering Gallifrey. So the Doctor's four incarnations banding together to take out the mad Lord President does seem to rescue the home planet of the Time Lords. So that's still some pretty major stuff.    

As usual, the 25th anniversary specials handle things a bit differently. Which makes it difficult to determine if they rank as highly in this department as the other stories do. In both instances, the Doctor is saving the Earth. But there's a bit of a catch, here. He actually brought the threat to the Earth in the first place by luring them in with powerful Time Lord Relics.  Averting a disaster that you caused in the first place does sort of make it difficult to view things as an impressive accomplishment! 

However, in both specials, the Doctor takes a huge chunk out of the forces of two of the most dangerous races in the Universe. To the point where he seems to have nearly wiped them out, completely. That counts for something.  I wouldn't say it's not quite on the same level that the other three specials achieve. But it shouldn't be dismissed, either.  

So all the specials qualify, here. Some just have higher stakes than others.      

ACTUALLY RANKING THINGS 

So, those are the five basic ingredients that I feel a good anniversary special needs to really succeed. Just in discussing them, you get a pretty good idea of where all of them rest. But let's take a good solid look at where they rank according to the scale I've created. 

Clearly, the 25th anniversary celebrations don't do very well in this system. In some ways, it seemed almost silly to try to have them. I mean, yeah, I get it. Claiming the show was celebrating its silver anniversary was a good way to get it some media attention and, possibly, boost the ratings. But the 20th anniversary had only been five years earlier. We weren't ready to get so nostalgic again so soon. 

It was interesting that efforts were made to celebrate the occasion in a different way than it had been. No multi-incarnation stuff, but some interesting developments occurred with the whole lore of the show that I thought worked nicely. Some complain that Silver Nemesis was too similar to Remembrance, of course. But it made a sort of sense that they were. The Doctor was out to take down his greatest foes. Using Gallifreyan relics to do so made sense. He needed something with some real power to do it. Luring his enemies in close by appealing to their lust for conquest was also a sound strategy. Like I said, the similarities all make sense.

And, really, if you're that upset about plots resembling each other, you should be complaining to no end about Season Eight. Every story was: The Master is meddling with things he can't control and is going to cause a major disaster if the Doctor doesn't stop him! Yet most folks refer to this as a great season. But, of course, this is because it was made in an era where the fans weren't super-critical like they were in the late 80s. 

Anyhow, I'm digressing like there's no tomorrow, here. Let's get back on topic. Of the two 25th anniversary specials, which story sits at the absolute bottom? 

Well, if you're looking at the points they scored in the various categories, they are pretty close to even. Silver does well in Vital Ingredient #2 while Remembrance suffers. They do, pretty much, the exact reverse in the next Vital Ingredient, though.  In the other three categories, they're very close to being even. 

Which means that, ultimately, we must turn to overall story quality to split the tie. Now, some folks do like to lean in pretty hard on Nemesis and claim it's absolute crap but I actually quite enjoy a lot of it. However, I do love Remembrance waaayyy more than Nemesis! (Second favorite story ever. Read about it here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-2.html). So Remembrance definitely beats out Nemesis and puts it at the absolute bottom. 

However, The Three Doctors does complicate things. Overall, it scores quite badly in most categories. It does do a great job at changing the emphasis of the show and has some high stakes, but it really doesn't tick a whole lot of the other boxes much. Or, in the case of Vital Ingredient #2, at all. When you really take a look at it, it's in the same league as the 25th anniversary specials. We don't tend to think that because it has multi-incarnation stuff. But, in the strictest sense of my stipulations, it is only so effective of an anniversary special. It, pretty much, ranks about the same as Nemesis and Remembrance does. 

Which means that, once again, story quality must determine the winner. 

I have to say, then, that Three Doctors comes in fourth place in our silly little competition. I like it better than Nemesis but Remembrance is just so much more kick-ass. 

Day of the Doctor and The Five Doctors are way ahead of the other three. Both really score well in the various categories. Admittedly, Day does well in all five of them. Whereas Five gets nothing for Vital Ingredient #2 and also doesn't do very well in #3. However, it is the clear winner in #1 and 4. And it still does decently in 5 Which I think gets it to make up for its deficiencies.  

To me, this does look like another pretty close tie. These two stories are both head-and-shoulders above the other three in terms of the "points" they score. But neither really outstrips the other. Once more, I'll have to go with my actual appreciation of the individual tales to determine the winner.

I will say: I absolutely adore The Five Doctors. The lack of plot does not bother me in the slightest. It just does such a great job of celebrating those first 20 years by bringing back all these great elements from the show's history. They actually manage to re-create specific eras quite masterfully. Sometimes in the simplest of ways. Like the way Doctor Three tools around in Bessie for a bit. It just totally takes us back to his period. Richard Hurndall must also be commended for how he portrays the first Doctor. It's part imitation but also a bit of his own interpretation of the role. I love the choices he makes with the character. This is an amazing celebration of what the show had achieved up until that point. I really do love the whole thing. 

Having said that, however, I must point out that - like Remembrance of the Daleks - Day of the Doctor is also in my Top Ten Favorite Story List (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/12/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-7.html). It achieves many of the same things that Five Doctors does but accomplishes it a bit better. It also gives the Doctor some genuine character growth as he deals, once and for all, with what he did in the Time Wars. It's got a few more "tricks" than Five Doctors has that appeal deeply to my fannishness. Capaldi's cameo, for instance, is super-cool. No anniversary special has ever given us a future incarnation! Which, technically, Day of the Doctor does twice. It's heavily implied that Tom Baker as the Curator is a face the Doctor will, someday, re-visit. Which is also mega-cool. I even adore that they bother to give us a regeneration sequence for the War Doctor. Just so we can now have a regeneration scene of some sort for every incarnation (yes, Colin Baker still got ripped off a bit - but the cycle is still complete!). While I do love The Five Doctors, I love Day of the Doctor just a little bit more.    

So, in the final analysis, it's Day of the Doctor in first place and The Five Doctors, second. 

Just so we're clear, here's the proper list: 

1. Day of the Doctor

2. The Five Doctors 

3. Remembrance of the Daleks (ironic that a story that wasn't meant to be an anniversary special ends up doing better than some of the stories that were!)

4. The Three Doctors 

5. Silver Nemesis 

And there you have it. Using the REVIEW OVERVIEW process, I have determined the effectiveness of all the Anniversary Specials. It was fun to make it a bit more scientific rather than just list off my preferences. 

There is one more thing that makes November special for me, by the way. While I won't give out the specific date, my birthday is also in this month (won't be telling you my age, either!). One of my birthday traditions is to sit down at some point during that day and enjoy, at least, one of the anniversary specials. I've actually been doing it every year since I was in my teens. This particular habit is what gave me the idea to write this entry, in fact. I'm glad it did. It was a fun essay to write. Hope you had just as much fun reading it