Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time (2017) on Netflix
Nearing regeneration, the Twelfth Doctor meets his first incarnation, who also refuses to change. A wounded First World War captain, pulled from 1914, joins them aboard a large spaceship.
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Trailer
Plot summary
In 1986 the First Doctor walks back to his TARDIS at the South Pole, unwilling to regenerate. The Twelfth Doctor stands outside his own TARDIS, equally stubborn. A wounded captain from 1914, held at gunpoint by a German soldier, is pulled out of his own time. The three are taken aboard a large spaceship, where they meet Bill Potts, a familiar face to the Twelfth Doctor. The ship's glass-like holographic pilot offers them freedom if the Captain returns to the moment of his death. The Doctors refuse to let him die and escape in the First Doctor's TARDIS, setting course for the planet Villengard.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time (2017)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The 2017 Christmas special almost did not happen: Steven Moffat planned to leave after the tenth series and incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall did not want to start with a Christmas episode. Moffat stayed to make one more episode, worried the show would lose its 25 December slot, and rewrote the tenth series finale plans so Peter Capaldi could appear again.
- Moffat based the story on a scrapped idea from The Tenth Planet: director Derek Martinus had reportedly cut a line from the 1966 script which suggested the Doctor was refusing to undergo regeneration.
- The First Doctor's regeneration used original footage from The Tenth Planet; that sequence survives only because it was reused in a 1973 edition of Blue Peter, while the rest of the serial is one of Doctor Who's most sought-after missing episodes.
- Jenna Coleman's cameo as Clara Oswald was the last scene filmed for the episode; she was willing to return, but timing between the special and her work on Victoria was difficult to arrange. Moffat noted the irony that her scene was shot last despite her character's frequent deaths.
- The Twelfth Doctor's regeneration scene was originally planned without pyrotechnics, which were added at the request of director Rachel Talalay. After filming was completed, Peter Capaldi was gifted the Twelfth Doctor's sonic screwdriver.
- David Bradley plays the First Doctor, making him the third actor to play the role on television after William Hartnell and Richard Hurndall in 1983's The Five Doctors. Bradley had previously portrayed Hartnell himself in the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time.
- Incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall wrote the final moments of the episode so he could write Jodie Whittaker's first lines as the Thirteenth Doctor, mirroring how Moffat wrote Matt Smith's first words as the Eleventh Doctor in the 2010 special The End of Time.
