 This is the last story of Season Thirty Six (New Series 10) and is Peter Capaldi's fourth and final Christmas special as the Twelfth Doctor and featured not one, not two, but three incarnations of The Doctor, as the end of this story marked Jodie Whittaker's first on-screen appearance in the show as the Thirteenth Doctor - the first female incarnation of The Doctor in the history of the show.
This story begins with a recap and partial retelling of the final moments of the 1966 First Doctor story "The Tenth Planet", the story which introduced the Cybermen and saw the First Doctor regenerate. We see his two companions from that era - Polly Wright and Ben Jackson - originally played by Anneke Wills and Michael Craze, but in this story (in recreated scenes) portrayed by Lily Travers and former Hollyoaks cast member Jared Garfield.
This story is a continuation of events after "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls", addressing the cliffhanger that the previous story ended on, and takes place during the final story of the First Doctor; footage from "The Tenth Planet", is used in this special.
This story was written by Steven Moffat, directed by Rachel Talalay, and was broadcast as the thirteenth Christmas special on the 25th December 2017 on BBC One. It features the final regular appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, the first official appearance of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, and guest-stars David Bradley as the First Doctor, having previously portrayed original First Doctor actor William Hartnell in the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time. Pearl Mackie guest stars as the Twelfth Doctor's former companion Bill Potts, while his other companions make guest appearances - Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald and Matt Lucas as Nardole.
This story is the last Doctor Who story to be written and produced by Steven Moffat, who served as the show's Executive Producer and chief writer since taking over from Russell T Davies in 2010. After this special's broadcast, Steven Moffat was succeeded as chief executive and showrunner by Chris Chibnall. This story is also the last to be made by Executive Producer Brian Minchin.
In January 2016 Steven Moffat announced that he would step down as the programme's showrunner after Season Thirty Six (New Series 10), to be replaced by Chris Chibnall beginning with Season Thirty Seven (New Series 11), in 2018. However, this Christmas special was not mentioned in the plans at that time. The change in showrunners almost caused the annual Christmas special for 2017 to be cancelled, as Steven Moffat originally planned to leave after the two-part story "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls" and Chris Chibnall did not want to begin his run with a Christmas special. However, when he learned of Chris Chibnall's plans, Steven Moffat elected to stay long enough to produce one final story, as he was concerned that the show would lose the coveted 25th December slot in the future if it missed a year. As a result, he had to rewrite his plans to allow Peter Capaldi to appear in one more story.
As with the last change of showrunners, Chris Chibnall wrote the final moments of the story, so as to allow him to write Jodie Whittaker's first lines on the show. This happened in the 2010 special "The End of Time", when Steven Moffat took over from Russell T. Davies in the final moments of that story, writing Matt Smith's first words as the Eleventh Doctor.
Steven Moffat and Rachel Talalay, both previously wrote and directed the previous two-part story "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls". Rachel Talalay’s other previous credits include "Dark Water/Death in Heaven" (2014) and "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent" (2015).
On the 30th January 2017 Peter Capaldi confirmed that this season would be his last as the Twelfth Doctor.
The casting of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor was announced on the 16th July 2017 following the 2017 Wimbledon Championships men's final.
It was then revealed at the San Diego Comic Con that this Christmas special would mark the last appearance of Peter Capaldi as The Twelfth Doctor, before he handed over the role to Jodie Whittaker - the Thirteenth Doctor. It was also revealed that Peter Capaldi would be starring alongside David Bradley who reprised his role as William Hartnell's first incarnation of The Doctor.
After a surprise appearance at the end of "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls", the First Doctor was an integral part of this Christmas special. David Bradley had previously played the original actor William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time. Interestingly An Adventure in Space and Time was written by Mark Gatiss, who plays The Captain in this story.
Though previous incarnations of The Doctor, from the original run of the show, had appeared in the show before, since it was revived in 2005, this was the first televised interaction between an incarnation of The Doctor in the current era of the show since the 2007 mini-story "Time Crash".
This story marks the First Doctor’s first full appearance in the show since the Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors". This also makes David Bradley the third actor to play this role in the television programme, after William Hartnell and then Richard Hurndall (in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors").
David Bradley has also appeared in Doctor Who twice before - as Solomon in the 2002 Eleventh Doctor story "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" and then in the final part of "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls" when he made his debut as the First Doctor in the show.
It was announced that companion Bill Potts, played by Pearl Mackie, would be returning for this story after apparently leaving for good in the previous story "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls". Bill Potts joined the two Doctors, and Captain Lethbridge-Stewart, as a Testimony glass avatar. Past companions Nardole and Clara Oswald also made brief appearances.
The cameo appearance of Jenna Coleman, as Clara Oswald, is explained by The Doctor's memories of his former companion, lost during "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent", being restored. The scene was the last to be filmed and so represents the last scene directed by Steven Moffat; while Jenna Coleman was willing to come back to film, timing between the filming of this special and her work in Victoria was difficult to arrange. As Steven Moffat revealed ‘How many times have I killed that girl off and she was right there in my last shot! It's absolutely extraordinary. The unkillable Coleman’.
Companions Ben Jackson and Polly Wright make a brief re-reappearance in the show for the first time since their departure in the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Faceless Ones".
William Hartnell, Anneke Wills and Michael Craze appeared as the First Doctor, Polly and Ben respectively through archive footage as also did Patrick Troughton as the freshly regenerated Second Doctor.
Played by Mark Gatiss this story introduced Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, credited as ‘The Captain’ - a new member of the Lethbridge-Stewart family.
Mark Gatiss first appeared in Doctor Who playing the eponymous professor in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Lazarus Experiment". He also played the part of Gantok in the 2011 Eleventh Doctor story "The Wedding of River Song" and as ‘Danny Boy’ in both the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "Victory of the Daleks" and the 2011 Eleventh Doctor story "A Good Man Goes to War". Mark Gatiss has also written nine stories including the 2013 Eleventh Doctor story "The Crimson Horror" and the 2017 Twelfth Doctor story "Empress of Mars".
The German soldier, who the Captain speaks to and later assists, is played by Toby Whithouse who wrote "School Reunion", "The Vampires of Venice", "The God Complex", "A Town Called Mercy", "Under the Lake/Before the Flood" and "The Lie of the Land". Toby Whithouse is the second person involved in the revived series as both an actor and a writer, following Mark Gatiss.
Nikki Amuka-Bird voices the Glass Woman making this her second appearance in the Doctor Who universe following her appearance in the Torchwood episode, "Sleeper". Nikki Amuka-Bird is credited as Helen Clay on-screen, and as The Glass Woman in the Radio Times.
The ‘Good Dalek’ Rusty, from the Twelfth Doctor’s second story "Into the Dalek", makes his second appearance - in Villengard, a location mentioned only once before, in Steven Moffat's second television story, the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances".
This story featured the following (all uncredited): From "The Tenth Planet" Robert Beatty (General Cutler), Reg Whitehead (Krail), Roy Skelton and Peter Hawkins (Cyberman Voices) and Patrick Troughton (The Second Doctor); From "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang"; Nicholas Briggs (Cyberman Voice); From "The Waters of Mars" David Tennant (The Tenth Doctor); From "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" Julian Bleach (Davros).
Recording of this story began on the 12th June 2017. This included the filming of the final scene of "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls", involving David Bradley as the First Doctor.
The main production of this story concluded on the 10th July 2017. However, the final scene of this story, in which Jodie Whittaker makes her debut as the Thirteenth Doctor, was not filmed until the 19th July 2017.
This story features a rare instance in which actors that only appeared through use of archive footage were also credited. Another notable instance of this happening is in the 2013 story "The Day of The Doctor".
Director Rachel Talalay had actually shot a number of scenes from "The Tenth Planet", with a complete set reconstruction, recast characters, and the Mondasian Cybermen that had appeared in the previous two part story "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls". She revealed in an interview that she tried to make both the set, and the cinematography, as accurate to the original scenes, and original production values, as much as possible. She did admit to having fun with some parts of the set in particular, and embellishing with a Sixties feel, and noted that some details of the action had to be invented. These scene recreations however, were not used in the final edit of this story - original footage was used in its place. However, these specially shot re-tellings were shown in the cinema feature.
During the final moments of "The Tenth Planet", the First Doctor leaves his companions Ben and Polly and returns to the TARDIS. There they find him collapsed in the console room, where he undergoes his first regeneration. Derek Martinus, the Director for "The Tenth Planet", reportedly cut a line from the original script which suggested that The Doctor was refusing to give in to the regeneration process. "Twice Upon a Time" creates an extended narrative around that part of that story, in which the First Doctor delays his regeneration and encounters his future self - the Twelfth Doctor - in the snowy wasteland of the South Pole.
Even though the final part of "The Tenth Planet" no longer exists in the BBC archives the sequence where the First Doctor regenerates (as seen towards the end of this story) remains available as it was used as a clip in Blue Peter, and luckily the edition in which this clip featured had survived.
The recreated interior of the First Doctor's TARDIS actually included props from the original set in the 1960s. As revealed by Mark Gatiss these included the brass pillars, which are the actual brass pillars from way back in 1963. Other aspects of this set were recreated.
The First and Twelfth Doctors meeting in this story features the scene acted out differently than that seen at the end of "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls". This is similar to how episodes in the 1960s reshooting the prior scene’s cliffhanger, often resulting in little differences. The same situation also occurred in 2006 when "The Runaway Bride" followed the cliffhanger in "Army of Ghosts/Doomsday".
Near the end of this story, the two Doctors part company and return to their respective TARDISes to undergo their respective regenerations. The First Doctor's regeneration is shown, using original footage from "The Tenth Planet" staring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton.
The Twelfth Doctor's regeneration has a new visual and sound effect to those used previously in the revived series. Resembling slow travelling, elongated golden lightning. It is the first regeneration for The Doctor, since the Seventh Doctor's regeneration in 1996, to use an effect which is visually distinct from that seen in "The Parting of the Ways", with the Ninth Doctor up to "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls".
On the last day of filming, Mark Gatiss brought in the jacket that Jon Pertwee wore in the 1973 story "Planet of the Daleks". It is seen hanging from a stand in the background in the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS during the regeneration scene. Mark Gatiss also published a behind the scenes picture of Peter Capaldi wearing the jacket.
This is not the first time that later incarnations of The Doctor have met the First Doctor and have struggled to remember the encounter (see "The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors" and "The Day of The Doctor").
The First Doctor remarks on his successor playing the electric guitar (see "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar", "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent" and "The Pilot").
The First Doctor is confused about the sonic screwdriver. This device was first seen in the 1968 Second Doctor story "Fury From the Deep". However, the First Doctor's amazement and confusion would appear to contradict events in the Virgin Books' The Missing Adventures novel "Venusian Lullaby", written by Paul Leonard, which features the screwdriver being used by the First Doctor.
As well as not approving about the sonic screwdriver the First Doctor also does not approve of the Twelfth Doctor's sonic sunglasses.
The Twelfth Doctor gets concerned when the First Doctor asks what a browser history is. He previously warned Osgood not to look at his browsing history in the 2015 story "The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion" and also to Bill Potts in "Smile".
Bill is heard to ask the First Doctor about his reason for running away from Gallifrey.
Again we witness different incarnations of The Doctor banter about their differences (see "The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors", "The Two Doctors", "Time Crash" and "The Day of The Doctor").
The Twelfth Doctor addresses his original incarnation as 'Mary Berry', 'Corporal Jones', and 'Mr. Pastry'. Mr. Pastry was a children's show character played by actor Richard Hearne, who was once considered for the role of the Fourth Doctor. Richard Hearne, however, wanted to play The Doctor as a version of Mr. Pastry, so he was passed over in favour of Tom Baker.
The Doctor paraphrases philosopher Bertrand Russell when he advises his future self that 'hate is always foolish and love is always wise'.
When the Testimony show the First Doctor images of his future incarnations, clips from both eras of the show are used. These are: the Third Doctor from the 1974 story "Invasion of the Dinosaurs"; the Fourth Doctor from the 1975 story ("Genesis of the Daleks"); the Fifth Doctor from the 1983 story "Arc of Infinity"; the Seventh Doctor from the 1988 story "The Happiness Patrol"; the Eighth Doctor from "The Night of The Doctor"; the War Doctor ("The Day of The Doctor"); the Ninth Doctor from the 2005 story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways"; the Tenth Doctor from the 2009 story "The Waters of Mars" and "The Day of The Doctor"; the Eleventh Doctor from the 2013 story "The Day of The Doctor") and the Twelfth Doctor from "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls". The Testimony also shows Davros from the 2008 story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End".
The Testimony shows the First Doctor and the Twelfth Doctor the amount of times they have become associated with wars (see "The Day of The Doctor", "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End" and "The Name of The Doctor".
The Doctor is referred to as 'The Doctor of War' (see "A Good Man Goes to War", "The Name of The Doctor" and "The Day of The Doctor"). The Testimony also calls The Doctor by other titles associated with conflict, as did the Daleks (see "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways", "Asylum of the Daleks" and the War Doctor novel "Engines of War" written by George Mann) and the Great Intelligence (see "The Name of The Doctor").
The Eleventh Doctor's conflict at Trenzalore is mentioned by the Testimony ("The Time of The Doctor") as is the Pandorica ("The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang"), the Last Great Time War ("Dalek") and the destruction of Skaro ("Remembrance of the Daleks").
The Testimony tells The Doctor that he is in the shadow of The Valeyard (see The Trial of a Time Lord stories "The Mysterious Planet", "Mindwarp", "Terror of the Vervoids" and "The Ultimate Foe"). The Valeyard had previously caused the Sixth Doctor to regenerate (see Big Finish Productions' 2015 audio anthology "The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure" audio stories: "The End of the Line", "The Red House", "Stage Fright" and "The Brink of Death").
The Testimony call The Doctor "The Destroyer of Worlds". Other titles listed by the Testimony for The Doctor are: 'The Oncoming Storm' (from the 2005 story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways"), 'The Imp of the Pandorica' (a reference to the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang"), 'The Beast of Trenzalore' (from the 2013 story "The Time of The Doctor"), 'The Butcher of Skull Moon' and 'The Doctor of War' (from the 2015 story "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent"). 'The Destroyer of Skaro' refers to the destruction of the Dalek's home planet in the 1988 story "Remembrance of the Daleks", although Skaro was later restored and rebuilt; as explained in the 2012 story "Asylum of the Daleks" and shown in the 2015 story "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar".
For the First Doctor's timeline he has just left the Snowcap base in search for his TARDIS after defeating the Cybermen. The Doctors therefore meet each other at the South Pole. Due to the timelines being out-of-sync, the First Doctor forgets trying not to regenerate and so the Twelfth Doctor does not remember it.
The First Doctor's face is, according to the Twelfth Doctor, 'all over the place' as a result of him trying to hold off his regeneration. This also results in him regaining the strength he had lost during his fight with the Cybermen in "The Tenth Planet".
The First Doctor doesn't know who his future self is and is heard to ask the Twelfth Doctor if he is a Time Lord. He keeps denying it even after the Twelfth Doctor reveals himself to him. Only after the Testimony shows snippets of his future does he finally give in and accept it. The First Doctor first thinks the Twelfth Doctor is another Time Lord trying to capture him for running away with a TARDIS. The First Doctor later attempts to make the Captain understand better, saying that the Twelfth Doctor is his nurse.
The First Doctor tells the Twelfth Doctor that he assumed he would get a younger appearance after regenerating.
The First Doctor declares he will not change. The Twelfth Doctor said the same thing in "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls".
The First Doctor says he travels around to get a question answered about why there is good and evil in the universe and how the balance is held between the two.
The Twelfth Doctor is well aware of the consequences that would arise from the premature death of his predecessor and the resulting erasure of his deeds (see "Turn Left" and "The Name of The Doctor").
The Twelfth Doctor tells the First Doctor that between there two incarnations there have been 'a few false starts'.
The Twelfth Doctor attempts to distract the First Doctor with the blinking lights on his astral map after his unfavourable remark to Bill about the Twelfth Doctor needing her for cleaning his TARDIS.
The Twelfth Doctor is heard to say 'Snap' to the First Doctor when revealing that he is his future self, in a similar fashion to when the Second Doctor and the Sixth Doctor met in 1985 story "The Two Doctors". The Tenth Doctor also did the same when comparing how similar he was to the Fifth Doctor in the mini-story "Time Crash". The word 'Snap' was also a phrase River Song told the Tenth Doctor after showing him her screwdriver in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead".
The Twelfth Doctor tells the First Doctor they have an advantage as ‘this time there's two of us’. The Eleventh Doctor made a similar remark when talking to the Tenth Doctor and the War Doctor in "The Day of The Doctor".
The Twelfth Doctor’s line about children being able to hear his name under certain circumstances echoes the words of Peter Capaldi himself. In April 2017 he was asked by a young fan what The Doctor’s real name is. ‘I don’t think human beings could even really say his name’ he replied. ‘But I think we might be able to hear it. At a certain frequency. If the stars are in the right place, and you heart’s in the right place, you’ll hear it’.
When Bill's glass avatar and the Twelfth Doctor talk she restores his memories of Clara Oswald. During this scene the music from "The Husbands of River Song", when The Doctor and River Song were on a date before the Singing Towers of Darillium, can be heard.
The Twelfth Doctor mentions Bill's Cyber-conversion and apparent death that occurred in the previous story "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls" and Bill reminds The Twelfth Doctor about Heather and the sentient oil ("The Pilot") and explains to him how Heather saved her at the end of "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls".
Despite remembering that Heather saved her, Bill is unaware of Heather's current whereabouts, implying her own transformation from human to sentient oil is considered her 'death' by the Testimony, as this is the point at which her memories run out.
Bill's complaint that The Doctor cannot 'see' her even when he looks right at her is the same grievance the newly-regenerated Doctor made to Clara Oswald in "Deep Breath" - that when she looked at him, she still could not readily accept that he was still the same person that he was before.
Nardole having invisible hair was jokingly stated by Steven Moffat in a BBC post story interview. There he also stated that Nardole was the only one able to see it through his glasses and that it was purple.
Nardole is heard telling The Doctor that 'if he dies then everyone in the universe would go cold'. This resembles the Eleventh Doctor telling his old companions Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Grant, in The Sarah Jane Adventures story "Death of The Doctor", that 'if he died then he thinks the whole universe might just shiver'.
The First Doctor chides Bill Potts for swearing, echoing how he did the same with his own granddaughter Susan when she made crude remarks in "An Unearthly Child".
The First Doctor threatens Bill with a 'jolly good smacked bottom'. He told Susan Foreman that she also deserved the same thing in the 1964 story "The Dalek Invasion of Earth".
It is revealed that Helen Clay is from New Earth. She founded the Testimony Foundation in 5,000,000,012, just a few years before the Tenth Doctor and Rose first visited New Earth in the 2006 story "New Earth" and again in the 2007 story "Gridlock".
It is revealed that the glass avatars, who are part of the Testimony, are creatures with the ability to freeze time and extract memories and personality of a dying person so they will remain forever. In this story they freeze time at the South Pole in 1986 only minutes after the battle at Snowcap base. They also freeze time during World War I in Ypres 1914 just before the Christmas truce. In the real world this Christmas truce is the only one of its kind to have occurred.
When the glass avatars misplace The Captain they call it a timeline error.
The First Doctor recognises what the Twelfth Doctor knows to be a Kaled mutant on Villengard, having encountered such mutations on his first visit to Skaro in the 1963/64 story "The Daleks".
Rusty calls the Twelfth Doctor a ‘good Dalek’ as he did in "Into the Dalek" and "Dark Water/Death in Heaven"). Another Dalek also once called the Ninth Doctor a ‘good Dalek’ in the 2005 story "Dalek".
The Doctor once more pilots a TARDIS belonging to one of his previous incarnations (see "The Day of The Doctor").
The First Doctor is heard calling the TARDIS ‘The Ship’ (see "The Daleks", "The Sensorites" and the Telos Publishing's Doctor Who Novella "Time and Relative").
The First Doctor remarks on the exterior changes; the windows being the wrong size, the blue colouring having changed and its size having expanded. The Twelfth Doctor says its size is because of all those years having been 'bigger on the inside'. And as time passes, inevitably suffers from a size leak (see also "The Name of The Doctor").
The First Doctor disapproves of the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS, saying about the console room that it is 'the flight deck of the most powerful space time machine in the known universe, not a restaurant for the French'.
The First Doctor remarks that it is a shame Polly Wright isn't around, saying that the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS is in dire need of dusting. Wilfred Mott once made a similar comment regarding the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS in "The End of Time", specifically that he felt it would be cleaner.
The Twelfth Doctor favourably remarks about the desktop theme of the First Doctor's TARDIS. The Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor did the same regarding the War Doctor's TARDIS. Likewise, the First Doctor criticises the Twelfth Doctor's desktop theme just as the Tenth Doctor did of the Eleventh Doctor's (see "The Day of The Doctor"). The Fifth Doctor also once voiced his dislike of the Tenth Doctor's desktop theme in the mini-story "Time Crash".
Inside the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS the Captain (who is from 1914) finds a VHS video cassette while the First Doctor finds the Twelfth Doctor's electric guitar (see "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar", "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent" and "The Pilot").
When the First Doctor operates the TARDIS we glimpse a name, on tape, fixed to the console: Bernard Wilkie. Born March, 1920. Bernard Wilkie was a visionary visual effects designer on several early Doctor Who stories. He also worked on a number of other seminal BBC series including Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit.
The Twelfth Doctor is seen using his astral map (see "The Web Planet") and the TARDIS databank (see "Castrovalva").
Inside the First Doctor's TARDIS the Twelfth Doctor attempts to connect the glass woman, via the sonic sunglasses and TARDIS scanner, to the TARDIS databanks. He however, finds that due to it being the First Doctor's TARDIS, there's hardly any data there, and needs more so suggests using the Matrix on Gallifrey.
The Twelfth Doctor informs the First Doctor that he must remember where he parked, having got in the wrong TARDIS. The Eleventh Doctor would later repeat this sentiment to himself when on a date with River Song in the short story "Last Night" - the fourth of five "Night and The Doctor" shorts, written by Steven Moffat, that were produced exclusively for The Complete Sixth Series DVD and Blu-ray box sets.
The Cloister Bell is heard to ring in the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS just before he starts to regenerate.
The Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS interior ends up exploding due to 'Multiple Operations Failures' after the Thirteenth Doctor causes a 'Systems Crisis' by clicking a red button on the console. The exploding TARDIS throws the Thirteenth Doctor out as it dematerialises.
Both incarnations of The Doctor and The Captain are taken to the Chamber of the Dead inside a Testimony spaceship.
The Twelfth Doctor takes the First Doctor and The Captain to the abandoned Weapons Forgeries of Villengard, to find an old ally - Rusty - a Dalek he encountered previously in the 2014 story "Into the Dalek". The Weapons Forgeries of Villengard were originally mentioned in the 2005 story "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" (Steven Moffat's first Doctor Who story). Villengard is at the centre of the universe. The Twelfth Doctor calls Villengard's Weapon Forges 'The Nightmare of the Seven Galaxies'. The Ninth Doctor previously told Jack Harkness that he had once visited Villengard and he implied that he was responsible for the destruction of the factory when the main reactor went critical, and vaporised everything. Jack's sonic blaster was made there.
The moment where The Doctor asks the Cyberman ‘Have you no emotions, sir? ’ comes from the 1966 First Doctor story "The Tenth Planet" but was again seen in the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Earthshock". The Cyber Leader in that story played the scene to illustrate that The Doctor has always been a thorn in their side.
When Bill Potts tells The Doctor he must ‘serve at the pleasure of the human race’ she is quoting his own words back at him. In the 2017 story "Thin Ice" he revealed he must allow Bill do make the decision about the creature in the Thames, explaining, ‘…it can’t be up to me. Your people. Your planet. I serve at the pleasure of the human race and right now that’s you. Give me an order’.
Bill is heard to say ‘What is anyone supposed to be except a bunch of memories? ’. This line echoes one the Fifth Doctor said in the 1983 Twentieth Anniversary story "The Five Doctors" when he noted ‘A man is the sum of his memories… A Time Lord even more so’.
The Doctor is seen holding a Dalek eyestalk (see also "The Wedding of River Song" and "The Time of The Doctor").
The Twelfth Doctor once more references River Song's words from her diary (see "Extremis" and "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls").
The Twelfth Doctor repeats River Song's favourite phrase of 'spoilers' to the Captain and the First Doctor. The Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor also employed this phrase (see "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", "Let's Kill Hitler" and "The Day of The Doctor").
The Twelfth Doctor mentions Bill Potts' Christmas gift of a rug that she gave him in "The Pilot").
The Twelfth Doctor recalls where the alcohol is stored in the TARDIS, having seen River Song access it in "The Husbands of River Song".
The glass avatar is heard to say that a perception filter will render her and The Doctors invisible.
Everyone except The Doctors, The Captain and the glass avatars freeze on the spot when time freezes.
Towards the end of this story it is revealed that the Captain is actually Captain Lethbridge-Stewart. A possible ancestor of one of The Doctor’s closest friends - Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (aka The Brigadier). The Doctor first met The Brigadier in the 1968 Second Doctor story "The Web of Fear" and was later introduced to his daughter, Kate Stewart, in the 2012 Eleventh Doctor story "The Power of Three".
Captain Lethbridge-Stewart is seen fighting during World War I in Ypres, in 1914.
Captain Lethbridge-Stewart and a German soldier both have no desire to kill the other, wishing the other spoke English and German, respectively. The Captain says that his death would be a big shock for everyone back in Cromer. Cromer is a place that seems familiar to The Brigadier (see "The Three Doctors").
The soldiers on the battlefield are heard to sing Silent Night or Stille Nacht.
Rusty projects a video of Professor Helen Clay from the University of New Earth on New Earth in the year 5,000,000,012.
When Bill's glass avatar and The Doctor talk and she restores his memories of Clara Oswald, the music from "The Husbands of River Song", when The Doctor and River were on a date before the Singing Towers of Darillium, is heard playing.
The Twelfth Doctor declares everyone is important. The Eleventh Doctor thought so too in the 2010 Christmas special "A Christmas Carol". The Ninth Doctor previously claimed an ‘ordinary man’ was the most important thing in creation, and expressed shock when someone said they weren't important in the 2005 story "Father's Day".
The Twelfth Doctor tells the Testimony that the Earth is defended and comments on how ‘that almost never works’ when the Testimony retreats briefly (see "The Eleventh Hour"). The First Doctor is surprised by this, causing the Twelfth Doctor to remember that he is ‘early days’. This is the same phrase used by River Song, in "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead", to refer to the Tenth Doctor.
This is not the first time that The Doctor was present for the Christmas truce of 1914. This occurred earlier for the First Doctor in the short story "The Little Drummer Boy" (published in the Big Finish Productions book "Short Trips 2: Companions"), as well as for the Fifth Doctor in the short story "Never Seen Cairo" (published in the Big Finish Productions book "Short Trips 11: A Christmas Treasury") and the Ninth Doctor in the IDW Publishing's comic story "The Forgotten" published in 2009.
The Twelfth Doctor mentions the Daleks' Pathweb (see "Asylum of the Daleks" and "The Time of The Doctor").
Shortly before regenerating, the Twelfth Doctor salutes Captain Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, something that The Brigadier always wanted The Doctor to do. (see "Dark Water/Death in Heaven").
The Testimony storing the memories of the dead is similar to the APC Net (see "The Deadly Assassin").
The Doctor has met time travellers who came at the very last moment of people's lives, although they made it their business to punish them for their crimes in life (see "Let's Kill Hitler" and "The Wedding of River Song"). He has also encountered certain technology that could store the dead's memories, claiming to be a heaven (see "Dark Water/Death in Heaven").
In this story the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration has a new visual and sound effect to those used previously. Resembling slow, elongated golden lightning, it is the first regeneration for The Doctor, since the Seventh Doctor's in 1996, to use an effect which is visually distinct from that seen in "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways", with the Ninth Doctor, up to "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls".
This is the second multi-Doctor story to feature a regeneration, and the first in which it is the current incarnation of The Doctor who is shown to regenerate (see "The Day of The Doctor").
This is the first regeneration story in the revived series without any direct connections to the Last Great Time War.
The final shot of the Twelfth Doctor is a shot of his eyes and eyebrows, echoing his first appearance (see "The Day of The Doctor"). His ring is also seen falling to the ground shortly after regenerating, mirroring when his predecessor's bow tie fell to the ground as he regenerated (see "The Time of The Doctor") and recalls how the First Doctor's ring no longer fitted the Second Doctor's finger, leading him to discard it. (see "The Power of the Daleks").
The Twelfth Doctor is heard to say 'Doctor, I let you go' before he regenerates. In "World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls", before he blew up the Cybermen on the Mondas Colony Ship, he previously told himself to 'let it go'. In contrast, as his tenth incarnation regenerated, he had said 'I don't want to go' (see "The End of Time" and "The Day of The Doctor").
The Twelfth Doctor tells his successor not to eat pears. The Seventh and Twelfth Doctor previously expressed a distaste for pears. (see the Virgin Books' The New Adventures novel "Human Nature", written by Paul Cornell, and the television story "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent"). Though the human John Smith was seen eating a pear in the television story "Human Nature/The Family of Blood", footage which is used, sped up, in that same story, included the Tenth Doctor himself warning Martha Jones not to let his human counterpart eat pears.
In his final speech in this story the Twelfth Doctor remembers his promise to 'never be cruel or cowardly. Never give up, never give in' (see "The Day of The Doctor" and "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent"). This is an oft-repeated principal of the character. The summing up first appeared in The Making of Doctor Who and was written by one of the show’s greatest contributors, writer and script editor, Terrance Dicks: ‘He never gives in, and never gives up, however overwhelming the odds against him. The Doctor believes in good and fights evil. Though often caught up in violent situations, he is a man of peace. He is never cruel or cowardly’.
The Thirteenth Doctor expresses delight when she sees her new reflection in the TARDIS view screen. The Twelfth Doctor previously expressed approval when Clara suggested he could become female in "Dark Water/Death in Heaven"). The Eleventh Doctor also expressed enjoyment at being a woman when he switched bodies with Amy Pond. The Doctor noted that 'Time Lords don't really worry that much about what sex they are' (see the IDW Publishing's comic story "Body Snatched" published in 2011). He also mistakenly thought he had regenerated into a woman in "The End of Time".
The Twelfth Doctor's ring falls off of the Thirteenth Doctor's hand, as it doesn't fit on her finger.
Regeneration energy has previously dealt severe damage to The Doctor's TARDIS, leaving it in disarray for the successor (see "The End of Time").
This story contains a number of errors. Namely: Bill Pott's shirt changes constantly throughout the entire story, from the rainbow shirt that was seen in "Smile", to a new shirt which we have not seen before. However, this could be attributed to the fact that this version of Bill is a collection of her memories and not her physical self; After The Captain requests a favour from The Doctor, the First Doctor can be heard saying 'Oh, anything. Name it' but his mouth is not actually moving after the first word; During the scene in which the soldiers are seen playing football, the shot is flipped. This is visible due to the soldier's uniforms; The Twelfth Doctor begins regeneration with his back to the stairs, but immediately following regeneration, the Thirteenth Doctor is standing at a different angle and is further away from the stairs; When the Thirteenth Doctor catches herself from falling through the TARDIS doors with her foot, her boot briefly changes to a different shoe; In the shot where the Thirteenth Doctor falls through the TARDIS doors, the bottom-right section of wall has clearly been digitally extended on the last frame.
This story had been reportedly titled "The Doctors", before it was announced at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con that it would officially be titled "Twice Upon a Time".
As for the title's meaning an obvious conclusion is that it is referring to this story starring two incarnations of The Doctor. The title "The Two Doctors" had already been taken by the 1985 story starring Colin Baker and Patrick Troughton. The riff on the old phrase 'once upon a time' could also be a reference to showrunner Steven Moffat's philosophy that Doctor Who is, at its heart, a fairy tale.
This is the third consecutive regeneration story to include the word ‘Time’ in the title, following "The End of Time" and "The Time of The Doctor".
This is the third televised multi-Doctor story, after "The Two Doctors" and "Time Crash", that is not an anniversary special. It's also the first televised Christmas special to also be a multi-Doctor story. The mini story "Time Crash" was also written by Steven Moffat.
The first trailer for this story was shown during the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, revealing the return of Polly (portrayed by Lily Travers) and Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, as well as a character played by Mark Gatiss named The Captain - marking this as his fourth acting appearance in the show. This trailer also confirmed the appearance of Toby Whithouse, writer of six stories between 2006 and 2017.
A preview clip of this story was shown as part of BBC One's Children In Need telethon on the 17th November 2017. In the clip, the First Doctor (played by David Bradley) comes face-to-face with the Twelfth Doctor inside the TARDIS.
Thanks to BBC North, some lucky fans had the chance to watch this story (excluding the final regeneration scene) before Christmas Day at a special preview screenings in Hartlepool, York, Hull, Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Salford, Durham and Bradford between the 14th and 22nd December 2017. Tickets were made available through a ballot and allocated by a random draw.
For more behind-the-scenes coverage of this Christmas Special, an Access All Areas Doctor Who Special was presented by Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 (between 8.00pm and 10.00pm) on the 21st December 2017. Jo Whiley chatted with the stars of the show, on the set of the Christmas Special, and explored the BBC Doctor Who archive.
Following its Christmas Day television broadcast this story was released in cinemas in multiple countries, including Brazil on the 25th December 2017, Australia and Denmark on 26th December 2017, and the United States and Canada on the 27th and 28th December 2017.
The cinema release included two bonus features: a behind-the-scenes view of this story and a special celebrating the tenure of Peter Capaldi as The Doctor and Steven Moffat as showrunner and lead writer.
This story features a 'Previously on Doctor Who...' sequence stating '709 Episodes ago' before showing footage from "The Tenth Planet" with William Hartnell, Anneke Wills and Michael Craze as the First Doctor, Polly Wright and Ben Jackson respectively. The footage slowly morphs William Hartnell into David Bradley, and Lily Travers and Jared Garfield then appear as Polly and Ben, who then proceed to re-enact the missing scenes on Snowcap from "The Tenth Planet".
This story was released on DVD and Blu-ray on the 22nd January 2018 and a novelisation of the story, written by Paul Cornell, was released in paperback and digital formats on the 2nd April 2018 as part of the Target Collection.
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