Ten Essential War Doctor Moments

John Hurt's War Doctor was the most contrived implementation incorporated into the chronology of the lore of Doctor Who. From an out of universe perspective, he was simply an addition made retrospectively, occurring after the three Doctors that proceeded the duration of his life cycle in canon; But most fans that have invested in the show, at least since the momentous events of The Day Of The Doctor and the significant feature, the Last Great Time War, have concurrently appreciated that the masterful execution of the implementation on both the part of John Hurt and Steven Moffatt's team of writers has rendered the synthetic nature of it a vital element to relish in.

For those entrenched within the lore of the science fiction paragon, it serves a function that supersedes that of a mere compensation for the vagueness surrounding the continuity of how Paul McGann's charismatic and charming Eighth Doctor miraculously transitioned from his jovial exuberance to Christopher Eccleston's fantastic, but traumatised and contrite Ninth Doctor. For the haze of the intermission of nine toilsome years between the televised Doctor Who: Movie of 1996 and the revived series of 2005's colloquially known "Nu Who", a mysterious, but astronomically impactful event imposed itself upon the Doctor's life, and it was soon exposed to be the Last Great Time War-The Doctor has allegedly played the part of a significant contributor to the horrendous atrocities committed during it, and held himself accountable for the obliteration of the entire planet of Gallifrey, the population of inhabiting Time Lords, and their Dalek adversaries. It was soon revealed that he was erroneously mistaken.

But the specific details of the intricate and compelling minutia were fleshed out with their fascinating depth for all of those pedantically intrigued with the mystery pertaining to that intense period by Steven Moffatt with the conceptual creation of a daunting and daunted character. A character that the Doctor had all but forgotten-Himself. A physical manifestation that subsisted purely for the purpose of enduring through and sharing the honour of the rights of participation within the transpirations. He was consequently caught in a stagnating web of arrested emotional development for an indeterminate amount of his unlimited years, and relinquished his self-proclaimed title of "Doctor" in reluctant favour of a "Warrior" or the "War Doctor". And, audio adventures aside, he echoed the degree of visual exposure that the televised serials granted the Eighth Doctor-Only appearing in the climactic conclusion of The Name Of The Doctor and The Night Of The Doctor, and The Day Of The Doctor. In such a brief amount of time, he amassed an admirable selection of spectacular moments to behold, and some of the best of those are reverentially regarded via their catalogue in the following listicle.

Having already encountered his future selves of the Tenth and the Eleventh Doctors, the War Doctor had precipitously established a dynamic relationship comprised of exchanges of malcontent and scornful mordacity with his contemporary peers, and had expended all of his exhaustive tolerance with them, as had been the precedent set by all of the previous encounters with himself. Although he had become more than familiar with the bizarre and exceptionally extraordinary circumstance, being well versed in the mercurial potential outcome of the interactions between the Doctor and the Doctor an embellishing accolade that he could pride as the credentials validating his resume of peculiar forays into the universe.

By the stage of acclimatisation to each other's presence that they had reached by the time that Queen Elizabeth I had them incarcerated in the Tower of London by the commission of her guards, while impersonating the Zygon commander that was interloping her position of authority himself by replicating her appearance, it would have been reasonable to assume that saner heads would have prevailed, but in typical fashion, the bickering was unrelenting and continued to lend itself to levity. The distinguishing facet of their isolation with each other within such a claustrophobic environment was the perfect insular location to place an emphasis upon the focus of the lack of chemistry between them that was the cause of the sarcastic, passive aggressive humour.

When their reservations of one another had been all but resolved, and harmony could seize the spotlight momentarily throughout the chaos of the overarching narrative of The Day Of The Doctor, the Tenth Doctor could finally consummate the binding oath of fidelity to Queen Elizabeth that he had erroneously made by proposing to her when he mistook her for the Zygon clone. And, with Clara Oswald, the War Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor in attendance, the nuptials were performed, albeit for an extremely brief ceremony. Upon the confirmational tradition of the reciprocated kiss they shared, the War Doctor could not refrain from expressing his opinion of being appalled at what he would do in further along in his time stream.

Making a comedically cynical comment on the affair, he asked the Eleventh "Is ther a lot of this in the future?" to the disappointing response of "It does start to happen, yeah"; An uninitiated bias of bemoaning the overt display of affection, that also served as a meta-commentary on the minority fan contingent that had expressed similar criticism on the increase of romantic elements featured in the new era of the show.

Shortly after the marriage of the Tenth Doctor and the matriarch of the final days of Tudor Britain, the three Doctors resolved to return to the present through the transportation of the TARDIS, and their combined presence within the control room caused it to contort to resemble the Eleventh Doctor's cockpit(wherein the Tenth Doctorepeateded his recurring phrase of "Oh, you've redecorated. I don't like it."). They could land within the vicinity of their target location of the Black Archive beneath the Tower of London, because the limitations upon modern technology had inhibited the possibility for TARDIS arrival. They instead had to resort to more unconventional methods of entrance, and so utilised the onboard stasis cube to travel into the hell of the Time War.

Confronted with an incurring Dalek, the three Doctors exploited the advantage that uniting granted them, and used the combined power of their sonic screwdrivers to destroy the beastly machine, and explode onto the scene-Sending the wreckage crashing through the transferred painting of "Gallifrey Falls No More"(recently done so under the Doctor's ingenious order), and extravagantly emanating with a tremendously triumphant sense of optimism as they sought to resolve the issue affronting planet Earth. Even in his most dire hour of need, the Doctor proved that he still possessed his inherent fiendish proclivity for a sensational display.

The initial convention between any combination of any number of Doctors is always a delightful asset of fan service whenever it occurs, and the encounter between the Tenth, Eleventh and War Doctors was no exception; It was such a multidimensional eventuation, as the uniting of three Doctors would assumedly be the most assured way of ensuring the salvation of any situation, no matter how beleaguering and how paradoxical. Flirting with breaching the confining boundaries of the threshold of egregious contravention of the laws of paradoxes was simply child's play for the Doctor however, and that was not of his concern when the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor became acquainted-Only to be confronted with the sight of the person they would have despised viewing more than any other.

Instead of harmony, the template of dysfunction and derisive pontification permeating their interactions was the perpetuated theme throughout the meeting, and their precursive malcontent and disdain for each other-particularly the War Doctor and his wise naivety to the situation-preceded an odyssey of redeeming reconciliation as it progressed through the realisation of their mutual ambitions of morality. Despite being older in his aesthetic appearance, he was far less competent to what his immediate future would yield, and the theme of the burden of knowledge that being much older granted the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors pervaded the majority of the narrative. Such austerity had to be juxtaposed with satire of each other though, and so bickering became an inevitability:

WARRIOR: Good. Right. Well, who are you boys? Oh, of course. Are you his companions?
DOCTOR: His companions?
WARRIOR: They get younger all the time. Well, if you could point me in the general direction of the Doctor?
WARRIOR: Really?
DOCTOR: Yeah.
DOCTOR 10: Really.
WARRIOR: You're me? Both of you?
DOCTOR 10: Yep.
WARRIOR: Even that one?
DOCTOR: Yes!
WARRIOR: You're my future selves?
BOTH: Yes!
WARRIOR: Am I having a midlife crisis? Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that? They're scientific instruments, not water pistols. Look like you've seen a ghost.
DOCTOR 10: Still, loving the posh gravelly thing. It's very convincing.
DOCTOR: Brave words, Dick van Dyke.

Regeneration is always an essentially iconic aspect of any of the Doctor's life cycles as it literally defines the biological makeup of the entity of the hero. A deus ex machina it could be and has been argued, but the denotations of having a near eternal life have been a load that has been most burdensome and fatiguing for the, to bear the weight of. It is not always as resplendent and virtuous as it has appeared on the surface, and so the time before it is always subject to an abundance of anticipation. Even in the case of the freshly introduced Warrior, there was a distillation of poignancy as his torment came to an end.

The purpose of the duration of that cycle was essentially to participate in the Time War, and when he had fulfilled the satisfaction of that duty, he found elation in the successful emergence from the doldrums of the mire of his ethical strain. Continuity errors were amended as proficiently as possible, and Gallifrey fell no more because of the resilient perseverance of the War Doctor, who had become galvanised and inspired by Clara Oswald and the erudition derived from the experience with himselves. Such a life of hardship could not have deserved a more poetic consummative conclusion.

"Time Lords of Gallifrey, Daleks of Skaro, I serve notice on you all. Too long I have stayed my hand. No more. Today you leave me no choice. Today, this war will end. No more. No more."-Very similar to the memoirs of the Eighth Doctor at the commencement of the Movie, the concise, but thorough address of the Doctor to the Time Lords and their adversaries as an internal monologue served as excellent exposition of the implications of the tragic and dire situation he found himself in, and as a precursory tease of the profound expressions of sentiments he would occupy the attention of viewers with in such limited screen time exposure.

A remarkable, but flawed insight, due to the sagacity of the analytical identification of what was besieging the universe and because of the unwise conclusion of an absolute and drastic resolution.

The magnitude and mass of the implicated conveyances of a scene, successfully done so in such a brief instance of time, is a marvellous feat of accomplishment that can only be matched at best. The profusion of John Hurt's appearance in the very final moment of The Night Of The Doctor, as the Eighth Doctor's life concluded and the War Doctor's commenced, was another attesting merit to the proficiency with which John Hurt could flaunt his performing ability.

The War Doctor had been established as a character of monumental significance in another scene of a similar ephemerality, but the indications of being the only Doctor to emerge from the other side of a regeneration with assured assertion over their identity and the philosophy of exasperated fatigue with the toils of the Time War they felt obliged to enact were what made the single absolute statement of "Doctor no more" intensely daunting and morosely mesmerising. There was no necessitated elaboration, and it was concisely compelling.

The Name Of The Doctor has been somewhat a divisive episode amongst the clamouring Whovians of the science fiction paragon, but has been almost unanimously exalted for the most magnificent portrayal of the classic villain, The Great Intelligence, and the spectacular stake-building it was able to do. It foreshadowed the epic event that the similarly titled The Day Of The Doctor would eventually become. And most perplexingly, the execution of the introduction of a mysterious, troubled and desolated person, who was an absolute enigma.

The initiation of the ominous and mystifying eminence of the War Doctor as he announced himself to the audience was portrayed in a way that excellently implied the solemn severity of his emergence from the dark recesses of the Doctor's mind, and the indication of the secretive repression of his unidentifiably shameful past. The pure weight of the situation, combined with the strain of physically entering the Doctor's personal chronological time stream proved too burdensome for Clara to bear the weight of, and the emergence of the Warrior was enough to make her faint-Collapsing into the Eleventh Doctor's arms, as the brief conversation provided essentially vague and climactic exposition to create a compelling cliffhanger:

CLARA: Who's that?
DOCTOR: Never mind. Let's go back.
CLARA: But who is he?
DOCTOR: He's me. There's only me here, that's the point. Now let's get back.
CLARA: But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. Eleven faces, all of them you. You're the eleventh Doctor.
DOCTOR: I said he was me. I never said he was the Doctor.
CLARA: I don't understand.
DOCTOR: Look, my name, my real name, that is not the point. The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like, it's like a promise you make. He's the one who broke the promise.
DOCTOR: Clara? Clara? Clara!
DOCTOR: He is my secret.
WARRIOR: What I did, I did without choice.
DOCTOR: I know.
WARRIOR: In the name of peace and sanity.
DOCTOR: But not in the name of the Doctor.

The illustrious instances of interaction between the War Doctor and the dystopian harbinger of apocalyptic armageddon with a sentient conscious were manifold, and distributed throughout The Day Of The Doctor. The very premise of the practical construction of the theoretical conception of the device that had the sole purpose of obliterating a planet was formulated with the accompanying caveat that it would have the intelligent conscious to compose and articulate sanctimonious judgement upon any prospective operational user or abuser-And when it adopted the form of a significant figure that had emanated within the Doctor's future(in the manifestation of the mystical "Bad Wolf"), a dynamic shared between a man and a machine was created and served to work with more depth and versatility than merely sifting through the basically broad strokes of the fundamentals of such a relationship.

From then on, a sundry of comedic moments transpired, as the confused encapsulation of the Doctor's confrontation with his own convoluted and complex inexperience with the eventuating events and the naivety of his unfamiliarity with his precipitous rush into the foreign territory of war was explored meticulously. In the introductory sequence alone, his reaction to the inquisition of the bomb swiftly developed into an irritated frustration commensurately with his pathological compulsion to justify his decision to exploit the device's design. But the culmination of the realisation that the Moment's exhibition of the men he would grow to be in the wake of what he was about to attempt, of the man who regrets and the man who forgets, was a poetic and profound clarity that he miraculously managed to reach, and the elation of that impulsion was exemplified in the jubilant exclamation he made:

"She didn't just show me any old future, she showed me exactly the future I needed to see. Oh, Bad Wolf girl, I could kiss you!"

By the stage in the tale whereupon the Doctor had made his tremendously glorious emergence into the Black Archive, the incarnation deeply embroiled in the conflict of the Time War had already experienced a veritable selection of successes and failures; Losing Cass just before he came into being, losing countless members of his own species, and capitulating to the concession that he would have to invoke the further loss of all who remained were tragedies that were barely allayed by the minor victories of absconding from the threatening incarceration at the hands of the Zygons and the destruction of the Dalek that abetted their arrival within the covert vault of UNIT's jurisdiction, if at all.

Even with the reassurance that the presence of Clara offered in addition to the genius solution he and his two other selves had devised pertaining to the tenuous situation on Earth were inadequate in granting him the security of mental tranquillity to prevent his feelings of remorse. Remorse that itself would be insufficient in discouraging him from exacting the impending atrocity he was reluctantly willing to commit. Clara approached him with a consoling tone, as she made a facade of casual conversation with the genuine intention of comforting him, while attempting to convince him that there was a solution to ending the Time War that wouldn't involve mass genocide:

CLARA: The Doctor, my, my Doctor, he's always talking about the day he did it. The day he wiped out the Time Lords to stop the war.
WARRIOR: One would.
CLARA: You wouldn't. Because you haven't done it yet. It's still in your future.
WARRIOR: You're very sure of yourself.
CLARA: He regrets it. I see it in his eyes every day. He'd do anything to change it.
WARRIOR: Including saving all these people. How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think? Look over there. Humans and Zygons working together in peace. How did you know?
CLARA: Your eyes. You're so much younger.
WARRIOR: Then, all things considered, it's time I grew up. I've seen all I needed. The moment has come.
WARRIOR: I'm ready.

His notifying address toward the Moment permitted it to transport him back to the barn of his childhood where he had initially taken the device to detonate it, and it then commended him for his noble sacrifice for the sake of the preservation of the rest of the universe-Despite the toll of his life:

MOMENT: You wanted a big red button. One big bang, no more Time Lords. No more Daleks. Are you sure?
WARRIOR: I was sure when I came in here. There is no other way.
MOMENT: You've seen the men you will become.
WARRIOR: Those men. Extraordinary.
MOMENT: They were you.
WARRIOR: No. They are the Doctor.
MOMENT: You're the Doctor, too.
WARRIOR: No. Great men are forged in fire. It is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame, whatever the cost.

The citations from the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors after they arrived to exact the disaster along with him could not have been more illustrative:

DOCTOR 10: What we do today is not out of fear or hatred. It is done because there is no other way.
DOCTOR: And it is done in the name of the many live we are failing to save.

The scene was already poignant for even the viewership of the uninitiated, but when contextualised by the conversation he had held hours earlier in the same location, the emotional gravitas was allocated its epitome through his exhibition of the hallmrk traits of traumatisation in the exhaustion of all alternative possibilities:

MOMENT: If I ever develop an ego, you've got the job.
WARRIOR: If you have been inside my head, then you know what I've seen. The suffering. Every moment in time and space is burning. It must end, and I intend to end it the only way I can.
MOMENT: And you're going to use me to end it by killing them all, Daleks and Time Lords alike. I could, but there will be consequences for you.
WARRIOR: I have no desire to survive this.
MOMENT: Then that's your punishment. If you do this, if you kill them all, then that's the consequence. You live. Gallifrey. You're going to burn it, and all those Daleks with it, but all those children too. How many children on Gallifrey right now?