by Alasdair Stuart

Obverse Books, out now

Obverse Books’ ongoing series of monographs focusing on a Doctor Who serial or story hits 2013’s 50th anniversary event episode The Day of the Doctor.

Author Alasdair Stuart has a great time with his analysis of Stephen Moffat’s wonderful love letter to Doctor Who, aided by the Target novelisation/expansion of the event episode, as well as the benefit of the seven years of material that followed it. In true Moffat ‘timey-wimey’ style, it not only embraced the past and the present of the show at its golden anniversary, but actually set up a number of clues for the upcoming 12th Doctor’s tenure.

Stuart has done a lot of homework with this book, identifying at the outset a number of themes that he’ll be referring back during the course of the study – namely 3D storytelling, metafiction, postmodernism and discontinuity. The strength in his work is that he’ll frequently bring something up that you probably already knew or noticed but didn’t know that you knew at the time. Some of the subtler references are teased out, and even some of the ‘own goals’ have a light shone on them.

The strongest sections are those separate chapters devoted to the War, 10th and 11th Doctors, as well as the four strong female characters – Clara, Rose/Moment, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and Osgood. Each is contextualised within the wider narrative, highlighting where their actions represent the beginning of a change. Even the Daleks – frequently considered as window dressing in this story – get a thorough looking-over, their different eras chronicled.

Verdict: More than just an anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor is a significant waypoint in the map of Doctor Who’s territory. Luckily we have top cartographer Alasdair Stuart to help us navigate the terrain. 9/10

Nick Joy

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