The Night of the Doctor: A Mini Episode | The Day of the Doctor Prequel | Doctor Who
Why Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange recommends it
Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange users link it as the primary source for the Eighth Doctor's regeneration into the War Doctor when answering Doctor Who continuity and viewing-order questions.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2013 to 2017.
What it is
A 2013 seven-minute minisode from the BBC's Doctor Who channel, released as a prequel to the 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor. It shows the Eighth Doctor refusing to join the Time War, then choosing to regenerate into the War Doctor after the Sisterhood of Karn persuade him to act.
What people said
Cites Paul D. Waite · 2013-12 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “What’s the viewing order for new Doctor Who episodes *and* minisodes?”
I’m currently re-watching new Who, in the hope of understanding what on earth is going on during the Christmas special. In addition to the episodes themselves, in recent years the BBC has also produced several “minisodes” (I guess it’s hard to think up a good name for mini-episodes) which add a bit of context around some episodes (e.g. Pond Life [LINK] ), provide a bit of fun during BBC charity telethons (e.g. Time Crash [LINK] ), and occasionally portray pretty major plot points (e.g. Night of the Doctor [this video] ). I’d like to watch these too, but I can’t find a definitive list of them, or an indication of where each one fits in. It’s hard enough keeping the time-travel straight in my head,
Cites user21030 · 2014-01 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “Did the War Doctor got older between 'Night of the Doctor' and 'Day of the Doctor'?”
At the end of minisode ' The Night of the Doctor [this video] ' you see The Eight doctor regenerate into the 'War Doctor', afterwards you see the reflection of John Hurt's War Doctor while he says "Doctor no more". This reflection doesn't look like the War Doctor from "The Day of the Doctor" at all, but more like a younger version of him. Could it be that the 'War Doctor' was able to age during the Time War? I couldn't find any reference or explanation to this. So basically, what happened to the War Doctor's appearance between 'Night of the Doctor' and 'Day of the Doctor'?
Cites Hypnosifl · 2015-03 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “Has it ever been addressed why Galifreyans and Humans look alike?”
No explanation has been given for this in the TV series. But there is no official "canon" in Doctor Who [LINK] , so if you choose to incorporate spinoff media like novels or audios into your personal headcanon, the Doctor Who novel Lucifer Rising [LINK] gave an explanation for the similarity in terms of morphic fields [LINK] . The idea of morphic (or 'morphogenetic') fields was a real proposal by Rupert Sheldrake [LINK] (generally seen as fringe science, similar to ESP and such) that there is a sort of force of "habit" in the laws of nature, so for example after one member of a given species learns something, other members of the same species will learn it more easily (the supposed hundredth
Cites Erin Thursby · 2017-06 · Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange · on “How was the War Doctor addressed?”
This is a TIMELINE issue. The Doctor of War uses the name of the Doctor for the majority of that regeneration. The Doctor's later incarnations only stop calling him the Doctor at the very END of his life. For those of you saying the War Doctor didn't live long take a look at the reflection in the minisode [this video] when the War Doctor is "born." It's at about 6:36-6:39. He starts young. It's only when he presses the button (or they think he's pressed the button--all those Doctors in one place makes the memory a bit fuzzy, he'd only remember when the latest incarnation experiences it) that the realization that he should not use the name of the Doctor sets in for him. He regenerates into what we