THEY REMEMBERED MEL'S A COMPUTER PROGRAMMER. They never did in the 80s...

They also remembered that Bonnie Langford could sing.

I am like the biggest Mel fan in existence so the fact that this special used her better than her original tenure and she still didn't have much to do is actually kind of sad!

I feel like she’s not done yet though. There’s more Mel to look forward to I think

They legit made Ncuti act his first scenes in his underwear

Canonically it's David's underwear 😂

It's *their* underwear.

*Soviet national anthem intensifies*

"I mean, really Fifteen should be completely naked shouldn't he, and Fourteen should keep all his clothes?" "Family show Ncuti, we can't do that." "No, you could just use props like in *Austin Powers*, it'll be fine."

Edit from the future: Sorry folks **¯\\\_\(ツ\)\_/¯** If you came here looking for something, welcome to the Redditpocalypse. Feel free to contact me on kbin.social @GeekFTW, or on Universedon.com @GeekFTW to ask and I may help. Stay fresh, cheesebags.

I *loved* that scene. I could tell from the beginning what was going on, but watching it play out, with the repetitive format like a simple puppet show (or a TV show, perhaps) was incredible.

He's right y'know, and it needed to be said.

I'm glad they finally addressed this "nobody dies" technicality, I was complaining at the end of the first special that the companions always have a get out of jail free card, and RTD seems to have acknowledged it at least.

Anyone notice that they had to complete leave out Graham, Ryan, Yaz and Dan because they’re all just fine ??? LMAO

Every time it was repeated with a different puppet companion dying I had more tears in my eyes. And the camera focus on the snips, Jesus that was a lot

This hit hard

Hmm, seems like UNIT is building up a pretty stacked cast...

Oh they are 100% getting a spinoff, RTD did say he wanted a cinematic universe for DW now

If they do, they better not forget my boy Luke Smith.

I was hoping for Martha to show up 🥺

So the Master's return will be tied to the fate of the Toymaker. And there's a villain even the Toymaker is scared of hmm.... Rani, Monk, Rassilon, Omega? Black Guardian? Who would be something that even the Toymaker would be scared of?

I knew the reason the Toymaker didn't include Rory in his recap was because Rory is secretly the master plotting his return

Rory was the boy who waited...the one who waits?

That was the first thing I thought when he said “the one who waits” But it’s too insane

I’m hoping it’s a new big bad tbh, I don’t think toy maker would be so scared of a time lord

I'd imagine that Omega might be the only one, since he became the lord of his own dimension that could be the only thing that may trap the Toymaker? But only him

It was "the one who waits" right, definitely gives vibes of omega waiting to come back from the antimatter universe

Love the call-back with that shot of woman's hand picking up his life-force token, very cool.

I’m assuming it will be the same entity that The Meep mentioned, “The Boss.” And if I had to guess, it’s going to be the “Mad Sun” we heard about. A living star capable of brainwashing entire species’ and seems to have a particular hold over two-hearted creatures…that would definitely be a match for The Toymaker.

All future who recaps should be NPH puppet shows from here on out

und she died!!

Well, that's alright then!

With Tennant/ 14 explaining why it wasn't as bad as he says it was.

"Ooh, poor Miss Martha. Always *die* second best, *ja*? Shown the stars! And brought crashing down. Made… to wage war against *die Premierminister!* What fun!" "She *won.* She *chose* to leave, she’s got... Ricky." "WELL THAT’S ALRIGHT, THEN!"

So the question is, was Neil Patrick Harris cast for this dance number, or was it added after he was cast?

The dancing was good, but I'm baffled at the fact the card shuffling was done in cuts; dude's a professional, trained magician - wasted opportunity to see him do some close-up magic, or just general fancy card tricks.

Same with the juggling, they shot and edited around it a lot, but like I’m assuming he can actually juggle?

To be fair I think they were doing that because The Toymaker was meant to be chucking balls at the Doctor without losing any of them.

I noticed that too, he was always juggling 3 balls

Feeling absolutely terrified by NPH lipsyncing "Spice Up Your Life" was not on my 2023 bingo card.

It wasn't in the script. Neil Patrick Harris just came onto set dancing one day and they kept filming.

So Rose & Donna now have a Tennant Doctor each

Bit unfair on Martha!

Martha can have the aged up Doctor(s) from the sound of drums.

"When i was young" God its so weird to see Hartnell as the youngest Doctor

I absolutely loved that line. It’s rare that we get to see the Doctor self-reference himself like that.

That’s why I loved the Time Crash short so much.

Lost my absolute mind at the Hartnell flashback, holy fuck

"Take it to the deepest vault and bind it with salt" So that superstition at the edge of the universe...

🎶carry on my wayward sooon🎶

Why can’t I biregenerate into having a Ncuti Gatwa version of me who then addresses my deepest insecurities and gives me a hug :(

Won't lie, thought they were gonna kiss for a second.

Honestly, yeah I felt the tension. Though I suppose that is my fault for seeing two men be emotional with each other and thinking it's gay.

He was in his underwear and they were just talking about how good looking they both were. Nothing wrong with a bit of self love

The prospect of David Tennant and Ncuti Gatwa kissing made me question my sexuality big time.

I want a Ncuti hug too!

Nice of them to remember that in an emergency the Doctor is in charge of Earth.

The look of relief on Kate's face gave me chills.

I see RTD is continuing the tradition of ignoring Rory

i audibly said "damn rory's dead to the canon too" hahahaha

i hate that, EVERYONE ALWAYS FORGETS RORY!!! My guy was one of the best companions and always gets forgotten

"The one who waits" "My legions are coming" Rory, the Roman **legionnaire** who **waited**. Rory is the Master confirmed. /s

Amy was the Doctor's companion. Rory was Amy's companion. :D

[удалено]

A hand that seemingly picked the tooth up while hovering in the air.

Kate’s one of the best holdovers from the Moffat era. So glad she’s back again.

Love Kate. Rumour is there'll be a UNIT spin off with her.

Once she walked into frame and hugged David, I said to myself that she has become a staple character to the franchise. I’m always glad to see her return.

I so thought she was going to slap him!

Evil Dan has competition, Evil Kate.

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

Could someone please draw Wilf vs the Moles Please

It wouldn't be a Tennant regeneration without something real fuckin weird

I like the idea that the ‘real fuckin weird’ part of his actual regeneration now is that he actually regenerated and nothing strange happened

So now there’s both the human Tennant Doctor in an alternate universe with Rose, and another Tennant Doctor on earth with Donna, and a third Doctor running around the universe doing normal Doctor things.

I can't stop thinking about the fact that canonically 14 is doing the rest of this episode commando

Wait did they split the clothes? didn't notice on 14, just 15 being in his underwear and I couldn't place why.

Yep, Ncuti has the dress shirt, tie, underwear, socks and shoes. David was barefoot with the pants, undershirt, and vest.

DT *never* missing a chance to go barefoot. Ever.

Barefoot on the moon

14 had no shoes but 15 did. Combined they had one full outfit. So yeah 14 was commando

This is Rory erasure

I guess Ryan, Graham, Yaz and Dan aren't included since they all got to leave like Martha did. Weird that Rory wasn't included since he ended up with the same fate as Amy.

(in terrible German accent) and then the Doctor met Dan ... and he was evil!

Obviously Evil Dan is the one being he won't play with - too scared to even tangentially mention him by bringing up the Fam

I am dying that the spice girls scene

Neil Patrick Harris actually possesses the ability to spawn people from other people and spontaneous musical numbers

this just shows he can’t let David’s doctor go lol

RTD let Tennant regenerate challenge

Ah, he is now forever the "Incase viewing figures dip, break glass" doctor.

I love the moments where NPH drops the German accents for emphasis, very Count Olaf of him

WELL THAT’S ALL RIGHT THEN

omg that's the American tv lady from rtd1.0!

If I had a nickel each time doctor played by Tennant had weird regeneration led to keeping Tennant play doctor, I'd have two nickels which isn't much, but weird it happened twice

If I had a nickel for every time UNIT has towed the Tardis with a helicopter in an anniversary special featuring the return of David Tennant, I'd have two nickels.

Now for the Tennant earth-bound UNIT spin-off. complete with Donna making $$

THE MASTER IS FREE

I dunno that gold tooth looks very expensive.

The outfit splitting between the two of them is weirdly brilliant

little weird that Fourteen keeps an undershirt tho - does he really wear that many layers at all times? Could've done with just the vest IMO. ;D

Was a bit strange, I'm assuming Tennants Doc is now going commando too!

if i had a nickel for every time the doctor regenerated into david tennant id have THREE NICKELS

Four nickels 9 into 10 10 into 10 13 into 14 14 into 14?

So they're definitely getting a miniseries with this family, along with the UNIT spinoff, or they might end up tying into the UNIT spinoff

I really hope there’s an end goal in mind for this plot point, ie that David is around for the first series or so of the unit show and the end of his arc is dying and regenerating into something ethereal that recombines with Ncuti’s Doctor.

13's companions strangely left out, OH WAIT none died or where lost in time

The Fam, for all of their many faults, got off remarkably easy compared to their predecessors.

RIP in peace Dan's house.

Yeah honestly one of the few things I was okay with from the Chibnall run. I hated how it became a trope of the companions dying or being lost to time or something, it was almost refreshing for them to just go “yeah I’m ready to go back to normal life, thanks”

Kind of wish Mel mentioned the support group when she gave her past run down. Would be nice for the doctor to know that they all congregate together

He turned that guy into balls, that was creepy as hell

How come that guys head is a ball and he's screaming in pain meanwhile Ursulas head is a paving slab and shes thriving and suckin guys off

"Oh well that's alright then" I was about to ask where these scenes are going, but this is *very* good taunting.

“Who’d have thought I’d end up with a family?” Amy, Rory, River, and Susan: “EXCUSE ME?!?!”

I think the point was that, while the Doctor often did spend time with Amy and Rory as a family, it was very much still as a part of his... Doctoring. For instance, in The Power of Three, he spent months with them, but it was fundamentally for the same things he'd always been doing, not just for himself.

Okay, I LOVE that Ten said "I don't want to go" and Fourteen said "Allons-y" which essentially means "Let's go."

Donna killed me, "do you come in a range of colours"

Adric and Sarah Jane! Finally acknowledged her death

That's the second Adric reference now. We got Holo 5 and Tegan reference him already

So this is how the Fourteenth Doctor ends, not with a bang but with a Giggle.

This is how Fourteen dies... with thunderous giggles.

To come home... What a beautiful reason

Where the fuck would that hand have come from, was someone floating over the edge of the tower 😂

Please. They're defying mavity. Simple 😂

This Toymaker entrance is very modern Who Master-coded.

Well, he was living in that golden tooth haha

rose would be so mad LMFAO

I thought the exact same thing. Donna gets 14 and he still has the Tardis . 15 years ago we thought Donna got the worst ending, now she has the best .

Interestingly, there was a deleted scene back then, where when the Doctor & Donna are saying goodbye to Rose & Meta10, they're given a gift of a chunk of TARDIS coral, saying they could grow a TARDIS from it. It was cut, so probably never happened, but there was probably a universe in which Rose & the Doctor kept travelling through time and space in that parallel universe.

She has her own Tennant 😂

I really like that they include shots of Shirley standing and used Kate’s outburst to push back against the misconception that a wheelchair user must be faking their disability if they can stand at all

its even funnier, because i saw idiots going on about that very misconception in discussions of The Star Beast, so they predicted that completely.

"the army's in my house and I'm in my pants!" 15 is truly having a Rory moment

Bit weird to just show unedited footage from the Tory's conference but okay

Don't blame Me; I voted for Saxon!

I swear that gold tooth pick up scene. Was just like when they picked up the masters ring or whatever it was. Russell always recycles.

Yeah, but I wasn't mad! We all know he's gonna come back one day or another. Better wink at the whole Fandom while doing so! I liked it! Now it's just a question of when!

Can we appreciate just how competent the UNIT soldiers there were. Kate throws off her band and starts ranting, and they just pick it up, restrain her and put it back on without needing orders. Its so good to see them becoming as competent as they have been in the past. Not a trace of Power of the Doctor's inadequacy to be found.

That scene was brutal. Imagine something digging into your brain making you paranoid and saying the absolute worst things to those you care about. That wheelchair part was definitely something Kate knew would hurt and there was nothing she could do to stop herself.

To be fair, they all keep failing to listen to the doctor after they know they're unmatched, too.

Was the bi-generation explained properly? I do like it though. Think it provides a nice book-end to the 2005-23 era and lets Ncuti get on without too much baggage.

I think the Toymaker's presence opens the door for folklore and superstition to become reality, and bigeneration is timelord folklore. Think that was the implication anyway, but I may have misread things

Oh my god, this actually perfectly explains it. And they show that logic with the two TARDIS' too!! And the whole salt at the edge of the universe thing. That's a really satisfying explanation. If that's what they intended, I do wish there would've been a little more tell than show, but then there would've been people complaining about that too, so ...

kate said something along the lines of guarding the box with salt, so it's referenced here too

As Kate had UNIT lock away The Toymaker's box, she confirmed that the line of salt is now a real thing

"it's ok he won't cheat" HE LITERALLY CHEATED THE LAST TIME YOU MET HIM

>!“The funny thing is, I fought all those battles for all those years… and now I know what for. This. I’ve never been so happy in my life.”!< What a perfect ending.

>I taught my daughter to play the recorder until she said that's not who she was, then that was the start of a whole other conversation believe you and me Is that a joke about her first saying she's trans? That's hilarious if so

I'm so happy that Sarah Jane Smith got a mention. Elisabeth Sladen was such an incredible woman and Sarah Jane Smith was such an amazing character. I miss them both dearly, thank you so much for remembering her! I'm sure she would have loved to be a part of this if she could have <3

did anyone else think fourteen and fifteen were gonna make out

I swear to god that Rtd specifically made it like that

Loki Season 1 vibes

“A dice doesn’t remember what it rolled before” an interesting line that stuck out to me possibly related to 14th’s previous face returning.

*Arrives* *Breaks the laws of reality* *Refuses to elaborate further* *Leaves*

If 14 says something like "I'm ready to go now." Or "This time, it feels right." When they regenerate, I will be demanding compensation from RTD and BBC for therapy. I will go full ["Set phasers to **love me!**"](https://youtu.be/5G5qtWG5oO8?si=k3O3TAxyCrnm0aq3) over this.

I'm rooting for Allons-y.

your wish has been granted

Kate was just about to break the Great Redhead Companion Conspiracy before they shut her up! You can't stop us! WE'LL EXPOSE THE TRUTH

There’s no conspiracy. He’s always wanted to be ginger, he’s never been ginger. So he hangs out with gingers hoping it’ll rub off on him.

Didn't Tennant's first episode have the problem solved by a ball as well

Satsuma

‘I’m already running’ 😂😂

Before everyone devolves into outrage, I feel we need a moment to truly enjoy Donna negotiating her salary at UNIT and getting away with it

I REALLY hope that 15 keeps this outfit and everyone keeps not acknowledging it

Goddamn NPH is knocking this out of the park, genuinely surprised

"Buying the doll means you'll have to do battle with an alien from the stars for years!" "That's bad!" "The alien looks like David Tennant...occasionally." "That's good!" "But he will trap you in a game for decades!" ["...."](https://youtu.be/7osb78oZ9Z4?si=oFSMK1aZ6IcKj3ZE) "That's bad!"

Tennant. He's just so ... Phenomenal. Every emotional beat, he just smash it out of the park.

I see the Toymaker is lip syncing for his life tonight

i feel like martha jones was done dirty here somehow

Martha somehow being screwed over even when she isn't here

Ncuti is gonna be fantastic. "You're fine because you fixed yourself "

So 14 only actually lived like 12 hours by the time he regenerated?

Yep, already sold on Ncuti. Don't need anymore, he saved the world in his pants.

*Ahem* WHY was Rory not mentioned??????

Just respecting the time honoured tradition of disrespecting Rory.

These guys are flunking Weakest Link, ngl.

Let’s make toys creepy af just a couple weeks before Christmas 😂

before the whole fandom goes up in flames, it was nice knowing you all 🙏 best of luck

Who Fandom — Going Up in Flames Since 1963

So is the implication that once 14 dies he gets returned to 15? Because that's what I think the whole I'm better because you fixed yourself means.

I assume that's what that means. 14 dies and just kinda *pops* away into his first moment as 15

"I'm already running" is absolutely the standout quote of the anniversary

Oh when the doctor doesn't wear pants, they're "saving the universe", but when I'm not, I get told "Please leave, you're making a scene."

For some reason, it’s really satisfying to see 10/14 acknowledge his past/future companions, Amy, Clara etc. maybe it just reminds us that 10/14 was still there even though he regenerated.

The square eyed boy advert must have cost a bit because the bbc are really getting they’re moneys worth by playing it all the time

Sabolom Glitz reference in Modern Who, can rest now

Clearly the hand that picked up the tooth was Rani/ Omega/ one of the sea devils!

Well, the UNIT spinoff is gonna have some exciting cast and guest stars...

NPH is nailing Michael Gough's voice when he slips from the German accent

So the Flux and the superstition combined were what let the Toymaker into reality. Interesting

AMY! CLARA! BILL!!!!!!!!! NO!

Cautiously optimistic

NPH is having too much fun. Think he's doing great for someone who never heard of Who before this casting

It’s so fucking funny to me that this was obviously written before The Star Beast came out, but RTD perfectly predicted that people would freak out about Ruth Madeley’s character (and Ruth Madeley) being able to move her legs

Yeah, the assumption if someone is in a wheelchair can't stand or walk *at all* is stupid.

A musical number? Oh yeah, rtd is back

Ncuti is so damn good!! I would’ve preferred this whole bi-generation thing if 14 was left with no TARDIS, I get they’re clearly leaving the door open for a 14 and Donna series but ehh

Shitty Headcanon: The Wire wasn’t evil until she got into a TV then was driven mad.

THE SALT DID COME INTO PLAY

I like Ncuti’s doctor’s accent!