We now come to one of the few televised Doctor Who stories to truly shock the fans, a mini episode building towards the 50th anniversary special which released without warning on Paul McGann’s birthday no less, mostly due to the fact that it was originally scheduled for a later release but they went with the former in fear of a potential leak. Which in this day and age was a wise decision, imagine robbing fans of the surprise onscreen return of the Eighth Doctor.

My only issue with this story is just how brief Paul McGann’s onscreen return as the Eighth Doctor was, the fact that he wasn’t in Day of the Doctor at all and it seemed like this was only written to close his side of the circle between him and the Ninth Doctor while setting up the War Doctor, when the Eighth Doctor deserves so much better than that. I also would’ve been curious about the idea of Big Finish handling the Eighth Doctor’s regeneration seeing as how they’re the ones who’ve crafted a full life for him and now we may never know what those plans would’ve been. But nonetheless, The Night of the Doctor is an astounding mini episode that conveys so much in such a short space of time, there’s no padding, no loose threads, it’s just a tight, well written send-off for the Eighth Doctor and McGann just owns every second of his onscreen return. Thankfully it wouldn’t be his last onscreen appearance having appeared in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode Power of the Doctor and even then, he made the most out of every second of his brief cameo. It’s not often I would say this but thank you Chris Chibnall for giving my favourite Doctor one more appearance in the spotlight (though saying that still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth)