Arguably the best minisode. McGann absolutely bodies the five minutes of screen time and delivers an iconic performance. Truly makes me wish he got a real TV run.

they gave him 5 mins. he showed up, served c*nt, and died. what an icon.

fr though, after all these years, part of me still thinks they could have done DotD with Eight instead of War. Oh, well. Given this is the direction they chose, this minisode is amazing. I still remember how my jaw was on the floor when I watched it for the first time and Paul McGann was there, saying "I'm the Doctor, but probably not the one you were expecting". Absolute cinema. I loved seeing the comments from people that were not familiar with Eight just being floored by how he just is the Doctor, his own Doctor, from the first second, and in a story that's only 5 minutes long. The shout-out to his BF companions was so emotional and such a nice nod to all the expanded universe work that made Eighth such a beloved incarnation of the Doctor. Plus, "Physician, heal thyself" goes extremely hard as last words go. On a more in-universe note, is this the saddest death for the Doctor? Must be up there with Two's. It wasn't even a sacrifice to save someone, which is sad, but noble. It was him having to give up all he believed in to go fight in a horrible war. And he was alone :( To think that Eight begins his life as the sweetest Doctor we've ever had...

How can you not love it? It's McGann on his best and dear lord, such a shame they didn't use him in 2005, 1996 and yes even in the 50th.
Such a good short, only issue for me is the camera basically, the camera work gets messy for no reason (sure i like it at the beginning, but it's way tooo shaky even at the simple conversations, which is a bit annoying).

8th doctor best doctor no arguments

It’s only two scenes, but it’s perfect. You couldn’t ask for a more perfect slice of Doctor Who. When I first watched this, in November 2013, I had to keep pausing it to run around the house in excitement, before going back to the beginning, getting slightly further into the episode, then doing the same thing again.

I have such uncomplicated feelings towards this marvellous performance from a Doctor who has had far too little screen time. This was his defining moment, many year’s after his character’s conception. This is what we think about first, when we think about the Eighth Doctor.