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)

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