The whole hour is a delight and one that will make you go through the emotional wringer before shooting you out at an exciting cliffhanger that will Jodie Whitaker will carry us through for the next few years. Following the cliffhanger of The Doctor Falls, The Doctor has run into his very first incarnation in the South Pole where he regenerated for the very first time. Of course no one could ever replace the triumpth that is William Hartnell, but David Bradely sure makes it his own and manages to make me see the First Doctor in an entirely new way. His portrayal of William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time (2013) was magnificent and he truely managed to seperate the actor from the character in that and here. His interactions with Capaldi over his future preferences and the way he regards himself in a situation were hilarious and even more so with his sexist remarks about Bill (Pearl Mackie) and Polly. The line about smacking Bill's bottom was outrageous and incredibly funny and by far the funniest line in the episode.
The way the episode started with the text '709 episodes previously' was unexpected, but exciting to see the footage of 1960's Who merge into present day HD Who. There are many other moments like this too that make the episode Moffat's goodbye love letter to Who. The suprise cameos of Clara (Jenna Coleman) and Nardole (Matt Lucas) were when the epsisode really started to pull the tears from me. Seeing Clara again was welcoming, but it's how happy it made the Doctor that really made me smile. Pearl Mackie has been great as Bill this year and it such a shame she already has to leave. It's hard to imagine how anyone can not like her. Mark Gattiss makes the most of his role as the father of Lethbridge-Stewart, a nice reveal but one I suspected given the time period and secrecy of his role. I find Gatiss to be a little irratating to it's a relieve that he managed to pull off a good performance in a small role here.
However, nothing is going to irritate me more than the fact that Capaldi's appearence in The Day of the Doctor was still never addressed. Surely I can't be the only one thinking that, that should have been addressed? At what point in time did he decide to do that considering from his point of view that he had already saved it? Or did he just do it randomly because he knew his future self came to help? It seems that this really needed to be clarified, but it certainly never will be now and that's forever gonna be a niggle for me about Capaldi's era. One thing I did expect Moffat to go back to was Rusty the Dalek from Capaldi's second ever episode Into the Dalek. Although I didn't mind this return, it sure wasn't as important a thing to go back to as the previous stuff I just ranted about.
Overall then, a splendid curtain call on Peter Capaldi's time as The Doctor and Steven Moffat's time on the show since 2009. An understated adventure that didn't self-inuldge so shamelessy as Russell T Davies did in The End of Time. Not saying that was a bad thing, but I definately prefer the quitness of realising one's time is up and accepting it. Steven Moffat has produced many of the best stories in his 8 years working on the show and Peter Capaldi has always given a magnetic and mesmerising performance even in his lesser scripts. This era of the show will certainly be looked back upon fondly and with nostalgia that such a perfect golden age existed for so long. With a whole new production crew incoming, it's possible that Doctor Who may have a competely different feel when the new series sarts next year - new writers, new actors and new composer. Jodie Whitaker's first scene was shot brilliantly and seeing her in the show at last does fill me with excitement, but I can't help but feel the sequence that followed was a tad underwhelming. Nevermind though because everything was just so right. Onwards to the future, I guess. Goodbye Capaldi, you will be terribly missed.