If you can see it in, it is fabulous. I don't think it is a necessity but it was neat, especially watching it on a huge movie screen. There are websites and blogs that have explained the easter eggs and stuff much better than I would. There are a few things I had to look up, like sand shoes (converse like shoes made for wearing on the beach), and Derren Brown (magician/illusionist) It was great to see a place on Gallifrey that was not the Capitol, and it's people. Regular old Gallifreyans who cannot regenerate and dress different from those in the Capitol.
The Omega arsenal, where the forbidden weapons are kept, wow. The Moment, or the Galaxy Eater was amazing. This gave Billie Piper a chance to come back as it's operating system, in the form of Bad Wolf Rose. Her interactions with John Hurt are wonderful, with her trying to prod him to making a different choice, telling him "That's your punishment. If you do this, if you kill them all, you live." and that someday he will have to count how many children died on Gallifrey as a consequence. Then things get a bit Christmas Carol-like, with Bad Wolf opening windows to the Doctor's future so he can see how his decision effects the man he later becomes.
The beginning of Day of the Doctor moves back and forth between the three different incarnations beautifully, the switches from one to the other occurring at what I feel is the perfect moment. No awkward scene changes that take ages to figure out. When they finally get together, it's magic "Who are you boys? Oh of course, you're his companions. They get younger all the time" and "Why are you pointing your screwdrivers like that, they're scientific instruments not water pistols!"
We get things set up here, like setting up the idea of starting a process with an earlier Doctor that will finish up with a later Doctor. The idea that John Hurt's Sonic begins to calculate how to disintegrate the door to their cell and Matt Smith's Sonic has it finished. Also, the translation of the zygons to the paintings pays off later when Clara prompts Smith to come up with something better than using the Moment. At the climax, the general says "I didn't know when I was well off, all twelve of them." then someone corrects him of course, there are thirteen, and we get Capaldi's eyebrows, hehe. This harkens back to the Brigadier in the Three Doctors "Three of them, eh? I didn't know when I was well off." Of course there is Hurt saying "Wearing a bit thin. I hope the ears are a bit less conspicuous this time." before he regenerates, a call back to Hartnell stating that his body was "wearing a bit thin." way back in 1966.
Getting the world ready for Capaldi and the next fifty years. Also, was it just me or was the sound of Gallifrey disappearing the same as the end exploding sound on the Peter Davison theme music from the eighties? Tom Baker surprises everyone by showing up as the curator (Queen Elizabeth mentions at the start that she has made the Doctor the curator of the under gallery, hmm) and giving everyone
a thrill. All in all, amazing stuff here and I hope you all enjoyed it, take care!
