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Twice Upon a Time (Doctor Who)
"Twice Upon a Time" is a special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2017 as the programme's thirteenth Christmas special. The episode was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay. It features the final regular appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, the first official appearance of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, and also stars David Bradley as the First Doctor. Pearl Mackie stars as the Twelfth Doctor's former companion Bill Potts, while his other companions make guest appearances – Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald and Matt Lucas as Nardole. Mark Gatiss plays a First World War British army captain who is revealed to be a family member of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
The episode is a continuation of "The Doctor Falls", and takes place during the final serial of the First Doctor, The Tenth Planet (1966); footage from The Tenth Planet is used in the special. "Twice Upon a Time" is Capaldi's fourth and final Christmas special as the Twelfth Doctor, and was the last Doctor Who story to be written and produced by Moffat while he was the show's executive producer and chief writer. After the special's broadcast, Moffat was succeeded as executive producer and showrunner by Chris Chibnall.
Wandering back to his TARDIS through the South Pole in 1986, the First Doctor refuses to regenerate. He encounters the Twelfth Doctor outside his own TARDIS in a similar state of mind. The pair are approached by a confused and injured First World War British captain, displaced from 1914 while in a gun-point stalemate with a German soldier. The three are taken into a large spaceship. Inside, they meet with Bill Potts, the Twelfth Doctor doubts she is the real Bill. Upon encountering the ship's glass-like holographic pilot, they are offered freedom in exchange for the Captain returning to the moment of his death. Refusing to allow the Captain to die, they escape and take the First Doctor's TARDIS to the planet Villengard.
Alone, the Twelfth Doctor meets with the rogue Dalek Rusty, who grants them access to the Dalek Hivemind. The Doctor learns that the pilot and its ship, known as Testimony, are designed to extract people from their timelines at the moment of their death, and archive their memories into glass avatars. Bill is revealed to be an avatar. Seeing no evil to fight, the Doctors agree to return the Captain to his timeline. Upon arrival, the Captain asks the Doctors to keep an eye on his family, introducing himself as Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart. As time resumes, the Doctors watch as soldiers on both sides begin singing "Silent Night". The Twelfth Doctor explains to the First that he deliberately shifted the Captain's timeline forward to the start of the Christmas truce, to ensure his life would be spared.
The First Doctor informs the Twelfth that he is now prepared to regenerate and says his goodbyes before returning to his TARDIS. He returns to the South Pole to regenerate into his second incarnation. Now alone with Bill's avatar, the Twelfth Doctor adamantly contends she is not really Bill, but she argues that memories are what defines a person, and restores his erased memories of Clara Oswald. The Doctor then returns to the TARDIS and decides to regenerate, imparting some personal advice to his next incarnation. After regenerating, the Thirteenth Doctor is delighted to learn she is now a woman. The TARDIS suffers multiple system failures due to damage caused by the delayed regeneration. As the time rotor and the console room explode, the Doctor falls out of the tumbling TARDIS, which dematerialises as she plummets to Earth below.
"Twice Upon a Time" was the last Doctor Who episode written by Steven Moffat as showrunner; he returned in 2024 to write an episode for series 14. As with the previous change of showrunners, incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall wrote the final moments of the episode, so as to allow him to write Whittaker's first lines on the show. This happened in the 2010 special "The End of Time", when Moffat took over for Russell T Davies in the final moments of the episode, writing Matt Smith's first words as the Eleventh Doctor.
In January 2016, Moffat announced that he would step down as the programme's showrunner after the tenth series, to be replaced by Chibnall beginning with the eleventh series in 2018, but a 2017 Christmas special was not mentioned in the plans at that time. The change in showrunners almost caused the annual episode to be cancelled, as Moffat planned to leave after the tenth series finale and Chibnall did not want to begin his run with a Christmas special. When he learned of Chibnall's plans, Moffat elected to stay long enough to produce one final episode, as he was concerned that the show would lose the 25 December slot in the future if it missed a year. As a result, he had to rewrite his plans for the tenth series finale to allow Capaldi to appear in one more episode.
In an interview following the episode's broadcast, Gatiss said he cried at the thought of playing the Brigadier's grandfather when he finished reading the script. However, it was reported following broadcast that the Haisman Literary Estate was pursuing legal action against the BBC regarding the character. Haisman's granddaughter made a public statement that this was not the case. Ultimately, they asserted their control of the backstory of the Brigadier, stating that Archibald was actually the Brigadier's great-uncle who appeared in Night of the Intelligence.
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Twice Upon a Time (Doctor Who)
"Twice Upon a Time" is a special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2017 as the programme's thirteenth Christmas special. The episode was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Rachel Talalay. It features the final regular appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, the first official appearance of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, and also stars David Bradley as the First Doctor. Pearl Mackie stars as the Twelfth Doctor's former companion Bill Potts, while his other companions make guest appearances – Jenna Coleman as Clara Oswald and Matt Lucas as Nardole. Mark Gatiss plays a First World War British army captain who is revealed to be a family member of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
The episode is a continuation of "The Doctor Falls", and takes place during the final serial of the First Doctor, The Tenth Planet (1966); footage from The Tenth Planet is used in the special. "Twice Upon a Time" is Capaldi's fourth and final Christmas special as the Twelfth Doctor, and was the last Doctor Who story to be written and produced by Moffat while he was the show's executive producer and chief writer. After the special's broadcast, Moffat was succeeded as executive producer and showrunner by Chris Chibnall.
Wandering back to his TARDIS through the South Pole in 1986, the First Doctor refuses to regenerate. He encounters the Twelfth Doctor outside his own TARDIS in a similar state of mind. The pair are approached by a confused and injured First World War British captain, displaced from 1914 while in a gun-point stalemate with a German soldier. The three are taken into a large spaceship. Inside, they meet with Bill Potts, the Twelfth Doctor doubts she is the real Bill. Upon encountering the ship's glass-like holographic pilot, they are offered freedom in exchange for the Captain returning to the moment of his death. Refusing to allow the Captain to die, they escape and take the First Doctor's TARDIS to the planet Villengard.
Alone, the Twelfth Doctor meets with the rogue Dalek Rusty, who grants them access to the Dalek Hivemind. The Doctor learns that the pilot and its ship, known as Testimony, are designed to extract people from their timelines at the moment of their death, and archive their memories into glass avatars. Bill is revealed to be an avatar. Seeing no evil to fight, the Doctors agree to return the Captain to his timeline. Upon arrival, the Captain asks the Doctors to keep an eye on his family, introducing himself as Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart. As time resumes, the Doctors watch as soldiers on both sides begin singing "Silent Night". The Twelfth Doctor explains to the First that he deliberately shifted the Captain's timeline forward to the start of the Christmas truce, to ensure his life would be spared.
The First Doctor informs the Twelfth that he is now prepared to regenerate and says his goodbyes before returning to his TARDIS. He returns to the South Pole to regenerate into his second incarnation. Now alone with Bill's avatar, the Twelfth Doctor adamantly contends she is not really Bill, but she argues that memories are what defines a person, and restores his erased memories of Clara Oswald. The Doctor then returns to the TARDIS and decides to regenerate, imparting some personal advice to his next incarnation. After regenerating, the Thirteenth Doctor is delighted to learn she is now a woman. The TARDIS suffers multiple system failures due to damage caused by the delayed regeneration. As the time rotor and the console room explode, the Doctor falls out of the tumbling TARDIS, which dematerialises as she plummets to Earth below.
"Twice Upon a Time" was the last Doctor Who episode written by Steven Moffat as showrunner; he returned in 2024 to write an episode for series 14. As with the previous change of showrunners, incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall wrote the final moments of the episode, so as to allow him to write Whittaker's first lines on the show. This happened in the 2010 special "The End of Time", when Moffat took over for Russell T Davies in the final moments of the episode, writing Matt Smith's first words as the Eleventh Doctor.
In January 2016, Moffat announced that he would step down as the programme's showrunner after the tenth series, to be replaced by Chibnall beginning with the eleventh series in 2018, but a 2017 Christmas special was not mentioned in the plans at that time. The change in showrunners almost caused the annual episode to be cancelled, as Moffat planned to leave after the tenth series finale and Chibnall did not want to begin his run with a Christmas special. When he learned of Chibnall's plans, Moffat elected to stay long enough to produce one final episode, as he was concerned that the show would lose the 25 December slot in the future if it missed a year. As a result, he had to rewrite his plans for the tenth series finale to allow Capaldi to appear in one more episode.
In an interview following the episode's broadcast, Gatiss said he cried at the thought of playing the Brigadier's grandfather when he finished reading the script. However, it was reported following broadcast that the Haisman Literary Estate was pursuing legal action against the BBC regarding the character. Haisman's granddaughter made a public statement that this was not the case. Ultimately, they asserted their control of the backstory of the Brigadier, stating that Archibald was actually the Brigadier's great-uncle who appeared in Night of the Intelligence.