Part of me would have loved to see him carry on, post-War, with the Moment as companion, arch and askew
They have very much that dynamic, but strangely reversed: for once the Doctor is bound to time in a way the Moment isn't. She can see ahead of him; she knows his possibilities. (I think she must have the name because she is the moment that is all time at once. I'm not sure we're ever told how this ultimate weapon was meant to work, but I wondered if it was not just destruction, but destruction in a way that could never be undone: no going back to retrieve what was lost, re-run events to make it come out all right this time; not even a time-lock, but a complete eradication from the timestream itself. Hence the conscience, and hence the Moment's intervention: once the War Doctor uses it, there will be, even for a Time Lord, no going back.) Hurt's Doctor has been from one end of time to another, fighting the war, but he still doesn't know what happens to him until the Moment starts cracking his timeline open. It's much more sophisticated than a superweapon that simply refuses to let itself be used—this is a weapon that actively works to make its attempted user find another answer to the problem.
He went into it with joy, and no other Doctor ever got that.
I think you're right. Maybe Smith's Eleven will be able to take a cue from him.
The greatest crime of this fiftieth anniverary—taking "The Night of the Doctor" and "The Day of the Doctor" together—was giving us just enough of McGann and Hurt to want so much more.
I like to imagine him never wholly retiring, solving strange art crimes in his old age.
Even if the Curator is a never-explained, never-revisited tantalizing loose end, he was the correct way to end this episode. It wasn't just the fact that Tom Baker is still the face of Doctor Who for so many viewers; he's onscreen for two, three minutes and he is as alien, mysterious, appealing, and faintly perilous as a Doctor should be. I don't know how he's supposed to square with the Doctor dying at Trenzalone; I don't know if he is the Doctor, or some strange echo; it doesn't matter. He doesn't even have a scarf. He's right.
no subject
They have very much that dynamic, but strangely reversed: for once the Doctor is bound to time in a way the Moment isn't. She can see ahead of him; she knows his possibilities. (I think she must have the name because she is the moment that is all time at once. I'm not sure we're ever told how this ultimate weapon was meant to work, but I wondered if it was not just destruction, but destruction in a way that could never be undone: no going back to retrieve what was lost, re-run events to make it come out all right this time; not even a time-lock, but a complete eradication from the timestream itself. Hence the conscience, and hence the Moment's intervention: once the War Doctor uses it, there will be, even for a Time Lord, no going back.) Hurt's Doctor has been from one end of time to another, fighting the war, but he still doesn't know what happens to him until the Moment starts cracking his timeline open. It's much more sophisticated than a superweapon that simply refuses to let itself be used—this is a weapon that actively works to make its attempted user find another answer to the problem.
He went into it with joy, and no other Doctor ever got that.
I think you're right. Maybe Smith's Eleven will be able to take a cue from him.
The greatest crime of this fiftieth anniverary—taking "The Night of the Doctor" and "The Day of the Doctor" together—was giving us just enough of McGann and Hurt to want so much more.
I like to imagine him never wholly retiring, solving strange art crimes in his old age.
Even if the Curator is a never-explained, never-revisited tantalizing loose end, he was the correct way to end this episode. It wasn't just the fact that Tom Baker is still the face of Doctor Who for so many viewers; he's onscreen for two, three minutes and he is as alien, mysterious, appealing, and faintly perilous as a Doctor should be. I don't know how he's supposed to square with the Doctor dying at Trenzalone; I don't know if he is the Doctor, or some strange echo; it doesn't matter. He doesn't even have a scarf. He's right.
Also, you could write that person.