Twice Upon a Time (TV story)

Twice Upon a Time was the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas special. It was the final episode under showrunner Steven Moffat's tenure, and featured the regeneration of Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor, into Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth.

The First Doctor had his first full appearance on the programme since The Five Doctors. Here, he was portrayed by David Bradley, who had previously played William Hartnell himself in An Adventure in Space and Time. This was the first televised interaction between a "classic" Doctor and a BBC Wales era Doctor since 2007's Time Crash. Archival footage from The Tenth Planet is used to bookmark the First Doctor's place in this story. The special also introduced Archibald Hamish Lethbridge-Stewart, credited as "the Captain", a new member of the Lethbridge-Stewart family.

Ben Jackson and Polly Wright make a brief re-reappearance in the programme for the first time since their exit in 1967's The Faceless Ones. Bill Potts joins the two Doctors, and Captain Lethbridge-Stewart, as a Testimony glass avatar. Past companions Nardole and Clara, briefly, make similar appearances. The "good Dalek" Rusty, from Capaldi's second episode, Into the Dalek, makes his second appearance.

Synopsis
Two Doctors stranded in a foreboding snowscape, refusing to face regeneration. In the final chapter of the Twelfth Doctor's adventure, he must face his past to decide his future. It is the end of an era, but the Doctor's journey is only just beginning...

Plot
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Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * The Doctor - David Bradley
 * Bill - Pearl Mackie
 * The Captain - Mark Gatiss
 * Clara - Jenna Coleman
 * Nardole - Matt Lucas
 * Helen Clay - Nikki Amuka-Bird
 * German Soldier - Toby Whithouse
 * Polly - Lily Travers
 * Ben - Jared Garfield
 * Voice of the Daleks - Nicholas Briggs

The Tenth Planet

 * The Doctor - William Hartnell
 * Polly - Anneke Wills
 * Ben - Michael Craze


 * And introducing Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor

The Tenth Planet

 * General Cutler - Robert Beatty
 * Krail - Reg Whitehead
 * Cyberman Voices - Roy Skelton, Peter Hawkins
 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton

Crew
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Story notes

 * The Twelfth Doctor's regeneration has a new visual effect, and even sound effect, to those used previously in the BBC Wales series. This the first regeneration for the Doctor, since the Seventh Doctor's in 1996, to use an effect which is visually distinct from that seen in The Parting of the Ways, with the Ninth Doctor.
 * Toby Whithouse is the second person involved in the BBC Wales series as both an actor and a writer, following Mark Gatiss.
 * This is the third consecutive regeneration story to include the word "time" in the title, following The End of Time and The Time of the Doctor.
 * This is the second multi-Doctor story to feature a regeneration, and the first in which it is the current incarnation of the Doctor who is shown to regenerate. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

Ratings
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Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * The Twelfth Doctor mentions Bill's Cyber-conversion and apparent death, (TV: World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls) and Bill explains how Heather saved her. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
 * Bill reminds the Twelfth Doctor about Heather and the sentient oil. (TV: The Pilot)
 * The Twelfth Doctor is well aware of the consequences that would arise from the premature death of his predecessor and the resulting erasure of his deeds. (TV: Turn Left, The Name of the Doctor)
 * The First Doctor remarks on his successor playing the electric guitar. (TV: The Magician's Apprentice, Hell Bent, The Pilot)
 * The Doctor was present for the Christmas truce of 1914 earlier in his first incarnation (PROSE: The Little Drummer Boy) as well as during his fifth (PROSE: Never Seen Cairo) and ninth incarnations. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
 * The First Doctor is unfamiliar with the sonic screwdriver. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
 * The First Doctor explains why he ran away from Gallifrey. (TV: Heaven Sent)
 * The Twelfth Doctor meets Rusty again. (TV: Into the Dalek)
 * Helen Clay is from New Earth. (TV: New Earth, Gridlock)
 * The Doctor holds a Dalek Eyestalk. (TV: The Wedding of River Song, The Time of the Doctor)
 * The Doctor is referred to as "the Doctor of War". (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor) The Testimony also calls the Doctor by other titles associated with conflict, as did the Daleks, (TV: The Parting of the Ways, Asylum of the Daleks, PROSE: Engines of War) and the Great Intelligence. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
 * The Doctor meets his first incarnation. He has met him before and also struggles to remember the encounter. (TV: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Day of the Doctor)
 * The Doctor once more pilots his predecessor's TARDIS. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * The Doctors banter about their differences. (TV: Time Crash, The Day of the Doctor)
 * The First Doctor still calls the TARDIS "the ship".
 * The Twelfth Doctor favourably remarks about the desktop theme of the First Doctor's TARDIS. The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors did the same regarding the War Doctor's TARDIS. Likewise, the First Doctor criticises the Twelfth Doctor's desktop theme just as the Tenth did the Eleventh's. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
 * The events of The Tenth Planet are referred to.
 * The Testimony shows the Doctors the amount of times they have become associated with wars. Notably, events from The Waters of Mars, Journey's End, The Day of the Doctor, The Name of the Doctor.
 * The Eleventh Doctor's conflict at Trenzalore is mentioned by the Testimony, (TV: The Time of the Doctor) as is the Pandorica, (TV: The Pandorica Opens) the Last Great Time War, (TV: Dalek et al.) and the destruction of Skaro. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)
 * The Twelfth Doctor uses his astral map (TV: The Web Planet) and the TARDIS data-bank (TV: Castrovalva)
 * The Twelfth Doctor mentions the Daleks' Pathweb. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks, The Time of the Doctor)
 * The Twelfth Doctor once more references River Song's words from her diary. (TV: Extremis, The Doctor Falls)
 * The Doctors promise to check up on the family of Lethbridge-Stewart. (TV: The Web of Fear, et al.)
 * The Twelfth Doctor regains his memories of Clara. (TV: Hell Bent, For Tonight We Might Die, The Pilot)
 * Regeneration energy has previously dealt severe damage to the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: The End of Time)
 * The Twelfth Doctor mentions Bill's Christmas gift of a rug. (TV: The Pilot)
 * The final shot of the Twelfth Doctor is a shot of his eyes, echoing his first appearance (TV: The Day of the Doctor) His ring also falls to the ground shortly after regenerating, mirroring when his predecessor's bow tie fell to the ground as he regenerated. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)
 * The Twelfth Doctor says "Doctor, I let you go" before regenerating. Before he blew up the Cybermen on the Mondas Colony Ship, he previously told himself to let go. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
 * The First Doctor chides Bill for swearing, echoing how he did similar with his own granddaughter Susan.
 * The Twelfth Doctor recalls where the alcohol is stored, having seen River access it. (TV: The Husbands of River Song)
 * The Twelfth Doctor tells his successor not to eat pears. (TV: Hell Bent)

DVD releases
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Blu-ray releases
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Digital releases
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