“The Night of the Doctor” Doctor Who Minisode Gives Us the Regeneration We Never Saw, Sets Up the Time War!

Say what you will about the Doctor Who movie starring Paul McGann, but he wasn’t the problem. We welcome him back as the Doctor in this minisode that sets up the 50th Anniversary in a big, big way.

A few regenerations have been lost to time, but there never was one showing McGann regenerating into Christopher Eccleston, and now we know why — he didn’t. Since the last episode of Doctor Who which showed John Hurt people have been speculating how he fits into the Doctor’s timeline, and now we know. John Hurt — not Christopher Eccleston — is the Ninth Doctor, and he’s credited as “The War Doctor.”

From the trailer it looked like we would finally see the Time War in the 50th, and now it’s certainly part of it. Now our only question is whether or not we’re going to see John Hurt make the hard choice to end it.

Please?

(via The BBC, image via Doctor Who)

Meanwhile in related links

• Watch the trailers for “The Day of the Doctor” and get even more pumped!
• Who owns the TARDIS? There’s a new copyright claim on the little blue box
• Start stitching! Here’s 10 cross stitch projects to celebrate Doctor Who