The trailer for the Doctor Who 50th-anniversary special, due in November, was probably less than a minute long. But dear God — so many feelings! It’s Matt Smith’s penultimate episode, and from the looks of things, the Doctor is in quite a predicament. To recap, when we last saw Eleven, he was in the bowels of his own timestream just as he came face-to-face with his worst secret: himself. Or rather, an alternate, older version of himself played by John Hurt. “What I did, I did without choice … in the name of peace and sanity,†the Other Doctor says. Spooooky. We’ll find out more specifically what he means in the special, which will also see the return of David Tennant as the tenth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose. Because the video is not online, here is a faithful recounting of everything we saw and felt during the 50-something-second preview (told in somewhat chronological order):
-Hey, it’s a Dalek, and it’s kind of dusty. But still menacing. Does it remember the Doctor? Or is it a Dalek from the Other Doctor’s timeline/universe/reality/thingie? So many questions. It screams: “EXTERMINATE!â€
-Oh. My. God. It’s ROSE!!!!!!!!! Oh, raccoon eyes, awash in eyeliner and mascara, how we’ve missed you! It’s just a split-second shot, but Rose looks mischievous, and well-rested, and completely adorable. Life with the Other Ten is clearly treating her right.
-Clara’s mucking about with some sort of transporter. She is evaporating, happily, as if beaming herself off to somewhere fabulous.
-There’s the Other Doctor looking grave, as usual. Crack a smile guy, will ya?
-It’s Ten! It’s Ten! It’s Ten! David Tennant driving the Tardis, striking a pose, yelling “Allons-y!â€
-Looks like the Tardis is being air-lifted somewhere on Earth, with Eleven hanging off the bottom.
-There it is: Both Ten and Eleven sharing the screen. Floppy hair and spiky head. Bow tie and tie-tie. They’re having what appears to be a sonic screwdriver-off. Eleven’s looks bigger than ten’s (not that size necessarily counts).
-“Oh, you’ve redecorated. I don’t like it.†— Ten, on the new Tardis.
-Rose is crying. Oh, awful black tears.
-Now Jenna’s crying. Why is everyone crying?
-A new monster! It’s reddish and angry looking! It’s probably going down.
-More shots of Other Doctor, still concerned and serious.
-Words flash across the screen: “His darkest day. His greatest threat.â€
-Someone’s looking for the Doctor. Ten tells Eleven, “Well, they’ve come to the right place.â€