Doctor Who: #SaveTheDay – Many joined for massive rewatch of 50th anniversary special

The huge success of yesterday’s massive online rewatch of Doctor Who’s fiftieth-anniversary special shows the fandom at its very best.

Did you take part in yesterday’s online rewatch of The Day of the Doctor, Doctor Who‘s 50th-anniversary special? We did at Doctor Who Watch, and honestly, it was a lot of fun. It’s always an excellent episode to enjoy anyway, but this particular viewing experience was boosted by the strong sense of community.

The idea of a mass rewatch came from Emily Cook, writer and journalist for Doctor Who Magazine. She wanted something that would bring fans together during a time of self-isolation, and re-watching an episode as huge and popular as The Day of the Doctor seemed like the best way to do that. The hashtag #SaveTheDay was used so that fans could join in on discussing the episode live.

Around the world, many people took part in the rewatch. Many. Not just fans, but even several people who worked on the show, including Dan Starkey (best known to fans for playing Strax the Sontaran) and Ingrid Oliver, who made her Doctor Who debut in this episode as Osgood. (Two of them, in fact.)

Around the world, many took part in a huge re-watch of the fiftieth anniversary special The Day of the Doctor – including the story’s writer, Steven Moffat!

Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC. Image obtained from: BBC America.

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New scene

But that wasn’t all. Former showrunner Steven Moffat himself returned to Twitter to join in on the discussion. More than that: he even wrote a brand new little scene, featuring Dan Starkey, designed to be watched before the episode. As you can imagine, it’s an absolute gem of a scene. It’s also a great little tribute to a similar moment shown to cinema audiences, back during the original worldwide broadcast of the special.

And if that wasn’t enough, Duncan Newmarch, an actual continuity announcer for the BBC gave a little introduction to the episode on YouTube. It definitely helped to add to that feeling of authenticity, and was another great reminder of how many were joining in.

Overall, the event was an extremely popular one. Fans were talking about Doctor Who in a big way, and considering that the most recent series finished weeks ago, that’s pretty impressive. It was also refreshing to see Doctor Who being talked about so much on a Saturday night. Honestly, that’s something that I’ve really missed about the series.

More than that: The Day of the Doctor felt special again. The most special it’s felt since the original broadcast, in fact. And that’s entirely because of the sense of community, all from around the world. I haven’t seen the whole fandom feel this united in a long time, and that’s wonderful. Overall, #SaveTheDay has been a huge success and a big reminder of what makes Doctor Who‘s fandom so fantastic to be a part of.

Did you take part in the huge rewatch of The Day of the Doctor? Did you enjoy it as much as we did? Was this your first time watching the episode since broadcast, or is The Day of the Doctor an episode that you love to revisit? Let us know in the comments below.