The Power of the Doctor.

TV  Let's be honest in the middle of everything which happened in the thirteenth Doctor's final episode (for now!) the last thing I expected to see a (squint if you like) reference to Big Finish's equally bonkers 40th anniversary celebration Zagreus.   If you remember in that story, Eighth had been possessed by an anti-time creature and as part of a dreamscape (or some such) three of his earlier incarnations rocked up to warn that (and I'm quoting from the TARDIS wiki) "Rassilon is manipulating him as a weapon against the creatures of the Divergent universe, as the creatures of the Divergent Universe would have evolved to surpass the Time Lords before Rassilon locked them away."  The Wilderness Years were a weird time.

Similarly in The Power of the Doctor, we find another council of the Doctors cropping up at a moment when the Time Lord's future is in doubt and amongst them is the Eighth Doctor, and reader, I did gasp, I did squee.  You see, despite everything, all the books, comics and audios, he's still the chronological version with the shortest televisual screen time so when he does turn up, when McGann dons the costume - his Time War threads in this case - it feels like a confirmation for all of the creatives who filled those so-called Wilderness Years that what they did matters beyond the freelance payment.  That even though none of those adventures were on a BBC One during a weekend evening, they still matter too.

Chibbers manages to bring over some of the Big Finish bantz too.  Of course, eighth "doesn't do robes" because he's a manifestation of his consciousness and he can wear what he likes.  He also still looks incredible for all his 62 years, which judging by my own father who's 80 but looks at least fifteen years younger, must have something to do with the fresh breeze off the Mersey.  You can bet if David Tennant hadn't been available, McGann could have quite easily sustained the three episodes coming next November (thirteen months away because of course it is) possibly with Nicola Walker sharing the TARDIS.  But let's be honest, we don't know what shenanigans are coming for the 60th.  That might still happen.

Perhaps the most interesting philosophical question about this is where this appearance fits in this blog's checklist.  Is this the true Eighth, swimming about in the Doctor's consciousness, like all of the past incarnations, offering help on a subconscious basis, unlike the previous incarnations of the numerically challenging renegade Time Lord usually heard as The Eleven?  Or did we just see some of the faces of what I've always thought of as the core Doctor, the internal being that like the Trill in Star Trek contain the centuries of memories and experiences which are then hosted by the faces who wander about liking bowties and custard creams and so is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the Eighth Doctor?

Placement:  I'm going with the latter.  If for some mad reason you decided to watch/read/read again and listen to the checklist in that order, Time of the Doctor feels like the proper end point.  It'd be a bit weird to then sit through The Power of the Doctor just in case.