"The Day of the Doctor" is the 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who, starring Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, Jenna-Louise Coleman and Billie Piper, and featured Jemma Redgrave and Joanna Page. It was written and produced by Steven Moffat, and directed by Nick Hurran. Although this was broadcast on television, its production values and (presumably) budget were more in line with a feature film, and indeed the episode was shown in cinemas worldwide on the day of broadcast. This episode was quite an event.
I have been a fan of Doctor Who for a while, and after my initial period of discovery wore off, I got to watching the show with a critical eye. Some of this was fun: it was nice to watch a modern episode and get references to episodes shown 30 or 40 years previously. But there is also a little bit of jadedness that comes with this: there are a few episodes of Doctor Who that fall short, or have problematic or contradictory messages. But with this episode, I just sat back and watched, and I was not disappointed. This is a sprawling, complicated but fun and watchable story, that travels from medieval England to the largest of space operas without missing a beat. There are at least a half dozen actors playing great characters, and they all have great scenes together. Matt Smith and David Tennant enjoy great chemistry, both in the comedic moments and the more serious ones. And when the episode is finally finished, the mythology of Doctor Who has been transformed.
The only complaint I have about it afterwards is that there were several character interactions that weren't fully explored, and several characters that were treated in almost a cursory fashion. For many hardcore fans, there were a few things that we might have liked to see in this anniversary episode that had to be skipped for time's sake. But it would have been impossible to show everything without it turning into even more of a jumble. Overall, this episode delivered everything I wanted.