when does day of the doctor take place
The Day of the Doctor The 77-minute episode shows the last day of the Time War, in which the War Doctor (John Hurt) chooses to kill both Daleks and his own race of Time Lords to end the destructive conflict, paralleling this with a present-day choice by paramilitary organisation UNIT to destroy London rather than allow an alien invasion. Revising the back story, the Doctor succumbs to Clara Oswald's plea to change his mind; and instead, at the last instant of the Time War, he hides his war-torn home planet in time, rather than destroy it. Unfortunately the time distortions incurred causes all but his latest incarnation to have no memory of his changed decision.
The Day of the Doctor Meanwhile, within UNIT's Black Archive, Clara learns that the Zygons from Elizabethan England have entered the three-dimensional paintings in the Undergallery and have emerged in 2013, taking the forms of UNIT members so that they could utilise UNIT's weapons and technology. While the three Doctors are in their cell, The Moment encourages the War Doctor to ask them the questions he needs answered before he decides whether to destroy Gallifrey. After a tense exchange, the Doctors devise an escape plan. They then encounter the real Queen Elizabeth and learn through her of the Zygon scheme to conquer Earth. Kate Stewart also learns of the Zygon plan and locks herself in the Black Archive with the Zygons, starting a countdown that will detonate a nuclear warhead underneath the archive. The Doctors, unable to land a TARDIS in the Black Archive, instead use the stasis cube technology to enter a painting. They exit the painting in the present and use the archive's mind-wiping equipment to render the UNIT members and Zygons temporarily unaware which of them are which. The countdown is stopped and all present negotiate a perfectly fair peace treaty, as they no longer know which way to skew it.