Doctor Who: The End of Time Part Two
Last week, when writing about the first part of the Tennant/Davies swansong, I talked about not making any predictions, as well as the possibility of expectations not being met. On the predictions front, I’m glad I didn’t bother (although one of the few that I did make may actually be true – more on that in a bit), because there’s really no way I could have predicted the bizarre manner in which this tale concluded. The narrative meat of this episode – the stuff involving the Time Lords, Gallifrey and the Master – was quite frankly difficult to wade through on the first viewing; a second viewing alleviated some of that, and yet I’m still not convinced it all makes perfect sense. Perhaps I’m looking at it too deeply, and wanting more than there is?
I’d also be lying if I said I went into this episode without any expectations – I mean, how can you not? Many, if not most of them weren’t met, although there were plenty of other treats on display that made up for that. Indeed, this episode was hell bent on subverting expectations. “The End of Time” as a whole, which is how it should be judged, is a landmark slice of “Doctor Who,” even though the writing isn’t as tight as the intricate standard set by “The Waters of Mars.” Oh well – based on previous finales, I didn’t really expect it to be, and on that level it can’t be called a letdown. It’s so steeped in the mythology of Davies’ vision of “Who,” that it’s difficult to imagine it could possibly work as a piece of standalone drama for anyone unfamiliar with the past five years of the series. But that also can’t be a criticism, since what it really is is a jagged love letter to everyone who’s been paying attention during that time. Davies really backed himself into a corner with this one, because “Journey’s End” very much felt like the end of the era, only it wasn’t. So this proper ending, which feels more like a coda or an afterward, had to be a horse of a different color, and it most certainly was.
The episode wastes no time addressing the final moments of “Part One” by diving straight into the Gallifrey situation. Before going further, let me just say how incredibly fucking cool it was to have James Bond playing the Time Lord President. If someone had told me 20 years ago that Timothy Dalton would someday be playing such a role on “Doctor Who” I’d have thought them bonkers. Sure, it’s not as if Sean Connery is gracing the screen, but anyone who really appreciates the Bond franchise knows Dalton got a bum deal, and that both of his outings were pretty damn good entries. Anyone who appreciates both Bond and “Who” will also acknowledge how the two concepts – which, aside from their inherent Britishness, really only have the changing of lead actors in common – have worked oddly parallel to one another over the past 40 some-odd years. Dalton is terrifying here, especially for anyone who doesn’t know the history of the classic series, and expects the Time Lords to be the good guys. Even as an old school fan, it was shocking to see the Time Lords as they’re presented here, but the more I thought about it, the more it was perfect and right. These guys – even from their very first outing, “The War Games” – were bad news. It’s just that they were so passive in their assholedom before; here they’re proactively destructive. Even though it’s never stated in the episode, the old Time Lord decree of “non-intervention” was obviously filed into 13 once their existence was threatened. And then there’s the Deus ex glove! Oh, how I loved and hated that stupid glove! (Maybe it’s a relative of the glove from “Torchwood?”) My teenager hilariously dubbed it “The Glove of Time.” He started making up dialogue for Dalton: “I am endowed with The Glove of Time!” and “The Glove of Time will smite you!” We got, and will continue to get, a lot of mileage out of that silly glove.
It occurred to me in the days leading up to the finale exactly how much fun the idea of the Master race really was. I’d initially written it off as little more than a clever gag, but once the notion of it is dissected, and after seeing this episode, it probably becomes the Master’s crowning evil achievement in the history of the whole series. One thinks back to the McGann movie, where the Master merely wanted the Doctor’s remaining lives; here he manages to snag the lives of everyone on planet Earth. Yes, it’s batty, but so is this incarnation of the Master. The Doctor is oddly removed and casual about the whole thing. Once again, the Master has put him into a humiliating position – this time strapped to some kind of weird gurney/chair thing. He’s gagged him, and Tennant doesn’t even have any dialogue for the first few minutes he’s onscreen (although Tennant, pro that he is, does wonders with his eyes). Once the gag comes off, he delivers a gorgeous speech to the Master – one that is so painful in its plea, that as a viewer you really wish it could be. Perhaps the Doctor remembers how much fun he had traveling the universe with Romana?
The Vinvocci reenter the picture, and an inordinate amount of time is spent on their ship. It would be the low point of the episode, if it didn’t allow for yet another brilliant scene involving the Doctor, Wilf and a service revolver. Out of the myriad ideas RTD had for this 2 hour and 15 minute finale, involving Wilf/Cribbins was the most inspired and perfect. Initially I’d assumed Wilf’s involvement in this tale would end up simply being an excuse to do something else with Donna, but as it turns out, that wasn’t the case. I was frankly taken aback by how little Donna had to do here, and there are some viewers who may be upset by that. An expectation for this episode was Donna regaining her memories and all that would entail, yet Davies gives it a wholly contrived out: “Do you think I’d leave my best friend without a defense mechanism?” It doesn’t play to expectations, as in the end she doesn’t recall her time with the Doctor…yet she gets something even more fulfilling, and that’s a happy life with a decent and good man – which is the one thing she’d always wanted that eluded her. Had she regained her memories, but lost the Doctor, there would always have been a giant, unfulfilled hole in Donna’s life. It may not be brilliant and fantastic, but it is right, and that’s what matters.
After a ridiculous sequence involving the Vinvocci ship and hundreds of missiles, the Doctor makes a mind-boggling jump back into the Naismith mansion. It’s not even worth pondering “How could he survive that?,” because he did and he’s more broken than ever. The Time Lords show up, the Master is present, and it’s this crazy standoff with the Doctor as the centerpiece doing the one thing he abhors – holding a weapon; in this case, Wilf’s service revolver. It should be my duty to guide you through this Doctor/Master/Time Lord/Gallifrey situation, but I’m not even going to bother. The whole thing is too layered in its cumbersome plotting, yet the only thing that really matters is “What will the Doctor do?” It must be mentioned that The Glove of Time, in addition to being able to vaporize Time Lords out of existence, can also change mankind back to the way they were before. Sheesh. And why didn’t Dalton use The Glove of Time to vaporize the Doctor when the gun was pointed at the Master? I can buy the Doctor jumping hundreds of feet from a moving spaceship, crashing down through a glass window and surviving, but Rassilon’s failure to use The Glove was absurd. Ah yes – Rassilon. If you only know the new series, this name doesn’t matter. But if you know the mythology of old, you can only say, “I thought he was dead?” It’s an instance of throwing something in there for the fans, only so that the fans can call bunk. Why even bother? Oh, and the higher plane to which the Time Lords aimed to ascend was hogwash.
Anyway, the Doctor shoots a machine and the Master becomes enraged and the Time Lords, I guess, are sent back to their time locked scenario. I guess. If anyone knows better, feel free to step in and set me straight. I still have no idea what happened to the Master, but hopefully he’ll return to shit disturb another day, probably with a different actor playing the part in an entirely different fashion. And what of Claire Bloom’s mysterious woman, who ended up being a Time Lord? Easily the most purposefully nebulous aspect of the story, we never do find out exactly who she is. I predicted last week she would be the Doctor’s mother. Maybe she is. Maybe she isn’t. We’ll probably never find out, and she seems designed to do nothing more than give fans something to debate until something newer and more puzzling comes along.
Finally, after months of buildup, comes the four knocks – a move so deftly executed, that there’s no possible way fan speculation could have foreseen it. It’s just Wilf, locked in the Immortality Gate control chamber (again, I guess that’s what it is), wanting to be let out. The Doctor thought he cheated death, and in an instant realizes what everything has been leading up to, and why Wilf and he were so connected. He’s incensed and annoyed, mostly by his own short-sightedness, but perhaps stymied that his end could be something so simple. Yet he finally acknowledges that this prophecy must be fulfilled, as it just isn’t in him to cheat death by letting this old man perish on his watch. He absorbs a shitload of radiation, which takes a few of us back to Jon Pertwee’s death in “Planet of the Spiders.” The regeneration process begins, but this is going to be a slow burn. He returns Wilf to his home, promising him that they’ll meet once more, and sets off in the TARDIS, to collect, as he says, his reward.
His reward consists of checking in with and doing one last little thing for the people who mattered, one last time. Mickey and Martha (Freema looked damn fine!) are now married (a delightful flourish), and doing anti-alien sorts of things, and the Doctor saves them from being gunned down by a Sontaran. He saves Luke from a reckless driver on Bannerman Road, and Sarah Jane shows up just long enough to see him enter the TARDIS. (For those who may have felt that scene a cheat, the Tenth Doctor said a proper farewell to Sarah on her own show this season; when it hits DVD, you might want to check it out – if for no other reason than it’s more Tennant you haven’t seen, and he recorded it after “The End of Time.”) The Doctor then visits Jack in a creature cantina (one of seemingly numerous “Star Wars” homages in this episode), and does about the only thing he could possibly do for the immortal Captain, which is hook him up with a date – Midshipman Frame (Russell Tovey) from “Voyage of the Damned.” The most curious drive by is to Verity Newman (Jessica Hynes), the great-granddaughter of Joan Redfern from “Human Nature,” who has published Joan’s memoirs under the title “A Journal of Impossible Things.” All he wants to know is if Joan was happy. Onto Donna’s wedding, where he sees Wilf and Sylvia one last time, and gives them a lottery ticket to give to Donna as a wedding gift. The ticket was paid for by Sylvia’s deceased husband, Geoff, and finally even she sees the magic of the Doctor. Lastly, he visits Rose on New Year’s, 2005 – just months before they first met. He stands in the shadows and tells her she’s going to have a great year. The simplicity of this entire sequence is an episode highlight, as the Doctor knows he’s dying the entire time. It’s a series of last goodbyes, although if they’re with no regret is up to interpretation; maybe they’re riddled with regret.
And so finally we come to the actual regeneration, which, I must confess, didn’t do much for me. While it gave the story a circular feel to see Ood Sigma again, and have the universe “sing” the Doctor to his end, I felt nothing by it. Nor did I feel anything by the regeneration itself, and it must be said, “I don’t wanna go,” ranks right up there with Captain Kirk’s “It was…fun. Oh, my…” from “Generations” as lame exit lines for iconic sci-fi figures go. Yet Tennant’s Doctor had a great deal to say about dying and/or not wanting to die since “Mars.” We’ve been getting his final words in bits and pieces for three episodes running. Was there much more for him to say on the matter? It’s also something of a shame he had to die alone, although this was maybe meant to reflect his self-imposed isolation since “The Next Doctor.” (Of course, practically speaking, it also gave Moffat a clean slate with which to work.) The innovative execution of this regeneration can be appreciated, yet the moment itself left me wanting – until Matt Smith showed up and everything went ballistic. I’ve always been more excited by the possibilities that the aftermath of regeneration hints at than I am by the moments leading up to it. Regardless, at this stage there’s no more point in speculating on what Smith’s going to do with the Doctor than there was when Tennant said, “New teeth – that’s weird.” That said, I’m willing to go on record as saying that I am less than thrilled with the catchphrase “Geronimo!”
There’s nothing more irritating for me as a reader than to get to the end of a lengthy, indulgent opinion piece – which this clearly is – and wonder, “But did s/he like the material or not? Maybe you’re wondering just that. I didn’t like “The End of Time” as much as I admired the audacity of it – its aim to do something completely unexpected, even if it didn’t always work. As far as regenerations go, “The Parting of the Ways” was sleeker, and delivered the emotional goods with greater ease. But Davies had already done it “that way.” Were we to expect him to repeat himself? He’s earned the right to do whatever he damn well wished, and I applaud his decisions, even if I don’t totally agree with them. I’ll miss Russell. I’ll miss David. But I can’t wait to see what tricks Moffat and Smith have up their sleeves.
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NEXT TIME: In case you haven’t seen it, here’s a one-minute teaser of what’s to come this spring.
Classic “Who” DVD Recommendation of the Week: Call me crazy, but this may be the last time I can wholeheartedly endorse the movie “Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.,” which stars Peter Cushing as Dr. Who, and the mighty Bernard Cribbins as policeman Tom Campbell, who accidentally stumbles into TARDIS (note the lack of “the”) and is taken on an insane ride to the future. Put it in your Netflix queue by searching for “The Dr. Who Collection” and adding Disc 2.
(Lastly, thanks again to Sonic Biro for the screencaps. My words would be considerably less effective without your efforts.)
Posted in: Doctor Who, TV Sci-Fi
Tags: Bernard Cribbins, Billie Piper, Catherine Tate, Claire Bloom, David Tennant, Doctor Who, Doctor Who 2009 Christmas special, Doctor Who Blog, Doctor Who The End of Time Part One, Doctor Who The End of Time Part Two, Doctor Who: The War Games, Elisabeth Sladen, Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman, John Simm, Rose Tyler, Russell T. Davies, The Tenth Doctor, Timothy Dalton
Ditto.
Amazingly I think we must feel quite the same about this episode. Although I will say that I was in fact moved by this Doctor saying that he didn’t want to go. Quite moved. And yet this regeneration did seem a bit overly protracted; so much so that I think it would’ve been better had the Doctor done all of his visitations PRIOR to him getting dosed with radiation.
I’m curious about “the woman”. Why were they holding their eyes shut? Much like the TimeLords implanting the drumbeat in the Master’s head to find a way out of the bubble, I bet Davies created her mysterious character as a way to prevent him from leaving the Who universe forever.
All in all not a total disappointment. I do wish that this Doctor’s demise had been tons more tragic though.
Michael – It *is* amazing that we’re at all on the same page, no?
Hey, I hope someday I can offer up a revised opinion where I’m totally blown away by Tennant’s final moments, but having watched the sequence several times already, at the moment I’ve got to go with “It fell flat.”
All that shit with the woman and the hands over the eyes – true WTF-type material. I’ve got nothing really to add to that beyond what I’ve already said, yet this talkback could end up existing solely of back and forth theories as to who or what she was, before ever moving on to anything else. (And if that’s the way it goes, so be it.)
Well I think you and I agree more often than disagree…as a matter of fact I’m really surprised when we do disagree.
Wow, “flat” is a pretty strong word especially where David Tennant is concerned. I would actually attribute the “flatness” if any to the story and the only reason I think I was moved at all was due to me feeling something from him.
I’m confused about the glove…have we seen that before?
There’s a very similar glove that was used in several episodes of “Torchwood” (including the first episode). This may have been its partner.
Watched the whole fine mess with my kids last night. Oy. It didn’t make any sense at all, and I didn’t even try to explain it. Gallifrey, burning in the sky, was a very nice effect. The Master Race was hysterical — nice performance by John Simm — and the Skeletor effect had us all cracking up.
I did love Wilf, and that it was Wilf’s 4 knocks that heralded Ten’s death. That was brilliant, the rest was such a muddle I don’t know what to think, and so I won’t.
I liked seeing everyone again, although the Mickey/Martha marriage was a bit of a shock, I thought she was engaged to that cute pediatrician? Consistency was never Davies’ strong point.
As for Eleven — I cracked up when he did the post-regeneration inventory and declared himself “still not a ginger”, and wondered briefly if he was a girl because of the length of the hair. And I think, like you, Ross, that “Geronomino!” is going to get very old, very quickly. Still, it looks like there will be vampires and Weeping Angels in the upcoming year, and what’s not to like about that? (A Doctor who fights and shoots? I don’t know about that…)
I’m still collecting my thoughts on the episode, but your comment on Donna’s ultimate fate does a pretty good job of summing up where I am right now: “It may not be brilliant and fantastic, but it is right, and that’s what matters.”
The plot was at least a borderline mess by any measurable standard, but watching events play out, I don’t think What Happens was Davies’s point. The End of Time is his last love letter to the characters, and so it’s in the character moments where he succeeds (and boy, did the actors run with what he gave them). The cafe scene in Part One, the Master’s growing disillusionment in Part Two (it’s to John Simm’s credit that what could have come across as nothing more than a tantrum actually creates a kind of empathy/sympathy for the character), the quiet devastation of the four knocks, the Doctor’s farewells … for moments like those, I’m willing to endure a WTF plot. So, if the end result was less than it could have been, perhaps that’s fitting – I wonder if it really could have gone any other way. Or if it should have…
“The Glove Of Time” sounds like something out of a Timur Bekmambetov movie. If Rassilon Bond comes back with a matching Loom of Fate and Chalk of Destiny, don’t say I didn’t warn you…
As someone who’s only watched a few eps of the old series, I quite enjoyed this finale. I was expecting the Time Lords to come to the rescue so that was a bit of a surprise. Seeing Timothy Dalton play Rassilon was nice, especially since in an earlier episode, someone likened the Doctor to James Bond.
It did seem a bit messy, like Davies had big plans but they just didn’t play out well on screen. Too rushed for a big finish, with a twenty minute build up to the end of Tennant’s time.
I didn’t see that Wilfrid would be the one knocking…I almost lost my breath when I heard him rapping on that glass door. Why did someone have to go in to let the other person out? I just didn’t get that whole thing…
Still, as an end to an era, as it was, it was a nice finale. I’m sad to see Tennant go as he’s my favorite Doctor. Good to know all his companions had nice, happy endings.
Oh, and I read somewhere that the woman was indeed supposed to be the Doctor’s mother. Can’t remember where, but it was even reported on the official BBC Doctor Who boards.
The Master was awesome, they obviously tried to give Tennant bits of drama to act out in these last few stories.
Ummm Ross….I was shocked that you didn’t pick up on the Weeping Angels of Old. The statues? I loved those characters….they were the obviously the only sane Time Lords by being the only two voting against the counsel. They were trying to help out the Doctor through out the whole story. It did cross my mind about her being The Doctor’s mother.
We are all in agreement that the four taps from Wilford was the best bit, but I saw that coming…..The little bit of him running in to save the guy inside the box was a “dead” giveaway. “Oh no, don’t do that.” I always loved that character and to think of him as the person The Doctor chooses to give up his regeneration for is pretty crazy. I do wish Ross there was a little more Donna, but I’m glad she wasn’t a catalyst in the end.
If it wasn’t for that stupid glove, I would have really loved the stand-off at the end. It made the Doctor, Master, and Rassilon dynamic ever more crazy, but him not using the glove to just obliterate every enemy he encountered was the stupidest thing about the whole story. Without that little bit, the scene really did show The Doctor once again as a rebel against the corrupt system of his own kind. The Master was always his only friend….and in the end, The Master gives the idea to The Doctor to break the link, and also himself ends up against that same corrupt system.
About #11 shooting and punching….
You think the character will start showing more human tendencies as his character grows older? That could also be a drugged and/or parallel universe Doctor meant to get the fans talking….as in this case.
Geronimo sucks.
Pah…
It was a mess – about the only thing I liked was the “visitation” at the end, but unlike you (and probably the rest of the Dr. Whoverse), I hated the Donna bit. I was quite taken with Donna as a Companion and thought this ending gave her the short end of the stick – this is the same women who has songs sung in her honor remember. To just be ordinary and “happy” did her wrong in my opinion – she wasn’t meant to be a housefrau, but a hero in her own right.
To me, there was a lot of old school Dr. Who in this episode which didn’t do the new viewers a lot of good – made it kind of confusing.
And I totally agree with you and Joan – the whole Geronimo thing is going to get old fast. I hope it get lost somewhere along the way.
Great review as always.
There was lots that didn’t make any sense, particularly Rassilon not using the glove when 10’s back was to him. But I loved the episode for all the small moments that conveyed everything. At one point the Doctor says to the Master, “It said someTHING is coming, not someONE. Don’t you ever listen?”
That just cracks me up, the precision of the Doctor, their long history back to childhood, etc. I love writing like that.
I do wish some of the points had been tighter, especially what Claire Bloom was doing and why. Forgetting for a moment if she was the Doctor’s mother or not, what the heck was the point of appearing to Wilfi?
Absolutely everyone seems to be in two minds about this story, and I must confess I’m no different. I agree with a lot of what you’ve written Ross, but there were three main sticking points for me.
The mysterious woman storyline not being resolved really pisses me off. Is she the Doctor’s mother? Romana? The White Guardian? Just some random Time Lord? After seeing part two, none of these really makes a lot of sense to me. Wilf asks the Doctor who it was and his only reply is to look over his shoulder at Donna, but I’m guessing that’s only because that’s where he wants to lead the conversation since that would make even less sense. Maybe Steven Moffat asked for something like that to be written in, just as he apparently asked for Jenny to be resurrected at the end of The Doctor’s Daughter, but I honestly don’t know.
Having the Doctor fall some astronomical distance from a fast moving vehicle and manage to crash smack bang through the centre of the window and onto a marble floor and suffer very little from it was also complete bollocks. Even if the 4th Doctor hadn’t fallen from a much lower height on to much softer ground and had to regenerate because of it, it would still be utterly ridiculous.
The regeneration didn’t quite have the impact I thought it would, although my reasons for that seem to be different than most others. After the first viewing, I thought the fifteen minutes of farewells was really unnecessary, but subsequent viewings have softened my stance on that and now I actually don’t mind it. His last words probably could’ve been better, but I don’t think that’s my main problem with the sequence either. For me, I think the last twenty minutes would’ve evoked a lot more emotion and had a lot more clout if he hadn’t miraculously healed his wounds from the fall after he had absorbed the radiation, and left the jacket on that had been cut up. He could’ve still said his goodbyes, while we see his condition deteriorate a little more each farewell scene until by the end he would’ve looked pretty beat up. Instead, he looked very clean cut in his final moments, and after all he’d been through, this just didn’t ring true. Why the TARDIS needed to be blown apart during the process is a bit weird as well (apart from the “practical reason” that now Moffat can have a new console room built), given both the Doctor and the Master have both regenerated in there since RTD kicked the whole series off again with no such effect.
Apart from these three gripes though, I really quite enjoyed it. I thought having Rassilon as the President made perfect sense – after all, the Master said in Sound of Drums that the Time Lords had brought him back so he could help fight the Time War, so if they were going to bother to bring back a renegade, why would they not also bring back the most famous and revered Time Lord of them all? Like you Ross, the more I thought about it, the more the whole Time Lords as the bad guys made sense, so while this seems to be a major problem for many, I thought it was fine.
David Tennant is not my favourite Doctor, but I thought he shone in this, and as good as I thought John Simm and Timothy Dalton were, his best moments were with Bernard Cribbins, who was absolutely fantastic. I don’t really want to see Steven Moffat revisiting old companions (RTD did more than enough of that for the forseeable future), but if he did bring one back I’d love it if it were Wilf – the serendipitous companion, who was only there in the first place because Howard Attfield died. The four knocks was superb, and made the Master’s four knocks one of the biggest red herrings of all time.
As for the future… I like what I’ve seen so far of Matt Smith, both in the closing scene and in the trailer. As for Geronimo, it looks like we’re stuck with it, just like we are with the new Doctor’s costume, a topic on which when asked what I thought of it I went on record as saying “I fucking hate it”. I can’t say I’m overly impressed with it, but is it really any sillier than Allons-y? I don’t know that it is, but then, I wasn’t much of a fan of Allons-y either. As for the shooting and punching comment above – the Doctor hasn’t always been shy about hitting someone if the need arose, and he could be firing the gun at an object rather than a person. I’m not too worried about it, and it does provide a talking point, which is half the point of having a trailer.
I don’t want to end the comment on a bum note though, because on the whole, I really enjoyed the RTD era and Tennant’s Doctor, but I think I’m even more excited about the Moffat era and Matt Smith’s Doctor than I was about the series coming back in the first place in 2005.
Can’t wait for March/April.
Damn, you folks certainly aren’t lacking in opinions, are you? Of course, neither was I, and I probably could have easily written another 1000 words on this episode, but sometimes you just have to call it a day and leave the novels to the experts.
For starters, since it’s obviously something everyone wants to talk about and has thoughts and opinions on, the Claire Bloom character, as I understand it, was indeed supposed to be the Doctor’s mother, but eventually the fact that confirmed this was edited out – I don’t know if this occurred during the script stage, or during the actual editing process. Further, the other Time Lord who kept her hands over her eyes was supposed to be the Master’s mother. But since none of this is stated onscreen, that means these are not facts, and the issue remains open to interpretation. If it doesn’t happen onscreen, it doesn’t count, right?
I’m wondering if there’s anyone out there, anywhere who approves of “Geronimo!” at this stage? Is it possible this word isn’t nearly as hackneyed over the U.K. as it is here in the States? My problem with it is that a catchphrase/word like this should be more of an organic thing that a writer and actor combo stumble across and it just happens to work. Allons-y! wasn’t even used until somewhere in S3 I believe (I’m sure I’ll be corrected on that if I’m wrong). Granted, it did seem to work coming out of the gate with Eccles and “Fantastic,” but that was an anomaly (and I’m sure there are people who hated that, too), and Tennant was even heard using it few times early on, right? But the idea of just attributing a silly word to this new Doctor from the very start doesn’t seem to be doing him any favors. Maybe I’ll feel differently once I see it in action.
Lee – I’ve never seen a film by that director, but found that to be hugely funny nonetheless.
Michael – I did hear the Weeping Angels reference, and I noticed that the pose the two Time Ladies had echoed the Angels, but I still don’t understand the connection beyond that. Am I missing something obvious here? And why, if these women were voting against the counsel, were they being carted around as part of Rassilon’s entourage? Maybe I’m just thick as a whale omelette, but this crap was not well defined.
Tom – I knew the whole Donna thing was going to be huge bone of contention for you, but dramatically, what else was there to do with her? And I don’t see Donna as the least bit ordinary, memories or no memories. What’s wrong with being a “little person?” Isn’t that one of the big ideas the show has been hammering home as of late?
Paul – Obviously the fall didn’t really bother me, or rather it didn’t take me out the episode like the glove did. I dunno – maybe I’ve just become too tolerant of some of the ridiculous stuff this series has churned out over the past few years. I quite like the alternate description you’ve offered up about how the regeneration process could’ve worked better here. I can only assume that it was done the way it was done, so Tennant could go out looking like a hero, rather than a fractured, dying figure. And as far as the exploding TARDIS – is it possible the radiation that was released from the Doctor’s lifeforce during the regeneration caused that to happen? Just a thought. I hadn’t even considered the idea that Rassilon would’ve been resurrected to fight the Time War – good call, man. Very good call.
I, too, am of course excited about Moffat and Smith, but I really, really hope we see a tangible difference from what Davies’ vision of the show was all about. I really want to experience the sort of freshness that seemed to always revive the old series every time a new Doctor and/or a new production team arrived on the scene. We didn’t really get that from Eccles to Ten, for obvious reasons, but now is perhaps not the best time to play it safe, I think. The show really needs some shaking up at this point.
Further, the other Time Lord who kept her hands over her eyes was supposed to be the Master’s mother.
Where’d you hear this? From the (admittedly unclear) shots in Confidential, it looks like a guy to me.
Allons-y! wasn’t even used until somewhere in S3 I believe
Series 2, Army of Ghosts.
Anyway… I loved it. All of it. It hung together well enough for me, and I had tears at the end. RTD finished on a winner as far as I’m concerned.
I think you misunderstood what I meant. There is nothing wrong with being happy and living a ordinary life and I’m glad that Donna found some peace.
However, she was meant for larger things. In a lot of ways, Donna was the Doctor and basically his moral compass – she was a Hero not a hero – more so than The Doctor in some not so small ways. Certainly the Ood view her that way.
It just seemed a small and petty ending to her time with The Doctor. Martha and Rose all remembered their time and were happy in another time and/or place and/or circumstance – why couldn’t Donna have been treated the same way?
I know it seems odd to be caught up in a TV character this way, but Donna was a breath of fresh air to this version of Dr. Who.
Steven – Don’t make me cite a source. It was something I read, somewhere in the past couple days. The way it was stated, made it at least seem like a solid fact. And if that other Time Lord ~was~ a guy, who’s to say the Master’s mother isn’t a Mistress of Disguise?
Looking forward to your review when it’s posted.
Tom – I don’t think it’s odd to be caught up in a character like you are with her. Heck, I admire that about you. I just think that especially since the end of the era was nigh, it probably wasn’t dramtically feasible to add yet another layer to Donna’s story at this point. You gotta admit – this was still a far happier ending for her than she was left with at the end of S4.
After watching this the second time, the Claire Bloom character credited as “The Woman” is actually the one that saves the day. She tells Wilford to take up arms for The Doctor, which he eventually does, and then The Doctor ends up shooting the machine with said arms after The Master exclaims, “Kill me, the link gets broken, they go back”. She’s the catalyst of the whole story arc. Awesome!
Obviously the whole Weeping Angels thing will be addressed a whole lot more in Series 5 as Moffatt has already announce their return. http://gallifreynewsbase.blogspot.com/2009/12/moffat-announces-mons
ter-return.html – Hit the spoiler button, it just says “The Weeping Angels are coming back!”
That said, I liked “Blink” rather a lot. To think of those characters as banished ancients of the Timelords makes sense. Why would a seriously power hungry race of time travelers listen to anybody, even the people who may have taught them how to travel through time originally.
Notice in “End of Time” how you didn’t see both of their faces at the same time. You think they would turn into stone if they saw each other? She was weeping when the Doctor saw her, so maybe if they only turn to stone if they are not weeping….Or maybe even those two Weeping Angels are also rebels of their own race…(brothers from different mothers). Rebels, who like their sons, saw a power hungry race around them as well. They are striving for peace in the continuum. and they are helping their sons take up against another power hungry race. Maybe “Gallifrey falling” was a war cry as a “good thing”.
Wow…those characters kick ass then and now!
“as old as the universe, or very nearly, but no one really knows where they come from.” The Doctor – “Blink”
“That woman…..who was she?” – Wilford “The End of Time”
I loved the whole thing, including the regeneration. Regarding Mickey & Martha, I could have sworn he simply said she was a married woman now. If my memory serves & that is all he said, there’s no indication that she’s married to him. I took it to mean something along the lines of you’re married now and you/we need to make sure you get home safely to your husband.
Baeleth – Nope. Go back and check again. The dialogue was:
Mickey: “This is no place for a married woman.”
Martha: “Then you shouldn’t have married me.”
Now unless Mickey’s become an ordained minister since last we saw him, I can only assume they’re blissfully wedded.
Michael – There’s no question that you throw out a great theory, and if it comes to pass, my hat will go off to you.
Sean Connery’s son Jason Connery appeared in Doctor Who in the 1980’s. One of the best Bond girls ever Honor Blackman also appeared in Doctor Who.
I wasn’t thrilled with “Geronimo” either, but who know… Maybeit’ll grow on us…
he two women behind Rassilon that hid their eyes. on of them was Romana (companion of the forth doctor and also a Time Lord). it was her that the doctor caught a glimpse of. The other could have been Leela (but not sure of it), the companion of the 4th doctor that stayed behind on Gallifrey.
I got the info from a friend that knows Stephen Davies. he didn’t confirm it but smiled as if it was implied.
the episode was well written but they could have mentioned more of what happened to the doctors home world after it had been trapped for a long time.
The two women behind Rassilon, that hid their eyes: one of them was Romana – companion of the fourth doctor and also a Time Lord). it was her that the doctor caught a glimpse of in the second pard of the end of time. Romama was once the president of the time lords and the reason that she was old is because she hadn’t regenerated as the doctor(s) did.
The other could have been Leela (but not sure of it), the companion of the 4th doctor that stayed behind on Gallifrey in the episode “the invasion of time”.
I got the info from a friend that knows Stephen Davies. he didn’t confirm it but smiled as if it was implied when he asked the question.
the episode was well written but they could have mentioned more of what happened to the doctors home world after it had been trapped for a long time.