Some thoughts on Doctor Who: The End of Time

I watched part one on Christmas day like a good little geek, my expectations high (as well as my blood sugar level… damned mulled wine). For some reason I can’t remember I had missed Waters of Mars and so I watched it earlier in the day and this did nothing but raise my expectations higher!

I hate when people put reviews in context… I do apologise.

The first half seems hardly worth mentioning. It was an average episode (though in all honesty, as good as any other ’special’) which introduced the story but to me, it felt like one bit exposition. It’s almost like they were worried it to too talky and they threw in a few needlessly violent moments for good measure. The ending was kind of strange. Bearable but as it turns out, a little redundant, and speaking of redundancy… Why was the music so loud and so constant? Music can really make or break a Doctor Who episode. There are so many episodes where the cheesiness takes over, all because of the music. If they want to make it so majorly dramatic, the least they could do is make it fit into the episode and enhance it as opposed to completely overpowering everything. I really don’t have much to say about this whole episode. It’s like watching the first half of a movie but waiting a week to watch the end.

And What an end….

It opened with a good old fashioned dose of character development; The Doctor is torn between his resentment of the Master and his captivation with a brother Time Lord. The Master’s madness driving betrays him and he almost begs the Doctor for help. It’s such an alluring scene I was almost sad when the Doctor and Wilf got away!

The episode carries on on a similar vein. They end up in space in the Cactus’s space craft  and in the middle of the hype, they spare a moment for old gramps to stare in wonder at the earth from above- a pleasant reminder of the occasional reality behind sci-fi.I laughed a little at the scene where Wilf tried to convince The Doctor to take his gun. The Doctor considers all the possible situations he might require a gun and refuses (”Never.”), then 5 seconds later he realises that actually, he may need it after all…

A final face-off, where the Doctor decides whether it’d be better to kill the Master or the Gaillfreyan president and after what felt like an hour of suspense I feared might kill me, he ordered the Master out of the way and blew the whole contraption to kingdom come in a moment of “Why didn’t I think of that earlier…”, as the president threatens to take the Doctor with him. Our faith in the Master’s hunaity is once again restored as he forgets his lines and steals someone else’s, demanding the Doctor gets out of the way and buggers up the president before he makes it to hell.

But what’s this? The Doctor is still alive! This is good, and we all breathe a sigh of relief along with the Doctor. Then suddenly, the four knocks and everyone, including the Doctor, thinks “Oh Crap”, as he realises he’s going to die- not to save the world or to bring the end of another, but for one man.

The last 20 minutes are a little odd. Not only does he not regenerate right away. He has a good few hours to pop around his scrap book and say goodbye to some people he will more than likely see again. A lesser doctor would certainly not have been given such a goodbye, but this is freaking David Tennant!

I absolutely adore David Tennant, but I hate him for leaving the roll of the Doctor. Oddly enough, after about 30 seconds of yelling “I don’t want you to go either!” Matt Smith appeared and all was forgiven within his first 5 lines.

I am ridiculously excited about the new series now!