The End of TIme Part Two Review…
Wow. Still really can’t believe it’s over. I first got into “Doctor Who” because the Sci-Fi Channel was showing a marathon of episodes on Labor Day back in 2006. These where the Ninth Doctor Episodes as at the time we had to wait a year until we saw the newer shows. I came in at The Empty Child and watched the whole marathon. That being said I really had no emotional response to when the Doctor regenerated. I was just like, “Okay, new guy.” I caught up watching the Tenth Doctor episodes on Youtube. By then I was hooked. I had become a Who fan. Everyone has “their Doctor”. Though the Ninth was my first, Ten is my Doctor. His very last line… almost brought me to tears. Thank you, David, for all those wonderful years.
Now, that being said, let’s pick up where we left off. The Master has imprinted himself on the human race. Every man, woman and child has turned into the Master. The Doctor and Wilf have been captured and are all tied up. However the catus people manage to rescue them in what the Doctor calls the worst rescue ever. Meanwhile on the last day of the Time War (which is time locked and therefore not in the regular timeline…) the Lord President is determined that the Timelords will survive by any means necessary. They open a portal to the Time Vortex to implant the sounds of drums into the Master as a child. This will give them a link to the outside timeline. The Master then concentrates all his versions to triangulate the source of the drumming. He calls to it and in the process it brings the Timelords to Earth. The Doctor, Wilf and the cactus people are stranded on the cacti ship. Wilf tries to convince the Doctor to take his gun. The Doctor initially refuses but finally accepts. They repair the ship and speed down to the Master’s headquarters. The Doctor confronts the Master and the Timelords as Galifey pushes itself into our universe. The Doctor now has a choice: with Wilf’s gun, kill the Master or kill the Lord President which will sever the link and send Galifrey back to the Time War. He instead shoots the machine which severs the link. The Master then uses the last of his lifeforce to save the Doctor from the Timelords. All is over and the Doctor is still alive! Then there is the knocking. He will knock four times. Wilf has become trapped in the control room and needs to be let out. The Immortality Gate is going critical and will flood the room with radiation. The Doctor realizes that Wilf was the one prophesied as to knock four times. He releases Wilf and takes the full dose of radiation himself. The dose is lethal but is killing him slowly. The Doctor has enough time to take Wilf home, say his goodbyes to his various companions, and then take the TARDIS to space for his regeneration. His regeneration unleashes so much power that it destroys the Console Room and cause the TARDIS to fly out of control back to Earth.
This episode was I felt was much better than last week’s. That being said I still felt that having the Timelords come back and having Timothy Dalton as Rassilon was kind of a wasted opportunity. They really didn’t do much but just stand in some whiteness and say they were going to end time itself so that only their consciousness would continue through eternity. Plus with the Doctor dying slowly we get a Return of the King style ending. The Doctor goes off to see his various companions one more time. He even goes back in time to see the granddaughter of Joan Redfern who has published a book about her grandmother’s stories about the Doctor. I thought that it was nice because that way we really get a sense of finality with those characters. This way the Eleventh Doctor can start with a clean slate. And speaking of the Eleventh Doctor, in the few seconds we see him it is comedy gold. I had to watch twice just to hear everything he says as he’s freaking out. “I’m a GIRL!” Classic. Anyway, what did you guy’s think?
10 responses so far ↓
1 Jay // Jan 3, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I whole-heartedly agree with your assessment. Great Final episode for a fantastic era. RTD has shot himself in the foot though doing what he did with the time lords, though I don’t think we are done seeing them. What about the score, Murray Gold is a genius, and the BBC Orchestra was phenomenal. The doctor seeing his companions was a beauty and RTD made it so that Moffat could bring them back into his series if he wanted to. Everyone was surprised to see 10 which leads to maybe they saw him as 11 before he came to them in this episode, as they didnt go after him or wave, just looked
2 Drudatz // Jan 3, 2010 at 3:39 pm
No Jay they saw him as 10 just they didnt know what to make of his apperance - apart from Jane who realizes its the last time she sees 10.
I have to agree with Richard also I like the 9th Doctor 10 was also MINE… and the use of Timelords was a kinda waste for the time they were on the show…
2009 I spent some time on watching all avaible episodes of the 8 Doctors before… I liked most, 1 i hated but 10 will allways be mine
Im so gonna miss David as he did an awsome acting job!
And I cant wait to see what Matt makes out of it
3 Opie // Jan 3, 2010 at 7:09 pm
I really liked how the 10th Dr. ended, how he went back and saved the lives of a few of them who would have most likely died had he not. I feel it ties back into how he couldn’t change things in the Waters of Mars even though he rally wanted to. It seems to fit that need to bend time to his will before he dies. Or just save a few lives for all the ones that have been lost.
I do agree David was my Doctor as well. I felt really sad but also really excited when he regenerated. I can’t wait to see whats next.
4 daniel // Jan 4, 2010 at 1:12 am
That regeneration scene took WAY too long. Seriously, how long does it take for a Timelord to “die”? Jeez. That was the longest of any of the transitions. The whole lightning and flying thing was dumb, and the underuse of the Timelords made this a little bit of a disapointment from the expected wonderful send off that was built up.
I’ll miss 10 (3 was “my” doctor, and Tennant came close) but looking forward to 11.
5 JSpawn // Jan 4, 2010 at 4:03 am
@daniel, though this regeneration was super long the regeneration from 4 to 5 was as long or longer. Taking into account the presence of the Watcher throughout the final serial of season 18 (Logopolis) who it was later revealed was a backwards projection through time of the Doctor’s next incarnation, the process of the regeneration was spread out over the entire serial. And the comparison doesn’t stop there since 4 was so popular at the time (only to be overthrown recently by 10 as the best Doctor ever in most polls) the prolonged regeneration is a way of giving a last hurrah and some final closure to the most loved incarnations, to make people more likely to keep watching after “their” Doctor has gone.
I think it was very powerfully executed, and I know his final words made everyone I know burst into tears crying “[we] don’t want you to go either!!!”.
I do agree that the return of the Time Lords was sorely underplayed, hopefully they will come back again, I want those rumors from a while back of Patrick Stewart playing the Meddling Monk to be true. Seeing Romana again would be nice too.
6 Jonathan // Jan 4, 2010 at 8:12 am
A reason for the extremely long regeneration from our POV could be because it was a slow death from radiation poisoning?
From the Doctor’s POV of view, all that time travelling could have been done inside an hour. So we can pick both.
From Wilfred’s POV, it was at the most 4 months since he last saw the Doctor and thought nothing about him dying since he commented on the fact that he ‘pulled’ through.
For me, I think it would have been better if the Doctor regenerated as Wilfred was hugging him, and that ‘tour’ the 10th doctor went through, could have been done by Matt Smith instead, turning a goodbye into a hello. It was only last season when the Doctor said goodbye to all his companions anyway.
None of this ‘touring’ with the 11th Doctor would suggest they were going into the new series, just the acknowledgement of his passing into a new body while keeping it open. I just have a problem with Davis having to tie everything up. Either way, I hate closures, especially ones I watched that night.
Since the new TARDIS is to debut in the next series, I’m sure some plot device could have been arranged so that the TARDIS could plummet back into the Earth so it could be repaired.
7 Jay // Jan 4, 2010 at 11:28 am
@JSpawn, I saw a set pic that has a guy i sort of a monk costume, but it was not Sir Patrick Stewart
8 Kit // Jan 6, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Its good too see alot of people complaining about similar issues with 10’s final two eps. I keep hearing/reading about how much everyone loved it. I for one didn’t. Waters of Mars was one of the BEST of the five specials. It was sad to see Tennant’s last eps a blah. To heck with commenting about that… I’m not complaining about the length between regenerating. Its what went down since he knew he was dying til he became the 11th…
Eccleston was my Doctor. Although he only had a seasons run he went out with such a BANG I can’t even forget. I just wish 10 went out the same. I know Tennant played the part for 15 years, and I guess the 4th went out in a similar blah way… I just wished RTD did something COMPLETELY different. We sat there thinking maybe he shoots himself in the head or something? kinda sad when you still love 10, but you’ll remember it. the last 5 mins were the best. The 10th not wanting to die did save it, just wish the 2 hours before that part packed the same heat
He played the Doctor 15 years and all he got was mildcore ending. Thanks a lot RTD! Waters of Mars set up so much potential. Ugh.
9 Jay // Jan 6, 2010 at 6:34 pm
you mean 5 years. 2005-2010
10 Kit // Jan 6, 2010 at 11:16 pm
My bad! Surprised that was the only real big mistake. Still getting used to laptop kayboards.
But if I think about it… I’ve been watching this for more than 3/4s of my current life O_O
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