The End Of An Earhole

Last night was the end of many things old, and yet also the beginning of something new and possibly glorious.

And no, I'm not talking about your puny human new year. I'm talking about Doctor Who. Like anything else matters.

The End Of Time parts 1 & 2 marked the end of era in Doctor Who, as the franchise finally parts from the hands of Tennant and Davies, and in many ways I suppose is a kind of celebration of that era. Both it's strengths and sadly it's limitations.

Part One seems almost rushed, setting up various elements quite quickly, yet still taking some time for a few nice, quiet moments (All together now, "The Cafe Scene!!). You have great performances all round, notably from the leads of course. I mean, that IS why they're the leads and all. But it's worth saying. David Tennant is a brilliant Doctor, and does get some great bits to work with here. John Simms Master is immensely watchable, and gives a layered performance which really shows the depth of the character. He is also entertainingly crazy of course, which doesn't hurt. Bernard Cribbins as Wilf is, as he ever was, simply lovely. Seriously, everybody loves Wilf.

The cliffhanger at the end of episode 1 is pretty awesome, with the human race wiped out (bar 2) and then the extra excitement of the return of the Time Lords. You're not really sure where they're going with it all, and thus can't really say what happens next. Which is what it should be.

Part 2 opens up in a rather exposition heavy way, which does rather set the theme for the episode of tell, don't show. Whilst they're trying to establish that the Time Lords have become a threat worse than the Daleks there isn't much onscreen to actually justify it. We get some lovely hints about what they had become, a couple of tantalizing lines suggesting that Time itself was used as a weapon. But thats basically it. The Narrator was billed quite accurately. Not to avoid spoilers (everyone said he was Rassilon) but simply because he's basically there to tell you stuff. Some frankly nebulous evil masterplan about destroying time or something, maybe a bit of jiggery pokery with his acme doom gauntlet, but thats about it. This of course is a terrible shame, because we have one brilliant moment when the Doctor realizes they're coming back which really does set up some expectations of oncoming DOOM (you know, the bit with the gun).

And then they just stand there and narrate.

I mean, it all looks lovely. Gallifrey really does look like a rather hideous place to be, but the whole planets in the sky thing has been done already. As indeed has forbidden ultimate evil being pulled out of the time war.  The whole set up at the end of forcing the Doctor into a position where he has to choose to kill someone is great, but undercut somewhat by the resolution when he doesn't actually have to. Not that you really care at the time though, since we do have some serious ACTING going on.

At this point I should probably mention Star Wars, since every other review is going to. Yes the bit with the missles is more than a little reminisent of the TIE attack, but so what? Frankly more incongrous to me is the whole segment being much more lighter in tone than everything surrounding it. We suddenly kick in to a bit of hollywood chase scene, which is nice enough and no doubt fantastic for the kids. But it just feels a bit of an odd filling for a doom sandwich.

Finally of course we come to the Doctors death, which after all is kind of the point, the whole things been leading up to this, right?

Yes and no. Whilst yes he does die, and they do achieve it in a somewhat unexpected fashion, it does feel a little.. tacked on and drawn out. But it's not really bad, just different. I think it's great that the Doctor dies in the way he does, saving one mans life rather than everyone and everything ever as it does show off the moral character a bit. But then he's up and around a bit to long afterwards. Going around the various companion characters is a nice idea, a little goodbye for the various other players of this era of the program, and does make a change from the standard flashback montage. It may well have been only about an hour for the Doctor, which kind of works. But that's not explicit on screen. Perhaps if he was a little more obviously deteriorating up until the end?

Then of course we have the long awaited regeneration. All I can really say at this stage is Matt Smith pulls off post regenerative crazy disorder with gusto, and the wrecking up of the Tardis is pretty awesome.

So yeah. On the whole a pretty good run. Entertaining viewing certainly, but not without it's flaws. This isn't really a bad thing. I mean if they made a perfect episode there wouldn't be much point going on would there. Even Genesis Of The Daleks has the clam. Very much a greatest hits of the Davies era in various levels of disguise (slim to none), but then if thats not a fitting send off then what is? At least he didn't just fall of his bike.

Roll on number 11.