The End of Who? - The End of Time Parts 1 & 2 (SPOILERS)
It would be interesting to know the health of Doctor Who right now. None of the kids I know are particularly concerned about Doctor Who, preferring instead the sparkly passive-aggressive stalker or the grumpy werewolf, so I've got no idea whether the presumed target demographic that this entire Christmas effort has been aimed at, the seven-year-old with ADD who doesn't follow the stories but likes pretty pictures presumably, walks away pleased. However, while I think that, with
the end of season 4 arguments could be made either way, the end of this so-called 'season five' was utterly and incontrovertibly shit. There was, if not a great story then at least a passable story, but it was buried in layers of wretched toss that suggests that RTD has one of those contracts that means no-one gets to edit his work or tell him to go away and come back when he's written a proper story and so they are forced to put on a brave face and tell
Doctor Who Confidential about how they think this is Russell's best script ever while they die inside.
When the Doctor gets that fatal blast of radiation I looked at my watch and realised we were still a good fifteen minutes from the end. And I thought 'what the hell?' Little did I know what horror was going to follow. The Doctor has enough time to invent a machine to save his life, or visit one of the millions of places in the universe that could save him. Instead he travels round all the characters RTD has created, including chipmunk Billie Piper and her new Esther Rantzen teeth. She looks at him clearly, yet somehow never puts two and two together during her time with Ten to point out she met him before. Bad RTD.
Unnecessary RTD. It goes to show that Tennant and RTD should have both left a year earlier as, if a big reunion was needed, then everyone flying the TARDIS was the last time many of those characters should have been seen. Finding a new boyfriend for Jack after he had to experience his previous partner dying horribly and then being forced to sacrifice his grandson was an insult. What the hell is a Sontaran doing running around on Earth while the Master and then Time Lords invade?
Praise to John Simm for taking a bad script and making it almost work. The scene where Ten tries to sell him yet again on the idea of them travelling together is very well done as both Tennant and Simm have to try and make us believe there's a possibility of something we know won't happen happening. The whole thing about the Time Lords being responsible for the drumming in the Master's brain doesn't bother me as much as I would have thought it would, perhaps I was largely numb to the car crash on screen by that point. That no explanation is given for the mysterious woman that speaks to Wilf and who the Doctor recognises is a flaw. I think RTD doesn't name her because she can only be one of a few possibilities, the Doctor's mother/wife/daughter, Susan or Romana. But if the Time Lords can only just imprint the child Master with the drumming signal how is she merrily able to project herself into Wilf? I genuinely feel that the major fault with this last two-parter is that RTD just doesn't care any more so is happy to throw any nonsense on screen.
Such as the Doctor's fall from the shuttle-craft. I know that all it took was a knock on the head to turn Doctor Six into Doctor Seven, but this was a fall of
Logopolis-like distance, plus velocity, and the Doctor gets away with minor abrasions. Would it have taken much time to have the cactii give him something to break his fall?
And to bring Donna back and do absolutely nothing with her, what a waste of time that was. She remembers everything, has a brain storm and is then fine and her pre-Doctor self again. I kept expecting her to metaphorically swoop in and help the Doctor, as it is I don't see how things would have been any different if she'd been turned into another of the Master clones.
I don't have much of a problem with the Time Lords, as they were a minor ten minute thing, they come back, Gallifrey appears in the sky, the Doctor destroys a machine, they and Gallifrey disappear. Big fucking deal. That Timothy Dalton was apparently Rassillon is another issue but, again, numbness.
In many ways this two-parter seems nothing more than a calculated 'fuck you' from RTD to Auntie. Heavily and exhaustively trailed, then turns out to be a two-parter with long pauses where nothing much happens, I do wonder whether RTD wrote this so that children in Spring decide they don't want to watch Doctor Who any more as it got so boring and it dies again in a year or two. I did feel a twinge when the Tenth Doctor said "I don't want to die" or words similar, even if that was a lie, but hopefully Moffat will take steps to make clear that Doctor Toddler is different in temperament to Ten and Nine, Toddler's gurning and checking out his body being pretty much a direct copy of the Ninth Doctor in that Children in Need special. I know that Comic Book Guy has helped to mock the fan that feels that program makers owe them anything, but I do still believe that, and that this was a slap in the face not just to the adult fan, but even the young child watching.
Worst episode ever? Definitely.
Current Mood: 
disappointed 
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blahflowers's journal
refreshed
pissed off
