In the second half of the final 2010 special of Doctor Who, I WILL NEVER HEAL. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Doctor Who.
“I don’t want to go.”
I came into Mark Watches Doctor Who with some very basic and naive preconceived notions about what this show was. I knew there was The Doctor. And companions. And a big blue box called a TARDIS. And the Daleks did a thing that was bad and I should be afraid of them for being things that did evil stuff. I knew David Tennant and some dude with fabulous hair was on the show. I knew Catherine Tate spent some time ’round some of the Doctors. And I knew that millions of people, especially people on Tumblr or in my comments on Mark Reads Harry Potter, were UNBELIEVABLY OBSESSED WITH DOCTOR WHO.
It was pretty easy to pick this show as my next project after Firefly. I wanted to do something that was not a single season and wouldn’t be easy to conquer. I will admit that I was afraid of disliking the show, that it wouldn’t be SRS BSNS enough for me or that it wasn’t my style of comedy. I knew, additionally, that there would be a lot of people watching me as I journeyed through this show. What if I hated it? What if it bored me? What if I simply didn’t get it? WHAT IF THE WHOLE INTERNET HATED ME BECAUSE I DIDN’T LIKE DOCTOR WHO?
Thankfully, after all this time, that’s simply not the case. Doctor Who isn’t a perfect show, and I am perfectly ok with that. Sometimes the tone can wildly oscillate from episode-to-episode. It doesn’t have a perfect track record with people of color or women. There have been a few stinkers (I WILL NEVER BE OK WITH “FEAR HER” EVER), but there have also been a lot of brilliant, shining gems. I’m introducing this review in this manner because I’d really like to make a point. And that point is that, unless Matt Smith seriously blows me out of the water in just one season, David Tennant will always be my Doctor.
I don’t mean to say that he is the best Doctor. I haven’t seen Matt Smith, and I’ve only seen pieces of the classic Doctors. (I’ve still got a lot of Who to watch!) But I have spent the most time with David Tennant. All of the Doctors have varying personalities, but Tennant has come to be the gateway to the silly, goofy, at times serious, and always caring Doctor. I know that I’ll continue watching older episodes long after Mark Watches moves on to other shows, and I’ll continue blogging the show when it airs in real time. But my real, honest introduction to this show will always make my brain think of Tennant. I don’t mean to suggest that Eccleston isn’t important, because he is. He’s very important. I’m just saying that my experience with this show will probably always gravitate towards the man I’ve spent the most time with.
I know that there are people who don’t like Ten in general. It’s not like you need my permission, but I don’t feel any particular need to defend him to anyone. But he’s gone through three companions and a whole lot of drama, and I can honestly say that I feel that his character has actually changed and grown since I first met him. Which is nice! I like character growth! And that’s actually a challenge to me. How do you “change” a character that is over nine-hundred years old? Or, for that matter, a character that has existed in the public consciousness for almost fifty years most certainly must be difficult to give character growth.
I don’t really think that all of “The End of Time” is perfect and, after reading through a lot of comments on yesterday’s review, I did realize there is a lot of WTF-ery abounding in how this story came to be. But the execution of it all is what works for me. And the last twenty minutes. Which I will get to. While choking back tears. AGAIN.
Knowing that this was the last episode before series five began, I knew that the time for David Tennant to bow out had come. Yet I found myself more occupied with a different question than how the Doctor came to regenerate.
HOW THE FUCK ARE THERE TIME LORDS
NO, SERIOUSLY, HOW IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE. Is it someone’s imagination? Is it a narrative trick? How can there be Time Lords if the Doctor ended them all during the Time War? Russell T Davies, though, completely delivers on this one. If there was any lingering question I had about this show, it was always regarding the Time War. Why was it always such a mystery? Why was the Doctor so reluctant to reveal what actually happened? While Davies provides us with the answer to this, he also gives us the reason for the Sound of the Drums, the method that brought the Master to this very point in space and time.
How many times have I said that I love time travel? Because I fucking love time travel. The revelation that the Time Lords placed the sound of the drums inside the master’s head ON PURPOSE to act as a signal made me grin out of delight. It’s so…DEVIOUS. And EVIL. SO EVIL. But why is it so evil?
A Time Lock. The Doctor placed a Time Lock on the Time War, preventing the Time Lords from ever escaping. But why? As Wilfred said, why wasn’t the Doctor happy that his people had returned?
Simultaneous to this, I worried about another development: Donna was remembering. She was remembering her past and her mind was going to burn up. The Master, foolishly so, thought that he still had control of the situation as he sent out his clones to find Donna after he discovered she wasn’t converted. Even though Donna leaks out her defense mechanism and destroyed the copies of the Master (WHO, BY THE WAY, ARE ACTUALLY HER NEIGHBORS), I worried that this would be the way that Davies would dispose of Donna. HER STORY IS ALREADY SAD ENOUGH, DAVIES, LEAVE HER ALONE.
However, I was momentarily distracted from this when we learned what was returning, what had been warned about before. (For the record, narratively, I’m going to skip the Vinvocci ship sequences. I like them, but they sort of felt a bit distracting by the end of the story.) In yet another moment where the Doctor was late to arrive, the Time Lord Council manages to locate the Master in Naismith’s mansion and beats the Doctor there. Again, I was totally on the same page as Wilfred during this scene where the Time Lords return. SHOULDN’T THIS BE A JOYOUS MOMENT??? The Doctor is no longer alone in the universe! He’s not the last of his kind anymore!
And that’s when we find out why the Doctor had ending the Time War in the way that he had: At the end of the Time War, both sides, including the Time Lords, created “horrors” to battle one another, horrors that no Time Lord, let alone the humans, could survive. The master plan of the Time Lords was to end time, to ascend to a state of higher consciousness. The Doctor exterminated his own people TO SAVE THE ENTIRE FUCKING UNIVERSE.
oh my fucking god. the fucking time war. fuck capitalization. i can’t even. i cannot even.
Now, ok…I like the next scene, as the Master realizes he was used and the Lord President is about to kill him when the Doctor pulls out the gun Wilf had convinced him to use earlier. I just think that the back and forth of WILL HE SHOOT THE LORD PRESIDENT to WILL HE SHOOT THE MASTER is a little much for me. Yes, this show has a penchant for the ridiculous drama, but I have to draw the line somewhere. A MAN HAS TO HAVE STANDARDS.
What the Master did to the Earth on this series is awful, and I don’t want to every insinuate that what happens during this final battle is completely vindicating for him. But I do think it was brave of him to tell the Doctor to step aside and die for him. If the Master was going to die, this was the most satisfying way for me. (Also, who the hell was that woman???? Don’t answer that if it’s a spoiler revealed later, but WTF.)
Gallifrey disappears, the Time Lords are sent back to the Time War forever, and the Doctor smiles, completely flabbergasted that he has survived what he thought was his death.
And then the knock. Four times in a row.
I clamped my hand over my mouth when it happened. No. NO WAY. WHAT THE FUCK. As the camera panned around to reveal the force of the knock, the sight of Wilf in the radiation containment device brought a flood of tears to my eyes. “He will knock four times,” I remembered. The Master never knocked. His drum sound was four beats. He hit those bins in the landfill four times. But he never knocked.
Unbeknownst to us all, it was the innocent actions of Wilf that would kill the Doctor. The Doctor wails with frustration at the absurdity of it all, that he just faced the Master and the Time Lords and survived, yet a lone man on Earth will kill him entirely by accident. But, in truth, the Doctor has lived too long. And it is an honor to save Wilf’s life, after the man has done so much to help him, to believe in him. So the Doctor steps into the containment area, saving Wilf’s life and taking in all the radiation. Despite that he doesn’t die, his regeneration process is triggered and he knows it’s time for him to begin a new life.
Look, it’s cheesy. It’s melodramatic. And sappy. And purposely made to create an aura of sadness. AND I DO NOT CARE. Watching the Doctor visit all of his companions was a WATERWORKS FACTORY. Saving Martha and Mickey from a Sontaran. HOLY FUCK THEY ARE MARRIED, MAKING THEM THE MOST ATTRACTIVE COUPLE IN THE HISTORY OF FUCKING TELEVISION. GOOD GOD. Saving Luke Smith and giving Sarah Jane a final, quiet goodbye. Bidding Captain Jack Harness so long, while connecting him with Alonso Frame from “The Voyage of the Dead.” Visiting Joan Redfern’s great-granddaughter. (!!!!!!!) Attending Donna’s wedding after traveling back in time to borrow a quid from her late father and buying a winning lottery ticket. (Full on sobs at this point.)
But man, visiting Rose on New Years’ in 2005, before she would meet him? I wondered how the Doctor could talk to her from the shadows without him recognizing her. There’s something so goddamn depressing about him telling her she’ll have a good year, knowing that he’ll never see her again. (I really don’t think Rose will come back again.)
“I don’t want to go.”
The truth is…I don’t want you to go either, David Tennant. You have helped introduce me to this character, this show, and all of these wonderful people in the Doctor Who community. We have so much more to share together, but we’ll never get to see you say, “Welllllllllllll……” again. I will miss you.
On that note:
FUCK YEAH I HAVE MADE IT TO MATT SMITH!!!!! Oh my god, look at that fabulous hair. I AM SO GODDAMN EXCITED!
THOUGHTS
- “This song is ending, but the story never ends.” OH MY GOD MY CREYS
- “Worst. Rescue. Ever.”
- MATT. SMITH. !@#$%%$^DFGA AS;DFJ ASKLDJF SD
What's funny is that I entered Doctor Who during David Tennant's time and had watched most of his episodes before ever watching Nine and before Eleven was even around, but I find Eleven to be my favorite Doctor. I like his interpretation of the character and I'm excited to see what you think of the differences.
I can't say much that arctic_hare didn't already cover, but essentially, this finale wasn't about the Ten I liked so much over the course of Season 4 – it was about the petulant, arrogant, self-important annoying ass of Seasons 2 and 3. So I wasn't particularly sad to say goodbye to him – I was more relieved.
Part 2 of "The End of Time" was better than Part 1, at least. I really like that the Doctor locked away his entire species because they were a threat to the universe, for one thing – the Time Lords were always kind of horrible, and Ten's misty nostalgia about them earlier in his run always felt off for that reason. But here we got the truth – barring a few exceptions like Susan and Romana, the Doctor was largely at odds with his species his entire life for excellent reasons. Hooray for New Who finally admitting that fact. 🙂
I mean, buried somewhere under all the bullshit was some pretty sound thematic work. It was very right that Ten, the Doctor who spent most of his run chafing against mortality and the other limits of the universe, finally fought to uphold them in the face of Rassilon's plan to eliminate pain, death, and time itself.
Every scene that involved Ten and Wilf talking to each other was wonderful. Ten calling Donna his best friend was wonderful. Rose's cameo failed to be awful, which was a relief. I just…really hated almost everything else.
I hate Ten's pettiness, his whining, his petulant babyish wah wah wah about regenerating that just went on and on and on and AUGH. I hated the way he opted to stare meaningfully at his old companions instead of, you know, actually saying goodbye. I hated how the whole tour-o'-companions was just trying to wring out woe for woe's sake without earning it. It was horrible writing and a terrible way for Ten to go.
I also hated Donna's continued lack of agency, the way this whole two-parter wasted Catherine Tate's amazing talent, and (as usual) the treatment of Martha, Mickey, and Jack. And I think that an editor should have been set loose on this whole thing with a hacksaw – multiple sequences and shots went on way too long. But as I mentioned, Part 2 isn't as painful as Part 1, so…there's that. And there's Eleven! New Doctor, new showrunner, and new life being breathed into a show that RTD was out of ideas for.
I am grateful as hell to Davies for bringing back the Doctor Who, and for daring to believe it could be something meaningful and marvelous and more than the silly cheese-fest cynical critics were expecting back in 2005. Davies revived a cultural icon, created two successful spinoffs, and oversaw the making of some really, really amazing television in his time with Doctor Who. But by the time "The End of Time" came along, it was past time for him to go. I really can't wait to see what he does next…outside the Whoniverse. 🙂
<img src="http://i51.tinypic.com/2qvdxjd.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">
I hated how the whole tour-o'-companions was just trying to wring out woe for woe's sake without earning it.
Yes! It felt like RTD was trying every trick in the book to wring some tears out of me. "You will cry even if I have to punch you in the stomach!" He'd already covered this ground in Journey's End and done it better.
I also hated Donna's continued lack of agency, the way this whole two-parter wasted Catherine Tate's amazing talent
Donna shouldn't even have been in this episode, honestly. She was only there to make Ten suffer more and provide a pointless cliffhanger. Martha, Mickey and Jack… *sigh* We didn't need to see them. I liked the farewells to Verity and Sarah Jane.
I think that an editor should have been set loose on this whole thing with a hacksaw – multiple sequences and shots went on way too long.
OH GOD, yes. I really wonder where the editor was. Did they just not bother as this was RTD's last episode?
I am grateful as hell to Davies for bringing back the Doctor Who, and for daring to believe it could be something meaningful and marvelous and more than the silly cheese-fest cynical critics were expecting back in 2005. Davies revived a cultural icon, created two successful spinoffs, and oversaw the making of some really, really amazing television in his time with Doctor Who. But by the time "The End of Time" came along, it was past time for him to go.
Yes, thank you.
I agree with so much of what you said here.
Oh yeah Donna as the woman was and still is a rampant theory among us Whovians.
I always tear up watching this the INSTANT Rose's Theme comes on.
Yes, exactly! I enjoy the show, but boy howdy can it be flawed. However, they knew what they were doing when they cast Timothy Dalton and made fantastic use of his range. I wish I could say the same for DW.
The truth is…I don’t want you to go either, David Tennant. You have helped introduce me to this character, this show, and all of these wonderful people in the Doctor Who community. We have so much more to share together, but we’ll never get to see you say, “Welllllllllllll……” again. I will miss you.
This made me cry all over again. 🙁 We never will, will we?
<img src="http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae156/Samba022/gifs/9f086f5a.gif" />
Also, what am I supposed to be watching next? I know Mark probably said this somewhere but I didn't write it down :/
Do you mean what classic ep? The mind robber- a second doctor serial is tomorrow, then after that I believe it's straight into series 5. If you mean after he's completely caught up on Doctor Who then I think it might be Avatar:the last airbender?
I did mean what classic episode, thank you! I figured there would be one between series 4 and series 5 but I couldn't remember which it was supposed to be. Thank you!!
I said this yesterday, but in case you missed it.
It features a character called the Master, who isn't the same Master (he hadn't appeared in the series at that point). If you don't know that, every mention is extremely distracting.
The Doctor is dead. Long live the Doctor.
I've expressed my frustrations with these specials and the writing before. I'm not going to complain about things when there were lots of great moments.
What I do want to say is: I love the Doctor, no matter who he looks like. Truth be told, when discussing New Who, I'm a Nine girl, but rewatching most of Tennant's run here has reminded me of just how great Ten was. Because he really was fantastic. <3
And at the end, I cried, of course I cried. I'm an emotional woman as it is, and I don't really need someone yanking on my heartstrings. It was a relief when Ten passed on to Eleven.
Fuck yeah to new adventures, new companions, and new dangers!
"To days to come."
"All my love to long ago."
I am OBSESSED with his part in Chuck!! Seriously, his first episode has to be one of my favorite moments in the series. He's just so fun and twisted.
Aw, I didn't want Ten to go either. I'm curious about the next series, but…damn. The End of Time had its share of cheese, but seeing all the companions again and getting some closure on the Time War felt like an appropriate ending. I somehow love The Master even more after this episode, which is no small feat. And Wilf…my God, Wilf. So many tears.
I felt that when Ten said "I don't want to go" part of that was Tennant speaking himself. Even if he was ready to move on from this amazing character, filming that final scene must have been hard for him.
Maybe it's too early to call, but I also think Ten will always be my Doctor, if only because his run was when I fell in love with the series so I'll always associate him with that. Matt Smith has a lot to live up to, but I can't wait to see him try.
All the next time trailers have been edited out of the DVD release. Mark has got the series five episodes from iTunes, but I'd guess they don't have trailers either.
But, as others have said, Mark is used to stopping before the next time trailer starts.
They don't, I don't think? I have them on iTunes and Bluray.
Aw, I love it too. It's exactly what they are! He needed a best friend so badly and Donna was it. They were so good together.
This.
Okay, so I'll be the first to admit that this two-parter is so full of cheese that it could be the new moon, but dang. It still manages to bring the tears. I think the whole ending is cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesy as hell, but I still cry. Especially every time we see Wilf cry. Seeing Wilf cry breaks my heart into a thousand itty bitty pieces. DON'T CRY, WILF, LET ME GIVE YOU ALL THE HUGS.
Also: It was genius to have Matt Smith play wacky Doctor immediately after he regenerates. I can't even TELL YOU how excited it made me for seeing him as the Doctor. I think without it, I probably would have resented him for a long, long time.
I can't even TELL YOU how excited it made me for seeing him as the Doctor. I think without it, I probably would have resented him for a long, long time.
Funny, it had exactly the opposite effect on me. His wackiness after all that sadness made me dislike him immediately, and it took me quite some time to warm to him. All I could think was "Who is this funny-looking loon, and WHAT HAS HE DONE WITH THE DOCTOR?" If they hadn't had the funny bit, I think I would have been much more disposed to like Eleven right off.
The first time I saw this episode it didn't really strike me much, despite Ten's regeneration. For a little context, I saw this during the time I wasn't really into Doctor Who and was watching the episodes wildly out of order, and I actually saw this episode before End of Time part one, and I'd maybe seen two or three episodes before that. All I really knew is there was a crazy man from Harry Potter running around with Aliens. I came pretty late to the part considering that I only really started watching Doctor Who a year ago and this is the first 'in depth' post I've done here, though I have been reading for a while.
Now that I've rewatched it having seen all of Nine, Ten, and Eleven's arcs I enjoy it much more to a point. I love Wilf (Who doesn't?), I love Ten calling Donna his best friend, I love Ten saying he'd be proud to have Wilf as a father, I love the two cactus people, and I love Ten saying good-bye to all of his companions. It's cheesy, but I love it all. As a fan of Original Star Trek, I say bring on the cheese!
After reading most of these comments I can understand that people feel unsatisfied with Donna's ending, but I think it's a good way to at least wrap up her story. She was never going to get back what she had unless the Doctor pulled a big rabbit out of his hat, and for me the lovely thing wasn't that the Doctor gave her a gift, and it wasn't ruined by the fact that it was a gift of money, but it was the gift was technically from Donna's father. Even if he didn't know it, Donna's father was able to give her a wedding present that will help to keep her comfortable maybe for the rest of her life if she's smart about the money. Plus her fiance/husband seems like a sweetheart, genuinely in love with her, so that makes me thrilled. I have more to say about Ten's good-bye to everyone else, but I figure that by now it's all been said.
But right before that, The Doctor had to complain about saving Wilf. I admit I haven't seen much, just Nine, Ten, Eleven and some of One (I'm always looking for more, especially now that Spring Breaks upon me. If anyone reads this I'd love a reccomendation for some classic who, possibly some Two.) However from what I've seen that isn't who the Doctor is. It's in character for Ten, but for some reason I hadn't thought that he'd slipped that far. Tennet saves the moment slightly with "Lived too long." I like to think that in that he listens to himself and how he sounds right then. Buuuuuuuut then he goes and says "I don't want to go". Ugh. I've been lurking on the spoiler thread and I know people have said that they feel that Eleven's entrance cheapens Ten's departure, but I almost feel like that one line cheapens Ten's whole run. Really Ten? All that you've done and all those people who you care for and who care for you and you don't have any peace at the end? Plus it feels like Ten doesn't want to go so much that he tries to bring the Tardis down with him! Ah well, they can't all be perfect from start to finish.
Since I don't want to end on a sour note, a few more things I liked.
-Reference to the Time Lords possibly creating the Weeping Angles!? WHAT!?
-Minnie flirting with Wilf.
-"Well for friends, and Nerys." I love how we don't actually know why Donna hates Nerys so much, except she seems kind of like a grown up Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls.
-MATT SMITH! As far as I'm concerned, here comes my Doctor! You're in for a treat Mark, I hope you love Series five as much as I do!
-Reference to the Time Lords possibly creating the Weeping Angles!? WHAT!?
That was my first thought, too! My weird mind just automatically thought "Oh, God, she had to stay like that for so long she turned to stone and then GAH WEEPING ANGEL." Probably wrong, though.
I don't think the Time Lords created the weeping angels, only said "like the weeping angels of old". That implies that they are a seperate and very old species that the Time Lords are aware of.
Ten is also my Doctor, in the same way as you, Mark. I didn't watch Ten first, but it was Ten that I fell in love with. Nine seems a prelude to Ten. I love all of the amazing things that were done with Ten's tenure and I love his humanness and the romance and the love and the hate and the whining. I love that at the end he RAGES because he doesn't want to die, but Ten is not a coward despite his willingness to run and in the end he faces death. I love that it is death that he faces and not something different, that the regeneration is like death to him and in that transformation of what was once something less emotional suddenly we FEEL for him and we FEAR for him and we don't want him to go. WE DON'T WANT HIM TO GO EITHER.
My favorite Ten scene is before he lets Wilf out, when he rages and fights it and whines but only because he has the time and only because he can think about it. He has been trying to suppress this (barring that scene with Wilf) but it comes out here, and it is this that I love.
I love the two parter and I love the craziness and supervillains and the scene with the guns and the timelords and all of that. It's like a superhero movie only the superhero is a nerdy guy in glasses wearing red trainers and it is brilliant. There are more introspective episodes and more personal episodes and simpler episodes but Ten's outing episode is one that needs lots of bang and flash and HEY it has it. In my opinion this episode trumps many superhero movies out there by FAR because it gets why we want to watch this kind of thing. It is for the people, the humanity, we really just care about the characters and how it affects them and I love that we get this character piece at the end where Ten revists everyone and bookends all of the stories with them. His story is over, goodbye. Vale Decem. (That piece makes me CRY oh it makes me CRY CRY CRY.)
YAY MATT SMITH BOOYAH. Also series six starts April 23rd! Does everyone here know this? Mark had better be ready for it!
He is VERY attractive in motion. But yeah, in still, not so much.
See, him looking at Donna made me think it was Susan. He is answering Wilf's question by looking at Wilf's granddaughter. I like it being left open to interpretation.
An excuse to post my Timothy Dalton icon? Don't mind if I do! (Image and quote from the 1968 movie The Lion in Winter, which everyone must watch IMMEDIATELY due to the power of its awesomeness and the fact that Timothy Dalton was pretty much unforgivably beautiful back then.) Wish I could have been here to squee/weep with you guys earlier, but I have been working insane hours and can barely find time to read along with this blog, let alone comment on it.
<img src="http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/54462556/145933">
"The truth is…I don’t want you to go either, David Tennant. You have helped introduce me to this character, this show, and all of these wonderful people in the Doctor Who community. We have so much more to share together, but we’ll never get to see you say, “Welllllllllllll……” again. I will miss you."
Well said, Mark. Well said.
I know, right? What is up with having a wee baby play the Doctor? Is that even legal?
I have this deep and involved theory as to Time Lord physiology and why the Doctor seems to get a little younger with every regeneration– basically boils down to the regenerational energy re-knits the telomeres only to a certain percentage, say if there's 30% of a telomere left on the end of a cell, it'll only regenerate it up to 50%. But this is really just a reflection of what happens when a liberal studies major reads The American Journal of Human Genetics for fun.
Goodbye Ten 🙁
I cried the first time I watched this episode, but then Matt Smith had me cracking up with "Geronimo!" I was very, very, very excited. Eleven is the only Doctor I've gotten to watch in real time, week to week, so it was a very exciting moment to meet him.
kasjf;lkfjs I can't wait until Thursday!
I think it's only right and proper that actors playing the Doctor have odd-looking faces. I suppose that McGann and Davison were the exceptions to the rule, but even "prettyboy" Tennant looks distinctly like a weasel at times. And Eccleston veers wildly between looking gorgeous and just plain weird. Anyway, the Doctor is weird – putting an everyman with an everyface in the role doesn't seem right. So hurray for Matt Smith continuing the tradition of facial oddity. 🙂
I've commented a few times before under a different name, but the login system always gives me grief, so I settled in to just watching for a while. I've come to really like your reviews, and by extent, you as a person. I KNOW I DON'T KNOW YOU JUST GO WITH IT. But I had to comment here, because this is my favorite Doctor Who story.
I haven't seen them all. I've seen all the new series, all of Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and a bit over a third of the classic series, plus some audios, and I'm working on seeing it all. But honestly, I don't think I will see a better story than this, because it isn't just my favorite Doctor Who story, it's pretty much blown away everything, ever.
Sometimes you read something, or see a script played, and you know that it was written for someone specific, and usually, that someone is not you. It's like reading a love letter, a personal glimpse into a piece of someone's heart they bared for someone else. I am convinced this script was RTD's love letter to David Tennant. I don't know if I can explain this logically, but having written things myself that were personal gifts for others, and received stories of that kind, all I can say is that it had that "feel." It felt intensely personal, it felt written *for him*. And it was also his farewell, and an absolutely gorgeous one. I think one of the reasons I adore this story so is that I can feel all the love poured into it. I can feel how much everyone who worked on it loved the show and each other.
And Tennant's performance, god, that was his love letter back. He's always a great actor, but he really hit it out of the park. He and Simm were both in absolute top form, and I just sat in front of my screen transfixed, lapping up every moment. It was flawless. It was one of those rare shows that just left me feeling fortunate, to be alive and to be able to see this.
When I first started watching this blog, I was worried, not that you wouldn't like Doctor Who, but that fandom would ruin your love for it. It isn't hard to love Doctor Who. It's hard to keep loving it in the face of all that negativity. There's peer pressure to put it down, to distance yourself from it, to not let the attacks on the show spread onto you by associating yourself with it too closely. And while this has happened considerably less than I thought it would, I'm starting to see it. You still love it, but you've started apologizing for loving it–prefacing it with that you know it isn't perfect, or various problems it has. Not that it doesn't have any problems anywhere, just that having to name them all before you say anything good for fear of being attacked by rabid fans…well, you know, it's kind of sad. You should just be able to say you like it, and haters to the left. (Not that you can't be critical when you want to be critical, just that being critical when I think you want to praise it seems a bit unnecessary.)
(My comment is "a little too long," so I'm splitting like the helpful message says.)
BITCH TEARS. I HAVE NOTHING MORE CONSTRUCTIVE TO ADD. I CRIED LIKE A LITTLE BABY. LIKE A LITTLE BABY.
I can dig how people who have seen Children of Earth can be a bit ticked off over the 10th Doctor’s goodbye to Jack Harkness by setting him up with Alonso. But I can forgive much here. For the Doctor, Jack is now perhaps one of the few people he can relate to. Or rather, one of the few people that can relate to him in terms of being incredibly long lived. (Given the events of the Torchwood series, we know that Jack Harkness is older than Ten.)
So the Doctor helps jack deal with his loss the best way he knows how. He moves Jack on to his next friend or companion. Cos hey… it’s worked with him over the last 1000 years. (However old the Doctor actually IS by now… he is NOT just 945. He’s lost count, or is outright lying.) By this time, you get the idea that the Doc may know enough about Jack that this was exactly the push Jack needed to not crawl into a bottle and cry for the next 3000 years. So it didn’t trivialize Jack’s loss. It acknowledged it and moved on to what was important. The person who was hurting and getting him sorted.
I was a little honked off at Mickey/Martha. That felt about as contrived as Storm/T’Challa over in Marvel Comics. It wasn’t so much that they had any feeling for one another as, “HEY! HERE’S TWO BLACK PEOPLE! LET’S MARRY THEM OFF!” Lame.
I was more honked off though at Donna Noble getting a consolation husband on earth. Yey. SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN REUNITED WITH HER LIBRARY HUSBAND, DAVIES! YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD! (Ahem) This is a pattern with Davies it seems. People getting ‘Consolation Partners’. Rose got one. Donna got one. Now Martha gets one too. That’s three for three innit? I haven’t watched the SJA yet, but one assumes Sarah-Jane will eventually get one too if Davies has anything to say about it. (Does k-9 count? Or Luke?)
A word of advice for you, Mark. You will miss about half of what Smith’s 11 says. TruFax. Think about the most coffee you’ve ever drank. Now imagine you’ve done that again with a couple of energy drinks and a few two-liters of Jolt cola AND an Espresso AND a shot of speed. That’s how fast the eleventh Doctor speaks. If you have the means, I strongly suggest watching NuWho series 5 with the subtitles on.
The woman in white, in my head is The White Guardian in the form of the Doctor’s mother. The very same way the Trickster in Who/SJA is the Black Guardian. Hell with your explanations, Davies. The one thing I learned about you over the last 5 years is that you are not to be trusted. If you don’t know a thing, you’ll make it up. And if it suits your purposes, Mister ‘I will never write a Master story’, you will outright lie.
2011 is the year that men are officially allowed to cry about whatever moves them to tears. If a guy like Wilf can cry for the Doctor in the ways that he did, then a man crying is now considered FUCKING MANLY. Right beside a hearty breakfast of bacon eggs coffee and a whole can of macho whoopass grade AAA machismo.
The master saying, “You never would… you COWARD.” when Ten’s pointing the gun at him. That rather touched on that moment when The Doctor was loudly proclaiming “I never would. I NEVER WOULD.” to the general fella that just shot his daughter in The Doctor’s Daughter. Which rather underlines how over the years the Master lost any fundamental understanding of the Doctor. How his reluctance wasn’t cowardice. But strength. Not that the Doctor COULDN’T. He’s proven multiple times over the years that he very much could. But this one… this one never WOULD.
Did anyone feel as I did that the reference to the Could Have Been King and his army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres was a reference to the Zagreus storyline from the 8th Doctor Audio Adventures from Big Finish?
I do remember Wilf getting into the radioactive plot device chamber in the first place, (What kind of messed up safety system is that where it virtually guarantees SOMEONE is probably going to get killed in a bad emergency by trapping them in a reaction chamber?) and I knew what was coming as soon as he did. I remember going, “Aw Wilf, you doofy bugger, what’d you do that for?” To save that guy in the other chamber. Why else? But get a load of the eyeroll outta Tennant when he does it. You speak for all of us, disgusted Ten. At least you spoke for me just then.
After reading several comments and thinking a bit on what people said (because I tend to love things first run through) I still feel like I can understand (at least in my head) how Martha and Mickey ended up together. If I had been a companion of the Doctor (and didn't get stuck in another universe or my memory erased) it would be kind of hard to just be a normal person and date a normal person. I like to think that after Ten dropped Martha, Jack, and Mickey off, that Martha and Mickey became friends (they were both friends with Jack already, too, so another common thing between them). They could talk about their adventures and reminisce about the things that Doctor did (and poorly impersonate how he said "Well" for laughs) And maybe she got bored working at Unit, so when Mickey said "Hey, you could come be a free lance alien hunter with me" she went for it. I know I would. And maybe Tom couldn't handle her always be out in the field, being in danger, fighting aliens, so their relationship ended. And after some time and many alien hunts, she realized Mickey was more than a friend.
And sure, maybe I've justified it for myself because I wanted Mickey to get that happy ending. Rose treated him like crap, he had to go to another universe to become badass, and then he still ended up alone after his gran died in the alter universe, too. As I said with Handy and Rose, I like happy endings, even if they are a bit weird. Plus, you get this awesome image which I love looking at. (Maybe don't go looking at all of those images, Mark. Not yet at least…) I'm weird and I'm okay with it.
I don't know what else to say except, I agree with many above who said they thought Ten was there Doctor. Though, on my blog (and on the Mark Spoils blog) I did discuss how in a lot of ways Nine will always be MY Doctor, my favourite is definitely Eleven. And I'll discuss more of that later, once Mark has seen the man more. 😀
I wish I could upvote you a million times, since Eleven is MY Doctor too. 😀
You got here at last! You finally made it this far!!!
Now I guess I don't need to explain my pervasive gif, right?
<img src="http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd317/Tiljaunique/Master-cheering.gif" border="0" alt="DW, EoT – Master's cheer">
And if you want some backstory on the Lord President Rassilon, you should deffinitely watch "The Five Doctors." That'll give you an idea on how the character can be what he is.
As for that woman in white in The End of Time, your guess is as good as mine. There are several theories as to who she is but it has never been officially explained.
Seeing as how much you enjoy Matt Smith so far, I have no doubt you'll like him very much when you see him. The first chapter he's in is a rare treat, the beginning of a rollercoaster of fun. 🙂
late response but
*shakes cane and goes off to watch the Tenth Doctor Musical again and waits for the day we get to see Martha/Mickey's pretty, pretty babies because they need to make pretty babies I SO DECREE*.
MARTHA/MICKEY CHILD FOR FUTURE COMPANION.
You mentioned character development… THIS is what RTD so excelled at. He took a character who, through regeneration, could be somewhat "renewed' so as not to get boring .BUT… he gave him a fantastic character arc.
While I hated the last ten minutes or so of EoT (thought they'd be better for a DVD extra, not as part of the story), I loved the culmination of this character arc (and I am speaking of both nine and ten- both are the doctor, and both had to deal with the time war and it's after effects… and both are the same guy, really). The doctor faced the time war again, and he was not alone. Of all people… the most faithful companion.. was the flippin MASTER. And yes, he was 'redeemed' by his end. The man who clung to life to the point of killing others over and over… gave up his life. It was not self less… it was anger and revenge driven to an extent… but he still did it.
And yet he was not the one who saved the doctor. Wilf did, and the doctor himself. Because what he needed to be saved from was being the Time Lord Victorious, being an arrogant powerful jerk with no bounderies. He could easily BE the Master, and he gave that up. He gave up his own ego involvement with this incarnation. He was 'saved'. Not from regeneration, but from a huge fall into more of a loss of Who he Is than any regeneration would be.
the woman (his mom, as RTD originally penned in the script- no spoiler there, just something RTD said he intended), told WILF there was still a chance he could be saved, and Wilf was not his death but his salvation.
The underlying STUFF in this ep was just so spectacular.
I thought the somewhat indulgent grand goodbye to Tennant (it was not to Ten, but to Tennant) detracted from the true BIG MOMENT in the story, which was not regeneration but the doctor realizing what he was becoming, and STOPPING, going back, and saving Wilf. It was so quiet, but so huge, and ought not have been drowned out by singing Ood and ten extra minutes of goodbyes.
"HOLY FUCK THEY ARE MARRIED, MAKING THEM THE MOST ATTRACTIVE COUPLE IN THE HISTORY OF FUCKING TELEVISION."
Srsly. Well, Ianto and Captain Jack (Torchwood, which you should watch!) are quite attractive.
My problem with the seemingly endless final sequence was not so much that it was overdramatic, but that Davies was pretty much having a wank.
Pingback: Free Blood Sugar Meter
Pingback: Dark Under Eye
Pingback: eBook Libraries
Pingback: Glucose Test Strips
Pingback: Anti Aging Tips
Pingback: Buy eBooks
Pingback: Dark Lines Under Eyes
Pingback: eBook Downloads for Free
Pingback: property and casualty insurance
Pingback: Dog Bite Lawsuit
Pingback: http://www.xfruits.com/network/Self_Help/
Pingback: The Best Diet Plan
Pingback: Credit Card Consolidation Loans
Pingback: Acne Ebook
Pingback: Buy Salvia
Pingback: save sexless marriage
Pingback: Keurig Reviews
Pingback: וילונות
Pingback: Schwinn stationary bikes
Pingback: Consumer Proposal Ontario
Pingback: Who can help marriage
Pingback: Site for relationship problems
Pingback: עבירות מס
Pingback: Colon Cleanse
Pingback: waring pro mg-800
Pingback: Shop For Computer
Pingback: kgb deals london
Pingback: Mauritius Holiday Accommodation
Pingback: קידום אתרים בגוגל
Pingback: Free Magazine Subscription
Pingback: Home Depot coupons
Pingback: IT Management IT Management
Pingback: 2nd Hand Lawn Mowers For Sale
Pingback: outdoor flood lights
Pingback: juno track lighting
Pingback: Appartement Ile Maurice
Pingback: Ile Maurice Location Vacances
Pingback: Mauritius Accommodation
Pingback: Location Ile Maurice
Pingback: cougar dating
Pingback: electronic books
Pingback: cordless drill kit
Pingback: Austin Replacement Windows
Pingback: pooltablelightspot.com
Pingback: panel saw
Pingback: refurbished table saw
Pingback: criminal defense attorney boston
Pingback: help save my marriage
Pingback: Rug Cleaning Los Angeles
Pingback: reconditioned air compressor
Pingback: Husqvarna chain saw
Pingback: Computer Coupons
Pingback: bulldogs tickets
Pingback: Save My Marriage Today Review
Pingback: Injury Lawyers Brooklyn
Pingback: Porter Cable Impact Wrench
Pingback: concrete chain saw
Pingback: http://www.exchangemymail.com
Pingback: Pool Builders Orlando
Pingback: anniversary bands
Pingback: personal injury lawyers bronx
Pingback: homes for sale in Pomona
Pingback: NY Personal Injury Attorneys
Pingback: http://savethismarriage.org/blog/online-marriage-counseling/
Pingback: The chocolate diet
Pingback: Momma
Pingback: cabinet stomatologic bucuresti