Doctor Who: The End of Tennant

[Zeke]

Oh, I mean the End of Time, of course. Silly mistake.

So we're halfway into the final Tenth Doctor story, with the conclusion airing tomorrow. So far I have mixed feelings. It's an odd story, this one -- overdramatic and pretentious in some parts, genuinely impressive in others. We're expected to take a lot as given and go with it. The Doctor, for instance, is suddenly so overcome with a sense of his own doom that he actually sheds tears. (Has DW ever shown this before? We've seen Doctors get choked up...) Yet in that same scene, he gives an amazing description of what regeneration means for him, impressing on new viewers that it isn't just a matter of changing bodies. From the ridiculous to the sublime and vice versa.

I don't envy the position RTD was in when he wrote this. We all know going in that the Master will return and the Doctor will die -- he can't get any surprise out of those things, and yet they have to be the main dramatic points. His solution, it seems, is to not just concede but stress that it's all inevitable; he does this with the Doctor's fey mood and especially with the narration, which sets up a genuinely shocking revelation at the end of part one. RTD's script indulges in some of his bad habits, but there's enough good stuff to make it worthwhile; I'm eager to see where he's going with the whole thing.

As for acting, Tennant is his usual self, and you'll like that or not. I do. John Simm does a great job of getting across how different the Master is from the last time we saw him. He's still smug and confident, but no longer in control; if he was a rapier before, he's a meat cleaver now. This guy is dangerous. Bernard Cribbins is always a treat -- I'm glad old Wilf got to ride in the TARDIS, and I really hope he doesn't die in part two.

By the way... I know it's easy to make puns with the Master's name, but I still have to wonder if the entire story was written around that joke at the end.

So! What did you all think?

[Nate the Great]

My thoughts would immediately get me lynched by you guys, given my controversial opinions on Trek XI. Moving into tamer territory, however...

If the writers and producers of DW feel that they can continue to honor the franchise by continuing the show, more power to them. After all, I jolly well hope by now they know the wrath of the fanbase and have learned to pay attention to it.

Tennant needed to get out of this role. It's been proven numerous times before that if you stay in a role too long you will get locked into it. This isn't fair, never was, never will be, but it's true.

Why isn't a broadcast station showing reruns of this show? I have yet to see a single episode of DW, and I don't feel deprived. It's in the best interest of the Powers That Be that I as a twentysomething scifi geek get hooked on this show, right? So why aren't they hyping this show for all it's worth?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

My thoughts would immediately get me lynched by you guys, given my controversial opinions on Trek XI.

Aw, c'mon -- we can disagree without fighting, and there are many different views on Doctor Who represented here. I'm guessing Valium can out-negative you any day where the recent series is concerned. Speak your mind.

[Nate the Great]

Brutal honesty, then. You asked for it.

I'm surprised the series has lasted this long. I'm surprised that there are missing episodes of any television show ever. I'm surprised that to this day the legal hassles involved in the DVD release of older shows continues with no end in sight. I'm still ticked that the show is called Doctor Who, because it IS a stupid joke.

[Zeke]

Almost time for part 2. It's already aired in Britain, but I'm watching the Canadian premiere tonight. SPACE is building up to it with a marathon of "Season 5", i.e. the Doctor Who specials Tennant has done since S4 ended. I'd already seen The Next Doctor (which rocked) and Planet of the Dead (which was okay). I hadn't yet seen The Waters of Mars, so I watched that. It was pretty unremarkable, but it did set the stage a bit more for End of Time; the Doctor's heightened emotional state makes a little more sense now.

Mars also addressed something that needed attention: the Doctor's arrogance. Some of his incarnations are more full of themselves than others, and over the last four years, Tennant's Tenth Doctor has been increasingly comfortable playing God. ("I'm the Doctor! There IS no higher authority!") Now he's outright declared himself a "Time Lord victorious" who can do whatever he wants with the timeline; everyone he would have had to answer to is dead. And I can understand that. It's exhilarating to realize that something is completely under your control; in the Doctor's place, I'd probably do the same. But as someone other than the Doctor, I'm not impressed, and neither was the person he broke the rules for. (Her reaction was unreasonably extreme, though; she only knew she was fated to die because he told her about half an hour ago. Apparently that little talk was so convincing she wouldn't abide him changing his mind.)

Okay, time for part 2. I'll post about that in due time (and Nate, I'll answer your points as well).

[MaverickZer0]

The specials are recorded. I will be watching them...a lot. Especially End of Time.

The Time Lord victorious scene is the only time I've actually been aware of exactly what he can do. Yeah, the universe would technically be his, but as he ends up realizing..."That's how The Master started."

I will miss Tennant. He was incredible. All of the Tenth Doctor run was incredible.

If you excuse me, I just remembered my laptop has torrenting. >>