The End of Time

I don't want to go.

The End of Time was the swan song of the Tenth Doctor and producer Russell T. Davies and boy does it show. There is a bit of a history with Doctor Who that when a producer leaves there is a bit of a self-indulgence, whether that's in story flourish or overspending on budget. Couple that with the spectacle that accompanies a Doctor leaving and you can either have a brilliant show or a hot mess. This one swings wildly between the two extremes.

Fan reaction to this story is generally middling to negative. Time has helped it a bit. After the long wait between the poorly received Planet of the Dead, expectations were kicked into high gear with the fabulous The Waters of Mars. People were expecting a dramatic crisis with dark wrestling between forces which would require the sacrifice of the Doctor. Instead, this is a piece of whimsy with melancholy touches that then wallows in it's own importance for the last ten minutes.

Things get off on the wrong foot almost immediately with the resurrection of the Master. There have been rumors that the Master was not in the first draft of this episode and he was inserted later. Some more time needed to be taken in this because his resurrection is done more or less though magic which is very, very out of place in Doctor Who. It didn't help that the acting in the resurrection scene was rather poor as well.

This in turn led to a number of over-the-top scenes between the Master and the Doctor. There was some action but it lacked authenticity. Interspersed in these scenes there are cuts to Gallifrey just before the last day of the Time War where President Rassilon (played by Timothy Dalton) is looking for a way to escape the destruction that the Doctor is bringing and the time lock that prevents its change. It was probably this point that confused me the most. If a section of space-time is locked, how can anything escape it (i.e. the diamond from Rassilon's sceptre)? That was lazy writing in my opinion.

Eventually the Master converts all of humanity to look and think like him, except for Wilfred, who is with the Doctor, and Donna, who is protected due to her conditioning to protect her mind from the events of Journey's End. This was probably the lowest point of the episode. John Simm's Master was over-the-top to begin with. This was just silliness and whatever dangerous cliffhanger they were going for was completely lost in the farcical nature of the whole thing.

Things got a bit better in part two as the story then turned into a big chase with guns and missiles firing. There is a big confrontation at the end and the Master gets so angry at being used by Rassilon that he beats back the Time Lords and closes the breach in the time-lock. With the Master gone, humanity reverts back to normal. Then comes the self indulgence.

Wilf is trapped and the Doctor can only get him out if he bathes himself in radiation. He rants at the injustice of it all and then saves Wilf. He then goes on a grand tour of past companions. We only see those that were pertinent to the RTD era, but it is implied that he saw some old ones (such as Jo Grant) as well. After ten minutes of this indulgence, the Tenth Doctor finally regenerates into the Eleventh Doctor.

The greatest crime of this story is it's silliness. Aside from the resurrection of the Master scene and the "Master Race" scene, it is well acted and there is an attempt by the characters to take things as seriously as they can. In fact, there are two great scenes with the Doctor and Wilf that are thoughtful and poignant. In both, there is a discussion regarding mortality and it's touching to see a 900+ Time Lord getting fatherly advice from Wilf. But the quality of these scenes unfortunately reinforces the poorer quality of the rest.

They also stand in odd contrast to the Doctor's nasty hissy fit when he realizes that despite winning, he must now die to save one man. If he had just looked sad and spelled things out simply with Wilf begging him not to do it as he was an old man (as it was in the second part of the scene), it would have been so much more powerful. But instead, the Doctor lets the angry, bitter man out; blaming Wilf for what is going to happen before softening and getting in to the booth. The two scenes do not juxtapose with each other and it is probably one of the worst moments the Tenth Doctor has ever shown.

The visitation scenes with the companions are somewhat touching, but they go on too long. Rather than seeing every companion in the RTD era, it would have been more touching to holding it to two or three: Sarah Jane, Donna's wedding and the last scene with Rose. I could have done without the last scene with Rose, but I understand Rose's relationship with the fans and the Tenth Doctor to grouse too much about it. When the regeneration finally comes, some of the sadness is lost with a "just get on with it" vibe replacing it.

Despite most of my comments having a negative tone, I did not despise this one as much as others did. It's more of lost opportunity. With all the good that RTD did in bringing back the show and with as many good stories that the Tenth Doctor was in, it is just a shame that the final adventure was so weak, especially in contrast to the strength that had come just one story earlier. I could watch this one again and enjoy it to some degree, but it's not going to be high on the list.

Overall personal score: 2 out of 5