Doctor Who: The End Of Time
Okay, here's my mostly spoiler-free view of the latest Doctor Who special. However, follow on comments may contain nuts huge spoilers - so you've been warned!
"Your song is ending, sir. It is returning, it is returning through the dark. And then... he will knock four times."
So went the prophecy first stated in Planet of the Dead and, yes, indeed "it" returned (albeit briefly) and, yes, "he" did knock four times. Although, sneakily, it wasn't who we thought it would be. That glass-tapping bit of Part Two of The End of Time was a lovely little goose-bump-raising twist within what I thought was a wonderful, dramatic, emotional final story for the Tenth Doctor.
"I don't want to go"
That's not to say it was perfect. Far from it. Part One of The End of Time, shown here in the UK on Christmas Day, was a bit messy. It's like Russell Davies couldn't decide what plot to follow and who was the ultimate enemy. There were plot holes and unexplained threads and the pacing was a bit choppy. I enjoyed Part One immensely (and it was nowhere near as bad as some on the internet have made out - it was far from the Worse Episode Ever that some are screaming) but I could see that it had numerous faults.
"Worst... Rescue... Ever!"
But - don't worry - Part Two was better. Much better.
Again, it wasn't perfect. But I thought it was a fantastic, thrilling rollercoaster ride to the end. Some have complained about the Doctor's "reward" at the end, stating that it went on too long or that it felt more like RTD's self-indulgent reward than the Doctor's, but I loved it. It was some wonderful telly! And a great end to David Tennant's, and Russell Davies', tenure on Doctor Who.
"This song is ending, but the story never ends"
It been a great four years with New Who. Who'd have thought Doctor Who would be one of the most viewed shows, and most successful, on British telly before 2005? And now, other than the last 30 seconds of this story, Matt Smith's and Steven Moffat's time on the show starts in Spring (April is the latest I've heard). I can't wait!
Comments
Right. And now for another view of the end to DT's time in the TARDIS. And RTD's as well. I'll try to avoid spoilers, about as much as I try to avoid them myself (which is to say that I have been known to actively seek them out...)
I watched the 2 episodes back to back and as a 2-hour special it was way, way too long. About half an hour too long, in my opinion, and much of part 2 could simply have been left out. All those little nods to the past following the four knocks didn't need to have been done. It was overly sentimental and by the second one I was trying to work out how many more there would have to be and if I'd have time to go and make a cup of tea.
Good things...
Bad things...
In conclusion, far from the worst episode of NuWho ever. Not sure what that would be, but I'm leaning heavily to anything involving the Slitheen. Or maybe the first Doctor-lite episode with Peter Kay... I do think it was too long and far too self-indulgent on RTD's part but... Ah, I dunno. Good but not great. Certainly not in the same league as Journey's End - that was a far better way to get all of the companions together for one final photoshoot.
Now bring on Matt Smith & Stephen Moffat (MS/SM - sounds faintly disturbing, really) and let the snow clear enough for me to get to work and pick up my copy of the Who RPG!
I spotted Russel Tovey of course. Who did I miss?
Sinéad Keenan- plays Nina, George's girlfriend. She was one of the spiky green dudes. I was waiting for Annie and Mitchell to show, but no luck.
Green spikes cover a lot!
Part 2 - Brilliant. I liked it all the way around, and especially liked the last 20 minutes. I shan't say more due to spoilage, but I really enjoyed RTD's run, warts and all.
Bernard Cribbins was brilliant throughout, and yeah, YAY Russel Tovey!
I agree that Jack should be a bit more miserable, but again: Russel Tovey!
You'll be counting down to Sunday night when Being Human kicks off for series 2 then!
But you can keep the last 20 minutes. Cut them out of the whole thing and put them onto a separate DVD - or when they release the DVD of this episode, have 2 versions, one with and one without. Know which one I'd be watching.
Parts of part 1 came across as very Matrix-y, and not in a good way, the second and third Matrix movies aren't in the league of the first.
I actually liked that. Maybe I like unusual things being explained?
Well, the Fifth Doctor took a whole story to die - and then regenerate - of spectrox poisioning (in what many say was the best Doctor Who story evar). This was just another form of poisoning which takes days to kill someone. He only actually regenerated when he went back into the Tardis at the end.
I enjoyed those last 20mins. It was good to see the Doc giving all his past companions something they wanted/needed (their lives, money, someone to talk to, their son's life, the best year of their life, etc). Their rewards as well as his. And our reward. As well as, of course, RTDs (yes, it was very self-indulgent of him).
Oh, erm, *SPOILER* btw for giving away the fact that the Doctor regenerates.
Certainly not in the same league as Journey's End - that was a far better way to get all of the companions together for one final photoshoot.
Oh, I'll give you that. Journey's End was better. But I still enjoyed this one.
"Giving Away" the fact that he regenerated? That was a spoiler? C'mon!
And fair enough, he didn't take as long as Colin Baker to die but it's been years since I've seen old Who and I have none of it on DVD. I do, however, have the shiny new RPG from Cubicle 7...
Considering what some people call a spoiler, that's quite a big one.
I was actually talking about Peter Davison and the Caves of Androzani. We didn't see Colin Baker's regeneration into Sylvester McCoy (although we did see McCoy with a curly blond wig change into McCoy without the wig but that was over reasonably quickly)
Huzzah! Braved the snow then, did you? It looks quite good (though I'm sure you could run a systemless Doctor Who game).
I need to get a lot of old Who DVDs. It would be great if the Beeb still showed it from time to time.
And I didn't have to brave the snow - no FLGS up here on the rock. Ordered it from Play.com in the hope that it would be here before Christmas but work closed before the delivery arrived. Waiting for me on my desk when I got in on Thursday. Oh, and ordering it from Play saved me £13.
There's a lot of duplication in the box, between the player's guide and the GM's book (most of the PG is repeated in the GMG, supposedly to make it easier for the GM and players to have a reference each during play) but it's a gorgeous box set. 3 books, character sheets (both filled in, partial templates and blanks), gadget cards (not sure about how practical these will be but they reminded me of the cards from the Ghostbusters RPG, only printed on thinner card), story point tokens (already the cry has gone up for Cubicle 7 to do some Hollow Earth Expeditions poker-chip-style chips for these), dice, a quick-start... It's a completely packed box. Excellent value for what I paid for it, decent value at list price. Now bring on the screen, the monsters & aliens book and the UNIT sourcebox.