Starring:
The Doctor - David Tennant
The Master - John Simm
Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
Martha Smith-Jones - Freema Agyeman
Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
and introducing Matt Smith as the Doctor
WARNING: IF YOU’VE NOT SEEN THE EPISODE, THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!
“It is said that in the final days of
Planet Earth, everyone had bad dreams. To the west of the north of that world,
the human race did gather. In celebration of a pagan rite to banish the cold
and the dark. Each and every one of those people had dreamt of the terrible
things to come. But they forgot. Because they must. They forgot their nightmares.
Of fire and war and insanity. They forgot. Except for one…”
The End of Time is a 2-part episode depicting the last story of the 10th Doctor played by David Tennant. In these 2 episodes we see the return of some familiar faces of companions past and present, a glimpse into the Time War on Gallifrey and the much-awaited return of the Master played by John Simm. It’s an emotional journey of regret and refusal as the Doctor takes his TARDIS on one last trip as he travels back and forth through time saving lives and making amends before his impending regeneration. His was probably the most emotional regeneration I think I’ve seen on Doctor Who and one that caused many a Whovian to break down all over social media as they mourned the loss of David Tennant whilst swearing, they would never watch newcomer Matt Smith step into his shoes and step in he did, gaining nearly as much popularity in the role as his predecessor.
“He will knock 4 times”, the words of wisdom given to him by Carmen, a woman he met on a bus, the build-up and anticipation we were all waiting for that most of us had put down to something to do with the Master and his rhythm of 4 heartbeat was in fact just Bernard Cribbins as Wilfred Mott, trapped in a radiation chamber, tapping the door wanting to come out! It was a hilarious ending to the long-awaited mystery and Wilf’s own fault for going into the chamber in the first place, but it was all so lovingly done with the Doctor angry at Wilf for putting himself in that position in the first place and Wilf so remorseful that he begged the Doctor to leave him in there until in the end, both characters were willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, so very very sweet.
Wilfred: “No really. Just leave me. I’m an
old man, Doctor. I’ve had my time.”
The Doctor: “Well exactly! Look at you. Not
remotely important! But me? I could do so much more! So much more! But this is
what I get. My reward. Well, it’s not fair! ….. Oh… I’ve lived too long.”
Wilfred: “No. No no please don’t. No no!
Please don’t! Please!”
The Doctor: “Wilfred. It’s my honour.”
“And so, it came to pass that the
players took their final places. Making ready the events that were to come. A
madman sat in his empire of dust and ashes. Little knowing of the glory he
would achieve. While his saviour looked upon the wilderness in the hope of
changing his inevitable fate. Far away, the idiots and fools dreamt of a
shining new future. A future now doomed to never happen. As Earth rolled
onwards into night the people of that world did sleep. And shiver. Somehow
knowing the dawn would bring only one thing. The Final Day.”
Even though Bernard Cribbins was undoubtedly the star of the show at that moment in time, it was in fact David Tennant’s show, and a fitting tribute to an actor who really pushed life, warmth and depth into an ancient alien.
Not forgetting the newly restored Master brought back to life by his coven of wiccan disciples and the DNA stolen from Lucy Saxon’s lips, John Simm once more managed to portray the Master in such a broken way that you almost felt sorry for him as he gained the realisation that it was his much loved Time Lords who played the drumming in his head as a boy that sent him so insanely mad just as a way to locate him in the future in order to bring Gallifrey back from the clutches of the Time War to press on the surface of reality of Earth’s atmosphere. Knowing this would crush the earth and kill every human being on it the Doctor knew that it wasn’t just his time that was ending, it was all time.
Timothy Dalton’s depiction of Rassillon
was a welcome addition to the story and he played the part well, although I
could have done without all the spitting he did, but the mystery woman who
appeared to Wilf several times by way of visions, urging him to once more be a
solider and help the Doctor was far too confusing because it left the viewers
wondering who the hell she was without revealing an ounce of information about
herself. Was she the Doctor’s mother perhaps? Who knows?! Certainly not us so
what was the point to her character? It did however give us the explanation for
Carmen’s prophesy at the end of Planet of the Dead. “It is returning. It is
returning through the dark. And then Doctor— Oh but then… He will knock four
times.”
The Doctor: “Something is returning.” Don’t you
ever listen? That was the prophecy. Not some “one,” some “thing”.
The Master: What is it?
The Doctor: They’re not just bringing back the
species. It’s Gallifrey! Right here. Right now.
What I absolutely love about the episodes and in any film or program that I watch, is when they do or say something in a time before, when someone says something of seemingly little importance and then future episodes down the line suddenly bring that back into focus and you realise that it was part of the very fabric of the storyline woven in and out of each episode like a golden thread. Scenes like that, like the one where you suddenly realise that everything leading up to this point was prophesized by a side character in the past and it literally opens up the story to you in ways you couldn’t imagine. The same thing happens in a future episode of Doctor Who starring Matt Smith. It is brilliant writing at it’s best. When you watch them back, even when you know what’s coming, you start seeing other things of similar importance that you had previously missed. It’s pure magic from the imaginations of magicians.
I think personally I would have preferred
both episodes to have been one long special episode rather than split in 2
parts. I think the story would have flowed better and our anticipation of
wanting to know what was coming next would not have been diluted by a week wait
and life filtering out part 1 from our minds so that we almost needed a re cap
before watching part 2.
The master turning everyone into himself using the medical arch to create the master race seemed a bit insignificant to me and its something the story could have done without as were some of the sub characters brought into the show to give it that comedy edge “SHIMMER!” I get that the Master is deranged but what would remaking the world in his image have achieved in the long run? It just seemed like a sub plot that died before it really got a chance to take hold and develop.
I did however enjoy Donna’s brief return and I was happy to see she had retained some of her Time Lord powers from her brief interaction with Time Lord DNA. I think her story ended far too soon, it was a sad day when he made her forget everything she had done and sent her back to living her normal boring life. Whilst it obviously saved her life, she was such a great addition to the show that I would have loved to have seen her interact with Missy in future episodes.
We could have had more Gallifrey, more of an insight into the Time War and how the Time Lords became trapped in their bubble of time, more about where Gallifrey had been hidden, more about the Master and the Doctor as children, I think seeing as these 2 episodes were Doctor 10’s final farewell which is never seen on an impending regeneration, more of his history and the story which brought him to earth in the first place would have been better, but as we’re not saying goodbye to the Doctor only a version of himself, it was to say in all fairness a very good story, if not slightly tongue in cheek.
My favourite part was towards the end when Donna got married and the Doctor gave her a winning lottery ticket which he brought when borrowing a pound off her father in the past before he died. It was a scene that made me tear up completely, watching the faces of Donna’s grandad and mother crumple when they realised what he had done and even more so when Wilf blew him a kiss goodbye, I had literally gone then.
Saving Martha and Mickey from a Sontaran
and finding out they were married was lovely to see, as was him saving the life
of Luke smith, Sarah-Janes Smith’s adopted son and finding Jack Harkness in a
space bar and introducing him to Alonzo but I was less than thrilled when he
went back to visit Rose Tyler in the days before she first met the doctor in
his 9th regeneration, only because Billie Piper had aged too much to
be so young and it showed on screen which kind of took the emphasis of that
scene away from its meaning, however it redeemed itself with Odd Sigma singing
the doctor to sleep as he took the TARDIS into space and openly declared… “I
don’t want to go!” breaking the
hearts of Whovians throughout time and space as he became the long awaited, (my
personal opinion) Matt Smith, a man far greater and as far better Doctor, going
from the man who regrets, to the man who forgets and starting his journey with
the immortal words…” And still not ginger!”
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