The Doctor's Companion Blog

It some time now since the End of Time broadcast on New Years day and I have watched it several times.  What are my views?

Well its good.  Sort of.  Yes, quite good.  David and Wilf are great, as always, Timothy Dalton is very strong as the Time Lord (I like Timothy Dalton) and the story nicely ties everything up.

And yet.  I don’t know.  Maybe I don’t really like big finales particularly.  I often prefer the smaller more ‘ordinary’ Doctor Who stories such as Blink, The Shakespeare Code, and Gridlock.  Maybe I am just being difficult.  Somehow the last finale, the one with Davros, was much more powerful.  After all when you have seen the earth dragged halfway across the Universe, with 27 planets in the sky, it is a bit ‘here we go again’ when Gallifrey pops up.  God know what all this is doing to the tides.  And whats Rassalon doing with Captain Jack’s glove?

John Sim had a good part!  I hope they gave him a good fee after all that dressing up he had to do.  Although come to think of it, it must have been quite fun.  At first anyway.  The thing about John Sim though, he *is* very good, very good indeed, but I keep thinking that he is too nice to be the Master.  Roger Delgado (Ah Roger Delgado!) and the other chap were better in that respect.  But it was nice to see him back.

I think what made the Stolen Earth/Journeys End feel better was that the Doctor has his companions helping him. I know he had Wilf in this episode, but none of the others, and those green spiky people, I wasn’t too keen on them.  Were they just there to prove that special effects can cope with green things now?

And who was the mysterious woman?  Some people say the Doctors Mother, my Son thought she was Romana, I don’t know.  I quite like the fact that we do not know though, it gives us something to speculate on.

The rest of it is all wrapped up and tied with a bow.  Mickey marries Martha.  Donna marries her bloke.  Nerys wears peach.  Even Nurse Redfern, we learn, had a happy life, although I am not sure how her granddaughter recognised the Doctor. So thats all kind of satisfying.

Final verdict?  Good, but not great.  Looking forward to Number Eleven …

Doctor Who – Winter Specials 2009 – Waters of Mars and The End of Time [DVD] is available from Amazon.

I was more than a bit disappointed by the first part of the finale of David Tenants reign.  It seemed very disjointed and hard for people who do not know Who, to follow.  In fact as we all sat around watching it on Christmas Day I felt a bit embarrassed at making my Mother (not a Who fan) watch all this stuff.  I am pretty sure that most of went straight past her, although she is a very polite person and did not complain.

It was nice to see Wilf back of course, and I liked the cafe scene.  However who were this Naismith couple?  We had no explanation of why they were millionaires, how they knew of the immortality gate, and where the daughter got the idea from that she could become immortal.  It all added to the confusion.

In fact I rather felt as if Russell, the writer, knowing that this was the end of his Dr Who writing, had cast aside all restraint and piled in everything pel mel, with no particular order or cohesion between the various parts.  Sorry Russell, but that is what it felt like watching it for the first time.

Although it was exciting to see the Time Lords at the end.  I was not expecting that.  It was a good moment.

I have watched the episode since of course and it does improve on a second viewing. I understand it a bit better.  I think it will take a few more viewings though before I get it all, plus I expect parts of it will only be clear once we have seen the final part.  Due in a few days.

I am looking forward to Part 2, but my enthusiasm has been dented a bit by the deficiencies of Part 1.   Although I should make it clear that I thought all the *actors* was great, and I have no complaints at all about the quality of the acting. It was, as always, superb.

Doctor Who – Winter Specials 2009 – Waters of Mars and The End of Time [DVD] is available from Amazon.