Don’t worry. There wasn’t a secret third episode the BBC was hiding from you. No, this is just the third part of my review, the part which specifically deals with the ending. Because it doesn’t make sense and isn’t very good. And it may take me a little bit of time to explain, so tacking this onto the end of my already overlong Part 2 review would make it so long it’d make the Great Wall of China blush. Actually no, that was a terribly lame metaphor.
Anyway, onto the meat of the problem. Wilf is trapped in a chamber about to flood with lethal radiation and he can only be saved if the Doctor takes his place. So the Doctor looks a bit sad, but does it without hesitation because he’s the hero, and he always does the right thing. Oh wait, no. No, he guilt trips Wilf into telling him not to do it. He has a childish tantrum and insults Wilf too. I wouldn’t mind him being a bit sad about having to sacrifice his life, but making him a selfish asshole, isn’t really my idea of the Doctor. Did we see him doing this with Rose when he sacrificed himself for her in 2005? No. Did we see him do that to Peri when he sacrificed himself to her, back in the 80s? No again. So, it’s clearly not a trait of every Doctor, just this one apparently. What a great send off to your Doctor, to show that underneath it all, although he will save you, he’ll be cruel and reluctant about it. Our hero. For some strange reason I don’t like this. I wonder why. Maybe it’s because it’s completely out of character and makes our hero incredibly unlikable.
So, I don’t like that. But hey, it’s happened, I hold it up as a reason this isn’t a good story and we move on. I actually like the next part. The Doctor goes round to see all his companions, and this part works. The Doctor, over the last year, has been dealing with the fact he seems to ruin all the lives of the people he cares about. So, how better to send him off that for him to visit each of his companions, see that their lives have greatly improved and lift that weight off his shoulders before his regeneration. This allows him to go into it knowing he’s done good, and accept it. He sees that two of his lonely lover companions have found each other and are now happily married. He sees the son of his old friend Sarah, who is finally at peace now she has her family. He cheers up Captain Jack and spurs him onto better things. He finds out the woman who’s life he thought he ruined when he was human actually lived a fulfilled and happy life. He sees Donna fall in love again and get married to a good man. And last of all he sees Jackie and Rose, who are talking and clearly something is missing in their life. We see him smile as he’s glad to see Rose one last time and because he remembers how her life has improved now that her family is reunited and she has her own Doctor. And overall the Doctor sees that how his actions haven’t destroyed lives, in fact they’ve made them better. All the angst is gone the Doctor is truly happy again, and he can regenerate at peace with himself, knowing that this life was a good one. In fact (in a far too OTT move) the Ood turn up one last time to sing for the Doctor saying “this song is ending, but the story never ends”. So we see that the Doctor is unburdened, that Tennant’s time is over and we must move on, but this isn’t a bad thing, it’s just the way things have to be and we shouldn’t mourn it, instead be happy for a new beginning.
Or, the entire character arc, that the last half of the episode was devoted to, could be completely ignored. That sounds stupid and like it ruins the whole point of the episode, right? That would be like if at the end of Casablanca Bogart just said “Fuck this!” got his love off the plane, gave up her new man and ran away with her instead. It would be a terrible mistake. Well… that’s what happens here. After all this set-up for the Doctor to be at peace with his end, he’s not. He says “I don’t wanna go!” He’s not moved on at all. But he did. We saw that he did. We saw the character develop. Many fans might complain that the Doctor moping over his death is out of character. Well, that’s true, but I already went there with his tantrum to Wilf earlier. My problem with this line is not it isn’t what the Doctor would say in general, because we all know that. It’s that it doesn’t even make sense in the context of this story. We see the Doctor go through the stages of grief until he accepts his fate and prepares himself for it. He might be a little sad, but the main thing is that he’s ACCEPTED IT. “I don’t wanna go” are not the words of a man, who’s at peace. But the Doctor is. I don’t know what to say to make this any clearer, these words should not be here, because they don’t make any sense. Even to this story, which I already don’t like.
So basically, what I’m saying is that the last 20 minutes of this story isn’t in character and is only there to play with the audience’s emotions. And the very last line of Tennant’s Doctor is a terrible way to say goodbye, doesn’t resemble the character and doesn’t even make sense in this story. I like the bit at the end with Matt Smith, but to be honest I’m not sure if it’s because it’s good or whether it’s just because it cheers me up after this dire and depressing funeral of a story. And adding this ending to the rushed nonsensical plot that is the first half of The End of Time: Part 2 makes this truly one of lowest of Tennant’s run, only saved by the performance of Tennant, Simm, Cribbins and Dalton, and even then, they can only do the best with the terrible scripts they were handed. It’s neither a good story, nor a fitting farewell to a great Doctor. It might make you cry, but only because it’s manipulated you, not because it deserves it.
2/5
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