Doctor Who Review: The End of Time Part 3?!

Check out the episode first. Part 1 and Part 2 of the review are those hyperlinks. Also, I really wanted to call this review ‘The Ending of Time’. So be thankful I didn’t, because that’s the worst pun I’ve ever written. Yet.

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

Doctor Who Review: The End of Time Part 2

I’d advise watching the episode before this review. I won’t explain every little detail and I will talk spoilers, so check out the show first. Also, have a read of the review of the first part of The End of Time.

Last time, I said I liked the first part of this story, but not the story as a whole. Now obviously this means I don’t like the second half of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate everything. So here’s a list of the things I do like:
- The acting of the regulars is top notch, especially David Tennant, Bernard Cribbins and John Simm
- The casting of Timothy Dalton. He’s brilliant and it’s nice to see him in things again
- The fact they brought back the Master and the Time Lords. I like them both, I’m glad they came back, although, as I’ll talk about later, I don’t like the way they were used.
- That the cacti’s ship looked like Starbug from Red Dwarf. I don’t know if this was intentional, but if it was, it’s a nice nod to a fellow BBC show.
- The fact the Master sacrificed himself for the Doctor. This was planned in the Third Doctor’s finale, but due to the actor who played the Master, Roger Delgado’s untimely death, it was scrapped. It’s nice to see it here.
- Seeing the happy endings of the companions. Although there’s a but which we’ll get to.
- Matt Smith’s first scene. For cheering us up.

Never let it be said I hate this story. I just don’t like it very much. The reason, it’s like a big dumb action movie. Action’s ramped up, stakes are heightened, emotions are explosive, but then none of it really fits together, the climax is muffled, characters don’t make sense and the plot has more holes than Swiss cheese. It’s a story that attempts to be epic and powerful without first making sure that it’s even solid, which gives it a outer sheen of being great, but scratch the surface and it’s a mess. So let’s see why The End of Time: Part 2 is the Independence Day of modern Doctor Who.

Problem 1: Plot-holes
-When the Time Lords return the Master-race to being human, the effect of them being turned into the Master is reversed. What’s the problem with that? That means they are in exactly the same place they were the day before. Did every member of the Master-race just stand still for a whole day?
-Why do all the Masters obey the original? He’s incredibly untrustworthy, and there isn’t even a throwaway line to explain why all his copies are loyal and not trying to take power themselves.
- Are the Master-race human? If they copy him exactly, then why does he want the Time Lords, surely they would all be Time Lords? If they aren’t exact copies, instead just in the outer looks and personality, then why are they hungry, like he was in part 1? That was because of his Time Lord body being damaged. But then, if they’re hungry, why is he never hungry in Part 2? He’s still ripped apart, because he still has his powers, but he doesn’t have his hunger? That don’t make no sense.
- Why won’t the Doctor kill the Master? We’ve seen him kill in extreme circumstances before, but hey, he’s changed his ways since the Time War. So let’s revise this question. Why does the Master think the Doctor won’t kill him? The Master doesn’t really know the post-Time War Doctor that well. He remembers him more from his old ways. When he might have killed him. The Doctor from the classic series let the Master die a few times and killed a couple people himself, and that is the Doctor the Master knows. So why is he so certain the Doctor would never do it?
- Why do the writers miss a vital opportunity to fix something? The Master never had the drumming in his head before the new series. It’s established in this episode that the Time Lords put it in his head as a child while they were in the time war. Perfect, that’s why it only started after, because it was an effect of time being changed. But then the Time Lords say he had it all along before they put it there. Why ruin this perfect chance to make things make sense?
- The drumming as a signal. This is not so much a plot hole, more of just a piece of lazy writing. It doesn’t really seem to make any sense and is very sketchy. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems very like the writers couldn’t think of a way the drum beat could bring the Time Lords, so just said, “Fuck it, it does.”
- Why do the Time Lords arrive at this time?  Let me explain. The Time Lords use the signal to find the Master “now”. But that’s now from their perspective. Also, the Doctor and the Master are always at the same time as each other from their perspectives. That means they can meet anywhere and anytime, but the John Simm Master will never meet the ninth Doctor, because that time has passed. The Doctor and the Master always meet each other in the same order as each other because their times are both the same. Do you vaguely understand? Well that fact holds true for all Time Lords. And there is a Doctor in the ‘now’ the Time Lords are at who is probably the eighth Doctor. So surely finding the Master ‘now’ would lead them to the Master at the end of time as seen in Utopia. It would not lead them to the Master from their future. That’s not how it works. It could be argued that they’re desperate and there’s a way round it. But it’s not. At no point is any explanation given.
- Why is the vanguard of the Time Lords: The President, two official looking blokes and the people who are against their plan? The President knows the Doctor or the Master or both will be there when he arrives and he knows they are both dangerous and opposed to him. Surely he would just bring some guys with guns? Or at the very least not bring the two people who would want to help the Doctor?
- Why can the Woman appear to Wilf?  She seems to be a Time Lord. So why is she able to talk to Wilf before the bridge from Gallifrey to Earth is formed? The President can’t talk to the Master, so what makes her special?
- Why is there a line which goes “The star was a diamond and the diamond was a white point star”? That just sounds awful… wait, I’m being too nitpicky here.

But you see what I mean by plot holes? There’s probably more holes than plot in this story, and these aren’t for the most part little nitpicky problems, they are major obvious story telling flaws.

Problem Number 2: Characters

Another story telling flaw. Characters. There are three more than one-dimensional characters in this story. The Doctor, who doesn’t make sense, but that’s in the end, which we’re coming to. The Master, who is supposed to be a villain, but then as soon as the Time Lords appear, is reduced to some stupid kid who’s out of his depth and trying anything to save himself, making him seem like an enormous coward, which isn’t support by any of his other actions in this story. And Wilf. I don’t have a problem with Wilf.
You might say, what about Donna? She’s only in it for about three minutes. What about the cactus people? They are very flat characters with one character trait each. He’s cowardly and not used to action and she’s bossy. And the president? He’s a cardboard cut-out power-hungry villain. He only seems more because he’s played by Timothy Dalton, who’s a great actor. The characters in this story are either one-dimensional, inconsistent, or Wilf.

Problem Number 3: Pacing

Why is there a missile shooting space battle? Because otherwise the only action sequence would be the escape bit at the start. This is not a good reason for action. That’s a problem. But the main one here is not that, but the fact that everything is rushed so we can have the big long goodbye. The Master-Race don’t do anything but summon the Time Lords then get changed back to humans, they don’t have a purpose beyond furthering the plot. So all the time spent on making them a threat, was pointless as they’re dealt with in about ten seconds. And the Time Lords, the big return everything was leading up to… are on screen for five minutes. I mean, really. They were built up so much, then they appear, do nothing but talk, and the Doctor shoots a Magoffin and they’re gone. What a waste. Everything in this story was built up so much by Part 1, but then is let down due to a rush for the over-long ending.

You might think that it’s weird I’ve written all this without touching on the ending. And that’s because, well the ending is really annoying in its own right and deserves a blog to itself. So come back next time for the final end of my review. We’ll look at the ending which makes this already majorly flawed story even worse and then you’ll get my final thoughts on the story as a whole and the overall rating on part 2. We’ve not much longer to go, don’t worry. See you next time, for one last time.

Doctor Who Review: A Good Man Goes To War

So, we reached the final episode of this half of 2011's run of Doctor Who. There were many questions needing answered and some were, and some were left for the autumn. But was it any good? Well, I'm going to go against most people's opinions that I've talked to raving about how great it was, and say I thought was only good. I didn't hate it, it was a perfectly good episode of Doctor Who. But I just wasn't as impressed as I have been with other episodes this series.

Before I go into my problems with this episode, first the things I did like. Rory was great in this episode. From the brilliant first scene where they talk about him like he's the Doctor then it's revealed it's Rory, to the last, Arthur Darvill did a great job. And for once he didn't die. The idea of the humans being the Doctor's enemies, while he teams up with a set of aliens who would normally be against him was clever. I really enjoyed the character of Dorium, the blue fat alien, kind of upset he wont be back. I liked the cyberships being the same design as they were in the classic series. And I loved the speech by the Doctor to "Colonel Runaway". But it's always good TV when the Doctor gets angry.



There were other good parts but those where the bits that stood out to me. I just thought I'd mention them to make sure no-one thought I hated this episode. No, I really liked it. But that said there were definately flaws. The idea of the Doctor going round collecting his debts was a clever one, but it was terribly done. It reminded of the part in last year's finale where all the characters over the series make a return cameo to deliver a painting to the Doctor. Except last year it was people we knew, this year except for brief 30 second scenes explaining them, we had no idea who these people coming to help were, so they didn't really mean anything. There was a sontaran nurse, but I really don't like the new sontarans so I didn't enjoy him. There was a silurian detective, who I actually quite liked, so that's enough of her. There was the space-spitfire, which seemed really out of place since it came from an episode over a year ago. And there were the returning space pirates, but I hated their episode and all they did was remind me of it, so I wish they hadn't been in this episode. Seriously, fuck those guys.

 

Another returning alien was the cybermen, and it always annoys me when they turn up. Entirely because of the fact that Stephen Moffat decided the Daleks needed a redesign(which was a terrible idea) but has never bothered to redesign the cybermen, who currently still look like the cybermen from the alternate universe, but they cant be them because they dont have spaceships... and so on unnecessary geeky rant. Back to this episode though, I thought the poem was a bit weak. It sounded like something that was meant to sound epic, but it just didn't work for me, I just thought it was out of place. I was disappointed that the eyepatch woman was just another villian out to get the Doctor, I thought there might have been slightly more to it, but maybe there is and we just haven't found it out yet. But I was more disappointed after hearing River's description of "This is the Doctor's darkest hour. He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further." Which gave me the impression something really epic and world changing was going to happen. But no. I mean it was bigger than the average episode, even in the last series the universe was destroyed then the Doctor created a second Big Bang before being removed from all of time and space. I think that might have been a slightly darker hour than losing one baby. And talking of the baby, it seemed pretty cheap to have that as flesh as well as Amy. I mean it was a bit like playing Mario, you think you have the baby, but then, sorry it's in another castle.



And now for the biggest problem. The twist. That River Song is Amy and Rory's daughter. My problem isn't what the twist was. I have no trouble buying that, in fact I'm looking forward to how it's dealt with. My problem is the fact that everyone seems to be completely blown by it, when I knew it from less than 5 minutes in. Maybe it was because I'd already thought of that as the sort of wild idea that Moffat would write for her origin, but I knew she was there daughter from about the first second in when the baby's name was revealed. Melody Pond, River Song. So I got the twist then, and the big reveal had no effect on me. Maybe that why I wasn't so impressed by this episode. It was all leading up to the reveal, and since I already knew it I was disappointed. Oh well. Overall a solid episode of Doctor Who, entertaining, but nothing better than usual, so disappointing as a half-season finale.

3/5

Doctor Who Review: The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon

The new series of Doctor Who has begun on the BBC. I love a good bit of it, so I felt this year the blog could let me share my thoughts about each week’s episode in the new running feature, Doctor Who Review. This week I’ll look at the opening two-parter, The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon. This is the first year that a series started on a double, and so it was a gamble to whether it would draw people into the show if there was a proper conclusion in the first week. Luckily it’s done better than ever, with each week providing a great cliffhanger (but more on that later).

The story opens with the Doctor summoning his companions in a funny little scene, but one thing did occur to me. If you hadn’t seen the show before this doesn’t really explain who any of them are. It wasn’t a problem for me, or for probably anyone who’s reading this, but there was a lot of action going on, but not much explanation, so for existing fans it was a fantastic opening, but I don’t think it’d win any new fans. But except for this little problem the set up for the story is brilliant. The Doctor explains they have to go to 1969, and then is killed by a spaceman. So immediately you want to know what happens there and after a past version of him turns up, how they will save the one who dies. It’s a very effective hook. And from there the proper story begins.




I’m not going to go into detail about the plot. If you don’t know the story then go and watch it. Don’t come here for it. I’m just going to say the things I liked and I thought worked and the things that didn’t. Number one of course, being the new monsters, The Silence. I love the concept behind them. If you can’t remember them if you aren’t looking at them, they can be right behind you and you would never know. Very creepy. I’m glad they didn’t make them speak too much, because a being called the Silence would be slightly ruined by being chatty. They had a nice look as well, based on the grey aliens everyone thinks of when talking about abductions, a common side-effect being memory loss, clearly an inspiration for this alien.



The story itself seemed a bit rushed. One minute they’re at the White House, then the warehouse, then Area 51, then NASA, then an orphanage then back to the warehouse and it’s over. And that’s it. But I don’t think it was because it was disjointed it was due to the lack of conclusion. They never find out who the girl is, or why she’s important. They never find out what the Silence’s plan was. They never find out why the Silence have a Tardis. Or how the Doctor survives from the first part. Or how Amy is pregnant/non pregnant. And so on. And I know that there’s a plan and they’ll come back to all these things, but I really didn’t like the Doctor just going off on an adventure instead of trying to find out what was going on. He’s always seemed to be the kind of guy who’d want to get to the bottom of things, and not just leave them until later. Maybe that’s just me but that bugged me. Once thing I did like was the resolution to the story, the TV message with The Silence. It wasn’t a very Doctor Who style thing ordering people’s deaths but it was a lot cleverer than I thought it might be.



It wasn’t a perfect story, but it was still great fun. All the cast gave a good performance and the show looked fantastic with all the filming from the US. And the cliffhanger with the little girl? Got me hooked. Who is she? Amy's daughter? A timelord definately. Or is she? Can't wait. It’s looking like we’ve got a very interesting series on it’s way.


4/5