Doctor Who: The End of Time
Jan. 2nd, 2010 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAnd yes, I was waiting for the second part because I wanted to review them together, in case you were wondering where my review for part I was.
To get the nitpicks out of the way first, and there are really only nitpicks (meaning: this seems to be a love it or hate it type of story, and I'm on the love it side), this really did not need to be a two-parter, and would have benefited from trim editing. By which I do not mean the ending, because I'm one of those people totally on board with the multiple farewell scenes in Lord of the Rings. RTD: fanboy to the last, and Ten looking up all the companions of his run was totally a fannish thing to do. On the other hand, we could have easily done without the Naismiths, or the Master roasting people. The "I'll just imprint myself on every member of the bloody species you like so much, shall I?" ploy, on the other end, was perfect in its absolute over the top cracked out insanity. See, that's where the roads from killer plastic daffodils lead to, Master. Incidentally, among the many homages to the Delgado era wasn't just the "...see the universe, you don't need to rule it" statement from the Doctor which is a slight but significant alteration to what he tells the Master when the laterproposes offers him co-rulership of the 'verse in Colony in Space (back then, he said "you'll never understand, will you? I want to see the universe, not rule it!"; now it's "we could", etc.) from part I, but also part II's "Master summons villain of story, realises he's in over his head, teams up with Doctor by necessity to get rid of villain of story" plot which is the plot of every Three/Delgado story in season 8. On the other hand, the Time Lords reminded me more of the Five and Six era stories. (If you didn't know they were mostly bad news, especially the presidents and chancellors, you haven't watched Old Who.) With a touch of the Eight audios (Rassilon!). It was nostalgia time all the way, not just for New Who.
Mystery woman played by Claire Bloom: was so Susan. I was wondering about Romana in part I, but "I got lost a long time ago" and the pointed grandfather parallels between the Doctor and Wilf settled it for me. But of course you can imagine her as whoever you want to, which is presumably why RTD did not name her.
Moment of personal smugness: I theorized that the Time Lords were responsible for putting the drums in the Master's head and that they did this during the Time War eons ago, in a comment to someone's story or meta, I think.
The standout scenes in part I were the conversation between the Doctor and Wilf at the café, between the Doctor and the Master in the quarry, and the glorious insanity of Doctor/Elizabeth I and Wilf's Doctor-hunting brigade; in part II, again Wilf and the Doctor while the Doctor repaired the heating system, the slash-turned-to-eleven-no-pun-intended "you could be beautiful" exchange followed with "actually, the most amazing thing about you is that you're still too stupid to notice what's right in front of you" between the Doctor and the Master, and the whole checking-up-companions-one-more-time sequence which as mentioned before I totally dig. Martha/Mickey was a surprise (suppose Tom didn't work out then? Ah well; they're both splendid, and I await the fic), the Doctor and Luke made me go awww (ever since that guest stint in SJA I have a soft spot for scenes where they interact, no matter how brief, and I didn't really expect to get another one), and I was amused as hell the Doctor set up Jack with Midshipman Alonso Frame. (See, this is why people who accuse Rose - or Martha - or Donna of being Rusty's Mary Sue get it wrong; clearly, Jack is, especially if you've read RTD's ravings about Russell Tovey's attractiveness in The Writer's Tale.) (That was a joke; please don't answer by serious comment on how and why *insert companion of choice* is a Sue/Stu.) There was no way you could have written a short conversation scene between the Doctor and Jack doing justice to what happened in Children of Earth, but that kind of gesture is just perfect.
Most unexpectedly touching and completely unexpected-by-me moment in that goodbye sequence, though, was the Doctor and Verity Newman, great granddaughter of Joan Redfern (and also played by Jessica Hynes). Which made me misty eyed on several levels. The name, Verity Newman, is another RTD homage to original Doctor Who producer Verity Lambert and the head of BBC drama at the time, Sydney Newman, following the original homage in Human Nature, where John Smith tells Joan Redfern his parents were called Sydney and Verity. (An exchange which Paul Cornell said RTD had inserted in the script.) And of course because what it says about the part of John Smith that lives on in the Doctor.
Eleven's first minute was perfect, with the right kind of post-regeneration recharge of energy and crazy. Bring on season 5/31!
To get the nitpicks out of the way first, and there are really only nitpicks (meaning: this seems to be a love it or hate it type of story, and I'm on the love it side), this really did not need to be a two-parter, and would have benefited from trim editing. By which I do not mean the ending, because I'm one of those people totally on board with the multiple farewell scenes in Lord of the Rings. RTD: fanboy to the last, and Ten looking up all the companions of his run was totally a fannish thing to do. On the other hand, we could have easily done without the Naismiths, or the Master roasting people. The "I'll just imprint myself on every member of the bloody species you like so much, shall I?" ploy, on the other end, was perfect in its absolute over the top cracked out insanity. See, that's where the roads from killer plastic daffodils lead to, Master. Incidentally, among the many homages to the Delgado era wasn't just the "...see the universe, you don't need to rule it" statement from the Doctor which is a slight but significant alteration to what he tells the Master when the later
Mystery woman played by Claire Bloom: was so Susan. I was wondering about Romana in part I, but "I got lost a long time ago" and the pointed grandfather parallels between the Doctor and Wilf settled it for me. But of course you can imagine her as whoever you want to, which is presumably why RTD did not name her.
Moment of personal smugness: I theorized that the Time Lords were responsible for putting the drums in the Master's head and that they did this during the Time War eons ago, in a comment to someone's story or meta, I think.
The standout scenes in part I were the conversation between the Doctor and Wilf at the café, between the Doctor and the Master in the quarry, and the glorious insanity of Doctor/Elizabeth I and Wilf's Doctor-hunting brigade; in part II, again Wilf and the Doctor while the Doctor repaired the heating system, the slash-turned-to-eleven-no-pun-intended "you could be beautiful" exchange followed with "actually, the most amazing thing about you is that you're still too stupid to notice what's right in front of you" between the Doctor and the Master, and the whole checking-up-companions-one-more-time sequence which as mentioned before I totally dig. Martha/Mickey was a surprise (suppose Tom didn't work out then? Ah well; they're both splendid, and I await the fic), the Doctor and Luke made me go awww (ever since that guest stint in SJA I have a soft spot for scenes where they interact, no matter how brief, and I didn't really expect to get another one), and I was amused as hell the Doctor set up Jack with Midshipman Alonso Frame. (See, this is why people who accuse Rose - or Martha - or Donna of being Rusty's Mary Sue get it wrong; clearly, Jack is, especially if you've read RTD's ravings about Russell Tovey's attractiveness in The Writer's Tale.) (That was a joke; please don't answer by serious comment on how and why *insert companion of choice* is a Sue/Stu.) There was no way you could have written a short conversation scene between the Doctor and Jack doing justice to what happened in Children of Earth, but that kind of gesture is just perfect.
Most unexpectedly touching and completely unexpected-by-me moment in that goodbye sequence, though, was the Doctor and Verity Newman, great granddaughter of Joan Redfern (and also played by Jessica Hynes). Which made me misty eyed on several levels. The name, Verity Newman, is another RTD homage to original Doctor Who producer Verity Lambert and the head of BBC drama at the time, Sydney Newman, following the original homage in Human Nature, where John Smith tells Joan Redfern his parents were called Sydney and Verity. (An exchange which Paul Cornell said RTD had inserted in the script.) And of course because what it says about the part of John Smith that lives on in the Doctor.
Eleven's first minute was perfect, with the right kind of post-regeneration recharge of energy and crazy. Bring on season 5/31!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 02:48 am (UTC)The bit where the Doctor was strapped to the chair also reminded me strongly of The Mind of Evil - they do like to have their lover's quarrels while the Doctor is tied to things. (And really, we are no longer in the land of subtext here when the Doctor is telling the Master he's beautiful.)
I like that they didn't pin down the identity of the Time Lady, but I share your belief that she's Susan. When Wilf asked who she was, the Doctor looked at Donna, apparently thinking of grandchildren.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-03 03:37 am (UTC)No kidding. And I was ever so amused that Rassilon immediately knew that if one survivor of the Time War was going to be the Doctor, the other just had to be the Master. Theirs must have been the most public break-up of Gallifrey. :)
(And really, we are no longer in the land of subtext here when the Doctor is telling the Master he's beautiful.)
We're really not. This is more than some canon het couples used to get in ages past.:) BTW, my favourite sentence in that speech was "I wonder who I'd be without you?". Also I loved that the Doctor declared the Master's brilliance and his stupidity with the same sincerity, because that is so their relationship through the ages.
ETA: grandchildren and grandfathers - I think this is also why the Doctor didn't answer Wilf's question. It would have broken Wilf's heart to think the Doctor has just had to kill/time-lock his granddaughter (for the second time). (Is this RTD's year for bringing on the grandfather heartache or what?)