As much as I love Doctor Who, and even though I just pointed out that it’s the best SciFi show on tv, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out some of the problems that I had with Doctor Who: The End of Time.
The whole first half. It was horribly paced. I felt that the Doctor running away from the summons of the Ood was spot on Doctor; of course he’s going to run away – that’s how this whole series began. But then it was very choppy, up bits and down bits and slow bits and slower bits – the pacing was very bad. The Master’s rebirth was, in fact, quite silly. The whole Nasmith character was a throw away with no real purpose except to offer a thing to be dealt with.
Wilf and the Doctor have chips. While this was a poignant moment and arguably one of my favorites in either part of the specials, it was wholly out of place. The Doctor is looking for The Master; he finds him, chases him, almost catches him and then Wilf shows up and they go for chips?
6 billion+ Masters wouldn’t take orders. I’m sorry, but they wouldn’t. If you had a planet full of people who were exact copies of The Master, they would, each and everyone, be wanting to do their own thing and take over. It would be chaos. They would not, in fact, work together like good little soldiers.
Locked away in time doesn’t REALLY mean locked away in time. There was a time war, the time war to end all time wars. The Doctor and The Master both fought in it on the side of the Time Lords of Galifrey. But something happened and The Doctor locked it all away, sealed them away where the war could no longer hurt the whole of time and space.
But locked doesn’t REALLY mean locked. In the second part of The End of Time, we see the TIme Lords BEFORE they’re locked away. Ok, this makes some sense. They know that something is up and they’re trying to do something about it. But later, they’re actually locked away and yet they are still able to do things OUTSIDE, like implant the drums in The Master’s mind as a child, toss that diamond at Earth… SO, locked isn’t really locked?
PLUS, there’s the old woman who is visiting Wilf. (I still contend that she was Romana. We may never know for sure. But if Rassillon can be the President now, why can’t Romana, who was President, be the one trying to warn The Doctor?) She somehow manages to contact Wilf several times, despite being ‘locked away’. So, that whole thing made me go ‘hmmm.’.
Lastly, I wanted to throw out there something that I really liked – that The Doctor had time; time to visit his ‘children of time’, to save them all one last time, or to just see them. The bit with Rose was nice, as was him setting Jack up with a rebound guy. But I have trouble with Mickey & Martha. I’d have to see more of that tale in order to buy it.
Which leads me to a question; when the 9th Doctor left, the 10th Doctor picked right up and continued to have the same supporting characters around him and even grew that family as time went on. Will the 11th Doctor make a clean break? Or will we see familiar faces show up again?
Given the trailer for the new series, we will at least be seeing some of the same aliens again, and at least one familiar face.
I suppose only time will tell…
~P
2 Comments
Me, I assumed it was Donna, older and wiser, advising her grandfather. @jcfiala
I considered that. I also liked io9's theory that it could be the Doctor's mother and the other dissenting Timelord could be his father, but for my mind, Romana fits better. Briefly, I considered it could be Leela, who ended up on Galifrey with Romana, but I don't know that she could become a Timelord.
If you throw in the possibility that the White Guardian is involved and, hence, the white dress she's always wearing, then the idea that it's Romana (sent to the Doctor by the White Guardian disguised as a Timelord), becomes more plausible.
We may NEVER know who she is, or maybe we will. We'll just have to wait and see.
~P
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