Doctor Who: The End of Time

[xparrot]

So, I've had a week to process, and ...I still don't know what I think.

The plot was classic RTD - idiotically nonsensical, with moments of genius (the truth of the knock-4-times was a nice twist).

The Doctor and the Master have so much...I don't know if chemistry is the word, but something that crackles and shimmers and burns, and I love it. And David Tennant threw himself mind body and soul into the angst, and no one quite does it like him. The end was so overly drawn-out that I didn't shed a tear, but oh, it hurts to see him leave (but I love watching him go...)

I was trying to figure out what became of Martha's first husband, but gnine pointed out she only said she was engaged before, not married until Children of Earth, so she likely switched fiances in the year between. And I do love the thought of her and Mickey taking on the universe together. In the end I think they lucked out in love more than Rose or the Doctor.

Jack with George cracked me up - I'd totally forgotten who played "Alonzo". Hee!

And the new Doctor - really don't know yet. He seemed awfully Ten-ish there, but then he tends to be manic after a regeneration, so that's no surprise.

In the end - in the end, I'm still angry that they didn't do what I most wanted - they didn't fix Donna. Okay, she got the wedding she originally wanted, and to a stand-up guy, it looks like - but that was the ending she wanted before, when she thought there was never going to be anything more to her life, before she knew how amazing she could be. That she lost so much, and it's forever going to be hovering there at the edge of her mind, something glittering and fantastic at the edge of her vision but it's never there when she looks straight at it, something she can never clearly see, and she might never get it back...she got a "happy ending", but it's not enough. And maybe she'll still get fixed later, maybe she'll come back, but. Don't have much hope, given how it ended, and Moffat coming in, but...

And...that's it. The Doctor is dead; long live the Doctor! Ten's gone, Tennant's gone. I am going to miss him terribly - and I don't care what anyone else thinks, I'm going to miss RTD, too. And I'm half-dreading what Moffat's going to do with the franchise (oh please, please, please do not put the Doctor in an explicit romance. Please. Please.) but half-anticipating, too (he can certainly handle a plot better, am very curious what he'll do with a whole season to lay out himself...)



...and my lj account expired, I've lost my pretty icons! Come back, preciouses~! Man, I need money >.>

Comments

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

RTD frustrates me, because he can come up with gripping scenarios and wonderful character moments -- the Doctor's scenes with the Master and Wilf were amazing -- but he can have problems stringing them into coherent, well-paced plots. I really wish they'd skipped "Planet of the Dead" and made the finale a three-part story, like "Utopia"/"The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords" or "Turn Left"/"Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End".

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, RTD is all about the character moments, and *handwave* the plot...which I don't really mind all that much; I'd rather sacrifice plot to characters than vice versa. But yeah, this one might have done better as a 3-parter; some of it was so~ slo~w, but then other bits were awful rushed (HOMG GALLIFREY IS COMING AHHH *Doctor with gun* --O GOOD, WE'RE ALL OK, GUYZ.)

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

I really wish we could have had more lead-up to the Master's resurrection. So many unanswered questions: how did he create the Cult of Saxon? Why were its members willing to die for him? And did they have to rip off the return of Voldemort that blatantly?

[shayera.livejournal.com]

Agreed about Donna. I was happy to see her, but it hurts to see her like that. Like she was before she met the Doctor, before she got awesome - and she might have a happy, normal life, but she'll probably never be awesome again, and she won't even remember the time when she was, and that's... unfair. Yeah. :(

...and Doctor + explicit romance = DO NOT WANT. :P

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes to all of this...the hurt of seeing Donna like that, even if it was so good to see her at all.

And I will...pay money or something, to keep the Doctor out of romance. *clings fiercely to about the only asexual char she's got left* *grumbles about Spock some more*

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Like she was before she met the Doctor, before she got awesome...

Well, one could argue that Donna was always awesome -- Supertemp! -- but yeah, the loss of everything she gained from her travels...that makes me sad. And it's not without precedent, alas -- I'm guessing from your icon that you're a fan of oldskool Who, and therefore probably remember what happened to the Second Doctor's last two Companions.

[bluemeanybeany.livejournal.com]

I was mourning Tenny very badly but they had photos of filming in the press and am now just very, very excited!

there is going to be a lot of snow in matt smiths middle episodes

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, yes, I didn't think of that, but any show shooting over there right now must be rewriting a bit to account for the snows, yes? ^^

[bluemeanybeany.livejournal.com]

i dont think so much rewritting as just ignoring it entirely from what the set photos show

companion girl looks cold in her little skirt though.

[jujuberry136.livejournal.com]

Agree with everything you've said.

For all of his faults, RTD rebooted DW in a way I wasn't sure possible and introduced me to Eccleson and Tennant. For that alone I would love him forever. But he came up with some fabulous moments throughout his run and even his his stuff usually lacked some plot (and internal consistency) I still loved the characters.

I want Donna fixed too. She was so wonderful, it still hurts to think of her just going about her life not knowing her full potential but knowing something is missing. ARGH.

I've liked Moffat's episodes in the past, but if he goes for the full fledged romance (which he seems to like to do, as evidenced in Girl in the Fireplace and the Dr. River Song episodes) I'm not going to be happy. He's supposedly writing 6 of the episodes, so this will really be *his* season. I'll give it a shot... we'll see.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, RTD has his faults and hang-ups, but so does Moffat...well, I guess we'll see how it goes.

And Donna...argh, yes. Maybe someday...I can hope!

[rheanna27.livejournal.com]

...but that was the ending she wanted before, when she thought there was never going to be anything more to her life, before she knew how amazing she could be.

Yes... you've put your finger on what it was that continues to bother me about Donna's ending. It's not a bad ending, but it represents a complete loss of everything she gained while travelling in the TARDIS, and all the ways she changed. She's been forcibly reset to who she was before we met her in The Runaway Bride, and I can't help feeling that's terribly sad.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's pretty much like they killed the Donna who traveled with the Doctor, except she's not really dead so can't be mourned...and I get that it was supposed to be bittersweet and not a totally happy end, but all the other companions have gotten a happy end and still get to keep having adventures, and it hurts that Donna can't...

[iko.livejournal.com]

I was trying to figure out what became of Martha's first husband, but gnine pointed out she only said she was engaged before, not married until Children of Earth, so she likely switched fiances in the year between.

I've been thinking about this a bit.
Assuming that Doctor Who takes place around Earth-present timeline...

...what indications are there that Torchwood's "Children of Earth" was set in Earth-present like Doctor Who? Is it possible that the events of CoE are in a nebulous future and the encounter with Mickey/Martha is, in fact, not in Earth-present but Earth-future in the same way that Donna's wedding is Earth-near future?

Also, it made me think about Alonso's timeline relative to Earth-present and, since they seem to share it (evidenced from "The Voyage of the Damned"), is he even human? Or just a human-looking alien? Or, like Jack, is he a time traveler from the future that is hanging out in pre-space travel Earth as crew on a ship doing tours of our backwards planet? Hmm.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I don't think there are any exact indications of when TW takes place, or where/when the Doctor was traveling at the end? But I don't think there's many problems anyway - in COE when they say Martha's on her honeymoon, that's over a year after Mickey came back to Earth, so I don't think it's too short a time for them to have gotten together and gotten married.

I thought the Titanic ship had traveled back in time - but really I can't remember! ^^;

[rosalui.livejournal.com]

GOODBYE TEN/NANT. ;___;

I am totally with you on the RTD thing. I mean, sure, he can be frustrating, but he can also be genius, so I really don't know where all the hate comes from.

About Donna, I think that now she's finally in a happy situation, she has the potential to grow and be brilliant again all on her own. The ability was always there, the Doctor just unlocked it; and in these last episodes it was easy to tell she wasn't nearly as... frustrating as when we met her in The Runaway Bride. XD

I'm upset about the trailer. :( 11 in the end of EoT made me happy (except for 'geronimo' which sounds like it's trying to be 'allonsy' and failing), but the trailer... since when was action emphasized so very much? :( Tennant (and Eccleston) was such a brilliant actor that he could make silly plots un-silly; not sure about Matt Smith.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Heh, I understand where the RTD-hate comes from - he does seem to enjoy messing with fans' heads and hearts! But I still enjoy his stuff.

I haven't actually watched the trailer yet...though the Who trailers have emphasized action before, and they probably don't want to show too much of the new Doctor and reveal their hand, so I would take it with a grain of salt.

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

Donna . . . I'm quite upset about what happened to her, but really, I don't see how it could have gone differently, unless they decided that the Doctor had been WRONG (like, way way wrong) about what would happen if she ever remembered that part of her life. And I think, if they decided to go that way, it might have felt like cheating. Sure, I'd have been thrilled, but really, sometimes the perfect ending just isn't possible. (and for the Doctor, and especially his companions, that seems to happen a lot, poor folks.) Still, that tiny bit about her being his Best Friend made me grin and grin and grin!

Tennant did SUCH a brilliant job as the Doctor -- his Doctor held on SO TIGHT to the world and to life that it hurt, but you could tell that that was causing problems, and he KNEW it was causing problems, he could see how wrong things could go if it went on ("lived too long . . ."). Even so, I think his last lines were just heartbreaking. The Doctor is still the Doctor, but that Doctor is dead. Which I like, actually -- it makes the regeneration much more complicated and serious, and less like a convienent plot twist.

And Simms and Tennant -- if they could do many many more shows together I'd be ecstatic. They're so good! Amazing.

(One thought, which, since I've seen very little of the Old Who and so am probably wrong. . . that Time Lord who kept talking to Wilf, and exchanged Significant Looks with the Doctor . . . was she supposed to be Romana? Or someone else important that I don't know about? I wonder about this.)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Ehh, at least in New Who the other Companions have gotten their unlikely happy endings - Rose was supposed to NEVER EVER come back to this universe, but then she does, and then she gets her own human version of the Doctor! And Martha has had it tough, but she still gets to keep having exciting adventures through time & space. And Donna...gets what she had before, plus a lottery ticket. And she was my favorite Companion, the one I most wanted to see go on to something brilliant...so that she's not is depressing. XP

Yes, Tennant did fantastic, that bit when he realized that he'd have to save Wilf, that because he's the Doctor there isn't a choice...ahhh, amazing angst. And yes, I do hope he's in something else with John Simm!

As far as the woman goes, I was thinking Romana, too, but other people felt that there was a parent-child thing going on in the looks exchanged with the Doctor, and I've heard it suggested that she was Susan (the Doctor's granddaughter from the very first serials)...wonder if she'll come back!

[snarkydame.livejournal.com]

That's a good point, about Rose and her happy ending. Relatively happy, anyway. But it did take her a few seasons to get it, so I wouldn't be too surprised if we see Donna again. *crosses fingers*

I didn't think about Susan! That's at least a possibility. I'm sure that'll come up again, too.

[tonicollins.livejournal.com]

I don't think that Donna got a happy ending. She got the ending that her mother wanted for her: marriage. Yeah, she said she wanted it too, but I just don't really believe it. I kept waiting for her to have a pocket watch and be a Time Lady. With a name like Noble that just seemed so "Doctor Who" to me. Ah, well. I can always dream that the next Doctor will figure out how to download that energy into the TARDIS (or a spare body part like where it came from) and she'll be her time traveling knowledgeable self once again.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I think that Donna's story is pretty much told, but I'm still hoping she might be brought back anyway. She can find the Doctor's daughter and go off traveling with her!

Fingers crossed!

[lukita.livejournal.com]

... I'm never going to watch the End of Time at this rate. I like Donna too much to actually watch her not be fantastic. :/

RTD's writing frustrates me, he hit his wall and is never going to be better as it is, but I still see a lot of possibilities in his characters and stuff. I've mentioned it before, RTD needs someone to edit the hell out of his work, but I don't think his ego can handle it. XD

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, RTD could definitely use editing - but then, pretty much all major writer/creators could. I don't think it's even so much their ego can't handle it as their egos can't listen...but it's a dilemma, because to get that advanced in the entertainment biz *requires* a lot of not listening, a lot of ignoring harsh critics and pushing on anyway; that's the only way you get anywhere...then once you're at the top, those lessons can play you wrong; but I don't think it's a coincidence that pretty much all the major writers and directors in TV and movies are known for their overpowwering egos.

I have a vague hope that Donna might yet be fixed...don't really see it being a priority for Moffat, but I'm gonna keep my fingers crossed anyway...!

[crashtestskater.livejournal.com]

yes it was an episode full of emotions.

I'm sorry you lost your icons.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The ep was quite a roller-coaster ride!

heh, I'll get my icons back - just need to get enough money to afford a paid account! ^^;

[crashtestskater.livejournal.com]

hey I get by with a free account. I keep icons on my computer and change them up periodically.