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Review: Doctor Who - The End of Time, Part 1
by Brad Trechak, posted Dec 26th 2009 11:30PM
The first part of David Tennant's final episode of Doctor Who as the lead role has been broadcast in both the U.K. and the U.S. Part 2 will be broadcast on January 1st and 2nd in each country respectively. It's nice to know that the BBC took my advice and had the two networks broadcast within 24 hours of each other to minimize piracy.The first part was somewhat disappointing. The reasons for this cannot be explained without revealing key elements of the story. In fact, there is absolutely no way to talk about this episode without revealing major spoilers. With that in mind, I am refraining from my commentary until after the jump. You have been warned.
David Tennant was brilliant as usual. Bernard Cribbins was also quite good as Wilfred Mott. It was strange having a celebrity like Catherine Tate (playing the character of Donna Noble) have what amounted to an extended cameo. What most brought down the episode was Russell T. Davies' writing. The man can't leave this show fast enough to make room for Steven Moffat. Where to begin?
The resurrection of the Master was too quick. With all that build-up, it amounted to the first ten minutes of the episode. Apparently while running England as the Prime Minister he also had the time to start a cult in his name. It's not completely out of character but this detail seemed to come out of nowhere.
It's nice how they managed to incorporate the end of Torchwood from the end of "Children of Earth" into the episode by having some of its alien technology get into the wrong hands (in this case Joshua Naismith played by David Harewood and his daughter Abigail played by Tracy Ifeachor). It's only natural for people that arrogant to involve the Master without thinking of the consequences.
Everybody in England recognizes Harold Saxon, the murderer of a U.S. President, so why is he still in England? Is he suicidally depressed? What also didn't make sense were these powers that the Master suddenly had by feeding off his own life force. Why doesn't the Doctor have these abilities as well? Why doesn't the Doctor just eat like a pig and shoot lightning bolts? Russell T. Davies seems more interested in his own legacy that keeping the characters consistent.
Why even bother using Barack Obama as a character when the last U.S. President on the show (as well as the last few British Prime Ministers) was fictional?
But what really killed the episode was the climax. Having the Master using the Immortality Gate to turn everyone on Earth into a replica of himself is cheesy science fiction 101. Doctor Who is capable of much better. I like cheesy science fiction as much as the next geek, but this one seemed callow and silly. Davies' previous efforts at this from the fourth season (the episodes "Midnight" and "Turn Left") were better executions of such ideas.
Since the Time War was Davies' baby it's no surprise that he wants to end it with his final episode and bring back the Time Lords. How can anybody wipe out a race that can move in time and space? If the Daleks could survive, then it's only logical that Time Lords could survive as well. I'm just wondering how the non-canonical spin-offs like the novels and the Big Finish audio plays will treat Gallifrey knowing that the Doctor's former companion Romana is no longer the President.
Despite my negativity regarding Part 1, I still have high hopes for the second part and will be tuning in next week. What did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments.
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