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Review: Doctor Who - The End of Time, Part 2
by Brad Trechak, posted Jan 2nd 2010 10:00PM
So who cried at the end? I cried my eyes out.It's very difficult to write about this episode without using any kind of spoiler. Excellent performances all around with a little more credit going to David Tennant for his final bow. They also broke out the remainder of the special effects budget for this one, probably spending more on this episode alone that an entire season of William Hartnell's era. There were also surprises galore along with some familiar faces at the end. Anybody that accuses me of spoiling the fact that this is Tennant's final episode has not been reading this site for the past six months.
Real spoilers follow ...
The episode, while not perfect, was definitely a step up from part one, and while very little made sense scientifically (which is trademark of Russell T. Davies and Doctor Who in general), the action and the emotion of the episode more than made up for it. In the vein of "always leave them wanting more", there were several unanswered questions that will undoubtedly plague fan fiction for generations to come. Who was the mystery woman that was helping Wilf and the Doctor? Was it Romana, the White Guardian, the Doctor's mother, or none of the above?
When you think about it, it makes sense that the Time Lords would break many laws of time in order to stop from being annihilated by the Daleks. They would reach into their own past and retrieve their greatest hero. They were in desperation mode, which is likely why the Doctor would have no part of it. Historically it is known that Rassilon was a bit of a prick, particularly from his appearance in "The Five Doctors". Was it the real Rassilon or just a namesake? If it was the real one, it gives a major motivation for time-locking the war.
I slap myself in the head for realizing at this late stage, but Bernard Cribbin's character is named "Wilfred Mott", which is an anagram of "Time Lord" with the extra letters "ftw" or "wtf". Is this a secret message from Davies?
The Star Wars inspired segment with the spaceship and the lasers and the missiles was a bit too video game-ish for my tastes
This had to be the slowest regeneration the Doctor ever had. Before becoming Matt Smith, he had time to visit every single previous companion (including Rose before her meeting of the Eccleston Doctor). Admittedly, Martha marrying Mickey (say that fives times fast) was a bit of a surprise and somewhat contradicts what was established so far. In short, it's typical Davies.
Tennant rocked my socks off. His last words were very consistent with his character (and quite possibly of David Tennant's character as well) and his sacrifice for one man who wouldn't make a difference in history speaks volumes of his Doctor. His speech before stepping into the booth and saving Wilf could be representative of both Wilf's situation and his own.
We only saw a brief glimpse of Matt Smith as the Doctor, but it was a pretty good start. He was bringing down the house.
It was a good run, David. You will be missed.
I plan to watch the episode again to let it sink in some more and catch anything I missed. What are your thoughts?
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