And so Time Ends (all spoilers cut)

[neadods]

Well, that was what pretty much what I expected. (all Spoilers under cut)
- appeals to emotion via music, shouting, and explosions instead of plot
- David Tennant and Bernard Cribbins being brilliant. The baddies chewing scenery.


A couple of liveblogging comments - why does the Master keep saying "Everyone on Earth is..." when he's *standing in front of two exceptions*?

RTD is surely fond of his prophecies, isn't he? Since when did the Time Lords give a damn about them, though?

"Don't you dare put him before them." You tell him, Wilf! Damn, Bernard, you're knocking this right out of the park. Brilliant.

So... it's a white-point macguffin. Because what this show needed was more pseudobabble instead of plot.

....aaaaand now somebody's living out their Star Wars: Original fantasies. Distracting. Who is its own show.

What's with the Babylon 5 shoutout women walking around with their hands in front of their eyes? Hello? We've seen plenty of Time Ladies. Susan would point and laugh; Romana would trip them as they walk by and then lecture them on upholding their dignity.

Am I the only one thinking about what the gravitational pull of dropping a whole new planet into the solar system would already be doing to Earth (/the Moon/Gallifrey)? Or why the Doctor had to recock the gun at the Master when he'd already cocked it at Rassilon... and then cocks it *yet again* to turn around again?

And the Doctor's starting the pity party early as he yells at Wilf and throws a strop. Ten's going out with a bang *and* a whimper (and another homage, this one to Spock. Only Spock didn't demand a reward or make a big fuss as he got fried.)

So, the companion retrospective is true. It would be more fun if the Doctor was going to be less of a pill about it. Also if we weren't sitting here going "this is an amazingly long and not-flashy regeneration." But then, we've got to milk this as long as possible in as unbelievable a manner as possible to be as angsty as possible, don't we? It's like a death aria in an opera... 40 minutes long and not a symptom in sight until the end.

I'm glad to see Mickey and Martha. Need to think about the whole marriage and freelance thing. I am amused by the Martha Smith-Jones credit.

So. The rumors that Wilf would die were wrong. The rumors that he'd meet Rose before he met Rose and tell her it was going to be a good year were right.

I'll give him "I don't want to go." Other regenerations have said similar things. Except what's with the TARDIS blowing up? He's regenerated in that thing plenty of times, and the Master regenerated once there too.

Matt does manic Doctorbabble excellently. I think he's going to be good. "I'm a girl!" BWAhahahahaa!

The Doctor is dead. Long live the Doctor.

Comments

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I know I'm supposed to loathe the idea of Mickey/Martha but...I don't. I like that they're both free agents, so to speak.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I was happier with the idea of her as a Doctor, but on the other hand, she's seen lots and lots of action.

And Noel and Freema make a lovely couple, that must be admitted!

[biichan.livejournal.com]

I'm coming around to it too, actually.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

I like the line about Mickey convincing her to "go freelance."

[biichan.livejournal.com]

I just love her braids.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

She had braids? I heard her hair looked much different but no particulars. *goes to find clips*

[biichan.livejournal.com]

Yep. A head full of them. I think the hairstyle in question is called "boxbraids." It's really pretty on her.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

Yes, that *WAS* a good look on her. I'm glad she got at least the cameo. (And WOW- that they were able to keep that a secret!!!)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I know! I didn't see a single spoiler for either of them, and a lot of belief that neither one would show!

I'm assuming that their bit was filmed off in one place while David was filming somewhere else, drawing the attention.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

I will say "Well done!" to that, I'm glad they were able to keep it a secret. It gave us all a pleasant surprise amidst all the Operatic posturing of the death scene...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Lots and lots of small braids. I think it was much more flattering than the "pineapple" 'do.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That was a lovely hairstyle - much more flattering than the pineapple 'do, IMO.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I keep flip-flopping. On the pro side, they make a good couple. On the negative side, it came out of nowhere. On the pro side, it shows that two people, both of whom were treated shabbily by the Doctor, are kicking ass in their own right *and he acknowledges that.* On the negative side, Martha seems to have given up her life plans after being coaxed into something else by a man, which makes me o.O more than a little. On the pro side, a happy couple of color. On the seriously negative side, it can also be viewed as two people of color finding each other as a consolation prize after realizing they could never "get" the white people they pined after for a long time, which is O.O NO!.

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

Oh, I suspect she's still using all of that "Doctoring" knowledge. (Somebody's got to patch Mickey up! And the Aliens- well, when they aren't Sontarans, determined to die in battle...)

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I kind of liked the shout out to Star Wars and Star Trek. If you could do it without ruining the flow of a story, why not? :D

Or why the Doctor had to recock the gun at the Master when he'd already cocked it at Rassilon... and then cocks it *yet again* to turn around again?

Because the Doctor doesn't know how to actually use a gun? And do you think The Doctor called him 'Rassilon' as an insult, or did the Time Lord's really reincarnate their monstrous founder?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

If you could do it without ruining the flow of a story, why not? :D

Except I think it did ruin the flow of the story, because it threw me mentally right out of the Whoniverse and into SW and ST. At least the previous episode was ripping off other Doctor Who (mostly).

did the Time Lord's really reincarnate their monstrous founder?

Any race idiotically desperate enough to resurrect the Master to get cannonfodder for the war was surely going to bank on the Solution of Rassilon.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Any race idiotically desperate enough to resurrect the Master to get cannonfodder for the war was surely going to bank on the Solution of Rassilon.

Whoever the Lord President was, he was wearing armor under his robe, so I could go with the idea of him actually *being* Rassilon. It certainly explains his batshit plans and the way the Time Lords turned monstrous during the Time War.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

there's almost a poetic justice about how things changed over the years. by Five Doctors, Rassilon is the wise sage, Borusa the one corrupted by power and the quest for immortality. But then Terrence Dicks wrote the Eight Doctors novel, and in a sense started that reversal, redeeming Borusa and hinting at how Rassilon was perhaps the more corrupting influence. Big Finish then ran with this, revealing Rassilon to have been the final betrayer of Omega, and much the monster in his own right. So once beyond the basic canon of the core tv episodes, this transition of Rassilon from worshiped savior/creator of the Time Lords to the most corrupted of all had already all been played out.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

this transition of Rassilon from worshiped savior/creator of the Time Lords to the most corrupted of all had already all been played out.

...like many other tropes in End of Time, she types bitterly. I'm not forgiving him those homages to other shows; they threw me right out of the feeling that I was watching Dr. Who.

RTD has leaned heavily on the NAs and Big Finish through his run. Sometimes with good effect - I like Human Nature the episode much better than the book - sometimes with bad. But then, my main problem with the NAs is much the same as what my main problem with the RTD era has been: the feeling that all the limits were removed, and the ability to play with new topics and tropes overrode the need for a coherent narrative.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It certainly explains his batshit plans and the way the Time Lords turned monstrous during the Time War.

It would also explain the return to prophecies a la Sisterhood of Karn, as Rassilon was, IIRC, the bringer of serious science to Gallifrey. His casual insistence on blowing away any opposition would explain the Time Lords to me - they pretty much were left with a choice of extermination at the plungers of the daleks or the gauntlet of their own founder.

[gonzai55.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the Master after he zapped the Timothy Dalton...but generally pleased.

Loved 'Worst rescue ever!'

[neadods.livejournal.com]

M asked me what happened to him too. I think it was left deliberately ambiguous; the chances of Moffat dusting off the Master in a season or two are pretty high, IMO.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

John Simm hinted in a recent interview that the door was being left open for him to return, so their not blowing the Master to smithereens yet again didn't surprise me.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Thing is, they've blown him to smithereens and still brought him back, so it's not like it would have been an impediment!

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Much as I love Mickey and Martha as characters, their relationship is even more pasted on than Martha/Tom!

Ten had a longer death scene even than Hamlet!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Ten had a longer death scene even than Hamlet!

I know. But then, from wheeling him around tied to a chair and that "I'm full of the poison that killed everyone around me in seconds, but I've still got a monologue to do" death, I think it was Yet Another Homage.

It's like the script was a paper-mache sculpture of all the stuff from SF that RTD's enjoyed in the last 20 years.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Homage? Well, I guess you can call it that if you're feeling generous.

[aligoestonz.livejournal.com]

Or not wanting to get sued :-)

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Yeah...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*amused snort*

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Just saying...

[ladyfox7oaks.livejournal.com]

"paper-mache sculpture of all the stuff from SF that RTD's enjoyed in the last 20 years."

Try closer to 40 or 50 years. The whole "Creatures without bodies/ of pure consciousness" shtick was straight out of original series Star Trek in the 60's. THEY even pulled that one several times over their 3-4 years. (And heavens know, it probably reaches further back than that!)
Sparkling clouds of lights, anyone? An entire village that looks sort of Medieval, but the "People" are pacifists and won't let Kirk and the Klingons fight, and then they all disappear?...

OMG! (O_O) Some of the Timelords DID it!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The whole "Creatures without bodies/ of pure consciousness" shtick was straight out of original series Star Trek in the 60's

Oh, golly, yes!

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

in one sense, star trek is the most obvious source of that reference, but i'm pretty sure others have come up with that before. i want to say HG Wells used it once, or perhaps Verne or Bradbury, but nothing is quite coming to mind.

[zinelady.livejournal.com]

What's with the Babylon 5 shoutout women walking around with their hands in front of their eyes? Hello? We've seen plenty of Time Ladies. Susan would point and laugh; Romana would trip them as they walk by and then lecture them on upholding their dignity.

I'm assuming that they had they eyes covered because they voted against what the president wanted. The president said something about shame and angels. I figure it's more that they didn't want to see what happens than shame, but it could be that as well.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I got the impression from the council scene that voting against Rassilon was essentially suicide.

[dora-took.livejournal.com]

pardon me, but...

I thought they were a nod to Blink? Rassilon had said that everyone on the council agreed with his plan except for two: 'Two Weeping Angels who would not join with us...and will be turned to stone for their shame' (or some such drivel) and of course there were two women behind him with their eyes covered just like the statues.

[penfold-x.livejournal.com]

Yikes, okay, glad it wasn't just me who felt like the story was a bunch of bits and bobs glued together to give DT a chance to look really pretty as he vacillates between the edge of tears and rage for 2 hours. So disappointed with RTD (especially since Donna may as well not have been in the story, and in the end, never gets to develop).

But even worse, I'm not sure what, if anything, the Doctor learned in all of that. The theme built so well during Waters of Mars (and all of season 4 as well, and to a degree, since 'Rose') is totally abandoned in favor of over the top acting and plot developments from nowhere (the Master is really a tool of Rassilon? Rassilon's ALIVE? The Time Lords are evil?). All of this time spent building up storylines about Ten's inability to face conflict, to deal with his decision to annihilate the Daleks and the Time Lords, and it comes to nothing. He dies basically the same person he was at the end of The Stolen Earth: ambivalent, self-hating, desperately lonely.

But there is a Christmas miracle, of a sort: I'm now seriously looking forward to Matt Smith.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The theme built so well during Waters of Mars (and all of season 4 as well, and to a degree, since 'Rose') is totally abandoned

That's the thing that's making me most crazy/disappointed in the RTD era, in retrospect. He'd hint at things, and then bring them up and dismiss them in a matter of seconds, to make room for random moments that have nothing to do with anything.

I can't wait for Matt's Doctor!

[fyrdrakken]

That's pretty much RTD's ongoing failing (in every Ten season, at least -- he did better with Nine): Making a season look like he's building up to a point, hammering on particular themes, and then coming up with a finale that's heavy on spectacle and Rule of Cool but light on plot and completely flubs the payoff for the season's thematic arc.

ETA: I, too, am now eagerly looking forward to Eleven, which shocked me. I kind of figured my Who love had burned out and I'd just be watching the new season to keep track of what the friends list was talking about -- the same reason I watch Torchwood, IOW. And then that final minute with Eleven onscreen had me hooked.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

And then that final minute with Eleven onscreen had me hooked.

That's the whole point of that minute, and I'm always impressed that 10 times now, an actor has managed to sell his whole new approach when he's got about 10 seconds to do it!

As for the RTD part: So. Much. Word.