This is it. The end of David Tennant’s run as the tenth doctor, as well as Russel T. Davies epic reign as the head man in the Who chair. It has been some of the most epic work in the entirety of Who’s 46 years on air (although some would say only 30 due to the 16 year absence between when the last movie aired and Davies stepped in). So is the final episode of what one could consider the greatest television revival of all time as good as one would hope? Does it all measure up? And is our goodbye to Tennant as heartfelt as we could hope.
NOTE: This article heavily discusses spoilers. If you haven’t had the chance to watch the final special, turn away now.
When we last left off, the Master had turned everyone on the planet into.. the Master. Every single person on the planet has his smiling face. And unfortunately, that’s not where it ends. The Master wants the Tardis so he can triangulate the signal inside his head and find out what the the source of the drumming is. Of course, the Doctor won’t allow it, and what we then have is an incredibly high speed chase throughout London and space as the Doctor teleports away into a ship just outside Earth’s orbit. Of course, as we are learning more and more, we also find out that the Time Lords who had previously revealed themselves are COLOSSAL jerks. It turns out they had put the drumming inside the Master themselves as a way to survive the Time War. Not only would they return to prominence, but they would return Galifrey with them.
All in all? Disaster is spelled for all.
The thing I love about Russel T Davies’ run of Doctor Who is he has such a great working knowledge of all the great Who mythos: Daleks and Davros, the Cybermen, the Time Lords and the Master. He takes all this knowledge that has existed for years and reintroduces it for a new audience, one who hasn’t watched old Who episodes. One who isn’t familiar with the past stories.. All of it is fresh and a great way to show the new audience. But the best part is that, when all is said and done, it all ties together. When Davies re-did the Master back in season 3 with a set of drumming in his brain, I had a feeling that this would eventually be explained – and it was. It was the Time Lords all this time. They created the Master in a whole set of odd time jumping confusion that, when you sit back and think about it, makes sense. It really is a great way to tie everything together.
That’s not to say there aren’t loose ends. There are a fair deal. What happened to the Master after he drove back the Time Lords? Speaking of, John Simm did a great job as the Master in this episode, even better than before. This episode showed us the most “human” side of the Master, and helped to de-villainze the character a bit. In fact, the best way I can describe it is this made him human. It was beautiful, although the sequence with the Doctor and the gun was a bit agonizingly long. And speaking of that sequence, who was the woman? The one that contacted Wilfred in the last episode? From what I can tell most people believe it to be his mother, but without a concrete explanation, we’re left to speculate until it is eventually (hopefully) revealed. Not to mention the loose threads from season 4, like the Doctor’s daughter/clone who is coming for him, and the reveal that the Doctor does marry a human woman (who a) knows his true name and b) met him in the future) (oh, and c) not to be a spoiler bum, but has been seen on the set of the new Who shoots). But these are things for our new doctor to find out.
Continued below
Of course, in an amazingly sad twist of fate, it wasn’t the Master who knocked four times after all – it was Wilfred, trapped in the nuclear isolation booth. The face on the Doctor when he realized what had happened was absolutely agonizing. It’s as if you could see his hearts literally breaking, thinking he’d come out of it scott free. And after ranting and raving, crying and screaming, he saves Wilfred, absorbing all the radiation and poisoning himself beyond the point of saving. And as the Doctor realizes there is no going back, it’s time to finally say goodbye.
Saying goodbye is never easy, and the show didn’t make it any easier. As the Doctor visited all the friends we’ve come to love over the past four seasons, we see how interconnected the show has been and how everyone has truly grown. Martha and Micky are out fighting familiar aliens, and Cap’n Jack is sitting in a bar with a few familiar faces itself. While the Doctor’s goodbyes are not exactly what I had hoped for, they are heartbreaking in their own way, as each character realizes why he has appeared. The worst, of course, being Rose. We all hoped Rose and he would have a real goodbye, but considering Rose is trapped in an alternate dimension, stuck with an exact human clone of him, I suppose it’s kind of impossible. This is why we instead see him meeting her before she meets him, all in a clever twist to tie the show back to it’s origins in 2005. Oh, it breaks the heart.
And then there is the actual almost suicidal death of the Doctor. As he finally succumbs to his fate inside the Tardis, his final words are “I don’t want to go.” Neither do we, Tennant. Neither do we. I would say that Tennant is by far the man we can define the Doctor as in our generation. When we think of the Doctor, we will always think of him, because he pioneered the role for a brand new generation, and everything about him was memorable. His fast speaking, his jittery gestures, his penchant for always being sorry (he’s so sorry)… these are things that I will miss as the show continues forward. I will miss them greatly. But there’s a part of me that understands why he has to go, and there is a bigger part of me that is glad he went out on the top of his game. While I’ll miss Tennant as the Doctor, I am glad we got to see him go out with such furious and explosive force. There were down moments of the show, but with this episode, I can definitely say that we will always remember his and Davies fantastic run as one of the most entertaining science fiction entries of the past decade.
In the end? A tremendous finale to one of the best science fiction shows of all time. The past 4 (can we call it 5?) seasons have been a gift to sci-fi fans everywhere.
(And hey, I’m sure they’ll still portray Tennant in the comic books!)
Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least point out the appearance by our new doctor, Matt Smith. A lot of people have been weary on him, and less than ecstatic. Not going to lie – I’m pretty excited for this spring. While I can’t say that Smith has filled Tennant’s shoes yet, I can at least say we’re off to a good start. He has some of the similar quirks already, with a fast speak and hyper attitude. His catch phrase isn’t as swinging, but I’m sure I could grow to enjoy “Geronimo.” And I love that, with all the people attacking Smith for the way that he looks, he took the time to call himself out as a girl when accessing his new body. He’s not Tennant, but with the show moving ahead with a new creative department, I’m glad he’s not. And the preview for the season is incredibly exciting, with high flying action, sword fights, interesting aliens (THE RETURN OF THE “BLINK” ALIENS!!!! OMFG!!!!!), and a pretty cute new companion. Welcome aboard, Matt Smith. I’m interested to see where we’re going next.
For the preview for the next series of Doctor Who in 2010, see below:
