Doctor Who 'The End of Time' a deliciously OTT send-off

The first episode of David Tennant‘s final Doctor Who story The End of Time aired on Christmas Day here in the UK and you had to have at least an occasional love of the overblown to enjoy it. I do and it was wonderful holiday fare. If you live abroad and don’t like spoilers ahead of seeing the thing yourself, don’t worry—I’ve no intention of revealing anything here that hasn’t already been revealed in the months prior to transmission.

John Simm was as fantastic in the role of The Master as we expected him to be, albeit playing a very different character this time round, tormented and damaged. An intergalactic cannibalistic chav in a tracksuit with superpowers, no less! His fiendish plan was incredibly ambitious and completely nuts.

Russell T Davies must have had a lot of fun writing the script, his primary rule appearing to have been ‘if it seems too much, it probably is, so chuck it into the mix’. Some will loathe it as a consequence, calling it a triumph of special effects and gimmicks over plot, but substance was there to be found beneath all the fireworks, if you looked. The show’s mythos is again being fundamentally rewritten and expanded, just as it was when Christopher Eccleston arrived as the Doctor in 2005.

The story as it is unfolding already seems to be drawing together every loose end of the RTD-produced era and as for the cliffhanger, it was fantastic although I knew from the moment I heard Timothy Dalton‘s introductory narration exactly what it was going to be. I’d predicted this day would come—of course I won’t say what happened—and I wasn’t disappointed. Even though the end reveal failed to shock me in the same way that the Daleks did back when they appeared out of the sphere to take on the Cybermen in Army of Ghosts, it nevertheless had me roaring with laughter and joy at the TV screen. It was a fanboy’s wet dream.

Tennant as The Doctor was as brilliant as ever, this time round acting every tired second of the Time Lord‘s 900+ years in conversation with companion Donna’s grandfather Wilf, revealing himself to be depressed and frightened at the prospect of his own imminent passing into history to make way for his eleventh incarnation. Already we feel sorry for him, and the pain of his departure come New Year’s Day when the second and final episode airs will be keenly felt across the nation. There will be tears. Lots of them.

Of course Matt Smith will be brilliant in the role of The Doctor but his will be a newly reconfigured TARDIS and he’ll have a new companion, new logo, new credit sequence, new spin on the theme tune. The Doctor’s view of himself and the Universe will be different. It won’t be the same show and it shouldn’t be. This is a series that has lasted so many decades precisely because of its flexibility.

So. Let’s gear ourselves up for New Year’s Day and prepare to say goodbye. Mr Tennant, we will miss you.

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• ‘Doctor Who: The End Of Time’ Review & Discussion (screenrant.com)
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