Doctor Who: The End Of Time is The End Of An Era

Posted Monday, January 4, 2010, 9:38 PM


A two part episode to end the year, also ended the reign of the Tenth Doctor, as David Tennant bows out of the iconic role he has so assuredly made his own.

It was, of course, an epic load of silly pseudo-science-fiction, an over-abundance of drama and melodrama, and a healthy dose of unnecessarily tortuous story call-backs. Couple that with celebrity cameos, enigmatic character cameos, and more cliffhangers you can shake a plunger at, and you have a typical Russell T Davies television feast.

It was as entertaining as you can hope for. Yes, it went over the top rather too many times, but that's no different than the original series, which any fan will tell you was an embarrassment as often as it was a triumph. Russell persists in thinking of Doctor Who as a show intended for kids, which though is true, doesn't mean you should be too patronising (like the Sarah Jane Adventures) or you should ignore the adult fans and the Whovians who obsess over it.

Which is why I love to listen to the episode commentaries that Russell participates in, where you get an insight into his intent, and why he makes some of his seemingly sillier story decisions. Really, he knows what his audience wants, and who they are. He is masterfully in control, of so many difficult aspects of writing and Producing scripts, and all he has to reign in is the absurdly over-the-top edge-of-your-seat disastrous cliffhangers. End of the world? End of Reality? End of Time? Who would want to wreak such havoc, realistically? What is the point of ending everything so you have nothing left to rule over?

Anyways, it was an excellent production, wonderfully acted, quite moving, and the appearance right at the end of the Eleventh Doctor was written by the new showrunner and head writer, Steven Moffat, and even those scant few lines of dialogue was marvellously entertaining. It bodes well for its future.

Which is only weeks away, as it is scheduled to return sometime around March or April.

I can't wait.

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