Previously: The Master came up with the worst plan of all time to take over the world – turn literally everyone into him. Also, Time Lords.
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The End of Time, Part 2
Kirsti: After a recap of what happened last time, we jump straight into the credits. Farewell, Russell T Davies era credits and title screen. I love you forever. (M: I’m glad the farewell tour is starting so early!)
DOO WEE OOO!
After the credits, we’re on Gallifrey. It’s burning. Timothy Dalton and his ridiculously clad companions stomp to a council meeting. He asks for news of the Doctor. He’s told that the Doctor has disappeared but that he will definitely use “the Moment” to destroy Daleks and Time Lords alike. I’m sure “the Moment” is some very serious and long established thing in Whovian canon, but all I can think of is this:
Anywho.
The one woman on the council suggests that maybe they should just let themselves die in the Time War because, like, the Time War really fucking sucks. Timothy Dalton murders her face off (M: That escalated quickly…) with a glove that reminds me of the one Faith’s Evil Watcher wore that one time.
Timothy Dalton is informed that there’s a prophecy that tells of two children of Gallifrey, locked in their final confrontation. They realise that it’s the Master and the Doctor, and the word “Earth” starts being thrown around a lot. It’s all very dramatic, but ugh just get to the point. Timothy Dalton says that maybe their salvation lies on Earth, and he cackles evilly, just in case the spitting didn’t give away the fact that he’s a villain.
Marines: OR THE MURDER GLOVE.
K: Fair point.
Speaking of Earth, the Master – the original one – has the Doctor tied to his Hannibal Lecter chair. It looks INCREDIBLY uncomfortable, probably on account of David Tennant is a good four inches taller than John Simm according to IMDB and so his legs don’t fit. Wilf is tied to a chair.
Various Masters from all over the world – the US, China, UNIT – all say that they’re ready and waiting for his command. He consults the Big Book of Villain Gloating (hi, old friend!) and gloats to the Doctor that he now has enough weapons and soldiers to turn Earth into a warship. Uh. Except for the part where it can’t move?? So you’d basically have to wait for people to invade you?! Also, you now can’t procreate because you turned all the women into you, so…??? (M: Worst plan is still definitely the worst.) (K: It really really is.)
Anyway, he gloats some more. Wilf tells him to STFU. He makes a joke about Wilf being the Doctor’s dad, and Wilf says “Yeah? Well, I’d be proud if I was!” Bless.
The Master demands to know why she hasn’t changed. Wilf says it’s something to do with the Doctor and a metacrisis, and the Master eye rolls that the Doctor has always had a thing for Earth girls. He tells his minions to trace the call. Wilf yells for Donna to run. She finds herself hemmed in by creepily grinning Masters. They close in, talking about how hungry they are.
Donna has more flashes of the season 4 monsters. Wilf tells her not to think about them, and she cries that her head hurts, that it’s hot and getting hotter. The panic in her voice rises, and then a wall of golden regeneration-style energy bursts out of her. It knocks down all the Masters around her, then Donna collapses.
Wilf calls out for Donna, but there’s no answer, obviously. The Master removes the Doctor’s gag. The Doctor smirks and says that he’d never have left his best friend without a defence mechanism. (M: It’s a wee bit convenient but IDC because he called her his BEST FRIEND. *cries*) (K: SRSLY) He assures Wilf that Donna’s fine and she’ll just sleep.
The Master demands to know where the TARDIS is, and the Doctor’s all “Bitch, please”. He tells the Master that he could be brilliant, that the two of them could travel the universe together, just marvelling at all its wonders. The Master wants to know if it would help the noise in his head. The Doctor insists that he can help. Wilf wants to know what noise they’re talking about, and it’s time for Look How Time Lords Fuck Up Their Children story time!
Mari: I feel like that could definitely be a sub-category of The Crack Whore Award for awesome story telling!
K: Absolutely.
Apparently at the age of 8, Time Lords are taken to the Untempered Schism, a rip in the fabric of reality where you can see the Time Vortex. It’s an initiation for them. We cut back to a small child on Gallifrey being made to stare into what looks a lot like a Stargate. The Master says that was where he first heard the never ending drums.
Cut to Timothy Dalton, staring at a hologram of the Untempered Schism and talking about how that’s where the Master first began. One of his minions says the drum beat was a symptom of insanity, but a seer taps the table with her fingernail in the appropriate rhythm. Timothy Dalton leans forward with realisation and says it’s the heart beat of a Time Lord.
The Master gets super excited about the idea that literally everyone on Earth can now hear the drum beats and laughs so hard that his skeleton flashes some more. (M: LMSO: laughing my skin off?) The Doctor has “Dude, WTF, you’re being weird” face and says that the gate wasn’t enough. The Master is still dying. The Master gives zero fucks, because now that he’s amplified the signal in his head six billion times, he can triangulate it.
He demands the TARDIS, threatening to kill Wilf if the Doctor doesn’t give it up. Wilf tells him not to give up a damned thing. The Master shouts that he’ll definitely 100% kill Wilf. “Actually, the most impressive thing about you is that after all this time, you’re still bone dead stupid...” the Doctor says. The Master gets bitch face. The Doctor informs him that he has six billion pairs of eyes and still couldn’t work out that one of the guards was an inch too tall. Said guard knocks out the Master with the butt of his rifle, then pulls off his helmet. It’s Male Scientist. I feel bad about not giving him a better nickname, but TOO LATE NOW!
He freaks about never having hit anyone before. Nina runs out to free Wilf and says they need to go, like, NOW. They decide that there are too many straps to undo and that they’ll just wheel the Doctor out. Naismith Master, watching on a live feed, sees the Doctor get wheeled past the camera and is all “THE FUCK”. The Doctor is not well pleased about being wheeled around.
The Master comes to and orders his guards to give chase. The Doctor gets wheeled down a flight of stairs and, in a moment of true teenage angst, yells “WORST. RESCUE. EVER.“
Back on Earth, the Master taps furiously at a keyboard, trying to locate them. Spaceship. The Doctor sonics the teleport to break the link, then wants to know where the flight deck is. Nina insists that they’re safe. The Doctor points out that the Master has access to all the world’s missiles, and she’s all “Right, fair point, maybe we should run now.” They scramble off to the flight deck, Wilf trailing behind. On Earth, the Master orders UNIT to find where the Doctor’s gone.
Nina rushes to the controls, but the Doctor sonics them, causing a spray of sparks. The whole ship goes dark, dead in the water (so to speak). UNIT’s scans find nothing. The Master is not well pleased. His troops shoot the shit out of the teleporter on Earth, so now there’s definitely no way back.
Back on the spaceship, Nina is hella pissed that the Doctor broke the ship for literally no reason given that they’re not being fired at. (M: …because they can’t find you now?) Male Scientist pissily says that they’re stuck in orbit. They both stomp off. Wilf says confidently that he’s sure the Doctor has a plan, but the Doctor just looks at him sadly. Womp.
Night falls on Earth, because apparently the writers forgot that timezones are a thing and it’s literally always nighttime for half the planet??? Whatever. The Master orders the entire population to close their eyes and listen, to locate the source of the noise. He hears it and realises it must have been created by someone.
Gallifrey. Timothy Dalton’s minions say that a signal of four beats has been sent back in time and planted in the Master’s head as a child. Now all they need is to get him to touch an object so that they can make a physical connection to break them out of the Timelock. Timothy Dalton takes a diamond from his staff and throws it at a hologram of Earth. On the spaceship, the Doctor sees a shooting star go whizzing past, heading for Earth.
The Master sees it too and sends his troops out to locate it. They find a dirty great crater, and a diamond in the middle of it. One of the troops reports in that it’s a Whitepoint Star, (M: conveniently sitting right on top of the dirt…) whatever that might be. The Master laughs in amazement, and his skeleton flashes some more. (M: LMSO.)
Meanwhile, Wilf is wandering the spaceship alone, calling out for the Doctor. The woman in white appears and asks if he’s taken up arms. He pulls out his service revolver and says he doesn’t know what to do with it. She tells him that this is the Doctor’s final battle, and he has to stand at arms or lose everything to the End of Time. Wilf says that the Doctor never carries guns and asks who she is. She tells him that “I was lost, so very long ago...” He looks down at his gun, and when he looks back up, she’s gone.
Cut to the Doctor, trying to repair the ship. Wilf sits down next to him and chuckles about being an astronaut and getting to see a view he thought he’d never see. He says sadly that his wife is down there and asks the Doctor if he thinks the dead got turned into the Master as well. The Doctor apologises, but Wilf sees the Middle East out the window. He starts reminiscing about serving in Palestine in 1948, as further proof that they turned Bernard Cribbins’ story into Wilf’s story.
Then he trails off and says that the Doctor probably doesn’t want to hear an old man’s stories. The Doctor points out that he’s 906, and Wilf’s all “WHUT” before saying that humans must look like insects to him. “I think you look like giants,” the Doctor says gently.
Wilf tells the Doctor to kill the Master first, given the whole prophecy thing. The Doctor says that’s how the Master started, and he can’t do that. He’s not innocent, he’s responsible for deaths. He thinks Time Lords live too long. Wilf tries to hand him the gun again, but the Doctor says he can’t do that. Wilf wants to know what will happen if the Master dies. The Doctor says the template will snap and everyone will go back to normal.
Wilf begs him not to put the Master before the billions of people on Earth. He tearfully begs the Doctor to take the gun and not die because “You’re the most wonderful man and I don’t want you to die.” SAME, WILF. SAME. “Never…” the Doctor replies as he pushes the gun away.
Mari: Cribbins is killing the game. Is it normal to be just kind of casually sobbing throughout their scenes? ‘Cause…
K: I mean, it’s normal for me, so…
The Master’s voice comes through the ship’s speakers, asking if the Doctor wants to know where the diamond came from. Nina is all “DUDE DON’T ANSWER, HE’LL FIND US”. The Master says that the diamond is a Whitepoint Star. The Doctor’s face is equal parts fear and hope. The Master says that he can use the star to increase the signal and turn it into a lifeline.
Wilf’s all “The fuck is he talking about?”. The Doctor tells him that Whitepoint Stars are only found on one planet in the universe: Gallifrey. Which means the Time Lords are returning. Wilf says that surely that’s a good thing, that his people are coming back. But the Doctor grabs Wilf’s gun and starts running.
The Master gives orders to set the machine to maximum. Apparently this will somehow turn the gate into a pathway?? IDEK, you guys. He puts the diamond in the middle of a clump of wires and the gate starts transmitting that same old four beat rhythm.
Up on the spaceship, Male Scientist says that the rhythm is on every single wavelength. The Doctor has “OH SHIT WE ARE SO FUCKED” face. Off on Gallifrey, Timothy Dalton gloats. He goes to the High Council of Time Lords, and asks them to vote – do they stay put and die? Or do they go floating off across the universe and live? Unsurprisingly, they choose to live.
Back on the spaceship, the Doctor is rushing around. Wilf is all “But you said the Time Lords were dead???”. Turns out, not so much. They were dead in the sense that they were locked in a bubble of time, unable to escape. The only thing that could get in or out was something that was already there. Like the signal in the Master’s head. Wilf says that the Doctor has always talked fondly of the Time Lords, but that’s just nostalgia goggles. Apparently they’re worse than any of his enemies. FUN.
He rushes around the ship powering up lasers and yelling orders at his “crew”. Nina’s all “This is totally pointless on account of the ship is dead”, but NOPE. He’s fixed that too. Course, that means that UNIT can see them again. Nina is not well pleased and tells him to get the fuck away from the controls. “There’s an old Earth saying, Captain. A phrase of great power and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need…” the Doctor says. Nina rolls her eyes a little and asks what it is. “ALLONS-Y!” he yells, and yanks back on the controls. The ship nose dives straight toward Earth.
Male Scientist wants to know why they’re going so fast, and the Doctor’s all “Uh, A PLANET FULL OF MISSILES, GO MAN THE LASERS ALREADY”. The Master gives the order to fire, and missiles come at them from all directions as they skim over the ocean. Wilf and Male Scientist man the lasers, and it’s VERY Star Wars. Like, stolen straight from the Millennium Falcon. Even the music gets a little bit Star Wars-y.
The Master fires more and more missiles. Wilf and Male Scientist shoot them down as the Doctor takes evasive manoeuvers. The last two missiles collide, blowing the glass out of the front windows of the ship. The Doctor ducks, then tells Nina to set a course for the Naismith mansion.
The Master is informed that they’re coming straight for him, but he gives zero fucks because the Time Lords are nearly here. Cut back to Gallifrey. Timothy Dalton walks past two Time Lords, their heads in their hands. He says that they’re the only two who voted against the Great Gallifreyan Relocation of 2010 and apparently their punishment is to stand like Weeping Angels??? No, seriously: “Only two stand against, and will stand as monument to their shame, like the Weeping Angels of old.”
WEIRD.
Mari: At least he didn’t hand them plungers and tell them to stand like Daleks? IDK.
K: True.
Anyway. He raises his staff and they all vanish in a glow. On Earth, the gate starts glowing. The spaceship flies over England at great speed. Nina’s all “Uh, should we be slowing down??”. The Doctor’s hair trembles dramatically in response, but he says nothing. The Master starts screaming with excitement about how close the Time Lords are. Back on the flight deck, Wilf is all “Hey, so you know how you said you were going to die? Are you planning on taking us with you?? Just asking…” The Doctor doesn’t respond, and Zoomy Cameraman zooms in on his dramatically trembling hair.
Mari: Honestly, he could probably spare a quick, “no” or “yes.” Rude.
K: RIGHT??? Come on, Ten. Reassure people.
Just as the ship is about to hit the mansion, the Doctor yanks up on the controls. Then he grabs Wilf’s gun, rips a panel out of the floor, gives Wilf an apologetic look, and JUMPS FROM THE SPACESHIP WITHOUT A PARACHUTE. DOCTOR. YOUR NAME IS NOT STEVE ROGERS. DON’T BE RIDICULOUS.
He falls from the sky and smashes through the dome of the gate room and lands hard on the marble floor, surrounded by broken glass. Again: Bro. You are not Steve Rogers. You do not have a magic shield to break your fall. STAHP. (This is why you need a companion…)
K: IDEK.
He tries to stand and fails. (M: Obviously.) Timothy Dalton is all “OH HAI, GUESS WHO’S ON EARTH NOW!”. Back in the spaceship, Wilf yells at Nina to land immediately because he’s not leaving the Doctor on his own. Gate room. The Doctor yells at Timothy Dalton that the Master isn’t saving them. The Master’s all “Yeah, he’s totally right” and goes on to say that turning himself into every human was fun and all, but he’d far prefer to turn himself into every Time Lord.
Timothy Dalton gets “bitch, please” face. He flicks his totally-stolen-from-Faith’s-evil-Watcher metal glove, and everyone on Earth reverts to their normal self. The Master is not well pleased. “On your knees, mankind,” Timothy Dalton says. Everyone kneels immediately for inexplicable reasons. The Master’s all “Okay, fine, but I STILL SAVED YOU”. Timothy Dalton gives zero fucks, because “The approach begins!“. The Master has no idea what he’s talking about. The Doctor snaps that the Master needs to listen better, because the prophecy said SOMETHING is returning, not SOMEONE. “It’s Gallifrey!” he shouts.
The whole planet starts shaking. Sylvia and Donna’s fiance run out into the street to look for her. Gallifrey appears in the sky, kind of like when the alien ships appeared in Independence Day. Wilf runs through the Naismith mansion, stuff collapsing around him. On the spaceship, Nina declares that it’s time to get the fuck out of Dodge because Earth is about to be knocked out of orbit. Male Scientist says “What about the Doctor?!”, but Nina gives zero fucks and flips a lever.
The Master wants the credit for Gallifrey’s return. Everyone else rushes from the room. Naismith stares in horror at Gallifrey in the sky. Wilf rushes into the gate room. He spots a scientist sealed in the control room and hurries into the other half of the booth to let him out. Wilf’s door locks. The Doctor groans.
The Master gushes about how great it is that the Time Lords are restored, but the Doctor points out that he wasn’t there at the end of the Time War. He snaps that this hasn’t just brought back the Time Lords and Gallifrey. It’s unlocked everything in the bubble, including the Daleks and a trillion and one other horrors, and that even the Time Lords can’t survive that.
Right on cue, Timothy Dalton announces their grand plan: to “initiate the Final Sanction“, which will rip the Time Vortex apart. The Master’s all “Um, WHUT??” Timothy Dalton says that the Time Lords will become creatures of consciousness only, freed from their bodies. The Master’s face says “Dude, I know I’m certifiable but THIS PLAN IS BATSHIT CRAZY”. (M: And that’s coming from the guy that turned everyone into him…) The Doctor tells the Master that he had to lock them in the time bubble to stop this truly fucked up plan. The Master changes his tune and strongly suggests that Timothy Dalton let him ascend too. Timothy Dalton’s all “EW NO” and starts to lower his magic glove.
Click.
All the music and background noise and shaky cam drops away, and all we’re left with is a click as the Doctor cocks Wilf’s revolver. He stands between Timothy Dalton and the Master, gun aimed squarely at Timothy Dalton. Wilf gets “OH SHIT” face. Timothy Dalton glares, and tells the Doctor to choose his enemy well, because there are lots of them and only one Master. The Master’s all “Yeah, but you could kill him and take over Gallifrey.”
The Doctor spins and points his gun at the Master, who’s all “DUDE. THE FUCK.” Then he realises that the link is inside his head and that if he dies, the Time Lords return to their bubble. He calls the Doctor a coward and tells him to shoot already. The Doctor spins back to Timothy Dalton, who says the Doctor will be a murderer regardless. The Doctor waivers. Wilf looks stressed. Same, dude. Same.
The Doctor’s Theme starts playing in the background, and the Doctor looks thoughtful. The female Time Lord who voted against this terrible plan lifts her head from her hands to stare at the Doctor. It’s the woman in white that Wilf’s been seeing. There has been much speculation in the fandom about who this Time Lady is. General consensus is that she’s the Doctor’s mother, but Russell T Davies has said that she could also be his daughter or his granddaughter, Susan. WHO KNOWS. (M: He’s trying to mislead us. SHE’S DEF MOMMY.) She’s significant, anyway. And the Doctor gets teary when he sees her.
He spins again, pointing his gun at the Master. “Get out of the way,” he says. The Master gives a little smirk and dives to one side. The Doctor shoots and the Whitepoint Star explodes. The link is broken. Timothy Dalton is hella pissed, and says the Doctor is going down with them. The Doctor says that he knows, resigned to his fate. The mystery woman covers her face again. Timothy Dalton raises his stolen glove and points it at the Doctor.
“Get out of the way...” says the Master. The Doctor spins towards him in surprise. The Master rubs his hands together and shoots a lightning bolt straight at Timothy Dalton. It hits him in the chest, and the Master screams that Timothy Dalton did this to him, turned him into the fucked up person that he is. Timothy Dalton is forced to his knees. He and the Time Lords fade into nothing, taking the Master with them. Gallifrey vanishes from the sky. Everyone rejoices.
On the marble floor, the Doctor is astonished. “I’m still alive,” he says in tearful relief. But no. Four knocks sound. The Doctor’s face crumbles, relief turning to disbelief.
The knocks come again. And again. He pulls himself up and we see that it’s Wilf, knocking from inside the control booth. The Doctor looks heartbroken. Wilf asks if it’s safe for him to come out now that everyone’s gone because the machine making weird noises.
The tinkly piano tinkles as the Doctor sadly says that the Master left it running and now it’s gone into overload. All the excess radiation will be vented into the control booth. Touching any of the controls would set it off, as would using the sonic screwdriver. Wilf apologises and says to just leave him. The Doctor gets sarcastic and is all “Oh, suuuure. I’ll leave you. Because you just HAD to go and get stuck”.
Wilf insists that he’s old and he’s had a good life. The Doctor – pure Dark Doctor at this point – tearfully yells that it’s true, that Wilf’s not even remotely important, and that he could do so much more. But this is his reward. He screams that it’s not fair. It’s a brilliant and heartbreaking piece of acting from David Tennant, and I have to stop and find tissues now. (M: Same.)
Then he turns and looks sadly at Wilf. “Oh, I’ve lived too long...” he says shakily. He walks towards the control booth, though Wilf begs him not to. “Wilfred. It’s my honour…” the Doctor says. I definitely don’t burst into tears. Nope. The Doctor goes into the booth and pushes the lock/unlock button. Wilf stumbles free. The Doctor doubles over in pain as the radiation hits him. He ends up on the floor, clutching his head. Then the machine shuts down.
Wilf watches in astonishment as the Doctor pulls himself upright. The Doctor says the system’s dead and that he absorbed all the radiation. He walks out of the booth and Wilf comments on how covered in cuts he is. The Doctor rubs his hands over his face and the cuts disappear. Wilf is amazed. “It’s started...” the Doctor says. Wilf hugs him tearfully. Same, bro. Same.
Chez Noble. Donna is out cold on the sofa. Her fiance says she’s freezing cold and demands that Sylvia try calling 999 again. But apparently it’s engaged on account of the giant planet in the sky. Sylvia turns as she hears the TARDIS vworp vworping out on the street. Donna opens her eyes. “What happened? Did I miss something? Again??” she says pissily. Sylvia grins and runs out into the street to see Wilf and the Doctor emerge from the TARDIS. The Doctor finds it disconcerting that she’s smiling. He tells Wilf that this isn’t goodbye and that they’ll see each other one last time. Wilf asks where he’s going. “To get my reward…” the Doctor says. He steps back into the TARDIS.
Cut to Martha Jones (!!!!) carrying a giant gun and sprinting away from who knows what. She makes her way to some cover, and Mickey (!!!!) is there waiting for her. He bitches that he told her to stay behind and she snarks that he clearly needed help. They’ve gone freelance. Also, they’re married. A Sontaran has a clear shot at them. The Doctor appears and smacks the Sontaran in its exhaust vent, saving them both. Martha spots him, and they rush towards him excitedly. The Doctor nods at them sadly and walks away. Mickey and Martha hug each other as the TARDIS vworp vworps away.
Cut to Luke Smith talking on the phone to one of his mates about how bonkers Christmas was. He crosses the road without looking and nearly gets hit by a car. The Doctor saves him. Luke’s all “OMG IT’S YOU!”. The Doctor walks away without a word, and Luke screams for Sarah Jane. She looks excitedly at the Doctor, then tears up as she realises why he’s there. He waves sadly and disappears back into the TARDIS. She smiles fondly.
Star Wars Cantina only not. Captain Jack Harkness (!!!!) sits at the bar, drinking alone. A bartender presents him with a piece of paper, saying it came from a guy across the bar. Jack looks up to see the Doctor standing there. Jack looks confused. The Doctor nods at the paper. Jack opens it and it says “His name is Alonso“. Jack’s still confused. The Doctor nods at the guy who’s just sat down next to Jack and IT’S RUSSELL TOVEY!! WHO I LOVE!! (Otherwise known as Alonso from that terrible Titanic Christmas episode with Kylie Minogue) The Doctor and Jack salute each other, and Jack turns his flirting powers on Alonso.
(Have I over-giffed this section of this post? Yes. Do I give a fuck? NO. Y’ALL NEED TO CRY AS MUCH AS I DID WRITING THIS AND FAREWELL GIFS ARE THE BEST WAY TO ACHIEVE THAT.)
Cut to a bookstore where a woman named Verity Newman is signing her new book, A Journal of Impossible Things. She tells the guy whose book she’s signing that it wasn’t just a story. She found her great grandmother’s diary, and it’s full of how she fell in love with a man named John Smith in 1913 and he was a visitor from another planet. She’s the spitting image of her great grandmother, Nurse Redfern (surprising that, given it’s the same actress). The next person wanting a book signed is the Doctor. Verity laughs a little because that’s the name her great grandmother’s alien lover used. “Was she happy in the end?” the Doctor asks sadly. “Yes. Yes, she was. Were you?” Verity replies. He smiles and walks away. (M: This is probably the stupidest farewell and I’m still crying.) (K: Same, girl)
Wedding bells ring. It’s Donna’s wedding day. This time, there were no alien invasions and she’s gotten married successfully. Wilf and Sylvia watch as she and her friends have photos taken. Sylvia turns and sees the Doctor and the TARDIS just outside the church gate. She grabs Wilf and they rush over. Wilf tells the Doctor that the Naismiths have been arrested. He asks who the mystery woman was, but the Doctor just looks fondly at Donna in her wedding dress.
“I just wanted to give you this. Wedding present,” he says. He goes on to say that he never carries money, so he popped back in time and borrowed a pound off a very nice man named Geoffrey Noble, clearly Donna’s father. Sylvia tears up. Wilf mouths a thank you. He and Sylvia head back to Donna and hand her the envelope. It’s a lottery ticket. Donna’s all “Ew, what a cheap present!” before saying that she might get lucky because it’s a triple jackpot this week… Sylvia and Wilf grin at each other. Wilf tearily salutes the Doctor, who walks back to the TARDIS. Wilf breaks down. Same, bro. Same.
The TARDIS lands on the Powell Estate and I literally start sobbing. Rose and Jackie walk through the snow, complaining about how they’ve missed midnight. They wish each other a Happy New Year and Jackie heads home while Rose turns to go to Mickey’s place. The Doctor watches Rose from the shadows. Unexpectedly, he groans as the regeneration starts to hit.
Rose turns and spots him. She asks if he’s alright. He says he’s fine. She says that maybe it’s time he went home, and wishes him a happy new year with a grin. She turns to go, but the Doctor asks what year it is. Rose is all “U WOT M8?” before informing him that it’s the 1st of January, 2005. “2005. Tell you what. I bet you’re going to have a really great year…” he says. Rose grins at him and goes on her way.
The Doctor makes his way inside the TARDIS. He strips his coat off and tosses it aside, then watches as his hands starts to glow with regeneration energy. He flips the controls one more time, vworp vworping off into space. “I don’t want to go,” he says suddenly and tearfully. I reach for the tissues again because I literally cannot deal with this any more.
But it’s too late. He’s regenerating. The force of the regeneration makes the TARDIS explode around him, and honestly? Seeing the TARDIS burn and fall apart is almost as heartbreaking as seeing David Tennant disappear and Matt Smith take his place. (M: It’s such a powerful image, especially knowing that so many things change in this transition.) The Eleventh Doctor does the usual check-that-I-have-all-the-appropriate-body-parts check, then realises that he’s crashing. The TARDIS hurtles towards Earth and Eleven whoops excitedly. “Geronimo!” he screams, and we fade to black.
This episode breaks me into approximately ten (no pun intended) thousand pieces. It’s a fitting end for the Tenth Doctor, in which he turns away from his Dark Doctor tendencies of the specials and returns to what he does best: saving people. I love that he has time to say goodbye to all the characters we’ve known and loved over the five years of Tennant’s run. I love that we see so many different facets of Tennant’s acting ability here. I love that the Master almost gets to redeem himself in the end, albeit in a fucked up way. I love that Wilf plays such a critical role. And I love that “I don’t want to go” line, because it’s as much David Tennant as it is the Tenth Doctor.
Mari: You’ve said it pretty much all, but I’ll just add my +1 on a couple of things: hearing those four knocks after the Doctor thinks he’s safe and that he’s made it is simply heartbreaking. You think that the four knocks are explained– the heartbeat of a Time Lord– and then it shows up, quiet and simple but loaded with the eventuality of Ten’s death and replacement.
It was moments like these and basically any time Ten and Wilf were talking and the farewell tour at the end that make this episode so wonderful because all the stuff in between with the Master and Timothy Dalton was #meh. I can’t even care that the Time Lords come back because they are gone again before we know it and their terrible plan was just as terrible as all of the plans. Instead, we just bask in the glory of Tennant’s acting and the many facets of what made him a wonderful Doctor: his love of people and Earth and his bouncing around without a plan and his almost silliness; all of it, always with that undercurrent of sadness and darkness. His two sides– one that says that people look like giants to him and one that can look at Wilf and say he’s unimportant. His side that knows he could do greater things still but that admits that he’s lived too long. That was Ten and Tennant was amazing at the balance. <
I love Ten. I also loved Eleven, but I never made it to the end of his era and I know things get questionable. I loved Rose and Donna and Martha, but also the Ponds are coming! It’s bittersweet, this end, as it always is.
K: Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s 1.19am and I have to go cry myself to sleep.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
