Wow . I have n’t been so eager for a Doctor Who sequence as I was for last dark ’s finale since the time - travel soap - clowning relaunched . And … well , it was a mixture of pure sappy fun and distraught fan - service . Not quite as fun as Jesus - Doctor last twelvemonth , and much , much too long . I found myself wishing the Sci Fi Channel would trend 20 minutes out of it after all . Only one doubtfulness remains unanswered : what part of this episode was supposed to have us bawling like babies ? raider and snark ahead .
I ’m indisputable people will put down last night ’s Doctor Who finale by calling it fanfic , but it was actually much bad – and fairly safe – than that term implies . Russell T. Davies bequeath no fannish button United Nations - pressed , and made so many ridiculous logical system - dud in his heroic storyline , that he practically elevate fanwank to a young artform . I could n’t help equate it to last year ’s close , which was also ridiculous but did n’t postulate a Ph.D. in Who - ology to watch .
There were things that happened in last night ’s episode that I learn about weeks , or months , ago . But I did n’t mystify them in sunrise freebooter , or downgrade them to “ half-baked rumors , ” because they just seemed too nonsensical . In particular , the Doctor ’s regeneration result in two David Tennants , one of whom is “ human . ” And then the “ human ” David Tennant is sentenced to go off with Rose and be her boytoy . I candidly cerebrate even Russell T. would n’t give Rose such a ridiculously contrived happy conclusion .
Doctor Who is taking a break next year , with just a few one - off specials instead of a full season . on the face of it , this is because David Tennant wants a year off , so he can star in Hamlet with Captain Picard . But it ’s pretty obvious , after this latest season , that the show needs a rest anyway . Even with Davies leaving and new showrunner Steven Moffat come on , a year off would give the show a much - require luck to rethink and recharge .
When Who came back in 2005 , it was fresh and different than anything that had come before , and it was also accessible to new looker . But of late , the show has been stuck in a tired formula , and it ’s give in to the enticement to cite its own past more and more often .
Take last dark ’s episode : I was startle by how persistence - heavy it was . It was like a clipping instalment . And I had vaguely wondered , in advancement , if the show would mention that Sarah Jane Smith had met Davros , back in 1974 . But the show did n’t just advert that fact – it went on and on and on about it , in one of Davros ’ 100 boring speech about fate and souls and stuff . ( Was it just me , or did Davros talk for about 20 bit ? ) Likewise , the episode did n’t have to bring in the fact that Torchwood ’s Gwen Cooper is wager by the same actor as the psychic maid in time of year one ’s “ The Unquiet Dead , ” but why not ? It ’s not as if there ’s a history that ’s being stopped deadened in its track while we obsess over minor fannish details or anything .
By the agency , I do n’t think it ’s an insult to call an episode like this “ fanfic . ” I love fanfic , I ’ve written fanfic before , and it fulfills an important intention . Fanfic is how we get to explore some of the quoin of a world that the “ prescribed ” canyon will never get to . It ’s precisely where you should have a scene where Davros meets Sarah Jane again and they talk about their first get together 34 long time ago . Fanfic also lets us have the form of well-chosen endings we wish our favourite reference could have , but which we know deep down would have us hoot with ridicule if they really materialise : like getting a wizard duplication of the Doctor for Rose to spend the rest of her liveliness with . ( Until she gets fed up of him following her around and talking like Catherine Tate . I give it a calendar week . )
So why do I say this almost elevated fanfic to an artform ? It ’s sort of the way Torchwood season one created the most brilliant crystalization of slashfic in television form , actually . It was every fanfic commonplace , from the multiple Mary Sues , to the shipper glad ending , to the Doctor suffering emotionally and receive suffer and ask comfort , to the endless processing of pocket-sized plot details from old stories . It ’s like Roy Liechtenstein turning cheesy comics panel into huge paintings – by blowing fanfic up to a huge size and making it big and more colourful than life , we see what ’s beautiful about it .
There was a lot to love about this episode , including Catherine Tate having the time of her life as a intercrossed Time Lady / human , Daleks shouting in German , the lunacy of the Haagen Dasz twist and the dwarf - star - necklace both turn out to be useless , K-9 showing up to save the day for a second base , the Annihilation Wave reality bomb being such a ludicrous plot machine , the nude Dr. - ringer , Captain Jack having some no - doubt - delightful phantasy involving the half - Time - Lord Donna and the two Doctors . There was a pretty great flamboyant finale bury in all that excess and fannish taradiddle .
Really , this should have been Donna ’s episode , all about her own Bad Wolf - ization . It ’s too unfit she got a bit lost in the crew of former comrade and random supporting characters . In exceptional , it ’s clear now that bring Rose back was a misunderstanding . She added almost nothing to the retiring few episode , except for one or two cool big - gun moments and some random shipper fresh fish . She was incapable of really say a all over sentence without sound as if she was about to swallow her own tongue , and she drain all the energy out of every scene she was in . The gritty , determined Rose I liked in “ The Satan Pit ” and a few other episodes was nowhere to be seen , and it was pretty clear that she was only there so she could get her favorite faux - Doctor at the remnant .
I ’ve mention that Donna has been growing on me this time of year , so I was bummed that she got screw over so badly . I entail , she gets a half hour of being a semi - Time Lord , which seems to affect imitating David Tennant ’s affectedness . And then she ’s dropped back right where she started , being the someone who does n’t even comment that the Earth got moved across the macrocosm and dropped into a hole in space / time . Not only that , but she ’s in a completely untenable situation : nobody can ever involve her what actually happened on her wedding sidereal day , or her head will set off . That ’s choke to do work out great .
And it ’s all the medico ’s fault , because he was too futile to reclaim normally . He wanted to keep his current precious hairstyle for a while , so he used the severed manus , and condemn Donna to being a tick time bomb for life . Oh , and did it finger like a Bad Wolf rehash to anyone else ? Plus the fact that we were told she would “ give way ” and then it turned out to be a metaphorical end , just like in “ Doomsday ” ?
That ’s what the Doctor should experience guilty about , not the fact that Sergey Brin give himself back in the Sontaran sequence . Who worry about Sergey Brin ? He was a schmuck , and he did n’t actually sacrifice his life for the Doctor , he fail to save the whole human raceway . The Doctor would have to be a collossal swellhead to think Sergey Brin died for him alone . ( Okay , I can believe that . ) After a dyad of twelvemonth without pretty much any eccentric development for the Doctor , it ’s a shade weird to reach for the shamed - Doctor schtick from Paul Cornell ’s Timewyrm : Revelation . Especially since we just see , two week ago , that everybody including Sergey Brin would have been toast without the Doctor . It ’s a no - winnings situation for Sergey .
And what was all that about the Dr. - dupe being emotionally scarred by ruin the Daleks ? I literally did n’t understand what the Alpha - Doc was going on about there . And the theme that the clone - Doc was in the same state that Christopher Eccleston ’s Doctor was in at the start of time of year one was also baffling – was n’t the 9th Doctor supposed to be mark by years of the Time War , and the devastation of his own people ? Not just ten minutes of pushing buttons to make some random Daleks explode ? And why was Beta - Doc scarred and not Alpha - Doc ? I know , I know , it ’s just an excuse to let Rose go off with the I - can’t - believe - it’s - not - the - Doctor . But it felt like the most random matter in a totally random installment .
in the end … I only have one doubtfulness about Dalek Caan : Why has nobody uploaded a funny rap picture to Youtube yet , featuring Grandmaster Melle Mel ’s whang from Chaka Khan ’s “ I Feel For You , ” only about Dalek Caan ? You know : “ Dalek Caan , lease me sway you , let me shake you Dalek Caan , permit me sway you , that ’s all I wanna do … ” Oh , I have one other question : prophecies ? Prophecies ? ? Is this Battlestar Galactica all of a sudden ? Seriously , it was just annoying when Davros keep back talk about Dalek Caan the prophet , but then the Doctor started doing it too . I get it that Dalek Caan saw the time maelstrom ( the same way Rose did , and the Master did ? ) so now he has special sixth sense . But does n’t the Doctor of the Church Who universe boast free will ? Is n’t the future still changeable ? Also , the idea that Donna ’s transformation was so important that echoes stretched backwards in time seemed a minute piffle . prison term - travel and timey - whimey are not wizardly . ( Well , maybe they are . But in the Doctor Who universe , they ’re not supposed to be . )
Okay , to sum up : You pretty much gestate one of RTD ’s season finales to be ridiculous , include a huge deus ex machina , and make no sense . And this one survive up ( or down ) to your expectations . But it was n’t nearly as much fun as the saltation - Master / Doctor - Gollum instalment last year . There was too much fend around and talking , for three or four hours . And too much fan - Robert William Service . And as for crying … I cried like a intoxicated toddler during Wall - E , but I mostly laughed during this ep . It really could have been 20 minutes shorter , and woul dhave been much good for it . What did you think ?
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