There's not much I can say about The End of Time, Part II that isn't spoilery.
There is, on the other hand, a WHOLE LOT that I can say that is. *g* EEEE where to start? To begin with, any finale RTD wrote that didn't make me want to stab him with a fork would have made me happy, so my standards weren't that high. Don't make me want to hurt you, RTD, and don't do anything to harsh my Doctor/Master squee beyond my ability to handwave, that was pretty much my wishlist for this thing. So it was kind of like asking Santa for a toy horse and being given a pony. A sparkly pony.
Let's start here: RTD has been watching Three and Delgado!Master, apparently. Not only do we get the proposal argument from Colony in Space in reverse, we get the Master seeming to have a moment of actually thinking about it. AND we get the thing Delgado!Master did, over and over again. Bring aliens/things from other dimensions/Chronovores (it occurs to me that the Time Lords here are kind of all of those things), and realize almost too late what he's done. And cooperate with the Doctor to fix things, which is what I REALLY wanted but was afraid to ask Santa for. "Get out of the way." *flail*
Yes, yes, the Master did casually order the Doctor killed at one point, but he DOES that. And then is never surprised when he turns up again later. Although this time he may have been surprised that the Doctor was batshit enough to jump out of a spaceship and practically splatter himself on the floor. And the Doctor had fun evading missles. I love the tone when he says they have to fight off the ENTIRE PLANET.
And did I mention "Get out of the way"? *vbg* I think Roger Delgado sort of posthumously got his wish, there.
I'm busy trying to decide if Rassilon was always batshit and the war made it worse, or if the war just broke him. I can't decide which I like better. And it makes me wonder if the analogy is Rassilon:Omega::Doctor:Master or Rassilon:Omega::Master:Doctor. I think I still lean toward the former, for entirely different reasons than I used to. It used to seem like a pretty simplistic good guy-bad guy analogy. Now it's a lot more interesting. Because now we've seen the Doctor go all, "the laws of time are mine to break." Which seemed very Rassilon-ish, even BEFORE we knew who Timothy Dalton's character was supposed to be. And it seems to me that breaking them to save people and breaking them to bring back Gallifrey are the same flavor of arrogance.
The woman in white? I'm stealing selenak's answer, there, and going with her being Susan. Romana stood up to Rassilon AGES ago and got zapped. While the Doctor was at Arcadia realizing what the Time Lords were becoming and deciding he had to kill them. *nods* (Time War fanon is happily rearranging itself in my head, along with the whole Rassilon and Omega thing. It's FUN.) Omega was one of the Doctor's heroes, and he discovered that he went insane and had to destroy him. Rassilon's sort of half a step down from God, and ditto. Even if (and I think this is likely) the Doctor and the Master rolled their eyes and mocked Rassilon a lot back at the academy, he's still a big deal.
All right, on to Wilf, who was pure awesomesauce. "Don't you dare, sir." Which somebody should have told him way back during the YoH. That whole scene was just lovely. And then the Doctor insisting that he'd never take the gun and then grabbing it and RUNNING when he realzes that the Time Lords are coming back? And the fury and fear and determination that that's NOT going to happen. Which kind of puts a new spin on the scene in Utopia where he's freaking out over "depends which one. They died, the Time Lords. They all died." Because Yana could have been Rassilon. Somebody write that, so I don't have to.
And oh, prophecy in fiction always, always bites you in the ass, doesn't it? "He will knock four times." Ouch. Getting back to Wilf, that scene just ripped my heart out. The Doctor's "It's my honor," after his bratty fit when he's trying to talk himself out of doing what he KNOWS he's going to do as soon as he realizes Wilf's still stuck in there, gyah. My love for Wilf really could not be any higher.
I didn't mind the drawn-out ending; I *like* that the Doctor went and saved Martha, Mickey, and Luke. I suspect he was bending the laws of time to do it, too, and it seemed very him. I liked the bit with Jack and Alonso, too. At first I wasn't crazy about that, but then I thought, The Doctor's wanting them both to live, and that made me happy. Same with the Martha/Mickey. I love them both and they seemed happy, so hey. Donna, gyah, I wanted something more for her than "settling," but all right. He does seem like a nice guy, at least. And Donna gets a wedding present from her dad, sorta. *tilts head* I think I can live with it all fine. (matsujo9 pointed out that the Doctor called her his best friend. AWW. *sniffle*)
And ELEVEN. Wow, I love him already. He seems Five-y to me, although someone said he may be Five and Seven combined, and how awesome would THAT be?
Let's start here: RTD has been watching Three and Delgado!Master, apparently. Not only do we get the proposal argument from Colony in Space in reverse, we get the Master seeming to have a moment of actually thinking about it. AND we get the thing Delgado!Master did, over and over again. Bring aliens/things from other dimensions/Chronovores (it occurs to me that the Time Lords here are kind of all of those things), and realize almost too late what he's done. And cooperate with the Doctor to fix things, which is what I REALLY wanted but was afraid to ask Santa for. "Get out of the way." *flail*
Yes, yes, the Master did casually order the Doctor killed at one point, but he DOES that. And then is never surprised when he turns up again later. Although this time he may have been surprised that the Doctor was batshit enough to jump out of a spaceship and practically splatter himself on the floor. And the Doctor had fun evading missles. I love the tone when he says they have to fight off the ENTIRE PLANET.
And did I mention "Get out of the way"? *vbg* I think Roger Delgado sort of posthumously got his wish, there.
I'm busy trying to decide if Rassilon was always batshit and the war made it worse, or if the war just broke him. I can't decide which I like better. And it makes me wonder if the analogy is Rassilon:Omega::Doctor:Master or Rassilon:Omega::Master:Doctor. I think I still lean toward the former, for entirely different reasons than I used to. It used to seem like a pretty simplistic good guy-bad guy analogy. Now it's a lot more interesting. Because now we've seen the Doctor go all, "the laws of time are mine to break." Which seemed very Rassilon-ish, even BEFORE we knew who Timothy Dalton's character was supposed to be. And it seems to me that breaking them to save people and breaking them to bring back Gallifrey are the same flavor of arrogance.
The woman in white? I'm stealing selenak's answer, there, and going with her being Susan. Romana stood up to Rassilon AGES ago and got zapped. While the Doctor was at Arcadia realizing what the Time Lords were becoming and deciding he had to kill them. *nods* (Time War fanon is happily rearranging itself in my head, along with the whole Rassilon and Omega thing. It's FUN.) Omega was one of the Doctor's heroes, and he discovered that he went insane and had to destroy him. Rassilon's sort of half a step down from God, and ditto. Even if (and I think this is likely) the Doctor and the Master rolled their eyes and mocked Rassilon a lot back at the academy, he's still a big deal.
All right, on to Wilf, who was pure awesomesauce. "Don't you dare, sir." Which somebody should have told him way back during the YoH. That whole scene was just lovely. And then the Doctor insisting that he'd never take the gun and then grabbing it and RUNNING when he realzes that the Time Lords are coming back? And the fury and fear and determination that that's NOT going to happen. Which kind of puts a new spin on the scene in Utopia where he's freaking out over "depends which one. They died, the Time Lords. They all died." Because Yana could have been Rassilon. Somebody write that, so I don't have to.
And oh, prophecy in fiction always, always bites you in the ass, doesn't it? "He will knock four times." Ouch. Getting back to Wilf, that scene just ripped my heart out. The Doctor's "It's my honor," after his bratty fit when he's trying to talk himself out of doing what he KNOWS he's going to do as soon as he realizes Wilf's still stuck in there, gyah. My love for Wilf really could not be any higher.
I didn't mind the drawn-out ending; I *like* that the Doctor went and saved Martha, Mickey, and Luke. I suspect he was bending the laws of time to do it, too, and it seemed very him. I liked the bit with Jack and Alonso, too. At first I wasn't crazy about that, but then I thought, The Doctor's wanting them both to live, and that made me happy. Same with the Martha/Mickey. I love them both and they seemed happy, so hey. Donna, gyah, I wanted something more for her than "settling," but all right. He does seem like a nice guy, at least. And Donna gets a wedding present from her dad, sorta. *tilts head* I think I can live with it all fine. (matsujo9 pointed out that the Doctor called her his best friend. AWW. *sniffle*)
And ELEVEN. Wow, I love him already. He seems Five-y to me, although someone said he may be Five and Seven combined, and how awesome would THAT be?