Doctor Who: The end of Tennant's tenure
And so ends David Tennant's tenure as Doctor Who. So also ends Russell T. Davies' tenure as the show's main writer and guiding light. I resist and am saddened by Tennant's departure as I'm really fond him, but I think it's time for RTD head out the door.
The End of Time Parts I and II, like so many RTD scripts, had tentpoles of awesomeness connected loosely and haphazardly by fishnets of badness. The good bits just shined: Wilf's work behind the scenes to keep Earth safe, the scene between the Doctor and Wilf reflecting about age and experience, the Doctor's brief exchange with Rose about 2005 being a great year for her, the most intimate moments (and I use that phrase devoid of any slash implications) between the Doctor and the Master, and the wonderful moment of the Doctor stepping in to accept his own death, curled up in pain, absorbing radiation to save Wilf. It's always the character stuff that RTD gets right.
It's the plots with holes the size of bus tunnels that make me crazy, the story bits that screw with continuity and make no sense, the lack of respect for the audience and the universe that I won't miss. I hated the Master turning the human population into clones of himself, though I admire John Simm for going with it whole hog the way he did. I was so puzzled by the appearance of Gallifrey directly above Earth that I was thrown out of the story trying to figure out why physics just stopped working when a new planet-sized source of gravity appeared out of nowhere--or why Gallifrey appeared above Earth rather than exactly where it had always been before. And then I had to stop and wonder--the Doctor has constantly asserted that Gallifrey burned at the end of the Time War--it was gone; he never said anything about it being time-locked. WTF???
I thought that Tennant, Bernard Cribbins, Timothy Dalton, and Simm all did wonderful work with what they were given. It's a shame that there was never actually a proper set-up or introduction to Dalton's character (whom I assume was Rassilon based on a throw-away comment the Doctor makes late in Part II); such an introduction would have been helpful for those fans like me who know Who best in its current incarnation. Nevertheless, Dalton was terrific, raging at fate, at the Doctor, certain of his power in a situation in which he was truly powerless. Kinda awesome. I wonder if we'll see him in the upcoming season.
I really didn't like the tour of companions at the end. The script presented it as the Doctor saying goodbye, but what must it have done to Sarah Jane, who had already said her final farewell? How could it have made Martha feel, or Mickey, who couldn't possibly have understood why he just looked at them and left? The only farewell I was happy with was the encounter with Rose, whom he met in this sequence before she'd actually met Nine. It was sweet. But the rest of it felt self-indulgent on the writer's part and a little out of character for the Doctor.
So what did I think of the episode over all? Not bad, not great. It has its moments, but there was too much of the RTD bombast and nonsense--just enough to make me not regret his departure even though I appreciate the enormity of what he accomplished in bringing Doctor Who back to the screen.
I want to take a moment to say goodbye to David Tennant as the Doctor. I wasn't sure about him when I heard he was taking over for Eccleston, whom I flat-out adored. But he won me over in mere moments during that 2005 Children in Need Special. His looks didn't hurt my willingness to accept him, but it was his performance, full of heart and steel, that won me over. Though I wrote my longest piece of fanfic about Nine, I wrote more pieces overall about Ten, most of which sprung out of nuances in Tennant's performance almost more than they did from the stories. His Doctor has always felt things deeply and always loved a little more than he should have. Weirdly, I'll miss his eyebrows--almost comic-book in their definition, especially when the Doctor curled them in thought or concern. It's like you can see the stroke of a pen in that brow, an elongated S over an intense eye and a mouth clamped shut in concentration. He brought the look of an ancient mind to a youthful face and I bought the dichotomy completely.
Thanks, Mr. Tennant, for a wonderful incarnation of the Doctor. Matt Smith may be filling your shoes, but he'll never really take your place.
---------------------------------------------
Subjects about which I want to write:
* Doctor Who: The End of Time Part II
* Demons, a new supernatural series on BBCA
* The new part-time job
* When they're interviewing you, you're interviewing them
* Book review/report on Ken Scholes' novel Lamentation
* kijjohnson's surprise party
* Upcoming travel
* Missing the ghosts of early American history
* The new season of Big Love
* Book review/report on Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
More anon...
The End of Time Parts I and II, like so many RTD scripts, had tentpoles of awesomeness connected loosely and haphazardly by fishnets of badness. The good bits just shined: Wilf's work behind the scenes to keep Earth safe, the scene between the Doctor and Wilf reflecting about age and experience, the Doctor's brief exchange with Rose about 2005 being a great year for her, the most intimate moments (and I use that phrase devoid of any slash implications) between the Doctor and the Master, and the wonderful moment of the Doctor stepping in to accept his own death, curled up in pain, absorbing radiation to save Wilf. It's always the character stuff that RTD gets right.
It's the plots with holes the size of bus tunnels that make me crazy, the story bits that screw with continuity and make no sense, the lack of respect for the audience and the universe that I won't miss. I hated the Master turning the human population into clones of himself, though I admire John Simm for going with it whole hog the way he did. I was so puzzled by the appearance of Gallifrey directly above Earth that I was thrown out of the story trying to figure out why physics just stopped working when a new planet-sized source of gravity appeared out of nowhere--or why Gallifrey appeared above Earth rather than exactly where it had always been before. And then I had to stop and wonder--the Doctor has constantly asserted that Gallifrey burned at the end of the Time War--it was gone; he never said anything about it being time-locked. WTF???
I thought that Tennant, Bernard Cribbins, Timothy Dalton, and Simm all did wonderful work with what they were given. It's a shame that there was never actually a proper set-up or introduction to Dalton's character (whom I assume was Rassilon based on a throw-away comment the Doctor makes late in Part II); such an introduction would have been helpful for those fans like me who know Who best in its current incarnation. Nevertheless, Dalton was terrific, raging at fate, at the Doctor, certain of his power in a situation in which he was truly powerless. Kinda awesome. I wonder if we'll see him in the upcoming season.
I really didn't like the tour of companions at the end. The script presented it as the Doctor saying goodbye, but what must it have done to Sarah Jane, who had already said her final farewell? How could it have made Martha feel, or Mickey, who couldn't possibly have understood why he just looked at them and left? The only farewell I was happy with was the encounter with Rose, whom he met in this sequence before she'd actually met Nine. It was sweet. But the rest of it felt self-indulgent on the writer's part and a little out of character for the Doctor.
So what did I think of the episode over all? Not bad, not great. It has its moments, but there was too much of the RTD bombast and nonsense--just enough to make me not regret his departure even though I appreciate the enormity of what he accomplished in bringing Doctor Who back to the screen.
I want to take a moment to say goodbye to David Tennant as the Doctor. I wasn't sure about him when I heard he was taking over for Eccleston, whom I flat-out adored. But he won me over in mere moments during that 2005 Children in Need Special. His looks didn't hurt my willingness to accept him, but it was his performance, full of heart and steel, that won me over. Though I wrote my longest piece of fanfic about Nine, I wrote more pieces overall about Ten, most of which sprung out of nuances in Tennant's performance almost more than they did from the stories. His Doctor has always felt things deeply and always loved a little more than he should have. Weirdly, I'll miss his eyebrows--almost comic-book in their definition, especially when the Doctor curled them in thought or concern. It's like you can see the stroke of a pen in that brow, an elongated S over an intense eye and a mouth clamped shut in concentration. He brought the look of an ancient mind to a youthful face and I bought the dichotomy completely.
Thanks, Mr. Tennant, for a wonderful incarnation of the Doctor. Matt Smith may be filling your shoes, but he'll never really take your place.
---------------------------------------------
Subjects about which I want to write:
* Doctor Who: The End of Time Part II
* Demons, a new supernatural series on BBCA
* The new part-time job
* When they're interviewing you, you're interviewing them
* Book review/report on Ken Scholes' novel Lamentation
* kijjohnson's surprise party
* Upcoming travel
* Missing the ghosts of early American history
* The new season of Big Love
* Book review/report on Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
More anon...