"Tell you what...I think you're going to have a great year"
Ok so I finally, finally , FINALLY, finished Doctor Who: End of Time Pt. 2 even though I really didn't want to because that would mean that was it for David Tennant and the era of 10 but oh well, it was great fun while it lasted and even when it wasn't fun, but horribly heartbreaking, it was still awesome and he will always be THE Doctor to me.
And as for the last few minutes of the ep, all I can say is ROSE!!!
RoseRoseRoseRoseRose! ROSE! Oh how glad am I to see you again, pre-Doctor induced and getting sucked into an alternate universe angst! And how telling is it that she is last one he sees just minutes before his death and the only Companion proper that he speaks to face to face. And it occurs to me that all this time, he could have gone back in time to before he and Rose ever met and watched her from afar but probably didn't because it would break his hearts each time but now that he's dying, its the one last good thing he allows himself. And that he sees her at a time before she got mixed up in his mad-cap lifestyle, that the Rose he meets is less complicated, more innocent but still incredibly vivid and just so very Rose. This is the second (or first) time she speaks to the Doctor right before a regeneration so its fitting that she was nearby, that she is the last human he sees both times he dies.
Speaking of Ten's death...yeah I braced myself for it but it didn't soften the blow. It didn't help that he didn't get the comfort of a quick blast like 9 did or face his death with 9's frantic, manic nobility and sense of sacrifice. No, 10 has 3 episodes to angst about his impending doom. Then after the big battle, after bracing himself for the end, to wake up in the aftermath and realize that it didn't kill him and the tears of joy in his eyes when he realizes that he gets to live...only to have it snatched away when he hears Wilf knock 4 times on the glass door about to get roasted by radiation.
But he still does the right thing and he switches places with him, even though he knows its going to kill him in the stupidest way possible. And I love that he rages about it, screaming how its unfair and that he still has so much more to do.
Then when he realizes how much of a douche he sounds, he comes to his senses and mans up.
I get it; Its not like the first time the Doctor sacrificed himself, which was for Rose, for love. With Rose, he was taking a vortex into himself for a girl who had just wiped out an enemy fleet for him. This time around sort of lacks that heroic grandeur; it was just a fluke, an honest mistake that Wilf found himself in that glass room. The Doctor isn't giving up his life for humanity, for love- just for one old man who won't make a huge difference one way or another. And the Doctor knows this, knows that if he could and would do so much more good if he were allowed to live but he still goes into that room because he's the Doctor and if there's even one life he can possibly save, he's going to save it.
Also, RTD must have created Ten for the sole purpose of tormenting him. He's like the Time Lord equivalent of a voodoo doll that you stick pins into. Because not only is his dying set int stone for sure (after so many false alarms), he has him visit all his former companions which makes sense because not only is this a send off for Ten but also for the RTD era characters whom we have come to know since the new Whoniverse and whom after this we may never see again.
AND ROSE!!! ANGST-FREE, HAPPY ROSE! Did I mention her already? Well it bears repeating.
God, how sad is it that everyone the Doctor has loved has pretty much found someone else to love and be happy with (BTW Martha, weren't you engaged to someone else? What are you doing shacking up with Rose's leftovers? Whatever, smashing cornrows by the by) but the Doctor is alone and he dies alone? The shippy part of me wants to believe that that's also another reason why he went to see Rose at a time when she was by herself as opposed to snogging Mickey. Its bad enough to know that he can't visit the present time Rose without tearing two worlds apart but even if he did, she would most likely be barefoot and pregnant with 10.5's 1/4 Time Lord babies. He would want to see her at a time when she was happy, normal, and unlike the others, unaware that she's never going to see him again because she hasn't met him yet. I don't think he could bear it if he had to see that same look of goodbye on her face that he's seen on all his other companions.For her, their journey is only about to begin and for him, its the beginning of the end.
And in the end when after struggling painfully back to his TARDIS, the Ood serenading him with a funereal dirge, and he starts to regenerate, the desperation and regret on his face and when he says "I don't want to go." Its heartwrenching when you think about how human this Doctor was. 9 always tried to keep himself at a distance from people but 10 was the domestic one, the one who had to be around people and was losing his humanity by the inches by isolating himself. Ten's tragedy was that he just couldn't win- no matter how badly he wanted to be around people, he always ended up damaging them one way or the other. And when he shunned them, he became more of a God, a vengeful one at that, than the Doctor. No matter what he was always going to be alone.
I think the tragedy here is that for all the lives he's touched and all the people he's loved, this is how his story ends: him dying alone and heartbroken and afraid.
Then he regenerates into Matt Smith, and right from the start, he is cute and goofy and all "oh crap, I'm a girl and I'm still not ginger!!" and for a second I think its going to be all right then I remember what 10 said about how "he" dies even when he regenerates and even though the new Doctor may have his memories and may think fondly of his former lives and companions, he's a new man who may never say "Allons-y" again.
It was the Doctor's time and deep down, he probably knew it. He would never again let anyone get close to him again for fear of hurting them but the isolation he had imposed upon himself was wearing him down to the point of numbness. But with the end of his life comes a new beginning and another chance to do things better. And at least with the death of 10, we can hope that the Doctor known as the Lonely God could finally know some measure of peace.
Its been awesome, 10! At least we can pray that Eleven will somehow find a way to crash land on a parallel universe and hang out with your human double, where you guys can then double back to the past and hook up with Christoper Eccleston. Its a Christmas special waiting to happen.
And as for the last few minutes of the ep, all I can say is ROSE!!!
RoseRoseRoseRoseRose! ROSE! Oh how glad am I to see you again, pre-Doctor induced and getting sucked into an alternate universe angst! And how telling is it that she is last one he sees just minutes before his death and the only Companion proper that he speaks to face to face. And it occurs to me that all this time, he could have gone back in time to before he and Rose ever met and watched her from afar but probably didn't because it would break his hearts each time but now that he's dying, its the one last good thing he allows himself. And that he sees her at a time before she got mixed up in his mad-cap lifestyle, that the Rose he meets is less complicated, more innocent but still incredibly vivid and just so very Rose. This is the second (or first) time she speaks to the Doctor right before a regeneration so its fitting that she was nearby, that she is the last human he sees both times he dies.
Speaking of Ten's death...yeah I braced myself for it but it didn't soften the blow. It didn't help that he didn't get the comfort of a quick blast like 9 did or face his death with 9's frantic, manic nobility and sense of sacrifice. No, 10 has 3 episodes to angst about his impending doom. Then after the big battle, after bracing himself for the end, to wake up in the aftermath and realize that it didn't kill him and the tears of joy in his eyes when he realizes that he gets to live...only to have it snatched away when he hears Wilf knock 4 times on the glass door about to get roasted by radiation.
But he still does the right thing and he switches places with him, even though he knows its going to kill him in the stupidest way possible. And I love that he rages about it, screaming how its unfair and that he still has so much more to do.
Then when he realizes how much of a douche he sounds, he comes to his senses and mans up.
I get it; Its not like the first time the Doctor sacrificed himself, which was for Rose, for love. With Rose, he was taking a vortex into himself for a girl who had just wiped out an enemy fleet for him. This time around sort of lacks that heroic grandeur; it was just a fluke, an honest mistake that Wilf found himself in that glass room. The Doctor isn't giving up his life for humanity, for love- just for one old man who won't make a huge difference one way or another. And the Doctor knows this, knows that if he could and would do so much more good if he were allowed to live but he still goes into that room because he's the Doctor and if there's even one life he can possibly save, he's going to save it.
Also, RTD must have created Ten for the sole purpose of tormenting him. He's like the Time Lord equivalent of a voodoo doll that you stick pins into. Because not only is his dying set int stone for sure (after so many false alarms), he has him visit all his former companions which makes sense because not only is this a send off for Ten but also for the RTD era characters whom we have come to know since the new Whoniverse and whom after this we may never see again.
AND ROSE!!! ANGST-FREE, HAPPY ROSE! Did I mention her already? Well it bears repeating.
God, how sad is it that everyone the Doctor has loved has pretty much found someone else to love and be happy with (BTW Martha, weren't you engaged to someone else? What are you doing shacking up with Rose's leftovers? Whatever, smashing cornrows by the by) but the Doctor is alone and he dies alone? The shippy part of me wants to believe that that's also another reason why he went to see Rose at a time when she was by herself as opposed to snogging Mickey. Its bad enough to know that he can't visit the present time Rose without tearing two worlds apart but even if he did, she would most likely be barefoot and pregnant with 10.5's 1/4 Time Lord babies. He would want to see her at a time when she was happy, normal, and unlike the others, unaware that she's never going to see him again because she hasn't met him yet. I don't think he could bear it if he had to see that same look of goodbye on her face that he's seen on all his other companions.For her, their journey is only about to begin and for him, its the beginning of the end.
And in the end when after struggling painfully back to his TARDIS, the Ood serenading him with a funereal dirge, and he starts to regenerate, the desperation and regret on his face and when he says "I don't want to go." Its heartwrenching when you think about how human this Doctor was. 9 always tried to keep himself at a distance from people but 10 was the domestic one, the one who had to be around people and was losing his humanity by the inches by isolating himself. Ten's tragedy was that he just couldn't win- no matter how badly he wanted to be around people, he always ended up damaging them one way or the other. And when he shunned them, he became more of a God, a vengeful one at that, than the Doctor. No matter what he was always going to be alone.
I think the tragedy here is that for all the lives he's touched and all the people he's loved, this is how his story ends: him dying alone and heartbroken and afraid.
Then he regenerates into Matt Smith, and right from the start, he is cute and goofy and all "oh crap, I'm a girl and I'm still not ginger!!" and for a second I think its going to be all right then I remember what 10 said about how "he" dies even when he regenerates and even though the new Doctor may have his memories and may think fondly of his former lives and companions, he's a new man who may never say "Allons-y" again.
It was the Doctor's time and deep down, he probably knew it. He would never again let anyone get close to him again for fear of hurting them but the isolation he had imposed upon himself was wearing him down to the point of numbness. But with the end of his life comes a new beginning and another chance to do things better. And at least with the death of 10, we can hope that the Doctor known as the Lonely God could finally know some measure of peace.
Its been awesome, 10! At least we can pray that Eleven will somehow find a way to crash land on a parallel universe and hang out with your human double, where you guys can then double back to the past and hook up with Christoper Eccleston. Its a Christmas special waiting to happen.