"Look at us now..."
Okay, I did spend most of yesterday afternoon babbling about The End of Time, so really I should have got that out of my system. But as of yet... no, I haven't. So, after watching it for a third time, and my thoughts on it reaching a new level of coherence, I thought I would add some more critique/general squeeing. I might amalgamate these two posts later into one mega-review, but for now: more babbling under the cut:
Okay, this review shall have sections, just to prove how worryingly anal coherent I am :). First of all:
1) The Doctor:
My main worry about this final two-parter, once I knew that the Master was making a bid for resurrection, was that David Tennant would be acted off the screen-- a tad unfair since this is his last, glorious swansong. Thankfully, however, this just isn't the case. David Tennant more than steps up to plate: he continues the theme from Waters of Mars and acts his wee acting socks off, despite some fairly disappointing lapses into expositional dialogue in the first fifteen minutes or so... but we all know my feeling on expositional dialogue.
Truth is, DT manages to keep the Doctor in the centre of the action, even if a lot of the action is actually happening around him in this episode-- or, more accurately maybe, in spite of/because of him. Nasty timey-wimey effect there. As the Ood said: "You should not have delayed, Doctor." The desperation of the Doctor not to die comes through all throughout this episode, which is a relief considering how light-hearted the opening sequence on the Ood-Sphere seemed when it was shown on CiN. Now that sequence seems far more like forced nonchalance, which intensifies into despair in that crummy little cafe with Wilf (that bitter exchange of"Merry Christmas" almost breaks my heart) through to the last straw, as he swallows what remains of his pride and asks the entirely unhinged Master for help in stopping the impending, unnamed disaster (a suggestion even the Master finds ridiculous). Because of all this, there was hardly a glimmer of the Doctor's usual humour-- that was a shame, 'cos DT's comic-timing is quite perfect and such a part of his Doctor, but I think it was the right choice for the episode and for the character. The humour really mostly comes from outside sources (Wilf, the Silver Cloak, the Vinvocci), and it works better for that.
Oh, and just a note: DT and JS's electric double-act. They had hardly any scenes together in Sound of Drums or Last of the Time Lords, but I really hope RTD is going to make up for that now. I shall be praying. These two are just perfect, all the time.
2) The Master:
Horrifying, isn't he? I've mentioned this before: how different the character would be now he's back and he's not in charge of the universe. For precedent, compare the Master in an episode like The Keeper of Trakaan and something like Terror of the Autons. Whereas at the end of season three, the Master was living it up as Lord and Master of the planet, entirely in charge, in The End of Time all he's got left is his mad desperation not to die. It's his biggest motivator and now it's his only motivator. He has nothing else. There was always going to be a massive character-shift there, but RTD has taken that idea and just pushed it as far as it could go and then just a wee bit more. The insatiable appetite and off-screen cannibalism is fairly horrible though, isn't it? Kudos to JS for throwing himself into it. Have I mentioned how much I love John Simm forever? Yeah? Ok, well, I just thought I would mention it again :D. I love how as soon as the Master has been in that room with the Immortality Gate for more than five minutes he has a whole new nefarious plan worked out in his head. That's very him. As soon as that happens, all the raw, psychotic craziness seems to take a back-seat, and he's back to being that grinning Machiavelli we all know and love, albeit in a straightjacket. It's very telling, I guess, that he doesn't call himself 'The Master' until he puts his scheme into operation. In Utopia, he re-established the title in the space of a sentence or so.
Of course, that scene with the Doctor and the Master in the 'wastelands' is one of my favourites. It's about the closest they've got so far to being equals: both utterly worn-out and desperate, tearing at the dirt. I find it glorious :). RTD mentions in the commentary how difficult it is to write the Doctor and the Master together, because they're both so volatile and there's so much history there that they can't go for long without killing each other-- and I'm so glad he writes them that way, otherwise I wouldn't believe it. But, oh gosh, there must be more of the last of the Time Lords :).
3) Wilf:
A relatively minor character doing a splendid job of stepping up to the mark and actually holding a whole enticing strand of stroyline all of his own. What is going on with Wilf and that 'angel' woman who seems so fond of wars and guns and not telling the Doctor anything? There must be masses more storyline for him, and I'm glad about it too. Any more regular companion (Donna, say) and the Doctor would have to do things entirely differently wouldn't he? Whereas at the moment, although they're in cahoots, the Doctor is almost entirely a free-agent, zipping off when he feels like it while only mildly puzzling about who/what Wilfred Mott's significance might actually be. Bernard Cribbins is awesome. If only Wilf would put the gun away! Guns never helped anyone!!
4) Lucy Saxon:
I must mention her, because I love her and was so glad that she finally got a proper ending. The Master's resurrection is probably the most cliched scene of the ep-- so much so I have to take off my adult-critiquey glasses and just leave this one to the kids-- but I do love that line an exceptional amount:
"Till death do us part, Harry!".
Oh yeah. She wins :).
5) The Naismiths:
"Idiots and fools" most certainly. The Time Lords do tend towards sanctimony, but that judgement is pretty much spot-on. Creepy, creepy family going on there. Although; love the gate-room set :). That shot of them in the halfway-through montage, sitting in their big silver thrones and sipping champagne like rulers of the universe just screams EPIC FAIL in their near-future :). Although I guess they've kind of ceased existing now haven't they? Just like everyone else...
6) Pacing:
Less character development now, more story-telling. Pacing is always a big issue for me-- I'm not prepared to be bored while watching a DW ep and, to be fair, I wasn't-- but The End of Time does seem to drag a bit. i think this is because there is so much that needs to be set-up. All the main players manouvred into place etc. There are three parties performing exposition at the start of this ep: the Narrator, the Ood and the Doctor, all filling in different levels of the story. It's a big setup. Thank goodness it's a two-parter, I guess. We can only hope all these rather disparate strands tie together in the end, eh? I'm kind of reserving judgement until I see the next part.
7) The Finale:
So, if there's that many John Simms in the world, surely there's a spare one for me ;)?
Utterly mad, isn't it? The concept I don't really have a problem with-- I mean, the idea of the entire human race becoming the Master is terrifying, really, it is-- but it was such a big set-piece for the end of the episode, and all the green-screen shots were massively overdone, and in the end I didn't know whether they were going for laughs or not. Yeah, a lot of the Master's stuff is like that, but, to quote the Doctor: "this is on a massive scale". I hope we don't focus too heavily here next ep. Which seems fairly improbable since there's now around 6.2 billion Masters... but I really don't want the next ep to veer anywhere near farce territory...
8) The Time Lords:
Yeah, this is the point where I go unashamedly fan-girly. Everytime I see them I start jumping up and down. The Time Lords are back, and they look fantastic; and Sir Tim of the Dalt is perfect as the predictably unstable President :); and that extra scene, with the decimated Citadel and the desperate and borderline-psychotic Senate? Oh... EPIC WIN :D.
I have no idea how next week will pan out. I hope RTD doesn't let me down... C'mon Russell; give us a win. Live up to The Master's promise:
"It's going to be... spectacular."
xxx
Okay, this review shall have sections, just to prove how worryingly anal coherent I am :). First of all:
1) The Doctor:
My main worry about this final two-parter, once I knew that the Master was making a bid for resurrection, was that David Tennant would be acted off the screen-- a tad unfair since this is his last, glorious swansong. Thankfully, however, this just isn't the case. David Tennant more than steps up to plate: he continues the theme from Waters of Mars and acts his wee acting socks off, despite some fairly disappointing lapses into expositional dialogue in the first fifteen minutes or so... but we all know my feeling on expositional dialogue.
Truth is, DT manages to keep the Doctor in the centre of the action, even if a lot of the action is actually happening around him in this episode-- or, more accurately maybe, in spite of/because of him. Nasty timey-wimey effect there. As the Ood said: "You should not have delayed, Doctor." The desperation of the Doctor not to die comes through all throughout this episode, which is a relief considering how light-hearted the opening sequence on the Ood-Sphere seemed when it was shown on CiN. Now that sequence seems far more like forced nonchalance, which intensifies into despair in that crummy little cafe with Wilf (that bitter exchange of"Merry Christmas" almost breaks my heart) through to the last straw, as he swallows what remains of his pride and asks the entirely unhinged Master for help in stopping the impending, unnamed disaster (a suggestion even the Master finds ridiculous). Because of all this, there was hardly a glimmer of the Doctor's usual humour-- that was a shame, 'cos DT's comic-timing is quite perfect and such a part of his Doctor, but I think it was the right choice for the episode and for the character. The humour really mostly comes from outside sources (Wilf, the Silver Cloak, the Vinvocci), and it works better for that.
Oh, and just a note: DT and JS's electric double-act. They had hardly any scenes together in Sound of Drums or Last of the Time Lords, but I really hope RTD is going to make up for that now. I shall be praying. These two are just perfect, all the time.
2) The Master:
Horrifying, isn't he? I've mentioned this before: how different the character would be now he's back and he's not in charge of the universe. For precedent, compare the Master in an episode like The Keeper of Trakaan and something like Terror of the Autons. Whereas at the end of season three, the Master was living it up as Lord and Master of the planet, entirely in charge, in The End of Time all he's got left is his mad desperation not to die. It's his biggest motivator and now it's his only motivator. He has nothing else. There was always going to be a massive character-shift there, but RTD has taken that idea and just pushed it as far as it could go and then just a wee bit more. The insatiable appetite and off-screen cannibalism is fairly horrible though, isn't it? Kudos to JS for throwing himself into it. Have I mentioned how much I love John Simm forever? Yeah? Ok, well, I just thought I would mention it again :D. I love how as soon as the Master has been in that room with the Immortality Gate for more than five minutes he has a whole new nefarious plan worked out in his head. That's very him. As soon as that happens, all the raw, psychotic craziness seems to take a back-seat, and he's back to being that grinning Machiavelli we all know and love, albeit in a straightjacket. It's very telling, I guess, that he doesn't call himself 'The Master' until he puts his scheme into operation. In Utopia, he re-established the title in the space of a sentence or so.
Of course, that scene with the Doctor and the Master in the 'wastelands' is one of my favourites. It's about the closest they've got so far to being equals: both utterly worn-out and desperate, tearing at the dirt. I find it glorious :). RTD mentions in the commentary how difficult it is to write the Doctor and the Master together, because they're both so volatile and there's so much history there that they can't go for long without killing each other-- and I'm so glad he writes them that way, otherwise I wouldn't believe it. But, oh gosh, there must be more of the last of the Time Lords :).
3) Wilf:
A relatively minor character doing a splendid job of stepping up to the mark and actually holding a whole enticing strand of stroyline all of his own. What is going on with Wilf and that 'angel' woman who seems so fond of wars and guns and not telling the Doctor anything? There must be masses more storyline for him, and I'm glad about it too. Any more regular companion (Donna, say) and the Doctor would have to do things entirely differently wouldn't he? Whereas at the moment, although they're in cahoots, the Doctor is almost entirely a free-agent, zipping off when he feels like it while only mildly puzzling about who/what Wilfred Mott's significance might actually be. Bernard Cribbins is awesome. If only Wilf would put the gun away! Guns never helped anyone!!
4) Lucy Saxon:
I must mention her, because I love her and was so glad that she finally got a proper ending. The Master's resurrection is probably the most cliched scene of the ep-- so much so I have to take off my adult-critiquey glasses and just leave this one to the kids-- but I do love that line an exceptional amount:
"Till death do us part, Harry!".
Oh yeah. She wins :).
5) The Naismiths:
"Idiots and fools" most certainly. The Time Lords do tend towards sanctimony, but that judgement is pretty much spot-on. Creepy, creepy family going on there. Although; love the gate-room set :). That shot of them in the halfway-through montage, sitting in their big silver thrones and sipping champagne like rulers of the universe just screams EPIC FAIL in their near-future :). Although I guess they've kind of ceased existing now haven't they? Just like everyone else...
6) Pacing:
Less character development now, more story-telling. Pacing is always a big issue for me-- I'm not prepared to be bored while watching a DW ep and, to be fair, I wasn't-- but The End of Time does seem to drag a bit. i think this is because there is so much that needs to be set-up. All the main players manouvred into place etc. There are three parties performing exposition at the start of this ep: the Narrator, the Ood and the Doctor, all filling in different levels of the story. It's a big setup. Thank goodness it's a two-parter, I guess. We can only hope all these rather disparate strands tie together in the end, eh? I'm kind of reserving judgement until I see the next part.
7) The Finale:
So, if there's that many John Simms in the world, surely there's a spare one for me ;)?
Utterly mad, isn't it? The concept I don't really have a problem with-- I mean, the idea of the entire human race becoming the Master is terrifying, really, it is-- but it was such a big set-piece for the end of the episode, and all the green-screen shots were massively overdone, and in the end I didn't know whether they were going for laughs or not. Yeah, a lot of the Master's stuff is like that, but, to quote the Doctor: "this is on a massive scale". I hope we don't focus too heavily here next ep. Which seems fairly improbable since there's now around 6.2 billion Masters... but I really don't want the next ep to veer anywhere near farce territory...
8) The Time Lords:
Yeah, this is the point where I go unashamedly fan-girly. Everytime I see them I start jumping up and down. The Time Lords are back, and they look fantastic; and Sir Tim of the Dalt is perfect as the predictably unstable President :); and that extra scene, with the decimated Citadel and the desperate and borderline-psychotic Senate? Oh... EPIC WIN :D.
I have no idea how next week will pan out. I hope RTD doesn't let me down... C'mon Russell; give us a win. Live up to The Master's promise:
"It's going to be... spectacular."
xxx