And thus the internet was ripped asunder by Doctor Who's season finale

[locker_monster]

Last year I had crappy sound when watching "Last of the Time Lords" and then this year I had issues with video and whatnot. The universe seems determined that I not enjoy season finales for Doctor Who.

Not sure if I'm glad I guessed that the Doctor's severed hand would affect his regeneration. This seemed like the most horrible fake-out in the world. The Doctor's regenerating! Y'know, regenerating, the thing the Doctor does when he's mortally wounded and the only other alternative is dying and there's absolutely no way to go back on this once it's started. Regeneration, the process that used to mean something and now is just a ploy to rile up the fans. Sigh. But in theory, if the Doctor ever wanted to keep a form, he just needs a spare body part (okay, kinda gross) and siphon off the excess energy to said body part. Um, yeah... You know, if Time Lords only used half the energy they used for a regeneration they wouldn't need to change faces at all. They could just heal in a flashy show of lights. Once again, sigh. When Ten regenerates for real (yes, it will happen at some point) it won't mean as much since we've seen it happen before. And was Ood Sigma's comment to the Doctor about his "song ending" just there to make us think a regeneration was coming and then when the regeneration actually happened we were supposed to feel vindicated because we could see it coming?

And don't think a naked Ten made up for this, RTD! A naked David Tennant can only make up for so many lacklustre plot points. But it didn't hurt. ;-) So is making a new Time Lord out of old body parts, regeneration energy, and any ol' human hanging around a TARDIS emergency function? When new!Ten said he had one heart, I cringed. Shades of the TV movie. Kind of cute how he has Donna's voice though. But really, half human, half Time Lord? The DoctorDonna? Seems a bit Bad Wolf-ish to me. At the same time, each main Companion at the end of every season has their moment to be the hero. I can see why River Song was so sad when she met Donna. Donna can't ever remember the Doctor, not for one second and that sucks. She was so much better off having met him. I'm glad they didn't kill her but she won't be the Donna of this season if they ever decide to bring her back.

Also, wow, big cheat with the whole Doctor/Rose relationship. Here's a new Ten, all shiny with one heart and human aging. You two can live happily ever after. And sure, you got a big snog at the end, but it's really not the Doctor. Just think of the fanfic that will be generated now. And of course we don't get to know what the Doctor was going to say at the end of "Doomsday". Actually, and please don't hate me Doctor/Rose shippers, but I sort of like it that way. It's like the Doctor's name. You're better off not knowing because if you did know, it takes all the fun out of the guessing. Still, it seems like Rose can never again see the proper Doctor. Seems like the growing of a second Ten was done just so Rose could have some sort of resolution with the Doctor.
 
I'm not sure all the Companions had their moment. When you throw in Mickey and Jackie as well, that's a whole lot of Companions. Martha was stuck on her own wandering through Germany and Sarah Jane got shoved around by the Daleks. Jack got to meet Sarah Jane though and had a manly hug with Mickey. Captain Cheesecake. :-D And speaking of hugs, how cute was Donna pushing aside Sarah Jane in the TARDIS so she could hug Jack. Good to see Jackie and Mickey though. Funny how Rose was like, "Mum, I said not to follow me!" And yay, no pettiness between Rose and Martha. I appreciate that Rose said, "She's good" and smiled when Martha was trying to reason with the Daleks. Also, big love for the moment when Davros recognizes Sarah Jane and she doesn't take any of his crap.

But it just felt like most of the episode was everyone standing around. "The Five Doctors" also suffered from some of this. When you've got a huge cast, you need to split them up, but there's only so much everyone can do. And how do you decide who gets what task or how much screen time? I think "The Stolen Earth" worked better because everyone was in their respective places doing what they did best. Once you start to throw everybody together their uniqueness sort of gets lost in the shuffle. Just look at the climax; there's a lot of shots of the Companions standing around while the Doctors and Donna do all the work. Sure, later on Gwen and Ianto and Luke and Mr. Smith (and K-9!) provided some aid, but they weren't there with the others. Maybe that's why most fandoms with multiple shows avoid bringing all of the casts together. Balancing screen time with a decent story sounds like an impossible task. Buffy and Angel never did it and the highest Stargate has ever gone with characters crossing over was three, but really, it was more like two and one storyline involved a lot of standing around in one room. So RTD definitely gets an A for effort. Who knows, maybe in 5 years time we'll have another crossover to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

You know, the Daleks' plan to wipe out all life in every universe really seems like a lame one. So you wipe out all life. Then what? Because Daleks are all about killing people; that was the purpose they were made for. They can't fulfill their command function once they've exterminated everything. Were they planning to rebuild and live in a happy Dalek utopia? Can't you just picture the Daleks rolling around wearing flowers? ;-) Maybe the Daleks just stir up trouble because they know the Doctor will come around and kick their shiny asses. They never win but they still get the opportunity to kill and destroy. I hope with the year off they stay away from using the Daleks in the TV movies. Just give the Daleks a break. They can't try to end the universe every year. But let's just all assume that one Dalek or Davros managed to escape. And Daleks in Germany! :-D  Speaking German! Does that mean all over the world there were Daleks screaming "Exterminate!" in other languages? And Dalek Caan talking about the "three fold man" was foreshadowing the end with the Doctor, Human Doctor, and DoctorDonna. But when Caan said the "most faithful Companion" will face everlasting death, who the heck was he talking about? Donna? Because the better her will never come back? Or was Caan referring to the Daleks, since they are a faithful companion in a way: death. Way back at the beginning of the series, it was said that death was the Doctor's constant companion.

Randomness: Ha, Gwen is a descendant of Gwyneth! Nice. Tosh made a Matrix bullet time bubble around the Hub? Okay, but yay for Tosh for leaving something cool behind for the others. K-9! Explain to me why he can't be a full time thing on SJA? I mean, Sarah Jane just calls to him and bam! there he is. I find it funny they don't explain where the heck K-9 was, or Sarah Jane's sonic lipstick for that matter. It just seemed like she opened the door by magic. Martha (and Mickey) are perhaps joining Torchwood? There are two vacant positions... Jackie had a boy. And left Pete with the kid while she went to save the day. :-) And hee, the TARDIS is meant to be flown by six people. It's canon now. I doubt we've seen that many people in the TARDIS before. It was kind of cool.

I'm glad the ending remained with the sad tone. Having something appear in the TARDIS and the Doctor going, "What?!" again would have ruined things. And dude, a quick trailer for the Christmas special. How the hell are they going to explain that?

So at least the resolution wasn't a glowing Doctor. I think I need to sit on this and digest some more.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

One of the few things I liked was everyone getting together to fly the TARDIS, and when he gets to Jackie he's all... "... No.. no, you don't touch anything." ;)

I think the everlasting death thing referred either to Donna, who 'died' but still remained alive (the Doctor said that the Donna who travelled with him was dead), or the hand/Doctor, who got to live a mortal life, which is a type of 'everlasting death'.

Speaking of the Mortal Half-Human Doctor, that pretty much writes out of canon the whole "The Doctor is Half-Human" idea, since he specifically said 'half human, half time lord' has never happened before, and, well, otherwise it would have. I suppose you can chalk up 8's comment about it to a bit of post-resurrection confusion (or he's secretly a compulsive liar).

Also, Davros is dumb. When your all-knowing prophet is sitting in the room screaming that one of the Doctor's companions is going to die, you should not be thinking, "Ha ha, Doctor, you suck!" you should be thinking, "Oh crap, that means the rest live, and, well, that kind of goes against my plan, so I must be defeated!"

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that. Yay for writing out Half Human Doctor from the TV movie! Though, you still got Half Human Doctor now with Rose in a parallel universe, but it's unlikely we'll see him again. Do you think they called it a "meta-crisis" just as a very subtle reference to the fact that this did cancel out what was established in the TV movie?

Well, no one ever said Davros was a smart evil genius. :-)

[littlebatti.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you said. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this episode/finale. It going to take me a while to sort it all out.

I'm quite upset about Donna's fate. I haven't been this upset about a fictional character since Wash died. Silly me.

I have been lurking here a while because I really like your Doctor Who, BSG and Buffy comic reviews. So I've friended you. I hope that's ok.

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

With Donna, it's more tragic because unlike everyone else who can fondly remember their time with the Doctor, she can't. It's sad because she'll never remember that she found her potential and was better for it. I appreciate that RTD didn't kill Donna, but it's a lot suckier this way. And hey, if you get wrapped up in the fate of a character, I think it's a good indication that the character is a believable one. :-)

This finale definitely needs another viewing. Now that I'm done squeeing and fuming I can look at this episode more objectively.

And friend away. :-) I'm always surprised when I learn that people actually read the stuff I write.