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kalihaWell, I didn’t think it the completely unmitigated disaster a lot of people thought, bur it did think it was very weak – even with the occasional flash of brilliance it showed.
In fact the episode can be clearly spilt into things I liked and things I hated, so we'll go with that format this week.
Let's start off with the things I liked:
Earth, not somewhere you'd go on your holidays
Makes you wonder who the alien tourists are.
Martha Jones: Defender of the Earth
Oh Martha, what a horrible year you've had. Travelling the world, never staying in one place for too long, all the while knowing that your family is stuck with the Master and there's not a thing you can do about it. But at least she's spent the year being productive and got to see lots of new places and meet new people and become a legend in her own right. I wonder if she used Jack's wrist thingy to help her get around the world, after all the public transport system would have been the first thing that crumbled after the Master took over.
But in true Martha style, she's not taking the credit for it. Instead using her 'fame' to spread the Doctrine of, well, the Doctor.
Martha is complete kick arse in this though (well, mostly). Where most people would just fall apart and rail against the awful hand Fate has given her, she's gone and gotten on with it and has completed a pretty well impossible task. After all how is she going to spread her words across the Continents? The slave camps presumably don't have much contact between each other, how can the story of the Doctor spread?
The most powerful weapon of all: words
All Martha's got to save the world is a story of an alien who travels time in his blue box – no one would believe it. Not unless the Doctor was already manipulating the psychic field and planting the seeds for when Martha reached the people to tell her story.
Not scared of anyone. Head held high
She has absolutely no fear at all. She was already rather sensible and not really given to flights of fancy, but now she's steely.
Tom/Martha
Tom's a bit star struck by Martha isn't he? It's quite sweet really, and Martha must be pleased that a real Doctor is actually paying attention to her. But she's not going to let anything as trivial as her own personal happiness get in the way of her mission. Which is a shame really.
I think that's why I'm really glad that she went and rang Tom after the reset button was pressed. Because she deserves a bit of happiness and I think in Tom she'll find it.
In fact, I was so taken by Tom that I've made a community for him:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
grdctrltodrtom, because I'm obviously not busy enough with everything at the moment.
There's nothing quite like an ex-Time Agent in chains
But when did he get so strong? Seemingly he's been using all those sleepless nights to take advantage of his Gym membership. Or maybe it's 51st Century thing, who knows.
What's the betting that the Master has spending a lot of time with the Man Who Can't Die, dreaming up all sorts of exquisite tortures for him and, more often than not, making the Doctor watch? Mind you, we'll never know, because Jack being in chains was never mentioned, just shown and then ignored.
Down Boy!
The Master tries to humiliate the Doctor, but annoyingly the Doctor remains dignified even when having to live in a kennel made of bedsheets.
It must really annoy the Master, yet he won't seriously injure him or get sick of tired of the calm looks and throw him over the side of the ship, after all the human race hasn't been brought to its lowest point yet. And he wants the Doctor to be there to witness and know just how much he's lost.
Plus, like the Doctor, he doesn't really want to be the last of his kind.
Know your enemy
I thought it very clever of Martha to create a trap of her own devising to get back onto the Valiant (although surely she could have used to super!wrist watch of Jack's to get back onto the ship.) But I can see how this way lulled the Master into thinking that he'd won. It's the easiest way to get him to let down his defences. Because he likes nothing more than a good gloat.
However, you'd think he'd be a bit clever to notice it was all a trap. Blinded by power obviously.
And to give Rusty his due, when he wants to, he can do really good characterisation. Even though the Professor was completely selling them out for selfish reasons you felt truly sorry for her and for the decision she had to make.
A coup, a coup. My country for a coup
It was heartening to see that, even after a year, the Jones' still had the fight in them to attempt a coup, just a shame it wasn't very successful. But points to them for trying.
The Master
Oh John Simm, pleaee let me be counting the ways that you are completely awesome. You can tell he's having wonderful fun what with the dancing, the chair spinning, the maniacal laughter.
The Master's not a fan of tea though – proof of his evilness if ever there was.
And he's a bleedin' batchipper to boot, putting Martha down. *grrrr* However, Martha managed to save the world with just a story and not with a great deal of help from a yellow truck and the TARDIS itself.
I'm really sad that John Simm is starting to make a habit of making a very final exit from the shows he's been in lately. *grrr* Now even if the Master does make a comeback – he won't look as pretty. Woes. (I know, I am a completely superficial person).
The Master's statues
Were made of win and really not ostentatious at all. He probably even had his face painted on the dome so it could be seen from space. I wonder if the Sphinx got a makeover along with Mount Rushmore?
The Master decides to move into a new career – hosting call-in quiz TV shows
He controls the TV, the radio, everything through the Archangel network – so why is the reception ON HIS OWN SHIP so bad? Has someone knocked the aerial or something?
As well as auditioning for the new stage version of Flashdance
What a feeling, indeed.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Poor Lucy. The Master showed her the universe and the horror of the end if it broke her mind. And here we were thinking she was made of sterner stuff. She's a little bit Drusilla (but without the vampiric tendencies and the telepathy.)
All the wonderful interaction between the Doctor and the Master
There was threatening…
Mad-haired gloating in the middle of the night
and there was even emo (yet still very manly) arguing on the side of a quarry.
The Master is still the Doctor's bitch though. He could have started intergalactic war – yet he caved in so meekly to the Doctor.
Martha never giving up on the Doctor
Not once, not during the long year on her journey, never. In fact a companion's faith in the Doctor could be enough to make him go all floaty without the help from what's left of the world's population.
The absolute joy between the Doctor and Martha
When they are reunited again. Even I was sitting there with a massive smile of my face – it's infectious.
The Doctor forgiving the Master
Because blood really is thicker than water, and they are the last two. There wasn't any the route the Doctor would go. He wouldn't take out petty revenge for what the Master did to him, "he's not that sort of man". But seemingly, his "no second chances" manta doesn't extend as far as his own kind who he will give as many chances as there are stars in the sky.
The Doctor would be willing to do domestic with the Master
The Doctor is so desperate to not be alone, not be the last of his race that he'd forget everything that came before and take the Master in (as maybe the most awesome companion ever! – if this doesn't end up as an AU somewhere on the interwebs I'll be most upset)
I can't really see the Master wanting to fight the good fight though, so he'd likely end up imprisoned somewhere in the depths of the TARDIS and the Doctor would be his gaoler, hardly the best situation to be in.
The Master dying just so he can beat the Doctor
It's just a continual game of one-upmanship with these two.
And it completely breaks the Doctor's heart, because now, as far as he is concerned, he really is the only one left. And to lose the sense of another Time Lord and just be left with the silence must be completely awful.
The Funeral Scene
Like so many other people I was more reminded of Tim burning his Stars Wars stuff in Spaced than Return of the Jedi and I have the mental image of a lot of Who fans throwing their plastic Daleks and back issues of Doctor Who Magazine onto pyres on barbeques today, so angry so many of them obviously are.
It seems only fitting that the Master's send off takes place in that most Doctor Who of locations: a quarry. (And by the looks of things the quarry where they filmed the external shots for Utopia - but maybe it was just the way it was lit)
Interesting that Lucy managed to get to the pyre site to retrieve the Master's ring. (Oh give over, it was obviously Lucy, look at the bright red nails). Makes me think the Master was planning to play an even longer game than originally thought.
They probably had it all planned out from the start. If the Master was brought down (and this must have been a niggle in the back of his mind as he's never bested the Doctor up to now) by the Doctor then a plan needed to be in place to deal with such an eventuality. In the past the Master's been able to transfer his spirit/soul/whatever into another body, so there's a precedent for him doing that, and who's to say that his ring was just a ring? He's probably bobbing about in the ring like a malevolent genie, just waiting for his time to reappear again (which from the sounds of things won't be during RTD's tenure)
However, wouldn't it be ace if the Master sticks himself in Lucy's body (admittedly this won't be good for Lucy – but she's probably too insane to care), it's the perfect disguise, the Doctor wouldn’t think to look for him in a lady.
Jack's got a big face
So we finally find out Jack's much-mooted big secret. As guessed by about a million people beforehand and probably the most cracked-out thing to grace a TV screen in quite a while.
Jack's concerns about aging were quite sweet. After all he's achieved a lot of stuff thanks to that pretty face of his. Probably even charmed Yvonne to get into Torchwood. Of course he's going to be a bit worried that his looks will fade over time – and having seen what a nine hundred year old man looks like isn't to enthused about getting old. However, he is aging much slower than 'normal' humans – after all he's been on Earth for 150 years since the GameStation and only looks 3 years older so he's probably not got too much to worry about.
The Doctor's look of D: pretty much matched mine. I still had the D: face when the Doctor started laughing.
How's he going to end up a big head in a jar though? The Face of Boe was around in the time of Satellite Five (200,000) so in as little as 198,000 years he's going to…evolve? Body swap? Have a head transplant? Maybe he was inspired by the Doctor's Hand in a Jar?
The Doctor was very mean to prevent Jack's ability to escape the modern day. Maybe he's not quite forgiven jack for what he's become after all.
Only the Jones' know what really happened
Talk about a complete and total mindf*ck. Francine is going to have to live with the memory for the rest of her life that her actions helped to bring the world to its knees. The Doctor could have done his Time Lord jiggery-pokery on her mind, made her forget everything that happened, because really, it could be all that tips her over the edge into madness.
And the fact her family is still so aware of what happened is obviously the main reason Martha stayed. She can't leave them to go off gallivanting around the universe, she needs to 'fix them'.
Hello? Is there anyone there?
I think Martha's quite fond of Dr Milligan. Maybe he'll help Martha with her homework. :D
***
Things that made me go 'Meh':
The 'comedy' song and dance routine
So this is just a normal morning then? The Master racing the Doctor around the bridge before gazing out over his domain and showing the Doctor just how clever he is? Oh what fun it must be to live on the Valiant.
The hired help
The rest of the family follows in Martha's footsteps and become servants to the Master? Well, I suppose the Master has to keep his enemies close. They do get into awful mischief when he takes his eyes off them.
It burns us my precious
At Nine hundred years old, good you do not look. I'm quite glad that I won't be nine hundred and some years old. Because frankly I don't want to look like Gollum. The animation of CGI!Doctorwas rather good though and I am somewhat freaked out by how like David Tenant it looked. It was all in the eyes I think. Freaky little thing.
I was especially taken by his little brown pinstriped suit. I wonder if he'll be coming out as a plushie in the next few months?
Who the Tocalfane really are?
Well at least they weren't vengeful unused Time Lord regenerations as was widely mooted. And considering humans spent a million years as downloads and balls of gas (according to the Doctor – I do wonder though if they're using that comment to hand wave Jack's changing into a massive Face) then I suppose it's not too much of a stretch to imagine humans in what amounts to a sparkly Magic 8 ball. The change, however, has not been kind and the trauma of seeing the end of the universe has sent them completely mad and regressed them back to children. And it must have happened fairly quickly though for the Toclafane to remember Creet's words about Utopia having a "sky full of diamonds".
The fact they destroyed their ancestors so happily "because it was fun" was especially creepy. To them, we're nothing more than ants in a magnifying glass. (And it sort of echoes the current DWM strip, where the kids are unaware that they are destroying the world).
Whilst on the subject of the Toclafane I have to note the nice use of a perch for one of them in one of the bridge scenes. Hoorah for obvious ways of saving money.
The Guards continually shooting Jack
A lot of people had some issues around the guards shooting at Jack when surely they know that he can't die. They must have noticed over the intervening months. Which is very true, but I can see why they put their trust in the bullets. All you need is one lucky shot to Jack's heart or head and he'll be down for the count for precious seconds until he can heal himself and come round. More than enough time to slap him in cuffs.
A gratuitous TARDIS shot
Floaty Angel!Doctor
Telepathy, the Doctor becoming a god – it reminds me of a book where Gods become more powerful the more people worship them. What book was it?
So is this the end of the Lonely God story arc? He was a surprisingly benevolent God, All he did was make himself pretty again (so a narcissistic god), do a bit of floating and absorb a laser beam; even She Who Will Not Be Named managed more than that in her brief sojourn with deity-ism.
However, did the Doctor bring himself down to the Master's level by making everyone pray for him? It's only another form of brainwashing after all, even it is made to seem like a conscious choice. I did think it was rather clever of the Doctor to turn the Master's Archangel System against him – nice to see he was keeping himself busy whilst he lived in his kennel.
***
Things I hated with the burning of a thousand fiery suns:
What happened to Leo?
I think someone forgot all about him. And because he wasn't on the ship with all the others he's not going to have the faintest idea what's going on and what's brought his parents back together.
A quest – for a gun?
It could have been a nice feint, however, with RTD's love of a Deus ex Machina – it was all too plausible that that is what would be needed to save the day. And why go to the trouble of using a vaccination gun to take out a Time Lord? Just behead himthere can be only one I'm sure a Time Lord couldn't come back from that. (Although, maybe that's how Jack ended up being a big old head)
Even Martha realised how stupid it was.
What the hell is going on with Lucy and the Master?
The Master bored of his Companion already? Televisual shorthand to remind us that the Master may be charismatic and sexy but he's a bit of a wife beating bastard? Was there even a point to her having a black eye and limping? Other than make me rather angry? (Then again this is from the people who made what amounted to spiking girls drinks to have your wicked way with them comedy – so maybe I shouldn't have been too surprised)
The only reason I could see for it was to make Lucy shoot the Master – but even that didn't make sense when you saw the funeral pyre scene.
Oh noes, don't mess with the Paradox machine, it's a very delicate piece of machinery
So Jack shoots it up and with five little bullets destroys it. Now, that's the reason the TARDIS doesn't like Jack, because he shot her up. And she doesn't forget these sorts of things.
Humans never learn from their mistakes because the reset button is pressed
Way to avoid the consequences there, hmphf.
The Criminal wastage of Captain Jack Harkness
Was there even a point to having Jack there over the last three episodes? Other than to go into a radioactive room and to play with guns? It was a criminal waste of the character who deserves so much more than that (especially with Torchwoo!)
Jack choosing Team Torchwood over Team TARDIS
The year of torture he's faced under the Master (okay, that came out ruder than I meant it to) has obviously affected his mind. He'd rather go back to that bunch of incompetents than stay with the Doctor now the Doctor is more comfortable with his prejudices?
Ianto must make a really good cup of Coffee.
I just hope Jack takes some of his Joie de Vie with him back to the Hub. I want to see more happy!Jack. emo!Jack grated on me so much last year. A happy!Jack could be the spark that sets Torchwood aflame (in a good way, not in the way of an arson attack on Upper Boat)
The way the Doctor treats Martha
Well he's only got himself to blame. He's been projecting mixed signals all series, and quite likely he doesn't realise at all what he's doing. After all, the female human is a totally alien species. If he does realise then he is much crueller than we give him credit for.
But he does seem to be truly fond of our Martha and is sad to see him go, after all she succeeded where he failed and saved the world and only about a dozen people even realise this. He could have given her a tin dog as a thank you.
Once again the Doctor is on his own. And it's all his own fault. Maybe he wouldn't allow himself to get close to Martha because he didn't want his heart broken again – only to have it kicked out mercilessly.
But now he's got the excuse to come and visit
Unless he manages to drop the super!phone off the side of the Titanic at Christmas.
***
Martha leaving on her own terms
I think, considering how things are with her family, it was the right thing to do, after all, blood is thicker than water. And the time apart from the Doctor can only help Martha to move on(and into Tom Milligan's arms).
You never know, absence may make the heart grow fonder. I didn't like the bit where Martha went back to spell it out to the Doctorbecause he's insufferably thick when it comes to these sorts of thing. Plus Martha's going to gp and make a difference in the world, again. She may not save it on such a large scale, but she will be saving it one person at a time. (And she needs to go and get herself a new flat too after the Master blew up her old one).
And it's not as if we've seen the last of her. She's now a reason for the Doctor to come back and visit Earth more often. Oh God, she's now like Jackie.
So who will the Doctor's new travelling companion be?
I rather hope it's old Spare Hand One there. It's a combination that already has the shippers built in and the Doctor's hand can hardly be compared to any of the Companions that have come before, so there'd be mess "my Companion is better than your" between fans because Spare Hand One > everyone.
He can even ruffle Ten's hair and operate the sonic screwdriver and sit on his shoulder like a parrot.
However, I think that's too radical a departure even for this show (who's just made one of the ex-Companions a massive head in a jar) so I think we'll end up with a present-day human companion. I do rather hope it's a boy this time (or even more than one – because Team TARDIS is a much more fun place when there's three.)
***
And the set-up for the inevitable Christmas special:
So the TARDIS was the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. Well done, there Doctor. I presume it's not the actual, actual Titanic – because ourGod Doctor would save the day and the boat wouldn't sink – which obviously didn't happen. There's a twist here somewhere.
Oh, and the doors of the TARDIS are so strong that the combined hordes of Genghis Khan can't break through them yet a boat can smash though the wall into the Console Room? A ship the size of the Titanic would obliterate a tiny little Police Box. It makes me all head hurty.
However, the Doctor's reprise of the "What? What!?!" made me laugh in spite of myself.
In Conclusion
Please can someone else have a go at write series finales. Someone who understands that the entire world/universe doesn't need to be put at risk to have an exciting story. Someone who won't deal with the consequences of killing off billions of extras and instead hits the reset button so that everything ends up okay. RTD is as bad as the Doctor for avoiding consequences – and one day it's going to bite the pair of them on the arse – hard.
And where was the emotional centre to the story? Even though by Doomsday I had some serious issues with some of the characterisation I still cried my eyes out when she was trapped in the alternate universe, this time I was all 'meh' even though I got some dust or something in my eye during that last scene with the Doctor and the Master. *shrugs* Dust, though is better than the "manly Time Lord stubble" poor John Simm had to deal with.
It's just a shame it sort of fizzled out especially after how good the last two episodes were.
A very disappointed 7/10
In fact the episode can be clearly spilt into things I liked and things I hated, so we'll go with that format this week.
Let's start off with the things I liked:
Earth, not somewhere you'd go on your holidays
Makes you wonder who the alien tourists are.
Martha Jones: Defender of the Earth
Oh Martha, what a horrible year you've had. Travelling the world, never staying in one place for too long, all the while knowing that your family is stuck with the Master and there's not a thing you can do about it. But at least she's spent the year being productive and got to see lots of new places and meet new people and become a legend in her own right. I wonder if she used Jack's wrist thingy to help her get around the world, after all the public transport system would have been the first thing that crumbled after the Master took over.
But in true Martha style, she's not taking the credit for it. Instead using her 'fame' to spread the Doctrine of, well, the Doctor.
Martha is complete kick arse in this though (well, mostly). Where most people would just fall apart and rail against the awful hand Fate has given her, she's gone and gotten on with it and has completed a pretty well impossible task. After all how is she going to spread her words across the Continents? The slave camps presumably don't have much contact between each other, how can the story of the Doctor spread?
The most powerful weapon of all: words
All Martha's got to save the world is a story of an alien who travels time in his blue box – no one would believe it. Not unless the Doctor was already manipulating the psychic field and planting the seeds for when Martha reached the people to tell her story.
Not scared of anyone. Head held high
She has absolutely no fear at all. She was already rather sensible and not really given to flights of fancy, but now she's steely.
Tom/Martha
Tom's a bit star struck by Martha isn't he? It's quite sweet really, and Martha must be pleased that a real Doctor is actually paying attention to her. But she's not going to let anything as trivial as her own personal happiness get in the way of her mission. Which is a shame really.
I think that's why I'm really glad that she went and rang Tom after the reset button was pressed. Because she deserves a bit of happiness and I think in Tom she'll find it.
In fact, I was so taken by Tom that I've made a community for him:
grdctrltodrtom, because I'm obviously not busy enough with everything at the moment.There's nothing quite like an ex-Time Agent in chains
But when did he get so strong? Seemingly he's been using all those sleepless nights to take advantage of his Gym membership. Or maybe it's 51st Century thing, who knows.
What's the betting that the Master has spending a lot of time with the Man Who Can't Die, dreaming up all sorts of exquisite tortures for him and, more often than not, making the Doctor watch? Mind you, we'll never know, because Jack being in chains was never mentioned, just shown and then ignored.
Down Boy!
The Master tries to humiliate the Doctor, but annoyingly the Doctor remains dignified even when having to live in a kennel made of bedsheets.
It must really annoy the Master, yet he won't seriously injure him or get sick of tired of the calm looks and throw him over the side of the ship, after all the human race hasn't been brought to its lowest point yet. And he wants the Doctor to be there to witness and know just how much he's lost.
Plus, like the Doctor, he doesn't really want to be the last of his kind.
Know your enemy
I thought it very clever of Martha to create a trap of her own devising to get back onto the Valiant (although surely she could have used to super!wrist watch of Jack's to get back onto the ship.) But I can see how this way lulled the Master into thinking that he'd won. It's the easiest way to get him to let down his defences. Because he likes nothing more than a good gloat.
However, you'd think he'd be a bit clever to notice it was all a trap. Blinded by power obviously.
And to give Rusty his due, when he wants to, he can do really good characterisation. Even though the Professor was completely selling them out for selfish reasons you felt truly sorry for her and for the decision she had to make.
A coup, a coup. My country for a coup
It was heartening to see that, even after a year, the Jones' still had the fight in them to attempt a coup, just a shame it wasn't very successful. But points to them for trying.
The Master
Oh John Simm, pleaee let me be counting the ways that you are completely awesome. You can tell he's having wonderful fun what with the dancing, the chair spinning, the maniacal laughter.
The Master's not a fan of tea though – proof of his evilness if ever there was.
And he's a bleedin' batchipper to boot, putting Martha down. *grrrr* However, Martha managed to save the world with just a story and not with a great deal of help from a yellow truck and the TARDIS itself.
I'm really sad that John Simm is starting to make a habit of making a very final exit from the shows he's been in lately. *grrr* Now even if the Master does make a comeback – he won't look as pretty. Woes. (I know, I am a completely superficial person).
The Master's statues
Were made of win and really not ostentatious at all. He probably even had his face painted on the dome so it could be seen from space. I wonder if the Sphinx got a makeover along with Mount Rushmore?
The Master decides to move into a new career – hosting call-in quiz TV shows
He controls the TV, the radio, everything through the Archangel network – so why is the reception ON HIS OWN SHIP so bad? Has someone knocked the aerial or something?
As well as auditioning for the new stage version of Flashdance
What a feeling, indeed.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Poor Lucy. The Master showed her the universe and the horror of the end if it broke her mind. And here we were thinking she was made of sterner stuff. She's a little bit Drusilla (but without the vampiric tendencies and the telepathy.)
All the wonderful interaction between the Doctor and the Master
There was threatening…
Mad-haired gloating in the middle of the night
and there was even emo (yet still very manly) arguing on the side of a quarry.
The Master is still the Doctor's bitch though. He could have started intergalactic war – yet he caved in so meekly to the Doctor.
Martha never giving up on the Doctor
Not once, not during the long year on her journey, never. In fact a companion's faith in the Doctor could be enough to make him go all floaty without the help from what's left of the world's population.
The absolute joy between the Doctor and Martha
When they are reunited again. Even I was sitting there with a massive smile of my face – it's infectious.
The Doctor forgiving the Master
Because blood really is thicker than water, and they are the last two. There wasn't any the route the Doctor would go. He wouldn't take out petty revenge for what the Master did to him, "he's not that sort of man". But seemingly, his "no second chances" manta doesn't extend as far as his own kind who he will give as many chances as there are stars in the sky.
The Doctor would be willing to do domestic with the Master
The Doctor is so desperate to not be alone, not be the last of his race that he'd forget everything that came before and take the Master in (as maybe the most awesome companion ever! – if this doesn't end up as an AU somewhere on the interwebs I'll be most upset)
I can't really see the Master wanting to fight the good fight though, so he'd likely end up imprisoned somewhere in the depths of the TARDIS and the Doctor would be his gaoler, hardly the best situation to be in.
The Master dying just so he can beat the Doctor
It's just a continual game of one-upmanship with these two.
And it completely breaks the Doctor's heart, because now, as far as he is concerned, he really is the only one left. And to lose the sense of another Time Lord and just be left with the silence must be completely awful.
The Funeral Scene
Like so many other people I was more reminded of Tim burning his Stars Wars stuff in Spaced than Return of the Jedi and I have the mental image of a lot of Who fans throwing their plastic Daleks and back issues of Doctor Who Magazine onto pyres on barbeques today, so angry so many of them obviously are.
It seems only fitting that the Master's send off takes place in that most Doctor Who of locations: a quarry. (And by the looks of things the quarry where they filmed the external shots for Utopia - but maybe it was just the way it was lit)
Interesting that Lucy managed to get to the pyre site to retrieve the Master's ring. (Oh give over, it was obviously Lucy, look at the bright red nails). Makes me think the Master was planning to play an even longer game than originally thought.
They probably had it all planned out from the start. If the Master was brought down (and this must have been a niggle in the back of his mind as he's never bested the Doctor up to now) by the Doctor then a plan needed to be in place to deal with such an eventuality. In the past the Master's been able to transfer his spirit/soul/whatever into another body, so there's a precedent for him doing that, and who's to say that his ring was just a ring? He's probably bobbing about in the ring like a malevolent genie, just waiting for his time to reappear again (which from the sounds of things won't be during RTD's tenure)
However, wouldn't it be ace if the Master sticks himself in Lucy's body (admittedly this won't be good for Lucy – but she's probably too insane to care), it's the perfect disguise, the Doctor wouldn’t think to look for him in a lady.
Jack's got a big face
So we finally find out Jack's much-mooted big secret. As guessed by about a million people beforehand and probably the most cracked-out thing to grace a TV screen in quite a while.
Jack's concerns about aging were quite sweet. After all he's achieved a lot of stuff thanks to that pretty face of his. Probably even charmed Yvonne to get into Torchwood. Of course he's going to be a bit worried that his looks will fade over time – and having seen what a nine hundred year old man looks like isn't to enthused about getting old. However, he is aging much slower than 'normal' humans – after all he's been on Earth for 150 years since the GameStation and only looks 3 years older so he's probably not got too much to worry about.
The Doctor's look of D: pretty much matched mine. I still had the D: face when the Doctor started laughing.
How's he going to end up a big head in a jar though? The Face of Boe was around in the time of Satellite Five (200,000) so in as little as 198,000 years he's going to…evolve? Body swap? Have a head transplant? Maybe he was inspired by the Doctor's Hand in a Jar?
The Doctor was very mean to prevent Jack's ability to escape the modern day. Maybe he's not quite forgiven jack for what he's become after all.
Only the Jones' know what really happened
Talk about a complete and total mindf*ck. Francine is going to have to live with the memory for the rest of her life that her actions helped to bring the world to its knees. The Doctor could have done his Time Lord jiggery-pokery on her mind, made her forget everything that happened, because really, it could be all that tips her over the edge into madness.
And the fact her family is still so aware of what happened is obviously the main reason Martha stayed. She can't leave them to go off gallivanting around the universe, she needs to 'fix them'.
Hello? Is there anyone there?
I think Martha's quite fond of Dr Milligan. Maybe he'll help Martha with her homework. :D
Things that made me go 'Meh':
The 'comedy' song and dance routine
So this is just a normal morning then? The Master racing the Doctor around the bridge before gazing out over his domain and showing the Doctor just how clever he is? Oh what fun it must be to live on the Valiant.
The hired help
The rest of the family follows in Martha's footsteps and become servants to the Master? Well, I suppose the Master has to keep his enemies close. They do get into awful mischief when he takes his eyes off them.
It burns us my precious
At Nine hundred years old, good you do not look. I'm quite glad that I won't be nine hundred and some years old. Because frankly I don't want to look like Gollum. The animation of CGI!Doctorwas rather good though and I am somewhat freaked out by how like David Tenant it looked. It was all in the eyes I think. Freaky little thing.
I was especially taken by his little brown pinstriped suit. I wonder if he'll be coming out as a plushie in the next few months?
Who the Tocalfane really are?
Well at least they weren't vengeful unused Time Lord regenerations as was widely mooted. And considering humans spent a million years as downloads and balls of gas (according to the Doctor – I do wonder though if they're using that comment to hand wave Jack's changing into a massive Face) then I suppose it's not too much of a stretch to imagine humans in what amounts to a sparkly Magic 8 ball. The change, however, has not been kind and the trauma of seeing the end of the universe has sent them completely mad and regressed them back to children. And it must have happened fairly quickly though for the Toclafane to remember Creet's words about Utopia having a "sky full of diamonds".
The fact they destroyed their ancestors so happily "because it was fun" was especially creepy. To them, we're nothing more than ants in a magnifying glass. (And it sort of echoes the current DWM strip, where the kids are unaware that they are destroying the world).
Whilst on the subject of the Toclafane I have to note the nice use of a perch for one of them in one of the bridge scenes. Hoorah for obvious ways of saving money.
The Guards continually shooting Jack
A lot of people had some issues around the guards shooting at Jack when surely they know that he can't die. They must have noticed over the intervening months. Which is very true, but I can see why they put their trust in the bullets. All you need is one lucky shot to Jack's heart or head and he'll be down for the count for precious seconds until he can heal himself and come round. More than enough time to slap him in cuffs.
A gratuitous TARDIS shot
Floaty Angel!Doctor
Telepathy, the Doctor becoming a god – it reminds me of a book where Gods become more powerful the more people worship them. What book was it?
So is this the end of the Lonely God story arc? He was a surprisingly benevolent God, All he did was make himself pretty again (so a narcissistic god), do a bit of floating and absorb a laser beam; even She Who Will Not Be Named managed more than that in her brief sojourn with deity-ism.
However, did the Doctor bring himself down to the Master's level by making everyone pray for him? It's only another form of brainwashing after all, even it is made to seem like a conscious choice. I did think it was rather clever of the Doctor to turn the Master's Archangel System against him – nice to see he was keeping himself busy whilst he lived in his kennel.
Things I hated with the burning of a thousand fiery suns:
What happened to Leo?
I think someone forgot all about him. And because he wasn't on the ship with all the others he's not going to have the faintest idea what's going on and what's brought his parents back together.
A quest – for a gun?
It could have been a nice feint, however, with RTD's love of a Deus ex Machina – it was all too plausible that that is what would be needed to save the day. And why go to the trouble of using a vaccination gun to take out a Time Lord? Just behead him
Even Martha realised how stupid it was.
What the hell is going on with Lucy and the Master?
The Master bored of his Companion already? Televisual shorthand to remind us that the Master may be charismatic and sexy but he's a bit of a wife beating bastard? Was there even a point to her having a black eye and limping? Other than make me rather angry? (Then again this is from the people who made what amounted to spiking girls drinks to have your wicked way with them comedy – so maybe I shouldn't have been too surprised)
The only reason I could see for it was to make Lucy shoot the Master – but even that didn't make sense when you saw the funeral pyre scene.
Oh noes, don't mess with the Paradox machine, it's a very delicate piece of machinery
So Jack shoots it up and with five little bullets destroys it. Now, that's the reason the TARDIS doesn't like Jack, because he shot her up. And she doesn't forget these sorts of things.
Humans never learn from their mistakes because the reset button is pressed
Way to avoid the consequences there, hmphf.
The Criminal wastage of Captain Jack Harkness
Was there even a point to having Jack there over the last three episodes? Other than to go into a radioactive room and to play with guns? It was a criminal waste of the character who deserves so much more than that (especially with Torchwoo!)
Jack choosing Team Torchwood over Team TARDIS
The year of torture he's faced under the Master (okay, that came out ruder than I meant it to) has obviously affected his mind. He'd rather go back to that bunch of incompetents than stay with the Doctor now the Doctor is more comfortable with his prejudices?
Ianto must make a really good cup of Coffee.
I just hope Jack takes some of his Joie de Vie with him back to the Hub. I want to see more happy!Jack. emo!Jack grated on me so much last year. A happy!Jack could be the spark that sets Torchwood aflame (in a good way, not in the way of an arson attack on Upper Boat)
The way the Doctor treats Martha
Well he's only got himself to blame. He's been projecting mixed signals all series, and quite likely he doesn't realise at all what he's doing. After all, the female human is a totally alien species. If he does realise then he is much crueller than we give him credit for.
But he does seem to be truly fond of our Martha and is sad to see him go, after all she succeeded where he failed and saved the world and only about a dozen people even realise this. He could have given her a tin dog as a thank you.
Once again the Doctor is on his own. And it's all his own fault. Maybe he wouldn't allow himself to get close to Martha because he didn't want his heart broken again – only to have it kicked out mercilessly.
But now he's got the excuse to come and visit
Unless he manages to drop the super!phone off the side of the Titanic at Christmas.
Martha leaving on her own terms
I think, considering how things are with her family, it was the right thing to do, after all, blood is thicker than water. And the time apart from the Doctor can only help Martha to move on
You never know, absence may make the heart grow fonder. I didn't like the bit where Martha went back to spell it out to the Doctor
And it's not as if we've seen the last of her. She's now a reason for the Doctor to come back and visit Earth more often. Oh God, she's now like Jackie.
So who will the Doctor's new travelling companion be?
I rather hope it's old Spare Hand One there. It's a combination that already has the shippers built in and the Doctor's hand can hardly be compared to any of the Companions that have come before, so there'd be mess "my Companion is better than your" between fans because Spare Hand One > everyone.
He can even ruffle Ten's hair and operate the sonic screwdriver and sit on his shoulder like a parrot.
However, I think that's too radical a departure even for this show (who's just made one of the ex-Companions a massive head in a jar) so I think we'll end up with a present-day human companion. I do rather hope it's a boy this time (or even more than one – because Team TARDIS is a much more fun place when there's three.)
And the set-up for the inevitable Christmas special:
So the TARDIS was the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. Well done, there Doctor. I presume it's not the actual, actual Titanic – because our
Oh, and the doors of the TARDIS are so strong that the combined hordes of Genghis Khan can't break through them yet a boat can smash though the wall into the Console Room? A ship the size of the Titanic would obliterate a tiny little Police Box. It makes me all head hurty.
However, the Doctor's reprise of the "What? What!?!" made me laugh in spite of myself.
In Conclusion
Please can someone else have a go at write series finales. Someone who understands that the entire world/universe doesn't need to be put at risk to have an exciting story. Someone who won't deal with the consequences of killing off billions of extras and instead hits the reset button so that everything ends up okay. RTD is as bad as the Doctor for avoiding consequences – and one day it's going to bite the pair of them on the arse – hard.
And where was the emotional centre to the story? Even though by Doomsday I had some serious issues with some of the characterisation I still cried my eyes out when she was trapped in the alternate universe, this time I was all 'meh' even though I got some dust or something in my eye during that last scene with the Doctor and the Master. *shrugs* Dust, though is better than the "manly Time Lord stubble" poor John Simm had to deal with.
It's just a shame it sort of fizzled out especially after how good the last two episodes were.
A very disappointed 7/10
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 09:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 09:45 pm (UTC)I think someone forgot all about him.
His agent double-booked him by accident, apparently (accoring to the commentary).
I'm with you in that I didn't hate it as much as others did, but I thought it was a bit dissapopinting, especially since I really enjoyed the episodes before the finale.
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 07:43 am (UTC)PMSL!
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 07:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007 11:37 pm (UTC)Oh, and the book about the gods? 'Small Gods' by Terry Pratchett, perhaps? The gods there are nothing without worshippers.
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 06:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 07:42 am (UTC)Working on it! The whole Blake/Avon-ness of the possibility is just to good to pass up on. *giggles*
And no, Lucy didn't make sense but I'm not going into that again.
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 11:45 am (UTC)I thought a bit of a cringey moment in this ep was everyone shouting "DOCTOR!" lol.
(no subject)
Date: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 06:24 pm (UTC)He can even ruffle Ten's hair and operate the sonic screwdriver and sit on his shoulder like a parrot.
HEE. I'd pay to see that.
(no subject)
Date: Thursday, July 5th, 2007 12:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Thursday, July 5th, 2007 07:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: Saturday, July 7th, 2007 12:34 am (UTC)You do, however, win a year trip in the TARDIS for referencing Highlander.
(I did have a long, detailed response. But it was long. Very long. As long as the review long. So I'll spare you.)