Doctor Who: 'The End of Time'

“The End of Time” is exemplary of all the virtues and flaws that made Russell Davies’ Doctor Who a unique work in sci-fi history. It’s got some muddled storytelling and weird deus ex machina elements that make it hard to even explain what’s going on, but it’s also intensely emotional and character focused, particularly during the final half hour of the episode, a lengthy, totally earned farewell to the tenth incarnation of The Doctor, and on a meta level, the universe that Davies created over the course of the past five years. I could pick apart the issues with the storytelling, but ultimately those pale in comparison to the intense emotion and power of the story. It’s easy to write a story that obeys the rules of screenwriting, but it’s incredibly difficult to create characters and stories that tap into our emotions on a primal level, and for me at least, no series hit me as hard as this series did.

Let me track back and discuss in brief the high points of part one. That episode felt a little padded, with an awful lot of running around and Master craziness surrounding not quite an hour’s worth of story. Still, it had an impressively propulsive story momentum, the stakes were high, and I particularly liked the way they segued from the goofiness of the Doctor in a straw hat to his discussion with the Ood where he has to own up to the fact that he’s going to die, and there’s nothing he can do about it.

The high point of that episode was the discussion between Wilf and the Doctor, as the Doctor sees Donna as she was, and thinks back on the person she became with him. There’s such sadness there, and it’s appropriate to match Wilf with the Doctor, both old men who know that their time is coming to an end, but are trying to live it up on the way out. The moment in part two when Wilf finds out how old the Doctor is is particularly effective, when he realizes that even though the Doctor is older than him, he still has the spirit and fire of youth. In Wilf, the Doctor sees the humanity that he’s fighting to save, and that’s what motivates him to go into the nuclear chamber, it’s not worth living if he can’t save someone like Wilf.

But, Part 1 was mainly set up, the meat of the story was in tonight’s episode, and it had a lot that worked and some that didn’t. Let me first discuss my biggest disappointment, and that’s the treatment of Donna. Nothing is really changed from what we saw at the end of “The Stolen Earth,” and that’s the problem. If you’re going to bring the character back, you should really do something with her, and depriving her of a final reunion with the Doctor after he gets to say good by to everyone is kind of cruel. But, what makes it worse is the fact that it’s treated as not that big a deal, the Doctor gets her a lottery ticket, but money can’t replace what she’s lost.

The brilliance of the end of “The Stolen Earth” was that it placed Donna in the prison of never knowing what she could be, this episode basically gives her a nicer prison cell. She may be happy, but she’s not going to live up to her destiny, and that’s really sad, putting a kind of damper on the whole triumphant spirit of the episode, and because that tragedy wasn’t really acknowledged in part 2, it feels off. The wedding was a celebration, she is happier, but there’s still that something missing, and I wish that we had seen more of that. I was hoping to see Donna reclaim her role as a timelady or something more, but it apparently wasn’t to be. I thought it was implied that the timelady who appeared to Wilf was meant to be an older version of Donna, but apparently it was meant to the Doctor’s Mother. Having that be an older Donna would have been more satisfying, giving her some nice closure without having to be too specific about why she can remember her power again.

That’s the only thing that’s missing from the finale for me, a final moment of catharsis for Donna. I was glad to spend so much time with Wilf, but a bit more Donna would have been fantastic. Still, I guess her story was told, and Davies didn’t want to do anything to mess with the ending we already got. Maybe she’s already played her part in the global drama, she’s saved the world, and that could be enough. Still, maybe there’s an exception for her seeing a new Doctor and having some new adventures down the line. I still love the character, particularly the way she became at the end of season four, and I’d have loved to see that Donna back.

But, other than that, I felt totally emotionally satisfied, and drained by the end of the episode. First though, let me discuss a bit of the return of the Time Lords and the beginning of the episode. I liked a lot of this stuff, I think the Time Lords were suitably menacing, and the Master worked much better here, as a child trying to finally get the approval of his parents than as an insane very hungry man, as he was in part one. I also enjoyed the spaceship missile fight, which had a nice Star Wars feel and was well executed. But, in general, the whole spaceship segment didn’t add that much to the narrative. It was a good excuse for some Wilf and Doctor interaction, but was basically filling time before setting up the final battle.

The way I read it, the conflict at the end was basically the Doctor in the position of choosing between allowing Gallifrey to return and destroy all of existence, or allying with the Master to kill the Timelords and become the ruler of the Earth. However, ultimately he chose the third path and erased them both, choosing his new human allies over the timelords I’d left behind. I like the idea that he romanticized the timelords after their destruction, in the way we always remember the good thing after someone dies. But, it’s clear that the Time War was in many ways the Time Lords doing, it was their attempt to end all of existence and transcend to another reality, but the Doctor has always had great affection for this reality, and after seeing the courage of Wilf, his willingness to follow the Doctor to the end of the world, to put his own life on the line to save a stranger, the Doctor realizes that killing anybody would be a betrayal of the spirit that has made him into a powerful symbol for humans.

He chooses a third path and again wipes his own people away, and chooses to let the Master go. The Master here is portrayed as a deranged child, warped by his own upbringing. The Doctor wants him to be better, as he says in the opening scene, because the Master is the closest thing he has to a peer, to a brother. Together, they could have great adventures, but the Master is too warped by the trauma he’s undergone to deal with that, He made the whole world over in his own image as an attempt to assert himself and become superior to the Time Lords, but it’s not enough to satisfy them. The Time Lords are old order and The Doctor is a new, better way of things, the Master is caught somewhere in the middle, and that’s what drives him insane.

That said, whenever you said up a situation where somebody has to make a choice about who to kill and he doesn’t kill, it’s going to be a little disappointing. Shooting the machine makes sense in retrospect, but kind of came out of nowhere in the moment, not to mention the confusing presence of a character who was apparently meant to be the Doctor’s Mother. As I said before, I was thinking the character could be a future Donna, and the lack of clarification within the story was okay, but I think it could have been more powerful if we had known this was meant to be the Doctor’s mother, and he was sacrificing her to save the Earth.

So, that felt a bit anti-climactic. I think it could have been better executed, but Davies often gets into trouble when the sci-fi elements lose the core of emotion. Normally, the companion grounds things in an emotional reality, but these specials have been about the Doctor, and as such they lack the element of identification. The core theme of Davies’ Doctor Who, one that’s reinforced in the final scene that Tennant visits, is the idea that every person has the potential to be a hero and if they could only look up and see the wonder all around them, they could become something so much more. That’s what we see with Jackie and Rose’s discussion, where Jackie is resigned to never having anything special, that’s what kills you, that’s what prevents you from being better, and the Doctor is a living embodiment of all the wonder and amazing things in the universe.

I think that’s why the show resonates for me so strongly, it’s that inherent positivity to the premise. The Doctor is a force that can pull you out of depression and mundanity and take you to other worlds and turn anyone he encounters into a hero. Rose walks home alone, thinking this all she’ll be, but we know that in her future there’s adventures and change and romance, all lurking just ahead of her. To the Doctor, the worst fate is resign yourself to a boring life, and part of the satisfaction of his trip around the world is to see the way that he’s touched all the people he’s encountered. They’re all living better lives than they were when he met them, and that shows that, contrary to what Davros says, he doesn’t make people die, he helps them live.

Mickey and Martha are now married and hunting demons freelance. When Jack’s depressed, presumably still dealing with the events of Torchwood: Children of Earth, the Doctor drops in to pick him up and rejuvenate his old spirit. We see Sarah Jane is no longer sad about the Doctor leaving, she’s been inspired by him to teach a new generation how to live. They are his legacy, and that’s why it’s so frustrating to me to see Donna living a normal life, it’s that she’s gotten the worst fate of all and the Doctor can do nothing.

Still, that frustration aside, the final tour of the world was intensely powerful. When I saw the end of Buffy, it felt so incomplete because, even though the story was told, it was never really about the story, it was about the characters. I so desperately wanted just another half hour with these people to wrap up their story and find out what happened to them. Davies has been accused of fan service or pandering, but I think it’s more that he does the stuff we all want to see, but on some level don’t think we deserve. I love seeing all these characters one more time, he’s made us care about them, and it’s nice to say good bye. If the episode had ended with the Timelord fight, it would have been unsatisfying, but the final half hour is so powerful and sad, it really affected me.

It all wraps up with the wonderful quote from the Ood that “the song is over, but the story goes on.” Each Doctor Who actor, each writer puts their own stamp on the character, evolves the myth and adds new layers, but they have to move on. Their song was beautiful, and as we watch the Tardis crumble, it becomes clear that this is at last the end of the line. The Tenth Doctor burns away in the fire of creation and is replaced by a new man.

I don’t have that much to say about him yet, but he seemed pretty Tennantish, and very high energy. I’m definitely excited to see what Moffat does as showrunner, the concept of the show is so fantastic, and Davies laid out a great template to follow. I’m sure it’ll be great.

But, I think a lot of people underrate what Davies did. So many sci-fi works are soulless, and so few stories of any kind have the love and emotion that infused Davies’ work on Doctor Who. It wasn’t the most consistent show, but nothing else on TV or in film is so consistent in hitting my emotions. I see a great kinship between what I love in fiction and what Davies does, using genre elements as a backdrop to establish stakes, but really writing about characters and emotions.

My favorite episode of the series is still “Parting of the Ways,” which fused an epic Dalek story, with Rose’s desperate battle to leave her home and get back to the Doctor. She was threatened with never being able to realize her full potential, and she fought so hard to get back to him, to save him, it was devastating, and so triumphant when she did return. Davies reminds me a lot of Grant Morrison, both use these cosmic elements as a way to explore very real feelings and issues, and to commune with something spiritual.

This show has a religious feel, of touching something deep and mythical within us, and that’s why I’ll forgive almost all the flaws in the writing. I’d rather see something messy and ambitious and raw than a perfectly refined script. A nice three act structure and flawless script does nothing for me if it doesn’t make me feel, and Davies always makes me feel. And, he had the perfect partner in Tennant, a fiery embodiment of life and energy who grounded even the craziest stories in a very relatable emotion. To take a thirty years old role, played nine previous actors and come away thoroughly owning it is hard to do, but the Doctor is Tennant and everyone else will work in his shadow.

So, this was a far from perfect episode, but the final half hour was as good as anything in the series, a perfect farewell to the world and characters Davies had created. I didn’t want the Doctor to go either, but he went out in style, and left me on a hopeful note, eager to see what new adventures await him. And, if Tennant or Davies want to come back for an episode, I’d be glad to have them.