How do you end David Tennant’s tenure in the right way? It’s
the sort of question that JNT had to answer when Tom Baker left the series. The
way that RTD has decided to mark the end of the Tennant era was to have a two
parter which has a combined running time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. The new Mad
Max film was shorter. The opening scene starts with Timothy Dalton talking. An
actual James Bond is in Doctor Who. Dalton is credited as The Narrator but it’s
clear by the way that he is talking that he is far more important to the story
than it seems. The Master returns to this story but the thing about the last
time he was in the story it seemed like he was done in a permanent kind of way.
I remember reading that the Master was suppose to take part in Jon Pertwee’s
final story but the death of Roger Delgado put a stop to that.
Bernard Cribbins returns (which is always a good thing). It’s
quite good that he gets a credit in the title sequence along with John Simm and
David Tennant.
There is a woman that appears in a church scene with Wilfred
Mott and her identity is a bit of a mystery. It turns out that the woman is
actually the Doctor’s mother. I think that this could have been clearer.
The business of the ring falling to the ground and being
picked up in Last of the Timelords is finally addressed and it was picked up by
a member of a group of people who are believers of The Master/Harold Saxon.
They bring him back and the thing that sets it all off is the lipstick from
Lucy Saxon. This is something that I think is a bit of a stretch and that she
would still have the Masters imprint on her lips are such a long time. However
during the ‘regeneration’ process things wrong and this is what makes the
Master mad (I mean madder) and this is what I like about the Master. When the
Master is ripping a cooked Chicken to pieces it shows how mad the character is.
There are two people that are totally annoying. I found
Joshua Naismith (David Harewood) and Abigail Naismith (Tracy Ifeachor). They
are wealthy people and I just cant stand them from the very moment that I first
saw them. I quite like David Harewood as an actor as he is very good in
Homeland but here he poorly served by a character that is a poorly realised
part of the story. The characters get the comeuppance that they deserve when they
get taken over by the Master.
The scene where the Doctor and Wilfred are talking about
dying is one that I found really good. It shows how good Wilfred would have
been as a companion. I know the in-thing that the companion has to be young but
he was only about 81 at the time so that’s quite young. Isnt it? The downside
of this story is that it’s the last time that Bernard Cribbins will feature in
a Doctor Who story. I suppose I will have to enjoy the final episode even more.
Catherine Tate makes a sort of cameo appearance. It’s weird to think that just
a few days ago she was a companion and now she is reduced to a basically a
supporting role. The two cactus like characters have more to do in this story.
President Obama announces a plan to fight the recession. It’s
something that gets mentioned a few times and to be honest I couldn’t be
bothered with it. The only reason to have it in the episode is that he turns
into the Master. When Obama appears there is some clever camera angles to hide
the fact that its obviously not the President.
The whole episode builds up to the Master becoming every
single human on the planet. It’s such an epic idea and it works really well. It’s
odd that a Christmas Special would have a cliffhanger but it is an ending that
the story deserves. The cliffhanger sees Timothy Dalton (Rassilon) standing in
front of a chamber of timelords. The sight of them is superb and is the perfect
way to leave things. I found this episode to be largely good and think that the
75 minute finale will be just as good as it needs to be.
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