Hello!
The End of Time was the departure of the Tenth Doctor; it featured the Master. It also features the Time Lords! The Doctor's companion for the two-parter was Donna Noble's grandfather, Wilfred Mott. This episode features the Doctor's (presumed) final regeneration - though I must clarify: this is not the final post, even though the regeneration count at the bottom of the post says 0 regenerations remaining. The Doctor gained new regenerations at the end of the Eleventh Doctor's life. The Eleventh Hour is another jumping-off point for new viewers - new companion, new Doctor. That's ironic, considering how complicated the Eleventh Doctor's era got by the end.
The Master was plagued with drumbeats his whole life, driving him insane. Indeed, there's a scene in The End of Time part 1 where the Master initiates telepathic contact with the Doctor, letting him hear the drums; the Doctor can't stand more than a few repetitions before jerking back in horror. The Master can't escape - no wonder he went insane! It's revealed in this episode that the drumbeat was implanted by the Time Lords when the Master was a boy, in order to find a way out of the Time War.
The Time War drove the Time Lords to desperation - they resurrected many deceased Time Lords to fight in the war, including their founder, Rassilon. This also includes the Master, whose last scene prior to the Revival saw him plunging into the Eye of Harmony in the TV Movie.
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| What I don't understand is why he had to regenerate facing the console like that, rather than hiding in a corner like last time. |
The End of Time Part 1The End of Time starts with the Doctor, who has been summoned to the Ood-sphere, the dwelling-place of the Ood, a race of three-brained psychic aliens. They have a brain in their heads like us, a second brain which they carry in their hands, and a hive-brain connecting the entire race. This brain, as it happens, is uneasy; the Ood have been having nightmares of the Master; this has been happening across the universe as well. They show the Doctor the dreams and visions of the 21st century; he in turn provides context on the Master. He escaped the Time War and used Time Lord technology to re-write his biology and become human, storing his true identity and Time Lord essence in a watch. When the Doctor, Martha Jones and Captain Jack met his human self at the end of the universe in the finale of Series 3, Martha unintentionally drew his attention to the watch, he opened it and remembered his true identity. He stole the Doctor's TARDIS and returned to Earth in the 21st century, where he seduced a woman called Lucy, and became Prime Minister. He took over the Earth, cannibalising the TARDIS to create a Paradox Machine, but the Doctor reversed everything he'd done. When everything was restored, Lucy shot the Master, who refused to regenerate; the Doctor cremated him. Amusingly, the Ood then note - from his own recollection, no less - that he missed something: a ring, containing the Master's essence, was not burned, it survived. Lucy, meanwhile, went to prison - presumably for murder.
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| Ood Sigma - he's the leader of the Ood. |
In the 21st century, Lucy is escorted from her prison cell; it turns out that the Master had a cult going, and also foresaw his own death; he created a resurrection ritual, to be used in the event of his death. The cult prepares the potion and takes a biometrical signature from Lucy - as she kissed the Master, she carries his 'imprint'. The Master resurrects, though not before Lucy splashes an antidote to the 'potions of life' on him, causing the room to explode. The Doctor rushes to Earth, but arrives too late. He starts looking for the Master; meanwhile, Wilfred gathers his friends to look for the Doctor. The Doctor catches up to the Master, but coincidentally gets intercepted by Wilf and his friends, enabling the Master to escape. The Doctor and Wilf chat, during which it's mentioned that the Doctor's heard a prophecy of his death: "He will knock four times." Donna also comes up during the conversation; she's getting married, though she and her fiancé are not doing well, financially. The Doctor and Wilf part ways; later that night, the Doctor finds the Master again. The Master then gets abducted by Joshua Naismith, a billionaire who has come into possession of alien technology and wants it repaired. He knows, somehow, that the Master is the sort of person who could fix it. The Doctor recruits Wilf to help him find the Master; unbeknownst to the Doctor, he's been recruited by another Time Lord as well: a mysterious woman in white, telling him to retrieve his old service pistol. She wants him to protect the Doctor. By coincidence, Donna gave Wilf a book on Naismith for Christmas; the Doctor theorises that her Time Lord consciousness is still active, deep within her subconscious. They reach the Naismith mansion and meet Rossiter and Addams, two aliens dispatched to retrieve the alien technology, called an Immortality Gate. As for why it's called that? It mends whole planets, by transmitting a biological and mental template across an entire population. The Doctor, upon hearing this, races for the room where the Gate is, but he's too slow; the Master, having fixed the machine, jumps in, transmitting his body and mind across the entire human population of Earth. The episode ends with only five non-Masters on the planet - the Doctor, Rossiter and Addams, Donna, and Wilf; Wilf escaped by being in the power booth for the Gate. The other four, meanwhile, are not human - the template was set to human.
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| The Master post-resurrection |
The End of Time Part 2
The second part starts with the Time Lords planning a means of escaping the Time War, which is destroying all of reality. It cuts to the Master's victory, with him effortlessly gaining control of every political and military institution in the world. The Doctor and Wilf are held prisoner; after a brief discussion about, among other things, the biological metacrisis which prevented Donna from being changed, they're rescued by Rossiter and Addams and teleported onto their ship. The Doctor immediately switches the ship off to prevent the Master finding them. The Time Lords start the plan - transmitting a four-beat signal back through time into the Master's head. At the same time, the Masters meditate on the source of the rhythm; this enables the Time Lords to establish a connection from within the Time Lock to Earth. Rassilon sends a white-point star along the connection - a white-point star is a type of diamond found only on Gallifrey. The diamond lands near the Naismith mansion; the Masters begin wiring it into the Immortality Gate to amplify and boost the connection. The original Master, meanwhile, gloats about the discovery of the diamond to the Doctor - on an open channel, he hasn't actually discovered the spaceship. The Doctor realises the severity of the situation upon learning that the Time Lords are returning. Wilf gives the Doctor his service pistol...and the Doctor accepts, despite being 'the man who abhors weapons'. That's how serious the situation is. Indeed, the Time Lords' plan is to bring Gallifrey itself through the connection as well, tearing apart the Time Vortex and destroying the universe; the Time Lords would escape the cataclysm by becoming beings of pure consciousness. Yeah...the Doctor's panic is entirely justified. He flies the spaceship to the Naismith mansion, jumps out, and crashes through the glass ceiling of the mansion. Five seconds too late - the vanguard of the Time Lords has arrived. Rassilon undoes the Master's work with a flick of the wrist, restoring humanity to their true form; Wilf, meanwhile, persuades Rossiter and Addams to land the ship and let him go to the Doctor. He enters the power booth for the Gate, releasing a technician in the process. The Doctor, after some prevaricating, chooses to shoot the white-point star, shattering the connection and sending the Time Lords back into the Time War; the Master goes with them, wanting revenge for driving him insane, which is fair. Apparently, according to expanded universe materials, he shoved white-point stars down Rassilon's throat until he regenerated - ouch!
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| Rassilon. Apparently, that glowy gauntlet of his forces Time Lords to burn through all their regenerations! |
The Doctor, meanwhile, faces the true meaning of the prophecy of his death: "He will knock four times". Not the Master, not Rassilon...Wilfred, stuck in a box which is about to release 50,000 rads of radiation energy. The Doctor throws a tantrum, but chooses to sacrifice himself anyway...he steps into the other booth and presses the button, allowing Wilf to exit while the Doctor is bombarded with energy. He gets up again, which is a surprise to Wilf, but he heals the injuries sustained from crashing through a glass ceiling - proof that the regeneration has started. After dropping Wilf off at home, he makes the cryptic remark that Wilf will see him one last time; the Doctor then departs to collect his reward. This comes in the form of visiting his companions - every companion of the Revival era. Apparently, he also visited every companion he'd ever had, both Classic Era and Revival. It makes sense in retrospect - during regenerations, there's a period called State of Grace, where the regenerating Time Lord can hold it off for a time. Next time the Doctor dies, he won't (or so he believes) be regenerating, so he won't have that State of Grace - he won't have time to say goodbye. In fairness, next time he dies, he is a bit too busy in any case. He visits Wilf and Sylvia that one last time, at Donna's wedding; he gives them a wedding present for Donna - a winning lottery ticket. His last visit is to Rose Tyler - he goes back to the first of January, 2005, to visit a past version of her. He then stumbles to the TARDIS to die; the Ood sing to him, giving him the strength to return to the TARDIS. The Doctor takes it into orbit around Earth and finally regenerates, causing a massive explosion. The Eleventh Doctor emerges from the flames screaming, then immediately looks surprised at how loud he was screaming.
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| "I don't want to go!" |
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| "Geronimo" - while the TARDIS is crashing! |
The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour starts with the Doctor reaping the rewards of letting loose directly onto the console - the TARDIS starts crashing, nearly throwing him out in the process. He climbs back in, but not before nearly receiving an impromptu castration courtesy Big Ben's spike. Ouch. Though as I say, he didn't actually suffer that - he got back in the TARDIS just in time. It switches to new companion Amelia Pond praying...to Santa, of all people, about a crack in her wall - she can hear voices on the other side. The TARDIS lands on Amelia's shed; the Doctor climbs out and introduces himself to Amelia. The Doctor eats his way through a kitchen, then investigates the crack, discovering a prison on the other side, and learning that a prisoner has escaped. Then the TARDIS engines start phasing, necessitating the Doctor making a five-minute jump into the future. It's meant to be five minutes, but it ends up being twelve years. Amy is not happy to see him once they reunite. Meanwhile, the escaped prisoner's alien captors have caught up with it and are threatening to incinerate the 'human residence' unless it vacates. Said residence being the entire Earth. The Doctor persuades Amy to believe him until he's solved the crisis; he then uses his sonic screwdriver to attract the aliens, the Atraxi, to Amy's town, by boosting all the lights, engines, alarms, et cetera in the area, demonstrating that there's alien technology in the vicinity. Unfortunately, the sonic explodes half-way through. He comes up with plan B - create a computer virus which will, when activated, cause every digital clock in the world to display the number zero. The Atraxi, noticing such alien technology, will trace the virus to the phone the Doctor 'borrowed' to create the virus; said phone will be on the Doctor's person, and the Doctor will hopefully have found the prisoner by that point. That's exactly what happens, and the Atraxi find and execute the prisoner. They leave, but the Doctor calls them back and tells them off for not realising Earth was defended. He then realises the TARDIS has finished repairing itself and dashes off to do a test-run; he comes back to Amy to pick her up two years later - he had previously offered to take her on as companion, which she accepted.
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| Amy and her boyfriend Rory. |
Overall, I really enjoyed
The End of Time; it's a poignant and fitting final episode for the Tenth Doctor. Indeed, just as he was born from an encounter with one of the primary combatants of the Time War, he died after an encounter with the other primary combatant - the Time Lords. It's also interesting in that it's one of the only regeneration episodes to unambiguously depict regeneration as death - and the Doctor is afraid of dying. Indeed, when the topic comes up in his discussion with Wilf, the Doctor looks on the edge of tears. A lot of people say the Tenth Doctor was unnecessarily whiny about the whole thing; given that
no other Time Lord in the entire show reacts the same way, not even the Eleventh Doctor, approaching his
final death, that's not unfair. However, I think the reason why it hits home so hard for the Doctor isn't just because he's coming close to his final death, it's because he, in that body, has died before - a final death. The Seventh and Eighth Doctors did die, but they were resurrected. The Tenth Doctor has died permanently, or a version of him has. In Series 3, he hid from pursuers using the same technology the Master used - he became an ordinary human being, called John Smith. Eventually, the pursuers caught up with him and wanted him to change back, so they could steal the Doctor's body and obtain immortality. To force his - and the Doctor's - hand, they started bombing an innocent village; the Doctor's companion, Martha, pleaded with John to become the Doctor again. In the end he did; he died, not in the way Time Lords do when they regenerate. He simply ceased to exist. And the Doctor remembers it. He fears that death - it terrifies him. Every regeneration brings the Doctor closer to that final death, and he only has one more re-do as of
The End of Time. Is it so surprising, therefore, that he's unwilling to die?
Equally, however, the Doctor doesn't flinch away from the prospect of death. He literally jumps out of a spaceship to stop the Time Lords; later, when Rassilon prepares to blast him for foiling his plot, the Doctor calmly accepts his fate - his response to Rassilon declaring that the Doctor will die with him is a simple 'I know.' Additionally, when Wilf gets trapped, the Tenth Doctor willingly sacrifices his last regeneration to save him. Despite his fear of death, he willingly brings himself closer to it; in the process, he proves himself incredibly brave. This is emphasised by his actions in the second part; he's spent the previous part fearful, anxious, sombre, but as he approaches the final battle, all that fear and despair disappears, replaced by calm acceptance and fierce determination. It makes his tantrum later more tragic, more real - he built up all that courage, believing he'd die to an enemy, and he learns that his death comes at the hands of a friend instead, and his resolve just shatters. In spite of that, however, he gathers up his resolve one last time and saves Wilf's life, ending his own in the process. The soundtrack that plays as the Doctor absorbs the radiation is poignant as well; it echoes the soundtrack used when the Doctor regenerated in Logopolis. In Logopolis, the Doctor's regeneration music evoked the seconds ticking away until the Fourth Doctor dies. In a similar fashion, the music which plays as the Tenth Doctor absorbs the radiation creates an impression of all the seconds the Tenth Doctor might have lived slipping away and fading. The Doctor's farewells are also poignant - his reward is to see his friends once more, alive and safe. He also finds closure with Joan Redfern, a nurse who John Smith fell in love with; her great-granddaughter found her diary in the attic and wrote a book about Joan's experiences with a man from beyond the stars. The Doctor turns up at the book-signing, having bought a copy; there's a bittersweet moment where her great-granddaughter recognises the Doctor as the man Joan fell in love with, prompted by the Doctor introducing himself as John Smith. She asks if he was happy in the end, and the Doctor just smiles sadly at her, like he's thinking "Well, that's the question, isn't it?", then walks away. It's a good way of emphasising that regeneration is an end, but not the end; the Doctor will continue living after this.
The Eleventh Hour, similarly, really hammers home this aspect of regeneration - it's a new beginning, a new life. Forgetting the weariness and despair of just a few hours ago, the Eleventh Doctor is happy. He's bouncing around, re-learning how to live, finding new friends and saving the day once more. It emphasises that regeneration is death, but it's also rebirth. This idea of rebirth and renewal extends itself to the TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver; both are trashed over the course of the episode. The TARDIS repairs and undergoes a renewal of its own, while the sonic is broken beyond repair and the Doctor is supplied with a new one at the end. This also extends itself to the companions - as with Spearhead from Space and Rose, new companions join the Doctor. Indeed, Amy herself goes through a renewal of sorts - the Doctor failing to fulfil on his promise to return after five minutes leaves her cynical about the idea of time travel and aliens. By the end of the episode, she's renewed; the fact that the Doctor has returned at last has awoken her adventurous spirit.
Indeed, in some senses, The Eleventh Hour captures the same light-hearted energy that Castrovalva does; The End of Time is high-stakes, emotional and hectic, with a rather sombre tone pervading it, just as Logopolis evoked a sense of world-weariness. The Eleventh Hour, on the other hand, is far more carefree; one example of this is the Doctor exploring his new taste-buds at the beginning. He eats his way through a kitchen, constantly contradicting previous requests he made, and, at one point, throws a plate of food outside and inexplicably yells at it to "stay out!". Eventually, the Doctor picks the strangest meal imaginable - fish fingers and custard! It's a scene primarily written to showcase Matt Smith's comedic skills; it also contrasts very sharply with the Tenth Doctor's doom-and-gloom mentality in the previous episode. There are other similarly comedic moments throughout the episode, such as the Doctor and Amy bickering over her choice of job (kissogram), or when the alien prisoner shapeshifts to look like the Doctor...and the Doctor basically no-sells the prisoner's attempt to manipulate him, as he hasn't actually gotten a look at his new face yet, much to the confusion of all present. These moments contrast with the more serious atmosphere of The End of Time; it highlights the "new beginnings" element of the episode.
I feel like there's something poignant about the two (three?) episodes as a whole: suffering pain and loss, but seeing the positives in the loss, even when everything seems dark. The Tenth Doctor dies, but he dies knowing that his friends are safe, and they are happy. He dies knowing that his efforts to protect the universe, across all the Doctor's lifetimes, have not been in vain. The Doctor, meanwhile, gets a thirteenth chance, a new opportunity to live and be happy; indeed, he's so carried away with this new opportunity that he almost forgets the emotional and physical pain of his previous incarnation's last hours. There's also a strong theme of remembrance in the three episodes; for instance, the scene where the Doctor and the Master reminisce on their childhoods on Gallifrey, or the fact that Amy remembers the Doctor despite first meeting him when she was just seven years old. It's not just Amy that remembers him; one of Amy's friends meets the Doctor and immediately recognises him as Amy's Raggedy Doctor, despite only having heard stories of him. Similarly, Joan Redfern's great-granddaughter recognises the Tenth Doctor as the man Joan fell in love with, despite having only read about him. Moreover, the Doctor, going into what he believes will be his final life, visits every companion he's had - including, as it later turns out, every companion from the Classic Era; as old as he is, he remembers every single companion he's ever had, and he takes the time to visit them one last time. Most poignantly as the Ood sing to the Doctor just before his regeneration, they tell him that, while the Tenth Doctor will die, and in time the Doctor will die permanently, the story of the Doctor will never be forgotten - he will be remembered forever.
Indeed, we do a similar thing, collectively, every year on the 11th of November - we remember those who fell in the World Wars; by remembering and honouring them, we ensure that they will never be forgotten. I feel like today's also a day for remembrance of everybody we've lost. I always find myself thinking about Nana and great-uncle Stu, both of whom died a few years ago. They both had a significant impact on my life - Nana inspired my love of cooking, and great-uncle Stu was like a grandfather to me. One piece of wisdom he passed on to me was that if you get repeatedly stung by stinging nettles, you eventually grow accustomed to the sensation, and it no longer hurts. It's trivial, but it's something I've always cherished, because it reminds me of him. Similarly, cooking and baking reminds me of Nana, and while she never got to see me take up cooking, I love cooking, in part because it reminds me of Nana. It's like Albus Dumbledore says to Harry in Prisoner of Azkaban: 'Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him.' I find that comforting - the people we love never really leave us, they'll always be here in spirit and in memory. That's something to remember, today and every day - when we lose someone we love, they're never truly forgotten.
Overall, I would rate The End of Time 9/10 and The Eleventh Hour 8/10
Random observations:
-The Doctor attended Donna's wedding, though she didn't see him - he got her a winning lottery ticket (perks of time travel!) He paid for it by borrowing a pound off her father, who died before Series 4 - I like that the Doctor enabled her father to give his daughter a wedding gift, despite dying long before her wedding.
-Another nice thing The End of Time does is that it makes Sylvia a lot nicer - she's more polite to the Doctor, despite her dislike of him, and relieved to see her dad safe at the end. She's also delighted when she realises the Doctor got Donna a winning lottery ticket, thereby solving Donna's financial problems - just like the Sixth Doctor and Peri, despite her difficult relationship with Donna, she does care for her.
-One thing I don't like in The End of Time is when one of Wilf's friends slaps the Doctor's bum - he is clearly uncomfortable, but it's played for laughs.
-The Tenth Doctor gets some flak for holding in his regeneration; I don't think he did, though. Radiation poisoning takes a long time - hours - to kill humans; for Time Lords, it might be even longer; he's just waiting for the regeneration to start. The first sign is his skin repairing - skin is the first part of the body to break down after radiation exposure (think sunburn). From there, he's just waiting for the rest of his body to catch up.
-There's something poignant about the meeting between the Master and the Doctor half-way through Part 1. According to the Master, his father had estates - Time Lord aristocracy; given the Doctor's childhood friendship with him, the Doctor was presumably of a similar social status. They were both once elites of one of the most sophisticated races in the universe; by The End of Time, they're the only Time Lords left, homeless and crouching in the dust of a foreign planet. As the Master notes, how the mighty have fallen!
-I find Addams, one of the aliens, really annoying; the main reason why is the scene where the Doctor shuts off the power on the spaceship. He does it so the Master won't find them. A while later, Addams rants at him for essentially overreacting, noting that there's no missiles, no sign that the Master has found them. She skilfully ignores the fact that the Master hasn't found them because the Doctor switched everything off!
-The Eleventh Hour has lots of fun little inconsistencies, such as a disappeared mother who is around enough to carve faces onto apples, or a duck pond without ducks which Amy still recognises as a duck pond; these aren't continuity errors, they're foreshadowing of the Series 5 finale.
-The events of The Eleventh Hour happened in 2008 - why did the Tenth Doctor never notice the sun going funny for 20 minutes? Maybe he was away, and the Eleventh Doctor stopped by at UNIT to explain.
-I always find the "praying to Santa" thing a bit annoying - young Amelia is praying to Santa close to Easter - a time traditionally associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So Amelia praying, at Easter, but not to the divine being traditionally associated with Easter, comes off as almost intentionally dismissive of Christianity.
-On the other hand, one of my favourite scenes in The Eleventh Hour is the Doctor's reaction to learning that Amy's grown up to kiss people for a living - that is, he's rather critical of her job choices. It's hugely ironic that the man who ran away from his home planet and spent the next few millennia gladly flouting his people's principal laws is moralising over job choices, of all things. Apparently, to the Doctor, blatantly flouting your people's principal law is OK, but kissing people for a profession is not!
-Regeneration count - absorbed a lethal amount of radiation (Tenth to Eleventh Doctor). 0 of 12 regenerations remaining, cycle used up.
