TV episode review
UK airdate 1 January 2010 (BBC One)

The Doctor must foil not just the Master’s plans, but also those of his own people…

A celebration not just of the 10th Doctor, The End of Time was a fitting finale to the Russell T Davies era of Doctor Who, epitomising everything that has come to represent the show over the last five years.

There were numerous (really, far too many) homages to past adventures / rip-offs of past plotlines and reworkings of tropes from other sci-fi shows and films. The Matrix, Star Wars and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan all contributed key moments, while it was like a regeneration story patchwork quilt, with an alien planet affecting Earth (The Tenth Planet); the Time Lords’ arrival (The War Games); radiation slowly killing the Doctor (Planet of the Spiders); battles with the Master and a fall from a high place (Logopolis); a desperate Doctor at the controls of a small craft heading for a crash landing, refusing to listen to everyone (The Caves of Androzani); and even a re-use of the central idea from The Parting of the Ways, with the Master’s four-beat sound created in his head in the same way Rose sent Bad Wolf back through time.

There were emotional moments that tore at the heartstrings – particular credit to David Tennant and Bernard Cribbins for these, notably the scene when all the pieces fell into place and the Doctor knew his fate was sealed. There were great special effects setpieces, that didn’t always necessarily advance the plot.

There were self-indulgent sequences – the Captain Jack one being the most obvious, but we didn’t really need the Mickey/Martha or Luke/Sarah moments either. There were important plotlines left unresolved (the Ood’s sudden improvement that seemed so odd in Part 1 was ignored totally in Part 2; who was the woman who spoke to Wilf?) and a few hints for the future.

And yet, mainly because of the strength of the performances of Tennant, Cribbins, John Simm as a Master desperately trying to come out on top, and Timothy Dalton’s Lord President, it was gripping for the most part. Dalton summed it up in Doctor Who Confidential when he described it as like seven or eight different scripts, and it was, with Davies confidently changing gear from soap opera to drama to comedy to tragedy sometimes within one page of script.

Tennant’s last words were a cry from the heart of someone raging against the dying of the light – thrown into sharp relief by the obvious pleasure in being alive demonstrated by Matt Smith in his brief appearance.

It’s a pretty safe bet that Doctor Who would never have become the success that it is without the commitment and talents of Russell T Davies, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and those around them, but it’s the right time for a change – and from the look of the trailer for the new season, that’s what’s in store. Peter Quentin

VERDICT: 7/10