Re: A request - sorry, contains spoiler for Doctor Who
Posted by:
LeonardQuirm (---.adsl.entanet.co.uk)
Date: July 05, 2008 08:05PM
OK, quick rundown - full of spoilers! Don't look at this post - not anything below this line - if you don't want the ending of this series of Doctor Who detailed, along with refrences to the end of Series Two of Torchwood...
Firstly, David Tennant is indeed still the Doctor, due to his "using the healing power of regeneration, then transferring the energy to his severed hand-in-a-jar (TM)" or something. Deus Ex number 1, within five seconds of the show proper starting.
CONTINUATION:
Further, none of the others in mortal danger at the end of the last episode (Sarah-Jane had just bumped into some Daleks while driving too fast, and a Dalek had reached the Torchwood vault, with Gwen and Ianto still inside) died immediately - Deus Ex number 2 featured Jackie (Rose's mother) and Mickey suddenly teleporting in from their universe with very large guns, with which they destroyed the Daleks threatning Sarah-Jane, and Deus Ex number 3 had that one of the ex-Torchwood employees (Tosh, who died at the end of series 2) had managed to finish installing a 'time lock' in the entrance, so if anyone (or a Dalek) broke in, they'd be frozen in time. All very convenient and somewhat negating the danger, I feel - something that happens a lot in the 2-parters in this show!
The story then went along the usual sort of lines, with Davros revealing his weapon with which he and the Daleks will destroy the Universe - in fact, all the Universes! (presumably excepting the part they're in). Well, usual, plus the fact that Martha's threatning to blow up Earth (to destroy the planetary configuration being used and save the Universe), from a base in Germany - the base is there simply so we can hear Daleks speaking German, but it's a nice touch - and Jack threatning to blow up the mothership with some sort of "explosion in a diamond" (TM) thing - deus ex number (at least) 4, unless it was previously introduced in The Sarah-Jane Adventures (the kiddie spin-off show), which it may have been given it came from her.
Oh, and Donna got locked in the Tardis as it was being dumped in the Dalek Mothership core, and went for the "severed hand-in-a-jar" for some reason, which for some other reason grew into another full David Tennant, who manages to pilot the Tardis away from the core. Then he knocks up some clever contraption (Deus Ex number far too many) which should cause the weapon to lock onto Davros' genetic code, and with it all the Daleks, since this army was grown from Davros. So they end up back on the Mothership, now with basically everyone else, and try to use it but both Doctor Two and Donna get zapped (non-fatally) by Davros, and his magically electrical finger (writing that, I'm suddenly reminded of a Robot Chicken sketch - "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!"). But then, look, Donna's become hyper-intelligent and happens to be at a circuit board (in the Mothership prison, I believe this is) which lets her control all the Daleks (Deus Ex X, quite possibly) and so she does, sending them spinning in little circles - not to mention stopping Davros, the weapon, and freeing the others (the last one of which is actually feasible!).
Turns out the spark from Davros somehow (deus ex number - hold on, does this count as before the previous one, since it chronologically happened earlier, or after, since it was explained after?) caused her normal human brain to join with Time Lord knowledge she'd absorbed in the whole "severed hand-in-a-jar" becoming a Tennant twin and hence she becomes incredibly intelligent, and can work out how to do all this. The Daleks are stopped, all the planets are returned back where they came from (except Earth...that gets dragged back by the Tardis in an unnecessary and incredibly silly sequence in a minute or two) and the new Tennant, having become half-human (the film, anyone) uses the machine to commit mass genocide and wipe out all the Daleks (AGAIN!). Real Doctor tries to save Davros (not all that hard, though) but Davros doesn't want to come. Everyone else makes it out safely, however, and everyone gets returned home - including Jackie, Rose and Doctor X-2 (Final Fantasy fans, anyone?) to Bad Wolf Bay in the parallel world - the cloned Doc has to stay there since he's half-human, so will age, and needs looking after by Rose to make sure he doesn't commit mass murder again. Oh, and he tells her he loves her, so they get a soppy happy ending.
And just as the Doctor and Donna are back on their own again, Donna starts going haywire - all the knowledge of the Time Lords is just too much for the poor little human brain, so she starts crashing, so the Doctor wipes all her memories of him, dumping her back with her family. Apparently if she ever remembers anything of the time with him, it'll trigger all the knowledge and she'll go into meltdown or something. It was used well to show just how much Donna changed for the better - just a shame it was all lost. And hence the Doctor is all on his own once more...
So, a couple of comments (since this isn't long enough already) - no-one important died (AGAIN), and Davies rounding up his series with a truly representative episode of his style. I'm almost, I dunno, peeved no-one died (except the interesting part of Donna) since no-one big ever does, it seems. It says something that Harriet Jones, ex-PM, dying last week was arguably the biggest character death this show has yet seen (not counting Christopher Eccleston) - they just keep avoiding it. Given the end of Series Two of Torchwood had not one, but two of the members dying (unfortunately, the two interesting ones - at least they were given a fantastic death scene) it almost seems as though major character death is considered too adult for Doctor Who itself. Given Davros' speech about how people around the Doctor keep on dying and giving their lives for him (accompanied by a brief montage of past clips) while he just moves on forwards, not looking back - well, it's true, but from the position of actual viewer it rings a little hollow.
As for this being classic Russel T Davies, well - I mean that primarily in the fact, as usual, there were lots of really good character plot development ideas (such as Davros' accusations against the Doctor, watching Donna go from intelligent human to quasi Time Lady to annoying woman as she was originally) but it was all done a little badly - and stuck in a plot which was a little too overblown and featured one or two too many Deus Exs. Still, it was all sort of fun, seeing everyone back together (although I'm still not certain how Captain Jack knew Jackie Tyler/Mickey...) - Davros and Sarah-Jane seeing each other again was good - and, yeah, generally satisfying ending to what I think has been a mostly phenominal series of the show. I'm sad Donna's gone; have to see who the next companion is. River Song, anyone?
Oh, and the Doc's back at Christmas, again - fighting the Cybermen, AGAIN.
Can't wait!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2008 10:42PM by LeonardQuirm.