Well, there we go then. From the first words of "Hello, hmmm, new teeth" to his final words of "I don't want to go", tonight was the end for the 10th Doctor. And I'll be honest, I felt a little cheated.
I know that there are others out there who think it was the best ep ever, but I really can't agree with them. We've known for a long time that David Tennant would be bidding farewell to the role of the Doctor at the end of 2009, and the BBC have milked it for everything they could. I was expecting a fantastic, roller coaster, action packed two-part adventure with the Doctor and The Master.
The first part showed potential. The Master was back, and more unhinged than ever, and only the doctor (and his aged, but plucky, sidekick Wilf) could stop him. There were moments were I thought we were returning the amazing end of series adventure we had the last time the master appeared in the series.
And then part two started. And oh was it a disappointment. There were several cliched film links that cropped up throughout this episode that distracted from the whole event that was the last story for the tenth doctor.
The first was the Star Wars classic scene on the Millenium Falcon were Han Solo and Luke are sitting in the laser cannon pods firing at the incoming tie fighters. This time it was Wilf and an alien, and the Tie Fighters were missiles. All that was missing was for Wilf to shout "I got one" and the Doctor to call back "Don't be so cocky" to be a perfect copy.
We also had the "sealed in a room flooded with radiation and slowly dying" scene (think Star Trek 2 when Spock is dying after saving the ship). If only the good Doc had put his hands on the glass and called out ""I have been...and always shall be your friend.... Live long...and prosper." I could have called out Snap!
The final cliche was as the doctor went on his over extended, we-need-to-fill-the-last-ten-minutes, sentimental journey around the cosmos. He entered a space bar filled with all sorts of alien races. If there had been a live band playing music in the corner, I would have sworn blind I was in the cantina on Mos Eiley in Star Wars.
There was even a cliched line nicked from The Simpsons in there, as the doctor was wheeled away during a rescue calling out "worst...rescue...ever". It was pure Comic Guy speaking!
Aside from those cliches, there were holes throughout this story. We were told that the Ood homeworld had grown more than it should have in the first episode - the Doc said so himself. Something had accelerated their development, but nothing more was said of that. I was hoping to find some alien force accelerating them (to be honest I was hoping the Daleks were behind it, like they had held back the development of Humans in Previous series).
The whole thing with Gallifrey rising again, and the Timelords arriving on Earth, put a great big hole through the constant comment throughout the last 4 series that "the last great timewar was timelocked", and that nothing could get in or out of it. (Mind you saying that, Dalek Khan fell into the TimeWar, rescued Davros and escaped, so anything is possible I guess!).
It was such a shame for the end of an era to finish like this. There had been so many brilliant, scary, inventive and downright amazing episodes recently, and yet we ended with a sentimental look back over some of the characters from previous series.
Finally finding out just what the Doctor did during the The War was a good touch. He'd hinted at it over the series, but never said and at last we found out just what the 8th Doctor was forced to do to save time itself from being destroyed.
Personally I think I'm going to stick to the previous end of series episodes - the Dalek / Cybermen invasion of Torchwood, or the Dalek / Davros episodes as my memory of the tenth doctor. This one, I'll send to the great Black hole in the sky.
Oh, and just one thing - were David Tennant's last lines from his character, or from the actor. Did he realise as he was making these episodes just what he was giving up? It was an interesting choice of words for the Doctor to utter as he began to regenerate...
