tardis_stowaway | End of Time 2

Lowered expectations + leftover New Year's champagne = much more enjoyable viewing experience for EoT part 2 than part 1.

I haven't decided if it was actually better than part 1 (I kind of suspect not), but I sure had more fun with the addition of champagne and the attitude of welcoming the campiness and treating the viewing like a big bingo card/drinking game. Also, the Master didn't do any more gross meat eating, so that's something.

For instance, with some sensible consumption of alcohol,Timothy Dalton throwing a diamond from Gallifrey to Earth may be the funniest thing that ever happened on new Who.

Longer post to come after I've read other people's entries (and when less drunk), but for now I would like to lodge a complaint about the grievous underuse of Donna and general pointlessness and character/continuity issues with the other companions (why was Martha married to Mickey and not Tom? why were Rose and Jackie dressed like they came from some year that totally wasn't 2005? and why, oh why, did the Doctor in no way acknowledge the events of CoE in his treatment of Jack? seriously, Jack can hook himself up with one night stands perfectly fine on his own.) However, I would also like to voice my great joy that the possible huge reset of everything did not happen and my elation that no companions died. Matt Smith is starting out in the positive column (even if his regeneration did blow up the TARDIS interior for no good reason.)

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I got the impression that the Doctor was completely acknowledging CoE in the scene with Jack. It was all in the eyes - that long moment when they just looked at each other, the pain and heartbreak in Jack's expression and the compassion in the Doctor's. That nod of acknowledgement. Setting him up with Midshipman Frame - even if it's not what I want for Jack right now, the Doctor's acting by what he knows of Jack and telling him it's time to forgive himself and move on. It was a very effective scene, to me.

I'm torn on Donna. I would have loved to have her recover her memories, but then what? Have her die? Or have the Doctor need to perform some hand-wavey thing to save her and everyone then ask why he couldn't do it in JE? And what next? Would she dump her fiancé and run after the Doctor again? He had to walk away from her (and from all his RTD-era companions), so I don't see that there was a choice, really.

Martha and Mickey was something of a shock, but the more I think about it the more I like it. They look good together. Yes, Martha was apparently engaged to Tom in S4, though he was away a lot - and it's clear, too, that JE changed Martha, with what she was asked to do there. Maybe Mickey understands in ways Tom couldn't.

Jackie looked pretty much like she did in S1 - the velour tracksuit, makeup trying to make her look younger than she is, etc. I can't really comment on Rose's clothes, but clearly they were trying to make Billie Piper look 18 or 19 again ;)

As for the TARDIS interior, I've seen a couple of theories: the fact that the Doctor delayed his regeneration for as long as he did, or (the one which works for me) that he'd absorbed all that radiation. Of course, the real reason is that Moffat wanted a completely redesigned TARDIS... I LIKE the coral and the struts! :(

Ah well. Overall, the more I rewatch the segments I liked - the Wilf parts and the goodbyes - the more I like the episode :)

I saw CoE in the pain on Jack's face, but IMHO Ten only had on his moderate-level "so sorry" face instead of the mauve-alert "so, so sorry" face that the occasion called for. I suppose I'm having unrealistic expectations, because they might have wanted to avoid talking about CoE too directly on what is ostensibly a family show, but I still wanted something more than just the Doctor acting as a wingman. I've decided to believe that this is not the first time that the Doctor has visited Jack post-CoE, which makes the tone of the scene make more sense to me.

I would have loved to have her recover her memories, but then what? Have her die?

Tons of possibilities! My cracky personal favorite would be to invent some technobabble about Donna having absorbed regenerative capacity during the metacrisis and have her regenerate. No more Catherine Tate, alas, but long live Donna! She could also have snapped into full DoctorDonna state with a few minutes before brain burnout and used the time to come up with a cure for herself, and then decided that she couldn't quite trust the Doctor in the same way after he took her memories and thus didn't want to travel with him. She could either have returned to her ordinary life, joined Gwen's Torchwood, or set off on her own wacky space adventures, possibly with Captain Jack. Hell, I would have settled for her going into DoctorDonna brain-burning mode in the presence of the Doctor and asking him to take the memories away again because she has a good life and people who need her to live. Over half of my objection to the JE mindwipe was the way the Doctor imposed the decision to live as less than she was without her consent, and making the choice to live a mundane life Donna's chosen way out of a horrible situation would have been better.

Sorry, that got long and ranty, but the more I think about it the more ticked off I am about the treatment of Donna here. She was so passive. I object to the way RTD seems to be saying "she'll be happy now because she got marriage and money, which is really what she wanted the whole time!" That's not the Donna I love.

I liked the coral and struts too, and I'm sad to see them go! I'm going to try to keep an open mind about whatever new design shows up, but just as Nine will always be my Doctor I suspect that the coral will always be my TARDIS.

Hell, I would have settled for her going into DoctorDonna brain-burning mode in the presence of the Doctor and asking him to take the memories away again because she has a good life and people who need her to live.

So much word. The fact that RTD took away all of her agency pisses me off so, so much. Argghhhh.

For instance, with some sensible consumption of alcohol,Timothy Dalton throwing a diamond from Gallifrey to Earth may be the funniest thing that ever happened on new Who.

Ahahaha. Indeed. Indeed.

End of Time 2

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