carmen_lj | End of Time II

A proper review-like thing of EoT II, rah.

I think the thing that annoyed me above all other things - and there were a lot - was that I wasn't sad to see Ten go. I cried ridiculously at PotW, I was wahhh! at the TV Movie and everyone else's regeneration was a fait accompli by the time I saw Who so, yeah. But watching EoT, getting to the end and having my most overwhelming emotion be relief is kind of, um, not what I really want from the end of a Doctor's run. That made me sad.
I was relieved because, although it was terrible (and it was, I cannot imagine reccing this story to anyone, even if they were like a crazy huge John Simm fan or something), it was not Irredeemably Godawful, nor did it leave me in a Daze of Awfulness like JE: there were quite a few things I liked.
I liked that the Doctor died to save one person. Shame about the childish whiny tantrum beforehand because it was more Whiny Emo Ten (which obv we have NOt Had enough of Like Ever) when it could have been Lovely Heroic Ten Saving Everyone's Grandpa but nooooooo, there had to be more petulant childish whinging. So execution, appalling, but idea, well in favour of.
It was a bit like it was trying to take the save-one-life beauty of Androzani and Epic Epicness of Logopolis/War Games and mix them together. Again, it's a nice thought, alas the thing where you Need A Fucking Plot seemed to have been forgotten. I just can't believe they sheer level of contrivance. I can't believe how much pointless cack was just thrown in over the two-parter for the sake of trying to make shallow shallowness look like the Mariana Trench. Why were the Ood advancing so fast? Why were people having bad dreams? How, in any sense, were these the finals days of Earth you great big narrating liar? Magic diamonds? Rassilon? A LITERAL HANDWAVE TO FINISH A PLOTLINE? (Actually I think that's lolarious, but in a totally dreadful way.)
Why was Donna in this? The great joy of Donna was Donna&theDoctor. And here she was in it to be MARRIED OFF. I lol at everyone who has ever criticised classic Who for the appalling sexism of marrying off companions because New Who now has 100% of companions married off, and mostly to people they just met (or the audience just met, so we don't really care at all.) BRAVO.
I really like the idea of Martha and Mickey Having Adventures but sod off to the marriage thing. What happened to Tom anyway?
I really, really liked when Simm!Master calmed down and had decent scenes with Tennant. I loved those bits massively. And am a bit yay that RTD managed not to stuff the Actual Climax with CGI awfulness (I guess he got that out of his system with the spaceship/missile nonsense - though at least that was nicked offa one of the good Star Wars movies) but it was An Exciting Choice of which nutter to shoot.
So naturally he shot the computer. But I am a bit glee that the climax was basically riffing offa what Barry Letts was thinking of doing thrity-five years ago with the Doctor and Master and oh they got out of each other's way and were basically onna same side even though the Master did lolsome "I'm on your side, let's get the Doctor, yay!" and then made a sad face at the Doctor for pointing a gun at him.
And it was nice the stupid artron energy bolts were actually used for something.
Rassilon? Fine, whatevs. Nameless Time Lord lady? Partly I am whatevs at RTD being Vague and Mysterious in attempt to create Depth and Meaning, but mostly I am yay cause that means fandom has a dead shiny thing to play with. I am nah at the Doctor's Mother; my shipperness is YAY! at Romana and the sekrit space wedding, and my favourite is Susan looking out for her grandfather. I find that one just utterly wonderful and probably it will be my canon.
If I didn't love the Time Lords massively, I'd have found their FIVE SECONDS OF TRIUMPH before being shoved back into the ether lolsome. ALAS I LOVE TIME LORDS HDU. Also, what a massively bleh anticlimax.
I really can't believe Donna was brought back to be MARRIED OFF. It is just appalling.
I liked that he went to see Joan's granddaughter though. That was a bit wonderful.
But, again, having seen RTD finale's before, I did expect the last twenty minutes to be a great big goodbye but, oh god, it just went on and on and on and it was so boring and I was watching this with alicamel, jekesta and cakesy and there was much shouting of DIE ALREADY at the screen because OMG WTF GET ON WITH IT. Ugh, this year's just been so dull and repetitive and has had nothing new or interesting to say and now you're repeating the end of bloody JE and just HURRY UP WANT MATT SMITH NOW.
I am really quite woe I wasn't even a little bit sad to see Ten go.
I approved of all thirty seconds or whatever of Matt Smith. I am ridic excited about the New Doctor, which is quite nice.
In conclusion, it could have been worse; it should have been a hell of a lot better.