Doctor Who: The End of Time Marks the End of an Era In Front and Behind the Cameras.

Posted by ScuzzBuster

January 6, 2010

I am admittedly a multi decade Doctor Who fanboy, but I’m not an irrational one. I do believe that the health of the show since its return in 2005 is generally top-notch. We’ve had the pleasure over the past 5 years of seeing some of the best moments in the nearly half a century since the show’s inception . However, there’s a marked difference between Doctor Who in the 21st century vs. Doctor Who from the first 30 years. The End of Time, is a fitting example of some of the new show’s most enduring strengths and most nagging weaknesses. More importantly, it brings the new show to it’s most critical moment in it’s quest for long term survival, certainly a more critical juncture than the perplexingly sudden departure of Christopher Eccleston after one year in the title role leaking to the press immediately after the series premier.

David Tennant has debatably been the most popular lead actor in the show’s 46 year history. While fan-boys like myself can make all sorts of arguments about that, the only real debate could be held between Mr. Tennant and Tom Baker, who’s 7 year run in the lead role also struck a cord with U.S. Viewers through syndication on hundreds of PBS stations brought a large cult following to the program across the ocean. It’s hard to compare the two because the media landscape is so different in the 2000s than it was in the 1970s. However, David Tennant definitely has won the heart of many who probably felt that Tom Baker’s popularity would never be equaled. It’s really not a surprise. Tennant’s performance owes a lot to Baker’s. Definitely from a standpoint of the sense of humor and fun, the lead characterizations are very comparable.

The real success of the current series though comes from something that the show’s original run never really had with any depth. New Doctor Who isn’t really a science fiction driven program. It’s a character driven program. While the original series had it’s share of strong lead and supporting characters, producer Russell T. Davies is the first person to helm the show to do any significant development of the Doctor or any of the supporting companions or characters. While many hardcore classic fans have found outrage with the show going down paths that have been completely taboo in the past, it’s this added dimension of the program that I believe is the key in it’s current mainstream success. When we finally moved out of the TARDIS console room long enough to explore extended glimpses into Rose Tyler’s family and have those relationships and the consequences of her departure from Earth become key elements of the ongoing story-arc we suddenly added a human element to the drama. It was no longer just a show about evil, mustouche-twirling villains trying to take over the universe, but it was about people. The thing that pushed many of the classic fans over the edge was Davies showing that the Doctor had emotional attachments. Some of the most enduring episodes of the recent seasons delve deeply into territory completely unheard of in the history of the show. These have brought us some of the finest moments in the half-century history of the show. I would be hard pressed in any case to be able to name many if any episodes of classic WHO that were much better than The Girl in the Fireplace or Father’s Day.

Basically, this is my excessively long-winded way of saying that this program has everything to lose. Producer/Head Writer Russell T. Davies is gone. Lead Actor David Tennant is gone. All recurring supporting characters are seemingly gone for good. Come this spring, it’s all new. We have a kid taking the lead role that was being born about the time I first started watching the program. The only real foundation is a 5 year track record to build on along with it’s most consistently outstanding writer, Stephen Moffat, taking over as producer.
This is an uncertain time for the program’s future. However, while there is intense sadness that comes with viewing The End of Time, there are certain Russell T. Davies earmarks on this two parter that don’t make me really sad to see him move on in spite of my eternal gratitude for bringing back the show in spectacular style. I think the first and most irritating thing that Davies has the tendency to do with his scripting is that he simplifies and many times forces the sci-fi elements of his plots. As many great character moments as there were with The End of Time, I was almost sickened by the outrageously ridiculous cliffhanger at the end of part one. For anyone that hasn’t seen it yet, I will warn that I will not be treating any of part one as spoiler material, but will be very respectful of part two surprises.

Let’s start with one my nitpicks on Davies’ writing he’s taken to the extreme with The End of Time, which he penned. Russell T. Davies, as a refreshingly open self-professed non-theist and rationalist has this unnerving penchant for inserting some ridiculously non-rational and “spiritual” plot elements into his stories that surpass silly. First, we have the problem of The Master, brilliantly played again by John Simm after the heart-wrenching death he suffered at the end of a gun in series 3. While resurrecting Simm’s Master was ultimately inevitable, Davies chooses to bring him back through some weird voodoo ceremony conducted in an abandoned warehouse. This is the best he could come up with? While I am certainly first to admit that Doctor Who crosses the sci-fi line into fantasy often, this was just a little bizarre. Unfortunately, not really that much more bizarre than the climax of Last of the Time Lords where the combined psychic energy of the Earth’s population seemingly resurrected the Doctor. At least in that plot device, there was a loose attempt to make it science fiction by tying it into a computer network anomaly. Here it just got a bit crazy.

Next, another irritating aspect to this story goes back to Davies initial comments on why he never wanted to bring the Master back in the first place. He had strong words about how the Master had degraded in the original series into a generic “black hat” villain who ceased to become a character and just become a cheap plot device. Now, by the end of the first of this two parter, he’s utilized the Master almost as carelessly. The ultimate result of the Master’s evil plot is one of the most ludicrous acts of sci-fi villainy we’ve ever seen, reducing the population of Earth to genetic clones of himself. In my perspective it was almost embarrassingly indigestible. In Davies defense, he did manage to redeem The Master in the second part. This is why ultimately the Davies touch to the new series works even admidst some of his foolishness. In Last of the Time Lords we see where the program had begun to give us some welcome development of The Master. For the first time not only are we treated to some motivations and explanations for the origins of the psychotic villain, but in spite of everything we even managed to begin to generate a small amount of empathy for the character. While it was nice exposition two series ago, it all dovetails so cleverly in The End of Time, and the weirdness of his return becomes dwarfed in the ultimate reveal of what it all means.

As so that brings us to the other part one surprise that really was no surprise to anyone who had seen a preview or read a word about the program in the last few months: the return the Time Lords, and this time with Timothy Dalton playing the Lord President. And this is where we finally start to see the slow resolution of a story arc that began in the first couple weeks of the new series run . The Time War. Over the last few years, we’ve followed the Doctor as a broken man, with bits of dialogue giving us tantalizing clues as to what the Time War was and how it brought the Doctor to where he is currently. All this time, we had the entire fanbase clamoring for more real info or even on-screen recountings of the Time War itself. And, in a clever stroke by Davies, we suddenly come to the realization that Time War never really ended. The entire Davies run for the show had lead to this, the true final conflict in the Time War. As fans, we are brought back to places that that the classic series began to touch upon even in it’s slow down spiral of quality. “Ten million years of absolute power, that’s what it takes to be really corrupt!” that quote is The Doctor describing the Time Lords in the less than stellar finale of season 23. However, it’s quite apropos to the finale of the David Tennant era. Not only do we have the Doctor and the Master as two opposing sides to the same black and white coin, they also represent the two opposing views of the Time Lords themselves. We never really quite decide whether to root for them or against them. By the time you weigh all 40 years of Doctor Who history, you come to the realization that there’s really not much that you can root for with the lot of them

So how good is this finale? It’s not top notch. The script is clunky in usual Russell T. Davies style. He tends to simultaneously stumble over himself trying to write decent sci-fi and excel at writing compelling character drama. We have David Tennant’s most sullen heartfelt performance yet in the role. For the first time in the show’s history we have a viewpoint of the regeneration process that finally puts more at stake than just a new face and a couple of days of disorientation. We are treated to another brilliant display of the on-screen chemistry between Simm and Tennant as the Doctor and the Master. Another stellar performance by Bernard Cribbins as Wilf Mott is welcome as the character suddenly crosses the line from being an entertaining recurring character to being a key player in the Doctor’s final days. We get the true resolution of the Time War storyline as well as a final epilogue to the David Tennant and Russell T. Davies era of the show getting one last glimpse of the actors that made the era great. While we can’t close the era claiming there are no loose ends left, there is absolutely an appropriate and satisfactory sense of closure for the era and the emotion is strong enough that I had to ask myself whether I will actually be able to keep my heart in the show as we are finally introduced momentarily to Matt Smith in the role at the end. Of course I will if for no other reason other than due tribute to Stephen Moffat as he takes over the show. Any man that takes Doctor Who seriously enough to turn his back on Steven Spielberg to for it deserves a fair amount of latitude to get the job done.

What makes Doctor Who such an interesting TV anomaly on all counts has been that it is one program that seems to be able to coast through major changes—even changes of the entire cast—without breaking stride. Now, the new series has its first major overhaul. Moffat’s job as producer and young Matt Smith’s role as the lead will first need to maintain a majority of the fan base the new series has gained. While they couldn’t inherit a healthier and more popular program, that in turn makes them even more on the hot seat for delivering the goods for series 5. It will be an interesting turning point for the program this year. For the time being though, I think the current fan base owes a respectful nod to Russell T. Davies, David Tennant and Christopher Eccleston for opening the door to getting this classic series back on the small screen with more wild success than any classic series devotees could have ever imagined. While not the best of WHO, since 2005, The End of Time is a satisfactory and entertaining end of an era.