All praise Russell T Davis. The oft maligned Executive Producer of the new series of Doctor Who has come up with a series finale to beat all the others that went before it - in terms of action, emotion and ending! In fact, god forbid and we know that it isn't anyway, were this to be the final ever episode of Doctor Who it could probably be said that it went out on the right note.
Leaving the people of the UK in a state of near (absolute for some!) palpitation last week, the story resumed as the Doctor was regenerating. Or was he? Due to an ingenious plot device which has been, literally, lying around for ages the Doctor was able to remain in the shape of the wonderful David Tennant. Some might call it a big dose of techno babble but to be perfectly frank, Doctor Who is in its very essence an exercise in suspending one's disbelief, so I was quite able to swallow this “Doctor Ex Machina” type of resolution to the previous week's cliff-hanger.
We always knew that something was going to happen with the spare hand and this was as good as it was going to get! I think that some might complain that getting two Doctor's for the price of one was a cheat. However, I would remind them of the several complete stories that have dealt with different Doctors coming together that are now regarded as classics. The fact that it was the same Doctor is an irrelevancy. What was relevant though was the fact that the “new” Doctor was half human and as such, capable of more or less? It was handy to have a bio-matching receptacle around, really though, wasn't it!
In fact, if anything, it led to one of the greatest moral questions that the show has ever dealt with - and that is what exactly is at the soul of the Time Lord? When his human half allows itself to take over, of what is it capable? We learned this very well this episode. With none of his previous philosophical musings, as in “The Genesis of the Daleks” the humanized Doctor had no qualms whatsoever in destroying - in its entirety - an entire species. It even allowed Davros to take the moral high ground, for Pete's sake! More of this later.
I won't be the only person, I am sure, whose msn went completely crazy after this episode finished. Unfortunately, I had to give the guys and gals short shrift somewhat as I wanted to get my own feelings down about the episode as soon as I could. However, the general consensus was that this was the perfect end to a generally outstanding series and that, despite the fact that there were some surprises, there were one or two things that were completely unexpected.
For a start, it was to my great relief that the Osterhagen Key was not used. I was frightened that this would be a cure all cop out of a plot device that would put everything back neatly in to place. Instead, it was revealed to be a massive suicide pact between the nations of the earth and coordinated by UNIT which was to be used only when the planet and its inhabitants had reached a place of no return. Frema Agyeman must have been ever so slightly miffed that she spent the whole episode running around to activate something that then turned out to be a great big enormous red herring.
Still, Martha's teleportation to Germany did at least give us the first sound of the Daleks screeching in their "original" language of German. What a joy - and it did raise a wry smile. While I do not wish to give any offence to Germans reading this, their creator Terry Nation made no attempt to hide the fact that he based the Daleks on the Nazi regime of the thirties and forties. The fact that RTD chose to send Martha to Germany was no coincidence.
The other members of the cast fared somewhat better than Agyeman and were at least given something to do. Sarah-Jane was saved by the timely appearance of Mickey and Jackey (hell, no! Couldn't she have stayed behind and looked after the baby. What sort of example of motherhood is she giving to the impressionable youth of our island?). In scenes reminiscent of the much earlier series “Invasion of Earth”, Sarah-Jane and the two other-dimensioners opted to be taken prisoner to get closer to the Doctor to help him out. Unfortunately, their fate was not be made in to Robomen - that would have been too kind. Instead, they were to be used as human guinea pigs to see whether or not the dreaded Reality Bomb actually worked. They escaped this fate too, though poor old Gita from “Eastenders” bought it in quite a nasty way.
Thankyou so much for brilliant reviews throughout the whole series. (What will i watch for 9 months!!!)