Doctor Who 30.13: "Journey's End"

[annathepiper]

Whoa! Whoa, I tell you! Also: mizkit called it!


Right out of the gate: I am somewhat disappointed that the "get out of the regeneration" resolution was as simple as it was. I was really hoping Rose would beg him not to change! Sniff.

However--it does give us the first time that the Doctor has been actively able to control his own regeneration. And that is pretty damned cool, and for me makes it worth having kept the Hand in a Jar around all this time. ;)

And, as far as the other part of the Hand plot goes--yeek, Doctor Prime! Or should that be Doctor-Prime, or Doctor-2, or Human!Doctor, or Bluesuit!Doctor? Kit told me that theory had been bouncing around elsewhere, and part of me is vaguely disappointed that it did actually happen...

... but part of me really isn't. Because given the events that played out in this episode, having Donna and Doctor!Prime bring the TARDIS back in, before the stunned eyes of the Doctor, Davros, and everybody else was very, very cool.

Plus, how they actually spun off Doctor!Prime off the Hand and had it affect Donna as well worked better for me than I thought would happen, when I'd first heard of the idea of a second Doctor growing off the Hand. I like that the link between them was two-way--that Doctor!Prime picked up human characteristics off of Donna, while she picked up mental characteristics off of him. I loved how David Tennant did such a great job mimicking Donna's mannerisms--I already knew he had that gift, hearing him mimic other characters in the Doctor Who audiobooks he's read, not to mention what he did in Midnight this season. Dude. Man can act.

Wonderful mileage with the various Companions all throughout the episode. Particularly when Jack was shot by the Daleks, and Rose flipped out--because she still doesn't know what she did to Jack--and the Doctor very pointedly avoided mentioning it to her in front of the Daleks. But that one little wink of Jack's as he lay there 'dead'... hee!

DOUBLE hee for "So there's three of you? Three Doctors?" And Jack chiming in, on cue: "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now." BWAHAHAHAHA. Thank you there, Captain Jack, for speaking for all of fandom. ;) Nice little way to fulfill the "threefold man" part of Dalek Caan's prophecy, too!

Very pleased to see Mickey and Jackie come in to save Sarah Jane. *BEAM* I knew Mickey was capable of badassery, but to see Jackie contributing as well was very fine. Rose comes by her badassery honest.

Very, very cool to see Davros and Sarah Jane meeting and reacting to each other. YAY for continuity all the way back to "Genesis of the Daleks"!

I had not clued in before that the actress who plays Gwen appeared before--back in "The Unquiet Dead"! HAR! Nice continuity there as well, with the Doctor asking her if she had longstanding family in Wales.

Martha's contribution to the plot--also cool. Even if I snickered at the Daleks shrieking in German rather than English, especially now that I saw on this wiki page for the episode that the German word for "exterminate" is actually "ausrotten". Clearly, Daleks=not so much with the language skills. ;) I can see why they made up a word--because otherwise, no English-speaking fan would have gotten it. And I certainly don't have enough German fu to have gotten it without looking it up.

But I'm a little sad that they didn't actually use "ausrotten", just because I would have liked to see the German-speaking fans get a chance to laugh their asses off.

Also: "Who invented that? Eh, someone named Osterhagen, I suppose..." Hee!

In a bigger picture sense, I do have to wonder exactly how the hell the Daleks were going to protect themselves from the effect of the Reality Bomb, since the wave wasn't ever going to fade while it proceeded to break down all of reality. One presumes that they had some way of shielding themselves from its effects. However, one also presumes that their plan was to stay behind that shield for the rest of eternity, or something.

Any bets on how long that would have lasted, eh? I mean, sure, the Daleks talk a big talk about being "masters of the universe", but we also know there are factions among the Daleks that hate each other, or at least there have been. I'm sure that if the Daleks would have pulled this off, they'd have eventually destroyed each other. They're nothing without something to try to annihilate. One could almost argue that Doctor!Prime was doing them a bit of a kindness by annihilating them first...

Which, of course, leads into the excellent thread in this plot of the Doctor being confronted with the wide swath of people who have died in his name, as well as his most recent Companions being willing to commit actions of self-annihilation in his name as well. "The Doctor's soul will be revealed," indeed. His reaction to that entire sequence really rather underscores that the Doctor's come along as a character since the start of the new series. And the scene at Bad Wolf Bay really drives that home.

Speaking of which: AUGH SCENE ON BAD WOLF BAY! Sniff!

I have to admit... okay, fine, Doctor!Prime is a cheesy plot device... but if it means that Rose finally gets a life with the Doctor, after a fashion, I can forgive a whole lot of cheese. Oh, that look on her face as she realized that the Doctor was going to make her stay in the alternate universe. And YES, YES, YES, she put her foot down and insisted the Doctor finish that last sentence he was telling her at the end of "Doomsday".

"Does it really need saying?" Me and every other Ten/Rose shipper across the fandom: "YES!"

I really like how they played that, though. The original Doctor stepping back to let Doctor!Prime do it... because he was going to be the one who'd stay with her, so it would make sense that she should hear it from him. And we got the snogging! Even if I'm disappointed we didn't get to hear the "I love you" out loud, it's fitting that Doctor!Prime whispered it in Rose's ear. Those words were hers and hers alone, and if he's going to commit to saying them, nobody needs to hear them but her.

I'm absolutely certain there will now be an outpouring of fanfic all about Rose and Doctor!Prime in the other universe, working together with Torchwood there. That universe's Torchwood is about to get a hell of a gift with an incoming part-human with a Time Lord's mind. They'll have a TARDIS built in no time flat. Just wait and see. ;)

Meanwhile, the original Doctor takes Donna away...

Donna. Aw, man, Donna.

Catherine Tate did a magnificent job, catching on fire with Time-Lord-level intelligence blazing away in her brain. That was incredible. And so very, very brief. The only thing I would have changed about that scene is maybe the Doctor giving her one last reassurance that she is brilliant on her own merits and doesn't need his knowledge before he wipes her brain.

Wonderful little final bit there with her grandfather and the Doctor, out in the rain.

And aw, man, the Doctor alone there in the TARDIS, on a wistful close out. He is still the Lonely God, with all his recent Companions having established other connections in their lives. A very final sort of moment, and the end of a fine run with Russell T. Davies at the helm, clearing the slate for what's to come when Steven Moffat takes the helm.

Let's see how long it'll be before we get River Song, eh?

Comments

[alstaria.livejournal.com]

Just finished watching it myself..wow. I knew the hand was going to come into play but that is *not* what I expected. I am so bummed that Catherine is gone from the series now. I initially hated the idea of Donna as a full-time companion but she was amazing, simply amazing.

Also, Daleks speaking in German freaked me the hell out. They're Nazi-like to begin with and then add in that and this little Jewish girl sure wanted to hide behind a whole furniture store, let alone one couch.

[annathepiper]

*nodnodnod* I'm really going to miss her. I hope this won't be the last we see of her. But if Steven Moffat continues what RTD has done with having all of the previous Companions continue to show up as the show progresses, we may see her again yet.

(That's one of the things I quite like about new!Who, I've decided--that all of the Companions in their way continue to impact the plot, and even if they stop travelling with the Doctor, this doesn't mean they drop offstage forever.)

Oof, yeah--I can see the scary there, too! I was too busy being distracted by "exterminieren!"

[kieri.livejournal.com]

I just like how, at the very end, NewDoc takes Rose's hand. Just that - simple, plain, and a right callback to the first time they ever met. Those two are going to have adventures, just you watch. No way can the Doctor exist in any form without causing heaps and heaps of trouble.

And a really beautiful use of previous clips and flashes from throughout the whole 4 year run, actually. Lots of emotions brought up by this ep but all in all it was pretty spectacular!

[annathepiper]

Yeah, that last look exchanged between them was very eloquent--full of uncertainty, not entirely happy on either of their parts. But yet--those joined hands.

Oh my yes, their story isn't done yet. And that universe's Torchwood is getting one hell of a gift; he may have a single life to him, but he's got a Time Lord's brain. Very, very interesting things are about to happen over there!

And oh yeah, the tying in to all that's come before was great, and very fitting for RTD's last episode!

[akadriver.livejournal.com]

I would have loved the Daleks shrieking in real German, honestly. Subtitles are wonderful things, after all. :)

I am really still NOT happy about Donna. I hope I can get past it though, because there was so much that I loved about the episode. I don't know, however, because things I seriously do not like about Doctor Who can stay with me for years. Like, for instance, the whole half-human nonsense in the TVM. I think I got past that tonight, though. :)

[annathepiper]

Yeah, actual German would have been my preference. :)

I'm seeing wildly varying reactions to Donna's closure all over the place. Mine is this: I'm with the camp that this way, she gets to live. And I don't believe that she'll stay shallow!Donna forever. The potential is, after all, there. We saw it erupt on its own, and brilliantly, in "Turn Left".

And if Steven Moffat continues the tradition RTD established of having past Companions periodically show up and impact stuff, I'm just betting we'll see Donna again at some point.

As for the half-human thing in the TVM--har. I have seen amusing theories and counter-theories about that all over the place; I rather like the one I saw that said that he was simply bullshitting, setting up an elaborate ruse to screw around with the Master. Given how events played out in tonight's episode in particular, I'd buy that.

[akadriver.livejournal.com]

It's a good one but doesn't quite explain away the whole 'hey, that's a human retina' the Master has when he's looking at the Doctor. But I suppose there could have been something elaborate there that tricked the Master...hm. Oh well. All retconned anyway. :)

[annathepiper]

Yeah, it seems fairly clear they're glossing over that one little particular detail of Eight's story. Hee.

At some point I need to read these two novels I've picked up involving the Eighth Doctor, and find some of these audio stories I hear rumors of, as well. :)

[akadriver.livejournal.com]

I need to get some of the audio stories too, because I love Paul McGann's voice. :) But Auntie Beeb has Shada up at least: http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/webcasts/shada/ .

[annathepiper]

COOL. Thanks for the link! :)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

"Does it really need saying?" Me and every other Ten/Rose shipper across the fandom: "YES!"

Even *Ted* shouted, "YES!"

Oh, my God. My heart, it is broken into a hundred zillion million little bitty pieces. That was a great episode. AUGH. *AUGH*.

Pretty much the only reason I can forgive him not saying "I love you" out loud is because of Professor Song not giving us his name out loud, either. The symmetry there made it work for me, but AUGH. MEAN BASTARDS. AUGH.

...Doctor!Prime put a t-shirt/jumper under his suit, didn't he. Like Nine wore. Which both made him look younger and also tied in to the "this is how and what he was born of" thing. I'm re-watching Nine now and I can almost see him in Rose's Doctor. Man. AUGH. MAH HART.

And Donna. *Donna* *Donna*. AUGH. *AUGH*. *waaaaaaails*!

[annathepiper]

AUGH! AUGH! AUGH!

Hee about Ted!

The symmetry was good, too; I hadn't thought of that! Good point! Also--it occurs to me that it was probably a mercy to the Doctor not to have to hear Doctor!Prime say what he couldn't say himself.

It's a little weird to me that Doctor!Prime came out in a general mental and emotional state closer to Nine than current Ten; I'm not quite sure that the concept of "born in battle" quite flies for me. But I can definitely see Nine-era reactions in him--shades of "And then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!", here. Not to mention that flare of resentment when he tells the Doctor, "You made me!"

And yeah, I caught that T-shirt under the blue suit. It did look a little Nine-ish, that!

And AUGH AUGH AUGH that look on Rose's face when she touched her hand to his chest and felt just the one heart beating, and that last bit where she tearfully watched the TARDIS vanished and he came up and took her hand and AUGH.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Well, of course, Doctor!Prime regenerated from a hand that had been Ten for less than fifteen hours. He might've had a lot more of Nine left in him than Ten does by now.

I'm re-watching the end of series one right now and am really looking forward to watching series two, because my recollection is that Ten starts out *very* Nineish and works his way into being Ten through the course of a few episodes. I want to see if I can pinpoint when he becomes Ten and when I stop being able to work out what Nine might have done differently (I mean, think about Nine faced with the Master's death. It would've been a completely different scenario. It would've been *magnificent*, but it would've been totally different.).

...the small mercy is a thought that hadn't occurred to me. I don't remember--did we get to see the Doctor's face during that whole little heartbreak whisper/kiss? I gotta watch it again. MAN. *MAN*. AUGH.

Notice he left, though, while they were kissing. No goodbyes. That's the Doctor for you, isn't it. He actually said goodbye to everybody this time. Everybody but Rose.

_God_ I'm glad they gave us that happily ever after for them. I mean, it's a hell of a HEA, completely fucked up in its way, but...I really wanted that. Yes, yes, of course it's silly to get so invested in television characters, but...I really wanted that. :)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also: I hope we don't get to Professor Song for a long time. I'd like to see her turn up a couple more times, but I don't...want that story. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I loved her. She was awesome. ("I'm starting to like you!" "Oh, you *do*." I really like that she's out there, waiting for this Doctor (I would've *killed* something if he'd...ok, it's irrational, but I really, *really* wanted him to be with Rose. I'm totally good with Doctor!Prime being with Rose and the Doctor being with Song, but *damn*, I'd have killed something if I'd only gotten Song!). But I am in no way ready for that story. And Ten shouldn't be, either.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I'm not quite ready for River yet myself. If he's destined to trust this woman enough to give her his name, that certainly suggests she's going to be a mighty impact upon him. But this soon after Rose... no.

That River recognizes his current regeneration suggests she should definitely show up during Ten's tenure. But she also was startled to see him looking "so young", which also implies it'll be a while. Realistically speaking, much will depend I think on how long Tennant has the role. If he's still playing the Doctor in oh, say, another five years or so, enough to get a bit more seasoning on him, maybe a little gray in his hair... maybe then it'll be appropriate to have her show up.

Of course, the actress playing River would be aging as well, so it'd be interesting to see if they could do clever tricks with making her look younger... but then, we don't know when in her personal timeline she meets the Doctor for the first time.

But yeah. Not yet. Not this soon after Rose!

[annathepiper]

MUAHA! I see you've added a new icon to your Ten/Rose arsenal. ;)

We do see a reaction shot of Ten both when Ten!Prime leans in for the whisper, and when Rose flings her arms around him and kisses him. Both times, Ten's over there looking all stoic-eyed, and he swallows a little, the one little chink in an armor I suspect he was desperately pulling over himself while he's watching Rose smooch the self that isn't him.

Which is exactly why, I suspect, he bailed at the exact moment he did.

And yeah, I'm very happy that we got a HEA for Rose out of this, and that it's fucked up is one of the delightful things about it!

Man. Man. If I had extra braincycles to spare I'd be firing up the Rose/Ten!Prime fic. That AU Torchwood is definitely in for some fun.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I totally get why he left when he did. But AUGH! And, um, yes, new icon. O.O I actually think it might be from the 2nd season episode when Cassandra takes over Rose's body and smooches the Doctor, but I cannot permit myself to start making Journey's End icons when I have to finish writing a book. Grr. :)

Man, if *I* had extra braincycles to spare I'd be RIGHT THERE WITH YOU. Because MAH HART, MAH HART! *tud*

SNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIF

[annathepiper]

Yeah, Rose is wearing that blue top there, so that looks indeed like it's from "New Earth".

I may not be writing fic but that filk has definitely seized my brain. DAMMIT BRAIN WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME WRITE THIS IN D MINOR... hrmm. Only David Tennant could get me to write a song that involves guitar chords I can't play very well yet. ;) I'll finish the chord progression for the chorus and then QUIT IT because I really REALLY need to be editing Queen of Souls but AUGH.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I want to make a little icon of the Hand in the jar, with the caption "In case of apocalypse, break glass".

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Oh! And there's a hanging thread left to Dalek Caan's prophecy. "One will still die" - nobody did, save metaphorically. Unless he meant Davros?

[annathepiper]

I'm pretty sure that the prophecy was metaphorical in that respect, and referred to Donna. That makes the most sense given how her story arc ended, and it fits in with the Ood saying that the "Doctor-Donna-song" would end soon.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Oh! I had this other thought, that I forgot to say, which is not only is Doctor Prime closer to Nine and therefore closer to violence... but he's also part human, with all the potential for carnage that that implies. I have no idea if that was intentional, but it was my thought when he massacred the Daleks.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I was halfway wondering that myself; that would fit in with the whole idea of the Doctor turning all his human Companions into "weapons". Good point. :)

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

It also went with Donna making the Daleks spin in circles. The Doctor was capable of huge destruction, but never that amount of petty indignity-inflicting.

[annathepiper]

Hah, you're right! "Aaaaaaand SPIN!" Very, very human. ;)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

That's a *really good* thought. *admires your thinkings*!

[annathepiper]

Hee! Do it!

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I also want to do a Ten/Rose fanvid to the Pogues' "London Girl".

Sadly, I have no clue as to how to go about doing either.

[annathepiper]

Oh, the icon part's easy! You need two things: 1) a screencap of the bit you want, and 2) a program that'll let you slap the desired caption on the thing, as well as any other manipulations you might want to do. Hell, I could whip that up in Paint Shop Pro right now.

Though it's going to have to wait till after I'm done writing my Doctor filk. *^_^*;; I wonder how many of the fandom have been moved to creativity by this finale, eh?

Fanvids, though... no clue there. I have no experience doing that.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

That would be made 100% of awesome. :)

[mari-mac1109.livejournal.com]

I think Donna was completely brilliant all season long and definitely some of the best character writing RTD's done in the Whoniverse, so I was a bit peeved with the ending. But, it does leave a clean slate for Moffat, like you said. All the companions are completely tied up.

I think the whole DoctorDonna and second!Ten interaction was completely brilliant. On both ends. Catherine Tate was awesome. David Tennant was awesome. I really liked that Donna was part of the 'three-fold man' concept in the end.

And anyway, like another commenter here mentioned, I hope we get another companion before River Song. Another completely non-romantic companion in the same vein as Donna. Maybe even a man. I'd be super thrilled to have both a man and a woman. A sort of Rose/Martha and Jack deal. But minus the romantic feelings that ALL of them possessed. But, with Moffat directing, who knows what we'll get. Moffat doesn't seem to really like the "asexual Doctor" so, I guess we'll see?

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

All the companions are completely tied up.

Kinky!

[annathepiper]

OKAY WHO GAVE JACK THE ROPE? ;)

[annathepiper]

What makes me forgive Donna's ending is this:

Specifically because I spent the entire season seeing that she's bloody brilliant, I'm not convinced that she's going to stay her old self forever. Especially now that her mom and grandpa have been clued in that she's got amazing depths to her if they'll only encourage it. I've seen a lot of folks reacting to that plot ending as if it means she'll permanently revert back to the state she was in all the way back in "Runaway Bride", and I choose to be more optimistic about it.

Certainly if I were in charge of writing her fate, I'd have suspicious little snippets of the Doctor's intellect start popping back out on their own, a bit at a time, so she can begin to handle them. His intellect is clearly still in there, simply inaccessible, since he was so adamant that she couldn't ever have her memories return lest her brain melt down. But I choose to believe that even in this, even the Doctor is underestimating Donna--and what he's given her will eventually blossom again.

Of course, there's also the question of whether we've truly seen the last of her, and whether she'll ever crop up again in any of Steven Moffat's plots once he takes over. The finale was pretty, well, final in tying up the statuses of the crop of Companions we've seen with the new series so far; it wouldn't surprise me if Moffat went in a different direction for a while and gave us a bunch of adventures not set on Earth.

But if he keeps up with RTD's tradition of having previous Companions come back at suitably dramatic gestures... oh yeah, I wouldn't put it past him to show us Donna again. One can hope.

Meanwhile, I'd love to see the Doctor's next regular Companion be male. Ideally, someone not from 21st-century Earth, just to shake things up a bit. And yeah, mizkit and I were both in agreement; it's too early for River to show up again. It should be a while. :)