New Who 4.13, Journey's End

[strange_complex]

So, well. There ya go, then.

I am actually seriously impressed at how much of that was correctly predicted by livejournallers: largely people on doctorwho, I think, though I could have got mixed up. To be fair, a lot of it was predicated on set reports of the scene filmed on the 'Bad Wolf Bay' beach, in which David Tennant was seen wearing his two different suits; and once you've got the basic idea of two Doctors from that, many of the rest of the predictions follow logically. Also, with the entire blogosphere feverishly generating crack!spec for the last week, the law of averages dictates that there will be a few hits amongst the misses. But still! Fandom clearly does have a pretty firm hold on the RTD psyche. Over the last week, I've seen the following correctly called:

• The Doctor being 'saved' from a normal regeneration by glowy!energy 'arcing' to the hand.
• The Doctor noticing the remarkable resemblence between Gwen from Torchwood and Gwyneth from The Unquiet Dead when he sees her.
• Martha and Mickey going off to join Torchwood.
• Rose returning to her Universe with her own version of the Doctor (which - GAH!).
• Donna going home at the end, but without her memories of the Doctor.

Then again, we didn't get everything. No one quite figured out what would happen to Donna (probably mainly because it was unsatisfying hand-wavey bollocks, of course...), guessed the true nature of the Osterhagen key (which was wonderfully bleak and awful in the end), predicted Unexpected Naked Ten, OR called the appearance of K-9!!!! And I really hope my neighbours didn't think I was being killed when he turned up, because I can tell you, I shrieked like there was no tomorrow!

So the RTD era, and its major themes, is neatly wrapped up. I didn't like all of it, and there's one thing in particular I do envy Donna for: having no memory of that desperate, awful kiss on the beach between a broken teenager and a blow-up doll. There's also a very definite case for characterising it as all one big, breathless, unregulated run through the tropes and events of the last four seasons - on drugs. But Davros was great, and the TARDIS was great, and having all RTD's major characters around the console at once was great. Also, much kudos is deserved for Jack's reaction to the idea of three Doctors: "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now!"

Then again, I don't know why the Osterhagen key didn't control twenty-seven nuclear warheads instead of twenty-five, since that would underscore the awfulness of what it meant by drawing a comparison between humanity and the Daleks. And Donna's ending? She's not the first companion it's happened to - but just why? I suppose the answer is meant to be that if she remembered anything about the Doctor, it would 'reawaken' his Time Lord mind within her. But it felt awfully, awfully unfair - although I suppose that was the point, really. It was meant to traumatise the viewers by doing something even worse to this plucky, loveable character than just killing her off. :-(

Anyway, on the whole, it was fun, in the epic-yet-strangely-forgettable way RTD season finales tend to be. He's done a pretty good job while he's been around, and it's pleasing to see him tying up all his loose ends, even if in a predictably icky way in some cases. But it's good to know things will be moving in a different direction now.

Comments

[gillywoo.livejournal.com]

I LOVE K9! and was so chuffed when he turned up.

I watched it when i go back from a hen do last night it al left me a bit cold, so am watching i again, in case cider-brain did it injustice.

things I loved
Davros (and for some reason german daleks really amused me)
Dalek Caan and his betrayal.
Donna really coming into her own (again)
The parallels between the DR and the Daleks again
The reaility bombs vs the osterhagen(sp?) key.

Things I hated
The way they destroyed Donna like that - If you'd told me at the beginning of this season, I'd really grow to like her, I'd have said you were wrong but she's been brilliant and it's such a shame they turned her back to the way she was in 'bride.
The cheesy bit on the beach at the end was dire
The monumental leap of faith it took to make Jackie flaming Tyler part of (other verse) torchwood.

and what on earth happened with the shadow proclamation? It seemed a pretty pointless red herring.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was left hanging a bit - the Shadow Proclamation, I mean. I'm actually a bit ambiguous about how it was portrayed at all, because the way Nine had talked about it in the first place (when talking to the Nestene Consciousness in Rose) made it sound like it was an inter-galactic agreement (like the Kyoto Treaty), not an organisation (like the UN). But if they were going to make it into an actual organisation, they might have made a bit more use of it - for example, maybe the Judoon could have been dispatched to do the job of taking the Earth back home, given that it's already been established they can move hospitals to the moon.

Anyway, now we've got it, I would kind of like to see more of it in future. It's actually capable of fulfilling the same kind of plot function as Gallifrey and the Time Lords did in the old series - viz., a higher authority to which the Doctor must answer, and which sometimes uses him to do its dirty work. That could be fun, actually.

[paulgregory.livejournal.com]

Re Treaty/organisation, if you substitute "law" for "shadow proclamation", it makes a bit more sense that it would have this dual usage.

A guy in the commentary for Stolen Earth said that the original script called for all sorts of "police" not just Judoon. There were supposed to be Slitheen as well (although I assume he means people-of-the-same-species-as-the-Slitheen). The suggestion was that the budget wasn't there.

I would expect the Shadow Proclamation to crop up in the next 4 specials - RTD still has some loose ends to tie up away from Earth. Perhaps The Master could work for the SP - waking up in a form of policing so unrecognisable it's like being on another planet??

Seriously though, it may be important that Donna was sat on some steps, which indicate that there is another level to the SP.