Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords"

[Dalek104]

He made it into Dalek Shorts.

[Danny Stewart]

See? Silly Ronnie.

Anyway, good to have you back Alexus. Shame to hear you enjoyed the episode though.

[Ben Dawson]

MMM, Indeed. Welcome back.

[Alexus]

Shame to hear you enjoyed the episode though.

Shame to hear you didn't, as obviously I consider my opinion to be gospel truth, unlike humble Danny

[Danny Stewart]

Have you read my review?

I mean honestly... if there were only three or four major things wrong with it, I'd let other people like it. But with this many things wrong with it, I shudder to hear about other people even watching it, let alone what television taste would let people enjoy it.

[Alexus]

Thing is, I didn't see those things as things being wrong with it.

[Ben Dawson]

Just mentally challenged?

[Alexus]

What a charming sentiment.

[Ronnie Rowlands]

Don't talk to my friend like that! He disagrees so he's mentally challenged? You know who else thought like that?.. Oh yes. Hitler!

[Alexus]

Hehe, I've opened a can of worms.

[Danny Stewart]

Originally Posted by Alexus

Thing is, I didn't see those things as things being wrong with it.

Apparently you didn't read it. It was long. And while some things may be arguable, some things just plain aren't.

[Alexus]

I read the whole thing and disagreed with all of it except the thing about how the Master got from Futurekindland to Utopia. Although, the TARDIS does have some conventional flight capability.

[Danny Stewart]

Originally Posted by Alexus

I read the whole thing and disagreed with all of it except the thing about how the Master got from Futurekindland to Utopia. Although, the TARDIS does have some conventional flight capability.

Wow. Mm. Okay then. Well at least I took the time to write out my thoughts. Care to provide an equally long rebuttal to my review?

And as for the TARDIS's conventional flight capability, yes, of course it does -- but the Doctor sabotaged it when he locked it between two locations.

[Alexus]

Alright, I'll do a rebuttal. I might find I agree with more than one point, but I don't think it was many.

Oh, and the Doctor says the TARDIS can only travel between "The year 100 trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed, which is right here, right now." He specifies time for the first, but time AND space for the second. Since he only had a few seconds, allowing the Master only one escape planet but allowing him free reign in 100 trillion makes sense - after all, what is there in the end of the universe? Billions of willing soldiers waiting to murder their relatives? That's impossible!

[Alexus]

Oh, dear. What has Russell T Davies done to my precious Doctor Who? How can I even begin to cover my disappointment in this travesty?

Alright, here we go. I apologize if I've missed anything -- this is just off the top of my head:

A 3673 word review is just off the top of your head? Holy shit

First of all, why was it necessary to jump forward in time a full year? It seems thrown in and slightly out of place, especially considering how all the main characters (save Martha) are acting at this point in time. Jack is still having a laugh, the Master is still extremely excitable, and the whole situation seems pretty new to everyone. I just think this particular plot device was pretty unnecessary, and that a month would easily have allowed the same type of development

I think it was very necessary. All the characters have changed in that year, and a year is long enough for the Master to put in place a regime that frankly shouldn't have been allowed on TV at 7pm. Jack is grimy and seems to be constantly executed, the Joneses are indentured servants. A very effective scene was where the Master demands Francine say sorry for trying to overthrow him, and she screams it out through gritted teeth as if she'd trying not to break down weeping; that year has changed them all. Especially Martha.

The whole "Martha Jones becoming a worldwide legend" thing. That struck me as ridiculous from the first time it was mentioned. I find it preposterous that in a world that now exists without television, without internet, without media of any kind, a person and story like Martha's could not achieve anywhere near the worldwide fame and reputation necessary to set any of the following events in motion.

In the Middle Ages they didn't have any form of media that wasn't either books no one could read or shouting. They also had this 'Jesus' bloke, he was pretty well known by about a quarter of the world's population. Word of mouth is a very powerful thing indeed: just look at the spread of religion.

The portrayal of the Master in this episode was considerably weaker than that of the previous two episodes, especially towards the beginning, right after the one year jump. The Master is so excited about this situation, which should be old news for him, so I have no idea why he's jumping up and down dancing to music like he's hearing about this for the first time. After a year, he should have come to terms with it pretty well by now.

I thought the portrayal was just as good, but that's only my opinion. To the second point, that is the whole point of this incarnation of the Master. He's completely apeshit bonkers, and he seems to be doing a lot of things just for the sake of doing them - because it's fun. Have you never danced around to a song like an idiot when you're alone? As RTD says in the Confidential Ep, the Master is like a teenager in his bedroom. Also, got to stress the point again that he's utterly, utterly insane.

On this same note, seeing the Master jump around like a buffoon makes me miss the sort of cold, detached, controlled Master we used to have with Roger Delgado. Not to say Simm is bad (quite the contrary, I love him in the role), but you'd never see Delgado approaching anything close to this kind of behavior.

Delgado was a good Master indeed, and it's terrible he died at such an early age.

I also find it a bit cliche that Martha's mother and father would fall in love again or get back together or whatever, even after these events. I know stuff like this tends to draw people together and I certainly understand that stuff like this could happen, but I don't think it would happen with Martha's family, especially after she just said in the previous episode "you'd never get back with him in a million years." It just smacks of RTD's overt sentimentalism, which bothers me.

Makes sense to me. They're slaves to a madman who has burned whole countries for a giggle, and they have no one else to talk to. Eventually they're going to iron out their differences over some cold mashed swede and murder-plotting, or go mad.

The mini-Doctor. Oh dear. I don't honestly know what that was supposed to be, or what the point was of doing that, but I can safely say that my initial reaction was not a positive one -- in fact, it was somewhere between confusion and laughter. Everyone in the room didn't know how to react to that, because it was just weird. I don't see how aging the Doctor even extremely far into the future would cause him to degenerate into this freaky mutant baby thing. However, I don't want this post to be entirely negative, so I will say that the CGI was good. But the mini-Doctor was ridiculous, and no level of awesome CGI will cover for that.

I was confused at first, and then thought "Woah." After all, Time Lords can live for thousands of years, but they have to regenerate every 400 or so (i.e. Doctor 1) so they don't conk out. Suspend those regenerations, and you basically have a 1,000 year old William Hartnell, and if he wouldn't look like a cross between Gollum and a walnut, I don't know what would. Also - the Doctor isn't human. Important thing to remember when he survives having all his blood drained (I really don't get that myself) or being stabbed in the heart but managing to restart it (after being STABBED?)

Also, it is consistent with the Master's program of Doctor-torture by making him helpless and then forcing him to watch the end of the world. Make the Doctor the Gallifreyan version of a parrot in a cage, it's going to hurt him.

What the hell was up with Martha's anti-Time Lord gun? We established that it wasn't real, so then what the hell did she have with her that she was showing off? Did she walk over to her local shop and buy a water pistol and some food coloring just to throw off that professor? I mean really, what the hell? Where do you even get food coloring in a post-apocalyptic world?

She needed a way to persuade Doherty that the gun was real, and since she's a member of 'the Resistance' she must have resources.

Not sure where to throw this one in, so I'll list it here -- there were a ton of repeated and recycled lines from The Sound of Drums that were reused here in Last of the Time Lords, and there were also a whole lot of unnecessary flashbacks to the previous episode. Some of them went on for 20-30 seconds and I just sat there, thinking "okay, it hasn't been that long since I saw Sound of Drums, can we keep moving please?"

However, you're not a casual viewer or a six year old. Is Johnny Scoggins, age 10, going to remember every plot point from TSOD? I doubt it. Also, only one of said flashbacks was as long as you say. I didn't see any recycled lines that weren't used for dramatic effect.

The Toclafane, or whatever you want to call them -- I was extremely unimpressed by the so-called dramatic reveal of what they were supposed to be... I mean, humans from the future? That really just sounds and feels like an attempt by RTD to write something dark and disparaging and it really comes off as more of a joke.

I found it dark and unremittingly bleak. The Doctor, with so much faith in Humanity, is always saying how wonderful we are, and the show has always been optimistic about mankind, and it turns out they become these things? It was a very effective move in my opinion, much better than my thought that the Toclafane were the trapped souls of Time Lord children.

I rolled my eyes when it was finally revealed that they were humans. Their motivation for destroying themselves in the past made little sense (why can't you just start a new empire somewhere away from Earth rather than destroying yourselves in the 21st century? the whole paradox plot in general bothers me the more I think about it, as it seems totally unnecessary to bother creating a paradox machine when you could instead just move away from Earth and create a galactic empire five light years down the road),

It would still be a Parodox if they did that as it would be changing history and thus their past, and doing that wouldn't hurt the Doctor as much, which is something the Master desired very much.

and I hated the way the Toclafane were portrayed. They seemed to force their own regression to a childlike mode of behavior, which is very strange, considering they seem intent to dominate the Earth and create a galactic empire.

They've "cannibalised themselves" in a desperate attempt to survive. Like the Cybermen with the emotional inhibitors, how else could you stay 'sane' after becoming a head in a ball other than making your mind simple enough that you didn't care?

I wouldn't trust a five-year-old to rule the cosmos and I'm surprised the Master and the future humans thought it was such a great idea.

I think you've forgotten what utter shits little children can be, if you actually honestly think that.

[Alexus]

The timeline for the Master's time on Earth is very sketchy and somewhat confusing. We know for a fact that at the end of Utopia, the Master left the year 100 trillion and went back to Earth in the present day. But we also know that two major time-consuming processes had to take place just after that -- the establishment of the Harold Saxon entity in the public consciousness on Earth, and the enlistment of the support of the future humans from Utopia. We also know that on at least one trip to Utopia, the Master took Lucy with him. I've been trying to piece it together and no matter which way you look at it, it doesn't fit together nicely.

1. Master goes back to mid 2006, meets Lucy, marries her, establishes his identity, becomes a person of some importance (with his normal hypnosis, maybe?) helps with Archangel, is elected first in by-elections and becomes Minister of Defence.

2. Master travels 100 trillion years into the future to Utopia, persuades the brutalised Humans who destroyed what they were to survive the end of the universe to travel back with him and... destroy what they are to survive the end of the universe. Travels back to 21st century Earth 1 minute after he left.

3. Master becomes PM, takes over world.

4. Master takes Lucy to Utopia, shattering her mind. This explains the character change between TSOD and LOTTL.

Here is perhaps one of the biggest plot flaws in the entire episode: how the hell did the Master meet up with the future humans from Utopia? Did he snap his fingers and say "you know, let me check up on those humans that went to Utopia, maybe they evolved into some kind of savage murderous race that I can enlist to help conquer and wipe out Earth in the present day!" It just seems way too convenient and I don't see how he would have just met up with the future humans by pure chance, and there was no reason for him to be looking for them in the first place.

Professor Yana knew that Utopia was a load of bollocks. The Master therefore knew it was bollocks. He needed allies to kill Earth, he knew the humans would do anything to survive, he put two and two together and got 1337. After all, he's much more intelligent than you. Or me. Or anyone, in fact. He's a genius. Also insane. He's got a mind like an Escher painting.

And another Utopia-related biggie: how did the Master get from the Futurekind world where the human colony was set up to Utopia? He couldn't have used the TARDIS, because it was locked between only two locations: the Futurekind world in 100 trillion, and Earth in the present. So that leaves some kind of local space travel, but there was no rocket left on the world, and it was so difficult for Professor Yana to create his rocket in the first place that it's not at all feasible that the Master would be able to set up something similar on his own, especially lacking any kind of motivation (see above -- why go to Utopia?). Also, there was likely almost no technology left behind on that world from which to construct such a rocket. Additionally, there would have been no way for the Master to meet up with the future humans from Utopia except by going to Utopia, because the humans had absolutely no reason or motivation to return to the Futurekind world.

The Doctor says the TARDIS can only travel between "The year 100 trillion and the last place the TARDIS landed, which is right here, right now." He specifies time for the first, but time AND space for the second. Since he only had a few seconds, allowing the Master only one escape planet but allowing him free reign in 100 trillion makes sense - after all, what is there in the end of the universe? It's a dump. That line I think is open enough for interpretation.

Perhaps the worst-written and worst-executed part of the entire episode was the Doctor's return from being hyper-aged by the Master. First off, the entire concept is based on Martha Jones being able to get practically the entire human race on the entire planet Earth to think the word "Doctor" at exactly the right moment. Even before we get into the technical details, I already have a major problem believing that something like this could happen. This also brings up the detail of the countdown -- how would the entire human race somehow know exactly when the Master initiated his countdown (or Martha or even the Doctor, for that matter)?

I'd assume that the guy with the booming voice who kept telling people to 'rejoice' and addressed the people of the Earth was like, addressing the people of the Earth. The countdown was probably announced by him, and the date of War was probably announced earlier. The Master does love a good gloat, after all. Also, Martha could have guessed as to when the fleet was ready by observing all those shipyards, unless she was just doing it to help compile "Jane's All the World Death Rockets."

Now, to get into the reasoning behind such an action. Supposedly, the force of five billion people all thinking the word "Doctor" at the same time, was somehow going to psychically do something to the Master's Archangel network, and then the Doctor was supposed to somehow be in tune with the Archangel network, from which he was able to restore himself to his previous un-aged form (including all of his clothes, by the way). The idea that a large group of people thinking a word, even at the exact same point in time (which, if you'll notice, didn't even happen -- everyone said "Doctor" across nearly a 30-second span, which is still pretty good considering they should have had no idea when to say or think anything) could influence a network of satellites that were designed to subtly influence voting UK citizens to like and trust Harold Saxon to then transmit some kind of psychic energy to the Doctor which is powerful enough not only to restore him to his previous form but also to give him a few minutes worth of Superman-like powers is extremely preposterous. There is no sense anywhere in this, and I'm amazed Russell T Davies actually managed to create a script from these ideas that was apparently "good enough" for the production team to put out.

When first watching the episode, I thought "WTF", and after 30 seconds realised what a great plan it was. I thought it made perfect sense - after all, the Master has made a psychic field that binds the whole human race together broadcasting a signal that keeps people scared (as Doherty explains earlier). The series has already discussed the power of words in The Shakespeare Code, and this was a wonderful way to bring that back. Also, the whole idea of faith in the Doctor rejeuvenating him is so optimistic and hopeful, I can't help but be uplifted by it. This is the sort of message kids should be getting in television (adults, too, TBH) The Doctor uses his enemy's weapon against him in a way the Master hadn't even thought of.

Oh, and it was probably less than 5 billion, since Martha couldn't have told the whole world and the Master also probably killed more than 1.7 billion people in his tenure as Lord of the Earth.

Also, how believable is it that people would even listen to Martha's story of the Doctor, let alone follow her instructions? I don't know about you, but if some psycho chick came into my house ranting about "saying 'Doctor' at the end of a countdown" I'd show her the door and get her the hell out of my house and away from my children. Stupid psycho woman. Yeah, right... I'm totally gonna tell all my friends to say Doctor at the end of the countdown! Psycho.

It's the end of the world, you live 100 to a house, and you're unable to escape. This hot chick waltzes past the Toclafane and the security patrols, she's got to have some kind of power. Also, don't forget she's a member of the alluded-to Resistance, meaning people would give her words some weight anyway. I'd also be willing to bet that after a year of genocide that outstrips the Holocaust hundreds of times over, you'd be willing to try anything for just that tiny iota of hope.

A minor niggle, perhaps, but I would like to point out that weapons of any kind are not supposed to work inside the TARDIS, including Jack's assault rifle, which he used to destroy the paradox machine. I know this has never been rigidly stuck to in the old series, and one could explain it by referencing the state the TARDIS was in at the time, but it's still a flaw, however minor, and it wasn't explained.

The State of Grace was mentioned what, two times in the Classic Series? Tha Classic Series which then ignored it, for example Earthshock when Cyber guns work fine in the TARDIS. It's not a flaw, because the State of Grace no longer exists. See: Earthshock, Invasion of Time (I think) and Parting of the Ways.

In addition to the concept of the paradox machine seeming quite unnecessary

Except it is. Even if the Toclafane went back to somewhere else, they'd still be rewriting the history of the universe and thus, however subtly, altering the fundamental fact of their existence. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it's a fault with the writing!

[Alexus]

, it also feels like a huge reset button has been pressed, which is a writing technique I can never identify with. Pete pointed out above that it had been building up to this for the entire two-parter, and he's right -- but that doesn't make a bad solution good. A horrible idea can be built up for a long time and be tied well into the story, but that doesn't make it a good idea. The fact of the matter is that it was still a substantial cop-out, and it essentially rendered the entire episode meaningless, even when you consider the memories built up by the main characters.

True, it is a reset button. However, sometimes the only way to deal with having built up a huge threat is to have it removed. It's a sad fact of sci-fi writing. If you think the reset button should never be used in DW, did you also hate The Doctor Dances? That has a reset button at the end - "Just this once, Rose, everybody lives!" We NEED that sort of optimism after a series of brilliant but dark Battlestar Galactica. 2 resets in 41 episodes seems good to me.

Lucy Saxon was also acting very weird and inconsistent throughout this episode.

She was?

she seemed like she was high or drunk or something, because she was really out of it, and I mean in a hugely noticeable way. She seriously looked like she was on some kind of tranquilizer or antidepressant or something.

And?

And then at the end, even though she seemed to have no regrets about supporting the Master throughout the entire episode and presumably for the year before

Except for the look of disgust after he kisses her, the look of unhappiness as she hands him his coat like a servant, the look of betrayal as he is massaged by another woman, the (offscreen) reaction to his suggestion of a threesome, and the shiner under her right eye. Yes, otherwise, they had a lovely relationship

Also, she's made utterly nihilistic and probably doolally by his showing her the end of creation. Hence the strange behaviour? Unless, of course, RTD put it in for no reason because he secretly hates Doctor Who.

she suddenly switched sides at the end, and said "Doctor" right along with everyone else, and in fact fired the shot that killed the Master at the end. That seems like very inconsistent or possibly just lazy writing to me, like RTD needed a character to fill multiple roles, so he used the same one in two places with little regard to established characterization.

I for one was watching Lucy throughout most of her scenes (mainly because I want to take her home and cuddle her all night) and it's very clear what her character is thinking, and why she switches sides. Harold Saxon, her Harry, who was so good to her father and literally promised her the world, starts to ignore her, beat her up, and cheat on her with other women. Oh, and he makes her go mad.

Russell T Davies also threw out pretty much my entire perception and understanding of a Time Lord's regeneration process in this episode, seemingly ignoring previously established continuity. He has made regeneration not only a very minor issue ("it's only a bullet, just regenerate"), but also seemingly a process of will rather than a fact of biology. It has never been stated or even implied in any previous situation involving regeneration in either the new series or the classic series, and it seemed to me that RTD changed the fundamental principle behind regeneration in this episode, which I strongly dislike.

Romana II, Destiny of the Daleks. She decides to regenerate, and picks the form of Lalla Ward (woohoo!) after some deliberation.

I was also very surprised when the Master was actually killed off. I know it was made obvious that there was a return route established, as Tom said above, but I still just didn't like how RTD just saw fit to simply kill the Master. Even if the Master does make his return later on, there was still a sense of finality to that final scene between the Doctor and the Master, which there shouldn't have been, because the Master has supposedly died many times before, and there has never been any kind of reconciliation or anything like that between the Doctor and the Master at the end, and it also screws with the audience's perceptions. Even though it was obvious that the Master survived in some way, the scene was definitely treated as an ending (especially the cremation scene), and it just shouldn't have been written like that where it's being so harped-on if he's just going to come back. It somewhat cheapens the scene, the episode, and the Master's eventual return.

I had no idea the Master would die, and I found that whole scene very moving. The reconciliation never happened before for 2 reasons. 1, old Who was less emotional, and 2, in old Who the Master wasn't the only other Time Lord. Imagine you wiped out the whole Human race to defeat an enemy who survived anyway, and after decades you meet another Human who survived. No matter who it is, you'll be ecstatic just to be with someone else like you. For the Doctor to know that a Time Lord survived his inferno, even of he is a Grade A Bastard, must have been a very hope-inspiring moment. When he cradles the Master's broken body and weeps, I thought Tennant was superb and the whole scene made sense to me.

How do you know he'll return, by the way?

The cremation scene itself seemed rather strange. My friend Steven noted that the Doctor was following Native American practices for disposing of the body, and I'm not really sure why. It just didn't seem like a very Time Lord or Doctor-like practice and the scene felt rather strange

Because you are a Time Lord yourself, and you know about their death rituals.

[Alexus]

Also, I'm not sure what to make of the scene where the woman picks up the Master's ring. When I saw that, I had to do a double-take, because it messed up my perception of what I thought was the end of the Master, and as a result, cheapened the beautiful acting and good writing of the Master's actual death.

That scene was put in for future production teams who might want to bring back the Master. I'm not a big fan of it myself, but if it means more Master one day, I think I'll live with it.

The sound of drums -- this never panned out. I was thinking that this was going to be somehow relevant to something or at least explained better, but in the end, it meant nothing at all, and the only significance in the end was hearing it stop when he died. Also, it was said that the Master heard the sound of drums his entire life from childhood, which would imply that Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley suffered from this same problem -- so why would they have never said anything about it, whereas John Simm can barely keep quiet about it?

I've got a theory - the earlier Masters only heard it occasionally, but when he was Yana the vortex/Master madness increased the drumming to try and remind him of who he was, and when he was John Simm it continued in that fashion.

Not an Eric Roberts fan, then?

I also notice that the TARDIS interior was perfectly restored back to normal, with no reconstruction period, no hinted regrowth, and no explanation or even hint as to how exactly the Doctor just put it all back to normal. That was rather a letdown, partially because I was somewhat hoping for a new console room or at the very least a new console, but also partially because it seems again to be a symptom of RTD's itchy trigger finger on that reset button.

Seems to be a symptom of the overstretched budget to me. TARDIS sets are expensive.

Seeing Jack leave was also kind of sad -- I knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any easier. Also, I must say, I have my concerns about RTD's current writing of Jack. His behavior here seems to completely contradict essentially everything that had been established about Jack throughout Torchwood, about desperately seeking the Doctor for answers and just to be with him again, and also expressing a huge interest in dying. The Jack we saw at the end of this episode was perfectly happy to leave the Doctor after a relatively short time so he could hang out on 21st century Earth (poor taste), and seemingly no more interest in dying.

Re: 1st point

DOCTOR: Do you wanna die?
JACK: This one's a little stuck.
DOCTOR: Jack.
JACK: I thought I did. I dunno. But this lot... you see them out here surviving... and that's fantastic.

Re: 2nd point

JACK: I had plenty of time to think that past year. The year that never was. And I kept thinking about that team of mine. Like you said, Doctor; responsibilities. (Also, big paychecks and top billing in my own 13 part series)

It just seems like a radical change in direction for Jack, and I don't like it, because I'd gotten used to the Jack we saw on Torchwood. I also think it would have been much better to keep him around in the TARDIS.

So do I, but it's not a fault with the episode but with JB wanting his own career. Shocking.

I also have to comment on Martha's departure. This came as quite a radical shock to me, as I was definitely expecting (and hoping for) at least another year with Freema Agyeman, but now it seems she's leaving, at least partially, already. I can understand Martha's second reason for departing, in that she didn't want to waste her life with the Doctor since he didn't reciprocate her feelings for him. But I also think that's rather shortsighted of her, because truthfully, nearly everyone on the planet has to live with some kind of close friend that they have feelings for but they simply don't feel the same way. At least Martha has a good friendship with the Doctor, which she doesn't need to sacrifice just because they can't be a couple. In addition, she is not just giving up her friendly relationship with the Doctor, but also the ability to travel through time and space. Now that's just dumb -- I had pegged Martha to be smarter than to give something like that up for such a poor reason.

So she should stay with the unattainable? "Some things are worth getting your heart broken for." That's all well and good for Sarah Jane, she's over the hill, but Martha is a hot sexy 25 year old. She can't hang around with a man as gorgeous and charismatic as David Tennant and not get any love in return. She has to get out and make her own life. Anyway, she's returning. (FYI it's being rumoured she's pregnant)

I must stress this: changes to the series format made by general consenus of the actors and production team are not the fault of this episode. RTD didn't just write the thing, writing people out as he went.

[Alexus]

As far as her first reason goes, I didn't really understand it at all. I mean, wanting to stay with humans and care for her family is all well and good, but the Doctor does have a time machine, and there wasn't even a real catastrophe to clean up after anyway

Her parents work as slaves for an insane sadist for a year. They watch the islands of Japan burning and 'half the world' slaughtered. Yeah, they'll get over it.

I'm also gravely disappointed that she won't be back, or at least not full time. I really liked Martha and I would have welcomed more full season with her. I was looking forward to keeping the cast between seasons for the first time in the entire new series, but it seems I will be denied that now.

I want more Martha too, but once again it's not a fault with the episode in question.

Finally, the ending -- what the freaking hell? For one thing, that was just a random-ass ending. Seriously. Like The Runaway Bride, except ten times worse. Now, I must rant about RTD and his repeated use of "things getting into the TARDIS" as a major plot point (and not just as Christmas cliffhangers, which is common enough). Both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant have made points on numerous occasions that it should be damn near impossible for ordinary objects or energy beams or anything like that to breach the TARDIS in any way. So then what do we have? We have the transmat beam taking the Doctor and Rose and Jack out of the TARDIS in Bad Wolf, Donna being transported into the TARDIS in The Runaway Bride, and now the Titanic bursting through the TARDIS wall (which, by the way, seemed to be made of wood and plaster, rather than the super-advanced Time Lord metal that we all know it should be made of) here. For another thing, even if something somehow were able to get into the TARDIS, I would like to point out that there is a distinct difference between the interior and exterior dimensions. I can almost buy what happened in The Runaway Bride, but with the Titanic, it seems to be a collision of some kind, and I can't imagine it being possible for the Titanic to collide with the TARDIS's interior dimension, and if it hit the exterior dimension, then nothing would happen because the TARDIS is indestructible. Even if somehow it did manage to breach the TARDIS, it would simply break the police box, and not burst through the dimensional wall into the console room itself. And RTD is overusing the cliffhanger-before-Christmas format that he established last year. It shouldn't need a format to begin with, but it certainly doesn't warrant almost exactly the same event (something breaching the TARDIS) and the Doctor's identical response ("what?").

Well, I liked it. I hate to be a grumpy guts, but it's pretty ****ing obvious they'll explain how the Titanic got through the TARDIS and into its dimension. That's probably the reason for the "What?" I liked it, and I thought it was a fun reuse of last year's.

I am so ready for Russell T Davies to move on from Doctor Who.

Seven million people don't seem to give a toss, and neither does the director of BBC drama. Technically, Danny, you're not allowed opinions on BBC programming, as you're not British and thus don't pay the licence fee

So, to sum up, I have a lot to say about this episode. I am deeply disappointed in Russell T Davies and am beginning to see that the man simply cannot throw together a rich, complicated, and thorough plot if his life depended on it. The more he tried to throw into this, the worse it fell apart. He ended what has been the best year of new Doctor Who yet with this clunker of a series finale, and I have never felt this way before, but all I want to do is erase these two episodes from continuity and start a blank slate to work from and redo it all. I gave this episode a 6/10 in the poll above, and after going through everything and writing this post, I am beginning to realize that it deserved a far lower score than that. RTD should consider himself that I voted when I did, before I realized the true depth of this episode's gaping plot holes.

To paraphrase Horatio Nelson, "I see no plotholes." I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and I am looking forward to the next series. However, it is clear that RTD might be starting to run low on ideas (3 great finales in a row can't be followed by a 4th) and I'm hoping that he gets some help from Moffat or Cornell with the next.

Things I liked about this episode, off the top of my head.

The bleakness of the Master's regime. Billions dead, at 7.05pm on a Saturday?
Those shipyards. Great CGI.
Milligan. He's a likeable character.
The Toclafane. "We made ourselves so pretty." Brrr.
The Master. Everything about that performance hit the spot for me.
Lucy. *sigh* Lucy...
The Joneses.
Martha being an action girl. Woo!
The scale of the thing. 200,000 multi-kilometre long rockets? Now that's a good start.
The resolution, the Doctor flying, the Doctor's message to the Master.
Everyone chanting the Doctor's name.
The music.
David Tennant. I want to give him a nice cup of tea and a pat on the back for just existing.
The Master's death.
The Titanic, silly as it was. Roll on Christmas!

Phew, that character limit is a pain

[Ben Dawson]

I've got an explanation for the drumming in the Master's head, he said "ever since he was a child, he heard the drumming", as Yana, he said that "he had been found as a naked child". My thought is, the young Master we saw, was actually the reborn Master (you know, when the Time Lords brought him out of the Eye of Harmony, remember, Bruce's body couldn't sustain him, it's only right he would gain a new one). And it was the "reborn Master" that stared into the Time Vortex.