TV Club reaches the end of Series 1 and the end of the Eccleston era in the very first RTD grand finale! What are your thoughts on this epic Dalek confrontation and explosive regeneration?
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I go back and forth on the whole Bad Wolf situation. On the one hand it is seeded throughout the whole season, on the other hand it still feels incredibly Deus Ex Machina. But then again we have the whole âCoward, every timeâ and the TARDIS saving the Doctor by using Rose as a vessel (thatâs how I read it anyways 
), but that again leaves us with that ridiculous kiss between the Doctor and Rose. But then again it leaves us with Captain Jack Harkness, Immortal Extraordinaire and Torchwood which is really good, but on the other hand it wastes so much time on the stupid game shows (popular culture that is super aged by this point).
It does gives us Billie Piperâs absolutely best performance later on in Doctor Who as the Moment though, but also her worst when she says âEmperorâ in that ridiculous way in the series 2 finale.
Still it is the best of the RTD finales in my book, it has a good narrative structure.
Overall I give this story 3/5 
, those bombastic RTD finales are just not my jam, and stuffing our screens with thousands of CGI Daleks just makes them less scary as a villain.
Enough of my inconclusive train of thought, letâs hear from someone who really enjoys this story instead 
The fact this finalise is set in the future is a big part of why it works for me
Even more than any other finale until seasons 9/10 the stakes just feel real, you believe the doctor could die, you believe that Jackâs dead, you believe that Roseâs life is at stake and all of that just works for me
I mean, Parting of the Ways is just the perfect finale, isnât it?
Bad Wolf is alright - that cliffhanger alone makes the episode worth it, even if the next time trailer spoiled it - but the choices of outdated gameshows mean the episode really doesnât age well.
But then comes The Parting of the Ways and RTD has been chasing the high of this finale for years now.
When people talk about how the Daleks were scariest in Dalek, I simply point them to this episode later the same season. Massive, war mongering, actually incredibly deadly, the Daleks here really feel like the dominating force of evil they were written to be and the god complex the Emperor gains doesnât exactly help.
The relationship between the Doctor and Rose is utter perfection here, the scene where the Doctor sends her away is utterly beautiful and her insistence on returning to save his life is the perfect culmination to the characterâs relationship in the first series.
And this is up there with Heaven Sent for best episodes surrounding the Doctorâs character, itâs this finale and specifically the âcoward or killer?â scene that make Eccleston my favourite Doctor from the revival. How RTD managed to write such a concise, tight and close ended character arc is beyond me considering some of his later efforts. The PTSD ridden veteran finally discovering empathy and compassion again after years of trauma, itâs utterly beautiful.
The whole Bad Wolf thing is a little strange, I think everybody agrees itâs not the best way to end that arc but I like that itâs a deus ex machina that the show forced to have consequences since Eccleston left. Imagine if he didnât, this would be one of the worst endings in the show.
The kiss was pretty bad though, they probably shouldâve taken that out.
But then itâs followed by Nineâs regeneration, which is easily the greatest regeneration scene in the show: the dialogue, the acting, the way RTD manages to explain it so well to the audience and to Rose, this is miles beyond âI donât want to goâ and âIâll always remember when the Doctor was meâ in my opinion, Nineâs last lines are my favourite of any Doctor.
So yeah, I like Parting of the Ways just a little bit. The Bad Wolf stuff got a little corny but, easy 10/10
(Oh yeah, and Bad Wolf is like a 7/10, but the episodeâs a package deal so it doesnât matter)
I strongly agree with what you said. Personally I am giving the Deus Ex Machina a pass, since itâs the first season.
When I watched it for the first time the Bad Wolf thing blowed my mind and I still love it. What I donât like is that it feels like a lot of the season arcs since then feel like they are trying to do something similar⌠just a lot more lazy?
I think I could give the kiss a pass too if it wasnât for all the Rose/tenth Doctor stuff that followed. Which is honestly hard for me to bare.
While I rather enjoy Bad Wolf, The Parting of the Ways doesnât do a lot for me. Yeah, they seeded Bad Wolf/Heart of the TARDIS previously, but it just becomes a âMagic saves the dayâ situation, which Iâm not a fan of.
That being said, I do like that it does tie up a lot of what had happened earlier in the series, such as Satellite 5, Bad Wolf, Daleks return etc.
All in all, I give this a 3.5/5 (7/10) due to the mixed nature of it for me. Good, but with flaws.
5.0 Perfect/Fav
4.5 Excellent/Fav
4.0 Very Good
3.5 Good
3.0 Fine
2.5 Meh
2.0 Bad
1.0 Very Bad
Literally took the words out of my mouth. Watched these with some friends (them for the first time) last night and spent a long time trying to remember this phrase, but it is a classic RTD deus ex machina. Especially in light of the newest series it made it painfully obvious how repetitive the new series wasâŚ
But to the episode in hand. I do adore this story. I think a lot of it is nostalgia to me - I was obsessed with this series at such a fundemental part of my life that the magic then really did do it for me. And despite now being an adult and some of the beats working less for me than they used to, âhave a fantastic lifeâ never ever fails to get me.
âLove saves the dayâ is an annoying and trite trope but this is a rare occassion where I think it does in fact work because Rose has spent all series getting more and more obssessed with the Doctor, so the extreme of her ripping open the TARDIS doesnât feel like RTD pulled it completely out of his arse.
The Daleks here donât do anything too too interesting but the idea that theyâve been quietly grooming the human race in order to steal people away and turn them into a new breed of Dalek is quite horrifying. I suppose with so much going on in the episode, trying to dig deeper into that would have bloated things immensely, and it probably is scarier to just have that going on in the background anyway. Certainly not the most boring and formulaic use of them anyway.
And of course the Annedroid is still hilarious.
Iâm a little surprised, nay disappointed, that there are 6 posts in this thread and nary one mention of poor, tragic Lynda with a Y.
Is there anything more heart-rending than her final scene?
Lynda with a Y! The greatest should-have-been companion since Ray!
You really know the way to a manâs heart, donât you! 
I absolutely adore this finale. Fun opening set piece, the 9/Rose/Jack trio are as strong as ever, Lynda with a Y is great and you have to wonder what itâd be like in an alternate world where Eccleston stayed and Billie Piper left, making 9 and Lynda the team for series 2!
Bad Wolf ends on a really strong cliffhanger and Parting of the Ways lives up to all the buildup, the Daleks are a really oppressive force, Eccleston plays every scene brilliantly, I love the scenes with the Emperor, the hologram scene is heartbreaking and the regeneration manages to double down on it.
And itâs such good storytelling to make the climax of the story a recreation of the circumstances of the last day of the Time War, âcoward, any dayâ/âmaybe itâs timeâ are character defining and the perfect closure for the Doctor whoâs defined by his process of healing from the war.
This story makes me wish that RTD wasnât showrunner right now, so that heâd hopefully have the time to write a novelisation of this two-parter! Itâs the revival novelisation Iâd like to read most for sure.
Iâve never praised this finale as others have, donât get me wrong it is some really solid Doctor Who.
Iâve never really been a fan of Rose which certainly hinders this finale. The Deus Ex Machina is something that always bugs me in a finale too but I do enjoy how it creates the character of Jack Harkness into Torchwood Jack. I also enjoy all the interaction with the Doctor and the Daleks especially the Emperor
Overall solid but not the best by any means for me.
19 years and a few more RTD finales on and I think this was not only RTDâs best finale, but one of the best of New Who too. Yes it is a bit Deus ex Machina, but I find it less extreme than a lot that will come. This is such a dark story, almost an âeverybody diesâ of a story. The daleks are genuinely threatening, an unstoppable force moving through the station. Rose is a shining beacon of hope.
I do wonder how different weâd view this story if Eccleston hadnât left the role in this episode. If this was just another adventure and not his regeneration. Regardless this is a tremendous send off for his Doctor and a nice conclusion of his character.
The best season finale of Nu Who. A great set-up to a thrilling conclusion, some of the pop culture references have of course dated but itâs all so damn entertaining. The quiet character moments, especially those between the Doctor & Rose in The Parting of the Ways. Far more emotionally impactful to me than the more traditional romance between her & 10. Eccleston realising the Daleks have survived, first masking his feelings with comedy. The action & that finale! I could go on & on. What an incredible return for Doctor Who this was.
Sadly it was so successful that I feel subsequent seasons felt the need to replicate the seeding of an arc throughout, often to the shows detriment & also the go bigger everything & the kitchen sink finale.
A fantastic end to a great season. I think that this sums everything up in a fantastic way and it was a great choice to have this set in the future and make the stakes feel more real.
I appreciate this point even more after the most recent final.
I love this finale. The scene with rose as bad wolf is probably my most researched scene in all of doctor who, with the music, the acting, I just adore it.
I think the game shows are a bit cheesy but actually terrifying, and so are the daleks. I think it helps that we havenât seen them very often in the new series at this point, they donât feel like a gimmick yet.
What really makes this story work are once again the characters. Just, every death feels real, the doctor is so emotional and hurting and loving, Jack is being Jack and Rose is just wonderful. Itâs beautiful to see how much she cares for the doctor.
What I wish we could have seen is only some repercussions for Rose becoming Bad Wolf, I think that would have helped it be a little less out of nowhere (though I donât really mind it).
Well this is how a finale should be! Full of shocks and twists and genuine threats.
When I watched it on original transmission I was terrified on watching Jackâs âfarewellâ scene with the Doctor & Rose because I thought it meant he was going to die (as indeed he did - I was devastated untilâŚ!)
It was sad how literally every single human character was killled except for Rose (after we thought she had been earlier & Lynda was being set up as her replacement - so interesting to see Roseâs flash of jealousy when she met Lynda - so no way was she going to bring her back as well as Jack!)
One more broken promise by the Doctor - that he would make sure Lynda stayed alive if she came with him (not that the outcome would have been any different either way of course).
I did think it was mean that Jack got left behind though - a point briefly addressed in the Children in Need minisode Born Again. BTW nowhere in the header to either this thread or the next one for the Christmas Invasion does it mention that this should be watched in between these two episodes since it turns them into one continuous narrative (so Iâm saying it now LOL!)
Thereâs a Big Finish story that picks up a year after that which I remember being decent, but also doesnât have the greatest reviews
