I mean, Parting of the Ways is just the perfect finale, isn’t 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- that cliffhanger alone makes the episode worth it, even if the next time trailer spoiled it - but the choices of outdated gameshows mean the episode really doesn’t age well.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 doesn’t 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 character’s relationship in the first series.
And this is up there with Heaven Sent for best episodes surrounding the Doctor’s character, it’s this finale and specifically the “coward or killer?” 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, it’s utterly beautiful.
The whole Bad Wolf thing is a little strange, I think everybody agrees it’s not the best way to end that arc but I like that it’s a deus ex machina that the show forced to have consequences since Eccleston left. Imagine if he didn’t, this would be one of the worst endings in the show.
The kiss was pretty bad though, they probably should’ve taken that out.
But then it’s followed by Nine’s 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 “I don’t want to go” and “I’ll always remember when the Doctor was me” in my opinion, Nine’s 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 episode’s a package deal so it doesn’t matter)