A fever dream of inspired genius that is actually the result of collective creative decisions and production limitations.
Sometimes, the fact that DW didn’t have it easy (a combination of limited budgets and hugely ambitious scripts / concepts etc.) actively seems to have spurred on creative solutions to the point where you look back at the zany sprawling edifice that it has become and think “Wow! This is so utterly bizarre and bonkers and yet… it actually makes a weird kind of sense.”
Just watched The Time of Angels. This was my first introduction to River Song and the Weeping Angels. And boy is it good. Knowing the solution to the puzzles and knowing the future of Moffat era unlocks so much more in this episode. To think that this was the first episode Matt Smith filmed. The music is top notch, and that cliffhanger is… <chef’s kiss>. I distinctly remember in 2010 being on the edge of my seat during the cliffhanger and then having to go somewhere (I have no idea where) immediately afterward and having I Am the Doctor running through my head, probably the first time I had really noticed that song/cue/music.
Also, while this is rightly remembered as the introduction of the Church of the Papal Mainframe as it would later be known, there’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it line when we first enter the museum that only holds significance because of later episodes next season. DOCTOR: Amy, this isn’t any old asteroid. It’s the Delerium Archive, the final resting place of the headless monks. The biggest museum ever. (Emphasis added). Anyway, this is one of my favorite episodes of all time.
One thing Chibnall doesn’t get enough credit for is actually making lots of stuff about regeneration make sense!
Moffat is brilliant for adding little hints in stories and reusing them later. However I think it’s less of a huge master-plan and more just sprinkling things in and using them later.
An example here is that when the Tenth Doctor first meets River Song, she asks him if they’ve done Crash of the Byzantium yet. What sounds like amazing future planning (for The Time of Angels), doesn’t actually work if you think about it hard enough - it’s obvious that she knows that was the Eleventh Doctor, and this is an earlier one. In my head canon I put it down to wibbly wobbly timey wimey or some kind of backwards trauma from her death affecting her memory.
(Sorry for the River Song rant lol can’t help myself )
Journey’s End: Yup, I concede that this is probably my favourite finale since DW came back to our screens in 2005 (with “Bad Wolf/Parting”, “Pandorica/Big Bang” and “World Enough and Time/Doctor Falls” very close behind). Given that the lion’s share of this episode is basically a prolonged conversation with Davros, my goodness it’s good! Julian Bleach puts in a scene stealing turn as our power mad Kaled scientist, convincingly OTT (in exactly the way Professor Zaroff wasn’t) as he contemplates the “destruction of reality itself!” with such glee. Moreover, Catherine Tate is fantastic throughout. This is the first time I’ve seen this story since “The Star Beast” and I’m struck by how her return doesn’t cheapen the tragedy of her fate at the end of this story. It’s still affecting.
I feel exactly the opposite here. Julian Bleach takes it way too far for me, whereas I feel Zaroff treads the line just right.
Catherine Tate is the best part of this story for sure! And doesn’t get the recognition of being the first woman Doctor! (So there are three Doctors?)
However I really disagree with the impact The Star Beast has on this storyline, I think it cheapens the impact to no end. Sometimes a tragedy is an acceptable narrative structure, everything doesn’t need a happy ending.
(Every time I think about The Star Beast I like it less…)
I saw the theory somewhere that River had actually met the Fourteenth Doctor some time before the library, making her think that the Tenth Doctor is older and while I´m not sure how well that works precisely, it´s certainly a fun concept.
Yeah I have seen that one a bunch as well. Especially before Wild Blue Yonder, when speculation about surprise guest stars ran wild as we knew so little about that one beforehand
Could not agree more - I know people have been wanting Donna to get her memory back for years, but the tragedy of it really really works, and erasing it like it’s easy, well. I understand why some love it but I like a tragedy I guess
That said, I humbly (yet most vigorously) disagree. I unashamedly love “The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End” and adore “The Star Beast”.
I doubt we shall see eye to eye on this but, hey, that is testament to the complexity of our respective tastes. So much in common in so many cases yet, in this, we are polar opposites.
I love “Paradise Towers”. It’s that careful mix of high camp, silly fun served with a massive dose of darkness. I mean, cannibalistic old ladies, a backdrop of hopeless war, societal collapse… it’s so bleak yet so much fun!
I disagree. I think there has been enough time and enough heartache for the Doctor, as well as Donna’s family (they all had to pretend her exciting adventures never happened, and Wilf especially had to stop talking about his favourite subject with his granddaughter - a huge rift opened up and it put a strain on their relationship.) That’s the biggest tragedy for me - that Donna had finally seen herself as worthy, as someone special, someone with a purpose, and she not only had it taken away from her, but she forgot about it, and still suffered from PTSD.
Now that enough time has passed, I think turning it into a happy ending is the best thing they could have done. The scene at the end with them sharing a meal together makes me cry every time I see it. It is magical.
Oh I love this, it is officially my head canon now, a brilliant way to tie up loose ends. I love Doctor Who because of stuff like this. Now can someone please write the adventure with 14 and River that we never saw? (Of course, tragically, Donna cannot be a part of it, because of the heartbreaking conversation Donna has with River about “if you know the Doctor from the future, why don’t you know me?” - foreshadowing at its best!)
Well said @shauny. This pretty much encapsulates my own thoughts on the matter. You are so right that Donna actually loses well over a decade of being the person she could have been. She’ll never get that back. She lost her agency, against her will. She lost a huge part of who she was.
And the ending? It can never give back what she lost, but… it’s a wonderful and heartfelt ending that, to me, feels fully earned.
Presumably, it happens between ‘Destination: Skaro’ and ‘The Star Beast’ because the Comic Relief skit was a result of the fast return switch following the end of ‘Liberation of the Daleks’.
I see your point. To me it just has that “fix-it sequel” feel you sometimes get in movies, very often movies by Disney.
And the resolution to this tragic ending for Donna was just “letting it go”, it maybe just felt a bit too easy and convenient for me. If it on the other hand had been a temporary measure and the next two specials was the Doctor and the DoctorDonna searching for a permanent solution as time runs out and finally gaining that as a prize from the Toymaker? Then I would have loved the crap out of it, it would feel earned.
I think the DoctorDonna got a fantastic ending in Journey’s End, it was just not a happy one. Like Rose in Doomsday: definitive tragic ending, but reversed in all kinds of ways later.
I realise a lot of people love that, that the characters you have come to love deserves better than they got the first time round. And that type of storytelling is not particularly appealing or engaging for me.
I also think Clara should have died from the Raven, that Bill should have stayed a Cyberman and that Ncuti Gatwa should have been the Fourteenth Doctor for the 60th Specials.
Nostalgia and a (somewhat forced) happy ending does very little for me I am afraid.
This is why I also cheered mightily in The Last Jedi when Luke got the lightsaber and just chucked it, along with a lot of nostalgia, down a cliff without looking back.
We will probably never agree on this when it all comes down to it, but as so many of us write again and again, it is fantastic to have this space to let our fandom opinions come to light without being called names and what have you if you have different opinions.
I love this place
Yeah, same for me. I really do get why people love that Donna has a happy ending now, but I also think there’s an impact to a tragedy that gets lost with a hand-wavey ‘and they were all fine’ thing, like Clara and Bill (and every Moffat character…). It’s why Adric has such impact, and honestly don’t like it when people try and bring him back too. Sometimes things just end badly. And that’s okay.
For myself, I’d rather them commit to the sad ending than pull a ‘haha never mind! it’s fine now!’ but again, I do get that a lot of people are not like me and don’t like it when the knife gets twisted and the story ends in tragedy
)
