Warning: This story contains plot spoilers
David Tennant's New Year's Day's finale shows why you can't go wrong with Doctor Who. It was a sheer action-packed adventure.
Tennant's finale as the tenth Doctor Who was shown over two episodes called The End of Time - on Christmas Day and New Year's Day - and the second of the two episodes was watched by almost 11 million people.
There was the first appearance of Doctor Who's enemy the Master since 2007. The Master is, like Doctor Who, a Time Lord, but a bad one. The Master wishes to control the Universe and eliminate the Doctor.
In a 2007 episode, a flashback shows the Master at the age of eight, when as part of a Time Lord initiation ceremony he is taken before a gap in the fabric of space and time known as the Untempered Schism, from which one can see into the entire Vortex. The Doctor states that looking into the time vortex causes some Time Lords to go mad, implying that event to have been the cause of the Master's actions and the four-beat sound of drums, which the Master calls the "drums of war". The drumming is later revealed to be a signal placed in his mind by the Time Lords during the Time War. This flashback also occurred in this lastest episode.
During Tennant's finale as Doctor Who, the Master manages to turn all 7 billion people on Earth into him.
Also in the New Year's Day episode, the Time Lords returned.
The Time Lords portrayed in The End of Time were the high council of Gallifrey led by a resurrected Rassilon in the final days of the Time War. After hearing a prophecy from the Time Lady 'the Visionary' that the final day of the Time War would see the end of the Time Lord race barring two survivors, the Doctor and the Master, Rassilon devised a method to escape the Time Lock and materialise Gallifrey outside the Time War.
Gallifrey therefore appeared right next to Earth and threatened to knock it out of its orbit. As Gallifrey approaches Earth, the Doctor destroys a device, sending Gallifrey and the Time Lords back into the events of the Time War and leaving the fate of the Master (who took his revenge on Rassilon for implanting the drums) unclear. . . .
Rasillon had the drum beat in the Master's head implanted in the past as part of a link between the Time Lords and Earth, and sent a white point star contained in a Gallifreyan diamond to Earth in 2010 to be retrieved by the Master, and used in a machine to open a pathway for the Time Lords and Gallifrey to materialise. Rassilon states his intention is to bring about the end of time so the Time Lords can transcend into a noumenal existence. As Gallifrey approaches Earth, the Doctor destroys the device, sending Gallifrey and the Time Lords back into the events of the Time War and leaving the fate of the Master (who took his revenge on Rassilon for implanting the drums) unclear.
The Doctor is killed by suffering an overdose of radiation. After visiting his old friends, he goes back to his Tardis to regenerate.
In an emotional scene, Tennant's final words before regenerating, "I don't want to go".
Then, in an explosion which almost destroys the Tardis, the Doctor regenerates into his new incarnation played by Matt Smith. "Legs! I've got legs!" he shouted as he made his screen debut as The Doctor.
The world's most successful sci-fi series is to return in the spring.
A preview for the new series has been made available on the official Doctor Who website.
It shows the new Doctor facing vampire-like creatures, hitting a Dalek with a mallet, and shouting what seems set to become his catchphrase: "Geronimo!"
Doctor Who finale watched by 10.4m as Tennant bows out
Saturday 2nd January 2010
The BBC
The Master presents "the Master race"
David Tennant's final outing as Doctor Who was watched by 10.4m viewers on sNew Year's Day, according to early overnight figures.
At the climax of the episode, a total of 10.8m tuned in to see the Time Lord regenerate into his 11th incarnation, 27-year-old actor Matt Smith.
Tennant's final words on the show were, "I don't want to go".
Smith, meanwhile, uttered the immortal line, "legs! I've got legs!" as he made his screen debut as The Doctor.
Critics compared the final episode to Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet
The 75-minute episode ended with the Tardis in flames, plummeting towards Earth - setting up Smith's first full episode, due later this year.
It was the highest-rated programme in its time-slot. ITV1's Coronation Street took second place, with 8.6m viewers.
However, both had lower ratings than the day's second episode of EastEnders, which attracted an audience of 11.6m at 1945GMT.
Emotions
Critics were generally appreciative of Tennant's final episode, which also marked the end of head writer Russell T Davies' tenure on the show.
The story saw The Doctor battle against his nemesis, The Master (John Simm), who took possession of the body of every human on the planet, paving the way for the return of the Time Lords - who planned to end time itself.
The Time Lord President
In The Guardian, television critic Mark Lawson likened the episode to Hamlet - a role which Tennant played with the Royal Shakespeare Company last year.
"In common with the prince of Denmark, the Time Lord from Gallifrey agonised aloud over whether it would be right to kill a man (the Master) after a painful encounter with his mother, played by Claire Bloom, whose Shakespearean roles include Hamlet's mother, Gertrude," he wrote.
Writing on Cult TV website Den Of Geek , Simon Brew felt that, by allowing Tenant to revisit the characters he met during his four-year tenure as the Doctor, Davies had given new emotional depth to the process of regeneration.
"We've never had this: 20 minutes or so for a Doctor to deal with his impending demise, with no threat to see off to get in the way.
The new Doctor examines his features
"Usually, the emotions are dealt with afterwards, as the new Doctor gets used to his new body.
Here, an outgoing Doctor got to face the ramifications of what was about to happen, and it was explored exceptionally well."
Meanwhile, in The Times, Caitlin Moran dissected Smith's debut .
"As if to remind us of how huge the Doctor Who Universe is, and how fast it gallops on, Smith wasted no time mourning his previous, dead self.
Instead, feeling his delicately featured face, he started in alarm, and shouted: 'Argh! I'm a girl!'"
A preview for the new series has been made available on the official Doctor Who website.
It shows Smith facing vampire-like creatures, hitting a Dalek with a mallet, and shouting what seems set to become his catchphrase: "Geronimo!"
The trailer also hints at the return of Alex Kingston as River Song - an archaeologist who had appeared to have had an intimate relationship with The Doctor.
Her character was created by Steven Moffat, who has taken over from Davies as the head writer of the sci-fi franchise.
The new series is due on BBC One in the spring.
news.bbc.co.uk
David Tennant's New Year's Day's finale shows why you can't go wrong with Doctor Who. It was a sheer action-packed adventure.
Tennant's finale as the tenth Doctor Who was shown over two episodes called The End of Time - on Christmas Day and New Year's Day - and the second of the two episodes was watched by almost 11 million people.
There was the first appearance of Doctor Who's enemy the Master since 2007. The Master is, like Doctor Who, a Time Lord, but a bad one. The Master wishes to control the Universe and eliminate the Doctor.
In a 2007 episode, a flashback shows the Master at the age of eight, when as part of a Time Lord initiation ceremony he is taken before a gap in the fabric of space and time known as the Untempered Schism, from which one can see into the entire Vortex. The Doctor states that looking into the time vortex causes some Time Lords to go mad, implying that event to have been the cause of the Master's actions and the four-beat sound of drums, which the Master calls the "drums of war". The drumming is later revealed to be a signal placed in his mind by the Time Lords during the Time War. This flashback also occurred in this lastest episode.
During Tennant's finale as Doctor Who, the Master manages to turn all 7 billion people on Earth into him.
Also in the New Year's Day episode, the Time Lords returned.
The Time Lords portrayed in The End of Time were the high council of Gallifrey led by a resurrected Rassilon in the final days of the Time War. After hearing a prophecy from the Time Lady 'the Visionary' that the final day of the Time War would see the end of the Time Lord race barring two survivors, the Doctor and the Master, Rassilon devised a method to escape the Time Lock and materialise Gallifrey outside the Time War.
Gallifrey therefore appeared right next to Earth and threatened to knock it out of its orbit. As Gallifrey approaches Earth, the Doctor destroys a device, sending Gallifrey and the Time Lords back into the events of the Time War and leaving the fate of the Master (who took his revenge on Rassilon for implanting the drums) unclear. . . .
Rasillon had the drum beat in the Master's head implanted in the past as part of a link between the Time Lords and Earth, and sent a white point star contained in a Gallifreyan diamond to Earth in 2010 to be retrieved by the Master, and used in a machine to open a pathway for the Time Lords and Gallifrey to materialise. Rassilon states his intention is to bring about the end of time so the Time Lords can transcend into a noumenal existence. As Gallifrey approaches Earth, the Doctor destroys the device, sending Gallifrey and the Time Lords back into the events of the Time War and leaving the fate of the Master (who took his revenge on Rassilon for implanting the drums) unclear.
The Doctor is killed by suffering an overdose of radiation. After visiting his old friends, he goes back to his Tardis to regenerate.
In an emotional scene, Tennant's final words before regenerating, "I don't want to go".
Then, in an explosion which almost destroys the Tardis, the Doctor regenerates into his new incarnation played by Matt Smith. "Legs! I've got legs!" he shouted as he made his screen debut as The Doctor.
The world's most successful sci-fi series is to return in the spring.
A preview for the new series has been made available on the official Doctor Who website.
It shows the new Doctor facing vampire-like creatures, hitting a Dalek with a mallet, and shouting what seems set to become his catchphrase: "Geronimo!"
Doctor Who finale watched by 10.4m as Tennant bows out
Saturday 2nd January 2010
The BBC
The Master presents "the Master race"
David Tennant's final outing as Doctor Who was watched by 10.4m viewers on sNew Year's Day, according to early overnight figures.
At the climax of the episode, a total of 10.8m tuned in to see the Time Lord regenerate into his 11th incarnation, 27-year-old actor Matt Smith.
Tennant's final words on the show were, "I don't want to go".
Smith, meanwhile, uttered the immortal line, "legs! I've got legs!" as he made his screen debut as The Doctor.
Critics compared the final episode to Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet
The 75-minute episode ended with the Tardis in flames, plummeting towards Earth - setting up Smith's first full episode, due later this year.
It was the highest-rated programme in its time-slot. ITV1's Coronation Street took second place, with 8.6m viewers.
However, both had lower ratings than the day's second episode of EastEnders, which attracted an audience of 11.6m at 1945GMT.
Emotions
Critics were generally appreciative of Tennant's final episode, which also marked the end of head writer Russell T Davies' tenure on the show.
The story saw The Doctor battle against his nemesis, The Master (John Simm), who took possession of the body of every human on the planet, paving the way for the return of the Time Lords - who planned to end time itself.
The Time Lord President
In The Guardian, television critic Mark Lawson likened the episode to Hamlet - a role which Tennant played with the Royal Shakespeare Company last year.
"In common with the prince of Denmark, the Time Lord from Gallifrey agonised aloud over whether it would be right to kill a man (the Master) after a painful encounter with his mother, played by Claire Bloom, whose Shakespearean roles include Hamlet's mother, Gertrude," he wrote.
Writing on Cult TV website Den Of Geek , Simon Brew felt that, by allowing Tenant to revisit the characters he met during his four-year tenure as the Doctor, Davies had given new emotional depth to the process of regeneration.
"We've never had this: 20 minutes or so for a Doctor to deal with his impending demise, with no threat to see off to get in the way.
The new Doctor examines his features
"Usually, the emotions are dealt with afterwards, as the new Doctor gets used to his new body.
Here, an outgoing Doctor got to face the ramifications of what was about to happen, and it was explored exceptionally well."
Meanwhile, in The Times, Caitlin Moran dissected Smith's debut .
"As if to remind us of how huge the Doctor Who Universe is, and how fast it gallops on, Smith wasted no time mourning his previous, dead self.
Instead, feeling his delicately featured face, he started in alarm, and shouted: 'Argh! I'm a girl!'"
A preview for the new series has been made available on the official Doctor Who website.
It shows Smith facing vampire-like creatures, hitting a Dalek with a mallet, and shouting what seems set to become his catchphrase: "Geronimo!"
The trailer also hints at the return of Alex Kingston as River Song - an archaeologist who had appeared to have had an intimate relationship with The Doctor.
Her character was created by Steven Moffat, who has taken over from Davies as the head writer of the sci-fi franchise.
The new series is due on BBC One in the spring.
news.bbc.co.uk
Last edited:
