Wilfred, you better not screw this up!
The Doctor (David Tennant) has decided to face the prophecy of the Ood and learns he might be too late. The Master (John Simm) has returned to life and both their lives might have a purpose. Teaming with Donna’s grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins), the Doctor sets to stop the Master forever when he takes control of everyone on Earth and reshapes them in his image. The Doctor and the Master don’t know that they are all just pawns in a bigger game and the Doctor’s time might be nearing when he hears “knock four times”.
Doctor Who: The End of Time follows the events of Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars and is the final part of the specials airing between Doctor Who—Season 4 and Doctor Who—Season 5. It was a two part series that aired on December 25, 2009 and January 1, 2010. After this episode, Russell T. Davies who helped relaunch the series moves on. The special also represents the last appearance of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and the first appearance of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. In the traditional numbering, this story is listed as Story #202.
I’m Lord…Time Lord.
Doctor Who: The End of Time is a great Doctor Who episode. There is such a sense of dread hanging over the episode from the onset when he is warned by the Ood that he has waited too long by shirking his responsibilities. The Doctor throughout the specials had been falling, and this special gave him direction again after his descent.
The Master’s return in this special was fun and his possession of the Earth by remaking it in him image led to some great visuals. The multiple Masters almost give it a Being John Malkovich feel but I wasn’t really sure how the Masters communicated between each other since sometimes they seemed to have shared consciousness and other times they didn’t have any clue what was going on with their multiple copies.
Ok guys…Once more with feeling!
I also liked the return of Gallifrey and almost wish that it hadn’t been doom again. It was fun to see Timothy Dalton as the Lord President of the Time Lords and it felt like they could have done so much more with it. I still hope that another series will soon have the Time Lords return again for more a showdown with Matt Smith.
The episode also features a ton of guest stars. Donna’s grandfather Wilfred becomes the Doctor’s companion and the true source of the warning from which the Doctor has been running. The final sequence of the story when Tennant says goodbye has him saying goodbye to many of his former friends including Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen), her son Luke (Thomas Knight), Martha Jones (now Martha Jones-Smith) (Freema Agyeman), Mickey Smith (Noel Clark), Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Alonso Frame (Russel Tovey), he sees Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) finally get married, and even visits Rose (Billie Piper) and her mother Jackie (Camille Coduri) before he first meets them. It feels more like the end of the series than the end of the episode.
I don’t want it to end!
Part of the reason that this one is so good is that it was a good is that David Tennant was probably the best Doctor. Like Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, he just loved being the Doctor. It was expressed just in his sheer joy of exploration. His regeneration is one of the saddest moments in Doctor Who history. No one seemed to object as much as he did and expressed how much sadness regeneration brings. David Tennant will be missed Matt Smith has tough Chuck Taylors to fill. Doctor Who: The End of Time is followed by Doctor Who—Season 5.
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Preceded By:
Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars (2009)
Followed By:
