The End of Time was a two-part holiday special episode of Doctor Who which saw the departure of David Tennant, who has been superb in the role of the Doctor, and the arrival of Matt Smith. The story involved the attempt of the Master (played by John Simm, who was so good in Life on Mars) to take over Earth, and the intervention of the Time Lords, led by that one-time James Bond, Timothy Dalton. Aiding and abetting Tennant was the splendid Bernard Cribbins.
Given such a starry cast (Billie Piper and June Whitfield were among other famous faces that popped up) the show was always going to be fun to watch, and so it proved. As usual, I enjoyed Russell T. Davies’ script; he is a very good television writer, although his Doctor Who stories sometimes seem stretched out beyond their natural limits, with the extra time occupied by rather sentimental interludes, and this was for me the only weakness of The End of Time. Overall, though, it was good holiday entertainment.
I first watched Doctor Who in the days of the first Doctor, William Hartnell, and it’s interesting to see how writers have grappled over the year with the departure of their hero. In television, this may be due to an actor afraid of becoming type-cast, or even dying. Taggart survived the death of Mark McManus, and the show is still named after his character, although I don’t think the stories are quite as compelling as in the early days, when McManus was at his best and Glenn Chandler wrote some quite brilliant scripts.
In crime fiction, the author may simply tire of writing about his or her detective. Conan Doyle tried to kill off Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls, although public pressure (and lots of money) persuaded him to revive the great detective. When Nicolas Freeling killed off Van der Valk, he had Arlette, the cop’s widow, take centre stage, although not with the same level of success. I once attended a talk given by P.D. James, when she described killing off your hero as ‘foolish’, and within the crime genre, I’m inclined to agree. But in the anything-goes world of Doctor Who, a Time Lord can transform himself and sometimes, as in the Tennant era, with dazzling results.
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Doctor Who - The End of Time: review
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4 comments:
I was wondering if The Master would return (they left that open a bit at the end of the Martha Jones season). I completely adored David Tennant as The Doctor, but life is change, and no one ever really dies in science fiction ;)
I'll definitely be on the lookout when this comes to the states, though I'll be sad to see Tennant go, it sounds like it really had an all-star smash-up cast. Thanks for posting and Happy New Year!
I'm actually confused about how far behind England I am in the Doctor Who series--but you're right, the premise helps patch over the errant ways of actors. I think I'd agree with P.D. James about detectives. What's the point of killing them off?
I remembering hearing an author say she had been getting tired of one of her regular characters and thought of killing her off. Her publisher said 'For Heaven's sake don't do that - you don't know when you might need her!'
I was most impressed with Kate Ellis for killing off you-know-who. Surprised, too.
I'm not sure about Matt Smith for the Doctor, yet. He managed to miss his train at Milton Keynes as we were watching. Couldn't handle suitcase AND mobile all at once.
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