Day 756: The End of Time Part 2

Part 2 of The End of Time is, after watching it again, actually quite good. I think I always picked up an air of negativity about this episode from various fan podcasts and reviews that I engaged with after this episode, which led me to have a reasonably poor image of this story in my head. Combined with the fact that my knee once dislocated whilst talking with friends about this episode (Other great knee dislocation stories include trying to get in a car and falling over, and sitting down on a lounge), and it stands to reason that my memories of this episode may not necessarily be fond. And yet, I still somewhat admire quite a fair bit of this episode for what it is.

To me, there are three parts of The End of Time Part 2 that make it what it is. The first is the sense of fun that permeates through the whole episode. A fair chunk of the first 45 minutes of the episode is content with being light and fun, albeit with slightly greater stakes than usual. A scene where the Doctor is captured by the Master, whilst it could have been written as the Doctor's weakest moment, instead turns into a scene with a little bit of bondage related subtext that just feels right for the tone of the series - a tone that allows for drama to be told but with an underlying knowledge that the audience wants to have fun as they watch it. This carries through much of the episode, such as the "worst rescue ever", or the gleeful scene of seeing the TIE Fighter scene from A New Hope rewritten to feature Bernard Cribbins and one of the cast from Horrible Histories as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. This simple allowance for the story to have fun makes it all the more enjoyable and helps alleviate some of the problems that the first half of The End of Time had.

Of course, one of the other great parts of The End of Time is Bernard Cribbins as Wilf. All of his scenes are perfect, because he brings the viewpoint of a simple normal person. When he's sent into space, whilst everyone else runs through the ship, trying to prevent a further calamity, he just stares wistfully at the Earth, allowing the beauty of the situation to sink in. His scene with the Doctor where he tries to give him the gun is so beautiful because of Cribbin's performance. As he cries over the fact that he's trying to save the Doctor, it's not overplayed, instead feeling absolutely real. Cribbins represents one of the great actors that Doctor Who has had, and his appearance in this story makes every scene he's in all the better.

Except, unfortunately, for one of the last scenes. The Doctor's decision to have a little tantrum over the fact that he's morally bound to rescue Wilf, and in the process of doing so kill himself, just doesn't work in my opinion. It reveals the Tenth Doctor to be quite a selfish person, and damages the overall character of the Doctor in my opinion. The scene is slightly rescued when the Doctor makes the offhand remark that he's lived too long, that helps give the impression that he himself has realised that he's not acting as he should be, and that maybe it's time for the new guy to take over. But even that is slightly ruined by the Tenth Doctor's final words. Approaching his oncoming death with the words "I don't want to go", whilst interesting and quite beautiful for some people, doesn't quite work for the Doctor.

The writer Terrance Dicks once famously described the Doctor as "never cruel nor cowardly" In his final Doctor Who story, Davies has written a Doctor that can be both of those things, cruel to Wilf, a man who would do anything for the Doctor, and cowardly in the face of his oncoming demise. Whilst I'm still able to enjoy this story, I think that it's time for a change, and I openly welcome the era of Matt Smith and Steven Moffat.