Animated Specials Review

Yep, we’re doing this

Animated Specials

Doctor: Tenth Doctor

The Animated Specials are generally harmless fun, but don’t offer anything special.

The Review

Martha and her heart’s desire.

The Infinite Quest was initially aired as bunch of shorts on CBBC, and they’re stitched together here. It’s basically a quick animated version of The Key To Time with the Doctor and Martha being set up by Baltazar, a criminal to go on a fetch quest to find data chips to bring him to an ancient ship called the ‘Infinite’. In their adventures we see a planet run by ‘Oil Corp’ (very original), the best of the lot, a bug vs human war with a gun running frog ‘Mergrass’ voiced by Paul Clayton, which was a delight. Following that it was to Volag-Noc, the prison where Baltazar escaped from, then to the ruin of the Infinite itself, which lacked any power anymore to do what it wanted. There’s nothing objectionable, but the animation isn’t that great. At least we really have Tennant and Agyeman providing the voices, so that’s fun enough. It’s just a little piece of Doctor Who history.

A little green woman

Dreamland manages to have an even worse animation style, although by the end you’re used to it enough that you forget the flaws. In an obvious turn Doctor Who finally tackles the Roswell incident, and we get the Tenth Doctor in the deserts of New Mexico. It’s a suitably twisty plot that the classic series would have, and even manages to have some continuity with The Sarah Jane Adventures episode a year later. We meet the Viperox, as well as the unnamed classic Roswell alien design and in an all time surprise a straight-shooting US colonel turns good. Dreamland also has an incredibly rare Native American character and minor subplot which was nice to see. The plot is better than The Infinite Quest, but the animation is certainly a step down. Still, at only 46 minutes edited into one omnibus, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

It makes sense considering that these were never intended to be seen by many people, but they’re so disposable. I finally decided to review them by admitting they were shown on television and a streaming service and clearly not 4th wall breaking. I just wish there was more going on there.

7.75/10 Just when you think you’ve seen everything from Tennant…there’s more.

The waitress voiced by now Georgia Tennant, and the Native American by a Canadian who conceivably could be?

Time Lord Victorious Review

Time Lord Victorious

Time Lord Victorious

Doctor: Fourth Doctor, Eighth Doctor, Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Rose Tyler, Brian

Time Lord Victorious was an ambitious multiplatform story that got the unfortunate distinction of occurring during a once in a century pandemic.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories:

The Fractured Universe: 9/10

The Dark Times: 9/10

The Victorious Days: 8.1/10

Time Lord Victorious‘ bad reputation among the fanbase saddens me. You did have to put more effort than usual into keeping up with the topsy-turvy release schedule, but I felt it really paid off and genuinely does add to the Doctor’s story. After The Waters of Mars, this just adds a lot to the Tenth Doctor’s character arc. There are a lot of superfluous things added in there, really, a lot of the Victorious Days does feel like it was added on later. Still, the new ground being broken was genuinely interesting. Overall, a great experiment.

8.7/10 A grand experiment

The Victorious Days Review

The Victorious Days

The Doctors setting up an escape room

Time Lord Victorious Part 3

Doctor: Fourth Doctor, Eighth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, Thirteenth Doctor

Time Lord Victorious‘ ambitious conclusion is a melancholic mix of stories.

The Review

The Dalek that goes on a hell of a journey.

Time Lord Victorious has a bad reputation among the fandom, for being confusing and hard to access. I think a lot of this is due to covid screwing up release schedules, but it is true that there were some bits of the stories taking place in games, escape rooms, immersive performances that people just aren’t going to get to see. If you’ve followed the story, you know that those were all superfluous to the main plot, and I commend the ambition. The Victorious Days begins with The Hollow Planet, a rather fun take home game from Escape Hunt. I first played it with three people, doing it by myself I was too stupid to get some of it but honestly it’s a pretty good take-home game with good interaction and an unseen Thirteenth Doctor.

The Dalek chamber in a version of the Escape Room

Next up was a bonus audio supposedly serving as an Escape Room prequel, Genetics of the Daleks. A really great Fourth Doctor story which was a late add to the story. Serving as an escape room prequel, it’s really a great start/ending (depending on your point of view) to the saga. In many ways it’s a classic Tom Baker story, getting into a scrape, not being trusted, and saving the day but being the only one to make it out alive. The ominous declaration from the Dalek that he will become the Time Lord Victorious is pretty great, as is the Doctor’s flippant dismissal. Really, it’s a good way to spend an hour. This leads into the escape room itself, A Dalek Awakens, which wasn’t mind-blowing but it was a lot of fun, three people seemed the perfect amount. It was fun to hear Jodie Whittaker’s voice again, she was so good at hosting these games and things. The room was well-paced, and a lot of fun. I got to sonic screwdriver a Dalek! Again, if you didn’t know, this room has nothing to do with Time Lord Victorious but it was fun to give me an excuse to go the escape room.

One of many worlds I didn’t get to see

Sadly, unless a miracle happens, I never got to experience Time Fracture. Beset by a once in a century pandemic and then flooded not once but twice, it was cursed from the start. The best we have now is the lovingly created show companion, giving a sense of the passion that went into this production. Again, it’s basically not related to Time Lord Victorious so no worries there, but it sure looked beautiful. There even were the Torchwood offices! Really hope this maybe gets turned into a Big Finish audio in ten years or something. We then got Canaries a lead in to the wonderful anthology by Dave Reudden. Still, I can’t help but love this story. It’s told so beautifully, and you find yourself caring about Anke, the old woman running her impossible store. The idea of her getting out of order phone calls from different Doctors and always recognizing them is fun.

We do get the voice of David Tennant in this!

Lastly, the second half of Echoes of Extinction. I always liked this audio because it provides a suitably melancholy conclusion to the whole arc. Hearing David Tennant back on peak form is a ton of fun, and the crew of raiders is all played by stalwarts like Mina Anwar, and Arthur Darvill and his wife Ines de Clerq. (I will say, de Clerq gets less convincing as the profit hungry Captain Fry when her plan goes to dust). After everything, the Tenth Doctor manages to do better and it loops back around to him regretting everything the Eighth Doctor is going to go through. The psychic monster from part one agrees to imprisonment to finally feel peace, and we can only hope the Doctor gets that too. That’s The Victorious Days, essentially a postscript long after all of the shouting from the meat of the story is over.

Really, The Victorious Days was a super-ambitious bit of real life immersive theater that just wasn’t able to come together due to the pandemic. Despite all that, the stories are so good and compliment the overall narrative well.

8.1/10 I did ding it points for not being able to experience all of it, but sometimes that’s okay.

I just wanted to meet an Ood

2013 Specials Review

2013 Specials

2013 Specials

Doctor: War Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor, (Eighth Doctor)

Companions: Clara Oswald

The two final 2013 Specials pack a solid punch to memorialize the landmark 50th Anniversary and bring the 11th Doctor’s era to a fine conclusion.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories

The Day of the Doctor: 10/10

The Time of the Doctor: 8.5/10

With all the pressure on him, Steven Moffat completely delivered on the 50th Anniversary. Uniting Tennant and Smith was a ton of fun, and bringing in John Hurt to represent the classic style Doctors was an inspired idea. Doctor Who is about second chances and the Doctor gets to finally save Gallifrey. The Time of the Doctor is less successful as several dangling threads have to be hastily dealt with, but still served as a fitting end to the Matt Smith era.

9.25/10 Moffat pulls a rabbit out of his hat to deliver when he needed to

The Dark Times Review

The Dark Times

The Doctors take on the Dark Times

Time Lord Victorious Part 2

Doctor: Eighth Doctor, Ninth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor

Companions: Rose Tyler, Brian

The meat of Time Lord Victorious sees the collision of three Doctors as the Tenth Doctor makes a desperate bid to defeat death.

The Review

The Ninth Doctor in the vampire war

Other than a short story which we’ll discuss in a minute, The Dark Times kicks off with at last the Ninth Doctor’s entry to the story. Although sadly we get no Eccelston on audio, it is nice to see this short-lived Doctor get some more play. As well, he’s along for the ride with Rose. The Doctor finds himself in the Time Lord, well ‘Space Lord’ war versus the Great Vampires referenced in State of Decay. The Gallifreyans are still unused to death and functionally immortal, and we meet the original Rassilon, who surprisingly turns out to be a woman. Rose briefly becomes a vampire, but the Doctor frees the vampire underclass. It’s a fun story to get a very rare peak back into Gallifrey. Of course this came out after The Timeless Children where Tecteun was said to be the first space explorer, but if Gallifreyans were immortal at this time, hey, she could’ve been exploring an extremely long time. Series 1 Rose is definitely better than what her character became, so it’s fun to see her.

The Tenth Doctor arrives in the Dark Times

The title of this blockbuster story obviously comes from The Waters of Mars, where the Tenth Doctor declares himself the master of time with the Time Lords all dead. He’s in a false chipper mood in the first novel The Knight, The Fool, and The Dead as he arrives in the Dark Times. The book is well-written by Steve Cole, and definitely reads as the Tenth Doctor as opposed to just a generic Doctor. The short story Dawn of the Kotturuh gives more background, but the Kotturuh are a race that give the gift of death, artificially determining the lifespans of previously immortal races. The Doctor tries to come up with a way to stop them, get them to give up, but after they kill a previously immortal girl Estinee, the Doctor reflects their gift and starts a genocide of the Kotturuh. This turns out to be the cause of the massive changes in time felt by the Daleks in the Eighth Doctor who turn up to stop him along with the Ninth Doctor and free vampires in a pretty epic cliffhanger. Two Doctors fighting their future self? Now that’s fun.

The Time Lord Victorious and Brian

The confrontation between the three Doctors does not disappoint at the beginning of All Flesh is Grass, really the climax of the whole story. There is a sizable gap where-in fits The Minds of Magnox where Jacob Dudman delights with his great Tennant impression and shockingly prefect Matt Smith in the coda. The Doctor visits Magnox, a famous place of knowledge to ask if he did the right thing, but the Kotturuh come and kill almost everyone. One woman, Peschell he saves and sends to Islos, where she founds its archive seen in Daleks! in a charming coda where the Eleventh Doctor returns to apologize to her. There are some comic strips, but the heart of the action is the Daleks secretly combining Daleks and vampire DNA to try and destroy Gallifrey before the creation of the Time Lords. The Tenth Doctor finally admits he went too far, and with the help of the last Kotturuh who destroys the hybrid Daleks with her judgement, save Gallifrey. Interwoven through the previous book and Una McCormack’s work here is the Brothers Grimm fable that you are unable to cheat Death. It’s a very well-written story, and perfectly fits the Tenth Doctor’s dramatic character arc at the end of his life.

The Eighth Doctor is a lot more dynamic than this, I swear

The Eighth Doctor is a fun inclusion in the story as he has no knowledge of the Time War to come, or how precious Gallifrey is. He causes an explosion on the Dalek Time Ship as they flee the Kotturuh’s judgement simply saying “apparently, in the Time Lord Victorious.” Mutually Assured Destruction the best of the Eighth Doctor trilogy, with high-stakes, a wonderful McGann performance and Nick Briggs working overtime giving texture to all the Dalek voices. The Doctor outwits them all, and the ship disintegrates through space. Exit Strategy, a final short story, has the Strategist escape, plotting the Time War meaning this whole arc leads right into that. Overall, The Dark Times is both well-plotted, and has excellent character development and thematic resonance. It’s really all you can ask for from Doctor Who.

The central hub of Time Lord Victorious does have the Daleks attacking Gallifrey (again), but it is really about how far one should try and go to fight death. The Kotturuh were evil, but the Doctor should’ve found in the better way. Also, I didn’t talk about him much, but the dry sartorial quips from Brian keep the whole thing lively.

9/10 Time Lord Victorious keeps its level with both epic and poignant moments.

Yes, even the Doctor Who Comic Creator got in on the action

The Fractured Universe Review

The Fractured Universe

They really should’ve taken more photos of Paul McGann

Time Lord Victorious Part 1

Doctor: Eighth Doctor, Tenth Doctor, Thirteenth Doctor

Companions: Brian

The first third of Time Lord Victorious stars the Dalek Empire and the Eighth Doctor as they try to uncover why everything in the universe has changed.

The Review

The Dalek Emperor

For a story as expansive as Time Lord Victorious, it helps to have the story order guide divide it into categories. The first section involves a mystery: there are changes in time, and we learn from the opening short story that a lone Dalek claims the Doctor is responsible. This leads into Daleks!, an animated series whose highlights are Nicholas Briggs’ hammy performance as the Dalek Emperor and sly one as the Dalek Strategist. Having a story built around the Daleks is a lot of fun as they encounter the Mechanoids running from an extra-dimensional entity. It does seem to drag a bit watching it all in a row, but it was my third or so time watching it so I knew most of what happened. Next up is Defender of the Daleks, a short graphic novel of the Tenth Doctor getting recruited by the Daleks to help save them. While it has some excellent art, this is the most disposable piece of the whole saga: it is an earlier Tenth Doctor than who will show up later on and honestly could be skipped. The Thirteenth Doctor shows up which is fun, but it does tie into other Titan comics which I can’t in good conscience recommend.

The Masters and the Kotturuh

Although as inessential as Defender of the Daleks, I still wholeheartedly recommend Master Thief and Lesser Evils, two stories about the classic series Masters on the periphery of this crisis. Jon Culshaw’s impressions of both Delgado and Ainley are excellent, and the stories are well-written and atmospheric. In the first, the Master ‘devolves’ his enemies but turns them into ancient creatures that feed on his personality and guilt. In the second, we first meet the Kotturuh, an ancient species who judge races and change their lifespans. The Master has been exiled to a jungle planet and tries to pull a fast one on the Kotturuh but ultimately fails. Just as quality is the Eighth Doctor’s side of Echoes of Extinction, where he beats back a psychic entity accidentally turned into a genocidal monster. Big Finish’s reputation for quality is well-earned, and it shows in their contributions to this epic.

On the planet Arthana with Brian

Paul McGann in his work gives what I would call an excellently restrained performance. Through He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not and The Enemy of My Enemy he never gets totally furious or has a big ‘Doctor moment’, but is quick to do everything he can to help whatever predicament he’s been thrown into. The first of these two stories I think is maybe the weakest but still good Big Finish entry, too much reliance on weird accents trying to recreate an old west gunfight. Silas Carson returns to voice the Ood assassin Brian, and is absolutely a delight as Brian is history’s most polite killer. In the latter, the Dalek time squad picks up the Eighth Doctor and they investigate Wrax, a planet that has devolved hundreds of species using their devolving gun (the same one the Master will knick). The scope is excellent, and we get more Briggs voicing the Strategist leading to the cliffhanger where the Doctor and Daleks mutually take the plunge to the Dark Times to find the source of the time distortions.

The upcoming star: the Tenth Doctor

A final short story shows the TARDIS reacting to the shocking events of The Waters of Mars sending the Tenth Doctor to the Dark Times along with the Ninth and Eighth incarnations. Time Lord Victorious had horrible timing releasing during the pandemic, causing much to end up releasing out of order. Listening to everything for the first time in order, the build-up of the mystery around time is a lot of fun. I like the Master stories for their quality even though they don’t really matter, but Defender of the Daleks is just a weird fit, especially with how it’s a pre-Waters of Mars Tenth Doctor versus who we’re about to get. I also enjoyed getting different Dalek varieties, we also have the Time Commander, Executioner, and Scientist, all given different voices by Briggs. Overall, it’s a quite enjoyable time even if we still don’t know what’s going on.

Questions abound about mysterious distortions to time as the BBC attempts a multi-platform epic. Unsurprisingly, Big Finish continues to be the crown jewel in quality.

9/10 Some well-placed connections and great audio design bump this up just to a 9.

The Thirteenth Doctor makes this really annoying to place in the overall show watch order

Time Crash Review

Time Crash

The Doctors!

Story 187.5

Doctor: Fifth Doctor, Tenth Doctor

A delightful 2007 charity mini-episode that will leave you grinning from ear to ear.

The Review

Tenth Doctor trying to work some magic

How can you not have a big smile on your face watching Time Crash? It has everything to do with David Tennant’s performance, featuring him at the height of his powers as one of the finest actors ever to take the part. Peter Davison is visibly older and almost can’t quite pull off being the famously youthful Fifth Doctor, but he does an admirable job. It’s just a blast to see these two at it, as their Doctors, doing Doctor things. Knowing that Tennant got Davison because he was his favorite Doctor growing up is just perfect, and then the next year he’d meet Davison’s daughter and marry her! How about that? It’s a perfect little love letter to the Fifth Doctor, and incarnation that deserves a lot more love than he gets. What fun!

Wish we’d gotten a few more of these, but we did get Matt Smith and Tom Baker together six years later. Still kind of can’t believe that one.

10/10 Come on, what did you think?

What time differential does to a mf

Tenth Doctor Review

Tenth Doctor

 

Tenth Doctor

Doctor: The Tenth Doctor

Companions: Sarah Jane Smith, K9, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Wilfred Mott, River Song

The Tenth Doctor’s era was Doctor Who at its most broad and bombastic, with high-stakes stories thrilling while never losing sight of its complex interesting characters, with the Doctor going on a surprisingly dark character arc powered by David Tennant’s great performance.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories

The Waters of Mars: 10/10

Human Nature/The Family of Blood: 10/10

Blink: 10/10

Smith and Jones: 10/10

Midnight: 10/10

Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead: 10/10

The Christmas Invasion: 10/10

The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit: 10/10

Girl in the Fireplace: 9.25/10

The End of Time: 9/10

Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel: 9/10

42: 9/10

Partners in Crime: 8.75/10

Tooth and Claw: 8.75/10

The Fires of Pompeii: 8.5/10

New Earth: 8.5/10

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday: 8.5/10

Planet of the Ood: 8.5/10

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End: 8.25/10

The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky: 8.25/10

The Next Doctor: 8/10

Planet of the Dead: 8/10

Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords: 8/10

Gridlock: 8/10

The Shakespeare Code: 8/10

School Reunion: 8/10

The Idiot’s Lantern: 8/10

The Runaway Bride: 8/10

Turn Left: 8/10

The Unicorn and the Wasp: 8/10

The Doctor’s Daughter: 7.5/10

Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks: 6.75/10

Love & Monsters: 6.5/10

The Lazarus Experiment: 6/10

Fear Her: 6/10

David Tennant will likely remain the most popular Doctor of the new series, or at least it’s first twenty years. It’s easy to see why, the Tenth Doctor was handsome and charismatic and constantly charming. He’s the most immediately watchable Doctor, approachable, and oh-so human. Russell T. Davies’ approach to writing was to always focus on the characters, and with each season bringing a new main companion he had to develop arcs for Rose, Martha, and Donna. Rose’s arc ends well in Series 2, but has a less successful Series 4 comeback. The Doctor also then spends a lot of Series 3 being kind of a dick to Martha, which makes the whole season feel uncomfortable. By freeing the Doctor of any romantic issues by bringing on platonic best friend Donna, in Series 4 the performance of David Tennant finally completely snaps into place. With the RTD era being less sci-fi and more a broad show about relationships, it’s easy to see the wide appeal that this era of Doctor Who still has. Still, RTD has one last trick by shattering our faith in the Doctor in The Waters of Mars, but the Tenth Doctor affirms that he is truly the hero he was scared he wouldn’t be by sacrificing himself to save one man.

Now, his best moments.

5. “Rose Tyler…” as the Doctor says goodbye to the woman who saved him from his depression, the Doctor isn’t able to get out the words “I love you” in Doomsday. It’s a heartbreaking moment that lives on fourteen years later.

4. “I forgive you.” The Last of the Time Lords isn’t perfect, but after all the Master has been through, the Doctor still tries to help his oldest friend in the universe. The tension between Tennant and Simm is one of the things the Series 3 finale gets right, and there’s another similar moment in The End of Time that would get paid off beautifully in the Twelfth Doctor’s era.

3. “When the Doctor comes to call”. At the end of The Forest of the Dead, the Doctor thinks he witnessed the end of his wife, River Song’s life. As River Song gives one last narration, the Doctor realizes his future self (the Twelfth it turns out) is very very smart and embarks one last mad dash to preserve River’s consciousness. The smile as the Doctor snaps his fingers to open the TARDIS for the first time is heartwarming and perfect.

2. “The laws of time obey me!” The Time Lord Victorious comes out in The Waters of Mars, as the Doctor decides that with the Time Lords dead, he alone controls the laws of time. The Doctor has never been darker and more horrifying, and it is truly a shocking moment that unsettles our view of who the Doctor is.

1. “I could do so much more!” At the end of the Tenth Doctor’s life in The End of Time, his vanity still flows through. Ranting and raving at the injustice of it all, there is still no doubt. It would be the Doctor’s honor to save Wilf, and as he absorbs the radiation, the Doctor proves himself to be a true hero.

David Tennant brought his incredible acting chops to bring together the Tenth Doctor, a character more complex and complicated than he is often given credit for. Factoring in the spin-offs, the explosive popularity of Tennant, and a very widely appealing style from show runner RTD, the Tenth Doctor era represented a second peak of Doctor Who following peaks in the Fourth and First Doctor’s era. It’s hard not to see why, as the stories were frequently engaging, emotional, and rewarding. The song ended, but the story will go on.

8.25/10 A smashing era!

2008-10 Specials Review

2008-10 Specials

 

2008-10 Specials

Doctor: Tenth Doctor

Companions: Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Wilfred Mott

The Tenth Doctor and RTD era winds down with five specials that range from disposable to essential.

The Review

Here’s the scores for the stories:

The Waters of Mars: 10/10

The End of Time: 9/10

The Next Doctor: 8/10

Planet of the Dead: 8/10

The Tenth Doctor’s final four stories start off with The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead, which are good stories but really nothing special. The drama really gets ratcheted up with an all-time classic in The Waters of Mars, and concludes in a too-long story saved by emotional sensational performances. These specials are really unique because they give a glimpse of what the Doctor is like without a companion, and serves to re-affirm that as long as there is the Doctor, he needs a companion to keep him grounded. For David Tennant, spiky hair and all, he absolutely went out on top with a series of unforgettable performances.

8.75/10 The Tenth Doctor and RTD era goes out exhibiting the best of the era with some of its flaws

The End of Time Review

The End of Time

It’s the end

Story 202, Episodes 755-756, Doctor Who 2009 Christmas Special & 2010 New Year’s Special

Doctor: The Tenth Doctor

Companions: Wilfred Mott, Donna Noble, Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, Martha Jones

In a monumental story closing the Tenth Doctor era, the RTD era, and the 2000s on Doctor Who, the Doctor affirms who he is.

The Review

The ‘Master Race’ is really an obviously clever bit of wordplay

There are a lot of parts of The End of Time that are silly and ridiculous, but as the story builds and builds it keeps getting better and better held together by two perfect performances from David Tennant and Bernard Cribbins. The worst stuff comes right away, the weird Harold Saxon cult that brings the Master back to life, but also his wife was part of an anti-Saxon secret group that leaves his body half-formed. He then proceeds to rant and rave about meat and literally eats people, jumping a million miles in the air and firing off ridiculous lasers. I feel so sorry John Simm had to do all this ridiculous stuff. It’s an hour long, but not much actually really happens in part one, but it feels all so orchestrally drummed up that we can’t help but be intrigued. The best moment comes when Wilf and the Doctor talk in the cafe, with the Doctor saying regeneration feels like death and Wilf making another pitch to the Doctor to restore Donna’s memories somehow. The Master using the Immortality Gate to turn every human on Earth into him is completely silly but actually works because of how hilarious it is to see John Simm dressed as all those different people. It gets better, but part one is a whole lot of build-up to the reveal that our mysterious narrator is a Time Lord, and the Time Lords are coming back, a reveal that comes out of absolutely nowhere but certainly hooks you!

Wilfred Mott, the Tenth Doctor’s final companion

In part two, I wish there was more interaction between the Doctor and Master, because their one conversation where the Doctor tries to convince the Master to travel the universe with him is so good. Thankfully the Capaldi era would give us all the Doctor/Master interplay we could ever ask for. Timothy Dalton as Rassilon is perfect for the role, he is imposing and is the perfect embodiment of the ugliness that had become the Time Lords. This story attempts to provide more justification that the Doctor had no choice to kill the Time Lords, and successfully shows how awful they are. Of course, the Doctor will find another way later, but for the concept of this story it works. The Time Lords implant the Master’s brain with the infamous sound of drums all just so they can try and pull Gallifrey back out of the Time War and onto Earth, Boxing Day 2009. For being nearly two and a half hours, the story is actually surprising light on plot, and could’ve been easily condensed. Still, it keeps us hooked with all the quiet intimate conversations. Several happen between Wilf and a mysterious woman only he can see revealed to be a Time Lord, one of two who voted against Rassilon. When the Doctor sees her, it’s clear, be it his mother, daughter, whomever, she’s one of the Doctor’s family. Some people have complained about this character, but I like how it expanded our knowledge of the Doctor while preserving the mystery.

Rassilon was the last card RTD had to play, and he played it

So with all this story’s problems, how can it be so good? It’s because David Tennant is fully embodying the final form of the Tenth Doctor, as all the charisma and arrogance is revealed to cover up the fear that he will slip back into being who he was before, the man who killed the Time Lords. With the Doctor’s stance on guns well known, him using Wilf’s old pistol and pointing it at the Master or Rassilon is dramatically effective. Tennant alone can’t save this story, Bernard Cribbins does, and even elevates it to great status. Cribbins had always been adorably charming as the bumbling but brave grandfather to Donna, but now in a brilliant turn he plays the Tenth Doctor’s final companion. Wilf’s character was an accident, from a brief role as a newspaper salesman in Voyage of the Damned to becoming the last companion of the Doctor’s most popular incarnation. When Bernard Cribbins bursts into tears as he and the Doctor sit on the Vinvocci spaceship, telling the Doctor he doesn’t want him to die, it’s hard not to well up with emotion. When Wilf is shooting missiles using an asteroid laser, it’s hard not to smile. This story exemplifies why I love this show because what it does is so unique, it has the biggest more adrenaline-filled crises and still dives right down to relatable characters that we care about.

“I don’t want to go”

At the end, the Master punishes the Time Lords and chooses to save the Doctor as Gallifrey returns to the Time War. The Doctor thinks he’s survived, but here’s those four knocks: Wilf, trapped inside a vault about to flood him with radiation because he saved a scientist out of kindness. The moment is the perfect completion to the Tenth Doctor’s character arc, he whines, he throws a tantrum about all the things that were left for him to do, but there was never a doubt. It didn’t matter that Wilf was old, that the Doctor might die, or never regenerate again, saving Wilf was the right thing to do. RTD gives us one last look at the characters from his wonderful era of 2000s Who, each better than the last. The Doctor gives Donna and Wilf a winning lottery ticket purchased with money from Donna’s late father, and Wilf gives one last salute. Smartly, we visit Rose as we remember her from Series 1, young and ready for so much adventure. As the Ood sing, the Doctor staggers to the TARDIS, and with a line that is effective but I do think was a little too brutal the Doctor says he doesn’t want to go. There, the Tenth Doctor dies a hero, who saved the world, but died saving just one man. The End of Time is too long, maybe too clunky, but at its core is the brilliant end to a brilliant era. David Tennant will be missed. Oh, and that is Matt Smith making a dramatic debut. GERONIMO!

The End of Time isn’t perfect, but it is everything we could’ve wanted from the Tenth Doctor’s final story.

9/10 Come on, no one finishes this story and isn’t affected

The Eleventh Doctor!