h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

>Was Timothy Dalton Rassilon?

Yes, he's called that by name. Rassilon is not dead in 5 Doctors (well, he is, but not *dead* dead - timelords, eh?), he lives on in some form. Besides, he's a vampire dont'cha know?

Nice to see the TLs set up as uber-villains for Moffat/Smith - I hope they follow up with that. (I've always been a fan of the Time Lordy stories, and the novels take them in a really dark direction for their Time War.)

>Was that female Timelord/Wilf's vision Romana?

That occurred to me. I was a bit annoyed they didn't explain who she was. Or the whole 'crying angel' angle.

>Mickey and Martha WTF??? I thought she married Tom, or was that an AU Mickey and Martha?

Again, same here. I'm wondering if I missed something in the 2nd series of the SJAs that explained some of that?

Yes, it was overblown, yes it was Timelord ex mechana. Yes, Matt Smith was totally ott. Wilf being the one who knocks caught me out (but the Doctor kind of blew the heroic self-sacrifice by being so resentful about it).

I thought they were going to do something a little different to the (now rather tired) yellow glowy regeneration.

On the whole - enjoyable, but not a classic. Certainly not DT (or RTD)'s best episode, but not their worst either. Mostly, it was undone by its own 'final episode' hype, I felt. But don't get me wrong, a good way to spend 75 mins on a New Year's Day!

(And please, please, please bring the Time Lords back as full-time villains )

Gif

"Yes, in such a wonderfully human episode written by Paul Cornell a Dr Who Stalwart. Called Human Nature
'In a poll conducted by Doctor Who Magazine to mark the 35th anniversary of Doctor Who (#265, June 1998), Human Nature was voted the readership's favourite novel of the New Adventures series.'"

I know, I thought it was one of the best of that series

"Wilf being the one who knocks caught me out (but the Doctor kind of blew the heroic self-sacrifice by being so resentful about it)."

Amusingly, I disliked almost all of the episode except that bit (and the Cactii. ). It was so very... Tennant-doctor to be pissed off; I couldn't have stood it had he been all stiff-upper-lip about it. He really thought he'd beaten the prophesy, only to have reality crush him.
I wanted to believe he's beaten it, and this whole 'new Doctor' thing was just an eloborate hoax.

I hope the scripts get a little better than that for the next Doctor - he's got a tough act to follow and will need a few good stories behind him.

It was everything I expected it to be (which isn't quite the same as "everything I wanted"). I knew it would be overblown, I knew it would be epic, I knew the story would be a bit weak, I knew it would turn the emotional stuff up to eleven.

The whole of part two was really just built around the Rassilon/Master/Doctor face off (which I felt worked very well, loved Rassilon destroying the Master's hubris with a quick flick of his magic glove) and, of course, Tennant's regeneration. There's been some criticism of the latter for being too long and drawn-out which, of course, it was but it had to be because RTD and Tennant were using it to say goodbye, not just to us but to all the characters from the 2005-2009 incarnation of Doctor Who. I thought the Doctor's brief meeting with Rose months before he encounters her in his ninth incarnation was a nice touch, as was the bit with Jessica Hynes.

As for Matt Smith, I enjoyed what we saw of him as the Doctor although given that he's just regenerated and going to be a bit "funny" it probably won't give us much insight into the character of the new incarnation. L

ooking forward to the Spring. Oh yes.

Judging by the final word in the special and the preview that trailed Confidential, the next catch-phrase is going to be "geronimo!" or possibly "Blimey"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pk7ls/Doctor_Who_The_End_of_Time_Part_2/
(1h.11m.50s)

&

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iN1Ent7uzQ

Better than part 1 but not a story that I'd watch again. Shame.

Lots of unanswered questions - rubbish.
The whole Timelords and Gallifrey thing - rubbish.
Falling out of aircraft and surviving - rubbish.
Don't let Donna remember him because she'll have a sleep then wake up on the sofa - rubbish.
Twenty minute smaltzy endings - rubbish.

Few moments that I did enjoy ...
- "you're still bonedead stupid ... you still can't see the obvious ... that guard is one inch too tall".
- "not the stairs".
- the granddaughter signing books.
- Wilf being the one to knock four times. Excellent.

Who was the woman? I think that's to be revealed in the next series. As someone pointed out previously, the person to the left of Timothy Dalton (Rassilon) look very like Matt Smith, and we never saw his face. I'm guessing they've done some of their filming ahead.

I enjoyed that a lot more than Part 1 but there will still bits I loathed or didn't understand.

Wilf was just superb, absolutely superb. Absolute heart of the whole episode. DT's sacrifice scene was wonderful too and I liked his fight to remain himself: Tennant is widely regarded as one of the best Doctors and seemed to find some peace as a character, I can understand the reluctance. Simm seemed to tone down the Master somewhat in the second half, it's a shame he didn't do that to begin with.

I liked the return of the Timelords (do hope its permanent) and the revelation that the Doctor intended to wipe them out, it wasn't a last resort thing. I even quite liked the cactus people and their little ship.

Questions that will really bug me are who was the woman holding her face in her hands, who was Wilf's lady (was it the Rani, or even The Other? They way she said she was ancient and long-forgotten) and how come Wilf wasn't affected by the Master's take-over?

The frantic farewells were a key example of RTD not understand that just being able to do something does not make it a good idea. Meeting with Nurse Redfern's granddaughter was lovely and a nice nod to one of the highlights of RTD's tenure, seeing Donna happily married to a nice bloke was good and his final farewell to Wilf was just the right level of emotional.

Seeing Martha with Mickey was just retarded and, frankly, unforgivable. Similarly the scene in the Mos Eisley cantina really wound me up: the last time we saw Jack he was absolutely devastated because of the events of the best bit of TV in 2009. Seeing him cruising for werewolves just cheapened that - I was hoping the Doctor would do/say something that would bring him back to Earth and kick off S4 of Torchwood.

So overall moments of brilliance and moments of WTF? Roll on S5 and the Age of Moffat.

I was wondering if Rassilon had become a title, a bit like how emperors of Rome came to be known as "Ceasar"?

The ghost woman, and who the female time lords are is interesting. presumably those have been left as dangling threads on purpose.

And yes, I echo Gifs call for the Time Lords to be the big bad for a bit, for Daleks to be fun again they need to not be used for a while I think and some malevolent, Machiavellian time lords could be awesome!

FB

We enjoyed it much more than part 1 (although Osh, 7, wandered out at one point) - laughs and tears, and we were *so* pleased to see Capt Jack (but then, we don't watch Torchwood). V confused by Mickey/Martha (??? she was engaged to somebody else!). Thought Timelady winking at the gate was the Doctor's mum (realise this theory will prob explode in flames when those who actually know about these things read it). John Simm v good and we liked the way the plot was done (and noted that we didn't actually *see* the Master die or disappear). Joining campaign for Bernard Cribbins' Bafta. Really sad the Doctor didn't properly 'cure' Donna.

And I didn't need many tissues ... until I saw DT's golden wrap on Confidential.

Is that a new logo at the end?

Mol

I've been following this thread for some time, and I'd like to make a proposal to the BBC...ahem,

Dear Auntie Beeb,

May we Americans please pay you an overseas license fee, so that we, too, may watch the iPlayer? Please?

I have no TV (totally unAmerican of me!), and so I watch my favorite shows, mainly SF, online. I don't know what I'm going to do when S5 rolls around. So sad.

"Thought Timelady winking at the gate was the Doctor's mum (realise this theory will prob explode in flames when those who actually know about these things read it)."

I had that thought too.

Then when (Sir) Bernard Cribbins asked him in the churchyard, DT thought, glanced at Donna, then changed the subject. Initially I thought this meant it was an old Donna which might explain why she was appearing to SBC. That perhaps the timelord part of her somehow allows her to live longer. But looking at the Woman again, she doesn't look anything like Donna. So I've ditched that theory.

I did think for a while that the two people either side of Rassilon covering their faces would turn out to be Matt Smith and the Young Master. That the Timelords would come back, that DT and current incarnation would die; leaving us with the younger versions of them thereby avoiding the 12th/13th regeneration issue and thereby being able to reboot the storylines.

Mr Vip thought that the look at Donna in the churchyard was referring to a wedding; perhaps it was the Doctor's wife? She also looks a lot like Sarah-Jane (but that could easily be a coincidence).

Well, overall I enjoyed that too.
Jessica Hynes was very good and a good scene.

As for the Rose meeting, when he said "I have a feeling you're going to have a really good year" or words to that effect did anyone else mentally add "but it's going to go downhill big style after that!"?

TimeLord lady and friend. So those two kneeling were the two who voted against and were being punished. Who out of all the Time Lords would be the two to support the Doctor against their own imprisonment?

Matt Smith - liking what I see so far - "lots of fingers" had me ing.

Why do DW gauntlets only come in medieval armour style? Don't they have fashion advisors?

Didn't quite understand why his regeneration caused so much damage to the TARDIS when previous ones haven't and it is supposed to help him if he does it in the TARDIS.

Well, I admit I did't see any of the resolution coming. Overall no where near as bad as I thought it could be but also didn't reach its optimum either.

In the little bit of the Confidential show I saw RTD said he wanted to blow-up the Tardis so he did...

It's also a nice excuse to re-design the Tardis. Moffat will have agreed to this as well. And from the photos I have seen of the recording of the Matt Smiths series it will be used as part of the first plot line.

Part of it is to make a Tardis that looks better in HD. I watched the End of Time in HD and the Tardis did look remarkably drab.

I know it's a case of I wanted to so I did but because the Doctor sort of 'held on' getting all his visitations in was the regeneration more explosive - that's at least what was going through my mind when I saw it.

"Doctor sort of 'held on' getting all his visitations in was the regeneration more explosive"

I probably shouldn't mention what went through my mind when I read that

Oh ... dear.

I thought it was better than part one. I liked the visits to the companions, especially the Jessica Hynes and Rose ones. I don't know if I just missed spoilers, but I didn't know they were all going to appear.

Didn't like the Doctor being so whiney about his death. Didn't seem to fit the character.

Wilf being the one to knock four times was fab, as was the Doctor's reaction when he heard that and realised what it meant.

>Lots of unanswered questions - rubbish.

I wasn't happy with that either. Something I really wanted RTD to do was tie-up all his loose-ends, properly finish his various story arcs and give Moffat a clean slate to work from. Something notable about the RTD era is that it's obsessed with its own continuity and that was something I didn't want to carry-on into the Moffat era. The original series, with a few exceptions, was very good at constantly moving on.

One problem is that I think some questions will remain unanswered. What was all the foreboding stuff about Wilf for, for example?