Thrilling Adventures in Rhyme and Space

After a busy Xmas I go back to work tomorrow, so time to catch up on my blog. First off, in a week where I discover that HRT2 (Croatian equivilant of BBC2) have started showing Doctor Who 2005 at a reasonable time (19:25 Monday nights), I’ve just managed to see the other end of this particular era.

A few thoughts on The End of Time (SPOILERS!) and the rest of the RTD era follows the break…

I didn’t cry, but only because I was watching with the wife. I’ve just got her enjoying the show again and thus didn’t really want to put her off. My heart was proper pounding when the Master managed to turn the population of the planet Earth into copies of himself, a scene which is both scary and hilarious in a epic and preposterous way. John Simm is an incredible actor, just the stamina needed, not only to play a really OTT insane character like his Master, but then to play multiple versions of that madman. Not to mention the transformation scenes which were basically done in camera.

That was my favourite bit. The rest, Dalton as Rassilon, Gallifrey in ruins, Tennant’s last words, the perfect LOTR-esque 20 minute coda and of course Wilf, were all great but it was all to be expected. The Master Race bit is still impressing me because I didn’t see it coming and the amount of work needed to make this bizarre and silly idea work is gobsmackingly fantastic!

In fact, “fantastic” may as well describe this story and the whole RTD era. Doctor Who was reborn as everything it used to be turned up to 11. Oh there’s a few wobbly plots now to replace the wobbly sets, but I could care less. The show I love is back on TV and more popular than ever.

Now, as much as I am greatful for Uncle Rusty and as much as I will miss his OTT vision, I am very much looking forward to this spring.

I can’t help but think it’s 1974 again. A long running Doctor has just given his life, a slow death by radiation poisoning, about to regenerate into a new man brimming with energy, a relative unknown. And behind the scenes, a writer responsible for some of the better scripts in the past few years, as taken the lead writing role.

Yes, I am comparing the RTD to Moffatt changeover to the Letts to Hinchcliffe one. Just think what we must be in store for…