[ZeoRangerV]

Okay, prepare yourself for a rant to rival Matrix's one on Decade

So The End of Time….where do you want me start?

1) Months and months of build-up and hype. You probably didn’t get this so much in the US, but over here it was constant news reports of how Tennant was leaving and how he was essentially the greatest thing to happen to the show blah blah blah. There’s nothing wrong with Tennant being your favourite Doctor (because he was great in the role up to a point, loved doing it and got a lot of people into the show) but the media made out that the show was in some sort of danger without him. And that notion is utterly ridiculous.

2) The horrible portrayal of the Master. Sure he was different the classic incarnations, but in season 3 Simm’s Master was the perfect foil to Tennant. Here? Gimmicky lighting powers, Skeletor moments and a rather blatant message about humans are gluttonous at Christmas and that’s before I get on to the subject of the sodding drums. The Master is supposed to be the Moriarty to the Doctor’s Holmes, but here RTD just decided “Screw it, he is the way he is because LOL drums.” The Time Lords are horrible people, but to make the Master a product of Time Lord machinations is a massive disservice to one of the Doctor’s greatest enemies. It’s going to take a LOT of undoing if they ever plan to bring him back again.

3) RTD’s necessity to rip off Star Wars every time he needs to pad an episode out.

4) Rassilon and his power glove. Name dropping someone like that deserves a little more focus than it actually got.

5) The moment where the woman looks at him for 2 seconds and the subsequent “OMG is it his mother? Is it Susan? Is it Romana?” debates. And then RTD revealing that he intended it to be his mother all along. Whut?

6) The Doctor’s death scene being ripped straight out of Wrath of Khan. Surprised Tennant didn’t say “The needs of many outweigh the needs of the few”. Months of planning and they can’t even come up with something vaguely original.

7) 20 minutes of character fanwank that could have gone toward improving the story.

8) Mickey suddenly being married to Martha when the two had previously had about 5 seconds of screen time together. What happened to the guy Martha was engaged to in season 3? If the plans had gone ahead to put the two in Torchwood then yeah maybe, but this just felt rushed and stunted.

9) Trying to pair Jack off with the guy from Voyage of the Damned, even just temporarily. Right after what happened in Children of Earth no less.

10) “I don’t want to go.” Yawn. I’m not going to rant about the Doctor’s childish rant about the world hated him (even though I hated it) because I guess it was good to see an incarnation react a different way to death. But Tennant’s Doctor went out like a spoiled child which felt completely unfitting for him. He had an undisclosed amount of time to visit the people he loved, and knew that a regeneration was coming for ages beforehand. He could have gone out with a little dignity. If you want to see how a regeneration should be handled, watch “The Caves of Androzani”.

These are the only reasons I can think of right now, but I’m sure there’s more. Doctor Who is a show that’s been able to survive because of change, but End of Time just felt like it was pandering to an audience that didn’t want or was unable to accept it.

Also if we’re still talking terrible 2-parters – Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel need to be added to the list. Thumbs up to those who said Daleks in Mahattan and The Rebel Flesh

Also, thread name change for fun