Doctor Who: The End of Time Part One

Last night saw the beginning of the end for the Tenth Doctor. In the beginning of The End of Time. Clearly, this is the sort of story that the production team want to get right. Did they manage it?

I don't think it would be particularly controversial to say that this episode was quite light on plot. It fell into the trap of many of the two-part adventures since the series came back - it felt like padding out an episode designed purely for the (admittedly awesome) cliffhanger. The plot can be summed up in just a few words. The Master was resurrected, the Doctor hunts him for a bit - and in doing so finds Wilf. The two confront the Master, who uses a machine to make the whole world like him. And in the background, the Time Lords are waiting...

The lack of a complicated plot, however, was not a major problem. After all, this was meant to be post-Christmas dinner family entertainment for millions of people. And what the special lacked in plot it more than made up for in atmosphere. There was a sense of impending doom throughout the episode, and John Simm showed what a talented actor he is with a chilling performance as an utterly insane Master. With the cannibalistic attack on the homeless people on the wasteland, the show entered really very dark territory for Christmas evening. But, for me, the most extraordinary moment was when the Doctor confessed that he had done something wrong on Mars - with Tennant marvelously capturing a sense of guilt and remorse from the Doctor for the events that led to the suicide of one of his heros.

Basically, this was a set-up for what is to come on New Year's Day. As such, this probably won't be remembered in the long-term for much more than the bold strokes that happened at the end of the episode - the Master-race and the return of the Time Lords. What will keep fans like me intrigued for the next week is what was left unanswered by the episode - namely, what the Time Lords will be like, how Donna will be saved, and (in what I think may yet prove to be the crucial question to be answered in Part Two) who Wilfred ends up having to kill... It will also be interesting to see whether RTD is actually resetting the whole series to where it was when he found it, not least by bringing back the Time Lords as a permanent part of Doctor Who.

And all this speculation makes this episode a success - because it means that viewing the second installment in 2010 is absolutely essential...