"I Don't Want To Go"
It had a very rough beginning, and RTD doing "epic" is always a hit or miss proposition, but the final half hour of "The End Of Time" had maximum payoff, as far as I'm concerned. At last, we finally see the "dark side" of the Doctor that has always been there, the shades of the Sixth and Seventh Doctor. We start to see his less than heroic side, the reasons WHY the Doctor does best when he has his Compaions, and why he needs them...his connection to the mundane, mortal, and precious. I know some might have been tempted to ask"Is this Doctor a fraud? Has he managed to trick us all into thinking he's this super heroic individual who really has a selfish streak, and an ego, what with how badly he's taking his prophecised death/regeneration?"
It just makes your realize he was, of course, always a more complex character than some gave him credit for. I've seen each and every regeneration scene done during the Doctors, and I would say that until this point, Tom Bakers sacrifice at the end of Logopolis, and his serene acceptance and utterance of "It's the end...but the moment has been prepared for." was the finest one of the lot. But that crown now belongs to David Tennant and the Tenth Doctor.
Unlike the others, this Doctor had days..months...we're lead to believe maybe years to have to deal with the fact that his time was up. And this is the one who says "Why!? Why do I have to accept this? This phoenix immortality that isn't really immortality at all?!" To see him rage, to see him fight to the last breath to cling to his current life...to the point where he let himself believe he escaped his fate, and celebrates near the point of weeping, until Wilfred finally revealed himself as "The man who knocks four times."
And the Doctor still does the right thing in the end, even though there is a part of him that wants so desperately to take the easy way out. And this time, he's allowed to tie up his loose ends. To say his goodbyes, something he's never had before. But those last three minutes, where he struggles to walk his "last mile" into the TARDIS, that haunted, grim, frightened look on his features...brrr. I don't know what was more heartwrenching: the look on David Tennets face as he stares out into his oncoming "death" and says, in an almost little boy voice "I don't want to go.", or the fact that I caught my nine month old son waving "bye bye" to the Doctor on the TV, as if he somehow knew what was up.
Other highlights:
Grabbing Wilfred's gun, and jumping down 300 feet, through the plateglass roof, to confront the Master and Rassalon. Big. Metal. Balls.
Seeing Captain Jack in the seedy space bar. Yay Jack Harkness. I can't wait for Torchwood to start up again.
The Doctor saying goodbye to Rose, where it all started, without her being the wiser.
Wilfred himself. FINALLY, a smart, cheery, but not saccharine companion (however brief the tenure was) that isn't female or young. Too bad it looks like this isn't going to be a trend.
The Master. John Simms is pretty damn kickass as him. I miss the old "Svengali" Master though. Here's hoping that The Master comes back as an antagonist for the Doctor (although...that's kind of hard to see how they can pull it off.)
The problem from hereonin, of course, is that Doctor Who, the new series at least, is always going to be measured in terms of "Tennant" and "After Tennant". The new kid....my feelings have gone from "dislike" to "cautious neutrality", but he has some hellabig shoes to fill. This is a new era for Doctor Who, for better or for worse.
-TS