Saturday, July 5, 2008

Review of Episode Meh: Who Really Cares

I'll give Russell T. Davies this -- the man knows how to write a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, his writing bag of tricks does not include such useful items as "logical conclusions" or "satisfying resolutions."

So, Season 4, Episode 13: "Journey's End." When this episode didn't take the obvious way out, it took the nonsensical. Not only did Davies cop out on the regeneration (and if you believed that David Tennant was really leaving the show, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd be willing to sell you), he did so in the most unimaginative way possible. Yes, he used the severed hand to create a new, duplicate Tenth Doctor (as I hypothesized last week); however, he didn't even bother to regenerate an Eleventh Doctor at the same time, meaning that we were left with the classic Superman Red/Superman Blue situation (or Doctor Brown/Doctor Blue, in this case). Yet, somehow two David Tennant Doctors did not twice the fun make. Indeed, the repetition made both of the Doctors half as interesting. I did like the "third" Doctor, though -- Doctor Donna (who fulfilled Dalek Caan's "threefold man" prophecy). Unfortunately, she didn't last long, requiring a handy-dandy Vulcan memory erasure to remove the "burden of a Time Lord's knowledge" from her mind. So, in cheap plot device, Davies rendered an entire season (which was primarily based around Donna's character growth) meaningless. Yippee.

Oh, and all the Daleks in creation were wiped out of existence. Or something. Again. Let's hope it sticks this time. I really am sick of Daleks.

And don't even get me started on the "happy" Rose conclusion. It went something like this:
Doctor: "Here, Rose, I can't stay with you, but I'll leave this genocidal, half-human version of myself to grow old with you."
Rose: "Yay! Sex!"
And there was much celebrating. Lame.

When does Steven Moffat take over again?