End of Time part II

[purple_bug]

I want to be honest here, ignoring any disparaging opinions it may attract, and say holy fucking crap :o)

A lot of it made little sense, but I think that was overshadowed by Wilf. He made me cry twice. *is still a bit raw*

Happy too that Donna was alright, though I'm a bit frowny-face about how the Doctor knew a defence mechanism against that kind of situation would be necessary. Maybe knocking all the Masters to the ground was just a side effect of her becoming unconscious to protect her mind from the memories, and that's what it was actually defending against.

"WORST RESCUE EVER!" *laughs for ages*

I loved the Master being all "whichever side is best, that's which side I'm on!" :oD Absolutely typical :oD And there were some touching moments between him and the Doctor that made me hurt. And the Time Lords actually becoming thoroughly corrupt over the course of the War, I liked that concept. Sort of. I am disappointed that we won't have a new series with Time Lords lurking in the background rather than being all PTSD-fodder. I absolutely love that a lot of the Doctor's angst wasn't over the fact that he killed everybody/locked them all in a time bubble thingy, but that he had to stop his own people because they'd got so bad. That... whoa. This might just be immediate reaction talking, but I thought that was good.

Oh, and RASSILON?! *facepalm* Why didn't I see that coming?? I spent the whole episode going, "The Rod of Rassilon! The Diamond of Rassilon! The Funny-Shaped Table of Rassilon!" I guess I overlooked the obvious on the fact of Rassilon being dead. There's some complicated background stuff we weren't told about how Rassilon is not dead anymore, I presume. But yeah. Rassilon as President, pretty much guaranteed to end in horrible corruption. Just going with the trend pointed out in 'Zagreus' of role models turning out to be corrupt, not even by the plot of it where he is also evil.

I'm irritated that we still don't know who the woman is. Possibly Romana? I don't get the face-covering thing though. (That was the same woman who kept appearing to Wilf, right?) The White Guardian isn't a Time Lord, so I don't think that's who she was.
But the instant she uncovered her face and the music played, the same music they played a lot in the first series, around the TARDIS and such, I had a thought. I remember clearly that on the commentary for the first series, someone said that members of the crew often referred to that haunting music as "President Flavia singing from the beyond". So basically, the woman uncovered her face, the music played, and I shouted "FLAVIA!" My brother was not impressed by the interruption, especially when I waved him off with "classic stuff", which he does not give two figs about. Anyway. I'm not sure how Flavia would fit in, or how important she would be to the Doctor (it's been a while since I saw her in any episodes, I can't remember how much she and the Doctor interacted), but maybe she was crying because of what had happened to them? Or perhaps she's Susan. Thoughts?

If anyone can explain the face-covering to me, I'd be very grateful.

The psychic woman reminded me of the legends of the Pythia, and also the seer on Ribos :oD Though maybe someone from the Sisterhood of Karn?

And again we have a planet right next to Earth, and no tidal/geological catastrophes. *sigh*

I'll get my main niggle out of the way, cos I don't want to end on this. The Doctor ranting and bitching when he has to give his life to save Wilf's... WTF? I get that he's upset - knowing that you're going to die soon but not knowing quite how must be torturous - but still! Fivey gave his life for a girl he'd known for only about a week! (If you ignore audio that is, which I don't, so I don't know why that's one of my points...) Ten has been willing to sacrifice himself in the past, but it seems that when it's prophesied, he's really reluctant to. He basically turned into a whiny selfish bastard for a few moments. I think that would have been better expressed as a pained expression. Tennant's good at those.

Right, now that's out of my system... The pre-regeneration trips, I thought, were pure fanservice, but enjoyable. I kept squeaking :o) *thinks* Martha was engaged before Mickey stayed in our universe, wasn't she? So she and Tom didn't work out too well, I guess. But it's nice when companions get together, I think :o) And I love Martha's hair. And Mickey's beardy thing. He suits it :o) And then there was Donna getting married, properly :o) I adored the whole gift thing - the Doctor actually using knowledge of the future to make good things happen for the people he loves. And Luke, and Sarah :o) And Jack :oD Big grins IRL there. And a little bit of Rose, as she was back then :o) That really made me smile, I've missed S1 Rose. I still don't know what Billie's done to her teeth, but at least she can regress her acting to play the character the way she used to be :o)

I do think Ten was incredibly lucky with that regeneration. I mean, it did look like it hurt, the radiation poisoning, but he got a solid chunk of dying-time to go visit people :o)

See if Ood Sigma had just told him that song =/= story in the first place, we could've avoided a lot of crap. I'm just sayin' :o)

I've been looking forward to Matt Smith as Eleven for a while now. He isn't drastically different, but hopefully different enough :o) And we have a new word, it seems. Geronimo! :o)

Comments

[geordieboy56.livejournal.com]

I think Rassilon/The President said that the two with their faces covered were the only 2 who didn't vote for the ressurection (he mentioned something about them being "weeping angels" which confused me)

[purple_bug.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, I think I just focused on the 'weeping angels' part of that bit and went "What? That can't be coincidence, surely." But I guess it must be. Little bits and pieces to make us think overtime about inconsequential things :o)

I think it was stupid that he was Rassilon at all. I mean sure, he's this big arrogant figure who is easily made into the power-hungry bad guy, but he's Rassilon! He kinda deserves more of a storyline than "oh wait, that guy's Rassilon?" *everything explodes*

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

That's about what my reaction was, too. When the Doctor revealed what he'd done to Gallifrey and why, my mouth fell open. Series 1 will never look the same to me, again. And yeah, Rassilon. It was established in The Five Doctors that he was immortal. Yes, he had a tomb and was generally considered to be dead, from a practical standpoint, but he wasn't really, I guess. Or the Time Lords did it when the war started going really badly. I'm thinking maybe that's why this Rassilon was so evil, because he was a bastardization of the real thing, brought back to life to save Gallifrey and kinda warped by the process. Like the Master. *denial*

The woman had to be Romana. Who else would he react to that way? The face-covering was because those were the two members of the high council who voted against Rassilon and his Evil Plan TM.

The ranting about saving Wilf was perfectly in character for Ten by this point. I was able to see it from his point of view, in fact. It still wasn't polite, but I can't say, in his place, going through what he had, that I wouldn't feel kind of the same way for a second or two.

Geronimo? I missed that, haha!

[purple_bug.livejournal.com]

Yes, I just read yours and it clicked. Stupid apes, after all :o) I can actually feel a little sorry for him now.

*shares your denial* The real Rassilon is stuck in the Divergent Universe, ranting and raving about a whole other set of problems :o)

Maybe he was reacting to the crying, rather than the person? The despair of the non-supporters of Rassilon's plan. I don't see Romana ever taking that crap from him and standing behind him all shamed and stuff. So it just doesn't sit right with me if that's supposed to be Romana.

Ooh, now I can rewatch S1 and go "hmmm" and want even more to hug Nine forever.

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

Ooh, now I can rewatch S1 and go "hmmm" and want even more to hug Nine forever.

Right there with ya. Oh, Nine! Why'd you have to die so sooooon??

I'd like to think Romana would be a little more ass-kicky than she seemed, but then she was psychically communicating with Wilf behind Rassilon's back. so that's something.

[purple_bug.livejournal.com]

Romana behaving as the woman did makes me want to cry. So in my head, she was Flavia. Supported strongly in my opinion by the music and the commentary remark noted earlier :o) I choose to believe that Romana carried out whatever plan it was that the Gallifrey audios ended on, and is tucked away somewhere safe with a bunch of her friends and supporters :o) If you haven't heard them, you really really should.

Edited for spelling - wtf was that typo about?! :o)

[happydalek.livejournal.com]

Denial sure is a pretty river, isn't it? Space operas and space politics usually bore me to tears, but I should give the Gallifrey audios a try, I suppose.