
Rose: "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence and I divide them. Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies."
This was such a good episode I'm not sure where to begin. For a start, it was a very emotional episode, similar in tone to "Father's Day." And I have to admit, I did shed a tear or two at the end (and maybe in the middle somewhere, too). Too much heroism. Too much loss. And maybe I'm a big softie, too.
Since the beginning of the season, the Doctor's had a patchy run of things. At times he's been quite unlike the Doctor of old. His greatness has been spasmodic at best. He's made mistakes. And even tonight, in the last episode of the season, he almost failed again. Not that it wouldn't have been a truly heroic failure -- the Doctor and his small gang against the full-on might of the Dalek army -- but against those kind of odds, it was always going to take a miracle. And a miracle is precisely what we got. The Bad Wolf -- at first glance, a message spread throughout space and time -- then later, Rose, transformed, a god-like being endowed with powers of life and death.
After being thrown back to her own time by a Doctor devoid of ideas and resigned to almost certain death, Rose's frustration is palpable. How can she sit there, listening to Jackie and Mickey prattle on about pizza and coleslaw, when 200,000 years in the future the Doctor's dying and there's not a single thing she can do about it? As far as Jackie and Mickey are concerned, Rose is in the safest place she could possibly be... several thousand years removed from the Doctor. They have no concept of what's transpiring in the future. So to some extent Rose's outburst... that the Doctor is better... that a superior way of life does exist... and that you don't just capitulate in the face of danger, you stand up and fight... is as much a wake up call to herself as it is a justification for what she's about to do. Rose's life has changed since meeting the Doctor. And for the better. There can be no going back. So when Mickey tells her that returning will probably mean her death, Rose doesn't need to think twice. Life in South London is a second rate existence in comparison to what she's seen, where she's been and who she is now.
So she follows her heart and heads back to the future, where, transformed by looking into heart of the Tardis, she manages to save the Doctor and tear Jack back from death's cold embrace. Was that the sound of the whole of womankind breathing a sigh of relief I just heard? Most probably. Maybe even some of mankind, too.
And as much as this episode was about Rose, it was about the Doctor's journey, too. It was clear from last week's episode, as the Doctor stood inside the Tardis, head pressed up against the door in a gesture of desperation and hopelessness, that they were up against it this time. And this week, after coaxing Rose into an empty Tardis and sending her back to the safety of her own time, you could see it in the Doctor's face that he thought his end had come. The emergency hologram confirmed it -- activated because of death or mortal danger -- a touching final message to companion Rose, about to become trapped in another time; safe, but helpless.
Yet in the end, the Doctor proved himself better than the Daleks. He took the higher moral path. It may not have been the most effective solution. It may even have been the cowardly option (certainly from the viewpoint of the Daleks). But it was the right decision. The death of mankind
is too high a price to pay.
I was sad to see Lynda (with a Y) go. She would have made a good companion. She may even have made a decent love interest for the Doctor, who certainly took a shine to her. I loved the scene where he awkwardly went in for a kiss, bailed out half way through and then settled for a polite handshake instead. I would like to have seen Lynda around for a little while longer... but it wasn't to be.
Jack's changed, too, from the selfish criminal we first met back in "The Empty Child." His speeches were heroic and his death fearless. When he says to the Doctor "I was much better off as a coward," we instinctively know it's not true. Jack was never a coward. He just never had a cause. Until he met the Doctor and Rose and learned a new way to live.
And what is there to say about the regeneration scene? They're always the highlight of any season and this one was certainly no different. The ninth Doctor's closing speech was beautiful, draped in exactly the right amount of regret and pathos, to bring Eccleston's reign as the Doctor to a satisfying conclusion. He tries to prepare Rose for the trauma. Humorous to the last, he mocks his looks, bemoans the things they never got a chance to do together, and then burns out of existence in a brilliant burst of golden energy. But Rose hasn't experienced anything like this before. And to be fair, neither have we. The change was dramatic... kind of like we remembered it... but somehow better (and favourably enhanced by CGI for once).
And the Doctor telling Rose she was fantastic, before conceding that he was fantastic too, held meaning for both the ninth Doctor and Eccleston himself. I'm not sure who else could've reinvigorated an old, tired series so successfully. So fantastic... yes... he truly was!
A thoroughly satisfying end to what's been an excellent first season (or twenty seventh season, depending upon just how annoying you are). ;-)
Bits and Pieces:
-- If "Bad Wolf" was a message for Rose, then why did it occasionally appear in a foreign language? Can Rose speak German, I wonder? Or French? Welsh? I'm guessing not.
-- As Bad Wolf, Rose lost her cockney twang.
-- That was some clever hologram. How did it know where Rose would be standing when it looked right at her?
-- Fans of
Torchwood will know that Rose bringing Jack back to life renders him immortal. Which is the basic premise of the show. For those of you who don't know about
Torchwood, it's a
Doctor Who spin-off series, with a more adult bent.
-- The Emperor Dalek's cry of "I cannot die" reminded me of Davros in "Resurrection of the Daleks." Of course, Davros came back. Maybe the Emperor Dalek will, too. In the end they all come back... don't they?
Billie says...
I'm not a Dalek fan. It didn't make a lot of sense that looking into the heart of the Tardis would give Rose such extreme superpowers. And there was something about a tow chain attached to the Tardis that just felt silly to me.
But this episode was all about the emotions, about the parting of the ways. And the emotions were so strong and true that it worked for me. It was like revisiting the core meaning of the episode "Father's Day," that some things are just more important than personal survival. That's why Jack sacrificed himself to protect the Doctor from the Daleks. Why Rose decided to return to the future, and almost certain death. And why the Doctor sacrificed his current existence to save Rose.
I thought Christopher Eccleston did a fine job in this final episode. There were so many touching moments. The way he sent Rose back, and his final recorded message to her. Kissing her in order to take back her power. (Tell me again why it killed him, but not her?) The gentle way he joked with her right before he died, as if he were unselfishly trying to prevent her from getting truly upset about losing him.
And the regeneration scene was terrific. In just a few seconds, David Tennant *felt* like the Doctor. Bravo.
Quotes:
Jack: "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional force field. Try saying that when you're drunk."
Jack: "Don't I get a hug?"
Rose: "Oh, come here."
Jack: "I was talking to him."
Doctor: "Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek home world? The oncoming storm. You might have removed all your emotions, but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me?"
Doctor: "Die as a human or live as a Dalek. What would you do?"
Jack: "You sent her home. She's safe. Keep working."
Emperor: "But he will exterminate you!"
Jack: "Never doubted him. Never will."
Daleks: "Exterminate!"
Jack: "I kind of figured that."
Rose: "I am the bad wolf. I create myself. I take the words. I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here."
Rose: "I can see everything. All that is. All that was. All that ever could be."
Doctor: "That's what I see, all the time. Doesn't it drive you mad?"
Rose: "My head."
Doctor: "Come here."
Rose: "It's killing me."
Doctor: "I think you need a doctor."
Rose: "What happened?"
Doctor: "Don't you remember?"
Rose: "It's like, there was this singing."
Doctor: "That's right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."
Doctor: "Rose, before I go, I just want to tell you. You were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I."