Das Ende der Zeit (1) (S04E17)

Those were some bad dreams that brought us the audience's favorite antagonist for the Doctor, and in combination with another (although still sufficiently disturbing) megalomaniac storyline about the end of everything and everyone, Russell T. Davies bids farewell in truly royal fashion. Although the entry to the Tardis takes the long way around, thanks to the perfectly emotive relationship between the main hero and Wilfred, and the exhibition of John Simm, David Tennant has someone to play off of and dazzle the whole time. A last breath before a jump into deep cold waters. (11.09.2014)

I get the impression that Davies doesn’t want to hand over his pen to anybody else, and so he’s behaving like a spoiled kid “if not me, then nobody can". And so he’d rather destroy what he (sometimes more, sometimes less) carefully nurtured for so many years. Unnecessarily convoluted, dumb (Obama? Like really, Obama?) and like a rally where one senseless deus ex machina is chasing another; and what’s more, with the Master thrown into the position of unbearable cousin to the not so unbearable Muppet-like jovial devils. For most of the movie I tended to react à la Tennant. Even so, here and there we see the sparkle of good old Davies (particularly the scene in the café, or the Ood), which help to make this more or less in the realm of watchability. In any case, the atmosphere at the end is about as foreboding as Putin is meek and humble, so not at all. (06.01.2014)