Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Wow. OK. *tries to form coherent sentences* *fails*

*starts again*

RTD, I hate you for making me cry and laugh and cheer all in the same episode. But thank you for bringing Dr W back, and thank you for at least going out on a high note. That said, the wank is going to be epic.

I watched the show while chatting to another Dr Who fan on AIM, which was brilliant fun! She's kindly let me quote bits of our conversation too, as it's more descriptive of what I was thinking/feeling at the time :) Thank you thefleshfailure!


*cue theme music*

[18:39] MitchFC: here we go......
[18:40] Eni is Confused: *buckles up*
[18:40] MitchFC: *stows tray*
[18:40] Eni is Confused: This is either going to be supremely awesome, or terrible.
[18:41] MitchFC: knowing RTD, there'll be just enough of one to make us want to kill him and enough of the other to stop us

So we join events as the Dr goes all glowy and threatens to regenerate. But he doesn't want to, so err, he doesn't. He has this handy hand to transfer the regenerative energy into, or something. *hand waves*

[18:41] MitchFC: *blinks*
[18:41] MitchFC: that's IT?!?!
[18:41] Eni is Confused: Did I miss something!??
[18:41] MitchFC: Give me that spork...
[18:41] Eni is Confused: Heh!
[18:42] Eni is Confused: That not only makes no sense... it makes no sense AND it's lame!
[18:42] MitchFC: we'd BETTER get an explanation for that...

We do.....it's a bit hand wavy and I have no intention of trying to make sense of it...

[18:43] MitchFC: handy hand?
[18:43] MitchFC: *files spork until it's nice and blunt*
[18:44] Eni is Confused: Two minutes in, and I'm already filing a death warrant for RTD's imagination.
[18:44] MitchFC: Oh I'm so glad I prepped a bunker to hide in afterwards. The wank is going to be awesome
[18:44] Eni is Confused: LOL. Yep!!!

Martha is awesome and determined to Carry Out Her Mission, something to do with the Osterhagan Key.

[18:45] Eni is Confused: Martha is SO the next-generation Brigadier.
[18:45] MitchFC: Nazi Daleks? It had to happen....

Rose was annoying and we speculated as to Donna's fate. The Tardis was dragged into the Dalek Death Star Citadel and the Dr said they had to go outside, that the defences had been removed. Donna looked like she was ...remembering something?

[18:46] Eni is Confused: Oh lord. I so want to feed Rose Tyler to the daleks...
[18:46] MitchFC: Oh Donna is so toast
[18:47] MitchFC: someone said that "temp" could mean "temporal agent"
[18:47] MitchFC: which would be a nice twist
[18:47] Eni is Confused: Ooooooooooooooooh. Now that's a good theory.
[18:47] MitchFC: yeh
[18:48] MitchFC: I love Captain Jack
[18:48] Eni is Confused: Yea. He's fun.
[18:49] Eni is Confused: Yeeeep... she is SO toast.
[18:50] MitchFC: Looks like she's remembered something or is hearing something, doesn' t it?
[18:50] Eni is Confused: Yea. That heartbeat thing was unnerving.

Donna's trapped in the Tardis, after the Tardis door mysteriously closes on its own, trapping her inside.The Daleks, quite rightly, decide the Tardis is dangerous and open a trap door to plunge to its fiery doom. Cue explosions and melty stuff.

[18:51] MitchFC: gods, if he destroys the Tardis, he'll have to change his name and emigrate
[18:51] Eni is Confused: LMAO.

While trapped, Donna has an epiphany and touches the hand that is all glowy and clearly Communicating.

[18:51] MitchFC: here we go, the handy hand
[18:51] Eni is Confused: Epiphany!Donna!!

Cue a regeneration! Out of nowhere, a second Doctor is born. Naked.

[18:52] MitchFC: And a million fanficcers just passed out from squee
[18:53] Eni is Confused: See... now, when I expected that we'd be seeing more of Tennant... I didn't mean THAT much more.

[18:57] MitchFC: so Donna...grew a Doctor? Umm. Time Lord Gardener? :P
[18:57] Eni is Confused: ROFL. Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'green thumb'.

Dr 2 finds time to change into his old blue suit, magics something up and gets the Tardis the hell outta there. Meanwhile various companions and characters all try to get the Daleks to stand down. Martha sets up Project Osterhagan, which turns out to be a nuclear option that will destroy planet Earth. Sarah Jane has a Warp Somethingorother onna Necklace, which Cap'n Jack wires up to the Citadel's network and threatens to detonate. Sadly, the Dalek's knew all this and are ready for their fiendish plans. Apparently, so Davros expositions, Dalek Caan has seen all of time and has foretold what will happen in a prophecy. (Part of this prophecy is that one of the companions will die.)

[19:01] Eni is Confused: I'm rather freaked out by Octopus!Dalek.
[19:02] MitchFC: I just keep thinking "calamari toniiiight"

Davros gets all the Children of Time together and they chit chat.

[19:12] Eni is Confused: Loving the Sarah Jane recognition.
[19:13] MitchFC: yes :) Nice touch
[19:14] Eni is Confused: ...Davros kicks ASS.

Meanwhile, it's revealed that some of Donna's personality has transfused itself to Dr 2, leading to some comedy gold as Tennant gets to spew Technobabble in the manner of Tate. Heh.

[19:14] MitchFC: so it's all down to Donna and Doc 2
[19:14] Eni is Confused: Maybe Doc 2 is the one who ends up dead. The world is NOT ready for David Tennant As Catherine Tate.

The Tardis makes a triumphant return, but it seems it's all gone wrong, as Davros zaps Dr 2 and Donna down.

[19:17] Eni is Confused: "how come there's two of you?". Rose, perceptive as ever.
[19:17] MitchFC: RTD isn't doing her any favours, is he?
[19:17] Eni is Confused: Noooope.

But! BUT! The zapping activated the parts of the Doctor that Donna inherited! It seems the regeneration was two way and Donna's got the Doctor's..mind. (Oh c'mon, what did you think I was gonna say?!). Donna proceeds to kick Dalek arse.

[19:17] MitchFC: Oh shit....! *fdl*
[19:17] Eni is Confused: Holy mother of Donna Awesome.
[19:18] Eni is Confused: This is brilliant.
[19:18] MitchFC: hell yeh :D
[19:18] MitchFC: Bwahah!
[19:18] Eni is Confused: OMG... it's Catherine Tate As Davit Tennant!!!
[19:18] MitchFC: Heee!
[19:19] Eni is Confused: This is so hysterically funny, it's awesome.
[19:19] MitchFC: Dancing Daleks :D People are either gonna love it or hate it :)
[19:19] Eni is Confused: It's fabulous. "The universe has been waiting for me."

Cap'n Jack Harkness gets the Best Line of the Series. "Three Doctors? You don't want to know what I'm thinking right now."

It's revealed that Dalek Caan was the one manipulating time and making sure Donna was always where she needed to be! He cackles evilly as Davros spews rage.

[19:21] MitchFC: *howls at Dalek Caan*
[19:21] Eni is Confused: Oh, now THERE is a twist.
[19:22] MitchFC: excellent

Dr 2 isn't a gentle, caring Dr though - he blows all the Daleks to hell.

[19:23] Eni is Confused: "Dalekanium"!?
[19:23] MitchFC: oooh, mass murder, that's gonna cause some angst
[19:23] Eni is Confused: A whole years' worth of specials of angst.

Dr 1 isn't pleased and yells at him to get inside the Tardis.

[19:23] Eni is Confused: lmao. "Do you know what you've done? Get in the Tardis!" GO TO YOUR ROOM, BAD DOCTOR!"
[19:24] MitchFC: Grounded for eternity :)

The planets are all sent back where they belong but Earth gets stuck. Luckily they've signed up for Intergalactic Relay, so the Tardis is all rigged up to tow it home. This is one of the best scenes ever - every major character from the last four series is in the Tardis, working the controls. One of the neatest things is the Dr pointing out that the Tardis was actually meant to have six people working it, hence all the different panels. Makes sense :) It was a great scene and the cast clearly had a ball.

[19:26] MitchFC: *fdl*
[19:26] MitchFC: Poor Jackie :D
[19:26] Eni is Confused: "don't. touch. anything."

Dr 1 asks Gwen if she comes from an old Cardiff family and I went "D'oH!". I totally forgot that Eve Myles played the maid in "The Unquiet Dead" waaay back in Season 1. Nice touch.

So the Earth's back in its rightful bit of space. Cue happiness and departures.

[19:28] MitchFC: *eyes time* Oh this is way too early for happy endings
[19:29] Eni is Confused: I swear, Donna had BETTER not. die.

Sarah J goes back to her son. Cap'n Jack wanders off with Martha and Mickey, muttering to Martha about how there's more she could do than be with UNIT.

[19:29] MitchFC: and that sounds like a spin off...
[19:29] Eni is Confused: Ha, yea.
[19:30] Eni is Confused: Aww, Mickey.
[19:30] MitchFC: so that narrows it down to Rose or Donna ,doesn't it
[19:30] Eni is Confused: PleasebeRose..
[19:30] MitchFC: pleaseberose
[19:31] Eni is Confused: I don't care if we get two years of angst, if she's dead, at least it'll make sure we don't get another frickin' return.
[19:31] MitchFC: amen

Dammit. Rose, Dr 2 and Jackie are taken back to Bad Wolf Bay..in Rose's universe. Cue sappy stuff, because Dr 2 is human and will age and vows to stay with Rose forever.

[19:32] MitchFC: *pukes*
[19:32] Eni is Confused: ................and the Rose/Ten shippers just collectively died.
[19:33] MitchFC: And a million fanficcers went "awww"
[19:33] Eni is Confused: Hope they both get an anvil dropped on them.
[19:33] MitchFC: too painless :P BTW, the big loophole is, if he's part human, then he can have kids....
[19:33] Eni is Confused: oh god. Tennant/Piper offspring.
[19:33] MitchFC: scary isn' t it?
[19:33] Eni is Confused: And I thought Naked!Ten was the most painful thing I'd see tonight

So that leaves Donna....and it's not going well. The mix of Time Lord and Human wasn't meant to be and her mind is shredding. Sadly, she knows why, because she has the Dr's knowledge. The Dr mind wipes her and takes her home to her Mum and Grandpa. And there is one of the saddest scenes ever as the Dr explains to them that Donna can never know what she became, what she did or anything about her travels with the Dr, because it will kill her.

Bernard Cribbins, as Grandpa, gets the most goosepimply speech of the entire series, when he says that every night, when it gets dark, he'll look to the sky and think of the Doctor. For Donna. Because she won't be able to.

[19:38] MitchFC: *sniffles*
[19:38] Eni is Confused: And awwww, Bernard Cribbins!
[19:38] MitchFC: *SNIFFS*
[19:38] Eni is Confused: *wails*
[19:39] MitchFC: *wails!*
[19:41] MitchFC: *waaaaaah*
[19:41] MitchFC: *honks into tissues* Damn you RTD!
[19:41] Eni is Confused: Yea... and GAH...

So that was the companion death - metaphorically speaking, old!Donna died, and old!ShoutyDonna returns. Gagh. The last shot of the episode is the Dr, alone in the Tardis, preparing himself for a good evening's angsting.

Whew!

[19:48] Eni is Confused: I'm just astounded that, after the first ten minutes, the episode didn't make me want to kick the television.
[19:50] MitchFC: I know! RTD, congrats for not sucking.

So there we have it. What do I think? Overall, I loved it. I hate what happened to Donna but it worked in the context of the story and it was emotionally wrenching. There has to be a price and sometimes you can't just have a happy ending. If there's one thing I've criticised RTD for, it's being too saccharine. We had the "happy" ending in Bad Wolf Bay....so this was the most sensible counterweight.

The episode itself was awesome. Damn. That's how to end working on a series you revitalised. You still sucked at times, RTD, but you brought Who back and you deserve the credit for that.

Roll on the Christmas episode!