"So much for the two Ranis. It's goodnight from me."
Obviously, the above line is so brilliant that this episode is a triumph for that reason alone. And yet... against all the odds, although I'm sure subsequent viewings will reveal the odd dangling thread, after last episode seemed to promise a finale full of too many elements and loads of fanwank, we ended up with nothing of the sort. Instead... we get an ending that satisfies emotionally as well as narratively. Plus a cameo by Jodie Whittaker that I never saw coming.
So...
We resolve the cliffhanger by bringing back Anita and the Time Hotel, another returning character. Yet, with this being Ncuti Gatwa's swansong, it's good to see her again. And we use the hotel's timey-wimeyness to bring the UNIT gang back together, merging Conrad's awful wishes with reality. The plot threads- May 24th never arriving, the future in which the hotel exists existing only barely-just about work. And so we have... UNIT versus the bone dinosaur thingies which, let's face it, is the coolest thing ever.
And, of course, the Rani confronts everyone. It's a reunion with Mel, the sort of sequel to Time and the Rani that we were all definitely waiting for. And... the Rani wants to bring back Omega, and thus the Time Lords. Oh, and Time Lords have been sterile since the Time Lords were destroyed... that is, the most recent extinction, not the time before that. So Poppy is real... but she's an impossibility. And, to the Rani's Gallifreyan supremacist disgust, half human, like the Doctor is. Or isn't. Let's not dwell on this one.
The dilemma here is a nice one: bring back the real world, and Poppy vanishes. Yes, the story promptly cheats by building a zero room to magic away the paradox but, given what happens later, this doesn't really feel like a cheat. The Doctor confronts the Rani while Ruby (successfully, and psychologically) confronts Conrad. And... there's Omega. A terrifying beast, for sure, but as little like the Omega we remember as, well, Sutekh was last season. And, after gobbling up the newest Rani, he's quickly vanquished. Because, as we'll see, this is an episode where the Big Bad isn't really the point.
At first, Poppy exists. Ruby watches, alongside the audience, as the Doctor and Belinda plan to travel through time and space with her, making sure the TARDIS is toddler proof. Because that's totally what matters, right? In no way will the places they travel to be the real threats to child safety...!
And then... suddenly she never existed. Only Ruby remembers her. Only after much debate does the Doctor realise... and that's when we realise: he's going to regenerate. Sacrificing his life for a child. And... yeah, Ncuti Gatwa was good, but the other side of that is that he was in demand. Doctor Who, especially with this hiatus, was never going to keep him for longer. Which is a shame. We never got Daleks, Cybermen, so much, And two such short seasons...
It's a good send off, though. Nicely done, visually, and surely the most expensive regeneration ever. Nice cameo from Jodie Whittaker, too, doing some nice little characterisation for her in one short scene which knocks everything Chris Chibnall ever wrote into a cocked hat.
The coda with Belinda makes total sense: she always had to get home for Poppy, who is, after all, completely human, with a human father. It all feels as though it fits together, at least on just one viewing, and it satisfies.
But then... what? What? What?
Mind you, the Ten Doctors comic by Rich Morris is made across 10 (appropriate) chapters. So if you were to review it, it could make sense to make a review of each chapter, so to save yourself having to talk about every thing that happens in the story from start to end.
ReplyDeleteBear with me, I'll get round to it when life allows. It'll probably be the one blog post but I'll decide at the time:)
DeleteThe quote — “Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won” — is attributed to the Duke of Wellington, the general who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo (by the way, I left comments on your Waterloo and 1953 war of the worlds review). On the surface, it's about war: even when you win, the cost — the lives lost, the devastation, the trauma — is still horrifying. Victory doesn’t erase the suffering; it just changes who gets to live with it.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of Doctor Who's current state, especially over the last 8 years— it takes on a more metaphorical, emotional meaning.
Here, the "battle won" might be Doctor Who’s sheer endurance. The fact that it survived cancellations, reboots, changing tastes — that it's still around after all these years could be seen as a victory.
But at what cost?
The show’s soul feels frayed.
The fandom is fragmented.
The show, once a symbol of joyful experimentation, now often feels like a weighty obligation to lore and legacy.
I don't think one isn’t saying the show should never have come back or endured — but rather that its survival, in this form, feels bittersweet. A kind of hollow triumph. The thing that Verity Lambert helped build still stands… but it’s changed into something unrecognizable, even alienating.
So the line becomes a lament for victories that don’t feel like victories. When what’s preserved no longer brings joy, but only the memory of what joy once felt like. It actually captures the essence of a Pyrrhic victory to the letter, and it aligns seamlessly with the emotional weight behind the quote.
in regards to, “Next to a battle lost, the saddest thing is a battle won,” it’s not just grief at change — it’s a recognition that the cost of survival has been too high. The show won: it endured, it evolved, it even reached global heights. But in doing so, it lost some of its clarity, its simplicity, and perhaps even its purpose.
Just as a general might look at the battlefield strewn with the wreckage of his own forces and wonder if the victory was worth the loss, Doctor Who’s legacy — especially from those felt it dimisnhing over the past decade — feels scarred. It’s a show still standing, but tired, fragmented, and often misunderstood even by those who love it most.
So in some way, it is a hollow victory. One that calls into question the very meaning of “winning” in the first place.
In that sense, the line isn't just about regret — it's about the cost of clinging to something long after its natural form has changed, or even decayed. A sobering truth, especially when applied to art, stories, or fandoms we love.
And that’s why it hits so hard.
Very well put, and an apt metaphor. Although, if I may be disgustingly anachronistic, that arch-reactionary the Duke of Wellington would be one of the first to decry Doctor Who these days as "woke"!
ReplyDeleteBut I think this whole area can work as a kind of semi-defence in relation to one of your concerns the fractured fandom. To an extent, it was ever thus (I recall the ubiquitous use of the words "gay agenda" on Gallifrey Base back in the day!), but I think the phenomenon these days owes much to culture wars far wider than the show itself- and all these far right YouTube grifters decrying everything as "woke". And yet... the show is too often too unsubtle in its political messaging. RTD is no Mac Hulke.
There has, as you say, been a recent over-reliance on the deep past which will both alienate the casual viewer and prevent the show from doing anything genuinely new. Plus, ever since Moffat, we've been losing that tendency to see the companion's full, textured life back home. The Jackie and Mickey, so to speak.
From rumuors of how the original ending was going to be, it ctually sounds like we might have dodged a bullet with Susan. I feel sorry for the actors who played the Fifteenth Doctor, Belinda and Ruby. Even if one were to argue all three had some great material, there was so much more for them to do, so much more to explore. I am personally indifferent towards Gatwa's Doctor; I've personally never had a proper connection to him, but he definitely feels unfinished (in a way that Eccleston's didn't, in spite of having even less screen time).
ReplyDeleteI agree, lots of impressive acting from him but so little screen time for all three of them. And on top of that there were the "Doctor Lite" episodes. In fact, accounting for those... Gatwa may quite plausibly have had less screen time than Eccleston.
ReplyDeleteHowever far they can creatively take the regeneration finales, the obvious question is often can they include the returns of past Doctors for those stories. We had the First Doctor for Twice Upon A Time and Classic Doctors (minus 2, 3 and 4) return for The Power Of The Doctor. And as nice as it is to see Jodie return, I would imagine that they should finally take a break from the trend to give the following regeneration finales more significant depth. In reflection of how appealing regeneration finales were beforehand, certainly with all that came in the classic series, this most unique sci-fi alien trait to keep a heroic role going should be sufficiently popular by now to not need to overwhelm the audiences too much. And now with Billie apparently as the 16th Doctor or at least a bridge to a new chapter, as exciting as it is, the future of the Whoniverse may now be at its most questionable.
ReplyDeleteI was quite disappointed by what they did with Omega. Especially in reflection of fan's most personalized memories of him. The least-recurring villainies for the Whoniverse like the Toymaker, Sutekh, Midnight and the Rani have been all the more intriguing in recent years. So Omega deserved a lot better.
Agreed with past Doctors- let sleeping Doctors lie! Let's not lean into the show's complex lore. In fact, this Timeless Child awkwardness sort of forces us not to do so!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, Omega is literally just a generic monster here.
Some people say that because DW might be on some kind of hitatus, seeing Billie appear at the end might be a callback to the fact she was the first face we saw at the start of the revived series: of course, there will always be a Doctor Who even in 2063, because its complex lore and history is too interesting.
ReplyDeleteSo many unanswered questions : How did the Doctor and Belinda go from the TARDIS as the doors were blown in to their suburban wish life?
ReplyDeleteHow does the Rani have magical powers at the beginning? Is she already channeling the wish baby? If so, how?
I'm not sure if the Time Lords being killed by a "genetic wave" makes sense in the light of the Master's claims in Spyfall et al. since it's all so vague, but I don't buy that it sterilised any remaining Time Lords away from the planet. It looked for a second like RTD was going down the sterility as the cost of regeneration route from the New Adventures (Looms!) but that clashes with the vision of Gallifrey in "The Day of the Doctor."
How and why does the vindicator do the things it does? It's another "whatever the plot needs right now" machine.
What, as ever, is the point of the Vlinx?
Less a thing that doesn't make sense, but a question: what happens to the timeline that unfolded from the destruction of the Earth? Do the events of "The Well" and "The Interstellar Song Contest" still happen in some way or form?
And finally... Ncuti Gatwa didn't get to face the Master, the Cybermen or the Daleks. That's unique among the main Doctors (not counting Fourteen as he's Tennant's victory lap). He should at least got to face the Daleks, who are the only really essential ones. But they needed a rest and that's what you get when you don't stick around.
All except the last paragraphs... well, these things just don't make sense as soon as you give them a proper look. And, to an extent, a certain amount of sleight of hand and handwavium is fine. But.... not to this extent!
ReplyDeleteI do emphasise with Gatwa, though. He fully intended to stick around, it seemed, but with Disney stalling on the decision of whether or not to continue, he had no choice. A young, up and coming actor simply can't just keep turning down work for months on end just on the off-chance.
And even the uncertainty over the Disney deal is a bigger thing than Doctor Who- Disney's broader struggles, the recent issues with the MCU, broader questions about the long term viability of the streaming model in a fractured landscape. Television itself, in a very structural sense, faces an uncertain future.
If Billie Piper is not the Next Doctor (let’s say, a temporally bad wolf image or considering “body”), I would like to see Mathew Baynton as The 16th Doctor. What's you's thoughts on this? He's a British Actor and Comedian, He's Well known for playing as Historical Figures in Horrible Histories and a Romantic Victorian Ghost in a BBC One Comedy Series
ReplyDeleteI think he could be a good choice, I've seen him recommended by various YouTubers. Loved his performances in Horrible Histories. Not only can he do comedy (and comedy is hard!) but he has range.
ReplyDeleteIt seems likely to me that the reason Gatwa pronounces Omega's name the way he does is because Rwanda, which is where he is originally from, was a German and then Belgian colony, rather than British. Of course, he was two years old when his family fled to Scotland, which seems a bit young to be learning the Greek alphabet, so go figure.
ReplyDeleteThe classic fan in me hates what they did with Omega (no matter how you pronounce it!), and the Rani (such a lackluster use of said character), and why they made Omega into some weird reject from a horror movie, I'll never know.
Them doing nothing with Susan is my biggest head scratcher though. Carol Ann Ford is 84 years old, if you're going to drop hints about her, use her more in the actual show while you can!
I might eat my words if another season is made but I seriously doubt that Billie Piper's character in the final scene is the Doctor. The only question is if she's "main universe" Rose or if she's Bad Wolf/The Moment/Whoever From the 50th Anniversary. It wouldn't surprise me if once again, Tennant will back either way.
I don't think Billie Piper will be the actual Doctor either- it was notable that the closing credits didn't actually name her as such. They just had no one lined up to replaced Gatwa and had to do something quick and work out what to do later.
ReplyDeleteThe originally filmed version of the finale did involve Susan, although her main arc seems to have been intended for Season Three/Fifteen/Forty-Two. Still risky, given Carole Ann Ford's age!