A Time-Lord's Final Bow
One of the most difficult things is wrapping everything up into a neat, perfect whole. And that often leaves a few loose ties no matter how well the writer pulls the strings to make that ending a suitable one for everyone.
Though Russell T. Davies does a commendable job of putting the big bang theory into the final episode of Doctor Who: throwing everything in there but the kitchen sink. His final bow "Journey's End" has all the ingrediants of a solid story. It's almost like a fan's dream come true with all the favorites in same story.
There's simply too much going on, too many characters vying for the center spotlight.... that the story looses focus on itself and becomes a grandiose space epic of huge proportions. Is there anyone that Davies forgot to put in the story?
The story succeeds on many levels as it maintains drama despite the number of characters in the episode. There is Rose Tyler and her mom, Martha Jones and her mom too, Donna Noble and her mom and granddad, Captain Jack on his lonesome, Sarah Janes Smith and her adopted son and the list goes on. You get the idea. Not only is there one Doctor, but two of them running about.
Too many people are snagging the spotlight and not enough time is spent on any one of the characters even at the unprecedented 65 minutes for this show. There isn't enough of Rose who is the real draw for viewers who have waited for her to come back to the series after a long wait. When there are several talented people working to get the spotlight, getting that little bit of the attention, the story starts to fall apart like a loose ball of string.
That might be the only problem. If there were less people in the story, it may have more staying power in its narrative form. The story needs a hook... the anchor that is the main character. The one that provides the point of view which carries the story over. The story has to have a focus and be straightforward in its approach. Otherwise the story would lose control. There are simply too many main characters here.
What happened to Mickey has his undying love for Rose? That has seemed to disappeared. He used to cling on to her like a sore boy with a love sickness. That seemed to vanish, all those feelings. And there Rose just goes off with the human version of the Doctor. I'm not sure what happened there. But that large part of the story has been left out.
Bringing everything to a closing can be a difficult job. Such a task is can rarely succeed in terms of satisfactory notion. The same thing could be said for the "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" which tries to bring everything to a full circle. Closing out the story so that nothing is left unsaid. It did feel like George Lucas was wrapping things up too neatly, too quickly.
Just like the episode "Journey's End" of Doctor Who. There isn't time to breathe in the story. Everything needed to be wrapped up very soon and the fans were given the bait: using all the favorites as much as possible to keep everyone moderately happy.
And who are the ones who suffer due to the spolight being split up into different directions? Who are the ones who had less screen time? The main villian of the episode: the Daleks and Davros. They got the short end of the stick. This was supposed to be their swan song. Their farewell show.
Yes, "Journey's End" does succeed. There are some beauitful scenes with Donna Noble retaining some of the Doctor's memories towards the end of the episode after she was contaminated with the Doctor's regenerative abilities. She skips through her dialogue with stunning ease and this is the closest you're going to get a female version of the Doctor.
The music is wonderful throghout the later portion of the episode especially with the earth being returned to its original place. (I'm not sure if that's possible considering the physics demanding such a shift, but it's Doctor Who). The soundtrack is bombastic, charged with relentless energy. And yet there is a soaring quality to it as it is sweeping. There's real beauty of the music.
There are some great moments. Such as the bi-sexual and always creative Capt. Jack seeing the two versions of the Doctors and the Donna Doctor together... "You don't want to know what I'm thinking!"
I don't care what anyone says. I liked how David Tennant got out of the regeneration cycle by casting the energies into his severed hand that he's been carrying around for the last year or so. It seems the littliest elements often crop up again in the series.
Doctor Who has been given a proper sendoff. It needs to as it is going on a quiet two year break when the lead actor David Tennant has to work in a Shakespearean play. Despite the number of flaws in the story, the show is still an enjoyable one. And such enertainment is very rare on today's TV wasteland. Davies already mentioned that he won't be coming back to write Doctor Who anymore. "I'm done with it," he says.
And that's fine. There is in store another writer who has a firm grasp of the science-fantasy elements and willl bring a very literary quality to the show. Stephen Moffat replaces Davies in the lead writer role. But the television audiences will have to wait a couple more years before seeing the Moffat age of Doctor Who.
It'll be something to look forward to. And four Doctor Who specials for the following year. The universe won't be entirely without the cosmic traveller and there are still so many stories that can be told. So many great stories left...
Though Russell T. Davies does a commendable job of putting the big bang theory into the final episode of Doctor Who: throwing everything in there but the kitchen sink. His final bow "Journey's End" has all the ingrediants of a solid story. It's almost like a fan's dream come true with all the favorites in same story.
There's simply too much going on, too many characters vying for the center spotlight.... that the story looses focus on itself and becomes a grandiose space epic of huge proportions. Is there anyone that Davies forgot to put in the story?
The story succeeds on many levels as it maintains drama despite the number of characters in the episode. There is Rose Tyler and her mom, Martha Jones and her mom too, Donna Noble and her mom and granddad, Captain Jack on his lonesome, Sarah Janes Smith and her adopted son and the list goes on. You get the idea. Not only is there one Doctor, but two of them running about.
Too many people are snagging the spotlight and not enough time is spent on any one of the characters even at the unprecedented 65 minutes for this show. There isn't enough of Rose who is the real draw for viewers who have waited for her to come back to the series after a long wait. When there are several talented people working to get the spotlight, getting that little bit of the attention, the story starts to fall apart like a loose ball of string.
That might be the only problem. If there were less people in the story, it may have more staying power in its narrative form. The story needs a hook... the anchor that is the main character. The one that provides the point of view which carries the story over. The story has to have a focus and be straightforward in its approach. Otherwise the story would lose control. There are simply too many main characters here.
What happened to Mickey has his undying love for Rose? That has seemed to disappeared. He used to cling on to her like a sore boy with a love sickness. That seemed to vanish, all those feelings. And there Rose just goes off with the human version of the Doctor. I'm not sure what happened there. But that large part of the story has been left out.
Bringing everything to a closing can be a difficult job. Such a task is can rarely succeed in terms of satisfactory notion. The same thing could be said for the "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" which tries to bring everything to a full circle. Closing out the story so that nothing is left unsaid. It did feel like George Lucas was wrapping things up too neatly, too quickly.
Just like the episode "Journey's End" of Doctor Who. There isn't time to breathe in the story. Everything needed to be wrapped up very soon and the fans were given the bait: using all the favorites as much as possible to keep everyone moderately happy.
And who are the ones who suffer due to the spolight being split up into different directions? Who are the ones who had less screen time? The main villian of the episode: the Daleks and Davros. They got the short end of the stick. This was supposed to be their swan song. Their farewell show.
Yes, "Journey's End" does succeed. There are some beauitful scenes with Donna Noble retaining some of the Doctor's memories towards the end of the episode after she was contaminated with the Doctor's regenerative abilities. She skips through her dialogue with stunning ease and this is the closest you're going to get a female version of the Doctor.
The music is wonderful throghout the later portion of the episode especially with the earth being returned to its original place. (I'm not sure if that's possible considering the physics demanding such a shift, but it's Doctor Who). The soundtrack is bombastic, charged with relentless energy. And yet there is a soaring quality to it as it is sweeping. There's real beauty of the music.
There are some great moments. Such as the bi-sexual and always creative Capt. Jack seeing the two versions of the Doctors and the Donna Doctor together... "You don't want to know what I'm thinking!"
I don't care what anyone says. I liked how David Tennant got out of the regeneration cycle by casting the energies into his severed hand that he's been carrying around for the last year or so. It seems the littliest elements often crop up again in the series.
Doctor Who has been given a proper sendoff. It needs to as it is going on a quiet two year break when the lead actor David Tennant has to work in a Shakespearean play. Despite the number of flaws in the story, the show is still an enjoyable one. And such enertainment is very rare on today's TV wasteland. Davies already mentioned that he won't be coming back to write Doctor Who anymore. "I'm done with it," he says.
And that's fine. There is in store another writer who has a firm grasp of the science-fantasy elements and willl bring a very literary quality to the show. Stephen Moffat replaces Davies in the lead writer role. But the television audiences will have to wait a couple more years before seeing the Moffat age of Doctor Who.
It'll be something to look forward to. And four Doctor Who specials for the following year. The universe won't be entirely without the cosmic traveller and there are still so many stories that can be told. So many great stories left...
posted by K.M. Paters at 9:24 PM
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