BarryHutchison

I was busy on Saturday night, so recorded the last in the series of Doctor Who and watched it on Sunday, as I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen after the series of cliffhanger endings the previous week left us dangling over.

Absolute rubbish, that’s what happened next. The Doctor’s regeneration didn’t happen. Despite he himself announcing ‘It can’t be stopped!’ the previous week, it could, in fact be stopped. Quite easily, in fact. He just had to point at a hand in a jar.

At the end of the penultimate episode, Sarah Jane was trapped in her car, facing extermination at the hands (well, whisks and plungers) of the Daleks. It looked like there was no escape.

There was. Two minor characters (who hadn’t been seen in ages) teleported in with big fancy guns and blew the Daleks to pieces. Hurrah for humankind. Commiserations to skilful plotting.

The high drama over at Torchwood HQ was brought to a swift end by yet another Deus Ex Machina. Two characters (whose names escape me) were facing sure death, as a nasty big Dalek blasted its way into Torchwood’s secret underground lair. Just as things seemed at their worst, a never-before-mentioned Time Bubble security device kicked in, saving the characters from a fate worse than extermination. Well, maybe not worse. I think extermination is about as bad as it gets with the Daleks.

Which brings me to my next point. Davros’ plan was to do what, exactly? Obliterate every single piece of matter in all dimensions, excluding the Daleks themselves. So, what? They’d just be floating around in a vacuum with very little to do, and no-one to shout at? As evil schemes go, it seemed a little grand for the sake of it. Yes, Davros and the Daleks believe themselves to be the ultimate race in existence, but to wipe out EVERYTHING – all stars, planets and galaxies – seems like something they’re only going to regret in the morning.

I wanted to enjoy the episode, I really did. I wanted it to deliver on all the promises the previous episode had made, but it didn’t. It didn’t even come close. The best bits of the episode were the smaller, more personal moments – the Tardis dragging planet Earth several thousand light years through space not being one such moment – and for me this is what Doctor Who is about. Russel T Davies’ script touched on the essence of the Doctor a few times in the episode, but in a surprisingly cack-handed way for someone who has brought so much to the series.

Most important of all, though, there was something else missing from the episode which I’ve only just put my finger on now. Where was that Dalek who repeats things in a much higher voice than the other Daleks? You know the one. One Dalek says ‘Exterminate’ and then he chimes in with ‘Yes! Exterminate!’ in a much higher, electronic whine. He popped up every few minutes the week before, but this week? Nowhere to be seen. Maybe they’ve found out his hydraulics were filled with Helium or something, and he’s been sent in for fixing. More than any other Dalek, he will be sadly missed.

‘Yes! Sadly missed!’

Okay, switching off geek mode, now. Normal service will resume shortly.

Barry

PS – Oh, and the last episode of Heroes was guff an’ all.

PPS – And there were spoilers in the above post.  If you haven’t yet seen the last Doctor Who of the series, please forget everything you’ve read.  Like Donna does at the end of the episode.

PPPS – Forget that last bit, too.