I saw another forum on The Woman and it made me think of what did this forum think of The End of Time as some people love/hate it. I remember watching it with my cousin on New Years Day, it was such a fun adventure with Wilfred, for me personally.

I had/have very mixed feelings about it.

Apart from the drawn out regeneration bit which really drags its ok. Glad they kept the other companions to cameo roles unlike journeys end where they crammed too much into it. Think part one is stronger than 2. Silly things in it that let it down. The doctor surviving that fall from height, the whole worlds population becoming john sim and the i don't want to go bit. Having donna back was wasted. Bernard cribbins is the star of it for me.

Superb goodbye to an era. Totally overblown, mindbendingly bonkers, camp, sentimental wonderfulness.

I think they overhyped the Tenth Doctors regeneration that year, I wish Ten went out more like nine with that smile on his face. Even looking back before the whole extravaganza he saw how much everyone loved him and they'll never forget their time in the TARDIS, except Donna of course but I bet she would've put up one heck of a fight. Other than that I found it fun to watch especially that cactus bit.

I think Russ should have done a Peter Jackson LotR type cameo in the goodbye bit. I can just see him walking across the screen, belching then taking a bite out of a cucumber.

In my opinion, not a great episode and a poor way to close off an era I already wasn't keen on anyway. The Water of Mars, which was a brilliant episode, set up something amazing with the "Time Lord victorious" theme yet it was followed up by Ten being a bit too mopey and self-obsessed, acting completely uncharasteristic and even unlikable. The Master, too, was really poorly presented, coming off to me as a parody of the Joker but with superpowers for some reason (still don't understand why that was neccessary). Others gripes include the cheap revelation of how Donna survived her memories returning, and uninteresting cardboard-cutouts for side characters.

The worst part for me, however, was how the whole regeneration was handled. Yes, it's supposed to be sad saying goodbye to a Doctor, but at the same looking forward to the future of the show instead of treating it like the very end and making people hate the following Doctor before he'd even been on screen. It really didn't need to be dragged on so long, either.

I did, of course, really enjoy Bernard Cribbins as Wilf, who is one of the coolest characters ever, and I thought Timothy Dalton as Rassilon was fantastic. Definitely somebody who should return to the role.

hated it all to be honest. self indulgent crap and further proof that RTD really lost the plot towards the end. though thats just my opinion

I despised it completely. It was ridiculous, self-indulgent nonsense of the worst kind.

And then I saw 'Time of the Doctor'...

Actually, thinking about it, DW has produced some of the worst TV I've ever seen. 'The Wedding of River Song' was just appalling from beginning to end, as was 'Let's Kill Hitler' and 'The Doctor, Witch and Wardrobe', and 'Voyage of the Damned', etc. etc.

It needed around 15-20 minutes cutting out of it in total, but there's some decent stuff in there! I probably prefer it to the 50th, or indeed many of Moffat's big episodes.

What didn't help it was the signposting of Ten's regeneration that had been going on for at least a year! By the time he went it was like a relief for us! whereas Ten's reaction was the opposite - 'I don't want to go!'

Ridiculously overwrought and sentimental - but then what RTD-penned finale wasn't?

Had its moments - Ten's speech about how it feels to regenerate being a highlight - but overall just a bunch of silly ideas used as a vehicle for saying as emotional and drawn out a goodbye to DT as possible.

Hated the Master in it as well, not the portrayal as such, just what the writing turned him in to.

Dreadful. Steven Moffat at his worst.

(Oh, what's that you say, not written by Moffat........)

Got to agree with this!

What was voted at the time.

The End of Time Part 1 Poll

Part 2 Poll*


*There were 499 votes made at the time the episode aired.



Looks like I voted Fair for Part 1 and Very Good for Part 2. Surprised I gave the 2nd half such a high vote as I've never felt the need to watch the story again.

I agree that The End of Time was self indulgent and overblown nonsense but nowhere near as bad as The Doctor the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Wedding of River Song was a mess but at least an ambitious one.

However, I confess to having a soft spot for Let's Kill Hitler (the sudden out of left field introduction of Mels aside) as I loved the madness and frenetic pace of the episode and Alex Kingston did psychopath exceptionally well. Also any episode where Rory punches Hitler then locks him in a cupboard isn't all bad!

I hated it. One of the worst episodes of Doctor Who I have ever seen. In fact, one of the worst pieces of television I have ever seen.

I hated how The Master was jumping around the place like Spider-man and shooting energy bolts everywhere. The CGI was terrible - what was that skull nonsense all about? The whole "Master race" thing was just silly even for Doctor Who. Bringing back the Time Lords for all of five minutes just to have stand there looking ornamental, and then getting rid of them again, was utterly pointless. Timothy Dalton was wasted as an actor.

After the brilliant Waters of Mars, which built it up tremendously with the aforementioned "Time Lord victorious" angle, it was such an anti-climax. Heck, I'd loved all of the RTD finales up to that point, so I had high hopes for this one. By the end of it though I was glad to see the back of the RTD era. Maybe I was hoping for too much, but it was still terrible.

I did like the farewell tour to all the companions though, funnily enough. That is often criticised too but I thought it was a nice touch. It was the only thing that redeemed this awful mess of a swansong for me. Well, that and Wilf.

I'm glad others enjoyed it but for me it's on my "do not watch again" list of episodes.

Snap! Feel exactly the same. I've watched the farewell tour again (and the five minutes preceding it) but the rest of it I'd rather not.

I don't blame you. I can only see myself watching it again if I happen to be highly intoxicated at the time, and feeling particularly masochistic.

It did all the things it needed to do very very well. Any bit of it that is to do with the farewell of Ten is utterly brilliant and the 'farewell' tour certainly rescues the entire thing. But as a story in its own right? Yep. It is quite rubbish if you take away anything related to the exit of Ten. But then that was the point of it so for me its still more a success than a failure. I find it impossible to separate it from the fuss made at the time and in that context I can still watch it and enjoy it. Riddled with problems but in among the nonsense are some of the best work RTD and Tennant ever did. Its just a shame RTD didnt have a better story to frame it all with. I think the constant need to up the stakes year on year contributed to this and it resulted in an overblown shambles.

I'm usually as optimistic as possible where Doctor Who is concerned, but sometimes optimism isn't enough and I feel content to rip an episode to shreds.

The End of Time: Part One ranks as my second-least-favourite epsiode of Doctor Who ever (beaten only by The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe). It had just a small handful of things that spared it a total write-off...the cafe scene between the Doctor and Wilf was done beautifully, and before it all got spoiled in the following episode Donna's mysterious connection to it all was about the only intriguing plot thread at work. Quite how you assemble Bernard Cribbins as your companion, combine it with John Simm, Claire Bloom, June Whitfield, Timothy Dalton and countless others across the two-parts and manage something so abysmal is a remarkable effort in its own right.

The End of Time: Part Two is marginally better if only for the drawn-out goodbye which featured a bunch of characters I mostly actually liked, and Wilf's final scenes which were golden. It also spared us too much of the Global-Master nonsense that was an embarassment to watch in the previous week, whilst the Gallifrey stuff was interesting but proved to be a tease that couldn't deliver.

I can compliment the acting, but very little else. This was bad Doctor Who. The plot was awful (Potions of Saxon?!), the hype didn't help it, the running time for said plot was obscene, the cast were utterly wasted, and it was the end of a very poor year for the show when Torchwood (and SJA) had picked up the slack and then some! "I don't want to go"... I rolled my eyes, now I look back on it to remember to avoid watching this two-parter whenever I can. Its lack of redeeming qualities makes it a blotch, and a horrendous footnote to a Doctor I already rank behind Eccleston, Smith and Capaldi.