Last of the Time Lords

[kalleah]

I'll cut everything except my excessive relief at finally having seen it.  :)

Hmm.

I think I liked it, but I'm not entirely sure.  Let me mull over my response in handy bulleted format.

• WTF was with the creepy chibi!Doctor?  I felt the overwhelming urge to smack Uncle Rusty on the snout with a rolled up newspaper and say "no" in a firm voice.
• John Simm was wonderful although not as cool as the last episode ... but really, he so completely rocked in the last one that I can't fault him for that.
• WTF with Lucy?  I got that she went batty, but why shoot him?  I mean, someone clearly needed to.  The Master as the Doctor's pet in the TARDIS is too squicky for words.  Now, there's a case to be made for Doctor/Master.  I'm not entirely opposed to that, either, but it seems like keeping the Master caged up in the TARDIS is a lot like what the Master did to him.
  
• I loved, loved, loved the Master's death scene.  Tennant is a superb actor and I just ached for him being all alone, again.
• Yes, the funeral pyre was a little Return of the Jedi.  No Ewoks though.  Look on the bright side.
• The woman's hand picking up the ring was a little wrinkly.  I don't think it's Lucy.
• I do love how they undid the Toclafane's arrival and still had Martha et all remembering what happened.  It would be a damn shame for the Joneses and Jack to go through that and then just forget.  The population of the Earth?  As usual, better off not knowing.
• Jack as the Face of Boe?  WTF?  (I seem to be saying that a fair bit.)  One assumes that as a time traveler that he'd have heard of the Face of Boe.  Seems like a weird thing for him to toss out then, but I guess it does answer the "does Jack die" question.  He dies in the year five billion as a big head in a jar with no penis.  (One assumes.)  I suspect for Jack, the whole lack of a penis thing is more awful than the whole unable to die thing.
• The Doctor invited Jack along.  Yay.  And of course he messed with the vortex manipulator.  He had to.
  
• Rose moment.  The Doctor didn't say "second best to whom?" either.  He's just rude enough to say that, too, if he didn't already know.
• The HMS Titanic busts through the wall of the TARDIS?  I guess a really big-ass boat is stronger than the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan.

I want to watch the Confidential, but I can at least get through for a day or so until I do so.

Comments

[blackcat-1.livejournal.com]

OK, so I'm ridiculously late joining the party, but sadly, real life got in the way, so haven't had time to post until now.

Laughed when I read your "Hmm" at the start of this entry because not only was that my first response as the credits rolled, but I have also seen that on another LJ review about the episode.

I have to admit that I looked at my watch several times during the ep, wondering when it was going to end. It seemed rather slow. Granted, there were good points, but I re-watched Doomsday last night for the first time in 6 months (although I've watched it about a million times before then) and I have to say that LotTL really lacked the pace and emo tug at the heartstrings. Maybe that's a bit unfair - it was hardly likely to leave us swimming in tears like before, was it? But even allowing for that, I feel there were missed opportunities here and it did not live up to the promise of Utopia.

I did like the way the Doctor dealt with Martha - it really showed the contrast in his feelings for her and Rose - he clearly does not love Martha as he loved Rose, but he does respect and care about her. Also thought DT was brill in the Master's death scene.

[kalleah.livejournal.com]

it was hardly likely to leave us swimming in tears like before

I hope not. I haven't had the emotional fortitude to watch Doomsday again.

Like you ... I did look at the time. ::shakes head in dismay:: Utopia was so fantastically good -- and really, I liked The Sound of Drums nearly as much -- that I can't be terribly disappointed in the finale for not being better.