Exit Doctor WTF?

We can but hope.

David Tennant's last episode featured more of the grimacing I've come to expect from his performance in the show. I'm glad he's gone... Initially, his take on the Time Lord was bearable, let down more by dodgy stories (I'm looking at you, Russell T.) than anything else. Eventually, he wore very thin. Too shouty, too mercurial (Colin Baker did that better, frankly, and I wasn't too keen on him!), too prone to implausible outbursts of baseless emotion, and too reliant on Deus Ex Machina. His catchphrases - particularly 'Allons-y' - and the frequency with which characters described his as 'wonderful' were too much Russell T., not enough Doctor Who. The series became ever more RTD's love song to The Doctor, rather than being anything like decent sci-fi adventure.

What I objected to most of all in this two-parter is the contrived finality of it all. In the 'Confidential' show that followed, the man who resurrected Doctor Who went to great pains to explain his desire to make it seem like the end, to give the kids of today an regeneration to remember (sorry, I found it utterly forgettable)... Tennant's whimpered final line "I don't want to go" made absolutely no sense in the context of Who, but it might have had an ounce more impact if it hadn't been preceded by about ten minutes of pointless bridge-burning, from Martha and Mickey (being hunted by Sontarans), through Donna, Sarah-Jane and Captain Jack (did I or did I not theorise that Captain Jack would end up heading back to Earth - foretelling a new series of Torchwood, God help us all - after meeting The Doctor sometime this series?) ending up with a visit to one Rose Tyler, the very year she'd meet The Doctor for the first time (neatly causing a bit of a paradox: how did she not immediately blurt out "Oh my God, it's YOU!" when Christopher Ecclestone regenerated into Tennant if she'd already met him, however briefly?!).

And why, if The Doctor was healthy enough to wander back and forth through time for however long it took (adding travel- and 'lurking around, waiting to be seen'-time, a damn sight longer than 10 minutes), would he need to regenerate at all? Oh, the massive dose of radiation he received? The one that didn't kill him instantly, fulfilling the prophecy of his death after 'he' knocked four times?

Good grief.

And were we supposed to be impressed by the 'twist' of who, precisely, knocked four times? Handled properly, it might have been clever... but here it just led to padding.

And, further contrivance, The Master's insanity was caused by the Time Lords sending a signal back in time to the point where he, as a young boy, first looked into the time vortex? And all of this was done specifically so that The Master would bring Gallifrey back from the void after his own - botched - resurrection on Earth? A plan hatched while Gallifrey and all the Time Lords were safely contained outside of time to protect them from the Great Time War? The Time War in which Gallifrey supposedly burned?

This 'plot' was a hideous jumble... A far cry from the Bad Wolf of the first season, which at least seemed to make a strange sort of sense. Clearly Russell T. had been at work on this Grand Scheme for quite some time, but didn't he let someone else have a quick logic-check? Evidently not...

The trailer for the upcoming season - launching in the Spring - held a mixture of promise and worry. The Daleks are back - obviously - so the Cybermen can't be far behind. The brief appearance of the Sontarans must surely herald their return also. The Weeping Angels - referred to obliquely in today's episode - also make an appearance, along with a host of new creatures. And certain parts suggest that, along with the youngest actor to ever portray The Doctor, we may have the youngest assistant ever. Perhaps this is why they chose not to go for an older actor this time round.

Roll on, Spring. Let's see what Matt Smith has to offer... Less of the catchphrases would be nice.