somercet "Not if President Obama ends the recession tonight!""Here, on Christmas Day, the President has promised an instant and radical solution to the world-wide depression. Barack Obama will lead us all into a new age of prosperity!"*gag* Though hilarious in retrospect. But I must ask, was writer Davies subtly critiquing Obama (or his drooling fangirls)? Naismith, a black man, extols Obama's coming White House presser to the Master: "You might want to see this, sir. Proof that the human race can mend its own problems." Risible, considering that these humans are hijacking alien technology only with the secret help of two different alien species.This show matches the plot holes usual to Doctor Who with superior special effects, but this episode is largely prologue to the superior Part Two.

gervazilla For fans of Dr. Who, the first of this two segment special is a must see. Part of the charm of Dr. Who has always been the cheesy sets and melodramatic acting. To a certain extent, "The End of Time" follows these aspects of previous episodes of the series; yet, there is a new emotional intensity that draws the viewer in and makes the essence of the story memorable. Moreover, the clues to the future in the storyline are mixed with references to the past in a manner that is intriguing—creating a puzzle for the audience to ponder or attempt to figure out. In not conforming to recent demands in marketing, the writer and producers remain true to a quirky sense of humor and an offbeat style that made followers love the show from the beginning.

Theo Robertson I can't say I was overwhelmed by any of the DOCTOR WHO specials . Neither was I impressed with any of the previous Christmas specials so when we get a two episode Chritmas special I wasn't getting any hopes built up . Seeing as it signals the end of the Tennant/ Russell T Davies era I was expecting Rusty to throw in everything including the kitchen sink . Think of the previous season finales squared and you have the idea . Thankfully after seeing this episode not only were my low expectations met they were far exceeded No story in the show has ever been perfect but RTD has restrained himself with a relatively simple plot . Someone builds something they shouldn't have and the story's villain uses it to build a " master race " . There that's the plot explained perfectly and while there's not enough narrative to reward an audience on repeated viewing it's a simple enough story well told for the most part . Thankfully Rusty hasn't thrown a massive spanner in the works buy bringing in anally retentive past references every five minutes . We're reintroduced to the Ood again , Donna Noble has a cameo , there's a couple of nods to the season three finale and a cliffhanger ending featuring the Time Lords . Just enough to remind die hard fans why nostalgia plays a large part in their lives without alienating casual viewers This probably won't be remembered as a masterwork from the show and undoubtedly in years to come it will be remembered as reintroducing the Time Lords as well as writing out Tennant from the show . What The End Of Time does do very well is entertain the audience and much of this revolves around John Simms as the Master . No longer Prime Minister Harold Saxon the portrayal is a sort of hybrid between Hannibal Lector and a chav . But Simms is having so much fun playing the role it's impossible for the audience not to be swept along with him There are some flaws . As has been pointed out already there's little internal logic for the Master to be able to fire lightning bolts and jump hundreds of feet in the air and seems to be an excuse for The Mill FX team to show us what they can do while June Whitfield is the most superfluous guest star ever featured in the show . There's also the Shimmer creatures which seem to be included to simply impress young children but seem somewhat silly compared to the more dramatic aspects of the story . These however are very minor flaws and I watched this episode in front of my parents without feeling any shame or embarrassment to being a die hard fan .Truth be told I'm sure they were thoroughly entertained as well as millions of other people who sat down to watch this . Whilst not being a great piece of storytelling it is undoubtedly 60 minutes of highly entertaining high quality television

mindless-618-957765 ---- Contains Spoilers ----- I don't know where to begin to tell how awful this episode was; so I will list the thing that IMO were good before proceed to some serious bashing of the ridiculous writing that has become a trademark of this new series of DW.In short, take everything that is bad about Davies "style" (i.e. "coincidences", deus ex machina, fast endings for no reason whatsoever, and more), factor it for this high-expectation Christmas special, and you will have an idea of what it's like.I especially liked Simm's, Tennant's and Cribb's acting; to me these were the only bright spots in a really ugly piece of television. Simm's in particular was really good, even more so perhaps given the crap RTD gave him in the plot, so I will start complaining about what they (RTD) did to the Master's character; please bear with me, but I really cannot stand shitty writing in a serial I like.Now, the Master is supposed to be a time lord, and he should be quite scary even then. More so, perhaps, if you make of him the psychotic monomaniac he has become. But a time lord is not a dark lord of the Sith. That is just wrong, there is no excuse except for a very lazy writer. I mean, the resurrection thing is cheesy enough even without the "flying and shooting energy beams" crap.And since we are talking about that resurrection thing, let me say how much I hated that scene. It makes no sense no matter how do you think about it.The Naysmiths were, in a word, unnecessary. Really, do the mental effort of removing them from the story and you will find that there is nothing to be missed. Moreover, the actress who played the daugther Abigail was just terrible; so in fact you could remove them and gain in quality.The visual effects were terrible, especially the final one. That "shaking face" thing is not only ugly to see, it also screams "They are cutting our budget!". The gods know if they don't have a good reason to do so.The whole "timelords returning" thing is a crappy reset button. Unfortunately this is what you get when you dare giving RTD white paper. Oh, I am so happy he is leaving this show. By the way, i think that the return will not happen, for the very simple reason that no writer could be so stupid to give away the coup de scene an hour earlier. But still...