Doctor Who – the Specials

I’m tempted to put the word ‘specials’ in quotes as I found them generally so underwhelming, but their average score is boosted by a decent send-off for Tennant. These stories had a lot to deliver: with the show effectively going on rest for a year *and* bringing the Tennant and RTD eras to and end, these four stories needed to deliver a full year’s worth of satisfaction for Who fans.

• Planet Of The Dead: disappointing. The only Who episode for the first 10 months of 2009 and it didn’t really manage to do anything that any other episode of Who couldn’t have done. At least we had the ‘four knocks’ prophecy to keep us speculating until November.
• The Waters of Mars: I wanted to like this a whole lot more, but it stopped short of being the all-out, base-under-siege horror story that it really should have been. Throw in an excessively loud score, and a horrifically annoying robot sidekick and this one didn’t really have a chance with me.
• The End Of Time: there are a few things I don’t like about this episode (as a classic Who fan I still can’t quite get there with John Simm’s manic, white-haired Master – luckily I like John Simm so it all balances out), but this is suitably epic in a way that The Stolen Earth failed to be. We visit the Time War at last, and Gallifrey earns an unsettling new place in series canon (though I hope the drums/Master thing gets quietly retconned one day). We have the simply beautiful pairing of Wilf and the Doctor (and I’d watch *that* show any time!). And we have a completely unexpected resolution for the ‘four knocks’ prediction. RTD even gets away with the thoroughly indulgent send-off he writes for Tennant and the entirely of his era. And you know what? He earned it.