Specials
Episode title: The End of Time (Part 2)Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Eleventh Doctor (regeneration)
Companions: Wilfred Mott
Companion cameos: Rose Tyler, Captain Jack Harkness, Sarah Jane Smith, Donna Noble, Martha Jones, Mickey Smith
First shown: 1st January 2010
Related articles: The Master
Guide: The episode begins where the last one left off (naturally), with the Doctor escaping the Master (with Wilfred) with the help of the Vinvocci and takes refuge on their orbiting ship. Meanwhile the Lord President has started to engineer events that will bring the Time Lords back to reality and out of the Time Lock they are currently in following the Time War. He plants the sound of drums inside the Master’s head as a young child, which when amplified by the billions of clones the Master has created will act as a signal to the Master. The Lord President then sends a Whitepoint star diamond to Earth, so that the signal will be boosted and they can lock onto it.
The Lord President’s plan works and he, along with his council appear in the gate room at the Naismith’s estate. The Master attempts to reuse the gate to transform all of the Time Lords into clones of him, but the Lord President stops him, and reverses the previous transformation, turning the humans back into themselves. Gallifrey starts to materialise above the Earth along with all the horrors that were locked away in the Time War. The Lord President now reveals his plan to enter a higher form of consciousness and destroy the universe. The Doctor, armed with Wilfred’s gun, returns to Earth to stop this from happening and becomes torn between shooting the Lord President, or the Master. He catches a glimpse of one of the Time Lords put to shame by the Lord President, whom he recognises (Russell Davies says that this is supposed to be the Doctor’s mother, but it’s left open to fan interpretation) and he shoots the Whitepoint star diamond instead. The Lord President attempts to kill the Doctor for foiling his plan, but the Master intervenes and attacks the Lord President for burdening him with the sound of drums all his life. The Time Lords, the Master and Gallifrey disappear and the Doctor is left alone to revel in victory.
But the Doctor is not alone. Wilfred had also returned to assist his friend, and in doing so accidently locked himself into one of the isolation booths that are starting to fill with radiation. The Doctor really struggles to make a decision on who to save, Wilfred, or himself. He goes on about how much more he could do, how much longer he could have, how much he’d lose by saving one more human. But he does not let Wilfred die, he decides to sacrifice himself instead and takes the radiation blast. The Doctor is now destined to regenerate, but he gets one last treat, to go back and visit all of his companions before he dies. Some he speaks to, some he merely stands and walks away. He visits Martha Jones and Mickey Smith, who are married and saves them from a Sontaran attack. He then prevents Luke Smith from being run over by a car. Luke then points the Doctor out to Sarah Jane Smith and the two silently say goodbye. The Doctor then moves onto an extraterrestrial bar where he has a note passed to Captain Jack Harkness, encouraging him to speak with Midshipman Alonso Frame (from Voyage of the Damned). Then he moves onto a book signing by Verity Newman, the great-granddaughter of Joan Redfern, who has published a book called ‘A Journal of Impossible Things’ based on Joan’s diaries. The Doctor then attends Donna’s wedding and gives Wilfred a winning lottery ticket as her wedding present. Finally the Doctor goes to see Rose Tyler, on New Year’s Day 2005, the year she met the Ninth Doctor. Rose doesn’t know who he is, but he tells her that she will have “a great year.” The Doctor then stumbles back to his TARDIS and Ood Sigma appears telling him the universe will sing him to sleep. Ood Sigma remarks that “this song is ending, but the story never ends” before getting into the TARDIS and flying away. He doesn’t want to, but he completes his regeneration process in a violent manner, destroying the TARDIS in the process. The last words the Tenth Doctor said at the end of his life, were “I don’t want to go.”
This episode is a concluding episode of a two part storyline. You can read the first episode guide of the two parter by clicking here.