![]() The Tenth Doctor's era would have ended on a decidedly bleaker note had he spent most of his final episode complaining he was too important to die for a regular family - behavior that would also feel oddly out of character for the Doctor. The moment is a powerful one, revealing a more human side to the Doctor, though arguably the scene's impact proves this inner conflict didn't need to be the focus of an entire episode.Ībandoning this smaller finale to the Tenth Doctor's tenure in favor of "The End of Time" was probably a wise move on Davies' part. "The End of Time" saw a similar exploration of this side of the Doctor, confined to a single scene, when he rages against giving his life to save Wilf from the irradiated control booth. The quieter story would have primarily revolved around the Doctor's internal struggle as he faces the prospect of having to give up his own life for a simple family, devoid of any menacing Time Lords or world-ending schemes. (Even by the episode's deeply cynical depiction of humans in "Midnight," it still didn't make much sense that even the dumber passengers didn't pick up on any of Sky's red flags.) Even still, those final few moments where the Doctor is haunted by the episode's events, even after the worst is over, features some of his best line deliveries in the whole show.Davies' alternate idea for the Tenth Doctor's final story would certainly have given a lot more breathing room to an exploration of the darker side of the character. For instance, the creature possessing Sky (Lesley Sharp) is clearly still evil and in control at the end, yet most of the other passengers are still quick to trust her. There are some parts of this episode that don't really work. At the end the Doctor asks the rest of the passengers if anyone ever even caught the hostess's name, and no one did. The monster of the week is defeated not in some heroic, clever manner from the Doctor, but from the hostess sacrificing herself to stop the rest of the crew from throwing a possessed Doctor out into space. It's one of the show's most stressful, atmospheric episodes, and it's one that leaves the Doctor's faith in humanity momentarily shaken. If someone as important to him as Sarah Jane was left behind and never mentioned, so could Rose. That's the curse of the Time Lords." Here, Rose is forced to reckon with the fact that she will likely never be the most important part of the Doctor's life in the grand scheme of things. ![]() "You can spend the rest of your life with me," he says to Rose at one point, "but I can't spend the rest of mine with you. Like with "The Girl in the Fireplace," this episode touches a lot on the loneliness that comes with the Doctor's immortality. Luckily, the episode moves past the more immature aspects of this dynamic early on. ![]() His past relationship with Sarah Jane is written more like a romantic relationship (Sarah Jane accuses him of "dumping" her) than the platonic relationships of the classic show, and the dynamic between Sarah Jane and Rose almost feels like watching the sitcom trope of the current girlfriend meeting the former girlfriend and the two exchanging petty, jealousy-filled digs at each other. Perhaps the biggest change in their relationship compared to the Tom Baker era is that Tennant's Doctor is given more explicitly romantic material. ![]()
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