I am – Hercules!!

While we here in the United States just finished watching the 27th season of “Doctor Who” on the SciFi Channel, the wily Brits have already seen “Doctor Who” 28.13 on the BBC. The three reviewers who give star ratings give it a 5, a 5 and a 4.

“Doctor Dan” says:

DOCTOR WHO – 2.13

"DOOMSDAY"

WRITER: Russell T. Davies

DIRECTOR: Graeme Harper

CAST: David Tennant (The Doctor), Billie Piper (Rose Tyler), Camille Codouri (Jackie Tyler), Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith), Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler), Tracy-Anne Oberman (Yvonne Hartman), Raji James (Dr Rajesh Singh) & Nicholas Briggs (Dalek Voice)

The final episode of the inconsistent second series proves to be every much as exciting and fun as the first part "Army Of Ghosts" suggested it would be. After a slight reprise of events in the prologue, the action continues from where part 1 left off, with a Dalek foursome protecting "The Genesis Ark" in the basement of Torchwood Tower, while 5 million Cybermen dominate the planet outside...

"Doomsday" is certainly all pay-off to "Army Of Ghosts", with the emphasis firmly shifted in the direction of visual thrills and fraught adventure. The story works much better as a continuation of the mid-season "Rise Of The Cybermen"/"Age Of Steel" two-parter, particularly when the alternate universe Pete Tyler appears and rekindles his relationship with Jackie.

Of course, the inner child in all of us will undoubtedly get a kick from seeing the Cybermen versus the Daleks, and the resultant battle between the cyborgs is a lot of fun, if occasionally undermined by banter (the Daleks develop have a wicked sense of humour it seems, and Mickey likens the enemies sparring to "Stephen Hawking versus the talking clock"!)

David Tennant does fine work here, furthering my belief that he's at the mercy of the writing. Unlike Christopher Ecclestone, he can't elevate crap writing as well, but here he's given a script that plays to his strengths: he's passionate, believable, able to balance the humour with drama, and in the climactic sequence The Doctor seems more frail and human than we've ever seen him in the series. Marvellous.

Likewise, Billie Piper does a great job with all her emotional scenes. Rose as a character had certainly reached the end of the road, with the writers unable to stretch her beyond the archetypal teen began the show as. It was excellent to see the Tyler family unit given a wonderful resolution, and Piper's beach-set farewell with The Doctor marks a highpoint for the show, and eclipsed all the visual fireworks thrown at the screen.

Yes, the visuals were excellent, particularly the Cybermen versus Dalek battles. The sequences with flying Daleks remain obvious composites, but are still effective in a few wider shots and never seriously detracted from the enjoyment of scenes. Doctor Who should certainly be applauded for delivering epic sequences on a relatively small budget.

Elsewhere, the supporting cast are slightly on the periphery throughout, although Shaun Dingwall continues his excellent work as Pete Tyler and has a great scene with Camille Codouri's Jackie.

Overall, this was an impressive finale that made last year's "The Parting Of The Ways" look small in comparison. What really made the episode work was the excellent writing for the sensitive scenes between the main characters, particularly The Doctor and Rose. Writer Russell T. Davies is often slated by fans for his trashy episodes ("New Earth"), silly excesses ("Aliens Of London") or plain stupidity ("Love & Monsters"), but he's undoubtedly the best writer for the dynamic between The Doctor and Rose.

Series 2 ends on a real emotional high (and a bizarre scene with Catherine Tate!), that matched my own hope that series 3 will reinvigorate the show with its new companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). The honeymoon period is certainly over for the new Who, and the producers can't always rely on the Daleks to exterminate any lull in ratings, so I hope they take heed and deliver some purer sci-fi thrills next year... and maybe leave contemporary London behind for awhile, Mr Davies...?

The Good:

1. Cyberman vs Daleks: what's not to like? DELETE! EXTERMINATE! DELETE! EXTERMINATE! Etc...

2. The special effects: consistently good, save for a few flying shots, but a real benchmark for the series and impressive considering the budget.

3. Tennant and Piper: always good, but rarely better than this. A real treat for fans of both characters; I'm sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house!

4. The pace and story: nothing particularly revolutionary, but this was a genuinely involving and exciting narrative with a few unexpected twists. It even improved the haphazard Cybermen mid-season two-parter by association!

The Bad:

1. The music: not terrible exactly, but Who's penchant for high-octane music during fairly mundane visuals returns. Was the sight of Jackie running down some stairs really worthy of such bombastic audio!

2. Traci-Ann Oberman. She was so good last episode, but here she's quickly sidelined and delivers a terrible "death scene"... only made worse by her completely bizarre rebirth as a Good Cyberman! Terribly contrived.

3. Catherine Tate's belated appearance as The Bride; a totally bizarre and somewhat unwanted nudge towards the Christmas Special "The Runaway Bride". They should have ended sooner on the emotional Tennant/Piper scene.

The Geeky:

1. Doomsday is the first ever episode in which the Cybermen and the Daleks appear together on screen. Both Cybermen and Daleks were featured in The Five Doctors and Army of Ghosts, but in separate scenes, while only the head of a Cyberman appeared in the episode Dalek. However, Daleks and Cybermen did appear together in the stage show Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure.

2. When Rose says she met the Dalek Emperor and destroyed him, she is referring to the events of last season's The Parting Of The Ways, although it had been established that she remembers nothing of the incident. I suppose The Doctor told her.

3. The coordinates for the Void (or Hell) must be to "all the sixes".

4. The Dalek foursome is part of the Cult Of Skaro, a splinter group programmed to think like the enemy and hence they have names!

5. The Time Lords have "prison ships" that are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside. I think the UK government should get in touch...

RATING: 5 / 5

“Russell” says:

Hi Herc

Heres a rundown on tonights Doctor Who Episode which just happens to be the last of the season!!

Ep 13 - "Doomsday"..Writer ..Russell T Davies

Well this concludes the story which started last week in "Army of Ghosts" Well as you remeber the episode ended with the dalek going.EXTERMINATE!!

Well it kicksof after that..the daleks have in their possesion something called the Genesis ark..they want Rose to touch the ark to make it open,Rose has been with the doctor for the last 2 years and radiation from the Tardis has penetrated her(not in a harmful way) this energy will release the ark..whats in it? we dont know yet.more later!.The cybermen discover the daleks and confront them..the Cybermen at first want to destroy the daleks but then propose an alliance between them to destray earth and conquor the galaxy! The daleks refuse and destroy the cybermen who's own laser weapons are useless on them. An all out battle insuses between these mighty foes.

All the while this is going on the doctor starts to unravel the mystery of whats happening with the help of roses dad, jake and a few others(who we saw in the 2part"rise of the cybermen story,earlier in the season) they have crossed over too from the parralel earth where the cybermen have come from.The devices they have used to do this have been stolen from their own parralel Torchwood institute who presumably found them from advanced aliens..the parrelel earth is now free of the cybermen as they have come to ours so at first they arent too bothered about helping our earth..the doctor however convinces pete that he must help as Rose is with the daleks and in danger!

A battle rages between human soldiers with alien lasers and cybermen and daleks..eventually the dr confronts the daleks who tell evryone that the Genesis ark was built by the Timelords (the dr's race) during the Time war..the doc has no knowledge of this,eventually during a struggle mickey touches the ark and as he has travelled in the tardis this makes it open..out comes..thousands and thousands of daleks..you see just like Tardis is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside ..It is a timelord prison ship encasing hundreds and thosands of Daleks!! The daleks fly off around the planet destroying everything...To cu things a bit short here the doctor finds a way to send the daleks and cybermen back through the time vortex into nothingness....but theres a catch everyone who has been throught he time vortex cant be on earth when this happens as they will be sucked in too coz ofthe radiation they have from all the flips through the 2 earths..The doctor sends Rose,Her mum and dad and eveyone else to the other earth..they will be safe there..Rose crys and says she cant leave him..then in blink its done..Rose and everyone else is on the other earth..but hey Rose goes back and proceeds to help the doctor open up the vortex..they struggle to keep the widow open..thousands of daleks etc fly throught he portal..but Rose cant hold on and eventually starts to slip through the portal..Then suddenly pete,her dad crosses over and grabs her just before its too late..when they arrive on the other side..the devices to jump dimensions have stopped working as the doctor has closed the portal for good....She is consigned to living back on the alternate earth and never seeing the doctor again.

Then we see rose and her family through different scenarios over the next few weeks.months..they travel to Norway and on a beach The doctor reappears very briefy..there is just enough residual energy for him toappear as an image to her...the two say good bye,tears start to flow and it is all very sad..the doctor vanishes...FOREVER..HE IS GONEAND ROSE LIVES HER LIFE ON ANOTHER EARTH......finally we see the doctor alone in the tardis..when all of a sudden...a woman appears in a wedding dress.."Who are you she says".."who are you" the doctor says....end credits

DOCTOR WHO WILL RETURN IN "THE RUNAWAY BRIDE" XMAS SPECIAL ON XMAS DAY..HOORAY

Well what an episode..this has everything,great acting,good sfx and enough tear jerking moments to last a lifetime...so its farwell to Rose..maybe we'll see her again one day.

THE GOOD

Just about everything..great cgi,action,the last goodbye

THE BAD

only the wacky ending which is only included to set up the christmas special in a few months..it feels a bit out of place here.

A great ep all round and one of who's best ever..and hey you guys gotta wait a year to see it..now i can finally get my own back of having to wait for all those start treks ep's we had to wait on!..ha ha

***** FIVE HUGE STARS

“The Bad Samaritan” says:

Hi Herc,

Felt completely - not to say, utterly - compelled to write in and pass on my view of the series 2 - or whatever ya wanna call it - finale.

It was outstanding.. mostly.

My one quibble is that it all rushed by so quickly and so much was squeezed in I feel like we could have had another episode in the story to do it justice. I wanted to see more of the Dalek V Cybermen war, after all it is geekfest time when two villains come face to face on screen like that.

Some great lines though, who knew Daleks had a sense of humour?

Just seemed to be all wrapped it too quickly, but guess they wanted to resolve as much as possible. Which brings me right back to the point.. it shoulda had 3 episodes.

But, shoulda coulda didn't. It was still a very enjoyable and emotional episode that left me wanting more and had the series going out on a massive high.

The 2nd series over all has been a very frustrating one with some good stories lost in a number of mediocre ones. I know a number of people who have lost interest as Tennant has annoyed and the writing has irritated as Davies got mushy and had almost everyone looking forward to Rose leaving. However, Davies did a fine job with the last episodes and hopefully the 3rd series will stand in the grey areas that the 1st series did.

Loved these last 2 episodes... why the hell wasn't the rest of the series up to that standard? I can't accept budget reasons either as when you look at the quality of some fan films on the net which are made for next to nothing these days you tend to roll your eyes at budgetry excuses.

Still, a great way to go out.. and I don't think I've spoiled anything.

“Supertoyslast” says:

Doomsday

Written by Russell T Davies

Since this is a review of the final episode of the current series it cannot be conducted without spoilers. So I will go the whole hog and reveal everything. I'll try to signpost the biggest spoilers, but consider this a spoiler warning for the entire review.

Following on from last week, the Cybermen from an alternate universe have invaded Rose's Earth. Followed swiftly by an invasion by the Daleks - all four of them.

The Daleks are the near-mythical Sect of Skaro who put themselves above the Emperor. They escaped the Time War in the void-travelling sphere along with a piece of Time Lord technology called the Genesis Arc. Something so secret even the Doctor was unaware of its existence or what it does. But the Daleks need it to be activated by the touch of a time traveller - an action which Mickey (accident-prone that he is) duly provides.

Remember the collective confused "eh?" from fans when the Dalek from the previous series was imbued with life by one touch from Rose? Well, this serves as an attempt to explain that (or timewasting technobabble - take your pick). With the future of the world in the balance, Rose takes the time to explain to Mickey that time travellers soak up radiation which is harmless to them. But the Daleks have adapted to use this as an energy source - hence how Rose was able to energize a Dalek (complete with explanatory flashback to said moment!).

And so the genesis Arc will similarly be activated by a touch from a time traveller. Never mind that the Genesis Arc is a piece of Time Lord technology rather than Dalek. But please don't dare tell Davies that a fan is nitpicking about this or he might take time out from an exciting storyline to explain it in a future episode!

The battle scenes between the Cybermen and Daleks are big and dramatic, especially if you've been longing to see these two biggest of baddies fighting it out. Unfortunately this means that the humans don't get much of a look-in. There is one sequence where some soldiers defend a bridge against a troop of Cybermen. The gunfire, shoulder-launched missiles and explosions make for a very exciting (if brief) battle.

Mickey, Pete and the guy from Blue Peter have discovered dimension-hopping technology from their version of Torchwood. The Daleks' void ship has opened up a rift between universes and the Doctor plans to widen the rift so that everything on our Earth's side of the rift that has travelled through the void will be sucked back into it. Since Mickey, Pete and Rose have all travelled through the void between universes they will have to be in Pete's universe to not be sucked into the void. The Doctor will stay behind to close the rift. His plan for surviving being to hang onto one of those heavy lifting devices seen in the previous episode.

After being tricked into going to Pete's universe, Rose swiftly travels back to join the Doctor - telling him that she had made a decision to stay with him no matter what "a long time ago". Jackie begs Pete to bring her back, but he says it's too dangerous.

On our Earth the Daleks have opened the Genesis Arc. The Time Lord technology means that it's bigger on the inside. It is a prison ship - containing millions of Daleks. These fly over London, firing at Cybermen as they go. This is a nice sequence, but very reminiscent of the hordes of Daleks from the end of the previous series.

The Doctor and Rose open the rift into the void and hang on for dear life. To nitpick again, I know that the heavy lifting devices will attach to anything but the Doctor and Rose not being sucked into the void just by holding onto them seems a bit inconsistent. Obviously, the Daleks can't hold onto much (except with their plungers) but surely the Cybermen could hold onto a lampost or something?

As the Daleks and Cybermen are sucked into the void Rose begins to slip. She falls towards the void. This moment is the first big emotional punch of the episode. Rose and the Doctor screaming as they know that they are about to be parted forever is heart-rending.

Which brings us to the first really big **SPOILER**. Just as Rose is about to fall into the void, Pete transports in and catches her. Then he transports back to his world with her. The rift then closes - forever. Meaning that no-one can travel between universes anymore. The Doctor and Rose have parted for good. They are left on either side of a wall in different universes. Both in tears, knowing that they won't see each other again. I can't help but be reminded of the ending of His Dark Materials.

Soon after, Rose has a dream. She hears the Doctor talking to her. So she follows the instructions of the voice and goes to a part of Norway whose name translates as Bad Wolf Bay. A tiny part of the rift is still open but about to close. The Doctor is burning up a supernova just to send an image of himself to say goodbye. He confirms that Rose can never see him again. A lot of people died on her world and since she is missing she is officiall presumed dead. Rose tells him that she loves him. He says that since it's "the only chance I will ever get to say it - Rose...." But it's too late. The rift has closed and his image fades before he can complete his sentence.

This was a fitting conclusion to the series, but it wasn't as powerful for me as The Parting of The Ways. Both episodes have the same mix of drama, action and emotion - but Parting had a greater punch for me. This wasn't quite so jaw-droppingly "oh my god". It's very good indeed with Rose's parting managing to be emotional without being schmaltzy. The main fault, I think, is that most of it seemed inevitable. Nothing surprising happened and it was almost wholly predictable (with the possible exception of the Genesis Arc). To give some idea of how predictable check out http://tinyurl.com/lolcb and http://tinyurl.com/nzrab . (But at least I was wrong about Freema Agyeman - she'll be playing a different character as next year's companion. Just not in the Christmas Special).

And now to another **BIG SPOILER** that will be revealed in every review of this episode.

As the rift closes and the Doctor's link to Rose fades we are left with the image of the Doctor alone in the Tardis. Tears rolling down his cheeks. An iconic image. Surely a fitting moment with which to close the series?

Apparently not. Because he is not alone. There is a woman in the Tardis wearing a wedding dress. She turns around and demands to know where she is. But British viewers will already know this woman. It is Catherine Tate.

[A note for readers outside of the United Kingdom. Tate is a woman with her own comedy sketch show and she is famous for, almost literally, one thing - the catchphrase "Am I bothered?" (don't ask). ]

Peter Kay is one thing, but Tate is quite another. She is so well known purely as a comic artist that this feels like an invasion from a sketch show. It really does feel like an inappropriate comedy routine. I know it's a set-up for "The Runaway Bride" (really? No better title than that?) but it is just a stupid ending and such a jarringly bad change from poignant to comic.

Ignore the last 30 seconds and this is a well-rounded (if predictable) episode with Rose's exit being written and performed with just the right amount of sentiment and emotion. And as a bonus Mickey's gone too!

Four stars

****

“Kelvington” brings up the rear:

Doctor Who - Doomsday - A Review and Recap

I have no idea what the ratings for tonight’s “Doctor Who” episode were but I suspect on Monday we will have a new record for the shows ratings, if the quality of this episode is any indication. Russell T. Davis gave everyone a reason to cheer tonight as not only the Cybermen, but the freaking Daleks showed up to kick some ass! Here’s how it went –

The episode started with a very short recap of last week’s show, I mean it was brief. The “My name is Rose Tyler and this is the story of Torchwood, the last story I’ll ever tell” bit was used again. Then a shot of Jackie’s ghost in her kitchen, a shot of Torchwood, some Cybermen, and the Daleks saying “exterminate”. That’s it, opening credits run. It was very short, which was great because it meant more time for everything else.

As we come out to the sound of screaming Daleks, Rose catches their attention by knowing what they are called, and about the time war. This makes the Dalek leader think for a moment, and really one moment is all you need to keep Rose, Mickey and the technician alive. The Daleks then set on the task of awakening the oddly named genesis ark, at first when I saw it, I thought it was a nod to the “genesis device” in Star Trek.

Jackie meantime wants to know what’s going on in the sphere room, and the Doctor admits he doesn’t know, but promises to get both her and her daughter out. Considering the level of the current threat I thought it was a very tall order. The Cyberleader goes on Telly ordering everyone on Earth to surrender, which they promptly don’t do. Fighting breaks out in the street and it seems that Cyber-steel is not vulnerable to much. Except a rocket launcher and we gleefully get to see one get blow’d up. He blow’d up real good!

The Cyberleader is surprised that the humans are fighting, and the Doctor reminds him, that the Cybermen are in the streets, and their homes, they have their children, of course they are going to fight. The Daleks start doing what they do best, scaring us. They find the least important human in the room, the technician and interrogate him, with their plunger arms, and extract his brain waves and suck him dry. Which in fact kills him. So the Daleks decide to investigate outside the sphere room, at the same time, the Cybermen are on their way to investigate what’s inside the room.

This leads to one of the best scenes ever in “Doctor Who”, what happens when a Dalek meets a Cyberman? Since they are meeting in private, the only way for The Doctor and Rose to see what’s going on, is that both parties turn on a video link so we can all see what’s going on, from the eyes of each party. The moment starts off great with a showdown on whom is going to identify themselves first! Mickey who I used to hate with a passion tosses a great joke line about the two parties talking to each other and the sound of their voices. The Daleks blink and mention who they are, and the Cybermen and the Daleks continue to talk as Jackie wonders what has happened to Rose. So the Doctor calls Rose on her mobile, and listens to what’s going on in the void room.

The Cybermen propose an alliance between themselves and the Daleks, who promptly refuse and they shoot it out in the corridor, this take about two seconds, since the Cybermen are no match for the Dalek weapon, although I wished they would have shown the X-Ray like effect on the Cybermen, instead of them just falling down. This by the way is my ONLY complaint about the episode. The Cyberleader talks directly to the Daleks in the void room and tells them they have declared war on them. The Daleks whom seem wildly arrogant here, say the Cybermen are only better at one thing than they are, and that’s dying. The script is very brilliant and incredibly tight, I kept waiting for it start lagging, but it never did.

The Daleks notice a man in the background and Rose reminds them that he’s the Doctor. Then in unison they roll about four inches back in fear. Who knew that a pepper pot could emote? The Cybermen thinking they might need some re-enforcements, drag Jackie, and the head of Torchwood out for an upgrade, while they keep the Doctor for more information. The Daleks continue to fiddle with the genesis ark while the head of Torchwood is upgraded to the sound of screams.

As the Doctor and the Cyberleader have a nice chat about emotions and the like, the Doctor reminds him that he has hope, as he does several people wink into the room and kill all the Cybermen in it, including the Cyberleader. We see it’s Jake who managed to jump in from another world and save the day. Once the Cybermen find out their leader has been killed they start to promote a new leader, and Jackie takes advantage of this moment and runs away before they notice that she gone.

Jake explains how he was able to hop from one world to another, using Torchwood technology, he then takes the Doctor to their world, where Pete, Roses dead father is and on this world he’s large and in charge. Rose and Mickey talk about the genesis ark and Rose remembers via flash back that when she touched a Dalek she brought it back to life. She suspect they her and Mickey for a similar reason. We learn that it’s timelord technology which is why they can’t open it. It turns out the future is inside the ark. Sort of a nifty concept that.

Pete explains that while they sealed the Cybermen in their factories, they eventually infiltrated Torchwood, and then mapped themselves on to our world, and went there. It took three years for them to travel there. This also tells us that this visit to Earth happens three years after the time they left Mickey behind. We also find out the breach is responsible for global warming on Pete’s Earth and he implores the Doctor to stop it, which he agrees to do. See Al Gore was completely off base, it’s not emissions, it’s emanations from a parallel world giving us global warming. The Doctor suggests that Pete should perhaps consider hooking up with Jackie from our world since he lost Jackie and she lost her Pete. So they go back to this Earth and call Jackie to find out if she’s still alive and where she’s at.

Mind you we are only about a third of the way the way through the episode. The Doctor surrenders to the Cybermen. We cut to Rose and Mickey with the Daleks as they try to force her to place her hand on the ark, just before Rose touches it, she turns and asks the Daleks if they want to know what happened after the time war, and to the Emperor Dalek. She proceeds to tell them that he was alive, until he met her that is. This seems to put the Daleks into extermination mode, but just before they kill Rose, the Doctor walks in wearing his 3D glasses, something he does a lot this episode. Turn out these are special Daleks, they have names and everything, and are part of a Skaro secret order. The Doctor who appears to be unarmed, pulls out his sonic screwdriver and pushes the button, which causes several explosive devices that he, and Cybermen must have placed, to go off, and all hell breaks loose. Rose and Mickey both come very close to dying in gun fire, luckily everyone narrowly escapes. But not before stupid Ricky touches the genesis ark, and primes it. Amazingly it looked more like the genesis device from Trek once fog started pouring out of it.

The Cybermen catch up with Jackie and are about to kill her, when Pete kills the Cybermen using his BFG. After a bit of a chat, and discussion of finances, they run into each other’s arms. But not before one the best jokes in the episode where Jackie says there was never anyone else in her life after Pete, and the looks on Mickey and the Doctor’s faces is priceless.

The Daleks enter the Torchwood warehouse and start killing the Cybermen at will, at which point Cyberleader calls back every Cyberman in the area to Torchwood. While they battle it out the Doctor runs in a grabs two the magnet devices mentioned last week. After a short battle the Cybermen get killed, and the lead Dalek flies the genesis ark out of the building.

If you weren’t ever scared of a Dalek before, a flying Dalek will defiantly scare you, the effect of it flying was perfect, not too CGI, but just fake looking enough to seem very real, it’s hard to describe, but it looked very cool. The Doctor and company go back to the top of Torchwood to look out and see what’s going on. When the genesis ark starts to open and spin we see there’s a Dalek in it which it spits out, then another and another and then hundreds and thousands. We learn it IS timelord science, because it’s bigger on the inside than on the outside! This is a great plot device to give us thousands and thousands of Daleks. Turns out it’s a prison ship holding millions of the buggers.

Then the rampage begins, Daleks start killing everything in the streets below. Pete decides he’s going to take Jackie back to his world, and gives her a device to do it, and the Doctor starts his plan to fix the breach. We finally learn why the Doctor is wearing 3D glasses, it’s because they show off anyone who has been through the vortex with a sort of background radiation effect. The Doctor explains when he closes the breach that everything that’s passed through the vortex will be pulled back into it, and sent to hell. He plans to have Rose go with Pete to the other world, and will avoid getting pulled in himself by holding on to the magnet device attached to the wall.

Rose begs to stay, and starts saying good bye to her mother, when the Doctor slips on one of the devices on her and they all vanish. Rose not to be out done figures out the device in two seconds and jumps back, while Jackie pleads with Pete to go back and get her.

The Doctor and Rose start to open the void and he explains that while he and Rose only have a little void stuff, the Daleks and Cybermen are steeped in it so they will absolutely get pulled in, but he and Rose should be find if they just hold on to the magnets.

All the Daleks and Cybermen, plus the prison ship get pulled back through the void, except for one Dalek who uses a temporal shift to escape. Remember these Daleks were part of a secret society and probably had knowledge of time travel. Yea, let’s say that.

While they are flying though the void one of the controls malfunctions and Rose has to let go of the magnet to turn it back on, when she re-activates it, she also starts getting pulled into the void, and finally looses her grip as she flies towards the opening, while the Doctor screams. At the VERY LAST possible moment Pete appears from the alternate universe, and grabs her and takes her back to his world. It was a great moment. The idea of seeing Rose in hell forever with Daleks and Cybermen wasn’t very appealing to me.

After the void seals Rose pounds on the wall in Pete’s world, and senses the Doctor is at the same place in ours. She cries as she realizes she will never likely see him again. We jump ahead six months to see Rose waking up, and talking about a dream with a voice calling to her.

So Rose, Mickey, Pete and Jackie follow the voice Rose alone can hear for hundreds of miles to a beach, the same beach we see at the start of the story. Where the Doctor starts to appear, ala Obi-Wan Kenobi style and they give their final goodbyes, the Doctor says that officially she died back on our Earth as so many others did on that day. Rose tells the Doctor that she loves him, but before he can say it back his image fades away and he’s left in tears in the TARDIS.

Just as the Doctor starts to recover a bit, Catherine Tate, you remember her, from the hilarious “Catherine Tate Show” shows up in a bridal gown and wants to know where she is. THE END

This is a great setup for the Christmas day episode called “The Runaway Bride” only a 170 days away.

My complaint often this season has been the use of the TARDIS as a way of fixing everything, but this story it’s barely seen at all, so instead of using it as a cheap fix, Russell T Davies wrote a great way out of this episode, which impressed me quiet a bit.

As a two part episode this was very well done, any Doctor Who fan who says they hated this episode isn’t a fan at all in my book. It had everything, jokes, sad moments, Cybermen and Daleks. Who could want anything else?

The season as a whole has been a tad uneven, I won’t even mention that one episode which should from this point on be called “The Scottish Play” or something similar. While there were a few low points, the high points far out way them. From the return of Sara Jane Smith, and K-9 to everything Cyber-related I’ve really enjoyed this year and waiting for the next series will be difficult indeed.

Just my 2¢

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