he will knock four times, and we'll refuse to bloody well answer

[freckles_and_doubt]

How much do I loathe Russell T. Davies? Well, actually, I don't, he's always come across as a rather sweet and inoffensive man in interviews, and we of the fangirly persuasion owe him oodles for his resuscitation of the Doctor Who franchise. But, ye gods and little poodles, he does the most horrible things to narrative. I finally dug up the gumption to watch the Tenth Doctor's exit last night, and I'm still picking bits of it out of my teeth. I adore the Tenth Doctor. He's a doll. He's also a damned fine actor, and deserves infinitely better than the illogical pap served up to him in the name of plot.

I have observed before, possibly repeatedly, that Russell Davies is the antithesis of Stephen Moffat: where Moffat does elegance of concept, Davies (a) thinks up a Big Set-Piece Image, preferably with explosions, and then cobbles together a sort of plot to sort of not quite justify it, and (b) doesn't get time-travel on a fundamental level. Thus, while the image of six billion Masters capering around the show is actually quite striking, the logic of the events leading up to it doesn't really work. Likewise the drumbeat/heartbeat/Return of Gallifrey thing was all bundled up in a sort of wonky time-bubble backward/forward sneaky-workaround plot which never actually gelled, fancy images of diamonds streaking to Earth notwithstanding.

However, there were some things I actually liked about this double episode:

• The Doctor's sadness. Sad!Doctor is sad. As sad to leave as we are to see him go. It made me realise that in fact the first season of the new series was about a particularly detached Doctor, both the character and the actor fairly glad to be replaced. This one is seriously attached to his body.
  
• Apart from his own approaching death he's sad about the Master, which was poignant: the bit where he tries to persuade the Master to give it all up and come travel the universe, was one of the few emotionally real moments in the episode. Also, the Master's cap-and-bells manic jester routine is really a horrible come-down for a Timelord, and you can see the Doctor wincing at it.
  
• A Companion who's not a Girl or Young or Cute. I do like Wilfred, he's real and sweet, and the explanation of his significance to the Doctor over the last couple of seasons had a beautiful inevitability.
  
• The magnificently silly hats worn by the Gallifreyans. Also, their reconstruction as a race of psychopaths. Makes actually a lot more sense than most of the things Davies dreams up.
  
• Cactus-people. The world needs more cactus-people with spiky heads, although they do cause serious flashbacks to Doyle in the first season of Angel.
  
• More random Ood! We like the Ood. The world also needs more Ood.

Things I Didn't Like:

• Most of the plot, owing to its shambling cobweb nature.
  
• The Doctor's Mozart ending. Just die, already! enough of this drifting around saying Portentous Goodbyes.
  
• Yet another inexplicable planet hanging threateningly in the air over Earth. So done.
  
• (edited to add, because I planned this point and then forgot until vesta_aurelia reminded me): Donna still got shafted. I still think Russell Davies hates women and therefore won't allow her to enjoy the benefits of having actually grown as a person. Narks me utterly. Her presence in this episode was silly and pointless.
  
• The Naismiths: vague, inexplicable, under-developed, slightly Freudian Bad Guys whose part in the giant Earth-changing machine's repair wasn't really explained.
  
• I won't presume to condemn the new Doctor on less than a minute of screen time, but I do wish that they hadn't done such a rapid-fire switch between Sad!Doctor and Manic!Doctor. On the other hand, "Legs! I've still got legs!" has to be one of the most classic opening statements of any character anywhere ever, so actually I'm slightly favourably pre-disposed.

Anyway. Thanks, Russell T. Davies. On balance we were probably lucky to have you and I hope you go on to even better things, but I do not grok your personal narrative beliefs, nor wish them well. Above all, stay away from time travel. You don't get it.