After watching the series 4 finale of the new Doctor Who, it’s safe to say that I still would rate series 2 finale Army of Ghosts/Doomsday as the best out of all 4 finales. Series 4′s Stolen Earth/Journey’s End is a close second. Given we won’t see the next series until 2010 and all current creators of the show are stepping down after this year. I am giving an overall review of all 4 finales of the new series.

I like series 2′s Army of Ghosts/Doomsday because of its tragic love story kind of ending, especially its close resemblance of Philip Pullman’s ending for His Dark Materials. Lovers separated by two parallel worlds that were once connected. The scene where both Rose and Doctor lean against the wall on both side of their perspective parallel world, hoping to hear the “other” side while knowing they will probably not see each other again was one of the saddest scene on Doctor Who. In addition, the scene where Cyberman and Dalek talking to each other – priceless!

Series 3′s The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords was more epic in scale but less in the romance department, but the scene of danger was so great that it keeps you on the edge of your seat – until the end when the writers hit the “reset button” to erase almost everything that happened in that episode, no one in the whole world remembers except the few on board. It’s a cheap trick that I hate very much, which pretty much knocked the otherwise fantastic finale down to my least favorite of all 4 series.

Series 1′s Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways was good, but the problem with it was that it sets in the future in a satellite/battle station. In addition, the attack on Earth was only mentioned on a map therefore the emotional impact is much weaker than any other episode. The sense of epic scale is just not there.

Series 4 finale Part I Stolen Earth set the expectation so high that there’s no way the resolutions in Part II Journey’s End would satisfy the viewer. Indeed, it didn’t. Not that it’s not good, I can’t tell what exactly disappointed me. It is kind of like when LOTR the Two Tower set the bar so high that the Return of the King just can’t compare, especially with its many goodbyes in the end. Journey’s End is actually similar in structure with the Return of the King because it also featured many goodbyes in the end after the main fight.

I know I sounded like I don’t really like series 4′s finales, but it’s not. For Part I, I absolutely love it. I think it’s the best Part I of the finale of the show. Seriously who can argue when two spin-off of Doctor Who – Torchwood and Sarah-Jane Adventure both merged back with the parent show! I am not talking about just the lead character Captain Jack and Sarah-Jane Smith, because they had cross-over back to Doctor Who before, I am talking about the rest of the cast and locations of the shows! It was exciting to see them all worked together! Add two previous companions of the Doctor – Rose and Martha back in the mix, you got the biggest story of all. Another of my favorite part of this episode was the reappearance of Harriet Jones, former prime minister. I always like her, even after the Doctor change history and deposed her, I still think she has a valid point and means well. This time around it proves that her worries were correct, the Doctor will not be there to save the Earth all the time. Her heroic sacrifice to contact the Doctor is quite touching. The cliffhanger of the episode was also probably the biggest given the Doctor was regenerating, Sarah Jane Smith and what’s left of Torchwood – Gwen and Ianto facing annihilation.

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Related posts:

1. Doctor Who End of Time Part 1
2. Rant about Doctor Who
3. Doctor Who Finale Part 2
4. Goodbye J.D.
5. Big Bang Doctor

Tagged: Captain Jack Harkness · Doctor Who · His Dark Materials · Television · Torchwood