If you've seen the previous episodes in which Simm's Master was featured, you'll remember the intensity of feeling that exists between him and the Tenth Doctor. Seeing as Ten was about to be no more, Uncle Rusty turned it up to eleven (if you'll pardon the pun) and gave the two a last minute love fest in the second part of the episode. The Doctor, tied hand and foot to a chair/gurney contraption, begins by telling the Master how brilliant he is and how he could be beautiful even, and it would be an honor to travel the universe with him. The Doctor goes so far as to wonder what he'd be without the Master, who looks suitably touched. It even trumps the first part's fight between the two where all you can do is wish for a Torchwood moment where they seal the fisticuffs with a kiss.
As the Doctor enjoys the last moments of his tenth incarnation, Uncle Rusty enjoys drawing out a long farewell to all that he's accomplished. In a series of scenes, Ten says good bye to Martha (Freema Agyeman) and Mickey (Noel Clarke), inexplicably married, looks on fondly as Donna (Catherine Tate) is finally married, sets up a depressed Captain Jack (John Barrowman) -- no doubt mourning the death of Torchwood -- with Alonso (Being Human's Russell Tovey), the midshipman from Voyage of the Damned, and meets Rose (Billie Piper) before she had a chance to meet him. It's like looking through a family album and feeling nostalgic for what once was. Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor never got such a send-off!
Finally, Ten regenerates into Eleven and the torch passes from David Tenant to Matt Smith. We get a tantalizing minute with Eleven as he acquaints himself with his new body and in his enthusiasm and motor-mouth, there's the unmistakable signs of the previous Doctors, which is as it should be.
The reign of Ten is ended, and Eleven will show us what he's got come Spring 2010. To use Eleven's catch-word: Geronimo!
-- OLGA BAS
Previously > Trust Him, He's the Doctor
