Friday's finale means no more new Doctor Who for a while (at least in the states). That sucks. I loved the Derek Jacobi guest appearance (and I hear that Patrick Stewart will guest star next season -- and maybe Joan Collins? -- that's some line-up!). The stories continue to be excellent, Blink being an especial favorite (written by Steven Moffat , the creator of Coupling). And yet, I always feel like something is missing, that the shows are too sedate.



Too much of the most exciting action keeps taking place off-screen. The worst example is the Great Time War. Obviously, it was the war to end all wars. The characters talk about it endlessly, but we never see it. We're coming up on season 4, and season 5 won't be shot until 2010 (David Tennant will take a year off to perform Hamlet). When will we see the most formative event in the Doctor's life?

Even within episodes, we often don't see the most exciting events. In the finale, the series skips a year between the second and third episode, a year in which Martha Jones must have had many amazing adventures as the world fell completely apart. But by the time we catch up with her, she's basically just walking around talking to people.

I'm annoyed that the series then erases that year from the storyline. It would have been fun to see a the series address some of the direct consequences of having the Doctor fall in love with Earth. I guess they writers aren't ready to have civilization come apart quite yet. Moreover, it was nice having the world love the Doctor as much as the Doctor loved the world. That would have been an interesting relationship to explore (I'm getting tired of the girlfriend/companion of the year stories). And maybe the Doctor could have kept his superpowers!

I'm more annoyed they cut the Scissor Sisters video from the episode.

Because too much action takes place off screen, the final scene between the Doctor and the Master fell flat. Long-time fans will, of course, be familiar with the characters' long history. But it's been years, decades, since we've really seen them together. The series should have rebuilt their relationship, taking at least a season (or two, like Rose), before it could pull off a maudlin death scene like that. And newer viewers must have been completely confused. We know the Doctor is the "last of the Time Lords", but that's not enough to make that scene work. Instead, the writers apparently stole some dialog from a random fan fiction story and called it a day.

And, as the final scene demonstrates, the Doctor isn't so much "the last of the Time Lords" as "the last of the Time Lords, except for those Time Lords the Doctor hasn't found yet". Nice to see you, Rani! Have fun resurrecting the Master from his constituent DNA.

Jack is the Face of Bo. He.