*Some spoilers.*
I have mixed feelings about this story. On the one hand, there are some great laughs, some exciting moments, and some lovely emotional scenes. On the other, while (for me) “Bad Wolf” / “The Parting of the Ways” completely works, this season finale starts down the path to “too-muchness” for RTD-era season endings. In terms of both the adventure and the personal stuff, I feel like it’s trying too hard.
The Tenth Doctor and Rose pop by 21st-century London to discover what appears to be a worldwide invasion of friendly ghosts. Their subsequent investigation leads them to Torchwood, an off-the-book organization that’s dedicated to defending the planetary borders against aliens and mining alien technology for whatever will benefit Earth. They have crazy resources and tons of power, but unfortunately, they’re also a bunch of unmonitored humans poking around in stuff they don’t understand, ignoring any potential dangers to their digging. What could possibly go wrong? The answer is “everything,” and before the end of the day, the Doctor and Rose encounter old enemies, old allies, and a devastating tragedy.
We’ll start with the good. I love everything about Jackie on the TARDIS, even if it’s just on a trip across the city. It’s fun to have her as part of the adventure, and it’s important to be reminded of the stakes later on when Rose is deciding which life she wants. Also, I’m not a fan of Parallel!Pete, but his reunion with Jackie is gorgeous. I like how, at first, it’s all shock and confusion and blunder, but in the end, they just say, “Screw it,” to all the complications and run into each other’s arms. Love, love, love. Mickey’s return is well-handled, too. It’s clear how much he’s changed in his time away; it’s really telling that, as he and Rose are waiting for the void ship to open, he barely glances at her because he’s so focused on what’s inside the ship.
I’m lukewarm on the big Dalek-Cybermen extravaganza. Some of it is great—Rose is awesome in her face-off against the Cult of Skaro, and I like seeing the unflappable Torchwood leader Yvonne quietly lose it over the Cybermen. And maybe I’m easy, but I can’t help but love the Dalek-Cybermen smack talk. I mean, “You are superior in only one respect. […] You are better at dying!” Come on! However, the zillions of Cybermen and frillions of Daleks are just too much. The news footage of aliens surrounding every famous landmark gets old, and it all just descends into mindless shooting and people running around screaming. I might’ve even given them all the Cybermen if they’d kept it to just the four Daleks, but as it is, it’s too big, too busy.
Similarly, there’s Rose’s exit. Now, she obviously wasn’t going to up and leave of her own accord any time soon, so it had to be something that was against her will and couldn’t be undone. But, my goodness, the angst! Don’t get me wrong, I bawled. Rose, for me, is like Buffy; if she cries, I cry, guaranteed. But as I was crying, I was a little annoyed because the tragedy is just so manufactured and overdone. The whole thing feels manipulated rather than earned, and that makes me kind of resent it. And it’s sad, because I love Rose and I just want to be swept up in the emotion of her parting with the Doctor, but instead, I’m distracted by how forced it is. I think RTD’s biggest Achilles heel as a showrunner was not knowing where to stop, and that tendency doesn’t outright wreck this episode, but it definitely makes it less than it could have been.
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