I see. Can anybody summarise it?

Over on DigitalSpy one of the most popular Dr Who threads is currently "Unnatural fear of the reset button".

One of my favourite suggestions so far as to what might happen is that we might somehow end up with two David Tennants, though the second one would be all human. I've been wondering since last Saturday if there was any significance to, apparently, only one half of David Tennant being lit up by the Dalek.

I suspect, though, that the actual resolution of everything will be far more prosaic and reset-button oriented than most of informed speculation. RTD has form in this regard, as has been pointed out.

Some other interesting posers:

Who is the Threefold Man that Caan is on about? It's not necessarily the Dr.

Caan also talks about the most faithful companion having a bad time of it, but doesn't specify whose companion he means.

What was the significance of the slowmo heartbeats over Donna's contemplation in the Shadow Proclamation?

Why is there a PostIt note of a fob watch on the monitor in the Tardis?

I don't really understand why Caan would be considered to have any kind of insider knowlegde on what's going to happen, particularly as the Daleks think they're about to destroy creation anyway.

I don't know what's going on with Donna.

Then there's also that thing Martha has, the Haagen-Daas key or whatever it was called.

Indeed, never put an Osterhagen key or a deranged Dalek on the wall in Act 1 unless you intend them to be used by Act 4.

I'm trying to imagine tomorrow's episode having lines like:

"Phew! Thank goodness we didn't need to use the Osterhagen Key. Let's put it back safely now and forget about it."

"I, the Superb Dalek, warned you, Davros, that Caan just spouts a load of meaningless drivel that never comes to anything!"

Over on 40percent we coined a term for it, a "Rowling's mirror"; it's the opposite of Checkhov's gun, and I think was based on some magic mirror that was given to Harry Potter in one of the books that you thought was going to play some crucial part in the story, but was barely mentioned again.

Total Spoiler aleart for tonight -

Young BL is nearly 7 and he has told me that he worked out what is going to happnen tonight - his Daughter is going to save him. Simple as that - he doesn't know how, but says she will do this - watch this space!

Farcical, garbled gibberish, but a hundred times better than last year's end-of-season craptacular.

Bollocks - truly awful shite - made "Last of The Time Lords" look like "Blink."

Although German Daleks were amusing.

I was close to vomiting in this - at least Donna has gone now.

Nah, I maintain last year was worse. OK, there was nothing in "Last Of The Time Lords" quite so preposterous as the Tardis physically towing the Earth across millions of light years and everyone being home for tea (although the crockery rattled on their sideboards), but did it have Daleks speaking German? Well, did it?

Actually, maybe this one was even worse. I've sort of stopped caring, really. Or rather, put caring on hold for two years.

Back in the days of the original series you'd usually have to grit your teeth and soldier on through episode three of most stories. Nowadays it's episode 13 that is the ordeal.

If that script had been posted on a fan-fiction site even the author's friends would probably try to avoid meeting him for a week or two.

"Last Of The Timelords" didn't have Bernard Cribbins in it, either.

The reset button wasn't quite as obvious, but otherwise what Taylor said, although given that I posted this prediction on 40% last week, I'd like to add the word 'predictable':

QUOTE:
Okay, here we go.

He doesn't regenerate, but the effect causes the bubbling hand to generate into a second David Tennant, because he's regenerated close to the second hand. It won't exactly make any sense or even have any real meaning, but the cliffhanger was great, so it doesn't matter if the resolution is a bit shonky.

The only way that they can stop the Daleks is to actually stop the gibbering Dalek rescuing Davros in the first place. Which is what that key thing the UNIT bloke gave Martha - enables them to open the timelock that is sealed over the Time War. But they know that whoever uses it will end up mentally the same as Dalek Caan - Donna. Because she stops it happenning the Daleks can't invade, but because this is an RTD script, it can't end there, because the Daleks don't have the power to move planets, but the RTD created Judoon do*. The reason they did this will be plucked out of RTD's arse out of nowhere.

The Doctor then has an emotional farewell with his other self and Rose on Bad Wolf Bay, and leaves alone, because if you're going to write an episode like the most hackeneyed and cliched fanfic**, then you've got to give it the right ending. Only for something to happen at the end to set up the Christmas episode.

*because RTD loves referencing his own creations - think how shit the Slitheen were, and how often they're referenced in his stories (compared to say, the Matt Jones created Ood), and how all of the fictional stolen planets bar two were created by RTD. The Slitheen were even mentioned on Saturday, and RTD did get some audio recorded, but this was cut due to time.

**why else bring back *deep breath* Sarah Jane, her son, her machine, Captain Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Martha, Martha's mom, Rose, Harriet Jones, and Mickey and Jackie who are bound to appear with big blasters to save the Torchwood two and Sarah Jane - note all but one character was created by RTD, and Sarah Jane was needed for a lucrative spin off. I'm expected the scattered glowy bits of Kylie Minogue to make an entrance.

And just to add to the RTD ego-trip, the bit where they showed people who had died in the Doctor's name, 13 of the 17 characters were created by RTD.

Still, on the bright side, from a BBC Q&A with RTD:

QUOTE:
Now that you have handed control to Steven Moffat, do you intend to leave him to it, or will you write the occasional episode in the future?

I think Steven's more than his own man. He doesn't need me at all.

I won't write for it in the future. I'm done with it.

It's time to move on and I'd hate to be just a ghost haunting the corridors that I used to walk.

And who needs me? Because Steve's brilliant and they've got a thousand million plans. I'll just be old news and it's about time.

Get the fuck in.

QUOTE:
And just to add to the RTD ego-trip, the bit where they showed people who had died in the Doctor's name, 13 of the 17 characters were created by RTD

Thirteen out of every seventeen episodes have been written by RTD though, to be fair. And some of the ones that weren't were even worse than those that were.

Well, it was better than last year, but not by much. At least they got most of the OFFS bits out of the way early - if they'd been at the end, it might have been worse than last year.

statto99 wrote:

QUOTE:
Indeed, never put an Osterhagen key or a deranged Dalek on the wall in Act 1 unless you intend them to be used by Act 4.

I'm trying to imagine tomorrow's episode having lines like:

"Phew! Thank goodness we didn't need to use the Osterhagen Key. Let's put it back safely now and forget about it."

"I, the Superb Dalek, warned you, Davros, that Caan just spouts a load of meaningless drivel that never comes to anything!"

haha, there you go you see? The key never got used and none of the companions died.

Rowling 2 Chekhov 0

Ooh, I think far too many people are being far too harsh about tonight. I was in pieces when Rose was back on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay, with her "human" Doctor, who could lean across and say "I love you", which the real Doctor knew he could never do. Very Highlander.

The "real" Doctor then having to do a "Men In Black" on Donna, as well, at the end - to save her (and himself) from becoming another Rose - was incredibly poignant.

And my daughters loved the Christmas Special teaser. The Cybermen are BACK!