Well, the Doctor is coming to an end soon. Yes, he can and will regenerate, but as he explains at one point in this first part of his final adventure in his tenth incarnation, regeneration is a lot like death.
That works.
OK, the Doctor is finally going to see the Ood, the ones who first told him he’s doomed, and there’s good reason for that, something involving guest star Timothy Dalton and his ominous narration coming in at various points. The Doctor learns that time is coming to an end. Not his. Everyone’s. The entire population of the Earth is having weird dreams about the Master, and the Doctor learns that something is coming that will end all of time.
Involved in all this is the Doctor, the Master (who isn’t as dead as assumed), Donna Noble’s grandpa Wilfred Mott, the Master’s human widow, and some mystery man played by David Harewood…hey, cool, maybe I can see him act with his normal English accent for once!
So, with all this going on, what is going on?
The long and the short of it is the Doctor comes back to Earth around Christmas in time to hear President Obama come out with his plan to save the global economy and…wow, I forgot how much people wanted to give Obama credit for stuff back then. Wilfred is out looking for the Doctor after finding a picture of the TARDIS in a church’s stained glass window, and he had a good plan to find the Doctor: he got all his elderly friends out looking until they find the Doctor. Much of what follows involves Wilfred knowing some things while the Doctor tries to avoid Donna. Donna met a man and is engaged while Sylvia Noble is…well, she isn’t glad to see the Doctor, but Donna will die if she remembers the Doctor, so avoiding Donna’s a good thing.
But wait, the Master was revived by some followers, but his widow tossed a formula into the revived body, making him…really, really hungry. Also, he can jump really far and shoot lightning. And he eats some people.
But there’s something new: the drumbeat he told the Doctor about, the Doctor hears it too this time. What, why is that?
As it is, Harewood’s character is a rich guy with a private army who kidnaps the Master, as the Doctor watches, because he’s building some kind of machine that will give his daughter immortality because she deserves it or something. I’m not convinced, but I am not a rich asshole. The Doctor (with Wilfred) eventually gets over there and some green aliens with spiky heads are also watching over things, but see, the Master is a tricky fellow. The machine will heal on a planetary scale.
That’s bad.
Why? Well, the Master jumps into the thing after he “fixed” it, and the Doctor’s best efforts to stop the machine don’t work. So, what does it all do? Well…it makes all the humans on Earth into the Master. Hive mind and all. They aren’t the human race. They are the Master race. That was almost a good line. The only unaffected humans left appear to be Wilfred because he was locked in a radiation proof chamber, and for some reason Donna…who may be remembering the Doctor right now.
Well, this is bad. A planet full of Masters. And on Christmas! But that hardly seems like something that would force a regeneration for the Doctor.
Oh wait, there’s Timothy Dalton, spraying his dialogue all over the place. So who is this guy?
He’s the President of the Time Lords.
Why do I suspect that their return right now would be a really bad thing?
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