The Parting of the Ways

Daleks.

Thousands of В‘em.

DonВ’t shoot В‘til you see the whites of their eyes, lads!

Charlie Catchpole, TV reviewer for the Daily Express, claimed to have been reminded of the film Zulu when watching the stand-off against the invading pepperpots in this episode, and you can see his point. IВ’ve always been a sucker for any kind of fiction involving brave, desperate stands of the few against the many, and The Parting of the Ways is a wonderful example of such against-the-odds, backs-to-the-wall heroics. It was the story the character of Captain Jack Harkness was pretty much invented for, and heВ’s again wonderfully played by John Barrowman here. Poor old Jack certainly gets put through the mill В– exterminated, resurrected and then left behind, itВ’s nonetheless comforting to know that the charismatic Captain will be back sometime in the next series.

As for the Daleks themselvesВ… Oh yes! Would you guess there were only three of them? I certainly couldnВ’t see the joins, and weВ’ve definitely come a long way from the days of blown-up cardboard cut-outs standing in for invading Dalek armies. When I wrote a review of Dalek for this website, I commented on how I preferred to see the metal meanies as the hard-arsed bastards of the universe exterminating everything in sight, and as if realising that weВ’d want a bit of that after the emotions of the earlier one-Dalek episode, Davies delivers here in spades. Thousands of ships, hundreds of invading Daleks, a massacre of innocent humans, and the killing-off of supporting characters who, although it was always fairly obvious they were going to end up as Dalek-fodder, we were cleverly made to care about anyway. I felt particularly sorry for poor old Lynda В‘with a yВ’ В– as soon as the Doctor promised her last week that heВ’d get her out of there alive, you knew she was destined for extermination. And what an extermination В– surely one of the best-executed (excuse the pun) death scenes in the entire series, as the Daleks float menacingly up outside window in the silence of space, the lights flashing out В‘Exterminate!В’ as they blast the glass and send poor, sweet little Lynda out into the airless vacuum of space. (Explosive decompression not shown, probably just as wellВ…)

Being churlish, you can point out that TARDIS-powered Bad Wolf Rose was being a bit of a bitch not to resurrect Lynda В– and indeed, everybody else В– at the same time as bringing Jack back from the dead, although RoseВ’s jealous glances in LyndaВ’s direction made it quite clear what she thought about the other womanВ’s attitude towards the Doctor. Meow!

That whole resolution to the Bad Wolf mystery managed to be pulled off without leaving a sense of anti-climax or underwhelming, which was a big relief, although it was a little confusing in places В– was the Bad Wolf Rose, or the TARDIS speaking through Rose? Or was it supposed to be deliberately ambiguous? Probably the latter. Whichever it was, Piper played the possessed Rose wonderfully, the extra elocution added to her speech for this scene marking her out as different just as much as the fancy CGI around her did!

It was the neat trick of the DoctorВ’s to have sent Rose back home, out of the way of the massacre В– you really got a sense of RoseВ’s raw anguish and frustration at being sent back by her friend, and her grief at not being able to help him. Mickey and Jackie ought to have seemed shoe-horned into the episode, given that their scenes were such a contrast to everything else going on, but they actually worked rather well, and it was nice to get a sense of conclusion to their relationships to the Doctor and Rose, for this season at least.

Joe Ahearne continues the high standard of direction heВ’s set out in the rest of his episodes, ably supported as ever by the wonderful design and production departments of BBC Wales and everyone else working on the series. The only visual element I felt slightly disappointed in was the Dalek Emperor В– the design just didnВ’t seem particularly distinct or iconic to me, although the close-ups of the actual mutant Dalek creature inside itself when it was speaking were effective. The concept of the Dalek God and the other Daleks getting some kind of religion was interesting, although perhaps it was an element too much for DaviesВ’s script to fully support as there wasnВ’t much time to explore it, and it might have been better left as the focus of an episode all to itself. Perhaps in the future В– after all, although they wonВ’t be in the second season (probably В– I hope not anyway, best leave them for a bit so their appearances always remain special), itВ’s impossible to believe we wonВ’t be seeing them return every two or three years for as long as the new series continues to be a success.

Now, the kiss. Or to be more accurate, the kisses В– for the Doctor gets friendly with both of his companions in this episode, something which has proven to be red rags to bulls with Doctor Who fandom in the past. I had no problems whatsoever with the Jack kiss В– it was a funny, almost touching little moment as the Captain said goodbye to his friends, and it was amusing to see the Doctor taken rather by surprise. The Rose kiss I was much less keen on В– I thought it was overly sentimental and mawkish and the episode could have done without it, but when most of the rest of the episode is so good it can just about be forgiven. In any case, itВ’s not the sort of detail IВ’m going to be losing any sleep over.

It can be taken, I suppose, as a kiss goodbye, as of course one of the main features of the episode is that it brings the curtain down on the all-too-brief era of Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor. This is a great shame В– even if it was planned this way from the outset, as Davies and Gardner have claimed, itВ’s still a pity because Eccleston really is wonderful in the part, both in this episode in particular and throughout the rest of the season. HeВ’ll be remembered fondly by both fans and the general audience alike, although his one season stint means it is sadly unlikely that heВ’ll become as deeply buried in the popular consciousness as some of his predecessors.

Nonetheless, thatВ’s the situation, and it was always going to be intriguing to see how the death of the Ninth Doctor would be dealt with. Unlike Logopolis or The Caves of Androzani, The Parting of the Ways В– in spite of its title В– never really feels like a doom-laden story where everything is building up to the regeneration at the end. Yes, thereВ’s a great deal of death and destruction as well as of course the impending threat of Dalek invasion, but it never surrounds the Doctor as much as it seems to do in those other stories.

That said, however, the regeneration doesnВ’t feel at all tacked-on or periphery В– it may not have been the focus of the entire episode, but when it comes to it the sequence really packs a punch. Perhaps because of the special bond thatВ’s developed between the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler, there really is an atmosphere of tragedy to this change В– which seems more like a death than perhaps any other regeneration since the first. The DoctorВ’s sad reflection that he in his ninth form will never see Rose again really brings home the idea that even though each Doctor has the same memories and the same basic ethos driving him, heВ’s never quite the same person as he was before. How Rose В– and indeed the production team behind the scenes В– deals with this change and its impact on both the audience and the dynamic of the Doctor-companion relationship will be fascinating factors to follow over the next year or so.

In the few seconds we get of him at the end of the episode it is of course impossible and unfair to make any judgements at all about David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. The one factor which perhaps can be commented on in passing is the perhaps surprising choice of accent В– the same English pronunciation Tennant employed for his starring role as the eponymous hero of Russell T DaviesВ’ Casanova, rather than his own native Scottish tones as many В– including this reviewer В– had expected. The reasons for this will become clear with time, and however he speaks one thing is clear В– Tennant is a fine actor, and I very much look forward to seeing what he does in the role he has perhaps been destined for for some time.

Roll on The Christmas Invasion, and the continuation of the fine new era of Doctor Who that the past thirteen weeks have introduced us to.