Doomsday

They say that it is better to travel than to arrive. They might be wrong in this case...

Doomsday concludes Russell T Davies' 'epic' season finale. It was described in the Doctor Who Confidential that followed as 'event television' and trying to 'create the sense that you're in a big action movie'. But why this attempt to turn a television programme into something that it's not? Why discard the intimacy, the personal scale that television affords in favour of vacuous Hollywood-style stunts and special effects? Is this really what modern TV audiences want?

There are millions of cybermen, and then, thanks to the Genesis Ark, there are millions of daleks as well. Plot, such as it is, takes a back seat for the clash of the titans. And it's epic. God, I'm getting tired of that word - I just hope Russell and co are too. Lots of tiny CGI splodges whizzing over London did little to raise my pulse rate. But, admittedly, lots of tiny CGI splodges whirling into Canary Wharf did provide a few (probably unwanted) giggles. As did the 'handbags at dawn' first confrontation between the two monsters. 'You tell me your name!' 'No, you tell me yours first!' 'You lot are unelegant!' (shouldn't that be inelegant?) 'We don't care!' 'Hmph! That much is obvious!' I think the Cyberleader threw a Bacardi Breezer over the Black Dalek shortly after that...

Fortunately, there's a blissful reunion for Jackie and Pete (if that's the right word for a meeting between two people who, strictly speaking, have never met). It's both touching and funny. 'You look old.' 'You don't.' What a gent... 'There was never anyone else' - I'm surprised Mickey and the Doctor didn't burst out laughing at that one. And 'I don't care about that... How rich?' Camille Coduri and Shaun Dingwell play the moment just right. They, and their characters, will be missed.

Then it's back to 'delete', 'exterminate', 'delete', 'exterminate'. Yawn. There's some silliness with Yvonne the Cyberman, her patriotism and voice somehow surviving the cybernisation process, pointlessly zapping some of her metal mates while shedding an oily tear. Um... Those daft levers are back; wearing 3-D spectacles lets you see 'void stuff'; and hanging onto some big magnetic clamp things stops you getting sucked into oblivion, though the force can drag cybermen off their feet from outside the Taj Mahal. Oh, and Pete can pick the exact moment to materialise and save Rose. Yup, Russell's patented plot holes and bonkers ideas are still much in evidence. Ho hum...

But then, magically, fantastically, he does it. Just as the story threatens to collapse into an overblown heap of mindless noise and CGI, Russell gives us two people on a beach, just talking. And it's perfect. Emotionally wrenching, as it had to be, and hopelessly romantic - 'I'm burning up a sun, just to say goodbye' - Rose's final scenes prove to be the highlight of the story, if not the season. David Tennant's ghostly appearance on the beach echoes Christopher Eccleston's hologram scene from last year's final episode, and is equally moving. For the girl who thought she would spend the rest of her life with the Doctor, when given just two minutes she can't think what to say. It feels so painful and it feels so true. Some have criticised the apparent erosion of Rose's 'strong' character, but I think they are missing the point. The Doctor took her out of her dead-end existence and showed her that there was a better way to live her life. And now she's never going to see him again. I think she's allowed to be upset! The two leads are faultless, making the scene emotional, but never mawkish, and Davies' dialogue sparkles. Haunting stuff.

So, the destination proves better than the trip to get there. Doomsday, by in its closing minutes remembering that small, beautiful events are what life is all about, ends the new Doctor Who's second season on a much-needed high note (well it does if you ignore a mood-destroying appearance by Catherine 'No, I'm not bloody bovvered' Tate). It's just a shame that it took so much lazy, overblown nonsense to get there.