Doctor Who: Last of the Time Lords

Season 1 of 'NuHu' (as true 'Whovians' seem to be calling it these days) ended with a climactic battle and a regeneration. Season 2 ended with a climactic battle and the writing out of the companion. And now season 3 comes to an end.

Climactic battle? Averted.
Writing out of companion? Could be.
Regeneration? No. Whew.

But the classic sci-fi homages still came on thick and fast: Last week we noted that we had an indestructible captain & a cloudbase (Captain Scarlet) and spherical flying robot things (Terrahawks, the torture droid in Star Wars or possibly 'Colin' from Mostly Harmless), this week we got loads of them: Flash Gordon (Ming's ring), Return of the Jedi (Vader's pyre), Lord of the Rings ("my preciousss") and Superman the Movie (earth spinning backwards). Probably others I missed too.

However, this was not a great episode. Exciting things happened in parts, but quite dull things happened in other bits. I know they felt they had to have a totally impossible situation for the Doctor to overcome, but I wasn't convinced by the way it was resolved.

And Captain Jack was just there to be shot at. He wasn't actually required for the story in any way. Nice twist with him at the end though.

But the writers forgot something. When we first met this regenerated Doctor in 'The Christmas Invasion', we found out what kind of person he was. He was a 'no second chances' kind of person. He gave the Sycorax leader one chance to live, but when the Sycorax tried to fight a second time he (the Doctor) let him fall to his death with no regrets.

Two series on and he seems to have changed. Here he's prepared to give the Master as many chances as he wants, it seems.

So the best season of 'NuHu' so far comes to a close with a slight disappointment. The finale was interesting without being gripping, not as emotional as it was trying to be and a bit slap-dash in the way it tied up all the characters' storylines.

But, I'm looking forward to Torchwood in October, the Christmas special (featuring Kylie - yay!) and the next series in 2008. Even if the new companion is to be Donna as played by Catherine Tate (hmmmm?).