Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

doctormysterio I didn't like this episode at all. Amazing cliffhanger, but the rest was actually bad. The Master is way too over the top. Weird, weird episode.

somercet "Not if President Obama ends the recession tonight!""Here, on Christmas Day, the President has promised an instant and radical solution to the world-wide depression. Barack Obama will lead us all into a new age of prosperity!"*gag* Though hilarious in retrospect. But I must ask, was writer Davies subtly critiquing Obama (or his drooling fangirls)? Naismith, a black man, extols Obama's coming White House presser to the Master: "You might want to see this, sir. Proof that the human race can mend its own problems." Risible, considering that these humans are hijacking alien technology only with the secret help of two different alien species.This show matches the plot holes usual to Doctor Who with superior special effects, but this episode is largely prologue to the superior Part Two.

Paul Evans The whole world is having nightmares but not Donna's granddad Wilf. The Doctor having been called by the Ood finally returns to the Oodsphere, who make a prophecy of a return of something dark, The Master, and something bigger. The Master returns, brought back by a female cult, but Lucy intervenes, seemingly sending the Master a little crazy. The Doctor meets up with Wilf, discussing his fears after the events on Mars where he played God. Millionaire Joshua Naismith and his daughter Abigail have the Master kidnapped and bound, and try forcing him to repair a piece of technology they've discovered, the Immortality Gate, but two of Naismiths' staff are aliens wanting the machinery for their own ends. Naturally being a genius, The Master takes full advantage of the technology, turning everyone into himself, not Donna, who's placed in mortal danger.Favourite scene possibly Wilf meeting The Doctor in the Coffee shop, it's a very touching, heartfelt scene brilliantly done by both. Wasn't it nice to see some more matures actors and actresses on show.Plots and subplots, one seeming villain, masked by another. It's a very clever plot, cleverly written. I liked lots of it, return of Donna and Lucy (only briefly admittedly,) there's a good pace, good sense of urgency. Humour is provided by The Silver Cloak, again nice to see some older talent, June Whitfield is just delightful. Talk about joy seeing the Doctor in one of my regular coffee shops (The Kardomah) so random. Wilf and The Master are both very welcome returnees. I absolutely detest the Master's ability to jump, shoot beams and turn part skeleton, it does not work on any level. Don't really like the Naismith characters they fail somehow. Poor John Simm, his performance cannot be faulted, but the script is not so good for him, again!! I bet he had fun making it though. WHY DID HE HAVE HIGHLIGHTS!!!!Full of flaws but full of fun, the trailer was stunning, Gallifrey was back!!7/10

Theo Robertson I can't say I was overwhelmed by any of the DOCTOR WHO specials . Neither was I impressed with any of the previous Christmas specials so when we get a two episode Chritmas special I wasn't getting any hopes built up . Seeing as it signals the end of the Tennant/ Russell T Davies era I was expecting Rusty to throw in everything including the kitchen sink . Think of the previous season finales squared and you have the idea . Thankfully after seeing this episode not only were my low expectations met they were far exceeded No story in the show has ever been perfect but RTD has restrained himself with a relatively simple plot . Someone builds something they shouldn't have and the story's villain uses it to build a " master race " . There that's the plot explained perfectly and while there's not enough narrative to reward an audience on repeated viewing it's a simple enough story well told for the most part . Thankfully Rusty hasn't thrown a massive spanner in the works buy bringing in anally retentive past references every five minutes . We're reintroduced to the Ood again , Donna Noble has a cameo , there's a couple of nods to the season three finale and a cliffhanger ending featuring the Time Lords . Just enough to remind die hard fans why nostalgia plays a large part in their lives without alienating casual viewers This probably won't be remembered as a masterwork from the show and undoubtedly in years to come it will be remembered as reintroducing the Time Lords as well as writing out Tennant from the show . What The End Of Time does do very well is entertain the audience and much of this revolves around John Simms as the Master . No longer Prime Minister Harold Saxon the portrayal is a sort of hybrid between Hannibal Lector and a chav . But Simms is having so much fun playing the role it's impossible for the audience not to be swept along with him There are some flaws . As has been pointed out already there's little internal logic for the Master to be able to fire lightning bolts and jump hundreds of feet in the air and seems to be an excuse for The Mill FX team to show us what they can do while June Whitfield is the most superfluous guest star ever featured in the show . There's also the Shimmer creatures which seem to be included to simply impress young children but seem somewhat silly compared to the more dramatic aspects of the story . These however are very minor flaws and I watched this episode in front of my parents without feeling any shame or embarrassment to being a die hard fan .Truth be told I'm sure they were thoroughly entertained as well as millions of other people who sat down to watch this . Whilst not being a great piece of storytelling it is undoubtedly 60 minutes of highly entertaining high quality television