Oh dear, just me then! I loved his cackling performance.

THE BIG DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes 6.40 - synchronise watches

Sarah

Early tea!

...or really late tea, in our case!

All excited here. My son said earlier, 'I bet mum cries'.

Late tea

Not that long since lunch

Sarah

<Added>

Failing to find any instructions I have gone back to Delia for timing the roast - but will have to adapt as clearly Delia has no notion that turning the temperature down 25 minutes into the episode is simply not going to happen.

Honestly - these cooks who seem to think one should stay in the kitchen

Not bad on the whole, I thought, apart from the incredibly mawkish ending that never seemed to end.

JB

It was very good, but I agree, that ending was a bit long. I'm sure all the other doctors have simply regenerated, not wandered round for several days saying goodbye - and if he's not allowed to cross his own time line, how come he could save that young seaman off the Titanic for Capt. Jack?

Nice to see Bilie and her mum, though. I agree it went on a bit but we were all so hyped up that nothing would have satisfied us. Though I was equally hyped up about Gavin and Stacey ending for good and that surpassed all my expectations.

But thought you might like your appetites whetted for the new season!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tPte4rQMpI

Yes that ending did go on for a while didn't it? I believe comparisons have been made to the end of Return of the King

But fun nonetheless

Ooh yes - bring on the next series!

Sarah

Speaking as a non-Dr Whodini, I watched these two episodes and am mostly confused as a result. Well, that was after being irritated by several mins worth of pantomime laughter from the baddie, which I'm sure could not possibly be because the writer was unable to convey mental disorder in any more subtle way. The main thing that confuses is me is that this finale was heavily hyped as the Doctor dying. But he doesn't die, does he? He regenerates, retaining his essential self. In which case, all those goodbyes at the end were meaningless and for me at least lacked any emotional content. Someone said to me, Ah but he can die while he's in an incarnation. But surely that's always been the case and is not related to him regenerating?

And, really, any writer should have his membership card to the Joss Whedon fan club torn up who writes a scene wherein a space ship has zoomed past the building in question, then the Dr jumps out of it and not only manages to hit the centre of a glass window (even though he's already gone past it) in its roof but lands on a stone floor with no more than a scratch or two.

As for the sonic screwdriver . . .

Terry

Yes but soon as I saw that glass roof - you just knew someone was going to fall through it?

Sarah

<Added>

We thought Bernard Cribbins made it - he was the best?

Now then Terry, you can't go criticising the sonic screwdriver. That's just fighting talk, that is.

He's a good actor all right. But - and I have to admit I was only half concentrating - I must have missed why his character was so important to the Doctor. He seemed like a nice enough old duffer but didn't appear to have any particular reason to be in the story. Which reminds me: what was the point of Donna here, too? We were told she'd die if she remembered all about the Doctor (which she did anyway, didn't she?, but in fact didn't die); she was shown having the power to knock out the Master-copies but this was never followed up, so in the end her presence was redundant.

N.I.T. Picker

Oh, and if ever there was ever characters invented purely to provide an otherwise difficult to get round plot logistic (getting the Dr into orbit around the Earth) it was the two cactus head aliens. Again, I may have missed something, but was Mr Davies trying to have us believe they were in that facility purely by coincidence?

<Added>

Well, Caroline, it isn't just me. I know someone on the inside and he is adamant that the SD will be one of the first things to go in the next series. We shall see. But, really - I seem to recall one episode where the Dr just flashed it at this bound woman as he ran past, and the ropes binding her unravelled! Let's just hope it never falls into the hands of someone with less chivalrous intentions . . .

<Added>

Sorry, that should of course be 'SS'. I need a SS of my own . . .

Have to admit, much as I love Russell T [and his book about a year writing the series was wonderful and very illuminating] I am really excited about Stephen Moffatt taking over as script writer. He writes very much more sophisticated stories, such as the completely brilliant one called Blink about the stone angels. He doesn't tend to lob in convenient/daft plot elements in the way RDT does, gawd bless him.

<Added>

Terry, what a thing to say. The Doctor would never do such a thing