{"id":37380,"date":"2023-10-01T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2023-10-01T07:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1896787"},"modified":"2023-10-01T16:50:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-01T14:50:22","slug":"doctor-whos-best-ever-finale-came-in-season-1","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/doctor-whos-best-ever-finale-came-in-season-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who\u2019s best ever finale came in season 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Proper stakes, big emotion and a satisfying conclusion – season 1’s finale has it all. <\/p>

By James Hibbs\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 01 October 2023 at 07:00 AM<\/p>

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Since Doctor Who<\/a> was revived in 2005, there have been 13 season finales. A number of them have been strong, cohesive conclusions, which have put a neat cap on the season. Some of them, less so.<\/p>\n

Yet, to my mind, no finale from the Doctor Who revival, as of yet, has managed to top what Russell T Davies, Christopher Eccleston<\/a> and Billie Piper achieved in the very first NuWho finale \u2013 The Parting of the Ways<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To clarify \u2013 this does not include specials which feel<\/em> like finales, such as The End of Time Part 2 or The Time of the Doctor. Nor does it mean The Parting of the Ways is the best episode of NuWho \u2013 it\u2019s not even the best episode in season 1 (*ahem<\/em>, The Doctor Dances*).<\/p>\n

But as a culmination to everything achieved in that excellent first season, as a satisfying resolution to established plot threads and a specular character piece, there is none better.<\/p>\n

Welcome to 60 Days of Doctor Who, RadioTimes.com\u2019s ultimate celebration of all things Who as the show gears up for its 60th anniversary. We\u2019ll be bringing you 60 days of exclusive Doctor Who content, from interviews and newsletter takeovers with the show\u2019s stars to the hottest takes from our team of Doctor Who superfans. Stay tuned!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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BBC Studios<\/figcaption><\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/section>

Sure, there are competitors that run it close. Doomsday<\/a> is a very strong contender, hitting all the right emotional beats, but the Genesis Ark proves narratively pointless and the Daleks v Cybermen premise is largely wasted.<\/p>\n

Similarly, The Doctor Falls<\/a> is an exceptional finale, an elegiac swansong for the Twelfth Doctor\u2019s tenure (one episode too early), but the two Masters concept is again wasted, and it doesn\u2019t quite match up to the promise of the penultimate episode, World Enough and Time.<\/p>\n

There are other contenders for sure, but none manages to beat out The Parting of the Ways, first and foremost, because it is a story with exceptionally managed stakes.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons it is able to do this is because of a perfectly pitched cliffhanger from the ending of Bad Wolf, which mounts of the tension but doesn\u2019t go overboard.<\/p>\n

\"Doctor\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

So many finales fall down because the cliffhanger set the stakes too high \u2013 think about Journey\u2019s End<\/a> and its explosive regeneration which could only ever disappoint, fake out of not.<\/p>\n

Or think of The Big Bang<\/a>, which ended with the direst straights imaginable and the universe literally coming to an end, only for the next episode to swerve this entirely in a convoluted, slower-paced get-out.<\/p>\n

Instead, The Parting of the Ways plays it simple, revealing the Daleks (let\u2019s ignore that spoilery trailer at the end of Bad Wolf) and Rose captured. The Doctor makes a classic, grandstanding speech, and tells her he\u2019s coming to get her. Cut to black.<\/p>\n

A lesser finale would have ended moments later, when the Tardis is approaching the Dalek ship and is seemingly blown up with missiles, leaving the fate of The Doctor and Jack unknown. Instead, Davies knows this would only be a cheap fake-out, and ends in a way which teases the battle ahead, but doesn\u2019t hinge on a big reveal to come.<\/p>\n

The stakes are also expertly managed because they feel real. As soon as The Doctor, Rose and Jack leave the Dalek ship, knowing the gory truth of what they\u2019re up against, the race is on, and once the Daleks attack it\u2019s pure carnage from there on out.<\/p>\n

\"Doctor\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Doctor Who: The Parting of the Ways.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

The Doctor\u2019s best-known foes are given a proper sense of menace and threat here, beyond any other episode in the revival, other than perhaps Dalek earlier in the same season. Even that episode helps to bolster them in this one \u2013 you\u2019ve seen one Dalek\u2019s destructive power, how about thousands?<\/p>\n

When they kill people, they die permanently, and we care about it. The two programmers bite the dust within moments of one another, having sparked up a sweet romance. We see all of the humans hiding on Floor Zero wiped out in an instant and hear that whole continents back on Earth are being devastated.<\/p>\n

Oh, and who can forget Lynda with a Y, who was positioned as companion material in Bad Wolf, told The Doctor would save her, and is mercilessly blown out into space, with The Doctor too busy to register this with anything more than a knowing, sorrowful look. Chilling.<\/p>\n

There are real stakes here and a sense that this version of the world at this point in time, even if we aren\u2019t going to return to it, is going to be fundamentally, cataclysmically changed. Compare this to The Last of the Timelords, in which all of its world shaking events are undone.<\/p>

Of course, if we\u2019re talking stakes, we have to address the elephant in the room \u2013 Jack\u2019s death, a pivotal, shocking moment in the episode, is undone, and the ending is brought about by a deus ex machina of sorts.<\/p>\n

However, the reason this deus ex machina ending still works is two-fold. One, there are still lasting stakes for all involved \u2013 The Doctor is mortally harmed and forced to regenerated, Jack is irrevocably changed and forced to live forever, and Rose becomes the Bad Wolf, a legend which continues to persist throughout future episodes.<\/p>\n

Two, it ties up the Bad Wolf story arc in a phenomenally satisfying fashion. Sure, it\u2019s a paradoxical twist that fans couldn\u2019t have seen coming, like the Impossible Girl story arc in season 7. But it\u2019s steeped in character, in Rose\u2019s love for the Doctor and her determination to get back to him.<\/p>\n

The Parting of the Ways is the ultimate tying together of loose ends, with story elements from Dalek, The Long Game, Father\u2019s Day and Boom Town all becoming key to either the character beats or the narrative beats at play here.<\/p>\n