NuWho Review: Series 1 Episode 13 “The Parting of the Ways”

By: Russell T. Davies

 

**Spoilers**

If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.

            So this is the episode where the intense, leather-jacketed Eccleston will regenerate into geeky dreamboat David Tennant. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet because the 9^th Doctor still has one episode to dazzle us with. Come on and we’ll dive right in!

            The Parting of the Ways picks up right where Bad Wolf left off with Rose a prisoner of the Daleks and The Doctor coming to her rescue. I have to say, this episode certainly starts off with a vibe of sheer epic tension as the Daleks decide to fire missiles at the incoming TARDIS, an action that Rose loudly protests with a cry of “The TARDIS isn’t kill shielded, you’ll him!” To which the Daleks make the humorous yet chilling reply: “You have predicted correctly.” 

            Thankfully, both The Doctor and Captain Jack have a few tricks up their sleeves as that extrapolator is put to good use again to shield them from both the missiles and the extermination beams. The cool way The Doctor handles the oncoming fire just get the idea across that he’s had more than a little bit of experience when it comes to fighting Daleks.


Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- I love the way Jack gives us an outsider’s look on the Time War as he examines the destroyed Dalek. So far all we’ve heard is bits and pieces from The Doctor so it’s nice to hear of the legends. We also get to see even more proof that The Doctor’s goofy grin and cheesy jokes are just a façade to hide his true feelings. The way he switches it on and off is very telling and his face when he sees the Emperor Dalek is just pure dark rage and unwitting, loathing respect. He is so filled with hatred and horror at that moment that he can’t even call up his shield. Even though the Emperor’s shell looks rather corny, Eccleston’s performance still manages to make us fear the chief pepperpot because if The Doctor is scared, we should be scared.

- “Do not interrupt!” The Daleks screech at him in defence of their god and he only throws it right back at them, momentarily losing his cool before managing to put the mask up again. I have to say, I love it when The Doctor tells the Daleks to shut up. It’s very reminiscent of when he shouted at the Nestene Consciousness that “I. Am. TALKING!”
       

- My favourite thing with Dalek is that the episode made us feel pity for the ‘last’ Dalek, even as we feared how ruthless and intelligent it was. Here the writing still manage to make us pity the Daleks (with the speech about being driven mad by their own flesh) even as we loathe and are sickened by them. It is such a relief when The Doctor cuts the reunion short and heads back to Satellite 5. 

- I just love Lynda. A combination of her and Jack would have made for epic full-time companions. She chooses to stay behind and help in anyway she can, even though she probably could have headed back to Earth and hoped to stay safe. It is implied that she would have given her place up to someone else – just because she believed the right thing to do was to stay behind. 

- Also, take note of the Lynda/Doctor moment as they beam at one another. This is the first sign of Rose’s jealous streak that will be so prominent throughout Series 2. One thing I’ve noticed about her is that she is kind and compassionate enough to the people she meets as long as she doesn’t consider them stupid or a threat to her position as the number one person in The Doctor’s life. Contrast that with Lynda whose brave decision to stay behind will ultimately result in her death, yet she never blames anyone or sneers at anyone or tries to get between Rose and The Doctor (even though it’s obvious that she admires the Time Lord). All throughout Series 1 we have had so many wonderful girls as supporting cast, there for one or two episodes and then gone. It’s just a pity that none of the others like Gwyneth, Nancy, or Lynda were given the opportunity to travel with The Doctor. Oh, wait, he only takes the best and he’s got Rose.

- So everyone is gearing up to fight the Daleks and Jack is making an epic speech as he rallies support from those still left on the Satellite. Some volunteer and some (most notably that annoying excuse-for-a-human-being Roderick) decide to hide down on floor 000 and try to save their own skins. Jack has a few choice words to say:  “Thanks. As for the rest of you, the Daleks will enter the station at floor four nine four and as far as I can tell, they'll head up, not down. But that's not a promise. So here's a few words of advice. Keep quiet. And if you hear fighting up above, if you hear us dying, then tell me that the Daleks aren't real. Don't make a sound. Let's go.”  

- He sets up barricades and defences that will hopefully delay the Daleks long enough that The Doctor can finish preparing a Delta Wave that will hopefully kill the murderous dustbins stone dead. Jack has certainly come a long way from the smirking conman that we first met in 1942 London. As he observes with a half-bitter laugh, he wishes that he'd never met The Doctor because he was better off a coward. 

- So while Jack is setting up defences, The Doctor tricks Rose into entering the TARDIS and then has the blue box take her home. I love it whenever the more intelligent and cunning side of the Time Lord is shown. He knows perfectly well that they are all going to die and so tries to spare the life of the girl he's come to care for. The hologram speech always makes me choke a bit up even though Rose doesn't react well to his decision and we are treated to several scenes of her moping around London...more on that later.

- The Emperor Dalek is God? I guess that makes The Doctor the Devil. Is that huge, demented octopus deranged or what? For all his faults - and he has many - The Doctor is certainly not evil. It looks like The Doctor is being set up to make another Time War type decision when it comes to the unrefined Delta wave. Jack scores another point for himself when, upon hearing that the Delta Wave will kill humans and Daleks alike, tells The Doctor to finish the work in a display of faith and friendship that will make The Doctor’s later abandonment sting all the more.

- Why is the Mordor theme playing for the Dalek Fleet? Speaking of Mordor, the one thing that makes this episode feel so epic is the way Jack and his volunteers give up their lives fighting the Daleks, just so The Doctor can have enough time to finish that Delta wave. One of the most spine-tingling moments from The Return of the King is when Aragorn and the rest of the Leaders of the West decide to march on the Black Gate and draw out the armies, just so that Frodo will have a clear path across Mordor. They know that they will probably die – but they also know that in giving up their lives they will allow Frodo to save the rest of the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth. Choices like that are what gives us faith in mankind and what makes us feel for characters even (like in the case of the Satellite workers) we didn’t get much of a chance to get to know them. But because of this bravery we experience something other than complacency when the volunteers are exterminated one by one.

- The Daleks have a cool Matrix-esque defence system against bullets that makes them unstoppable.

-  The way they callously exterminate everyone – even the people not fighting – is what makes them so terrifying. The Daleks don’t have much going for them by way of fear-by-design and so must establish themselves as threats through their actions. True, having a huge hoard of them actually lessens some of the impressiveness when they kill everyone, but their ruthlessness and cunning makes up for it. When they enter floor 000, for instance. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

- So while people are fighting and dying on Satellite 5, Rose Tyler is moping around London. I shouldn’t be so harsh on her, considering that her friends are probably dying, but somehow her dialogue comes off as either sulky or smug. I don’t think it’s all Billie Piper’s fault. She has to work with what she’s given. 

- For an example, let’s look at back on the Satellite when The Doctor said Rose didn’t even think of running away. What was her reaction? She gave a smug little smirk and said “Well, I’m just too good.” Davies, that is NOT the way to make a character likeable! You want us to see how brave Rose is and how determined not to leave her friends behind? Well, don’t have her sulking about like a spoilt six-year-old or saying lines like: “The Doctor wouldn’t do this to ME.” and you might succeed in making her someone the audience can genuinely sympathise with. 

- Also, when it comes to Rose and the words Bad Wolf, her logic about them leading her back just sounds like she’s desperately looking for an excuse to justify going back. (You know how that goes: when you really want something you’re mind will twist the evidence to fit what you want.) I’m glad that Rose finally had a talk with her mother about her travels, though, even if it was only to prove a point.

- Have I mentioned that Jackie is hard-core awesome, commandeering a rescue truck like that? It says a lot about her character the way she tries to comfort her daughter when Rose feels that she’s been left behind and then the way that she supports Rose in the decision Rose feels is right – even if Jackie herself clearly wishes her daughter would stay home where it's safe. 

- Mickey also gets to stretch some character muscle here as Rose expresses the feeling that “There’s nothing left for me here.” Ouch. Poor Mickey! It’s a tribute to his character that he decides to help her despite everything she’s put him through over the past couple of years.

- I do wonder how the TARDIS felt about being ripped open like that. Between Mickey's mini cooper (I thought he drove a VW...) and Jackie's rescue truck, there was a lot of strain put on that poor box. Too bad Rose didn't manage to get it open soon enough to save a few more lives.

- Though, why does Rose get the powers of a literal god? Life just isn’t fair. Despite Gold’s desperate efforts to get us in the epic mood for the vortex-absorption scene, I just can’t feel it. I’m more moved by Jack fighting to the last bullet.

- The two Satellite workers who fight alongside somehow manage to make their little love story feel genuine, not tacked on or shoehorned in. Despite the potentially cheesy lines and our knowledge that as soon as they admit how they love each other they’re toast, we still hold out hope that it’ll work out somehow. Sadly, they're not the only ones to die tragically.  

- Lynda-with-a-Y is the next to fall in a scene that makes me a bit teary-eyed to this day…and that’s not usually easy to do. She’s been such a sweet, bright persona throughout these episodes that we feel more than ever that a fine young life was just wasted. I empathise with her so much that I actually get a lump in my throat as she mourns the senseless deaths on floor 000. Her own brutal end happens off camera, but is no less heartbreaking because of her last scream and the love for her that was built up so beautifully over the past two episodes.

- The worst part about all of these deaths is that it seems as though it was all for nothing. When it comes down to it, The Doctor can't bring himself to activate the Delta Wave and fry the braincells of the humans on Earth as well as the Daleks.

- The Emperor asks him what he is, coward or killer? And The Doctor replies: "Coward, any day." THAT is what makes this show and character so great.

- But then something happens that I call Rose a la deus ex machina. The blond girl looks into the heart of the TARDIS and basically becomes a goddess who melts the Daleks and brings Jack Harkness back to life for good. Gold's music is practically deafening here: nearly drowning out the surprisingly flat performance from Piper (I say surprisingly because usually I am impressed by what she manages to do with the scripts). In fact, the entire Bad Wolf speech just isn’t as epic as it was meant to be. It has its moments, but I just can’t quite get into it because those moments only last seconds before moving on to something a bit out of place. Shouldn’t she have taken care of the Daleks first and then left herself a note?

- Also, we didn’t need Doctor Exposition telling us about how it (the Time Vortex) would burn her. We could have figured that out for ourselves when she started to fall and it would have made her seem less headstrong if she didn’t know beforehand.

- One part of this whole speech actually makes me crack up and so thus ruins the mood: “You looked into the Time Vortex…Rose, no one’s meant to see that!”  So that's why Rassilon, The Master, and so many other Time Lords were insane! It all makes sense now. 

- Also, how is it The Doctor's fault that Rose won't listen to reason and let go of the power (and that she's going to burn)? She's the one who pulled the TARDIS open and then looked into it. I know The Doctor has some sort of god complex...but he really shouldn't take responsibility for her own foolishness.

- Anyway, so he removes the Vortex from her...

   ...and she passes out.

- He then expels the energy back into the TARDIS and presumably carries her inside the box and starts it up, leaving the recently resurrected Captain Jack to fend for himself. (A move I don't really understand even to this day...)

- I just love the whole regeneration scene. As you're watching, you can see that he knows it's coming and is resigned. He also tries to prepare Rose (something the other Doctors never really did for their companions) even though she thinks he's just rambling on his usual technical gibberish. It is also worth noticing that he is the first Doctor to regenerate standing up. 

- Much as it is sad to see Eccleston go, his story arc doesn't feel truncated or cheated. He's had an amazing journey – from battle-scarred and standoffish loner to someone much more personable and who is willing to love and be loved. It has been wonderful to travel with Doctor Nine and I am sad to see him go.

        

            So how does The Parting of the Ways rate - both as the second half of a two-parter and a season finale? Quite well, actually. It is action-packed and quite cinematic, hitting well both on the story-telling and the emotional aspect. And it made the Daleks live up to their expectations! Despite the use of Rose a la deus ex machina, it had a strong ending that culminated in the reintroduction of the regeneration lore. Finishing out a mostly strong season and being the satisfying conclusion to the Bad Wolf story arc, I rate The Parting of the Ways as a 5/5. This was great television.

What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?