“ The End of Time ” wrapped up the Russell T. Davies geological era of Doctor Who with a bang , but it leave a bunch of unanswered question behind . Perhaps the solutions are already veracious there in front of us . Speculation fourth dimension !
I ’ll endeavor to avoid any to a fault vague questions like , “ What bump to that nice doctor gent Martha was engaged to ? ” or pedantically fannish quibbles like , “ Why does the Doctor keep insisting he ’s 906 when he was already 953 in ‘ Time and the Rani ’ ! ? ” I ’ll also skip doubt like , “ Did the Master survive ? ” because at this point it ’s pretty clear that the Master always outlast , even when he dies . Instead , permit ’s focus on the big mysteries of “ The End of Time ” , in particular single that the characters themselves note are still unexplained . Let ’s start with a relatively easy one .
Was that really Rassilon ? Like , the Rassilon ?
As an uber - geeky old schooling Doctor Who sports fan , the most surprising part of “ The End of Time ” was when the Doctor suddenly address Timothy Dalton ’s President as Rassilon . For those unfamiliar with all of Doctor Who ’s most fifty - yr history , Rassilon was known and fear by all Time Lords as the founder of their society . First mentioned in the 1976 account “ The Deadly Assassin ” , Rassilon was credit as the ancient Gallifreyan who harnessed the might of a supernova to make time travel potential . He then became the first Lord President , and rule for an undisclosed length of meter before passing into history .
His biggest role in the classical serial was in the 20th anniversary special “ The Five Dr. ” , in which four of the Doctor ’s incarnations , a bunch of old companions , and a host of foe are brought to the Death Zone , a region of Gallifrey used in ancient time for what were basically massive gladiatorial battles . The whole thing is part of a frankly ludicrous scheme by a varlet Time Lord to create a dependable route to the Tomb of Rassilon , which lies at the kernel of the Death Zone , so that he can gain Rassilon ’s mystery of immortality . At the very destruction of the special , we see a protrusion of the patently gone Rassilon , who congratulate the victorious physician for playing his game successfully .
So what ’s he doing , seemingly alive and well in “ The goal of Time ” ? There is , of grade , a case law for Time Lords resurrecting fallen members of their race to fight in the Time War . As the Master explained in “ The Sound of Drums ” , this was precisely why the Time Lords brought him back from the drained . If they were desperate enough to run a risk on a genocidal lunatic , why not also add back your first and great leader too ? Of course , if Rassilon really was immortal – a point “ The Five Doctors ” dances around – he might just have been rest in his Tomb , awaiting a vast enough crisis to necessitate his reappearance .
Either way of life , there ’s a long precedent for his origin into villainy . In “ The Five Doctors ” , the Second Doctor explains to the Brigadier that there were rumors that Rassilon was really a cruel autocrat , who crushed all who oppose him . The expand cosmos has explored this side of Rassilon at majuscule length . The novels Cat ’s place of origin : Time ’s Crucible and Lungbarrow , both by Marc Platt ( who write the classic medico Who sequential “ Ghost Light ” ) , traced Rassilon ’s rise to office and the often beastly steps he took to consolidate control .
The enceinte Finish audio have also dealt with Rassilon , casting him a similarly circuitous light . Voiced by Don Warrington ( who played the president of the alternating Britain in “ acclivity of the Cybermen ” ) , Rassilon lives on in the Matrix , a sort of virtual reality computer system that domiciliate all of Gallifrey ’s accumulated knowledge . He is depicted as a genocidal chassis that has schemed throughout Gallifrey ’s history to destroy all species that show even the tenuous prospect of acquire memory access to time traveling . He attempts to use the Eighth Doctor as a weapon against a race known as the Divergents in his terminal bid to control the Time Lords ’ continued supremacy .
As such , there ’s every grounds to reckon that that really was the original Rassilon , back in the bod and supremely nefarious . In any event , what ’s the alternative ? That this was just some other Time Lord that happened to also be call in Rassilon ? I somehow doubt that Rassilon is a common name , even on a planet promise Gallifrey . Now let ’s look at some more difficult questions .
Who was the mysterious womanhood in bloodless ?
This is one is dead monumental – it ’s a heavy enough question that Wilf even interrupts the Doctor ’s epilog to ask him about it – but it may already be answered . Pretty much all available evidence point to the fact that Claire Bloom played the Doctor ’s mother . It was rumored by the British tabloidsway back in April , it was sort of confirmed by forthcoming executive manufacturer Julie Gardner in the commentary for part two of the “ remnant of Time ” ( although fellow observer Russell T. Davies remain far , far more ambiguous on this point ) , and it ’s the explanation that ’s most in keeping with Davies ’s overall approach to Doctor Who . Case close . Or is it ?
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have ’s seek to just take care at what ’s in the episodes themselves . Claire Bloom appears in two capacity in “ The End of fourth dimension ” – as some sort of vision to Wilf , and as a dissent Time Lady made to kneel behind Rassilon when the Time Lords reenter the universe . She does n’t speak in the latter appearance , but the Doctor definitely appear to pick out her and sympathize what she ’s assay to relate to him about the Gallifreyan ball field . Oh , and the musical selection “ The Doctor ’s root ” play when the Doctor first do eye contact with her . ( Specifically , it ’s the part that Russell T. Davies has jokingly call “ Flavia ’s Theme ” , so named because the woman singing sounds like she ’s singing from the Time Vortex and Chancellor Flavia was a Time Lady in “ The Five Doctors . ” If you want to take that to signify Claire Bloom actually played a regenerate version of a pocket-sized supporting character from the other LXXX … well , be my Edgar Albert Guest . )
As far as her fundamental interaction with Wilf go , they mostly consist of a whole bunch of cryptic statements , prophecy , and shout out to arms . She calls Wilf “ an old soldier ” , which is in keeping with somebody presumably still live through the Time War . When he actually inquire her who she is , her only response is , “ I was lost . So very long ago . ” When he after take the same question to the Doctor , he gets no reaction . or else , the Doctor stare off at … somebody . He either attend at Wilf , Donna ’s female parent , Donna , or some compounding of those three . on the dot who you consider that somebody is depends on how you want to interpret the relief of the evidence .
You see , there are a couple alternative theory that have circulated since the transmittal of “ The terminal of Time . ” Both focus on sometime comrade of the Doctor , and neither is wholly ridiculous . ( OK , they ’re both kind of nonsensical . Just not completely . ) The first possible action is that this is actually Susan , the Doctor ’s granddaughter . In that case , the Doctor looked first at Wilf , then at Donna , indicate the vernacular human relationship . The fact that the woman in white said she was lost long ago makes sense for Susan , considering she was strand on a post - revelatory Earth by the First Doctor ( this decision made slightly more sense in context ) .
Then there ’s the possibility that Claire Bloom actually play Romana , the Time Lady who move with Tom Baker ’s Doctor . In that case , the “ lost … long ago ” melodic phrase would in all likelihood refer to the time she expend in E - Space , a sac universe of discourse distinct from own . Romana is also one of the few character other than the Doctor who we have picture regenerate , so there would be some common law for work in a new actress to play the part . ( On the other hand , there ’s really no reason why they could n’t have just brought back Lalla Ward , who was the most late Romana in the serial and still plays the fictional character in Big Finish audios . Indeed , her husband Richard Dawkins already appeared in the series , in “ The Stolen Earth . ” )
The other tenuous head in Romana ’s party favour is that the character appear during on the most pop eras of classic Doctor Who , so her take would make slightly more sentience from an audience identification standpoint than that of , say , Susan . Oh , and in this scenario , the Doctor simply face at Donna , because they were both his companion . Of naturally .
All of this might seem rather tremendously unconvincing , and it in all probability is . Claire Bloom , in all likeliness , really was the Doctor ’s female parent , and so the Doctor looked at Sylvia Noble , then her daughter Donna , in keeping with their common enatic ties . The one matter that still does n’t quite make sense is the import of her being lost , but that might be explained by her in reality being dead for a retentive period before the Time War . Along with the Master and Rassilon , the Time Lords might well have bring back everyone to fight in the Time War , include the Doctor ’s female parent . If nothing else , it would explain why previous incarnations of the Doctor had claim his syndicate was all in and gone .
Why are the Ood so advanced ?
In just a individual C , the Ood have gone from brute without free will to beingness with enormous insight into clock time and space . Ood Sigma can attain more than two millennium back in time to cite the Doctor , and the Chief Ood can sense weaknesses and descend modification in the fabric of time . The Doctor remarks that this is a job , but he never receive a chance to follow up on it . The Doctor says , “ Something is advancing his specie right smart beyond normal ” , and the Elder Ood later offers that “ The Ood have gain this power to see through time because clip is bleeding . ”
But I ’m not entirely positive that the latter explains the former . Even if this is dependable , why have the Ood in picky been granted this giving ? It might have something to do with their natural telepathy and the power of the main Ood Mind , but it still does n’t logically follow in and of itself that this should concede them mastery of time . And anyway , the Doctor seems to be just as wowed by their advanced architecture as he is their temporal abilities . I distrust there ’s a full-grown news report here .
Something sentient is actively drive forward their growing , and I ’ll go ahead and suggest the intended destination might be the creation of a heir airstream to the Time Lords . After all , they ’re surprisingly decent candidates . They are naturally peaceful and benevolent , with an apparent taste for non - interference . They take rather by nature to the mindbending nature of time travelling , what with events happening simultaneously two thousand years apart .
If you ’re look for parallels within the stories , both parts of “ The End of Time ” start with the elder of the respective slipstream – the Ood in part one , the Time Lords in part two – model in direction , discuss threat to their existence and various vaticination . Ood Sigma even work a bit like the solitary Time Lords in classic MD Who stories like “ Colony in Space ” or “ generation of the Daleks ” , where they send him the Doctor to his mission . ( Although his character in impart the Doctor to his regeneration more call in the Watcher in “ Logopolis . ” But that was sort of a Time Lord too . ) My guess is that this is a news report thread that will be pluck up at a late date . But what is the greater military force that is doing all this to the Ood , you ask ? Well , to resolve that , there ’s another question I want to tackle .
What ’s the deal with Wilf ?
The Doctor has been question about his connector to Wilf since serial four , and he expend a adequate amount of their conversation in the coffee shop in part one wondering about it . He does n’t arrive at any readable solution , although it might be utile to count at his immediate follow - up to the motion , “ Why you ? ” The very next thing he says is , “ I ’m going to die ” , and think what we see about Wilf ’s role in the Doctor ’s re-formation , there might just be some import to that . Wilf is significant because he ’s part of the prophecy , and that ’s why he keeps receive the Doctor of the Church .
Well , maybe . But that just seems to shift the problem back a degree . Even if Wilf is important only in so far as he ’s part of the prophecy of the Tenth Doctor ’s death , that does n’t respond why that prophecy exerts so much influence over case . Something still seems to be manipulating their lives in ways that ca n’t be just concurrence . In old arcs , figures like Bad Wolf Rose and Dalek Caan have proven capable of manipulating events in like ways , but their influence over meter obviously terminate with the conclusions of their respective stories . But perhaps something else is going on .
There ’s a lot of talk in “ The End of Time ” about how there is a grander pattern at work , and that melodic theme recur throughout . Joshua Naismith guess he ’s in restraint of his Immortality Gate , but he becomes ensnared in the Master ’s late insane plan . The Master cogitate he has finally destruct humankind forever and created an USA capable of conquering the universe , but all he ’s really doing is coif the stage for the return of the Time Lords . Even once you reave away the actions and manipulations of the Time Lords , there are still plenty of things in “ The End of clip ” that appear to be the work of still some larger plan by something even greater than the Time Lords .
In fact , this brings up another , perhaps even more significant question about the woman in white . Honestly , it does n’t really matter whether she ’s the Doctor ’s mother , granddaughter , or former companion . How exactly did she manage to communicate with Wilf at all ? How did she ruin through the time ringlet to communicate with him , particularly when get through at all was almost insuperably unmanageable for the balance of the Time Lords ? And even if she had figure out a way to project herself , when incisively was she doing this ? There did n’t seem to be all that much metre between the Lord President calling for a vote and run his people to Earth . Unless we escape the conniption where all the Time Lords took a couple hr to deliberate , it ’s not obvious when she could have squeezed in the time to drop all these hints to Wilf .
Let ’s see if we ca n’t put all of this together . There ’s an entire race whose development is being massively quicken , perhaps with the purpose of make the Ood the new Time Lords . ( Even if that ’s too much of a stretch , they intelligibly have an incredibly strong connection to time , perhaps second only to that of the Doctor . ) There ’s an insignificant old man whose life keeps cross with the Doctor ’s in ways that far too unlikely to be the result of mere conjunction . There ’s a mysterious but charitable woman in completely clean clothing that preserve register up to direct events towards the salutary potential conclusion for the Doctor and , indeed , all world . If I did n’t be intimate any better , I ’d say this is all the work of theWhite Guardian .
For those who have n’t memorized every detail of the classic series , the White Guardian was an almost omnipotent figure who first appear in Tom Baker ’s fifth season on Doctor Who . He sent the fourth physician on a yearlong quest to get hold the missing pieces of the Key to Time , a occult object that would earmark him to stave off the grow influence of his evil counterpart , the Black Guardian . True to his name , the White Guardian always wore completely clean ensembles whenever he appear , something he shares with Claire Bloom ’s character . Perhaps she appeared with the assistance of the White Guardian to act as his agent in the competitiveness to protect cosmic society ? ( Interestingly , the White Guardian was the one who first convey the Doctor and Romana together , meaning she has some experience working for him . Make that another dot in Romana ’s favor then . )
The White Guardian might seem a morsel too unnoticeable a figure to contribute back , but he and the Black Guardian are about all that ’s left from the Hellenic series that would pose truly monolithic threats to the Doctor . I do n’t know if Steven Moffat shares Davies ’s obsession with constantly upping the stakes in every series coda , but just about the only imaginable agency to top the threat of the Time Lords would be to place the Doctor in the midriff of an all - out war between what are essentially gods . It all fits together so dead !
Or I ’m just talking nonsense . Probably more likely , really . Speaking of which …
Who was that silhouette figure at the back of the church ?
All right , now I am almost quite literally parachute at shadows , but I ’ve got to say – that is one distracting screen background form at the commencement of part one . I thought for sure that figure was going to be revealed as somebody important when I first watch it . The Master , possibly . But apparently not , consider he was still beat at that peak .
I ’ll endeavor to baulk the urge to act armchair director , but there just seems like zero reason for Euros Lyn to compose the shot with such a noticeable physique when that person has dead no significance to the rest of the scene . candidly , it ’s likely nothing , but maybe , just peradventure , it ’s the first clue to something dead monumental down the route . My money ’s on an broker of the Black Guardian . Partially because the figure is shrouded in darkness , and also because I might as well get as much fuel consumption rate as I can out of this whole Guardian idea . You heard it here first !
Who was the other dissenting Time Lord ?
So , only two Time Lords in all of Gallifrey dare to stand against Rassilon in his moment of victory . We at least know something about the one on the right , but who was the other one ? In all honesty , I ’m not even sure if that was a Time Lord or a Time Lady . Either agency , the Gallifreyan in interrogative is the only other person with the braveness to oppose Rassilon ’s monstrous architectural plan , and we do n’t know anything about him or her .
There are a couple obvious gunpoint of speculation . From a purely practical linear perspective , it ’s more aesthetically pleasing to put two protester on either side of Rassilon as oppose to just the one . Indeed , without a second Gallifreyan to kneel next to her , Claire Bloom might have been just a tad too obvious as a person of implication before the braggy reveal . That ’s probably the actual reason for the second Gallifreyan , but once that character is stick in , it does raise the question about who that mortal is .
The obvious answer is that , if the Doctor ’s female parent is on the right wing , then the Doctor ’s father really ought to be on the left . But that seems sort of , well , dumb , peculiarly in an episode where the Doctor in reality talks about how majestic he ’d be if Wilf was his dad . It does n’t really draw up thematically . The full answer is that , at this point , it could be anybody , and Russell T. Davies has leave Steven Moffat with an interesting figure to make use of later on should he so choose . After all , this is apparently a Time Lord ( or Lady ) that ’s actually worth save . That ’s a pretty compelling person to come back to .
( If you want my guess as to his identity , I ’ll go with the Cockney - accented , broadly useless Time Lord Drax from the “ The Armageddon Factor ” , the final serial publication in the Key to Time season . Because I might as well push my “ Everything in ‘ The End of Time ’ is explain by The Key to Time ” hypothesis to its absurd logical extreme . )
What is the Moment , and what did the Doctor do with it ?
Every series finale seems to give away new information about the Time War , and considering we in reality sort of see some of it in “ The End of Time ” , it ’s not surprising we learn a few shocking new details . Although most of what we pick up are more details meant to convey the vaporous incomprehensibility of the Time War – the Nightmare Child is mentioned again , along with Modern additions like the wondrous named Could ’ve Been King and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres – there is one choice morsel that might count later on .
When the sentence Time Lady offers a condition report card on the Doctor to Rassilon at the starting time of part two , we learn that the Doctor “ still possess the Moment and he ’ll use it to destruct Daleks and Time Lords likewise . ” Now , from a storytelling perspective , advert the Moment may not have any significance in and of itself . After all , it ’s necessary to set up that this is the last day of the Time War and that the Time Lords know their destruction is close at hand . Since we already bonk the Doctor was the one that end the Time War , name the Doctor in his electrical capacity as Gallifrey ’s destroyer makes arrant sensory faculty . So maybe the Moment is just a matter of narrative convenience , and we wo n’t discover about it again .
Still , for the first sentence , we be intimate what the Doctor used to end the Time War , or more accurately we get laid its name . We can at least assume it is a matter of vast power , and the fact that it is called “ the Moment ” intimate it has something to do with the nature of clock time itself . Whatever it is , it seems like just the kind of item Steven Moffat might need if he ever wants to bring the Time Lords back to stay . As such , there ’s a decent chance that this is n’t the last we ’ve heard of the Moment , especially now that the Master is presumptively trapped in the Time War and could conceivably derive memory access to it .
And no , I wo n’t evoke that the Moment is actually the Key to Time . Although now that I mention it …
David TennantDoctor WhoTelevision
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