This post will include both a quick non-spoilery review and also a spoiler-filled episode by-episode discussion.
World-Building: Decent
Characterization: Great
Plot: Decent
After the Season 4 finale Doctor Who took a break for a while. There was a transition from Russel T. Davies to Stephen Moffat as show-runner and also a transition between David Tennant's Tenth Doctor to Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor. So during this time all the fans got was these specials. It's a bit of a mini-season if you will including five slightly longer episodes showing us how the Doctor dealt with his loneliness/his decision to travel alone and how he dealt with the Ood's warning that his time was almost up and his song was ending.
Overall, these episodes weren't really that special in that they didn't provide anything new or above the general expectation. I also didn't see the need for them to be an hour long instead of the usual ~45 minutes. They were, however, decent episodes, and I'm glad we got to see a little bit more of the Tenth Doctor.
Unfortunately, these episodes also suffered from Russel T. Davies' sloppy plotting. The standout episode of the bunch was Waters of Mars, but even that one had some plot elements that just don't stand before even the tiniest amount of thinking and this took away from the story's impact.
Overall, they're decent, watchable episodes, but hardly the doctor's best.
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SPOILERS and rants AHEAD
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The Next Doctor 12/25/2008
I actually liked this special despite its flaws. The whole first bit where the Tenth Doctor is interacting with the man he assumes is the next doctor and slowly seeing the inconsistencies that the audience already noticed was wonderfully done and wonderfully acted. It was also great to see both men deal with the realization that came at the end of the mystery. I am no longer fond of cybermen, however. Just like the Daleks they've been overused and abused to the point where I really don't want to see another one. So I really didn't enjoy the whole cyber-king sequence, and those stupid cyber-animals or whatever they were, and the man Jackson Lake (I had to look this up as it was very badly used) suddenly realizing he had a son.
Planet of the Dead 4/11/2009
This is my least favorite of the specials. It really didn't do anything for the doctor's characterization or for anyone, it didn't show us anything new that I would consider interesting, and most of the episode was spent walking around on what looked like CGI sand. Also, I hate the cat-burglar woman Christina and I am hoping we never have to see her again. Ever. Like the Doctor's Daughter she added nothing to the story. You get the sense that whoever came up with this episode was just trying to waste some time. Those weird fly aliens ended up being absolutely pointless and were only really there so that the Doctor could take their technology, allowing him to save himself and the humans, and then pretty much abandon them to their deaths. Then we had stupidity such as the 5-minute wait in between the bus coming back through the wormhole and them actually closing it off. Lots of silliness with Christina making an escape and so on and the excruciatingly annoying mad scientist. The highlight of this episode was the woman who had that psychic ability and warned the doctor. The stingray-aliens looked cool, but were ultimately pointless.
The Waters of Mars 11/15/2009
This was the standout/BEST EPISODE of the bunch. The "threat" was actually frightening - it was a great idea to use water and keep the actual thing in the water causing the change in the crew members mysterious. It also allowed us to form some connection to the crew members and it would have been SO good if they had ended up dying despite the Doctor's attempts to save them. Instead for an entire episode the Doctor stands around dithering, hesitating, and supposedly having a moral dilemma that I really just couldn't feel. Then, suddenly, he decides to try and save them and has this stupid supposed-to-be-creepy monologue about how he makes the time lord rules now and so forth. Then suddenly and without reason he gets a look of absolute pain on his face and goes "I've gone too far." None of that plotline made any sense, to be quite frank and it added nothing to the story.
The story would have been just fine without this forced moral dilemma. All they had to do was make the Doctor try his best to help the people survive, like he always does, while burdened with the knowledge that they all died/will die anyway and he probably won't be able to help them and then he finally figures it out and realizes that whatever-it-is-in-the-water can't be allowed to get to earth. He could then try to save them without exploding the base, maybe he could investigate the thing and try to isolate it or find a cure or whatever. And have the captain know more or figure it out a tiny bit before him, making her decision and allowing him to escape somehow without him knowing what she's up to until it's too late. That way you have pretty much the same events, the same feeling to the episode that the Doctor is sometimes helpless, and no nonsensical/badly explained moral dilemma. It would have also been a cool way of demonstrating that as a fixed point in time the Doctor couldn't alter it even if he wanted to! Which I find makes much more sense.
But no, we get stuck with the Doctor being emo for most of the episode and then acting slightly insane in the end. If they had to do it the way they did they should have at least convinced the audience that the Doctor shouldn't try to alter events. I saw no good reason for him to not attempt to help, personally. They didn't explain that in a convincing enough way. (for example, they could have spent their flashback time showing us another case in which he tried to change a fixed point, but missed something and ended up destroying a civilization or ruining a planet or whatever instead of the stupid Dalek-flashback they did give us).
And what happened at the end? What was the consequence of his decision? What did the Captain do with that gun? Did his changing of the fixed point in time actually make any difference?
Also, why did they take the robot with them - the robot who had been DRENCHED in the water, and not the poor man who only got one drop on his face? Seems a little stupid, especially since they all just left the robot there IN THE SNOW thereby allowing whatever it was in the water to infect the earth's water... *headdesk*
Wow, reading that rant you wouldn't be able to tell I actually loved the episode. I just hate tiny little plot holes that ruin the story. For me, this one was like Girl in the Fireplace. It was so, so good, but ruined by one tiny thing.
The End of Time Parts 1 and 2
I've mentioned before how much I hated the master and his insanity. In these two episodes we get to find out that the master's insanity was actually planted in him by some evil overlord of the Time Lords solely for the purpose of using him to escape their deaths. We also get to learn that the Doctor actually killed the Time Lords on purpose because they were getting too evil/arrogant or whatever. Let me say this again. He killed off his entire race, including the children, destroyed his entire planet, because of this crazy leader dude that was intimidating everyone else.
*multiple headdesk*
We also get to learn that the doctor's end/forced regeneration is due to a very stupid door opening/locking mechanism on this weird machine that allows the person inside to get out only if another person takes their place. Whoever designed it is quite frankly very stupid. The Master also gets to redeem himself. Also the Master has these weird superpowers that reminded me of heroes. I just can't express how lazy the writing is here.
That being said, this was nowhere near as terrible as the last time we saw the Master in the season 3 finale. Despite its flaws I still wouldn't skip it... we have Wilf, after all... and... yeah...
So yes, overall these specials were watchable, but nothing really special. Not one of them was on the level of the greats from the past few seasons and there were some gaping plot holes. Not the best or most effective way to say goodbye to the Tenth Doctor. The Season 1 finale and the first Christmas Special "The Christmas Invasion" did a much better job of saying goodbye to the Ninth Doctor and easing us into that transition.
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