the drum beats out of time...

ok -- sorry. so sorry! but i've gotta talk about who some more. like, now.

you won't wanna read this if you haven't seen episode 12. or for many other reasons, i suppose.

at the end of the ep -- NOW STOP READING IF YOU DON"T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -- the doctor is shot by a dalek (but only in the upper body, hmmm) and, after a wry exchange of quips with rose and a little weeping and shouting from the companions, starts to regenerate. he says, "i'm regenerating." he becomes the fiery man like nine did when he turned into ten, and like the master did when he turned from derek jacobi into john simm. the interwebs are ablaze with speculation over whether or not they're replacing tennant RIGHT NOW.

of course they're not!

first of all, this is all happening in some sorta special "pocket in time" or whatever the doctor told donna when they finally broke through to the 27 planets that davros and the daleks are hiding in the medusa cascade. so that right there gives them tons of wiggle room to do pretty much whatever they want with this "regeneration" and not have it be a "real" one or have it be "different" or something, such that he doesn't change appearance, if nothing else. (otoh, that's ... idk. potentially really naff.) i think it's significant that they showed the dalek shot only lighting up half of his body. and i still keep wondering about the doctor's damn hand in a jar that's been parked under the console all season. isn't there some kinda rule that if you introduce a hand in the first act, it's gotta go off by the last act? something like that?

my own crazy theory is that whatever happens involves donna somehow. like, she freaks out and runs to him, and she interferes with the process of regeneration or absorbs some of the energy or something, and that creates some kind of paradoxtor (ahaha). the half-his-body-getting-blasted thing brings up questions of being split in two? maybe there'll be two doctors. one for rose, one for the rest of us. after all, rose has come all this way. (and how the hell did she get there? we still don't know.) and she looooooves ten, and doesn't want him to change. (although she felt the same way about nine, remember?) and as far as i know, her universe doesn't have a doctor. so ... it's a win/win.

anyway, i felt for rose when the doctor was cut down by the dalek, but we all knew they weren't going to get their big happy reunion hug. fucking jack -- his timing sucks. (and let's not get into him leaving gwen and ianto back at the hub. i assume this is so he can return at the last possible second and blast the daleks, grin cheekily, cock his head, and say, "toldja i'd be back!")

also, rose was talking to SOMEONE and telling them to teleport her to the TARDIS. which would probably be her universe's version of torchwood. which would mean mickey (among others), right? so, hmmmm, this would be a great time for him to show up and atomize those daleks that are about to exterminate sarah jane. cuz i don't see how ELSE she's going to avoid becoming a glowing skeleton of death.

but what a great ep. xlnt interweaving of all the different threads of the whoniverse, and i loved how ALL the companions (except donna) have history with the daleks. how they are all struck by the overwhelming END OF IT ALL-ness. and how it's harriet jones, former prime minister -- of all people -- who gives them hope again.

ah, but who IS the doctor's most loyal companion? i'd vote for k-9, but i don't think he's supposed to be in the finale, ahaha. and what is donna's "loss to come"? and, with all this talk of the children of davros (and of time), and the assembling of what armistead maupin would call the doctor's "logical" family (not to mention the passing line about davros flying into the jaws of the "nightmare child") ... where is the doctor's daughter? huh?

ETA (having watched it again): did dalek caan even MEAN the doctor's most loyal (or was it faithful) companion? it just said something like, eternal death for "the" most loyal/faithful companion. maybe it meant something else, like, perhaps, davros's most loyal/faithful companion. why does d.c. call the doctor "the threefold man"? what's the "oster haagen" (sp?) key that martha gets from UNIT? wtf is "the mr. copper foundation"? and wouldn't you say that all jack needed was to arrive one second earlier to shoot the dalek before it shot the doctor? like -- oh, i dunno -- that one-second time shift that created this so-called "pocket in time"?

in conclusion, i know nothing. but, clearly, i am full of ideas. and: omg i can't wait 'til saturday.