I was also a little disappointed by that episode. They'd really been building things up towards this denouement for a long time, and there was so much they could have done with it, but the Doctor dealt with Rassilon within a few minutes. I thought it was rather an anticlimax. In my opinion, they didn't make the most of either the Rassilon plotline or the Master one. I felt that both of them rather just fizzled out at the end instead of leading to something truly epic. What I did like, however, was the poignant way the Doctor met his end.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed too, but for a different reason.

If you look back over the Tenth Doctor's era (and partially the Ninth Doctor's) he has this storyline going of...sort of broken arrogance. It starts out in The Christmas Invasion when he casually destroys Harriet Jones for doing something he didn't like. And we see, gradually, this theme come up of how far he'll go and what he'll do if he doesn't have a companion there to stop him. It comes up in The Runaway Bride, which is then hammered in in Turn Left, where we see exactly what would have happened if Donna hadn't been there to pull him away. And then it comes up again in The Fires of Pompeii...he has to destroy Pompeii but at least Donna is there to make him feel guilty about it. Then finally we get The Waters of Mars, where it's laid out in full. I thought for sure The End of Time would focus on that, and what the Time War did to him-especially the bit at the beginning where he's acting completely nuts, even quoting the Master ("Funny? No? Little bit?") and then...it doesn't. As soon as he goes off to the Ood Council and learns what's going on he dashes off, back to normal, and it's into another stop-the-Master-save-the-world story. It is touched on a bit when we get to the scene with Wilf, where the Doctor goes into a rage over having to die to save one of "the little people" and then finally accepts it, but I wish they had gone into it more than they did.

The ending also kind of annoyed me. I think I would have preferred one (or maybe two) poignant scenes before he passed on, rather than a random-companion-saving-montage. I did like the scene with Rose, and the bit at Donna's wedding, but overall it seemed far too drawn-out.

I did rather like the Master's Agent Smith plan, although I wish they had implemented it with a better effect than everyone shaking their heads rapidly. It doesn't seem all that scary what with John Simm running around hamming it up, but it's the sort of thing that gets creepier and creepier the more you think about it.

Personally, I half-expected all the Masters to start eating each other, but I guess they thought that would be a tad inappropriate for the target audience.

Speaking of the Master...potions of life? Really? Oh, never mind. I assumed the reason his hair changed color was because of the botched regeneration, but I've heard some people say he dyed it to disguise himself. This thought amused me. Can you imagine the Master sitting in the wastelands rubbing hair dye into his hair? What did he do, blow up a Hot Topic?

Watching the whole "who do I shoot" scene, it occurred to me that the simple solution would have been to just shoot the Master, because...he's the Master. He always comes back. He came back from the last gunshot wound, didn't he? I know it would have been out of character for the Doctor to shoot anybody but still. On a more realistic note, I was surprised that the Doctor was so surprised to learn the Master had come back. You'd think he'd know by now that you can't kill the man permanently.

Also, the Master's...sacrifice?...was pretty awesome, but I hope that when he comes back (you know he will, it only takes a production team who likes him enough) that and the drums aren't played up too much. Because the Master makes such a great villain. He really does. I don't want him to be redeemed, really. The drums do explain why he's so crazy, but I'd rather if he didn't skate by on an excuse for his villainy and just kept on being crazy-awesome. I guess we'll see.

I thought I had it all figured out for The End of Time. You know how the Doctor was wondering about how he and Wilf kept being drawn together? And then it cut to Rassilon? Well, I thought it would have been really cool if Wilf's revolver or something had been containing Rassilon's consciousness.

I personally felt that Waters of Mars was kind of un-Doctor-like. I mean, I suspect he had to feel that way at some point, but still, it was very out of character for him. And it was an all-around depressing episode. From his strange speech to the Captain's suicide at the end, it was just a sad affair.

On the other hand, I rather like The Next Doctor. I thought it was an interesting concept, pulled off well, though it confused me for the longest time.

That was the point of Waters of Mars. It was supposed to feel very, very un-Doctor-like. It was supposed to shock us and boy, did it do that well. I could actually see how that could happen, and that just made it all the more scary. You could feel him cracking. To be honest, I didn't think he could come back from that without regenerating.

Initially, when I saw that episode, it made me feel uncomfortable, because it seemed so out of character. But as I thought back over earlier episodes, with both David tennant and Christopher Eccleston, recognise how there had been frequent hints that the Doctor was chafing against the restrictions placed on him as a Time Lord, and that this was the straw that broke the camel's back, as it were.

I also expected him not to come back from that. I thought it was going to mark a major change in his behaviour that would continue until he regenerated.

The specials of Season 4 were full of Doctor-testing moments. There was Waters of Mars, and then in End of Time, he chose to take the gun and actually shot it.

How do you people think Matt Smith will do? I don't think he'll be too bad. He seemed fairly good at the end of End of Time. Although in the preview he was seen firing a gun. What's that about?

I think he'll be just fine. I admit I wasn't quite sure for a long time, mainly just because I didn't have anything to go on. But then I saw the latest preview and something about the way he says, "Anywhere, any time, any star that ever was," made me go, "OH YEAH HE'S THE DOCTOR". So I'm not worried.

And the gun, bah. That's probably just preview bait. In context, I doubt he's actually shooting anyone; he's probably just shooting something or signaling or something, but they put in there to make us go, "Holy crap, Doctor with a gun??" and make us watch the episode just to find out what he's actually doing. They did with stuff like the kiss in Smith and Jones. Of course, I could be wrong; maybe this Doctor doesn't mind going around shooting people, but my guess would be that it's just in there to grab attention.

Mine too, but it sure grabbed my attention, and sure made me curious as to why the Doctor has a gun in the first place. In End of Time, he was loathe to touch it, let alone use it for anything.