The End of Time (TV story)

The End of Time was a two-part Doctor Who special broadcast during the 2009–2010 Christmas season, concluding the "2009 interim season". It featured the final regular appearance of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and introduced Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. The story revealed details of the Last Great Time War, and gave important development to the character of the Master. It also featured the final appearance of Elisabeth Sladen in Doctor Who proper, although she would go on to star in several more episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

From a production standpoint, it marked a major change in the history of Doctor Who. Like only The War Games before it, The End of Time ushered in a complete change of regular cast. Unlike that 1960s story, however, it was the final story for its principal producers, Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner, and was the last regular story for its head writer, Davies. It was also the first to include any part overseen by — if not credited to — incoming lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat. Though Tracie Simpson was the credited line producer, her elevation to regular line producer on the first Matt Smith series meant that Julie Gardner effectively became the line producer for the first and only time in her tenure on Doctor Who.

Synopsis
It is the Tenth Doctor's final journey — but his psychotic nemesis, the Master, has been resurrected on Christmas Eve! Each determined to cheat death, the battle rages from the abandoned wastelands of London to the mysterious Immortality Gate, whilst the alien Ood warn of an even greater danger approaching, as a terrible shadow falls across the entire universe.

With the sound of the drums growing louder in the Master's head and an ancient trap closing around the Earth, the Doctor and Wilfred Mott must fight alone. Sacrifices must be made, and the deadly prophecy warns: "He will knock four times."

Part one
"It is said that in the final days of planet Earth, everyone had bad dreams..." They all forgot them, except one man. On Earth, Wilfred Mott, entering a church, has a vision of laughing maniacally. Inside, he notices a stained-glass panel with the image of the TARDIS. A mysterious woman tells him the church was a monastery in the 13th century. It was attacked by a demon which was exorcised by a "sainted physician". When the woman suggests that the physician is returning, Wilf says it would make his Christmas and turns to find she has vanished. He has another vision of the Master laughing, startling him.

In the 43rd century, the Tenth Doctor arrives on the Ood Sphere. He is greeted by Ood Sigma, whom he tries (unsuccessfully) to make laugh by locking his TARDIS like an Earth car. The Doctor is distracted by the marvellous city the Ood have built. When Sigma says it took a hundred years, the Doctor remarks that was still way too fast for them to have advanced in such a time. Sigma takes the Doctor to the Ood Elders, who show him visions of the Master returning. The Doctor says that that's impossible; he saw his wife Lucy shoot him and he burned the corpse himself. The Ood show him an older woman taking the Master's ring and warn the Doctor of a greater danger returning from the darkness; its return precedes "the End of Time itself". Other visions are a frightened Wilfred and a "King in his Counting House". The Doctor rushes to Earth in the TARDIS.

Lucy Saxon has been locked in Broadfell Prison ever since she murdered her husband. One of her warders is Miss Trefusis, the woman who retrieved the Master's ring. On Christmas Eve, the prison governor brings Lucy to a chamber; most of the staff are fanatical disciples of the Master who have worked since his death to bring about his resurrection. With the ring, a biometric imprint taken from Lucy and the sacrifice of the cultists' lives, the Master is reborn in a swirl of energy. However, Lucy informs her former husband that she knew he'd come back, and her family had prepared an antidote to the potion of life. After receiving the potion from her warden ally, she hurls the potion at the Master, creating a violent explosion that destroys Broadfell Prison.

The Doctor arrives the following day, too late. The prison is obliterated, but the Master survived. As a result of the interrupted resurrection process, he has supernatural speed, agility and can generate electrical bolts as weapons, but his life force is in a state of constant depletion. He is unendingly hungry for any food he can find — including homeless people on a desolate construction site.

The Doctor tracks the Master to a junkyard. The Master taunts him by beating a trashcan to a four-stroke beat, then leads him on a chase through the junkyard. Wilf scours London for the Doctor with other pensioners calling themselves the "Silver Cloak", and finds him. After retreating to a specific café with him, the Doctor answers some personal questions and then tells him the prophecy of his death. He sees Donna Noble standing outside, arguing with a police officer over her ticketed car, and realises why Wilf insisted on this particular café. Wilf tells him that she's now engaged to Shaun Temple, and pleads with the Doctor to at least go up to her and say hello to her, but the Doctor sadly reminds him that if Donna remembers him for even a second, she will die.

The narrator, his face revealed, and his voice turning scornful toward humanity, speaks of the passage of Christmas Eve into Christmas Day; the players are moving into their final positions, with each human dreaming of the arrival of the final day.

Finding the Master again, the Doctor examines him to discover that the drumming in his head is not a symptom of insanity, but real. Troops appear, however, sedating and kidnapping the Master and taking him to the mansion of billionaire Joshua Naismith. Back at Wilfred's house, Donna's fiancé, Shaun, arrives. As Wilf tries to watch the Queen's Christmas speech, the mysterious woman appears to him only in place of the broadcast, ordering him to take arms; she also advises him not to tell the Doctor of what has happened, so that his life can be saved. Wilf takes his old service revolver from under his bed as the Doctor contacts him by throwing a stone at his window. Wilf shows the Doctor a book by Naismith, and the Doctor realises Donna bought the book as a present because her Time Lord subconscious is reaching out. They immediately set a course for Naismith's estate, despite Sylvia's protests. In the TARDIS, Wilf asks the Doctor why he can't go back to yesterday and catch the Master; the Doctor says he can't go back in his own timeline.

At the mansion, Naismith and his daughter, Abigail, are in possession of the "Immortality Gate", which can heal injuries and, Naismith hopes, offer life everlasting. He acquired the Gate after the fall of Torchwood. The gate came with two nuclear-powered control booths, which are set-up in a way that if a worker wishes to leave he must be replaced in the other booth. Wanting immortality for his daughter, Naismith enlists the assistance of the Master to mend the malfunctioning Gate.

The Doctor and Wilf arrive at the Naismith estate and hide the TARDIS one second out of sync, so the Master can't get to it. In the basement, they discover two of Naismith's staff, Addams and Rossiter, are undercover Vinvocci, disguised with shimmers as human; the Doctor can see through the shimmers and deactivates them with his sonic screwdriver. The Vinvocci explain the Immortality Gate is a medical device that heals lifeforms across entire planets, using a genetic template. The Doctor realises what the Master is planning to do and rushes upstairs, but is too late to stop the Master from escaping his captors and jumping into the gate. Every single human on Earth sees the Master in their minds, and when Wilf also arrives seeing the Master the Doctor gets the current worker out of the nuclear booth, then has himself replaced with Wilf, and the shielding clears the old man's mind. The Doctor asks the Master if he's planning on transmitting mind-control or hypnotic instructions, but the Master has far grander plans than that. He has modified the Gate to transmit his own genetic template across the entire planet. The gate is activated, and a wave spreads across the entire transforming every human on Earth into a clone of himself.

Donna phones Wilf, herself immune due to the metacrisis that made her part Time Lord, and tells him the same has happened to her mother and fiance. Seeing such a sight makes Donna start to remember her travels with the Doctor in flashes, and this causes her terrible pain as her brain cannot handle her Time Lord knowledge. Wilf, frightened for Donna's life, warns the Doctor his granddaughter is starting to remember her adventures. Enraged, Wilf shouts grievances at the Master. He smugly asks if he was talking to him, while his clones inside the room chime in to ask the same question in succession, until a TV news reporter clone clearly makes his point for him: "Breaking news: I'm everyone."

As the Master's duplicates unveil themselves, the Doctor is horrified to find that everyone around him, as well as the people on TV, are now exact clones of the Master. On top of that, he has become President Obama. He quickly abuses the President's mind by blanking out a financial crisis solution just to spite the world, while a crowd of his own duplicates claps, roots, and hollers for the original Master's triumph. As the Master steps out of the gateway he tells the Doctor that the human race was always the Doctor's favourite, but it now exists no more, having been replaced with "the Master Race". Every single Master on the planet laughs together with narcissistic glee and celebration, while the original laughs in the Doctor's face. As a world full of Masters taunts and mocks him, the Doctor's face twists with extreme fury.

The Narrator announces the Master and his removal of humanity is only a small part of an approaching conflict. Suddenly, he belittles humankind; this is not a narrator, but the Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords, addressing the Gallifrey Panopticon, which is packed with Time Lords. He announces that "This is the day the Time Lords return. For Gallifrey! For victory! For the end of time itself!"

Part two
On a devastated Gallifrey, on the last day of the Time War, the Time Lord Council reports that the Doctor still possesses "the Moment". They have foreseen that he will use it to end the war by destroying the Daleks and Gallifrey. A Time Lady suggests that this might be for the best. At the heart of the Time War, billions are dying, being resurrected and dying repeatedly. The never-ending carnage is a travesty of life. Seeing this as having no faith in his power, the Lord President uses his gauntlet to vaporise her. Exploding with anger, he decrees he will not allow himself or his race to die. The Council concocts a plan which involves retroactively implanting a link to the Master during his early childhood: the four-beat drum rhythm that has tormented him all his life. They next send a Gallifreyan "White-Point Star" diamond to Earth as a more physical link. This will let the Time Lords escape from the time-lock and their impending destruction at the hands of the Doctor.

On Earth, the Master has the Tenth Doctor and Wilfred Mott tied up. No one but the Master Race exists on Earth. Wilf's mobile phone rings. The Master finds the phone, receiving a call from Donna Noble. The Master hears Donna's voice, confused about everyone else changing. Suspicious, the Master demands to know why Donna didn't change. Wilfred reluctantly admits the metacrisis that made her part Time Lord. The Master sneers, "He does love playing with Earth girls!", then orders his copies to take her down. As Donna is cornered by the Master Race, she starts to remember her adventures with the Doctor. Instead of burning up, she emits an energy pulse that knocks everyone unconscious, including herself. Hearing nothing and seeing the Doctor smile, the Master removes his mouth gag. The Doctor calmly points out that when he erased her memories of her time with him he also left Donna, his best friend, with a defence mechanism in case something like this happened.

The Master realises the four-drum beat sound is from across time itself. He demands to know where the TARDIS is, threatening to kill Wilfred. The Doctor notes, "You know the most amazing thing about you is that after all this time, you're still bone-dead stupid." Somehow, the Master has failed to notice that the guard next to the Master is one inch too tall. The "guard" hits him in the head with the rifle, knocking him down. The guard is Rossiter. Addams rushes in and urges her partner to get the two men out of the mansion. Rossiter, unable to free the Doctor from the chair he is strapped to, wheels the chair bumpily down several flights of stairs to the basement, prompting the Doctor to note this as the "worst... rescue... ever!".

From the basement, the four teleport to the orbiting Vinvocci ship, narrowly escaping the Master and his guards. Wilfred is amazed at being in space; the Doctor is more concerned with the Master. As soon as he gets out of his restraints, he destroys the teleporter, preventing the Master Race from following them. He asks for directions to the bridge; the Master has every missile on the planet ready to fire. When they arrive, the Vinvocci prepare to leave, so the Doctor destroys the ship's systems, leaving them dead in orbit. As the Doctor begins to mend the systems, Wilfred sees the mysterious woman again, who instructs him to give the Doctor his gun.

The White-Point Star sent to Earth has been found by the Master. On the ship, the Doctor is still repairing the systems. Wilf talks to him about many things and tries to have the Doctor take the gun to save himself by killing the Master. The Doctor refuses and Wilf begins to cry over his fruitless efforts, prompting the Doctor to hug him. A broadcast from the Master reaches the ship; he has found the diamond. It can only mean the Time Lords are returning. Wilfred considers this good but the Doctor's reaction says quite different... he grabs the gun and rushes for the control room. Wilf is confused as he thought the Time Lords were wise and peaceful. The Doctor tells him that's how he chooses to remember them; in reality the horrors of the Time War had changed the Time Lords, making them far more dangerous than any of his enemies.

The Doctor has repaired the ship, but Addams will not have them going to Earth. The Doctor seizes control of the ship and speeds towards Earth. Rossiter and Wilf take charge of the asteroid lasers and blast away the missiles the Master launches at them. Addams plots a course for Naismith's mansion and the Doctor jumps from the ship, crashing through the skylight and into the Immortality Gate room. He is too late. The Master has brought the Time Lords back.

Not only is the Master in the room, but so is the Time Lord Council. The President defames the Master by noting they have been saved by Gallifrey's most infamous child. The Master, fast to retort, quickly belittles the Lord President's authority and reveals that he did not call the Time Lords to Earth to save them. He intends to implant himself in them and assert control of the entire race. However, the Lord President is not amused at the Master's assertion over his power, and demonstrates how fast he can unravel his scheme. He raises his gauntlet forward. It radiates with a blue light and the Master Race begins to revert back to their unaltered human identities, causing the Master great panic as he loses his trump card.

The Time Lord President tells the humans present in the Naismith Mansion to kneel. Left powerless, the Master tries to bargain with the Time Lords by reminding them that he was their salvation. However, the whole planet shakes intensely. The President announces that "the approach begins". The Master is confused by his cryptic words; the Doctor angrily tells him that not only the whole species of Time Lords are coming back, but so is the planet. Gallifrey begins to materialise near Earth, fulfilling the prophecy that "it" is returning. Standing twice as big as Earth, it shadows over the other planet with an air of doom.

Panic erupts in the streets of London as the planet rumbles as the giant red world of Gallifrey manifests above the atmosphere. Shaun Temple goes searching for his fiancée Donna, while Sylvia Noble looks up at the ominous sky and prays for the Doctor to save them. Wilf, having left the Vinvocci shuttle, makes his way through the crumbling Naismith Mansion to find the Doctor. Refusing to stay on Earth as Gallifrey threatens to knock it out of orbit, Addams immediately readies the shuttle for takeoff. Rossiter is concerned about the Doctor's fate, but Addams shrugs and reminds him that he already said he was dying. All the residents of Naithsmith Mansion, including Joshua and his wife, flee from the residence. Joshua spots Gallifrey's descent and is affixed with terror.

Wilf returns to help the Doctor, freeing a trapped man in the control booth and trapping himself in the process. The Master thinks that the Time Lords' restoration to the universe is fantastic, but the Doctor tells him that the broken time-lock means that all of the other horrors born in the last days of the Time War, which he had sealed away in the Time Lock as well, would be released as well. The Daleks would not be the only additional escapees; they would be joined by the Skaro Degradations, the Horde of Travesties, the Nightmare Child, and the Could've Been King with his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, seeing the war turning to Hell, which is exactly what the Master has unleashed above Earth. The Master delights at the thought of such chaos, but the Doctor tells him that not even the Time Lords can survive such an onslaught.

The Lord President then reveals that he had planned to deal with these horrors by initiating the Ultimate Sanction; a plan for the Time Lords to survive the collapse of all creation and all time, as the paradox of Gallifrey's return to the universe rips the Time Vortex apart, by ascending their conscious minds beyond the need for bodies. The Master asks to join them, but the President refuses, contemptuously dismissing the Master as "diseased... albeit a disease of [the Time Lords'] own making," and moves to kill him.

Then the Doctor aims Wilf's gun at the President, who cautions the Doctor to "choose [his] enemies wisely." Even the Master goads him on, urging him to kill the President and claim Gallifrey himself. At this, the Doctor spins and aims at the Master, who realises that the link that brought the Time Lords to Earth is inside his head, and if he dies, the link is broken and reforms the Time Lock. He points out that killing the President would have the same effect.

Finally, in this dark hour of the Doctor's life, one of the "disgraced" Time Lords covering her eyes behind the Lord President reveals herself to the Doctor; she is the mysterious woman that Wilfred had seen on a number of occasions. As she casts her gaze to a spot behind the Doctor, he not only seems to recognise her, but now knows what to do: he whirls and aims toward the Master once again.

As the Master's face falls, the Doctor orders him to get out of the way. Suddenly understanding, the Master jumps away from the White-Point Star just as the Doctor shoots it, and its destruction severs the link and reinforces the Time Lock, pulling the Time Lords back into the Time War and to their inevitable doom. The Doctor sends them "back into Hell", and identifies the Lord President as Rassilon.

As Gallifrey vanishes back into the Time Lock, Rassilon refuses to die alone and prepares to kill the Doctor. The Doctor is ready for the prophecy to be fulfilled... but the Master orders the Doctor out of the way and attacks Rassilon with his life force energy powers, shouting that Rassilon was responsible for everything that had happened to him.

As the Master counts the drums one last time, his blasts occupy Rassilon long enough for a bright flash of light to send the all of them — the Time Lords, Rassilon, Gallifrey, and the Master, back into the last day of the Last Great Time War. The Doctor struggles to his feet, weary, but happy, almost in disbelief that he has survived the prophecy.

"Knock, knock, knock, knock"

The Doctor's face turns from relief to horror as he hears the four hesitant knocks portending his death. The knocks persist, condemning him further. As he slowly turns, he sees where they are coming from — Wilfred is still trapped in the nuclear booth and wants to be let out. The Doctor, leery to approach the booth, looks at him with dread. As he suspects, Wilfred's life is in dire straits.

Upon inspection of the booth, the Doctor tells Wilf that the Master left the nuclear bolt running. The machine has gone past critical and is about to overload, which will release a lethal dose of radiation into the booth and doing anything to it, even using the sonic screwdriver, will set it off. The only way to get Wilf out alive is for the Doctor to walk into the open side of the booth and push a button to release the one-way lock, but this means the Doctor will be trapped inside in place of Wilf to endure the radiation blast. At 500,000 rads, it would inflict catastrophic damage to his body.

Wilf tells the Doctor to leave him. Since he's lived a full life, it doesn't seem worth it for his friend to give up his own just for his sake. The Doctor pretends to callously accept Wilf's offer, but knows he cannot allow the sacrifice. His spirit finally shattered, the Doctor cuts loose with a rant of anger, grief, and frustration. He rages and chokes back tears about how despite everything he's done he's still going to die just because Wilf had to climb into the booth and he's just an old man, not remotely important; he could just be left and the Doctor could live so much longer and do so much more. Then he snaps out of this self-absorption and realises what he's just said. He knows he can't leave Wilf to die and concludes that a Time Lord sometimes lives too long.

Despite Wilf's protests, the Doctor enters the opposite booth and releases him, releasing the radiation into his booth causing the Doctor intense pain, until he finally collapses and the booth itself goes dead from the loss of power. After a few seconds, the Doctor gets up. At first, it looks like the Doctor has survived; however his wounds (from crashing through the skylight into the mansion) suddenly heal themselves; the Doctor is dying and his body is preparing to regenerate.

The Doctor takes Wilf home and tells his friend that he'll see him again one last time. When Wilfred asks where he's going, the Doctor says he's going to get his reward.

The Doctor travels to various places, where he has brief, mostly distant encounters with recent friends. He saves Martha and Mickey (now married) from a Sontaran sniper. He pushes Luke Smith out of the path of a car, and exchanges a meaningful look with Sarah Jane. He goes to an alien bar where he connects Captain Jack with midshipman Alonso Frame. He visits a book signing for A Journal of Impossible Things by Verity Newman, Joan Redfern's great-granddaughter, to find out if Joan was happy in the end (she was). He appears after Donna's wedding, where he gives Wilfred and Sylvia the gift of a winning lottery ticket (purchased with a pound given to him by Sylvia's late husband) to pass on to her. He returns to the Powell Estate early on New Year's Day 2005, where he sees Jackie and Rose heading home after the New Year's celebrations.

After Jackie departs, he talks to Rose, keeping himself partly hidden in the shadows. When the Doctor asks her the year, she responds, "January 1, 2005". The Doctor tells that she'll have a great year. She smiles and leaves. As the Doctor walks away, the pain of the radiation poisoning finally sets in and he collapses. He looks up to see Ood Sigma, standing calmly. As the Doctor struggles to his feet, Sigma tells him that the universe will sing him to his sleep and "this song is ending, but the story never ends." On the Ood homeworld, the Ood sing "Vale Decem" (Goodbye Ten) in chorus.

The Doctor enters the TARDIS, tossing his coat on one of the coral structures, and notices regeneration energy coming out of his right hand. He sets the TARDIS on course for space as he circles the console. Tearing up, he utters: "I don't want to go..."

As the words leave him, golden energy radiates from both his hands and face as he breathes heavily. Taking a deep breath, the Doctor stretches his arms out as his body bursts into golden energy and regenerates.

The regeneration energies shatter the TARDIS windows and set the console room ablaze, destroying columns and raining debris down from above. The Doctor's face is consumed by the regeneration energy. As he shuts his eyes, the features of his tenth incarnation fade and morph into those of a young man with a swirl of brown hair.

With a sharp yell as the strain of the regeneration wears off, the Eleventh Doctor opens his eyes and stumbles back with a look of surprise. He quickly examines himself to make sure all his body parts are still in the same place, and his long hair causes him to think he'd become a girl for a moment (a quick feel of his Adam's apple confirms he's not). Also, to his annoyance, he is still not ginger, but has dark hair again.

Remembering there was something important he forgot, the Doctor tries remembering what it was until another explosion forces him to his knees. Realising that that what he was trying to remember was that the TARDIS is now crashing, the Doctor oddly seems happy as he jumps over to the monitor — it shows the ship spinning wildly towards Earth. Delighting in the chaos, the Doctor clings to the console and gleefully shouts, "Geronimo!!!"

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * - John Simm
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * Lord President - Timothy Dalton
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * The Woman - Claire Bloom
 * Minnie Hooper - June Whitfield
 * Joshua Naismith - David Harewood
 * Abigail Naismith - Tracy Ifeachor
 * Addams - Sinêad Keenan
 * Rossiter - Lawry Lewin
 * Shaun Temple - Karl Collins
 * Lucy Saxon - Alexandra Moen
 * Governor - Teresa Banham
 * Oliver Barnes - Barry Howard
 * Winston Katusi - Allister Bain
 * Mr Danes - Simon Thomas
 * Miss Trefusis - Sylvia Seymour
 * Tommo - Pete Lee-Wilson
 * Ginger - Dwayne Scantlebury
 * Serving Woman - Lacey Bond
 * Ood Sigma - Paul Kasey
 * Elder Ood - Ruari Mears
 * Teenager - Max Benjamin
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Martha Smith-Jones - Freema Agyeman
 * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Verity Newman - Jessica Hynes
 * Luke Smith - Thomas Knight
 * Midshipman Frame - Russell Tovey
 * The Chancellor - Joe Dixon
 * The Partisan - Julie Legrand
 * The Visionary - Brid Brennan
 * Nerys - Krystal Archer
 * Trinity Wells - Lachele Carl
 * Voice of Judoon - Nicholas Briggs
 * and introducing Matt Smith as the Doctor

Uncredited cast

 * Graske - Jimmy Vee
 * Jask - Dan Starkey

British royalty

 * Wilfred watches the Queen's Christmas speech.

Companies

 * Sparrow Lane is a touring company.
 * Steven's Point is a mobile catering company.

Devices

 * Wilf mentions ATMOS.

The Doctor

 * Wilf tells his fellow seniors that the Doctor usually wears a brown suit and sometimes a blue suit.
 * The Doctor compares regeneration to dying.
 * The Time Lords, during their council meeting, make an oblique reference to the Doctor's activities at that point in the Tim War.
 * Before meeting Ood Sigma, the Doctor says that he saw the Phosphorous Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestadt amongst other things.

Galaxies

 * One of the things the Doctor did before meeting Ood Sigma was that he named a galaxy Alison.

The TARDIS

 * Wilf remarks that he thought the TARDIS would be cleaner.
 * The Doctor's TARDIS key can be pointed at the TARDIS, emitting a warbling noise that puts it a second out of sync with space and time to hide its presence entirely.
 * The coral-themed interior of the TARDIS console room is destroyed by the Tenth Doctor's turbulent regeneration, and the windows of its police box disguise are also broken. The TARDIS later has to reconfigure its console design and to a lesser extent, its outer appearance to repair itself.

Foods and beverages

 * Tommo and Ginger eat burgers. The Master later wolfs one down in seconds.
 * The Master savagely eats a whole cooked turkey at the Naismith Mansion.
 * Donna makes margaritas, but uses oranges instead of lemons.

Individuals

 * Netty, is referred to as a member of the Silver Cloak.
 * Jimbo is mentioned by Jackie Tyler.
 * Joshua Naismith has a book titled Fighting the Future.
 * The Doctor believed that the Doctor-Donna subconscious hidden in Donna's mind has sensed from the convergence of events that he would need the Naismith book.

The Master

 * The Doctor refers to the Master as Skeletor, the skull-headed villain from the 1980s cartoon series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, because his unstable new form sometimes shows his skull instead of his face.

Real world

 * Pictures of various historical Earth individuals can be seen in Joshua Naismith's mansion.

Species

 * The Vinvocci imply that they are connected to the Zocci. Additionally, they apparently take offence to being called cactus, citing it as a racist slur.
 * A Raxacoricofallapatorian, an Adipose, Judoon, Graske, Sycorax, a Uvodni, and three Hath all appear in a space cantina, along with Jack Harkness and Alonso Frame.
 * The Doctor has saved a planet from the Red Carnivorous Maw.

Temporal Theory

 * The Doctor calls the set of events a convergence.
 * When asked why he couldn't just take the TARDIS back to the previous day, the Tenth Doctor recited, as if by rote, "I can't go back within my own timeline. I have to stay relative to within the causal nexus."

Time Lords and the Time War

 * Several crashed Dalek saucers are next to a badly damaged Citadel. This is the Last Day of the Time War, before the Doctor destroys Gallifrey.

United Nations Intelligence Taskforce

 * A UNIT officer (with the Master's appearance) from UNIT HQ in Geneva appears.

Story notes

 * This story features the last appearance of the title sequence that debuted in Rose.
 * The original title for Part 1 was The Final Days of Planet Earth, and was in fact the title when Davies teased readers of Doctor Who Magazine with the statement that the title was six words long. Later, however, he decided to give the title The End of Time to both specials.
 * The second part is 75 minutes, 3 minutes longer than TV: Voyage of the Damned, making this currently the third longest single episode behind the 90-minute TV: The Five Doctors and the 85-minute TV: Doctor Who.
 * With this, his final Doctor Who story to date, Davies received a writing credit for ten consecutive episodes, an unprecedented accomplishment in the history of the franchise.
 * This is the first story of more than one episode since TV: Survival to have one overarching title and the first 2-parter since Revelation of the Daleks to be called part 1 and part 2.
 * The Time Lords return after their apparent destruction in the Last Great Time War. This is their first appearance onscreen (except for a flashback in TV: The Sound of Drums) since TV: The Trial of a Time Lord in 1986.
 * This is a second time that a Sontaran has appeared as a cameo in a regeneration story. The first was the Fourth Doctor's final story Logopolis, in his flashback to his enemies whilst hanging from the Pharos Project radio telescope.
 * There is no traditional celebrity cameo in the story. Instead, a stand-in plays US President Barack Obama and stock audio from a speech of his is dubbed in. This is the first time in the revived series that the real world US presidency has coincided with that featured in the Whoniverse.
 * The opening credits list David Tennant, John Simm and Bernard Cribbins. Simm is the second person to be credited in the opening credits for playing a villain. The first was Eric Roberts, who also played the Master, in TV: Doctor Who. This is only the third time that all of the credits were male (the first being TV: Time Crash and the second being TV: The Next Doctor), discounting Attack of the Graske and Music of the Spheres, in which David Tennant is credited alone.
 * Despite this being David Tennant's last regular Doctor Who story, he filmed scenes for TV:The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, after the production of this story; in the Doctor's personal timeline, the events of that story occur before The End of Time.
 * In the Doctor Who Confidential for this episode, and the ones for the other 2009 specials, the TARDIS in the opening titles bears the St. John's Ambulance badge, a nod to the Eleventh Doctor.
 * The continuity announcement before part 2 was voiced by the Tenth Doctor, and was the last time that the Christmas ident featuring him was used.
 * Russell T Davies confirmed in the commentary for part 2 that the scene where Captain Jack is in an alien bar is in a city named Zaggit-Zagoo on the planet Zog. The scene, a tribute to the famous Cantina Bar scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, features cameo appearances by many alien species featured during the Davies era, plus the return of Alonso Frame (TV: Voyage of the Damned) and also features the song "My Angel Put the Devil in Me", last heard in TV: Daleks in Manhattan.
 * Russell T Davies has said in an interview that the Tenth Doctor's death had been planned out since David Tennant was signed on for the role. Davies also heavily implied had Tennant not been cast, the Tenth Doctor would have died a different way.
 * During the Doctor Who Confidential episode for part two, Davies stated that the name of the Vinvocci's ship was The Hesperus.
 * The Master redeems himself by sacrificing himself and saving the Doctor. According to historical accounts of the production of the classic series, this idea dates back to the original concept for Jon Pertwee's final story as the Third Doctor, which would have seen Roger Delgado's Master redeem himself in a similar fashion (which would also have caused the Doctor's regeneration); Delgado's tragic death aborted this idea.
 * Davies originally considered having the Time Lords in an alliance with the Daleks, but after consulting with Steven Moffat and correspondent Benjamin Cook, eliminated this plot thread. (REF: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter).
 * The End of Time was not the only finale considered. In another, the Tenth Doctor was going to bow out in a one-parter, saving a family of four aliens from a radiation leak.
 * In an early draft of the script, Davies had the Doctor address the "half-human" statement the Eighth Doctor made in the 1996 TV movie, dismissing it as "a forty-eight-hour bug". The line was cut by Davies for several stated reasons, including the fact it would have confused viewers who were only familiar with the events of TV: Human Nature. (REF: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)
 * During the chaotic sequence after the regeneration, the Eleventh Doctor is shown spitting, an act that raised some eyebrows. In addressing this during a publicity event for the launch of Series 5, Smith explained that it was his natural reaction to all the debris raining down on him during the filming, while Steven Moffat indicated that Davies chose to leave it in.
 * Russell T. Davies claimed that Omega was originally going to appear instead of Rassilon, but the idea was dropped.
 * Joshua Naismith mentions that the Gate was found buried at the foot of Mt. Snowdon by Torchwood. In TV: Doomsday, Yvonne Hartman states that the gravity clamps were found buried in the same place. Presumably, this means the gravity clamps are of Vinvocci origin. However, in Death of the Doctor, UNIT has a base at Mt. Snowdon, which could also imply that whoever the clamps belonged to, UNIT buried them.
 * Jessica Hynes's scene as Verity Newman was the first scene of this episode to be filmed (the scene was brought forward to accommodate Hynes's schedule, as she had just been cast in a Broadway play).
 * Part 2 was the only David Tennant era episode to premiere in 2010.
 * The scene where Luke is saved is part of an in-joke, according to Davies; in the first series of The Sarah Jane Adventures none of the children characters looked where they are going while crossing the road.
 * Martha, a Jones, has now married Mickey, a Smith - a reference to her first episode, TV: Smith and Jones. This was highlighted in episode commentary.
 * The name of Jessica Hynes' character, Verity Newman, is a reference to Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman. This is the second time the revived series has honoured the two people who are considered among the primary creators of Doctor Who. In TV: Human Nature the Doctor, in his human guise, says his parents were named Verity and Sydney. In this episode, Hynes plays a descendant of Joan Redfern, a character featured in Human Nature who she also played.
 * While the story was entirely written by Russell T. Davies, Matt Smith's scene was written by Steven Moffat.
 * Four takes of the Tenth Doctor's final line ("I don't want to go") were filmed, with Tennant upping the emotion for each one. The third one was the take chosen.
 * Donna's neighbour who appeared throughout Series 4 is finally given a name in part one, Sally.
 * Early on in the bar scene, a creature somewhat resembling a Silurian is present, although it does not have a third eye. It is unlikely that this is actually intended to be a Silurian, due to the physical difference, and as there has been no indication previously of Silurians engaging in inter-stellar travel. Also in the bar scene, another white furred alien appears, reminiscent of a character who appeared in the cantina scene in Star Wars: A New Hope, Muftak.
 * The Master reminisces about how "we" (presumed to be himself and the Doctor) used to run through fields of red grass on his father's estates, shouting up at the sky. This is the first reference to the Master's family, as well as presumably a reference to the fact the Doctor and the Master were once friends (previously confirmed in other stories). The fact the Master refers to "my father's estates", and not "our father's estates", can be seen as implying that the Doctor and the Master are not brothers, as has often been speculated.
 * During his resurrection, the Master tells Lucy, "You will obey me!" This was a frequent catch phrase used during his previous incarnations, particularly the one played by Roger Delgado.
 * Most of Rassilon's narration's begin with the phrase "And so it came to pass ..."; TV: The Sound of Drums ended with a similar narration, albeit given by the Master instead.
 * Composer Murray Gold said that the pivotal scene featuring the Tenth Doctor's final meeting with Rose Tyler did not feature the incidental music he intended for the moment. He wished to use the music piece "Song For Ten (Reprise)", a melancholy version of the original "Song For Ten". However, he argued with Julie Gardner to include this piece but lost, resulting in the use of "Rose's Theme" for the last time during the Tenth Doctor's tenure, while the reprise was moved up to the scene where the Tenth Doctor returned Wilf to Chiswick and embarked on his final reward.

"Did this make it into the final edit? I honestly don't know. It's here anyway because it was recorded. I think in the end this became Rose's theme. I actually thought this was more appropriate in mood. Julie and I had one of our arguments. I lost. As you do with Julie."

- Murray Gold

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 11.57 Million - According to BARB.
 * Part 2 - 12.27 million - According to BARB.
 * In America, three broadcasts of Part 2 garnered a combined total of 1.42 million viewers, a record for BBC America.

Filming locations

 * Tredegar House, Newport.

Production errors

 * On the wide shot of the Master's resurrection it can marginally be seen that Lucy Saxon is kneeling on what appears to be knee support pads.
 * After principal photography had wrapped, the production team decided to change the Vinvocci's appearence. They had originally envisaged that the race would only be partially green. The only solution was to digitally composite a more complete green, and this necessitated frame-by-frame colouring of the Vinvocci scenes. At some points in the episodes this is noticeable, for example when Rossiter is climbing into the mining laser pod while the Vinvocci ship is under fire from the missiles.
 * When the Doctor hides the TARDIS it doesnt fade out completely at the top; you can see it still a little bit on the wooden background of the ceiling.
 * During the first time where Wilf is in the glass cabinet, in the close up his phone is to his head, yet in the long shots both his hands are against the glass.
 * When the Doctor goes to get A Journal of Impossible Things signed, Jessica Hynes is quite plainly hovering her pen just above the page and not writing in it.
 * When the Doctor arrives at Donna's wedding, the gates he stands behind are closed, but when Wilf and Sylvia approach him, one is open. Also, when Sylvia looks at him, the TARDIS is closer to the Doctor than when they approach him.
 * The Nuclear Bolt control room switches sides of the Naismith's main hall at various points in part 2: It starts off on the right side in part 1, and stays that way until the Master reveals his true intentions to rescuing the Time Lords to Rassilon. The next shot (when all the Masters look smugly at Rassilon) shows the Bolt on the left hand side. It later swaps back to its original position. This seems to suggest the post-production crew 'flipped' the shot, which was unnecessary.
 * Similarly, the occupants changed sides within the Bolt room. Two Masters (Yellow shirt and purple shirt) did a change-around, with the purple-shirted Master taking the place of the yellow-shirted one. The first time this happens, the purple-shirted Master is on the left-hand side, and the yellow-shirted Master on the right. In the aforementioned shot (of the Masters looking smugly at Rassilon, when the Bolt swaps sides the first time), the purple-shirted Master is now on the right-hand side of the Bolt (which would be explained by a reflection of the shot). When the Bolt swaps back to its original side, the purple-shirted occupant is once again on the right-hand side (which would not be explained by a reflection of the shot), rather than the left-hand side (which Wilf then occupies).
 * When the Doctor is aiming Wilf's gun at the Master and Rassilon, the trigger of the gun has already been pulled in and it should have fired.
 * When Verity Newman is meant to be signing her book, she can be clearly seen to instead be writing in the air, though a scribbling sound can still be heard.
 * During the regeneration scene, the Tenth Doctor stands on the door side of the console, but when the Eleventh Doctor turns around, the handbrake lever can be seen, which is at the other side of the console.
 * After the Doctor knocks Jask out, the latter's body disappears.

Continuity

 * The fall of Torchwood is mentioned. (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday, TV: Children of Earth)
 * The Master returns, and there are flashbacks to the events of TV: The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords.
 * The Immortality Gate was previously referenced in TV: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, as "the Gate" which the Trickster indicated was waiting for the Doctor.
 * When Donna remembers the Doctor several things from her time with him appear. Included are the Empress of the Racnoss, (TV: The Runaway Bride) the Adipose, (TV: Partners in Crime) the Ood, (TV: Planet of the Ood) the Vashta Nerada, (TV: Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead) the Vespiform, (TV: The Unicorn and the Wasp) Sontarans, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) a Pyrovile, (TV: The Fires of Pompeii) and Dalek Caan, Davros and the Supreme Dalek. (TV: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End) The Judoon (TV: The Stolen Earth) can also be heard in her memories.
 * Alonso Frame (TV: Voyage of the Damned) sits down in an alien bar next to Jack Harkness, who appears depressed following his loss of Ianto Jones and his grandson. (TV: Children of Earth). The Doctor sends Jack a note with Alonso's name, preventing Jack from using his usual pickup line when he meets people he is flirts with ("I'm Captain Jack Harkness and who are you?"). The Doctor encourages Jack to flirt with Alonso before saluting him and walking away. Both are actions the Doctor has admonished Jack for in the past.
 * The Doctor mentions Joan Redfern to her great-granddaughter Verity, asking if she was happy after "John Smith" had gone, referencing the events of TV: Human Nature / The Family of Blood. Verity confirms that she had been, but doesn't get an answer when she asks "Were you?".
 * The song My Angel Put the Devil in Me is playing in the alien bar. It was first heard in TV: Daleks in Manhattan.
 * The circumstances of the Tenth Doctor's regeneration echo that of the Ninth Doctor in that he absorbed a massive amount of energy into his body in order to save the life of another. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
 * This is the second time the Doctor has been forced to regenerate due to suffering near-lethal radiation poisoning; this was the fate of the Third Doctor in TV: Planet of the Spiders.
 * Nerys previously appeared in TV: The Runaway Bride.
 * The notion of Gallifrey being moved due to Time Lord action from its home constellation of Kasterborous to Earth's solar system isn't the first time the Time Lords have shown the ability to relocate an entire planet. In TV: The Trial of a Time Lord, the planet Ravolox is revealed to be Earth, relocated to another part of the universe by the Time Lords. And TV: Journey's End revealed that (with a little assist), a single TARDIS is powerful enough to move the Earth.
 * The Doctor knocks out a Sontaran using the exact same method used by Donna in TV: The Poison Sky, striking its probic vent with a mallet kept in the TARDIS for percussive maintenance.
 * The Doctor states that he is 906 years old, implying that three years had passed in his personal timeline since TV: Voyage of the Damned. This also suggests that he may have been 903/4 while with Donna and that Planet of the Dead, The Waters of Mars, Dreamland, The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and The End of Time took place over the course of two or three years for the Doctor.
 * When the Doctor is pointing the gun at the Master, the Master states that the Doctor "never would." The Doctor used these words himself in TV: The Doctor's Daughter, when holding Cobb at gunpoint.
 * This is not the first time the Master has been trapped in a body that is slowly dying. When he stole the body of a human named Bruce, that too began to perish. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * In The Five Doctors, Rassilon has achieved immortality, though in a passive state. In council, we learn that many throughout the Time War are dying, only to be resurrected. He has been revived and restored to mastery over Time Lord society.
 * The Doctor refers to Donna as his best friend, a title he had previously conferred on Sarah Jane Smith, (TV: The Seeds of Doom) K9 Mark II, (TV: The Pirate Planet) and (presumably in jest) Malcolm Taylor. (TV: Planet of the Dead)
 * The Doctor tells Wilf that some people wait centuries to find him. One example of such is Captain Jack Harkness, who waited over a hundred years to find him again after being stranded in the late 19th century. (TV: Utopia, TV: Fragments)
 * The Doctor tells Wilf that he has taken lives, "and I got worse, I got clever. Manipulated people into taking their own." This could also be a reference to his seventh incarnation causing the suicide of the Supreme Dalek and arranging the death of Fenric. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, The Curse of Fenric) It may be a reference to the recent suicide of Adelaide Brooke in The Waters of Mars (although the Doctor had not intended this), and to Davros' admonishment in Journey's End that "many have died in your [the Doctor's] name".
 * The Doctor looks at his right hand and regeneration energy can be seen. He does the exact same thing in TV: The Parting of the Ways and The Stolen Earth.
 * The revelation that the signal in the Master's head was patterned after the beating of a Time Lord's twin hearts was well hidden, as whenever the Doctor's heartbeat was checked in the new series, it was always done one at a time, rather than both at once, which would have given it away. (TV: The Christmas Invasion / Smith and Jones)
 * The Doctor was previously called a "physician" by the Empress of the Racnoss. (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * The Master has said, "Go on then...Do it!" when a gun was aimed at him before. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
 * The Doctor's description of the phrase, "Allons-y", as being "a phrase of great power, and wisdom, and consolation to the soul in times of need" mirrors a similar comment made by the Fourth Doctor about jelly babies being "a great comfort in times of stress". (PROSE: Psi-ence Fiction) Both ("Allons-y" and "Would you like a jelly baby?") were catchphrases of the Doctor (in his tenth and fourth incarnations respectively).
 * Coincidently, the Doctor's catchphrase, "Allons-y" which means "Let's Go!" as mentioned by the Doctor in the episode Midnight (TV story) is referenced in the Doctor's final words in his tenth life which were "I don't want to go" (TV: Midnight (TV story)).
 * This is not the first time that the Doctor has bought a lottery ticket for someone. He is implied to have done so before in TV: School Reunion to have a teacher leave so he could replace her.
 * The Doctor considers the amount of coincidence around Wilf, and the sheer unlikelihood of the two meeting so many times. He also mentioned this about Donna in TV: Turn Left and Journey's End.
 * The Vinvocci imply that they are connected to the Zocci when the Doctor refers to having met one. (TV: Voyage of the Damned)
 * When Wilf said that he's going to die some day, the Doctor tells him, "Don't you dare!" This phrase has been used at least two other times related to an impending death; River Song said this to the Doctor, and the Doctor will have said it to her. (TV: Forest of the Dead, The Wedding of River Song)
 * The scene in which the Doctor begs the Master to understand the difference between ruling the Universe and having unfettered freedom to travel through it parallels a similar conversation between the two in TV: Colony in Space.
 * The Master has indirectly caused the Doctor to regenerate before. (TV: Logopolis, TV: Doctor Who)
 * Donna Noble putting the lottery ticket down the front of her wedding dress is a reference to the running joke in TV: The Runaway Bride about wedding dresses not having pockets.
 * Earth had already been threatened by the approaching of a whole planet in 1986, in that case Mondas. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
 * Rassilon condemns the two Time Lords that didn't agree with the return of Gallifrey to cower and hide their faces, just like "the Weeping Angels of old." (TV: Blink)
 * The Doctor puts his TARDIS a second out of sync with time to mask its presence. Objects and individuals have been placed in this asynchronous state before. (TV: The Stolen Earth, The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
 * One of the things the Tenth Doctor lists he did instead of rushing to meet Ood Sigma is an implied marriage with Elizabeth I, possibly explaining why she wanted him arrested. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
 * The Nightmare Child is mentioned to be one of the "horrors of the Time War." In The Stolen Earth, the Doctor remembers trying to save Davros' flagship after it flew into the Nightmare Child in the first year of the War.

Ginger controversy
During the final scene, the Eleventh Doctor takes a look at his hair and utters the phrase, "Still not ginger!" This statement was misinterpreted by a number of viewers as being a negative comment on redheaded people, resulting in more than a hundred forty complaints being filed with the BBC. In response, the BBC issued an official statement clarifying that the Doctor was stating disappointment at not being ginger, a reference to the Tenth Doctor similarly expressing a wish to be ginger in TV: The Christmas Invasion. In response to claims of an "anti-ginger agenda" by the series, the BBC statement noted that the Doctor's two most recent ongoing companions, Donna Noble and Amy Pond, are both redheads, not mentioning the difference between "red" and "ginger" hair.

Home video releases
The End of Time was released to DVD and Blu-ray both individually and part of a Specials box set in the UK on 11th January 2010. A similar release in North America was released on 2nd February 2010.

Netflix in the US lists The End of Time as episodes 17 and 18 of Series 4. Previously the story was listed as its own title, with part 1 available to stream in HD and part 2 available only in SD. As of 2013 the story was rolled into the core show listing.