The End of Time (TV story)


 * You may be looking for the book of the same name.

"I don't want to go"

- Tenth Doctor's final words

The End of Time was a two-part Doctor Who special that was broadcast during the 2009–2010 Christmas season, concluding the 2009 "interim season". It was the swansong for the Tenth Doctor and his companions, and briefly included the first appearance of the Eleventh Doctor. The story also revealed many aspects of the Last Great Time War, and gave important development to the character of the Master.

From a production standpoint, it marked a significant sea 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 also 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.

Part One
It is the Tenth Doctor's final journey - but his psychotic nemesis The Master has been reborn, on Christmas Eve. With both determined to cheat death, the battle ranges from the wastelands of London to the mysterious Immortality Gate, while the alien Ood warn of an even greater danger approaching, as a terrible shadow falls across the entire Universe.

Part Two
The Doctor faces the end of his life as the Master's plans hurtle out of control. With the sound of drums growing louder, and an ancient trap closing around the Earth, the Doctor and Wilf must fight alone. But sacrifices must be made, and the deadly prophecy warns: "He will knock four times."

Part One
The Doctor arrives on the Ood Sphere (after some procrastination), and sees that the Ood have progressed further technologically than they should have. Ood Sigma takes the Doctor to the Ood Elders who show him visions of the Master returning. He sees an old woman taking the Master's ring and he realises that the essence of the Master survived his death during their last encounter: however the Ood warn an even greater danger is returning from the darkness, and that its return precedes 'the End of Time itself'. The Doctor rushes to Earth in the TARDIS to try and find him. The scene shifts to Lucy Saxon, who has been incarcerated in Broadfell Prison ever since she murdered her husband. One of the warders of Broadfell is Miss Trefusis, the woman who retrieved the Master's ring. On the night of Christmas Eve, the prison governor brings Lucy to a chamber where it is revealed that most of the staff are fanatical disciples of the Master who have been working ever since his apparent death to bring about his resurrection. With the help of the ring, a biometric imprint taken from Lucy and the sacrifice of the cultists' life force, the Master reappears in a swirl of energy, but Lucy and some other warders have prepared for this eventuality and Lucy hurls a harmful potion at the Master. The Doctor arrives to find the prison obliterated by the resulting explosion. The Master survives the blast, but his life force is left in a state of constant depletion, forcing him to drain the vitality of a number of homeless people on a desolate construction site. Like the Ood and many others on Earth, Wilfred Mott has experienced faded dreams of the Master, and has been scouring London with other pensioners, under the group name the "Silver Cloak", to track down the Doctor. Wilf and the Doctor re-unite and the Doctor reveals that a prophecy has been made predicting his death. Later encountering the Master, the Doctor discovers that the drumming in his head is not a symptom of insanity, but perfectly real. A squad of troops suddenly appear, sedating and kidnapping the Master and taking him to the mansion of billionaire Joshua Naismith. Donna's new fiancée, Shaun Temple arrives and as Wilf tries to watch the Queen's annual speech, The Woman appears and interrupts the broadcast telling him to take arms. Wilf takes his old service revolver out from under his bed as he Doctor contacts him by throwing a stone at his window. Wilf shows the Doctor the book about Naismith, and the Doctor realises that the reason why Donna bought the book as a present was because a subconscious part of her half Time Lord persona is reaching out, and they immediately set a course for Naismith's estate. While in transit in the TARDIS, Wilf asks the Doctor why he can't go back to yesterday and catch the Master; the Doctor explains that he can't go back in his own timeline.

Naismith and his daughter, Abigail, are in possession of the "Immortality Gate", which has restorative powers enabling the healing of injuries and, as Naismith hopes, the resurrection of the dead. Wanting to secure immortality for Abigail, Naismith enlists the assistance of the Master to mend the malfunctioning Gate. Infiltrating the Naismith estate and hiding the TARDIS one second out of sync, the Doctor and Wilf discover that two of Naismith's staff are undercover Vinvocci, members of the race which originally owned the Gate. She and her partner are pressured into explaining the Immortality Gate is a medical device that heals lifeforms across entire planets using a genetic template. The Doctor realises at this point that the Master is going to use the Gate to do something to the Earth's entire population, but is too late to stop the Master from escaping his captors and jumping into the gate. Almost instantaneously every single human on Earth sees the Master in their minds - the Master had modified the Gate to accomplish much more than simply controlling the humans. He transmits his own genetic template across the entire planet, transforming every single human on Earth into a clone of himself - Wilf is protected from the effect by a radiation shield and Donna is immune due to her half-Time Lord physiology, but as Donna witnesses her mother and her fiancée turn into clones of the Master she starts to remember everything that was erased from her memory. As the Master steps out of the gateway he tells the Doctor that he has destroyed the Human race and replaced it with "The Master Race". The Narrator claims the Master and his removal of Humanity is only a small part of an approaching conflict. The Narrator is revealed as the Time Lord President of Gallifrey, addressing the Gallifrey Panopticon, which is packed with fellow Time Lords and Time Ladies. The President announces that "This is the day the Time Lords returned. For Gallifrey! For victory! For the end of time itself!" "Gallifrey rises!"

Part Two
The next episode begins on a devastated Gallifrey, on the last day of the Time War. The Time Lord Council has foreseen that the Doctor, in possession of something called "The Moment", will end the war by destroying both Daleks and Gallifrey. The Time Lord President is adamant that he will not allow himself or his race to die. To try and prevent this, the Time Lord Council concocts a plan which involves retrospectively implanting a link to the Master during his early childhood (the four-beat drum rhythm that has tormented the Master all his life), followed by sending a Gallifreyan "Whitepoint Star" diamond to Earth as a further, more physical, link. This link to the Master's present location will then enable the Time Lords to escape from the Time War's Time Lock, and so escape their impending destruction at the hands of the Doctor.

On Earth, the Master threatens to kill Wilfred if the Doctor will not show him the TARDIS. The pair are saved by the Vinvocci. However, Rossiter, unable to free The Doctor from the chair he is strapped to, is forced to wheel the chair along, down several flights of stairs, prompting the Doctor to say "worst... rescue... ever!" Reaching the basement, the group teleport to the orbiting Vinvocci ship, the Doctor destroying the ship's systems to prevent their detection. The Master broadcasts a message that he has found the Gallifreyan diamond, and that it can only mean the Time Lords are returning. Wilfred considers this good but the Doctor says that the Time War had changed the Time Lords, making them far more dangerous than any of his enemies. The Doctor, having repaired the ship, returns to Naismith's mansion, to find he is too late. The Master is there, and so are the Time Lord Council. The action of the machine is reversed, restoring all humans and leaving only the original Master standing. Gallifrey begins to materialise near Earth, fulfilling the prophecy that "it" (a previously unspecified entity) is returning. The Master reveals he had planned to replicate himself into Time Lord bodies too, but is told by the Doctor that many other terrible things were sealed in the Time Lock as well – the reason for the destruction – and these are all returning too; in short, "hell is descending". The Master glees at the thought of such chaos but the Doctor states that even the Time Lords can't survive the approaching wave.

The Time Lord President reveals they had planned this moment since the Time War, that all creation and all of time will be destroyed and the Time Lords will become pure consciousness. The Master begins to realise that the Time Lords had planned to use his life as a means for them to escape their inevitable death, at the cost of creation itself. He asks to join them, but the President says that he's diseased. After agonizing over who to shoot – the Master, or the Lord President (revealed moments later as Rassilon, founder of Time Lord society), the Doctor makes eye contact with one of the "disgraced" Time Lords kneeling behind the Lord President. She is the woman that Wilfred had seen previously, and her eyes indicate the diamond which is anchoring the Time Lords outside the time lock, which the Doctor then targets with the gun and shots, sending everything back and causing Gallifrey to collapse. The Lord President is furious, and refusing to die alone, attempts to kill the Doctor. But the Master saves the Doctor by using his superhuman powers to blast the Lord President back into the Time War. There is a bright flash of light, and the Time Lords, the Master, the Lord President, and (somewhat slower) Gallifrey, are gone. The Doctor struggles to his feet, not quite able to believe he has survived. Then in the moment where he smiles happliy that he finally feels safe, his face changes to shock, and he is horrified to hear four hesitant knocks, the sound that portends his death. Wilfred is trapped in a radiation containment device and wants to be let out and can only be released at the cost of the Doctor's own life: fulfilling the prophecy that "he" (an unspecified person) will knock four times and the Doctor will die. After emotionally bemoaning that he must sacrifice his own life for Wilf's, he concludes he may have lived too long, releases Wilfred, and enters the containment device, receiving a massive level of radiation poisoning. Although the Doctor survives initially, the effects on his body show that his regeneration has started. Unlike some previous occasions, he doesn't regenerate immediately. He takes Wilfred home and promises to see him one last time. When Wilfred asks where he's going, the dying Doctor says he's going to get his reward. After saving Martha and Mickey who are now married from a Sontaran, and Luke Smith from being hit by a car, the Doctor then sends a goodbye message to Captain Jack and Alonso Frame. Afterwards he visits a book signing of A Journal of Impossible Things by Joan Redfern's great grand-daughter. He then pays a secretive visit to Donna Noble's wedding, where he gives Wilf the gift of a (presumably winning) lottery ticket to pass on to Donna. The Doctor purchased this by travelling back in time and borrowing "a quid" off Donna's late father, Geoff Noble.

Finally, the Doctor goes back to the Powell Estate on New Years Day 2005, the year he first met Rose Tyler. He informs Rose that she will have a great year, before the pain of regeneration sets in. As he collapses in the street, Ood Sigma appears to him to tell him that the entire Universe would sing for him. He tells him "This song is ending, but the story never ends". Pushed on by this, the Doctor reaches the TARDIS, which he sets in motion. Inside the TARDIS, as he begins his regeneration into the Eleventh Doctor, the Doctor sadly replies: "I don't want to go."

The regeneration occurs in an unusually violent manner this time, shattering the TARDIS windows and setting the console room on fire. After the new Doctor remarks on his new body, he realizes the TARDIS is going to crash, and gleefully clings to the console of the TARDIS as it plummets towards the Earth, shouting "Geronimo!!!!"

Cast

 * Tenth Doctor - David Tennant
 * Eleventh Doctor - Matt Smith
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * The Master/The Master Race - John Simm
 * The Woman - Claire Bloom
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * Shaun Temple - Karl Collins
 * Addams- Sinead Keenan
 * Rossiter- Lawry Lewin
 * Joshua Naismith - David Harewood
 * Abigail Naismith - Tracy Ifeachor
 * Σ|Ood Sigma - Paul Kasey
 * Ood Elder - Ruari Mears
 * Lucy Saxon - Alexandra Moen
 * The Visionary - Brid Brennan
 * The Second - Joe Dixon
 * The Partisan - Julie Legrand
 * Minnie Hooper - June Whitfield
 * Martha Smith-Jones - Freema Agyeman
 * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elizabeth Sladen
 * Luke Smith - Tommy Knight
 * Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Verity Newman - Jessica Hynes
 * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
 * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri
 * Alonso Frame - Russell Tovey
 * Oliver Barnes - Barry Howard
 * Time Lord - Roger Bailey
 * Miss Trefusis - Sylvia Seymour
 * Governor - Teresa Banham
 * Mr Danes - Simon Thomas
 * Ood Voices - Silas Carson
 * Voice of Ood Elder - Brian Cox
 * Voice of Judoon - Nicholas Briggs
 * Trinity Wells - Lachele Carl
 * Nerys - Krystal Archer
 * Sarah - Lacey Bond
 * Tommo - Pete Lee-Wilson
 * Ginger - Dwayne Scantlebury
 * Graske - Jimmy Vee
 * Jask - Dan Starkey
 * Winston Katusi - Allister Bain
 * Teenager - Max Benjamin

Crew
to be added

Story Notes

 * This was David Tennant's last appearance as the Doctor and also Matt Smith's first appearance.
 * 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, four minutes longer than DW: Voyage of the Damned. Thus it is the new holder of the title of third longest single episode, behind the 85 minute long DW: TV movie and the 90 minute long DW: The Five Doctors.
 * The person who knocks four times was Wilf.
 * With this, his final Doctor Who story, Davies will have written or co-written no less than ten consecutive episodes (this number counts two-parters as separate and also includes a mini-episode, but does not include Torchwood), an unprecedented accomplishment in the history of the franchise.
 * This is the first story of more than one episode since DW: Survival to have one overarching title. It is unknown if this is one-off or will be continued under Steven Moffat.
 * The Time Lords return after their apparent destruction in the Last Great Time War. This is their first appearance onscreen since DW: The Trial of a Time Lord nearly 20 years eariler, except for a flashback in DW: The Sound of Drums.
 * This is a second time that a Sontaran has appeared as a cameo in a Regeneration episode the first time beingLogopolis
 * This is, along with DW: The Deadly Assassin, Doctor Who, Army of Ghosts, and Human Nature one of the only Doctor Who stories to feature narration. However, in this case it is revealed that the "narration" is in fact part of a speech given by the Lord President to the High Council.
 * 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 likewise played the Master, in DW: TV Movie). This is only the third time that all of the credits were male (the first being DW: "Time Crash and the second being DW: 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 SJA:The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, after the production of this story.
 * In the Doctor Who Confidential for this episode, the TARDIS in the opening titles bears the St. Johns 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 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 (DW: Voyage of the Damned) and also features the song "My Angel Put the Devil in Me", last heard in DW: 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; Delgado's death ended this idea.
 * Given that the canoncity of the interactive of DW: Attack of the Graske and the fourth wall-breaking skit DW: Music of the Spheres are up for debate, the appearance of a Graske in the cantina scene marks the species' first undeniably canonical on-screen appearance in Doctor Who proper following several appearances in the spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures.
 * 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: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter).
 * A line where the Doctor said that he was "half human for a couple of days in 1999" was cut.
 * 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.
 * According to production team comments, this episode takes place in late 2009, ending the practice established in 2005 of having "modern day" stories taking place a year in the future and bringing the show's narrative into line with that of the real world. The default timeline explanation is that modern day Earth stories aired in 2009 and 2008 both take place in the same year; due the DW: The Next Doctor not having a "modern day" placement, it allowed The End of Time to take place on the date it aired, and set this year's stories in the same year as last year's stories.
 * 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 48-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 DW: Human Nature. (REF: Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The Final Chapter)

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
to be added

Rumours

 * It was rumoured that Martha Jones and Mickey Smith would not appear (in particular given Freema Agyeman's commitments to the non-BBC production Law & Order: UK), however this was proved false as the two appeared as did Billie Piper and John Barrowman, whose involvement had been reported in the press during production of the specials.
 * Prior to the BBC's official announcement in mid-November, it was unclear whether Part 1 and Part 2 would both carry the same title (as prior to this only the title of Part 2 had been confirmed by the network). Following the broadcast of DW: The Waters of Mars, Russell T Davies was quoted in the media as saying the title of Part 1 would have six words, leading to speculation over what it might be before it was announced that the two chapters would share the title The End of Time. The original name for the first part was "The Final Days of Planet Earth" but this was changed by Davies as he felt that it didn't fit the episode as a title.
 * It was hinted by Russell T Davies that Donna Noble and/or Wilfred Mott would die, mentioning "Donna's final words" and speaking grimly of Wilf's fate in The End of Time. In another interview, Bernard Cribbins also made a cryptic statement regarding Wilf possibly "regenerating." Ultimately, both characters survived.
 * It was rumoured that Harriet Jones would re-appear, but she did not.
 * It was widely reported in media and on fan discussion boards that the character played by Claire Bloom would be the Doctor's mother. Ultimately, the woman's identity was left a mystery. Some people suppose it to be the Doctor's mother, others believe it to be an alternative world's Donna the way the Doctor looked at her after Wilf asked who the woman was, or, by the same logic, Susan, who is the Doctor's own granddaughter. Davies and Julie Gardner, in the episode commentary, stated that this woman is the Doctor's mother, however as this has yet to be indicated on screen or in spin-off media, it remains to be seen if this actually turns out to be the case.
 * Similarly, the identity of the other dissenting Time Lord is also left a mystery. The character is mentioned as male by Russell T Davies, but the costuming and camera angles make it difficult to determine gender.
 * When it was reported that Billie Piper would appear, speculation mounted as to whether the events of Journey's End would be undone, or if somehow she and the Meta-Crisis Tenth Doctor would somehow be able to leave Pete's World. Ultimately, Piper appeared in a context that prevented conflict with Rose's character arc.
 * The Tenth Doctor's last words would be "Don't forget me." This stemmed from "A Letter from the Doctor", a feature written by Russell T Davies for Doctor Who Storybook 2010 which consisted of fragments of dialogue and descriptions taken from TV various TV episodes, in reverse chronological order. The first words of the Letter are "Don't forget me", while the last were "Hello! Ooh, new teeth..." which were the first words uttered by the Tenth Doctor in DW: The Parting of the Ways. This led to newsgroup-based speculation that extrapolating from the format that the final words of the Tenth Doctor would be "Don't forget me." Ultimately, the final words of the Tenth Doctor were, instead, "I don't want to go." The Tenth Doctor does, however, say "Don't forget me." to Sarah Jane Smith when they part company in The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith which was the last scene filmed by David Tenant as the tenth Doctor.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * Why wasn't anyone surprised at Rassilon's appearance? (Time Lords recognise other Time Lords. The Doctor knew Rassilon, from the Time War and previously. The other Time Lords already knew the Lord President was Rassilon, hence no surprise.)
 * When the Master is restored to life, it is with a growth of facial hair, which he did not have prior to his death. (He had stubble when he regenerated into the Harold Saxon version of the Master, so arguably he is simply returning to the "default state" of this regeneration. Also, he has been changed by the screwup with his resurrection, which brought up multiple problems, facial hair being the least of his worries.)
 * If Lucy has been in prison for approx 2 years, how could the Master's DNA still be on her lips? (It's demonstrated in DW: Smith and Jones that a quick kiss is enough for a genetic transfer. Presumably, since the Master kissed Lucy many times, the genetic transfer lasted long enough for it to be cultivated at a later date, the Master was clever enough to keep a portion of himself alive in the first place he could have also ensured DNA remained on Lucy's lips).
 * Both Lucy's voice and personality seem dramatically different. (Since Lucy has been in jail she has had time to think about her actions with the Master, and has seen how evil he was. Arguably, the first inklings of this "new" personality occur as far back as DW: Last of the Time Lords when she shoots and kills the Master, with the implication he had abused her during the year that never was. It is also stated she was under "the Master's spell" meaning she believed what she was doing was right).
 * How does the sight of the Master make Donna remember? She has never met him before. (In DW: Journey's End, Donna gained all of the Doctor's memories and knowledge. She is thus well acquainted with the Master despite never having met him in person before.)
 * When talking about their previous encounters, Wilf mentions his paintgun although the Doctor wasn't there when he shot the Dalek. (It's possible that Wilf informed the Doctor of his encounter with the Dalek while they were waiting for Donna to awake in DW: Journey's End).
 * It is said that Martha is married to Mickey but isn't she supposed to be married to Tom Milligan? (It was established in DW: The Sontaran Stratagem that Martha was engaged to Tom and later it was stated in TW: Children of Earth: Day One that she was on honeymoon. Her relationship with Milligan obviously ended at some point and she ultimately married Mickey. The episode does not indicate when the Doctor found them - it could have been years later.)
 * How did the Doctor know where Captain Jack Harkness was? (The Doctor likely tracked Jack down using the TARDIS.)
 * Why did the TARDIS explode during the regeneration scene? This hasn't happened before. (Regeneration is unpredictable, and some are more violent than others.)
 * If the regeneration was violent enough to destroy the TARDIS, why did it not at least rip his clothes? Because the energy was shot outward from his body, instead of going inward.
 * Why did the Doctor choose to meet Verity Newman, a descendant of Joan Redfern, and not Redfern herself? The Doctor has already caused Redfern a great deal of heartache and he likely does not wish to reopen old wounds. She was also one of the few people he actually loved, so he wanted to check back on her, how she dealt with the whole situation. Also, Refern might well have died by then- the book signing is over 90 years after the events of DW: Human Nature.
 * If the Doctor saw Rose from 2005, Wouldn't that create a paradox due to the fact Rose has not met the Doctor yet? (The Doctor stayed in the shadows at the end, not wanting Rose to see his face. She asked if he had been drinking, so she would have dismissed him as a drunk and likely not remembered him from the incident. Just as in DW: Smith and Jones, it is safe to do "tricks" like this that don't affect the timeline).
 * Who was manipulating the Ood to advance so quickly and see through time and space? (This was implied to be an effect of the Time Lords pulling themselves back into normal Space-Time.)
 * As Rossiter is climbing into the mining laser pod while the Vinvocci ship is under fire from the missiles, his face is the colour of human skin, instead of the traditional Vinvocci green.
 * The room with The Gate was shaking because of Gallifrey coming closer, but then it stopped shaking when the Doctor picked up the gun. Why was this? (Gallifrey had reached some manner of "equilibrium point" in its approach to Earth.)
 * Rassilon's personality is nothing like it was in the DW: The Five Doctors, and since when is he evil? (Rassilon has always been portrayed as an ambiguous character at best. Although not necessarily evil, there has been previous reference made that Rassilon had a dark component to his persona. For example, the Doctor said in DW: Five Doctors that it was rumored, contrary to the official story of Rassilon's "death," that he was deposed when the council rebelled against his cruelty. In addition, the time lords in general had become sinister, bent on destroying time itself, the reason the doctor destroyed Gallifrey in the first place. It stands to reason that the president would be equally, if not more so, corrupted. Finally, the Rassilion in the End of Time was a different incarnation than that in The Five Doctors, so he would have a different personality as well.)
 * Why is a piece of music from 1930s Earth playing in a space cantina? There have been several instances of other beings being interested in Earth (DW: Voyage of the Damned for example))
 * In DW: Smith and Jones, the Doctor clearly states that he can expel radiation from his body if he focuses hard enough, so therefore why does he need to regenerate? (The damage has been done. There is a misconception that all radiation is the same, in reality there are several types and as shown in several stories (DW: The Daleks, The Mutants, Planet of the Spiders etc) it is shown that Alpha and Beta particle radiation is lethal to Time Lords (to a lower extent) while what's in the electromagnetic spectrum is near harmless to them (i.e Gamma rays, Ultra Violet, X-rays etc.). Furthermore, the Doctor was already in a weakened state after surviving the fall from the mining ship).
 * When Wilfred is trapped in the radiation chamber, why couldn't the Doctor leave and come back with a teleportation device, some other means to repair the chamber, or even a radiation suit of some kind? Perhaps even replicate the TARDIS effect he used in DW: The Doctor Dances to rescue Jack Harkness from his exploding ship? (By the time the Doctor did any of those things, Wilf would have died, and the Doctor has accepted the fact that he has to save Wilf at the cost of his own life. the Doctor said that touch one control and it would flood, even use of a sonic screwdriver - its possible any other device would have a similar effect).
 * How did the Doctor survive jumping out of a moving spaceship, crashing through the skylight, and landing on the marble floor? A lesser fall onto grass killed the Fourth Doctor. Physically each Doctor is different and can be expected to be more or less durable than the others. In addition, the Tenth Doctor mentions he can survive a fall of at least thirty feet in the episode DW: The Satan Pit. Plus, he was also in the same room as the gate, which prevented him from dying, but not healing his cuts as he wasn't inside the gate.
 * When the Doctor decides whether to shoot the Master or the President he holds the gun in different hands (left when pointing at the Master right when pointing at Rassilon). (You can see him change hands).
 * When the Doctor is aiming the gun at both the Master and Rassilon, you can see (and hear) that he has quite obviously pulled the trigger on each occasion. The Doctor is holding the trigger close to the point of shooting a bullet: as he changes targets, he changes hands where he is holding the trigger closely to the point of firing each time. 
 * If Rassilon's glove is so powerful why would he hesitate to use it when the Doctor points a mere revolver at him? (Even if he did fire, the Doctor would have time to fire as well, killing them both and destroying the link).
 * The security camera footage viewed by Joshua Naismith on his laptop is the same as the footage used in the episode DW: Rose on the news bulletin showing the destruction of the Henrik's Department Store.
 * After the Doctor hits the Sontaran the scene cuts from a close-up shot to a full-body shot. However, no Sontaran is visible in the full-body shot. The Sontaran fell off of the platform the Doctor was on.
 * Wilfred states that the Doctor mentioned regeneration to him during a previous encounter, although no such scene appears in previous episodes. Given that the Doctor doesn't mention the subject in casual conversation (Rose Tyler, Donna Noble and Martha Jones were never made aware of it until the possibility of it happening appeared), this seems unusual. Unusual or not, such discussion clearly occurred off-screen either during the time he returned Donna home in Journey's End or during an unchronicled adventure.
 * Why weren't Earth and Gallifrey both ripped apart immediately by gravitational forces when the latter materialised in such close proximity? (Gallifrey hadn't completely materialised yet, so it hadn't become solid enough for it's mass to completely destroy the Earth. )
 * Why did Sarah Jane Smith create a cover story for Gallifrey heading towards Earth when everyone is very aware of the existence of alien life by these events? (Luke says "How else are you gonna explain everyone with a different face?" meaning that the cover story is for the "Master Race" incident, not Gallifrey's appearance. She was not aware of what happened, too, while Luke (non-human) was aware, which would be because she became one of the Master Race.)
 * The Doctor recognised that the person that was aiming a gun at Wilf was a Vinvocci for being 1 inch taller, suggesting that all the Masters were the same height, but when Joshua Naismith and his daughter changed, it is clear that the Joshua Master is taller than his Master Daughter. (In the scene where the Master taunts the Doctor of his newly created "Master Race", you can clearly see that both the Joshua Master and Abigail Master are the same height. In prior scenes where they were different height, the transformations wasn't yet complete.)
 * The Doctor said "even then, it feels like dying" when he tells Wilfred about the prophecy and regeneration, yet he should feel like he is being revitalised when he regenerates. So, why would it feel like dying? Because the process involves a great amount of pain and they become someone else. That previous incarnation's life is over, resulting in that incarnation dying, with another emerging. The incarnations are in some sense different people, and the experience of the process is radically different for the incoming and outgoing incarnations.)
 * When the Doctor "has" to sacrifice himself to save Wilf by going into the malfunctioning radiation chamber, while he is speaking to Wilf, the shot shows a fairly obvious gap between the door and the rest of the glass chamber, making his sacrifice seem a bit of a waste, as the door could have easily been open. (By force or otherwise). (The Vinvocci glass contains and absorbs the radiation, and trying to break open the door would have only just caused the radiation to flow out from that unlocked chamber instead of into a locked chamber where it could be contained which is why the doctor switches the active chamber to his own.)
 * The Doctor knew he was going to regenerate from the minute he saved Wilfred from the radiation. He had seemed to accept this. But the minute before he actually did regenerate, he was starting to cry and said "I don't wanna go." Why would he say this if he had accepted his fate? Just because he accepted his fate doesn't mean he likes it, and it doesn't change how he feels about it.
 * The Doctor has gone through 10 regenerations (if you do not count the meta crisis one.) Some Time Lords had control over the process. If the Doctor has gone through this many, why has he not gained any control over the process? (Some Time Lords can control it better, just as different people have different strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, the Doctor usually regenerates under extreme circumstances, giving him less control over the process. In this case, he also held off regenerating for a significant period of time after being healed, which one would expect took much of his focus and control; this assumes that it wasn't just a quirk of the radiation poisoning that this time regeneration didn't happen immediately. The same thing occurred to the Third Doctor when he was contaminated yet he was still able to travel back to Earth before regenerating.)
 * Luke (and by extension Sarah Jane and the rest of her team) are aware of the "Master Race" transformation, despite the fact that it occurred simultaneously for everyone involved, making outside observation of the effect impossible. (Everyone changed all at once, and then changed back, so nobody could have observed it.) (Luke may have been immune due to his unique nature. There was also recorded visual evidence from news cameras, security footage, etc.)
 * Luke reacts to the Doctor as if he's never met him in person before, even though they would have met during The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith His cut off line appears to be "It's you! You're the Doctor.", which would be odd since they'd already met before. If you play close attention to the way Luke reacts to seeing the Doctor, he clearly recognises him from their first face-to-face encounter, and he was in shock because the Doctor appeared out of nowhere and saved him.
 * If the woman who speaks to Wilfred is a Time Lady, which we know because she is seen with Rassilon, indicating she was in the Time War, and the Doctor was said to have destroyed every Time Lord and Dalek in the war, how could she meet Wilfred? and if she is dead, exactly how could she return and come to see Wilfred? (How she managed to contact Wilfred is intentionally left unexplained for the time being.)
 * Donna's defence mechanism was able to knock out all of the master race that was after her, yet when would the Doctor have had time to implant this if simply hearing about anything that happened with him would kill her? (The Doctor probably implanted it at the same time as he was wiping her mind.)
 * Why didn't Donna die? She saw a flashback of the Doctor from DW: The Runaway Bride, and the Doctor specifically told Wilf that if she remembered him, she would die. When the Doctor was placing on the 'defence mechanism', he might not have been 100% sure it would work. In fact, he have been almost certain that it wouldn't work.
 * Why does Wilf have revolver? Only officers carry revolvers, yet he claims he was a private. (At the front only officers carry revolvers. A private being issued a revolver at some point is perfectly reasonable.)
 * The Doctor states he can tell if a Time Lord is around, so how does he not sense the woman whenever she appeared to Wilf? (She was just an apparition)
 * The inside of the TARDIS has proved to be very resilient surviving many other forms of abuse. Yet, during the regeneration into the eleventh Doctor, it caught on fire from the power of the regenerative energy. (The script indicates that the regenerative energy from the Doctor's left hand went right into the time column, which caused the damage to the interior.)
 * Why didn't the Doctor just use the immortality gate to heal himself? (The healing (and therefore, the regeneration) began before he even left the cubicle. Additionally, once the nuclear bolt had fired, the Gate had no power source.)
 * Before the Doctor regenerates he clearly must be using some sort of hair product, why wasn't his hair sticking up after his regeneration? (The Doctor's body changes completely so any hair product, if any (who knows what the hair of Time Lords can do), disappears with the old hair.)
 * When Rassilon kills the partisan, she is destroyed immediately. Why would it take less time the first time, but not as quick the other times? Much of the functioning of the glove is unknown. Despite this, it did take several seconds from the time he stood up till he destroyed the dissenting Time Lord. This appears reasonably consistent with the later scenes.
 * What was a baby Adipose doing alone in a bar without its parents? . Adult adipose are more than 4 meters tall
 * The Master sometimes used his energy bolts, and his flesh disappeared. Yet other times his flesh didn't disappear. why would this happen? When he used the energy bolts before, his flesh disappearing is most likely to be a coincidence.
 * The Doctor mentions the Nightmare Child in a list of horrors born in the final days of the Time War, however in The Stolen Earth the Doctor said Davros's command ship flew into the jaws of the Nightmare Child in the first year of the Time War. It is possible that the Nightmare Child lasted throughout the Time War and the Doctor mentioned it because it was a good example of a great horror of the Time War.
 * If The Woman is The Doctor's mother, how does that explain the Eighth Doctor's line in The TV Movie "I'm half human...on my mother's side"? The "Half Human" aspect has been said to be a trick to deceive The Master. Other explanations say it was just a thing that lasted a few days. It's safe to say that the concept of the Doctor being half human has been retconned.
 * After the doctors regeneration, he is seen piloting the tardis, but how could he if it was on fire, and he was crashing?Clearly he still has enough control of the TARDIS to pilot her slightly
 * Not necessarily a discontinuity requiring explanation, the High Council of Time Lords is revealed to be an enormous body (resembling the Senate in the Star Wars sagas). In earlier stories the Council was quite small, consisting of the President, Chancellor, Castellan and a few other high-ranking Timelords and Timeladies. The Council consisting of the President, Chancellor, Castellan and a few other Time Lords that appeared in the Classic Series and the first scene of this episode is the Inner Council, while the Council resembling the Senate is the High Council which according to DWM Issue 100 is equivalent to a Parliament.

International Broadcasts

 * United States: BBC America aired Part 1 on 26 December 2009, followed by Part 2 on 2 January 2010, only a day after the UK broadcast.
 * Canada: Space aired both parts back-to-back on 2 January 2010 as part of a daylong Doctor Who/Torchwood marathon. It was also rebroadcast on 3 January.
 * Australia: ABC1 is scheduled to air Part 1 on 14 February 2010, and Part 2 on 21 February 2010.
 * New Zealand and other countries: 7th and 14th February 2010 (Prime, New Zealand).

Continuity

 * The fall of Torchwood is mentioned. (DW: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday) and/or (TW: Children of Earth)
 * The Master returns, and there is flashbacks to the events of DW: Last of the Time Lords.
 * The Immortality Gate was previously referenced in SJA: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, as "the Gate."
 * When Donna remembers the Doctor several things from her time with him appear, included are Empress of the Racnoss (DW: The Runaway Bride), the Adipose (DW: Partners in Crime), Ood (DW: Planet of the Ood), the Suit Creature (DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead), the Vespiform (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp), Sontarans (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky), a Pyrovile (DW: The Fires of Pompeii), Dalek Caan, Davros and the Supreme Dalek (DW: The Stolen Earth/Journey's End). The Judoon (DW: The Stolen Earth) can also be heard in her memories.
 * Alonso Frame (DW: Voyage of the Damned) is sitting next to Jack, who appears depressed, in an alien bar, and the Doctor hints they should start a relationship, following his loss of Ianto Jones. (TW: Children of Earth)
 * The Doctor mentions Joan Redfern to her granddaughter Verity, asking if she was happy after "John Smith" had gone, referencing the events of DW: Human Nature/The Family of Blood.
 * The song My Angel Put the Devil in Me is playing in the alien bar. It was first heard in DW: Daleks in Manhattan.
 * The circumstances of the Tenth Doctor's regeneration echo that of the Ninth Doctor: Absorbing a massive amount of energy into his body, in order to save the life of another. (DW: Parting of the Ways)
 * The Doctor previously suffered near-lethal radiation poisoning, which also triggered a regeneration DW: Planet of the Spiders.
 * Donna's neighbour who appeared throughout Series 4 is finally given a name in part one, Sally.
 * Nerys previously appeared in DW: The Runaway Bride.
 * The notion of Gallifrey being moved due to Time Lord action from the 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 DW: The Mysterious Planet, the planet Ravalox is revealed to be Earth, relocated to another part of the universe by the Time Lords. And DW: 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 DW: The Poison Sky.
 * The Doctor states that he is 906 years old, implying that three years had past in his personal timeline since DW: Voyage of the Damned.
 * The Master's mysterious accusation to the Doctor in Last of the Time Lords, that the eventual heat death of the universe and desperation of the Utopians was "all your fault", was probably a foreshadowing reference to the Doctor's choice to destroy the Time Lords and save the physical universe, rather than allowing the Time Lords to destroy it and "ascend." The Master could easily have attained that information from the Doctor during his year of captivity. Whether the Master has forgotten some, or all of that year (as suggested by his initial greeting of Lucy as his "ever faithful") or whether he remembers and this foreknowledge is considered a blooper, is not yet known. The accusation for this incident wasn't foreshadowing, but rather a direct reference to the previous story, in which the Doctor is directly responsible for enabling the humans to begin their journey to Utopia, which in turn leads them down the path to the eventual events of The Sound of Drums. The Master's description of Lucy as "ever faithful" appeared to be intended as sarcasm.
 * 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.
 * 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 The Doctor's Daughter, when holding Cobb at gunpoint.
 * 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.
 * This is not the first time the Master has been trapped in a body that is slowly dying: When his original regeneration cycle ran out, his remaining body started slowly decomposing. And when he stole the body of human named Bruce, that too began to perish.
 * The Sontaran in Part 2 would appear to be Commander Skorr. If so, there is no explanation as to how he survived being shot in The Poison Sky.

'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 140 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 DW: 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 the yet-to-be-introduced Amy Pond, are both redheads.

DVD Release

 * 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 is scheduled for on 2nd February 2010.