The End of an Era

One thing that it just dawned on me is that this is the first time in a very long time that Doctor Who has had such a clear end of an era like the one that we're getting this New Years. And arguably, it is the most complete end-of-era ever where the show was still carrying on.

The Ninth Doctor to Tenth Doctor change wasn't really changing the era -- while when you look at the Christopher Eccleston year it's incredible to see how the production team has matured, it wasn't really a different era when David Tennant took over -- I look at it as the successful reestablishment of the series.

Doctors Six through Eight never really had that end-of-an-era element to it -- none of them can really be looked at as having successful complete runs.

While Caves of Androzani is one of the high water marks of the series -- and Doctor Who wouldn't be that good again until the 2005 revival -- it was really only the Doctor and companion that changed in that time. In fact, it could be argued that by not changing out the creative staff at this point, it was what led to the decline of the series.

I'm tempted to say that Logopolis was an end-of-an-era - and in many ways, if you look at Season 18 as a transition year, the series is radically different between the end of Season 17 and the start of Season 19. But it is difficult to say that Logopolis is as complete a change as we are going to be witnessing now with the show. After all, Logopolis was really the middle chapter of the three part reintroduction of the Master. I'm a big fan of Logopolis -- and you don't need to read any spoilers to feel comfortable in saying that it will be an influence on The End of Time.

The change between Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker is much more like this change is. Liz Sladen stays as Sarah Jane, but that is it. Barry Letts moves on and is replaced by Philip Hinchcliffe, and Terrance Dicks is replaced by Robert Homes.

The War Games shares some of this end-of-era feel; but it is really the rise of the Terrance Dicks era of Doctor Who -- the cast changes completely when Patrick Troughton and his companions depart; and the change to color is absolutely a major change. But it isn't until Doctor Who and the Silurians that Barry Letts is producer.

And while the change between the First and Second Doctors was the radical change that created a format that could last forever, the production staff didn't change at that time. One of the convincing parts of Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood's About Time 1 is that the story of the William Hartnell era is how the pieces of the Doctor Who concept really come together over that whole era; and in many ways, you don't get the definitive Doctor until Patrick Troughton takes over from William Hartnell.

One thing that I realized as I have been writing this all up is that the change of eras happen over a more extended period of time in the past -- a much more gradual change. That change happened over an extended time this time as well -- but there wasn't a full year of Doctor Who to see that change evolve on screen; instead we will see one series end and a completely new Doctor Who begin in 2010.

So it's going to be very exciting to see The End of Time -- and if stories like Logopolis, War Games, and Caves of Androzani can be taken as precedent, we should be in for some very good Doctor Who over the next two weeks.