Ascension (2013)

So this is the end. A spin-off that started in 2004 ends nine years later with Ascension. Would we be given a satisfying end during the next 67 minutes. I knew one thing that some people weren’t going to like this story and some were going to thing that it’s the perfect ending. The story continues with Romana not in fact regenerating but finding herself back on another Gallifrey. It was obvious that it wasn’t going to be like when the Tenth Doctor ‘regenerated’ back in series four but there was going to be some sort of explanation and it was done well. Despite having a relatively short amount of time (they gave three hours to a First Doctor Lost Story), they managed to fit an awful lot into it.

I liked how they tried to tie things up with ‘Genesis of the Daleks’. It was an unexpected link and it felt like they were going to do something like tie it up with known Doctor Who events. There were things that worked that I did manage to understand. I like how it was the Daleks that created the Dogma virus all that time ago.

It seems that the final story was going to be going back to the early days of the spin-off when I struggled to understand what was going on. It sounded like what was happening was all very important and dramatic but I couldn’t tell you what was happening. I think that this is probably a good sign because it means that the show is ending in the same manner than it all those years ago. I thought that the central performances were very good and the one that has been consistent and that is how wonderful Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson have been over the last twenty-three episodes. Despite being a fan of War and Jameson, I cant deny that I felt somewhat underwhelmed by things. I thought that they would try and throw everything at the wall and some things stick and some don’t but because it was so difficult to understand I was only able to enjoy some of it and as a result I think that for some this finale would be what they wanted but for me I just felt that it wasn’t the epic finale that it should have been.