Written by Russell T. Davies
Directed by Dylan Holmes Williams
Barclay (to reporters): "Tell them we won the war."
Victory really didn't come in the greatest form here. I know, I know. There had to be a return of status quo of sorts but even I felt bad for Homo Aqua a bit here and that's in spite of that reprehensible thing that Tide did at the start of the episode.
After so much talk of Severance in the last two episodes, it turned out to be a virus. One that the Prime Minister (Vincent Franklin) signed off on being injected into Barclay, who then passed it to Salt and who then inadvertently doomed hef own species.
It was cruel, it was callous and it worked all too well. In some respects, I'm actually shocked that Barclay and Salt themselves didn't die. As for their love story, kind of funny that RTD decided to mirror both Doomsday and Journey's End, only minutes apart from each other.
It looked like the Sea Devils/Homo Aqua's near extinction also nuked any chance of Barclay and Salt being together. Then it turned out that RTD wanted Barclay to be a sexy Gill-Man and those two lovers ended up being together. I desperately wanted Barclay to survive this miniseries and I'm glad he did. I'm still mixed about him and Salt as I do feel their relationship needed to be fleshed out more.
In fact so much needed to be fleshed out. Severance itself could've been better explained. Tide as a more antagonistic member of Homo Amphibia could've been better utilised. The public turning on Barclay also could have been better handled and even the human villains could've done with being anything other than one dimensional. There's a lot of could haves here.
Then there's Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. I do think these last few episodes have cemented just how great an actor Jemma Redgrave can be with the right material. Kate really went through it with Ibrahim's death and while she helped Barclay get his happy ever after, she clearly needed help herself. Blackmailing her therapist certainly wasn't it and nor was that credit scene.
- The credit scene was Kate pointing a gun at a man for littering. I would've removed that scene.
- Barbara and Kirby really added nothing as characters to the show. What was the point of Salt being able to assume a male form? We could've had bisexual Barclay.
- This episode certainly accentured Russell Tovey's physique. I'm not complaining one bit about that.
- Shirley's husband was named Lawrence, Ibrahim appeared in flashbacks and Tide had his kind eat dogs. Definitely could've done without that scene.
- Standout music: Lorne Balfe and Alison Goldfrapp's version of Heroes.
- Chronology: Various locations in this finale.
Overall, The End Of The War marked a mixed ending for something of a mixed series. For the most part, I did enjoy this miniseries with Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Jemma Redgrave all giving excellent performances. Writing could've been stronger and cohesive in parts.
Rating: 7 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment