The second season of rebooted "Doctor Who" draws to a close with "Doomsday" the second half of the two-part story that says goodbye to Rose Tyler as a regular companion.
Two of the Doctor's (David Tennant) greatest foes, the Daleks and the Cybermen clash on the streets of London with Torchwood's Canary Wharf tower as ground zero. The Doctor desperately searches for a way to defeat both enemies and permanently close the breaches in space/time, but his plan may come at a terrible cost.
This was a really good episode, both to end the two-part story and tie up the various strands of the season. It doesn't quite pack the emotional punch that it did in 2006, because we now know that Rose Tyler will reappear in the series a few times, but it is a wonderful downbeat almost "Empire Strikes Back" ending, where though the world is saved again, the loss is almost more than the Doctor can take. David Tennant and Billie Piper play this really well and a reuniting, of sorts, for Rose's parents was a nice touch.
It's interesting comparing this era of Doctor Who with today's (2020's). Though I don't think that the RTD era got absolutely everything right, one thing I do really like is that the show isn't afraid of itself, of its own plot and the audience's ability to remember it and to tie moments back in. The pay off from the first seasons Dalek episode, about Rose's time travelling radiation being a conduit to restore them is really well done. Speaking of the Daleks, I like the sass from this version telling the Cybermen that they are useless and not even a match for one of them.
Occasionally the effects are showing their age, particularly the frying of Raji James' brain being a bit first season ropey. There is the occasional lapse in logic, particularly related to the portal at the end and it's a shame that we couldn't see more of Tracy Ann Oberman's character - though she does have a hero moment of sorts near the end.
It's probably the high point of the first two seasons and one of the most memorable episodes from the whole series.