You know, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. (You’ll find other opinions elsewhere, but here’s a slightly moderate one. And here’s another.)

No, seriously; after some of the reactions I’d spotted after the episode went out in the U.K., I’d half thought that we’d get a repeat of Series 3’s Care Bear Stare/Superman I resolution, a Slitheen farting contest, a reconstituted Gallifrey, Donna and Rose going off together, and the final revelation that the Doctor’s real name is Jed Selznick.

So many people will (or have) gone over everything that went wrong with the last two episodes, that my own ideas on the subject just aren’t worth reading. And, mostly, I did enjoy it. But — oh, okay, just three things, then.

First: Since this wasn’t just the end of a season (or, in British parlance, "series" — I’m sorry, but I’m going to stick with seasons to avoid confusing any dumb yanks that might be — um, writing this post) there was a lot more riding on this finale. I mean, face it, I watch the show because I love it and the idea that all we’ve got to look forward to is a Christmas special, and a handful of "special" specials is a little disappointing. I would have liked an ending that moved me to tears or had me triumphantly jumping up and down on the couch. Instead, we got something that was about the level of just a normal season closer. Looks like the production team just wasn’t up to it.

Second: This whole season, every episode felt like it was too short, like they were just rushing through them. Seasons one and two had whopping great openings that spent loads of time moving slowly into the plot. Think of all those interludes with Rose’s mother; hell, in "Aliens of London" the plot didn’t start up for something like fifteen minutes.

Not so in season 4: "Hey, we’re in Pompeii! Woosh, woosh, whoosh, oh no! I’ve got to jump start this here volcano! Bye now!"

Oh, but the last one — oh, "Journey’s End!" It was 90 minutes, but felt like a half an hour. And that’s part of the problem, I think; it was just too short.

No, really. If you’re going to have all those companions hanging around, you need to give them some room, and a lot more to do than ineffectually hold the Daleks hostage by offering to kill themselves. They (and, by extension, the Doctor) needed to be put through the wringer, for drama’s sake — but there just wasn’t enough time. Martha spend all that time getting to the key-whatsit, threatened to blow up the entire Earth, and they held the tension for something like, what, 85 seconds?

And poor Gwen and Yanto got exactly squat to do in this episode: they didn’t even get a chance to meet that Doctor fella’ that Jack’s been talking about all this time — at least, not in person.

Thirdly: I think part of the problem was that "The Stolen Earth" was actually one of the best stories we’d seen in a while. It was scary, fast-paced, and had a lot of familiar faces coming back. There was a whiff of resolution in the air. Then the cliffhanger comes, putting them all in deadly danger.

Well, of course they had to back-pedal from all that in order to start the next episode without having to cancel the two spin-off series. And I’m not in the "Rose Tyler Must Die" camp, but having her caged in by an overhead spot just so she could approve of her replacement seemed like a bit of a waste.

Actually, that could be said of all of the other companions; "Stolen Earth": action-hero antics, and a willingness to risk death on the off chance that they might be able to contact the Doctor. "Journey’s End": Got you! Zap! Ooo, they’ve captured us, let’s all stand around for a while.

The fact is, Russell seems perfectly willing to let his characters stand at the edge of the abyss, but shows tremendous reluctance to throw them in to it. Which, if you see some of the other stuff he’s written (like Touching Evil) is something of a change.

Also: Davros’ accusation that the Doctor turns the people he associates with into murderers, using his own disingenuous pacifism to basically force others to do the dastardly deeds he often avoids himself, strikes me as a direct contrast to the Master’s dig of last season: "You’re called the Doctor. The man who makes people better."

Which is great: even his own worst enemies can’t agree on the effect he has on his companions. This is the kind of thematic conflict that a writer could exploit to good effect (if only he had the time! See the previous point).

Nothing came of it however. Compare that to the lesson we learned about how small decisions can snowball into large effects in "Left Turn". Or how people without options tend to cling to faith, and not the "What time did that Martha tell us to pray? Oh, bugger, it was an hour ago, did we miss anything?" kind of faith, but the kind that desperate people have when the chips are down and there’s a Dalek saucer blasting holes in the local architecture, and maybe your iPhone is so cool, it can summon an alien you once met who might be able to do something about all this.

How do you compare that with a story, basically, about a bomb not going off?

Okay, then. One more thing. A little bonus for you — about what the show got right (because, remember, I actually liked it).

So, fourth: Russell T has been banging on for the past four years about how lonely the Doctor is. It’s been the point of, basically, every other story. He hurts Rose over it, he broods, he re-hurts Sarah Jane over it, and he nearly agrees to spend the rest of his lives with some madman, just so he won’t be the last of his kind.

But, I’ve never really bought into that theme of loneliness, on an emotional level, because we’ve only seen the Doctor by himself for brief flashes here and there; or, we’ve seen him slowly melting for his companions, or showing off in front of them, or being dismissive and unaware of their feelings.

This time though, I believe it. That look on his face, when the TARDIS was packed to the rafters with companions, all joyful and triumphant, and getting along after saving the Earth — that expression was epic. I mean, we’ve seen Tennant’s Doctor happy before, but this was very different. He didn’t just look pleased — he looked perfected.

In one moment of one scene of one episode, the entire inner core of the Doctor — a character we’ve known and watched for more than 40 years, who us fans think we know absolutely everything about — was visible. And it was shocking. That contented expression of a man, at last in his element, surrounded by the people that care for him most was magnificent.

I’m not sure if Davies was trying to display all that in what he wrote, but he’s very fortunate that David Tennant was capable of pulling it off. I mean, he nailed it. That brief moment when the Doctor finally got what he wanted — something that we fans didn’t even know he wanted, since we think of him as the ultimate loner, happy to be away from it all — I’m going to miss Tennant when he’s gone.

I know, too long. But I’ve just finished watching the episode, and I type fast, (not 100 words a minute, though), so no big deal.