This weekend, Amy and Rory Pond make their final bow in Doctor Who. Will Salmon looks back at some of the show’s best – and worst – exit strategies…
One of the most deceptively abrupt departures in the show’s history: Romana suddenly announces to the Doctor in the last couple of minutes of the story that, no, she’s not leaving E-Space with him, but sticking around to help the lionesque Tharils escape slavery. Oh, and she’s taking K9 with her (he had some technobabble rust or something which prevented him from leaving E-Space anyway). We say deceptively because, to quote the Doctor from his own regeneration two stories later, the moment has been prepared for. Two stories previously, the Doctor had been asked to return Romana to Gallifrey. She didn’t want to go, and only an unplanned detour into E-Space prevented it happening straight away. So when the Doctor found a way to return to our universe it was only logical she’s say, “No thanks.”
The actual departure scene may have been blink-and-you’ll miss it, but the off-the-cuff, impulsive manner was totally in character for Romana 2. Plus it did give the Doctor the chance to deliver one of his classic one-liners, “You were the noblest Romana of them all.” (It’s a Shakespeare reference, if you don’t know your classics.)
Tags: Doctor Who, Featured
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