The rest of the interchangeable people get on their cell phones, but Christina has a date with Javert, who comes running and yelling, and she pulls the Doctor aside and says she's ready to roll. "Come on, Doctor! Show me the stars!" No. "But I saved your life. And you saved mine!" So? "So my ass is going to prison for stealing things!" Yeah? "But you were right, it's not about the money. I only steal things for the adventure, and today, with you... I want more days like this. I want every day to be like this. We're made for each other, you said so yourself. The perfect team..."

Suddenly the acting improves a thousandfold, and we get actually committed, authentic performances out of them both for this one scene. He's impassive, and so, so sad, and she gets it but she asks him why anyway, and he's like, Companions die or otherwise get depressing on me, and I'm sick of it. So off to jail with you! They arrest her, and the hurt and betrayal in her eyes is really effective, as is the million things going on with the Doctor, and all the hate for them both being such irritating bastards just sort of trails away. I wish the rest of the episode had earned this scene, because it really is brilliant.

But then magical black lady comes up and magicals at him about how he's going to regenerate come Christmas, his "song is ending," which is sort of an ood thing to say innit, and also: "It is returning. It is returning through the dark. And then, Doctor... Oh, but then... He will knock four times."

He stares after her, looking terrified and sad and just generally nuts, but I don't get it. Somebody psychic says that shit to him every day of his life, and it's always true, and he never gives a fuck, but this time he takes it to heart. And I mean, after YANA I'm tired of that manipulative silly "he will knock four times" deal. I really want this season of specials to be more than a warmed-over redux of the last four years. You know how rarely I get soppy about the characters on this show, how deeply averse I am to that, but still: it seems disrespectful to Rose and especially Donna to replay any of this. There should be consequences. But going there like this, I wonder. "It" is probably Daleks, because it's always fucking Daleks, and "the dark" is probably the Void, because ditto, and I'm guessing "he" is pretty obvious too, since it's always the same "he." But I sort of thought the end of Martha's season was a rerun of "42," and I'd hate to think we're dipping into that well for the third time with this last season, especially since we've now visited the whole "bad things happen when the Doctor doesn't have Companions and/or marital-rapes them" thing twice, so I guess we'll see. Buffalo buffalo, etc.