‘Doctor Who’ Finale Gets Extended

Traditionally it has only been the Christmas specials of "Doctor Who" that clock in a longer running time. However, due to a bit of pressure from executive producer Russell T. Davies, the BBC has given the go ahead for a longer than usual season finale Saturday night.

“The Last of the Time Lords” will see The Doctor (David Tennant) go head-to-head with his Gallifrean foe The Master (John Simm) with the fate of the planet at stake.

“I love the finale,” Davies told the official Doctor Who magazine. “It’s a chance to write things on a great scale cause we always squirrel away a bit of money for the last episode. Also, this one takes a chance with the narrative: It’s got a couple of devices that we haven’t used before on ‘Doctor Who.’”

At the end of “The Sound of the Drums,” the Doctor was essentially defeated by The Master as a race of alien spheres fall from the sky laying waste to the entire planet. Early press releases indicate that it will once again be up to The Doctor’s trusty companion to save the day.

“We loved the episode so much that we just didn’t want to cut it down to the required running length,” Davies explained. “And thankfully, BBC One agreed, so the episode is a grand fifty-one-and-a-half minutes long. How bleedin’ fantastic!”

The final episode of "Doctor Who's" third season airs Saturday in the United Kingdom, and will premiere next month on SciFi Channel in the United States.

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