RTD's Finales AREN'T just Deus Ex Machinas

I see this criticism a lot. But I want to heavily dispute it here.

First, we must talk about what a Deus Ex Machina is.

Deus ex machina is a Latin calque from Greek ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanês theós) 'god from the machine'. The term was coined from the conventions of ancient Greek theater, where actors who were playing gods were brought on stage using a machine. The machine could be either a crane (mechane) used to lower actors from above or a riser that brought them up through a trapdoor. Aeschylus introduced the idea and it was used often to resolve the conflict and conclude the drama. The device is associated mostly with Greek tragedy, although it also appeared in comedies.
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A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby an unsolvable conflict or point of tension is suddenly resolved by the unexpected appearance of an implausible character, object, action, ability, or event. For example, if a character fell off a cliff and a flying robot suddenly appeared out of nowhere to catch them, that would be a deus ex machina.
[...]
A Deus ex Machina is when some new event, character, ability, or object solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in a sudden, unexpected way.
[...]
The plot leads toward an inevitable conclusion, then, at the last possible minute, we throw something in that changes everything.
[...]
Foreshadowing is a narrative device in which a storyteller gives an advance hint of an upcoming event later in the story.
[...]
Chekhov's gun (or Chekhov's rifle; Russian: Чеховское ружьё) is a narrative principle emphasizing that every element in a story be necessary, while irrelevant elements should be removed.

While the precise boundary between a true Deus Ex Machina and a plausible twist / foreshadowing / Chekhov's Gun ending is imprecise and ultimately subjective - I'd like to focus on two parts "implausible" and "new".

A whole new element coming into story would clear DEMs. Like the robot flying in from offscreen or a god floating down from on high. A more satisfying version of this would be the virus from War of the Worlds - which points out that DEMs are not blanket a bad thing.

A story element from a previous story that is technically in the same universe but you wouldn't expect to appear for whatever reason is "borderline" - which is how the Wikipedia page describes the appearance of Captain Marvel in Endgame. I would count the eagles in LOTR as this - as they are technically an element of the story, just a bit random.

A story element clearly placed front and centre - even if it is a clever re-use of that element - is not a DEM. Even better if this is foreshadowed in some way. It can be a twist, but a twist and a DEM are different things even if they sometimes overlap.

I want to be very clear before I begin. Dr Who is, and always has been, a very silly show. It is not going to be super-duper-logical. It's always been more science-fantasy than hard sci-fi. I am not going to hold it to a high standard - so I will be judging on the following criteria;

Is the element shown or mentioned before hand? How clearly?
Is the element significantly different from previous showings?
Is there a science fantasy technobabble reasoning that makes it make sense previously shown BEFORE the event occurs? Preferably significantly before the event occurs - ad-hoc and post-hoc justifications not included - but not in a previous era.

Anyway - ground work out of the way - lets look at each finale.

Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways

The main element here that is criticised as DEM here is Rose inhaling the Heart of the TARDIS and gaining god-like powers.

However, this is a pretty easy counter. The Heart of the TARDIS is literally introduced one episode before hand, in Boom Town - and is shown to have "time powers". While it's second iteration does not do precisely the same thing as it's first - it is heavily implied that it is VERY strong and flexible/psychic.

DOCTOR: "She looked into the heart of the Tardis. Even I don't know how strong that is. And the ship's telepathic [...] Maybe the raw energy can translate all sorts of thoughts. [...] She's an egg."

The point here isn't that the HotT doesn't just turn you into an egg - or regress you to childhood. It does what you want it to - what you secretly really want to do. That is what she secretly wanted - to revert to childhood and start again. It does so with time-and-space powers (deliberately nebulous).

And Rose, not so secretly, wanted more than anything to go back, destroy the Dalek and save the Dr. You can consider it implausible if you want but Rose goes out of her way to try to get the TARDIS to start or break. They use a tow-truck and all. This isn't some "oops we won" situation - they have to work for that resolution - and the fact that Rose went as far as she did to break open the HotT shows how far she was willing to go.

While Bad Wolf Rose may literally be a "god from the machine" - she is hardly a Deus Ex Machina.

Army of Ghosts / Doomsday

Here they re-open the rift and pull all the Daleks and Cybermen into the void!

So the entirety of this episode has been setting up the void. The parallel universe was also set up one series ago - and the void was briefly mentioned then IIRC.

Using the levers and the rift/void to pull all the Daleks and Cybermen in is criticised as a DEM also.

I find this one especially ridiculous because the whole thing spends two whole episodes setting this one up.

They only explain Voidstuff and how it "pulls them all in" at 29:32 (the switches are flipped at 34:13) - however the Dr has been wearing the 3D glasses for most of the episode and the episode before, and putting them on when inspecting many different things throughout the episodes - making that a Chekhov's Gun of sorts.

I also did a quick check of the transcripts for any relevant mention of "pull" to check if it was a theme throughout the episodes and I found these;

DOCTOR: Like a psychic link. Of course you want your old dad to be alive, but you're wishing him into existence. The ghosts are using that to pull themselves in.

While this isn't much to go on - it is something. The theme of crossing the worlds and having to pull or be pulled into / out of the void is set up. The Voidstuff is also indirectly Chekhov's Gunned into the story via the glasses which we assume are a silly outfit choice - but we do see the Dr using them to inspect things throughout the episode.

Sure, the ending is abrupt and seems to fix things quite quickly - but all the pieces are laid out beforehand and it is just a simple enough rearrangement of them to get the result we get.

The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords

Need I be specific? Jesus Doctor.

This seems like possibly the blatant DEM out there! He's literally floating!!!

But... is it?

The previous two episodes spent ages setting up the Archangel Network - and how it has psychically tapped into most of humanity. This is what is used to empower the Doctor at the end of the episode - and it being called the "Archangel" network seems extra fitting because that is what the Dr looks like when he is empowered.

But more than that - multiple previous episodes and series have been setting up the latent psychic potential of humanity. This began all the way back in S1 with the Unquiet Dead - but Gwen's ancestor is not implied to be the only psychic human, just a little bit extra than most.

Additionally - stuff-that-looks-like-magic-but-isnt and psychic/adjacent powers have been shown to give super-natural seeming abilities for a long time, even back in classic. But excluding classic we have;

The Unquiet Dead
The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit (the Devil uses the Ood via psychic link - and also seems to corrupt Toby via it)
Tooth and Claw (not so much the powers themselves but the magic-lite we see in the episode)
Fear Her (arguable)
The Shakespear Code (seemingly tied in how the witches do their word-science/magic/whatever)

While it's not the strongest - the Dr receiving "not magic" from the massively boosted human psychic field of Archangel... doesn't really surprise me by the end of Series 3. It's more powerful than we had previously seen but he did have the whole world willing it into existance.

The Stolen Earth / Journey's End

This is one that is a little more nuanced. Because it isn't the hand, nor the syphoning off of the regen, nor the metacrisis that is criticised. It is the buttons in Davros' Vault.

People criticise the Vault for having a "button that makes the Daleks spin" - but I think that is a misreading of the text.

Firstly - want to point out that the theme of someone the villains think is stupid but isn't actually is allowed access to the controls and saves the day has been shown before. Specifically in Family of Blood where John Smith bumbles his way into the Family's ship, stumbles into a load of buttons - then reaveals he is the Doctor and says "you shouldn't have let me press all those buttons."

But in the episode itself, is this plausible. I think it's mixed.

Implausible:

The Doctor says: "the Supreme Dalek said Vault, yeah? As in dungeon, cellar, prison. You're not in charge of the Daleks, are you? They've got you locked away down here in the basement like, what, a servant? Slave? Court jester?" [...] "You're the Dalek's pet!"
Also RED DALEK: "They are the playthings of Davros now."
Why would the Daleks put buttons that can destroy the entire Dalek ship in dungeon/cellar/prison?
The buttons are not, to my knowledge, touched by any Daleks / Davros previously. I skin-watch - and while there may be consoles on the walls they interact with, the main console seems untouched.
Donna only clicks "That button there!" to deactivate the Time Bomb - as well as another to cause Davros' Leccy Hand to backfire. How are either of those a single button?

Plausible:

The Doctor is clearly winding Davros up. He is upset and is trying to make Davros upset.
Davros says: "We have an arrangement."
This indicates he may not be happy with his position, but does not imply that he is as lowly as the Doctor is implying. Much of the rest of what we see implies that Davros is still revered and respected.
This implies that this area is some sort of "house" or "lab" for Davros. He has enough there in order to do experiments, planning... maybe even watch a film. Maybe Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. That is what the console is implied to be.
We see the console used throughout the episode - primarily as a projector. It projects multiple things and they watch things unfold on it. It is clearly a device that is hooked up to the rest of the Dalek ship - as the Daleks re-route transmissions to it to show Davros et al.
Along side "That button there!" we also see Donna typing away on the controls multiple times to achieve what she wants to achieve. The implication is clearly that she is hacking it. In fact the design of the buttons mimics that of a Stenograph (I half suspect it might be one) - a technology she may be familiar with as a temp / secretary / worked in typing jobs.
Also "That button there!" is clearly a joke - one the writers are making and Donna is making in universe. She may well have been typing away before we see her flick the single switch. We see her get up at the controls a few seconds before we see her typing and the camera cuts away from her.

This one I have to put on borderline because the console is not properly set up or foreshadowed.

All that is needed is a single scene of Davros using the controls in some way - and it would not be a DEM - but as it stands there is a brief moment of "wait... there was a console there the whole time?" You can see it throughout the episode but it is blink and you'll miss it - which is bad practice for a story element you want to use to finish the story.

The End of Time Part One & Two

This is the episode I see the lease criticised as DEM - but still sometimes.

The main part that seems DEM to some is the Doctor shooting the machine behind the Master to send the Timelords back into the Time War. Surely if that was an option - he would have just done that instead of going in with a plan to shoot the Master or the Time Lords.

I think this is one of those cases where it's more of a twist than a DEM. The machine was there the whole time. It is a recurring theme in Dr Who that there is always a way to solve the situation by being clever, not just brutally violent. Often these solutions are twists. This fits with that theme.

It also fits into the narrative being told about the Doctor being pushed to the point of having to make impossible and immoral decisions. Earlier in the narrative he rejects the gun Wilf offers him, and only when he learns the Timelords might return does he take it. He is then faced with an impossible decision;

Shoot the Master and break the tether, the Master being a bad guy but also ultimately a victim of the Timelords.
Shoot Rassilon for his atrocities - possibly also breaking the tether. He definitely deserves it at this point as he caused most of this, including (possibly) the Master's madness and subsequent evil nature.
Secret Third Option: shoot the machine and let them decide how they react to the situation.

The Secret Third Option could be seen as a DEM, like I said. But to rei-iterate, Secret Third Option twist endings are a staple trope in Dr Who. Take that away and half the episodes go up in flames.

The Giggle (Bigeneration)

All of this has been sparked because RTD2's finales have been underwhelming. Buuuuuuut I have more to say.

People call bigeneration nonsense, but I already did a full essay on that here. I won't rehash it in detail. Perhaps you could clarify it as a DEM but it thematically fits with the overall narrative of the incompatible needs of the Dr to properly settle down while also saving the universe.

The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death

But in The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death the Dr defeats Sutekh with... a whistle, a rope/lead and the glove-thingy. So I went back to check if these things were (re)introduced earlier.

While the Dr calling the TARDIS with a finger click has happened before, I do not remember anything like that being re-established recently.
The rope/lead is actually introduced at 11:08 used to hold the memory TARDIS together.
The glove is established in The Church on Ruby Road - it was also brought up at 11:51.
The whistle is introduced at 27:03 - and the Dr calls it "Handy".

Each item is focused on at least a little. There is also the red herring of "I will use this spoon, I promise. I might save the universe with this spoon." - which as far as I remember doesn't come into it.

I honestly do not think this element of the EoD was that bad. Many people seem hung up on it, but honestly the thematic imagery of taking Sutek (a dog) on the lead back into the Time Vortex seems apt enough. The laser beam the Tardis emits seems out of nowhere though - that could be considered a DEM.

Criticism where it is due - I do not think these were established as well or as thoroughly as RTD1's finale gubbins. They were dangled in the audience's face largely randomly (esp the gloves and the whistle, the rope less-so). It would be better if the tools' uses were demonstrated a little more.

Wish World / The Reality War

The main thing in this one that is criticised as a DEM is the use of the Vindicator as a gun.

This is the one that seems the least defensible to me. But I will give it a go. What he said was "If only I had a weapon, hiding in plain sight." - which could be seen as in reference to how the Vindicator had previously been a weapon of the Rani hiding in plain sight (used by the Doctor). The theme of the tool being subverted and re-used had already happened once, this is that again. Even the fact that he changes it from looking like a clock hand to looking like a gun fits with the pre-established fact that it used to look like a tripod and then looked like a clock hand.

However, I do think this is probably the least defensible of them all. It technically makes sense but seems so thematically dissonant with everything else. The Doctor would not just up and shoot the baddy to death with "the power of one billion supernovas".

Conclusions

I want to be clear. I think there is plenty to criticise. RTD2 especially got a LOT wrong with its finales. You can even say that despite everything I have said - you still find that RTD doesn't do a good enough job of foreshadowing the solutions ahead of time or that the logic is particularly weak compared to Moffat / others.

But I think the criticism of them all being Deus Ex Machinas is shallow - when

Doctor who is self admittedly a silly and camp show and
Russel usually actively puts work in to foreshadow and Chekhov's Gun his twists.

People are using this fact to criticise Russel's work as a whole, and I guess that is why I wrote this. To show appreciation for his writing because I honestly think he is a great writer who puts a lot of thought and care into his work when he can. I think we often become very negative about things and forget that there are people behind the art - enjoying complaining rather than actually seeing the art for what it is.

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