Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords
Story 187, Episodes 735-737, Series 3 Episodes 11-13
Doctor: The Tenth Doctor
Companions: Captain Jack Harkness, Martha Jones
The only true three-parter in the new series, the finale of Series 3 is close to being pitch-perfect, but John Simm’s Master misses the mark.
The Review
This story gets crazier the further it goes, and it starts by going to a planet at the end of the universe in the year 100 trillion. Captain Jack grabs onto the outside of the TARDIS and the TARDIS tries to shake him off by going there. We learn that the Doctor knew well that Rose saved Jack in Series 1, but is disgusted by his permanent immortality. One of the story’s best scenes is when Jack does some work in a room with horrific radiation that would disintegrate a normal man, with him and the Doctor airing it all out. Tennant’s Doctor has never seemed older, or more wise, than he does explaining to Captain Jack what’s wrong with him. We also get our answer to how Captain Jack got from 200,100 to the present day: he had a portable time travel device that got him to 1869 before it broke. He lived out his life more or less around Cardiff waiting for a Doctor that would know him to return. The last humans are loading up on a rocket to get to the mysterious ‘Utopia’ while being menaced by ‘Futurekind’, which are just big mean humans with teeth. They do blast off, but that’s when it goes wrong.
There is a kind-hearted professor there, Professor Yana, who has been working on the rocket but plagued with horrible headaches. Martha then sees he has a Gallifreyan fob watch, just like the one the Doctor had in Human Nature. Yana (You Are Not Alone), opens it and is restored…as the Master. Derek Jacobi is only the Master for a few minutes but he is one of the coldest and cruelest incarnations to date, murdering his assistant Chantho. Chantho gets him back though, and the Master stumbles into the TARDIS and regenerates into young John Simm. The Doctor’s face of horror as the Master abandons him is incredible. Thankfully he is able to fix Jack’s vortex manipulator, and they arrive in present day…where the Master has just been elected freaking Prime Minister. Simm gives a delightful speech saying what the country needs is a Doctor, and then the Doctor, Martha, and Jack are forced on the run. Martha’s parents and sister are arrested, although she tells her brother to hide and we never see him again. The Sound of Drums is a fun romp leading to the Helicarrier Valiant where the Master reveals his plan to use spheres called Toclafane to rule the planet.
Here’s the biggest problem with this story: Simm’s Master in this story just isn’t good. Now, I think a lot of the blame actually falls onto RTD because Simm has gotten better and better as the Master in his subsequent appearances. Here he’s too pantomime, too much of a buffoon to be actually scary. I’m actually alright with the dancing to music, but his whole demeanor just isn’t threatening. What does help provide some menace is his wife Lucy, who disturbingly seems to be getting off on the murder of a tenth of the population. In part three after a year of the Master’s rule, her now scared demeanor and bruises suggest a deeper horror to the Master. The Doctor is turned by the Master’s laser screwdriver (yes really) into a pathetic old man, then worse, into a little Dobby the elf thing. Don’t know why that was a good idea. Martha spends a year wandering the Earth, becoming the most famous person on it as rumor spreads she can kill the Master. We think she’s been collecting parts for an anti-Time Lord gun, but the Master just arrests her. Disturbingly we find the Toclafane are what is left of the human race after going to ‘utopia’, sadistic childish killers. It is truly disturbing and a great reveal.
Martha’s whole ark this story is finally gaining independence from the Doctor, and learning that she does not have to live in Rose’s large shadow. When I first watched, Rose’s shadow was large indeed, she was essentially the main character of the first two seasons and adapting to Martha was difficult. That’s why it’s kind of disappointing that her traveling the world was just to tell people to pray for the Doctor to activate the psychic network to heal the Doctor. The Doctor getting un-Dobbyfied and rising like Jesus to people’s prayers is more than a bit over the top. The story quickly rights the ship though as the Master cowers in front of DoctorJesus, and the Doctor offers an incredibly Jesus-esque response to the Master’s horrible crimes: “I forgive you”. The Master of course tries to start his intergalactic war, no dice, and Jack breaks the paradox of the Toclafane, returning the world to as it was before the Master’s reign. (The President was still killed though). Finally having enough, the Master’s wife shoots him, and the Master refuses to regenerate to spite a crushed Doctor. Jack goes back to Torchwood, and that leaves us with Martha.
Martha has found her independence, and says that he has a duty to Earth now. That’s not all though, she tells him that she’s been tired of pining after someone who can never love her back and the effect is clearly big on the Doctor. The moments where we see the Doctor alone are also so revealing, and clearly there is a lot of trauma for the Doctor still to work through. So this massive story, what’s the verdict? It’s pretty good! If it weren’t for the misfire that was the Simm Master, great even. I think people are too harsh on this story, sure the world of the Master gets reversed but did people think it wouldn’t? The emotional battle scars from our main characters are more important than anything though, especially to us narratively. As a goodbye to Martha, it is a nice one, and it helps to know we’ll see her again. I just wish her independence still didn’t revolve as much around the Doctor. As a way to introduce a new generation to the Master, I think this episode was undeniably successful. I just wish there was more serious venom there for Simm to play. All in all, a fun story.
Utopia is a straight ten though. It rules.
8/10 Series 3 ends with a fun finale with some silly missteps.
Reviewing Doctor Who from Start to Finish 