| THE SOUND OF DRUMS/LAST OF THE TIME LORDS by Russell T Davies |
| Story 32 Synopsis: The Doctor turns Jack's Vortex Manipulator into a working transmat, and returns them all to 21st century London, the day after a General Election, where Harold Saxon was elected Prime Minister. The Doctor soon realises Saxon is the Master. Saxon gasses the Cabinet, then announces First Contact with the Toclafane, to occur the following morning. Martha's flat is blown up, and her parents arrested. The Doctor, Jack and Martha are branded wanted terrorists. The Doctor finds that the Archangel mobile network is the source of Saxon's mesmeric control of the populace. He devises a way of allowing the three of them freer movement. The US President, Arthur Winters, usurps Saxon's place in the First Contact ceremony, which will take place aboard the skyship, the Valiant. The Doctor, Jack and Martha make it there, and find it has been cannibalised from the missing TARDIS, which now houses a Paradox Machine. The Doctor tries to interrupt the First Contact ceremony, but can only watch as the Toclafane destroy President Winters. Saxon reveals himself as the Master, ageing the Doctor by a century, and nearly killing Jack. As he unleashes a rift to allow 6 billion Toclafane to descend on Earth, killing 1/10th of the population, Jack urges Martha to use the teleport and get out. She does so. She travels the Earth for a year, during which time the Master builds a fleet of war rockets, to use Earth as a base for war on the rest of the Universe. He further ages the Doctor by 900 years. Martha appears to have been building a gun to kill the Master, but she is found and brought to the Valiant. As the Master launches the countdown to rocket launch, Martha reveals the gun was just a ploy. Her year-long mission was just to contact people and give them a message. When the countdown ends, millions of humans transmit a mental message, which restores the Doctor to normal. He forgives the Master for what he's done, and says he will take him in the TARDIS, as his responsibility. But Saxon's wife, Lucy, shoots the Master. The Doctor tells him to regenerate, but the Master thwarts him, and dies. The Doctor burns his body on a pyre, but his ring is later taken. Martha decides to stay on Earth, but in touch. Jack opts to head back to Torchwood. As the TARDIS leaves Earth, it's struck by the Titanic... |
| Review:- Did it all come to this? The Master's grand plan, using the last humans from Utopia as Toclafane, billions of bloodthirsty creatures set on the deaths of their ancestors? Well, it's a bit different, I suppose... There had been clues and hints from way back in Smith and Jones, with the unfortunate Mr Stoker, and the chat about the Time War at the end of Gridlock wasn't just about setting up the Daleks for the week after. After almost 3 "years" of being sure he was the only Time Lord left, the Doctor found he was not alone after all, and that his old nemesis had survived, too, having been resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in their War, and then run off to hide. With 18 months to play with (hmm...), the Master had set up a false identity as Harold Saxon, and won himself the General Election on a radical ticket. And he proved to be unusually radical, slaughtering the cabinet, as well as a nosey journalist, causing the death of the US President (or President Elect) Arthur Winters in the process. Oh, and unleashing 6 billion lethal drone spheres onto the Earth, killing 1/10 of the population for a laugh, amongst other things. So far, so Masterly. The notion that the compulsive Time Lord would be able to conquer Earth, to use as a power base for a huge war, isn't too much of a stretch for the character. But this seemed to be just a means to an end. And that end was personal - to make the Doctor suffer. The idea that the Toclafane would be the troops in the Master's new Time Lord empire is a bit daft, although in keeping with his track record of dodgy alliances. Unlike those however, he was calling the shots, and unwilling to enter an alliance with his old enemy merely to save his skin. This time, there was no need. He had all the cards, had an aged and humiliated Doctor at his mercy, Jack imprisoned, and only opposed by Martha Jones... what could go wrong? One notable facet of these episodes was that they were mostly extended talking scenes, as characters chewed the fat to fill time inbetween acts of aggression. Now, that could be a comment on most episodes of the series, but not to this extreme extent. Here, it was more talk and less action. Even at the end, all the Master managed to do was start his countdown. The year gap between episodes allowed a before-and-after mood, without showing any of the chaos of the Master's rule. Of course, showing costs money, so the series now is more about telling. Which might as well be radio. Or a book. The red herring in the 2nd episode is Martha's planet-wide quest for a weapon to kill the Master. But oh ho - it's just misdirection, and the real weapon is so OTT that few would see it coming. The Doctor thwarts the Master's mental control through the Archangel network, by the expedient of having Martha having visited the peoples of Earth with a counter-message. On paper, just about sound enough. But on screen, with the effect of revitalising the Doctor, it just seemed one step too far. Having said that, the Doctor's words of forgiveness made a more poignant moment, before the obligatory and brief scrap on a cliff-top, and the Master's surprise death. His final moments with one last victory over his old friend, were half-decent, though his funeral pyre was again OTT, as well as a rather mordant rip-off of a few film scenes. Not to mention that tiresome get-out clause of the Master's ring being collected by... Luckily, the Master's reign of terror was easily resolved when the deadly Paradox Machine turned out to be a handy way to reverse the previous year's madness, though sadly leaving Winters dead, and also wiping out the Toclafane, who lose all ways. Some might argue this was no more silly than the Doctor's resurrection or the Master's demise, but two wrongs don't make a right, and nor do three or four. As ending followed ending, and the viewer struggled to keep patient, Martha decided to get her feelings off her chest, and push off. Though she will be back next year, one can hope she returns to the promise she showed in her first story, before she fell into an empty sub-plot of unrequited love. Maybe her family will be seen more, as they turned out to be less used than expected, epitomised when brother Leo doesn't even appear in the finale. Perhaps she will go to Torchwood, where Captain Jack decided to return, but not before dropping the bombshell of his secret nickname: the Face of Boe. Well, that was another surprise... And the Doctor set off into the great unknown, before being hit by yet another shock ending... a trip to the Titanic? Whatever next, eh? Overall, it was a steady end to the series, with perhaps one too many ludicrous moments. The political analysis is so weak as to defy comment (though still superior to Armando Iannucci), and yet another silly deus ex machina finish just insults the audience, whatever their age. Better went before it, and better will follow... this could have been better, but it could also have been worse. So... that's that. |
| Disclaimer: I have watched this story. |