What happened?
Landing in Cardiff to make a pit stop for the TARDIS, The Doctor notices Jack racing towards them and tries to elude him. However, Jack grabs the TARDIS and propels them trillions of years into the future, to a dying universe, where the last vestiges of humanity survive on a barren world, dreaming that the rocket under construction there will one day take them to Utopia.
A man known as The Professor is working on this rocket, unsuccessfully, but with The Doctor on hand a plan is forged to get it going. Utilising Jack who, as a result of Rose’s last act as ‘Bad Wolf’ is now immortal, frozen as a constant in time, they engage the rocket and it launches. However, Martha makes a discovery that The Professor has a pocket watch similar to one The Doctor used to store his consciousness in – and once opened The Professor’s true identity is revealed.
He is a Timelord. The villainous Master. He regenerates in a youthful form and escapes in the TARDIS, leaving The Doctor, Martha and Jack apparently stranded on the desolate planet whilst savages infiltrate the place and beat at the door. . .
Thoughts
What began as a fairly knockabout, faintly silly episode of Doctor Who ultimately unfurled itself to be one of the edgier instalments I’ve seen so far. I can’t quite put my finger on why but it managed to be unsettling in places; it’s not like I was scared, but unnerved might be a more precise description.
The silly aspect of the sharp-toothed human savages wasn’t overly convincing, with the production values of the episode really not selling them as a viable tribe. They were there to cause some trouble and get our heroes to the base, and then create mayhem during the rocket launch, but ultimately they weren’t the big draw here, which is just as well.
Setting the episode at the end of the universe was a good move. The Doctor’s fake panic about being that far ahead in time, at a point when nearly all life had been and gone, was probably a key reason why the episode contained such an unsettling vibe. The Doctor maybe powerful but even he can’t combat the end of the universe. I’ll be interested to learn where it is the rocket bound for Utopia was really headed!
The business with Jack initially confounded me. The fact that he appeared to be invulnerable had me confused since, the last time I saw him, I didn’t recall this being a part of his character. I remember him getting killed! I thought that maybe there was something I had missed, but then it got explained during the episode.
It was during that scene of explanation, with Jack, despite being immortal, seeming vulnerable as he handled the deadly radiation that The Doctor had a menacing edge to him. His wariness of Jack because he was an impossible fixture in time was an interesting idea, and there was a just an unsettling tone to The Doctor suggesting that another Jack might still be around in the universe, further emphasised by him questioning if Jack had ever wanted to die.
I actually find the character of Jack irritating – his constant flirting and arrogance are somewhat tiresome – but with this he’s being taken in an interesting direction that certainly makes him a more interesting proposition.
The Professor turning out to be The Master was another fine part of the episode, in its reveal of the pocket watch arriving after the his talk of “the sound of drums” that had been in his head all his life. Again, I’m not sure if this episode pre-supposes some former knowledge of The Master, because his announcement of himself certainly landed with dramatic weight. As far as I can tell he is a Timelord, but not a good one. (Arguably The Doctor isn’t strictly ‘good’, but he tends towards the preservation of life as his moral compass and, in that sense, adheres to what he believes is right.)
I can hazard an assumption at a backstory: The Master was hounded by his own people, presumably for being bad, and so went and hid himself into the far reaches of the future where he could not be found. To hide all traces he secreted his consciousness in the watch, like The Doctor once did, and there even forgot to himself who he really was. Only now he has awoken, now as one of only two remaining Timelords (The Doctor told him this, which is what forms my assumption he was a part of their species before the Time War). Now he has the TARDIS he can go back to whenever he wants – though I think we already know he goes back to Martha’s time, calling himself Saxon, since she made a remark that his voice was familiar.
God knows how The Doctor, Martha and Jack are going to get out of the situation they are in. But then that’s what makes for a great cliffhanger. Possibly The Doctor will recall the TARDIS somehow? Or maybe the ‘other Jack’ will show up and save the day? Maybe even The Doctor’s severed hand will somehow be used!
I did enjoy The Master once he had regenerated, too. There was a deliciously, devilish spiteful quality to him that relished wreaking evil. His remarks to The Doctor about enjoying the end of the universe with a chirpy ‘bye bye’ before exiting were entertaining. And it was also good to see the final words of the Face of Boe finally get some meaning, though I’m in two minds if the ‘YANA’ name being an anagram of You Are Not Alone was a stroke of genius or an irksome contrivance.
What was the best part?
It was two scenes that kind of merged together close enough for me to regard them as one best part. The first was The Doctor speaking with Jack, about how he was immortal, and whether he wanted to die. Tennant played the scene with a quiet darkness about his Doctor that I’d never seen before and it really worked well; I wondered if he was about to do something particularly harsh, especially when he asked Jack if he wanted to die.
Martha’s startled reaction to the pocket watch and the revelation that here was the ‘other Timelord’ the Face of Boe had once alluded to was also excellent – it was a well-executed reveal that I didn’t see coming and totally delivered a showstopper of a surprise.
What do I think will happen next?
I really don’t know how The Doctor and co are going to escape their predicament, but we can be sure they do. Furthermore The Master apparently expects it, since he was investigating The Doctor via Martha’s mother (if, indeed, he really is this Saxon fellow, which I am certain he is). Possibly The Master has got himself set up and, having learned that The Doctor is the only other Timelord, seeks a showdown? (If his goal is to be the only Timelord, however, then I can’t imagine he’ll do something to ‘rescue’ The Doctor so they can meet face-to-face.
However The Master and The Doctor confront one another, I suspect the notion that The Doctor is not too far removed from The Master will be played out, to make sense of this somewhat more reckless and destructive quality he has displayed throughout the series.
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