Doctor Who 2007: The Sound of Drums

delericho · Jun 23, 2007

The Master is Prime Minister, aliens have contacted Earth, and things are about to get really, really bad.

This episode felt like they'd taken all of my deepest fears (the full power of society levelled against the innocent, subliminal control, powerlessness in general), and put them up on the screen. It was horrible. It was awesome.

The good:

John Simm is really impressive in the role.
The interplay between the Doctor and the Master.
The reactions of the characters were always very human.

We learned a lot about how the Master came back, how the Master came to be, how the Time War ended. And we saw a whole lot about Gallifrey.

The Master has jelly babies!

Once again, we're left with: and hpw do they get out of this one?

The bad:

The escape from the end of the universe felt anti-climactic.
I really hated the Americans as depicted in this episode.

In fact, I cheered when the President was killed. Sorry.
Sadly, not a big Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover - the Torchwood team have been sent off on-mission.

Answered Questions (major spoilers):

The Master was resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in the Time War.
They escape from the end of the universe using Jack's broken time gauntlet.
Saxon hides by embedding a signal in the mobile phone network. Of course, this leads to the question: could other Time Lords have done the same?

Unanswered Questions:

Why did they mention Utopia, and go through so much in the previous episode, just to drop it? Will they be revisiting this? (I still think Utopia could be Gallifrey.)
Who are these aliens? What do they want?

And, of course, how do they get out of this one?

Plane Sailing · Jun 23, 2007

delericho said:
Who are these aliens? What do they want?

I notice that there are '6 billion' aliens... plus Saxon's comments about 'every farmer, every teacher, every lorry driver; which made it sound as if there is one alien for every person on the planet.

That must be significant!

dpmcalister · Jun 23, 2007

Aside from the lame escape from Utopia, this is the best Doctor Who episode since the who thing started again with Christopher Eccelstone!

Huw · Jun 23, 2007

Plane Sailing said:
I notice that there are '6 billion' aliens... plus Saxon's comments about 'every farmer, every teacher, every lorry driver; which made it sound as if there is one alien for every person on the planet.

That must be significant!

My theory: They're the "souls" of humans from some parallel universe, possibly the one from season 2. Mrs Saxon is somehow a refugee from said universe, which is why she's happy to go along with it.

Anyone good at anagrams. What could toclafane be?

sniffles · Jun 23, 2007

I just finished watching it 5 minutes ago and I'm still waiting for my heart to stop pounding!!!

Pseudonym · Jun 24, 2007

That was excellent.

I really enjoy the new incarnation of the Master. I do hope he sticks around for a while. What a great villain.

evildmguy · Jun 24, 2007

That was awesome!

Loved the banter between them.

(And I loved them using Roger Delgado's voice in the previous ep)

I thought the whole thing was well done.

"Thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something."

Priceless.

I only wish they could have spent lots more time with the history of the Doctor's planet. *sigh*

edg

jhilahd · Jun 24, 2007

Wow...
nice cliff hanger like last episode.
With only one more this season, I don't think I can wait until the next one.
This has just flown by so fast.

horacethegrey · Jun 24, 2007

Well, aside from my dissatisfaction with which how this followed the previous episode, I thought this was a cracking good show!

John Simm is fabulous! Love his take on this cheeky and maniacal Master, which provides a nice counterpoint to Tennant's cheeky and often manic Doctor. Oh, and let me just say they have great chemistry together, maybe not as good as when Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado were playing them respectively, but still good nonetheless. I look forward to future confrontations between these two Time Lords with Tennant and Simm playing them.

Rest of the episode felt a bit over the top, what with the Master gleefully abusing his power in office. But then that's to be expected with any episode written by RTD, but I still liked the subtle hints of menace he wrote in Bad Wolf and Army of Ghosts. But still, at least it didn't border on camp so all in all I have no problem with it.

As for the Toclafane, my theory is that they are actually Time Lords in stasis form (hence the pods) and the Master plans to turn Earth into a new Gallifrey.

Oh and let me just say that those flashbacks to Gallifrey at it's height and those Time Lords was just beautiful and awe inspiring.

Hope to see more of them in the future.

Anyway, looking forward to next week. Looks to me Martha get's her chance to shine much like Rose did, and hopefully this will put all the naysayers to shame.

Cthulhudrew · Jun 24, 2007

Yes! Loved it- especially the Gallifrey flashbacks and some more insight into the Time War. Really wasn't expecting the answers we got- the Master's past, his resurrection, stuff about the Time War. Even enjoyed the Doctor and Master's banter about their chosen names. They put a lot of nice work into the old Gallifrey costumes, and had some nice scenery for the planet- hope this means that down the road we might even see a resurrection of the planet itself (although I'm suspect- with the Time Lords back, the Doctor won't have nearly as much hesitation about destroying the Master as he currently does.)

The TARDIS keys- did anyone else think "the Doctor's using Slartibartfast's S.E.P. field"?

Jack had some nice moments, which was cool. Simm did a great job, even though I did feel he was a bit too campy at some points (but then, I had the same feeling about Eccleston's Doctor at first, and he quickly turned into my second favorite actor in the role.)

You guys mentioned Utopia and the Toclafane- could the Toclafane be

the souls of the humans from the end of the universe? The ones the Master/Professor sent off to "Utopia"? He sort of sneered at the thought of Utopia at the end of last week's episode, so maybe he had some idea of where he was sending them even with his memory loss.

My other thought was like Horace's- that they were the souls of the Time Lords themselves, somehow restored/brought back via the Toclafane by the Master. If so, that would certainly break the Doctor's hearts. I do wonder what would make them so murderous, though.