Doctor Who 2007: Utopia (Major Spoilers)

[delericho]

Jack's Back!

The TARDIS picks up Jack Harkness, and then it's off to the end of the universe for our heroes. The last of the humans are building a rocket to get to 'Utopia', under the guidance of a brilliant but lonely Professor.

The good:

Character interplay was a lot of fun

Spoiler

The Face of Boe's last words are explained

Derek Jacobi is excellent, of course
Edit, I forgot: at least one Scotsman makes it to the end of the universe. Huzzah!
The end. How are they possibly going to get out of that one?

The bad:

Martha's really stupid at a key moment.

Answered questions:

Spoiler

How can the Doctor both be the last of the Time Lords and at the same time "not alone"?

What, exactly, has happened to Jack?
Oh, and in case we were wondering, what's that hand that Torchwood have?

Unanswered questions:

Spoiler

How did the Master get out of the TARDIS (after being Eric Roberts in the Paul McGann movie)?
How did the Master get a Chameleon Arch?
How did the Master get to the end of the universe?
How did the Master get another regeneration? Have they discarded the notion that Time Lords have a very finite number of regenerations?
Is Utopia Gallifrey?

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

 

[Lorgrom]

Can't wait to see this online in the next couple of days, hehehe. gotta love the net.

 

[JRR_Talking]

oopsie

and

ooeer

nuff said

 

[Mark Hope]

Man oh man, that was fun .

Even though at least one of the big reveals of the episode had been guessed beforehand, they still managed to make it extremely thrilling. When Derek Jacobi hissed

Spoiler

I am the Master

, I knew what he was going to say and it gave me goosebumps nevertheless. That fellow can act. Just a bit.

And I just loved Simm's line

Spoiler

about having a nice long chat and revealing all his plans... Classic. At last we have an evil mastermind who knows his stuff

.

I did not see the significance of

Spoiler

Yana's name

until it was revealed. I had a feeling that there was some wordplay there, but didn't catch on. So when that one came clear I literally slapped my forehead. Coolness.

I'd second all of the unanswered questions above. I really hope that they address those in the next couple of episodes. Although, I thought that I saw

Spoiler

the Doctor's hand glowing and then looking all drained and decrepit when the Master regenerated, so maybe he stole some of its energy to jump start his own regeneration?

. Not sure about that - seems a bit of a lame idea.

Awesome to see a

Spoiler

Gallifrey stopwatch

put in another appearance. Possibly one of the coolest ideas of the episode and a great way to tie threads together.

Roll on the Sound of Drums!

 

[Elemental]

Jack's Back!
And, again, how do they get out of this one?

Well, they do have the

Spoiler

battery of Tardis-power that kept Jack alive through 200 years and getting shot in the head by two members of his own team, and possibly his defunct "spacehopper" device, so that's a good starting point. And possibly the Master's TARDIS, if he bought it with him, but just found the Doctor's more convenient.

Wild unsupported theory:

Spoiler

The Master's TARDIS was actually that spaceship, or part of it

.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Can't wait to see this online in the next couple of days, hehehe. gotta love the net.

It's online already if you know where to look.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Man I can't wait for the next two episodes. I'm not nearly as invested in Dr Who as others. I was completely oblivious to it up till the new series. But I fully get the feeling druged up by these characters.

Wow, just wow.

I'm assuming all TARDIS's come with a Chamelon Arch allowing their Time Lords to hide.

I thought The Master was the "13th" and "last" regeneration of the Doctor gone mad? At least thats what i read. Maybe they've retconned it to make them two seprate timelords?

 

[Cthulhudrew]

I thought The Master was the "13th" and "last" regeneration of the Doctor gone mad? At least thats what i read. Maybe they've retconned it to make them two seprate timelords?

Nope. Not sure where that came from. The 13th regeneration was supposedly the Valeyard (opposing counsel during the 7th Doctor's trial). The Master and the Doctor have always been two separate people- they went to school together, IIRC. There was a suggestion that they were supposedly related somehow- brothers, I believe. I read a rumor that when the 7th Doctor and Kamelion "killed" the Master (Anthony Ainley) that his last words were supposedly "Doctor- can you do this to your own..." but that they got edited out. Could be apocryphal though.

In any event- awesome episode. So the Doctor was avoiding Jack- at least they cleared that up and gave some rationale behind it. Getting some closure to the Rose situation, which is cool. I think the Doctor needed Jack- the only other person who knew her like he did- to get that.

(Aside- did anyone else think it would have been cool if they'd modified the opening credits to show Jack hanging onto the TARDIS as it spun through the wormholes?)

The Master is back. It is looking like the Face of Boe's last words were just a warning after all (though I'm still hopeful that there is some more meaning there- like the Master is just one of many Time Lords still out there. Suppose we'll find out in the next couple of episodes.)

I don't know. I like John Simm, and am really looking forward to the last episodes of the season, but frankly, I think Derek Jacobi did an amazing job, and I would love to have seen him remain the Master, and have John Simm play a different character. Jacobi did so much in such a short time frame.

It was kind of annoying how every time they showed the Futurekind infiltrator, they had to make a point of showing her teeth, as if we wouldn't know who she was. (Minor nitpick).

Utopia- I'm wondering if even in his artificially induced memory loss the Master didn't still somehow conspire to rid the world of humanity completely, as his possible last act. Cheeky bugger.

Liked Jack's "fantastic" line. And am glad to see him back to being Jack, as opposed to the sometimes Jack/sometimes broody "Angelesque" guy he played on Torchwood. He really belongs more on a show like Doctor Who than he does on Torchwood.

Trailer for next week- Yay! U.N.I.T. gets mentioned! I wonder if that means they cleared up things with the UN, or if they'll only get mentioned as an acronym (and not as United Nations Intelligence Taskforce)

As for questions about who/what/when/where/why/how the Master survived and prospered, I suspect we won't get too many answers about that. It's been three seasons and we still know virtually nothing about the Time War, save that it was between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and that the Doctor believes himself to be the only survivor. I think we're likely to only get what we got here- that the Master turned himself human and hid himself at the end of the universe but was restored. That doesn't really bother me nearly as much as still not knowing more details about the war itself.

[EDIT- Just had an interesting thought. We know that the Master- as Mr. Saxon- has been manipulating events on Earth to rouse opposition to the Doctor (Martha's mom, for one, likely others). Could the Master have also traveled back in time to rouse other people against the Doctor? Could he have, for instance, have been a party to Queen Victoria's institution of Torchwood?]

 

[horacethegrey]

WOOHOO! The Master of All is Back!

First off though, some nitpicks. This episode wasn't all that impressive for me. It all felt like some big setup for that big plot twist at the end. I wasn't much convinced nor scared at the futurekind humans. They felt like rejects from the Road Warrior rather than the hideous evolution of humanity that they ought to be. Not much in the way of the plot, so all in all this episode felt as average as anything.

That is, until Sir Derek opens that watch....

Actingwise I've no complaints. Aside from the continued excellence of Tennant and Freema, John Barrowman is always a pleasure to watch as Jack. Still the horned up omisexual rogue as always, and that conversation he and the Doctor had over his immortality and Rose's fate was a nice interlude.

And what is there to say about Derek Jacobi, other than that he is brilliant? He's always been one of my favorite actors (Cadfael rules!), and he does a fine job of playing what is essetially two characters. First, the kindly Professor Yana, who for me isn't far off from how William Hartnell portrayed the First Doctor (perhaps as a twisted homage of sorts ). Then of course, the Master. Funny how all that malevolence and evil doesn't come across as hammy in the hands of a superior talent like Sir Derek.

And while I do agree that it's too bad that Sir Derek had to go so soon, his Master wouldn't have meshed well with Tennant's Doctor. Since the Master is the Doctor's arch nemesis and also his counterpoint, having him as an old man battling it out with a younger Doctor wouldn't be as cool. Look forward to see what John Simm can do with the role! Bring on the Sound of Drums!

 

[horacethegrey]

The bad:

Martha's really stupid at a key moment.

In response to this, I don't think it was stupid of her. How was she to know that this Time Lord was the arch nemesis of her beloved Doctor? Martha likely had pretty good intentions when she pointed out the watch to him, perhaps to give some hope to the Doctor of one of his kind surviving.