Episode #192: The Sound of Drums / The Last of the Time Lords

"They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the continent of Wild Endeavour, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords. The oldest and most mighty race in the universe. Looking down on the galaxies below, sworn never to interfere, only to watch. Children of Gallifrey were taken from their families at the age of eight, to enter the Academy. Some say that's where it all began, when he was a child. That's when the Master saw eternity. As a novice, he was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism. It's a gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. We stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of Time and Space, just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad."


Episode #192:   The Sounds of Drums / The Last of the Time Lords.
Companions:     The 10th Doctor, Jack Harkness and Martha Jones.
Air Date:            23rd to 30th June 2007.

The Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones and Jack Harkness return to present day London, horrified to discover that Prime Minister Harold Saxon is the Master. "Saxon" informs the world about receiving contact from an alien race called the Toclafane. Framed as fugitives, the Doctor, Martha and Jack try to sneak in and stop the Master before he unleashes a wave of terror. But his dark ambitions reach beyond the stars.

Wrapping the events of Utopia this storyline brings out time travellers back to Earth to stop the newly regenerated Master from unleashing a dark future on the Earth. Unfortunately, at least for me, it is a very dissapointing story which doesn't fire the enthusiasm nor does it really feel like Doctor Who. It isn't because it is badly written or too dark. It feels too much like Daleks in Manhatten in that it is just a little too surreal for Doctor Who.

Jon Simm was a great choice for the Master. He carries the evil madman personna off perfectly and you do get a slight hope that he'll win out at the end of the day. The introduction or retcon of some sort of drumming in his head which is what has driven him mad was an interesting move. Nothing like this had ever come up before in the show to explain why the Master was as insane as he was. It would be some time however before we learn the cause of it.

We get some more of Martha's family in this story but by this time I am sick of them. A disfunctional family with no redeeming qualities does not make for good background if you ask me. I especially dislike the mother but that may be because none of this would have probably happened had she had any common sense throughout this season.

I'm not a fan of the villains of this piece, the Toclafane either. They tie in nicely to the events of Utopia but we learn nothing else about them other than who they ultimately are. I'd have liked some more info. The whole paradox creation issue doesn't sit well for me either. It works for the story but doesn't really do anything at the same time even as desperate as they are it seems a self-defeating thing to do.

The story has another issue that never bothered me but at the time seemed to cause a stir among fans. Ever since the Runaway Bride there has been a bit of "the lonely god" written into the 10th Doctor's character and it seemed to rub many the wrong way. The Archangel network of this story and how it plays out at the end certainly played into that point of view.

Ultimately I am not a fan of this adventure. It doesn't seem very well worked out and much like the rest of the current season before it just wasn't very good. I think a better ending could have been made for this season.

Episode #191: Utopia

"You two, we're at the end of the universe. Okay?! Right at the edge of knowledge itself! And you're busy...  BLOGGING!"

Episode #191:   Utopia.
Companions:    The 10th Doctor, Jack Harkness and Martha Jones.
Air Date:          16th June 2007.

Jack Harkness is back! As Captain Jack comes storming into the Doctor's life again, the TARDIS is thrown to the end of the universe itself. As the last remnants of humanity struggle to reach "Utopia", unknown to all, the Doctor's greatest enemy is about to rise again.

Utopia is technically the first of a three part story that concludes the current season of the show. Despite that I prefer to review Utopia as a separate story to the other two. A prequel essentially that sets up the finale.

This story sees the return of good old captain Jack who we last saw at the end of Torchwood season one, running off in search of the TARDIS. There is a small continuity issue but don't worry about it. It is just good to have him back again. His return sets up some interesting ramifications such as him being a fixed point in time and space which is why the TARDIS doesn't like him anymore and that because of that the Doctor does show some unease with him. This was a good opportunity to bring Jack back as I never felt he got enough time in the TARDIS on screen before being killed by the Daleks and abandoned.

Utopia also sees the return of another classic favourite... the Master! Restored to the living by the Time Lords to help fight in the Time War he hid using a chameleon arch the same as the Doctor. To start with he believes that he is human, a certain Professor Yana. Yana turning out to be You Are Not Alone, the cryptic response from the Face of Boe on New Earth. Getting such a great actor as Derek Jacobi for this role was, pun intended, a master stroke. Unfortunately he doesn't get to be the Master for long before he is forced to regenerate.

I do like this adventure. We go to the distant end of the universe where only a few people still survive in the universe and even the Time Lords never came this far into the future. On a cold desolate world where humanity either transforms into flesh-eating Future Kind or slowly dies out as the stars grow cold we have the setting for a nice interactive story. Utopia isn't about stopping evil villains or murderous aliens. It is an story about where humanity gets to in it's final days and mankind's search for a mythical haven called Utopia. Not having a real villain of the piece just a well written forty five minutes shows what can be done every now and then.

Episode #190 : Blink

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but, actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff."

Episode #190:   Blink.
Companions:    The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:          9th June 2007.

In an abandoned house, the Weeping Angels wait. The only hope to stop them is a young woman named Sally Sparrow and her friend Larry Nightingale. The only catch: The Weeping Angels can move in the blink of an eye. To defeat the ruthless enemy — with only a half of a conversation from the Tenth Doctor as help — the one rule is this: don't turn your back, don't look away and don't blink!

Blink is in my opinion one of the best adventures in Doctor Who. Just as with The Empty Child, this episode shows just how well Doctor Who can be when the writers come up with a proper freaky story and with the creation of the Weeping Angels we have that perfectly here. It is also story that barely features our time travellers, instead we see the events unfold from the point of another character, Sally Sparrow.

The new villains are the Weeping Angels. They are ancient creatures who exist in a sort of quantum state where they become stone statues when observed by another living thing. Although for some reason this also applies to their own kind. The Doctor sees this as the perfect defense mechanism but they could still be smashed by a mallet surely? But we won't dwell on that. In Blink these creatures are at their best. They do make occasional reappearances in the show but never portrayed as well as they are in this story.

It is interesting to see that Blink has quite a hefty paradox. These are bad and we have seen creatures like the Reapers turn up when such events take place. So why don't they here? The paradox in Blink is a circular one with no beginning or end. Sally gives the Doctor the information she has at the end of the story but Sally gets that information from seeing the wall the Doctor wrote, watching the DVD the Doctor made and so on. The information never really "starts" anywhere — the Doctor knows what to say in the conversation because he's reading Larry's transcript, which Larry made thirty-eight years later by watching the conversation. The information is in an endless loop.

Blink is truly one of the best episodes of modern Who and if for some reason you haven't seen it, go do so. You won't be disappointed.

Episode #189 - Human Nature / The Family of Blood

"He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time, and he can see the turn of the universe. And... he's wonderful."

Episode #189:   Human Nature / The Family of Blood.
Companions:    The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:          26th May to 2nd June 2007.


England 1913, school teacher John Smith experiences amazing dreams of living an incredible life as a mysterious adventurer called "the Doctor", fighting monsters and seeing far away worlds. Is this man just a look-a-like of the real Doctor with a psychic link, or could there be another answer for all this?

This adventure starts with the time travellers being chased through time by some unknown opponents and they scare the Doctor so much that he is prepared to become human to escape them. He uses some previously unknown bit of Time Lord technology called a Chameleon Arch to become human but it creates a new persona, memories and I guess, alters history a little to let him fit in. The Doctor becomes a school teacher and Martha is a a scullery maid. Everything is fine until those pesky aliens show up and start to ruin everything.

At first glance it seems like an interesting story, and not surprisingly as this is based upon a 7th Doctor novel that came out in the mid 1990s. The drama between the Doctor and his new love, the snooty rich boys and Martha being stuck in the middle is all rather good. For me the story goes down hill because of the aliens, the Family of Blood. We are told nothing of them other than they have extremely short life spans and want the Doctors life energy to extend their own. The acting for them is just a little too over the top for me though and it spoils my enjoyment.

Where this story really earns its stripes however is in both the conflict between "John Smith" and Martha as she tries to convince him to "die" and return to being the Doctor, and the lead up to the Great War in which these young men will fight and die. The final scene of the episode still brings a tear to me whenever I watch it.

Human Nature and The Family of Blood is one of those modern Doctor Who stories where the writing and the drama are both spot on and enjoyable but something silly or OTT spoils it a little too much. Especially as this story is really just here to introduce the idea of the Chameleon Arch for later on in the series.

Episode #188 : The Infinite Quest

"Let's just say... there are things out there in space, Martha. Things that pre-date our reality. Relics from the dark times."

Episode #188:  The Infinite Quest.
Companions:    The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:          2nd April to 29th June 2007.


The Tenth Doctor and Martha must find the legendary lost starship, the Infinite, before the evil Baltazar, scourge of the Galaxy, gets it.

In this animated episode the Doctor and Martha are set on a quest to find an ancient relic called the Infinite before an evil space pirate named Baltazar. The quest takes them across four worlds in a hunt for the clues that will lead them to their prize.

This was an animated adventure shown on the BBC at tea time for children. Though there is some doubt as to whether this adventure should be considered canonical, by all that I have read it slots in to the current series between episode 42 and Human Nature.

It is a bit of a strange story really. It features such random things as giant intelligent birds made of gold, and an actual "skeleton" crew on a pirate ship stealing oil from giant walking oil rigs. The only references the adventure has to the traditional Doctor Who is some references to Nestene, Racknoss, the Great Vampires, and even a throw away reference to one of the Great Old Ones. Despite my regular dislike of the strangeness in the show now I rather enjoy how it plays out in this one. Maybe because it was made for a younger audience rather than family viewing.

You don't need to watch this adventure but for completeness sake I would recommend one watch.

Episode #187 : 42

"The wonderful world of space travel... The prettier it looks, the more likely it is to kill you."

Episode #187:  42.
Companions:   The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:         19th May 2007.

The Tenth Doctor and Martha follow a distress signal, only to be trapped on a spaceship hurtling towards a sun and cut off from the TARDIS. With only forty-two minutes left till impact, can they save the day? Also, something else is on the ship and it wants everyone to burn.

As the blurb says, the Doctor and Martha find themselves trapped on a starship falling into a star with very little time left to save everyone as something not human begins to stalk the crew and burning them with a gaze. It is good classic Doctor Who again with our heroes fighting against the clock, running down corridors and trying to outsmart whatever monster is on board the ship with them. Add to that a subplot where the Jones family are being manipulated by the strange men and women in black to find out where the Doctor is and what he is up to, all in preparation for later this season, and you have a spot on adventure.

You can see now that Martha has become a companion. She started out only a few stories ago as someone the Doctor picked up and whisked through time and space as a thank you for her help on the moon. She has since been properly brought on board with this story. Martha is a companion that I can take or leave usually but in 42 when it appears that she is going to die in the grasp of an alien sun I find a side to her that makes me take her in a bit more. 

If it is a good episode why am I giving it an average rating? It is difficult to put my finger on it if I am honest. Something about this doesn't look right. I don't know if it is because the production played with the colours or it was filmed in a different way but something niggles at the back of my brain. To be fair I have noticed this a lot with the David Tennant era episodes as I've been re-watching them and it applies to a lot of them especially in this current season. But also in fairness, it is a good episode but it isn't up there as a four star rating as it is basically the show at the level that I expect of it. Harsh? Maybe but a fair point.

Episode #186: The Lazarus Experiment

"I'm old enough to know that a longer life isn't always a better one. In the end, you just get tired; tired of the struggle, tired of losing everyone that matters to you, tired of watching everything you love turn to dust. If you live long enough, Lazarus, the only certainty left is that you'll end up alone."

Episode #186: The Lazarus Experiment.
Companions:   The 10th Doctor and Martha Jones.
Air Date:         5th May 2007.

After travelling backwards, forwards and backwards again in time, Martha Jones has returned home. However, before the tenth Doctor can bid farewell to her, he hears Professor Richard Lazarus announcing that he'll "change what it means to be human." What could this mean? And could it lead to something far more dangerous than a simple scientific failure?

Sometimes you don't need a story about time travel when you can write an excellent science fiction tale about the dangers of messing with science. That is exactly what we have here with this story and despite some bad CGI monster work the story does what it says on the tin. The Lazerus Experiment introduces us to Martha's dysfunctional family and her mother who really does not like the Doctor though with no good reason for it until she has someone try and point out the danger he places people in. Who is this stranger? Well, thats the build up for the end of season.

The story is nicely action packed and flows at a good pace, something that the first few stories of this season have failed to achieve. Some more money needed to be spent on the look of the "Lazarus monster" which unfortunately looks like a mid-1990's 3D computer graphic. Very disappointing.

The new Doctor Who seems to have a bit more thought provoking elements that never really made the surface of the classic show. In this episode we have the Doctor speaking the above quote to Professor Lazarus and we can see that he is getting old as an individual even if his body has youth. He's still an old man who has seen much and lost the people he loved. Where I found the fixation on the Time War a bit much in previous seasons I think you can feel for our hero a bit more when you have dialogue like this.

Re watching this season I have come to realise that I think this is the weakest season of new Doctor Who. Not sure why as I can't quite put my finger on it but it is like the writers were having trouble coming up with decent stories and plot points. It is a season that doesn't stand out very well. The Lazarus Experiment is certainly one of the better stories for this season though.