What? The Master's in it? I haven't seen Utopia yet, and now you've ruined it. Blast!
Well, it was a badly kept secret, known before the series began to air, that Derek Jacobi was gonna turn out to be the Master. :-)
The title says it all....the latest episode of Doctor Who was indeed blissful. Fast pacing, incredible character moments, a stellar performance by David Tennant...and the return of the Master. Words fail us.....or rather, they don't, for about 46 minutes and change. Jaunty ramblings ahoy! (feed, web, direct download)
What? The Master's in it? I haven't seen Utopia yet, and now you've ruined it. Blast!
Well, it was a badly kept secret, known before the series began to air, that Derek Jacobi was gonna turn out to be the Master. :-)
I count at least twice Warren says "John Saxon"... we must break you of this habit.
Okay, some comments:
The Master used the Doctor's severed hand to regenerate. Perhaps the brine in which it was kept retained the regenerative powers of the first 15 hours after regeneration or something. That's my hunch, anyway. There still remains the explanation of how he went from Eric Roberts to Derek Jacobi, not to mention how he escaped the eye of harmony (sic) in the TARDIS. I've seen it surmised that the so-called eye of harmony in the movie is akin to the vortex energy in the new series and that's what helped him out. We'll see what's said (if anything!) in time, I guess.
The Doctor will use the Master's TARDIS to get back to Earth. Jack's said his wrist thingie was broken, and while the Doctor may well be capable of fixing it, there are other things to deal with on the planet before they can go back to Earth and those things will take time that can't be spent on the Doctor fixing Jack's wrist thingie. I speak of course of dealing with the future kind, the rocket, Utopia, whatever the importance of the disk taken by the Master was, and so on. I didn't notice the reel to reel type setup you guys mention (the homage to the Master's TARDIS in Time Monster) but it makes the most sense to me it's there somewhere.
I think I know which four words Steven refers to that he read and regretted seeing, and if I'm right then I share the same regret and concern.
What else... um, it's so RTD that there's this very implausible chain of events and circumstances which have to come together for a story to work, and I really didn't appreciate that. A quick breakdown: Jack has to hear the TARDIS, find it, hitch a lift, have the Doctor's hand with him (which, if you check video capture evidence posted in the goofs forum on OG, he did NOT have at the end of End of Days), make sure it's the RIGHT Doctor, have the hand present for the Master to regenerate, etc etc etc etc. It's just this flurry of things which if any one element is off the whole puzzle unravels. Sure RTD says in Confidential this whole scheme has been in the works for a long time, but anyone who takes his tripe at face value, well, don't.
One thing I do like is the elements from not only this season but also past seasons coming together to form the basis of the story. That may sound like I'm contradicting what I said in the previous paragraph, but I'm not. At least, I don't mean to if I am. What I mean is I like the callbacks to Parting of the Ways, to Gridlock, to Human Nature and so on. What I hated was being smashed over the head with flashbacks. I almost felt like I was watching a clip show at times and the flashbacks only serve to slow down the pace of the episode. RTD says they're there for anyone who might have Utopia as their first Who episode, but if this is the first one they see they're not going to understand a lick of what's going on for continuity with or without flashbacks!
And, as Jean-Paul points out, the return of the Master was one of the worst-kept secrets of the season, but despite that there was still such grand impact when you see the return. I suppose it's like anyone who dismisses watching Titanic (okay, I hate the movie, but that's neither here nor there) by saying they know the boat sinks is just missing the point. The journey is what counts and boy howdy do we have a journey. Overall, despite flaws, the episode is very strong and I've ranked it as second best for the season behind Human Nature and ahead of Blink.
re: John Saxon....you've got two episodes to break me of this, so I have my doubts. :)
Abbreviated info from Lizo (presenter on Newsround) about The Sound of Drums:
"The story provides lots of answers that have come up throughout the series - how The Master ended up trillions of years in the future, the origins of Mr Saxon, even what The Doctor's home planet actually looks like. But it also ends up asking even more questions - what does the mysterious drumming mean, and what's The Master really up to?
What The Sound of Drums does beautifully is to draw together so many unexpected threads from earlier in the series. And it shows how cleverly chief writer Russell T. Davies has woven together the different strands to reward viewers who've followed the series faithfully."
Source (and more stuff from Lizo): http://torchwoodtv.blogspot.com/2007/06/here-comes-master.html
So are you folks in torrent land getting the daily teasers for The Sound of Drums?
I'll take that as a no. =)
I don't know if they're daily... just that one aired Monday and another Tuesday. So far I've only downloaded those two, I'm not even sure if there are more.
The one with Sharon Osbourne was a little out of left field, I must admit.
I'm gonna say it was......Dame Edna and the former members of Take That, minus Robbie Williams. Am I right?
One was an MP, Ann somethingoranother, and the group was "McFly", of course along with Sharon.
So, uh, is anyone else traumatized by what's been posted on the preliminary Fear Factor report for The Sound of Drums?
If you've not read it and want to avoid spoilers, then definitely don't read it.
If you've read it then lemme add a few lines here and a spoiler warning just in case...
So... Cybermen... lame. Do we need another multi-enemy finale? RTD seems to think so. And the Dad getting nostalgic and one of the kids saying "do try the chips"... so, is Sarah Jane back?
And:
(35) Everyone's happy to see a familiar friend. But their smiles fade when they realise how things have changed...
(36) Another reappearance makes Samuel cheer. Adam is not so sure.
I've read rumours of Billie (somehow!) coming back for a cameo (not flashback), I've also read rumours of Adam (from Dalek/The Long Game) returning. Neither the BBC site nor IMDB have credit listings for Lis Sladen, Bruno Langley or Billie Piper, but that doesn't mean they're not in there and the info hasn't formally been released.
Prepare for fanwank like we've never experienced before if some of this happens to come true. And expect me to groan about it endlessly.
I don't think the BBC would let the cat out of the bag by having an 8-year-old name drop the C-men in a Fear Factor, would they? He's only 8....he probably thought wrong, and it's a red herring.
Chips might only feature in a scene, which prompted the comment, and perhaps Harriett Jones makes a cameo reappearance? She's probably the one who got booted out of office to instigate this election thingy.
Speculation is that the C-men namedrop was because of a similar plot device of using bluetooth cellphone devices to control people (although this time I think its cellphones in general).
I wouldn't doubt adam being used in a plot with the master on modern earth. He is the only person able to wetwire interface on the planet. would be a useful tool to the master.
Sara Jane....Maybe he needs people who have been time travelers to power devices.
Meh, I'm not going to bother speculating, I'm just going to wait until Saturday and get my Who on. :)
I've not watched the episode (it's downloaded, and I'm waffling if I want to get to it now or later) but I did read the fuller Fear Factor report (now with screencaps and more text) and at least it appears the Cybermen were present in flashback only... and seemingly no Sarah Jane or Rose or Adam...
You are safe on all counts, Chris. I just did not foresee those Vervoids coming back again, though. And they still look like vaginas!
And wow, the return of Adric! Who woulda thunk it? Waterhouse has never been in finer form!
As to The Sound of Drums, see my brief comments on the RFS group on Facebook.
Short version: It was a solid 3, I've ranked it 6th best for the season. Overall it was disappointing, disjointed and couldn't hold my interest outside of the rare occasion.
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