29.11: Utopia

Lenny

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[FONT=Arial, helvetica, san-serif]Jack's back! As Captain Jack storms back into the Doctor's life, the Tardis is thrown to the end of the universe itself.

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Man alive... looks like the rumours were true - both Jacobi AND Simms are the Master. And the Master seems to still be living his topical pseudonymic ways! :rolleyes: And the Doctor seems to be scared of him. Very scared of him.

For an RTD episode, I thought this was rather good. Some great humour, too. The landscape that the TARDIS landed in reminded me of a set of episode of a original series, I think, in which The Master was hunting the Doctor.

Chan One gripe I have, though, is that it was over far too quickly.

Oh, and there's an interesting thing - a three episode finale? Now that should be fun. Can't wait!!
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Good episode. The Master should shake the Doc out of his comfort zone. :)
 
And I got the impression the Radio Times thought it wasn't very good. Shows what they know. My adrenaline just went up and up...

Despite having a full three episodes to play with they only had the one for this so some bits did seem a little rushed through. Lots of exposition to get through, plus the flash backs and the final reveals. The season is going to be one of the best ever if it keeps going like this, though back to "current Earth" (assuming the telegraphed stuff about vote Saxon is relevant, and how can it not be given he has the Master's face) is usually problematic. Oh well.

So, we tied together lots of introduced themes and plot ideas from a number of previous episodes (Face of Boe, last time lord, the watch/chameleon circuit, Cpt Jack being immortal and abandoned), we got Cpt Jack being his own throbbing self (forget RTD bingo, Jack's playing a whole new game), his banter with the Doctor ("stop it!"), the usual waft of sci-fi mumbo-jumbo, and Derek Jacobi acting his pants off. Naturally. And lots of running up and down corridors...

So - why does the Master want the Doctor's old hand? The DNA? Some residual energy signature? Perhaps simply as a Doctor-detector, as Jack was using it? I'm not overly keen on the "aliens have taken over politicians" plots, especially since we've already had one, but let's bring on the next part in the three-piece ending...

Since otherwise they've no way of getting back in time, I'll wager a cup of high-street-chain coffee that the last-minute sonic screwdriver stuff has set off some sort of automatic-return circuit on the TARDIS. Any takers?

Okay, being a little bit nit-picky, how come the end of the universe is at such a nice round number of years? If they're at the end of the universe, where's the ship going - any destination is going to be ending imminently soon (though of course logically it perhaps doesn't exist - how big is the end of the universe [and no restaurant, either!])? For being "the last humans" they're using awfully 20th century Earth weapons to guard the silo. And a single chain securing a chain-link fence? There are Scout huts in rough neighbourhoods up and down the country with better security! Probably others I'll spot over breakfast re-watching it.

For anyone who didn't catch Confidential, both Derek Jacobi and John Sim wanted to be on the show; Derek directly, John (like at least one actor in the HP film series) because he couldn't face his son having said no. The said son then got to be present during filming, and got to "play" on the inside-TARDIS set, between scenes.

And, from Confidential:
RTD said we've still got more to come from the Face of Boe.
 
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Just gets better! Can't wait to catch the repeat.:D
 
Tep said:
Since otherwise they've no way of getting back in time, I'll wager a cup of high-street-chain coffee that the last-minute sonic screwdriver stuff has set off some sort of automatic-return circuit on the TARDIS. Any takers?

Methinks he'll do something to Jack's time vortex manipulator.
 
Methinks he'll do something to Jack's time vortex manipulator.

I'd forgotten about that: although it burnt out in 18something, he might be able to cobble something out of the bits left in the lab, and the sonic screwdriver.
 
it was ok. the ending was cool but until then i wasn't that fussed. that blue girl was very annoying
and the whole yana thing was just stupid. im sorry, but the face of bo may have known the doc wasn't alone, but the master guy didn't know who he was, why would he have used initials as a name that spelt out what the big head had said?

it was ok. im sure it will be entertaining next week but it wasn't as good as last weeks or the one before

and this is my first time seeing capt jack. and he's a pratt. good looking, oh yes, but a pratt. nothing about the character that i think is fun or interesting he just seems totally full of himself.
 
Oooh, definite edge-of-seat time, any more tension and I'd be sitting on the floor nursing a bruised bum!:D

I hope that The Doctor manages to get the TARDIS back next week, although I think the last minute sonic stuff was trying to lock the controls (like a central locking remote for cars) so that The Master couldn't use it, unfortunately it didn't work. Mind you, this is just one of several things that need to be tied up over the next two episodes.

It was good to tie in themes and ideas established during the season. I have to admit that I didn't see the watch thing coming, though. It does, of course, mean that it's Martha's fault that The Master is back - naughty Martha! Derek Jacobi switching from lovable old man to sinister and evil was a delight, so well acted.

On a different note - slightly concerned that I might be turning into Capt Jack (just not as handsome), cos I thought that Chantho, despite being a blue humanoid insect, was quite cute. Is this a sign that it's time for me to join Torchwood?:D

Ahem, anyway.... roll on next week!
 
A very poor episode, I thought. 'Blink' showed just how good the new Doctor can be; this one demonstrated the opposite. None of it made any kind of plausible sense - the "end of the universe", but it looked like a Mad Max film. The "big rocket to utopia" has been done far too many times to count - think When Worlds Collide. And Jacobi must have been wincing at some of the lines he had to utter...
 
I agree there were some gaps in the logic (though still thought it an awesome episode: the tension really built superbly). Would a population be able to tell that the universe was ending? If so, why build a rocket to "escape"? And if the FutureKind were humans after alternate evolution, where did the "pure" humans come from?

I also have a plot question: the Master, after freeing himself, muttered something to the effect of "Utopia, as if" whilst removing some circuitry from the scanner which showed where it was. Had it been some sort of trick the whole time? Perhaps done subconsciously like the Doctors cricket ball thing?

As for being Martha's fault - isn't making the huge mistakes which release the episodes' baddies the purpose of being the Doctor's assistant?
 
I didn't think it was a particularly strong episode, but it did get better as they revealed everything. Almost too much got resolved and made sense. There were many things, the pocket watch for instance, that now seem to have been placed in the earlier episodes just so they could be used here. I think that was all very cleverly done.

I have to agree about the 'what humans will become', orthodontically challenged, creatures. Why was Darth Maul leading them? And will there be an explanation about how one of them got inside, and yet no one noticed her teeth?

I don't much like the Captain Jack character anyway, but this did make the end of 'Torchwood' season one make a little more sense now. And we were correct about the Hand in the jar - which was explained exactly as someone had suggested it would be.
 
When I’m with Lenny on the Jack's time vortex manipulator as a way back to the present-ish day.

But I’m sure the Doctor’s hand must have something to do with the plot other wise why did Jack bring it along ??. Yes the hand did tell him when the doctor was around but why pick it up & put it in a rucksack.
 
10 thrilling minutes at the end of the episode do not make a decent episode.

The whole episode screamed "Filler" with RTD lining up all the McGuffins to set up the finale.

The awakening and regeneration of the Master was cool though.

I do wish they would let someone other than RTD write the finales. He's good at the fanboy detail (references to the original master in the voices etc) but not so great at writing interesting stories.
 
[Lenny: QUOTE] For an RTD episode, I thought this was rather good.[/quote]

Hey Lens - don't you usually like RTD's input?

I thought this was a good episode and it's been a long time without the Master! Things might hot up a bit now - however, like the Daleks, the Master cannot be overused as when they are the storylines tend to drain a bit.
 
What a fantastic episode, especially the last few minutes. Very clever with the YANA and the watch. I don't know a great deal about The Master, but I hope it explains how he managed to regenerate. But it seems he's determined to prolong his life through any means, so perhaps we'll find out anon.

Definitely a hanging onto the edge of your seat episode.

I like Jack. I didn't watch much of the first series so I didn't see him then and I don't watch Torchwood, so this is really the first time I've seen him. He's now my new favourite character (after the Doctor, of course).

There didn't seem to be much point to the plot of the episode, but then really it took a back seat anyway for the big revelation (that we knew was coming anyway, but was still bloody exciting when it happened). The Future Kind were a bit useless, but there you go.

Looks like a very interesting season finale, anyway. The Doctor against his true nemesis. I hope The Master is uber evil, it's time to throw the Doctor out of his stride and make him extremely uncomfortable (but let him win in the end!)
 
Hmm - that reminds me Hoops - so far, I believe, the Doctors have always regenerated without having any say in it. Is that right? But here - the Master has been able to achieve his own regeneration. Is that new? Or have I missed something?

[Hoopy's QUOTE]The Future Kind were a bit useless, but there you go. [/QUOTE]

But doesn't every generation think the next one slightly less useless than their own - hence the quote "It warn't like that in my day!" Or "not like the good old days". Hmm (again) - they weren't that good!
 
I thought it was more than 10 minutes out of the 45 minutes that was thrilling, but I get your point.
...the Master, after freeing himself, muttered something to the effect of "Utopia, as if" whilst removing some circuitry from the scanner which showed where it was.
Are you suggesting that Utopia was a fiction created by the Master? So his 'human' identity was looking for something created by his real 'Timelord' identity?

A few other plot questions:

The Master regenerated because he got shot. He didn't really have a choice! But the last we saw the Master, he fell into the Eye of Harmony and he had no more regenerations. Do you think the Eye of Harmony was affected by the destruction of the Time Lords?

Is that why the Doctor needs to in the Cardiff Rift every so often?

Are the Regenerations now infinite? (Someone here speculated that the 13 Regeneration rule was not a physical rule, but one enforced by the Time Lords themselves.)
 
Are you suggesting that Utopia was a fiction created by the Master? So his 'human' identity was looking for something created by his real 'Timelord' identity?

More of a question. The human Doctor was still able to do all that cricket ball stuff with the falling piano, without realising why he was capable of it. Maybe the Professor was still capable of subconscious evil, particularly very early on, and somehow rigged the scanner to show somewhere nonexistent. It certainly never made sense to me why they'd bother going since the universe is about to end anyway... unless it's a kind of Grey Havens...
 

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