Doctor Who “The Sound of Drums” and “Last of the Time Lords”

“Drums” – 10/10
“Last of the Time Lords” – 7/10

Rant and Review - Well, it feels wrong to review both here in one go, but I got lazy again. There was this thing that gets in the way (work, life, whatever) and there I go … forgetting to review stuff on a blog that no one is reading, anyway.

So, “The Sound of Drums” kicked the gears up a few notches from the spectacular “Utopia” but then lost its rhythm (and reason and rhyme) in “Last of the Time Lords.” This is the first season finale that doesn’t feel embarrassing in terms of the overly soapy emotional stuff … but still utterly failed to deliver the goods in terms of plot and story telling. And, shame on that for ending an otherwise nearly perfect season. But, it calls into question something else: do the emotional fireworks cover up really bad endings in the previous two seasons? It is obvious that Russell T. Davies does depend a lot on emotion and a lot less on logic. To be fair, this is the first 3-part story the new series has done (roughly equivalent to the old fashioned 6-parters in the “classic series” days) and it should be judged on overall story merit … but, somehow I cannot quite do it.

1. Because “Utopia” was directed by Graeme Harper (who directed for the classic series as well) and
2. Because Derek Jacobi was in it and not John Simm
3. Because it is so stylistically different than the last two parts



We left “Utopia” with Doctor, Martha, and Capt. Jack stranded while the newly regenerated Master (Simm) has stolen the Doctor’s TARDIS. We resume the story with the 3 getting away pretty quickly (and really, who wanted to see that bit go on more) to find that the newly elected prime minister Harold Saxon is in fact the Master … who taunts the Doctor with a speech parodying the now disgraced Harriet Jones “What this country really needs … right now … is a Doctor.” Ping. A nice big smile and the credits roll in pretty heavy.



What follows is a tour de force for Simm’s Master as he rounds up Martha’s family and plays cat and mouse with the Doctor. First, he blows up Martha's flat and then reports the three as terrorists.




It is really the best set-up episode in history, giving us not only two really great actors going for guts and glory, but also a lot of CGI Time Lord flashbacks (for the fans)




... some weird new aliens he calls “the Toclafane” (a Time Lord myth), and the ultimate spaceship in the sky. The Master has been setting this up all along for 18 months. After he announces the first alien contact with the Toclafane, he is met by an enraged, though thoroughly stuck up President Arthur Winters (played by Colin Stinton of A Very Peculiar Practice fame.) Of course, this is a British drama, so there are lots of pokes at Americans. “Shall I make the tea? Or isn’t that American enough? I could make grits? What are grits, anyway?” and then … has the aliens kill the President on world-wide television. It is, to say the least, outrageously funny.












By the end of the story, (the Master's quite insane "Here come the drums!" Voodoo Child moment is perhaps unforgetable as a climax) the Doctor is made very old and forced to watch the Earth being invaded by 6 billion spheres …

By the time “Last of the Time Lords” begins … Doctor Who has taken a big leap of faith by projecting the story one year into the future. Martha is wandering the world and … well … the Master has made the Doctor even older … Martha’s family are his servants … he appears to be in some drug stupor … and then the plot gets silly.







1. The Tinkerbelle moment … Yes, the Doctor saves the world by having everyone say his name at the same time (with the added benefit of the Master’s Archangel Satellite network.) This is of course not only absurd, but simply impossible to manage, let alone plan (which is what he claims to have done.)




2. The reset … the Earth goes back in time to just before the spheres appear. This is sadly the worst thing in the original Superman movie … it certainly doesn’t get better when redone in Doctor Who …

3. And, after all that, the Master inexplicably decides to die and the Doctor cries. It seems utterly absurd. (Although, there is a shot of a woman picking up his ring after his Jedi style pyre.)







4. And Martha leaves … Why? We like Martha.



5. Donna from the Runaway Bride is coming back? Why? We didn’t like Donna.

6. Jack is ... the Face of Boe ... What????



7. Kylie is on the Titanic ... which crashes into the TARDIS at the end of the episode.





In the end, my response is that someone slipped the entire production team some heavy hallucinogens at the same time … and they’ve all gone simultaneously insane. It can be the only explanation.

And so now we wait for next Christmas and ... watch thousands of people die in a story called "the Voyage of the Damned" ... I think I'm on pretty sturdy ground with my hallucination theory.