Harry -
By the end of his third season as showrunner, Russell T. Davies showed us that there were still untold blocks he could bust with his Doctor Who season finale blockbusters.
Sarah -
RTD reached a new level with "Utopia". The script is tight, well-paced, compelling, and surprisingly witty for such a dark story. I was delighted that "Utopia" lived up to my memories of it. Plus, Derek Jacobi!
Harry -
Kolossal!
Sarah -
I remember being caught off-guard by his appearance and so very happy to have him turn up in Doctor Who. I recall him saying that his remaining career goals had been Doctor Who and Coronation Street. I don't know if he ever made it onto Corrie, but I'm sure he never imagined he'd still be playing the War Master all these years later!
Harry -
I'm very happy he's continued playing the Master for our friends at Big Finish. One of the best actors of our times. I have said this elsewhere, but Big Finish could release a box set of Jacobi reading a phone book and I would pre-order it on day one.
Sarah -
Dear Mr. Haigh-Ellery, we have a proposal...
Harry -
"Utopia" is the opening chapter of an epic three-parter that brings together new faces and old. It begins innocently enough, with a TARDIS refueling stop in 2007 Cardiff.
Sarah -
It's been a minute, Cardiff. And who should turn up but our old pal Jack, who has spent uncounted years hanging around the Rift, waiting for the Doctor's return.
Harry -
The year 2007 was definitely the heydays for Captain Jack Harkness in the Whoniverse. His return appearance here came on the heels of the first season of Torchwood.
Sarah -
I really wanted to like Torchwood, to no avail, but I’m always down for some Captain Jack.
Harry -
It was certainly great to see him again, but the Doctor was less enthused. Seeing Jack approaching on the TARDIS monitor, the Doctor initiates dematerialization. Jack makes a desperate leap, clings to the TARDIS doors, and goes for a ride through the vortex -- millions, billions, trillions of years ahead -- to the very end of the universe.
Sarah -
We’ve all gone out of our way to avoid someone, but the Doctor takes it to new heights!
Harry -
The TARDIS lands on a planet under a dark sky. The Doctor and Martha emerge, and Martha spots Jack's prone body on the ground. She goes to his aid, but Jack does his Jack thing and gasps back to life. Martha is stunned, the Doctor is still unenthused.
Sarah -
The Doctor couldn’t possibly be less enthused! Of course, things are bound to be awkward when you’ve abandoned your traveling companion out of his timeline after he’s been made immortal. It’s almost the definition of awkward, especially when he turns up with your hand!
Harry -
There's an awkward reunion as both Jack and the Doctor are initially wary, but when Rose's name comes up they happily embrace at the fact that she's still alive in a parallel world. Hurray for Rose! It's Martha's turn to be unenthused.
Sarah -
I laughed out loud at Martha’s “Oh, she was blonde? Oh, what a surprise!” Martha is truly all of us.
Harry -
The trio do some looking around the seemingly empty landscape. Suddenly a man appears, pursued by the cast of The Road Warrior, and they run to help.
Sarah -
Something about this setting and the Road Warrior wannabes made it all feel very Seventh Doctor Era to me. I can almost see the Doctor and Ace scrambling over the hill in the background to avoid running into himself.
Harry -
Yes! Now that you mention it, this setting was not much of a stretch from the planet of the cat people. Only here, the fanged marauders don't have fur.
Sarah -
But they do have an equally fierce look.
Harry -
A unique shout out to Paul Marc Davis, who plays the lead post-human character. He has the distinction of being the only actor who has appeared in Doctor Who, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Class (where he played the Shadow King).
Sarah -
Well done!
Harry -
Now four, the group scramble to a security fence and gain access to a place simply called the silo. Inside, it is filled with humans, much to the Doctor's delight. Despite everything, over trillions of years and the collapse of countless civilizations, humans survived to the end of the universe and he's proper chuffed.
Sarah -
Humans, the cockroaches of the universe!
Harry -
What an honour.
Sarah -
You gotta take what you can get.
Harry -
The inside of the silo looks more like a refugee camp, and we learn that everyone is waiting to board a massive rocket, if only the scientific team could finish the pre-launch preparations.
We soon learn that the scientific team is just one human man and one indigenous woman, neither of whom have a freaking clue how to get the rocket off the ground.
Another well-deserved shout out to Chipo Chung, who almost steals the show as Chantho. She and professor Yana have been toiling who knows how long in their laboratory, trying to find a way to launch the rocket that will take everyone off this dying lump of a planet.
Sarah -
It’s an amazing performance. I enjoy her scenes with Martha, especially when Martha encourages her to be “rude.” Chantho would have made an excellent addition to the TARDIS team.
Harry -
Enter our new TARDIS trio. Professor Yana is thrilled to meet the Doctor, a fellow man of science. Together, they might be able to send the rocket in the direction of Utopia, a place whose signal beckoned people to a new destiny. It's all fanciful stuff and the thing of legend, but here at the end of time and the end of existence, even the faintest hope will drive people to risk everything to survive.
It was a bit of a stretch, but with a flurry of technobabble and a wave of the sonic screwdriver, the Doctor instantly finds a way to activate the dormant rocket. Back in the Pertwee era, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts would have built an entire extra episode around the Doctor working out the equations and calculations, but in this era a good plot can't be bogged down by difficult maths. So within moments, it's all aboard and begin the countdown. All that's left is the coupling of the fuel links and the rocket will be ready for blast off.
Problem: one of the "futurekind" post-humans has infiltrated the silo, and she sabotages the systems.
Sarah -
How did she manage to escape the teeth-inspection protocol?
Harry -
It was a dodgy protocol to be honest.
Sarah -
The TARDIS team springs into action after Jack is resurrected from the dead a second time. The Doctor and Jack, who is the only person who can enter the couplings room without dying, head down to couple the fuel links so the rocket can take off. Jack tells the Doctor his story of discovering that he is immortal and all he has gone through to find Doctor again. The Doctor can barely look at Jack as he explains how Jack was made immortal by Rose and that the TARDIS traveled to the end of the universe to get away from him.
Harry -
I liked how the story slowed right down so that Jack and the Doctor could have their conversation. Right before everything went haywire.
Sarah -
It’s all in the timing. Meanwhile, Martha has been telling Yana and Chantho about her travels in the TARDIS with the Doctor and they can overhear the Doctor and Jack’s conversation. The words reverberate in Yana’s head along with the sound of drums and memories start to come back to him.
Harry -
"Daleks... Time War... regeneration..." Each word hammers away at the professor's mental shell.
Sarah -
He removes his fob watch from its pocket and Martha turns it over to discover the Gallifreyan inscriptions, just like the ones on the Doctor’s watch in "Human Nature/Family of Blood."
This is the moment when my brain exploded the first time I watch "Utopia". At this point, we knew John Simm was going to bring back the Master, but it wasn’t until we saw the watch that I realized PROFESSOR YANA WAS THE MASTER! I don’t know how I managed not to run into a spoiler beforehand, but I’m so happy I didn’t. The shock of this moment is one of my favorite Doctor Who memories.
Harry -
The buildup to this moment is also one of my favourites. Martha hurries to the Doctor and tells him that Yana has a watch just like his. Excitedly, Jack exclaims that it could be another Time Lord. The Doctor waves it off as ridiculous, impossible. It's almost as if the Doctor prefers to be last of the Time Lords, he's made so much of that mantle that he hates the thought of losing it now.
Sarah -
He’s a bit invested in the distinction: “Time Lord, last of. Heard of them? Legend or anything? Not even a myth? Blimey, end of the universe is a bit humbling.”
Harry -
Voices from the past circle Yana's mind. These are his own past voices -- Anthony Ainley chuckling, Roger Delgado shouting. It's electrifying stuff and leaves no doubt any longer. Yana finally sees through the perception filter.
Sarah -
And, OMG, the moment when Jacobi opens the watch and becomes the Master is chilling. His entire face changes and he becomes a new person without any special effects. It’s a spectacular moment.
Harry -
Jacobi's performance is perfection. The frustrated, blustering professor is gone, replaced by the icy, smirking Master. He looks around with disgust at the rocket project that he's spent years working on, spitting out the word "Utopia" as if the word itself tastes rotten.
Immediately, he turns on Chantho, blasting her for never thinking to open the watch and restore him. How was she supposed to know? He curses her out and turns to lock the laboratory.
Sarah -
It’s handy to have an immediate reminder that the Master is an absolute rat bastard.
Harry -
In a role reversal, David Tennant goes from cocky to panicked as the Master slams doors and throws obstacles in his path. He knows who it is inside the laboratory.
Sarah -
There’s no one else it could be!
Harry -
All Chantho knows is that Yana has snapped and must be stopped from ruining everything. Underneath all the prosthetics, Chung conveys heartbreak and terror as the Master assaults Chantho. Her final act of desperation is to shoot him.
Sarah -
Watching him abuse Chantho is so painful to watch. She deserves better.
Harry -
It was unfortunate to see her forgotten after she shot the Master. Mortally wounded, he staggers into the TARDIS, locks the doors right before the Doctor can get to him, and regenerates. Enter John Simm, bursting with youthful energy and bouncing around the TARDIS console.
Sarah -
“Killed by an insect. A girl. How inappropriate. Still, if the Doctor can be young and strong, then so can I. The Master reborn!” His misogyny is particularly noteworthy given his later reaction to his next regeneration, but that’s a story for another day...or year.
Harry -
Unlike the conversation between the Doctor and Jack, this one has none of the warmth of old friends reunited.
Sarah -
Talk about awkward reunions.
Harry -
The Futurekind run rampant in the silo and Jack and Martha hold them back at the laboratory door. The Doctor pleads for the Master to slow down and talk things over, but he will have none of it. It's a complete checkmate. The Doctor can only stand and watch as the TARDIS dematerializes. Now THAT is a cliffhanger for the ages.
Sarah -
I want to savor this moment before we head into the two-part finale. I don’t believe I’ve rewatched is since it first aired; I may need to fortify myself with a beverage to get through what’s to come. Let’s forge on, shall we?
Harry -
Some final shout outs to literally everyone. The acting was top-level all around. The sets and costumes were memorable. Good old Graeme Harper delivered another masterpiece as director, and RTD blew us away with the opening chapter of this season-ender. Ready to forge on!
Sarah -
Best Line:
"A hermit with friends?" Jacobi’s read made me laugh out loud
Favorite Moment: Yana becoming the Master
Lasting Image: Yana and his watch
8/10
Harry -
Best Line: "I...am...the Master." I remember laughing maniacally at this moment on the first broadcast.
Favourite Moment: definitely the return of the Master
Lasting Image: Derek Jacobi unleashed as the Master
8/10
Our marathon continues with the final two parts of this story: "The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords"...
