Sofa of Rassilon EXTRA: Time Crash (2007)

Harry -
Martha has made a clean break with the Doctor to forge her own path. Alone again, he leans on the TARDIS console and chills. 

The moment passes, he turns and pulls a lever. The ship immediately spins out of control and the Doctor briefly flickers like a projection. Pulling things together again, he circles the console and bumps into his former self. The TARDIS has crashed into the TARDIS; it's the ultimate time crash!


Sarah -
I love "Time Crash" so much. Davison and Tennant are absolutely perfect and it makes me cry every time I watch it.


Harry -
Each Doctor plays his role perfectly. The older one is aghast to find an intruder aboard his ship. He's cranky and offended by this younger chap who plays a teasing game of "I know who you are, and you don't know who I am." Funny how the tables will be turned on this Doctor shortly.


Sarah -
It's only fun until YOUR successor shows up. At least he wasn't a dandy or a clown. 

It seems everyone remembers Davison's Doctor as the nice one, but after our last rewatch, what I remember most is how irritable he is most of the time. Davison has stepped immediately back into character for "Time Crash".


Harry -
After some cantankerous back and forth and trying to right the ship, each Doctor realizes that the solution was provided by the other. It all goes self-lovey as the younger Doctor dotes on his older self. The older Doctor is pleased to learn that he has a fun younger self to look forward to.


Sarah -
I can't not tear up when the Tenth Doctor tells the Fifth Doctor, "You know, I love being you. Back when I first started at the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you're young. And then I was you, and it was all dashing about and playing cricket and my voice going all squeaky when I shouted. I still do that, the voice thing. I got that from you. Oh, and the trainers, and (puts on glasses) snap. Because you know what, Doctor? You were my Doctor."


Harry -
Of all of Moffat's specials, this one gives off such warmth you could wrap yourself in it and stay cozy for hours.


Sarah -
It's definitely something we should rewatch more often. It's just delightful. 

I have to give a shout out to my favorite exchange about the Master:
Fifth Doctor: Does he still have that rubbish beard? 
Tenth Doctor: No, no beard this time. Well, a wife.


Harry -
That was sublime on multiple levels.

This special came during a time of great spin-offs in the Whoniverse. We've already seen Captain Jack and Sarah Jane get their own shows. As well, Doctor Who branched out into online and animated adventures. There were a couple featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha. I remember watching one of them back in the day. Having tried again recently, I don't think they've aged that well. "The Infinite Quest" was interesting, mostly for Anthony Head's voice acting. The other, "Dreamland" suffers from really stilted animation. I couldn't get through it.


Sarah -
There was a lot going on at the time. I had the same experience with "The Infinite Quest", but "Time Crash" is just pure joy!


Harry -
This was the perfect vignette to segue between Martha's departure and the arrival of The Titanic.  What?  What?  Whaaat??  Time for us to refill the gin glasses and embark on the next voyage.

Our marathon continues with Story #188: Voyage of the Damned...

Story #187b/c - The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords (2007)

Sarah -
Martha Jones Saves the World!

Can we leave it at that and move on to the next story?


Harry -
After the excellence of Utopia, an opening episode that gave us a new TARDIS trio, a voyage to the end of the universe, and the return of the Master, the final two episodes of this season-ending triple header were bound to be a step down. But what a step down.


Sarah -
More of a plummet down. It’s even worse than I remembered.


Harry -
Yes, it was great to see the Master in all his diabolical majesty again. He's become prime minister of Britain -- which is brilliant! -- and he's concocted a whole new bonkers plan for the destruction of Earth and conquest of the universe. A mega-level Master plot at this scale could only come from the blockbuster mind of RTD.


Sarah -
Because I’m in a cranky mood, I’ll point out that the only reason Saxon was able to become PM was because the Doctor caused Harriet Jones’ downfall -- that and the hypnosis, of course.


Harry -
I liked this new take on a classic character. Young and energetic like the Doctor, with the same fashion sense trending towards black. He still loves his pseudonyms and mind control, and he's gotten himself an accomplice.

I have rewatched this story a few times over the years, and really want to like it because who doesn't like a good Master story? But every time, I find it all... too much. And a bit nonsensical. The story stumbles at the big picture stuff, like the Toclafane who span colossal epochs of time in order to destroy humanity with a paradox machine before heading off who knows where. Stumbles? It almost bores to be honest. I wouldn't call it a failing, but one of the things I liked least about the RTD era were these overly epic blockbusters that required the Doctor to become almost godlike in order to prevail. We certainly got a big dose of that here.


Sarah -
The Dobby-Doctor and his Jesus-like resurrection is certainly a low point of the RTD era. The whole story is just trying to do too much.


Harry -
Yeah. What I liked best was when the story zeroed in on small moments. The Doctor's phone conversation with the Master, the TARDIS trio hatching their plan over chips, Martha and Milligan bonding over their common cause.


Sarah -
These moments really are the best in the story. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of them. I will admit that I laughed out loud when the Master asked the people of Earth to “please attend carefully” and addressed “Britain, Britain, Britain” on television.


Harry -
I loved the random quotations.

Martha. Martha Jones. She saved the world and we barely saw a thing she did. Turns out, the Doctor sent her out to be a kind of biblical prophet. Yeesh. I'm jumping around a bit here, but there are so many things I can't help but pick at in these two episodes.


Sarah -
There’s so much to pick at, like how Jack ends up a disembodied head. Whatever.


Harry -
I loved what John Simm brought to his role. Unfortunately, the whole thing had been spoiled for me back in 2007. "Spoilers" were still rampant in the online Who community, and the whole damn thing had been let out of the bag before I'd seen any of this story.  

One thing that I didn't know in advance was that we'd meet the Master's "wife." The best performance in this story might have been Alexandra Moen's zombie-like Lucy Saxon, redeemed at the very end when the Archangel satellite network was destroyed.

Sarah -
My favorite moment of the story is Martha’s final scene, in which she asserts herself and leaves the Doctor. Martha Jones is one of my favorite companions and this scene is a big part of that. We’re not done with you, Martha Jones, and I look forward to seeing you soon.


Harry -
Knowing that we'll see her again, let's leave our Martha Jones appreciation for another time.

As for this story, it started off with a bang in Utopia, but it just couldn't sustain itself and ultimately too many poor choices made this one a dud.


Sarah -
Best Line: Everything Martha says in her final scene:

MARTHA: I just can't. 
DOCTOR: Yeah. 
MARTHA: Spent all these years training to be a doctor. Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them. 
DOCTOR: Of course not. Thank you. Martha Jones, you saved the world. 
MARTHA: Yes, I did. I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best, but you know what? I am good. You going to be alright? 
DOCTOR: Always. Yeah. 
MARTHA: Right then. Bye. 
(Martha leaves, then goes back inside.) 
MARTHA: Because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Sean. And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him. 
DOCTOR: Is this going anywhere? 
MARTHA: Yes. Because he never looked at her twice. I mean, he liked her, but that was it. And she wasted years pining after him. Years of her life. Because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, get out. So this is me, getting out.

Favorite Moment: Martha telling the Doctor she’s out. 

Lasting Image: Martha walking away from the TARDIS. 

2/10


Harry -
Best Line: from the cabinet gassing scene, short and simple.
Cabinet Minister: You’re insane!
The Master: Yes!

Favourite Moment: the telephone conversation between the Doctor and the Master.

Lasting Image: the Master dying in the Doctor's arms.

4/10

Our marathon will continue...