Doctor Who: 3.12: The Sound of Drums

[selenay]

This was one those episodes that simply doesn't stop for forty-five minutes, pulling you in and forcing you to pay attention because you might miss something crucial if you drift for a few seconds.

That said, my favourite moment was the telephone call between the Doctor and the Master. It wasn't about running or fighting. It may have been a couple of minutes of pure exposition, but it worked. I'd considered half a dozen reasons for the Master's re-appearance during this past week, including that the Time Lords had been crazy enough to resurrect him, and RTD used an idea that I hadn't even considered. It's also an idea that makes sense.

Despite having a certain amount of ruthlessness (witness their various attempts to shut down other races learning time travel through destroying the scientists working on it), the Time Lords didn't have the kind of minds that could destroy the Daleks in all-out battle. They hadn't interfered for thousands of years, they'd just watched, so when faced by the Daleks they didn't have the imagination or cold-blooded, homicidal traits that would enable them to fight and win. Turning to the renegades seems like a logical decision.

But the Doctor, prime renegade, had never been able to commit genocide even when given the opportunity to stop the Daleks before they were created.

So who do you turn to? Who has that kind of mind-set? The Master.

Except they seem to have forgotten that he's rather fond of his own skin and usually escapes before he can be separated from it. It explains his resurrection and also his full complement of regenerations. Why bring back someone to be your warrior in the biggest war ever and not give him every tool he needs? He might well have needed all thirteen lives to kill the Daleks.

Unfortunately for the Time Lords, the Master played true to form and ran away.

I loved the shock, the complete disbelief, in the Master when he learnt that the Time Lords had been destroyed. It was as though, despite everything he'd done and even his attempts to destroy them, he had never believed that they truly could be destroyed.

The other big chuck of exposition, where the Doctor described the origins of the Master, was interesting. I have mixed emotions about it at the moment. I did love that they used the costume styles established in the classic series. Thank you, RTD, for not forgetting those touches. The shots of Gallifrey were also beautifully done.

That idea of being taken to a rip and shown the vortex, though, is where I'm not entirely certain. It does seem like the kind of thing that the Time Lords would do. I'm not sure why, but it does work for me. I'm just not sure about the implications for the Doctor.

He's never before shown signs of being afraid of the Vortex or the power of time and the theme in the classic series was that the Doctor left because he disagreed with what the Time Lords were doing and, to a certain extent, with what they stood for. The idea of him running from the Vortex doesn't sit right with me.

OTOH, his tone to Jack and Martha when describing his reaction was flippant and dismissive, so can we be sure that he was telling the truth?

It does make sense of the Master's motivations, though. Hmmm.

I did love that little moment when Martha brought up the possibility of the Master being the Doctor's secret brother ;-) Damn, forty years of fan speculation just washed away! Unless he wasn't being entirely truthful. She did talk about it as though it would be the worst thing ever and he was rather quick to deny it. Doth he protest too much?

Judging by Martha's reactions, the Doctor hadn't got around to telling her about regenerations yet. Heh. I wonder how long it's going to take for her to put two and two together and start asking the Doctor whether he's regenerated? And what her reaction will be when she finds out just how old he is? I *so* hope that RTD has that on-screen for us :-)

As for the rest of the episode, it was tremendous fun. The Doctor's reaction to Jack re-building Torchwood was great. Only spending twenty seconds on their escape from the future was much better than spending five minutes on the Big Honking Plot Device.

John Simm is having so much fun playing the manic, insane, brilliant Master.

RTD has not forgotten the Master's old weapons - yay for hypnosis. Mrs Saxon turning out to be in on it all was great and not what I expected. As for poisoning the Cabinet: how many Prime Ministers have dreamt of doing that?

I hadn't entirely been able to avoid the spoiler about the Master being Harold Saxon (damn) but it worked brilliantly despite that.

And oh god, the Valiant being a sky ship was fantastic. Heh.

UNIT was there! Hooray! RTD keeps forgetting about UNIT so I almost cheered when he remembered them this time.

I'm not entirely pleased about the rapid ageing Doctor (rapid ageing is one of my big squicks), but I'm willing to overlook it because the rest of the episode was so good. The little cute robot things being lethal little critters worked. I wonder where the Master found them? I'm also wondering whether the Master is also responsible for the various "dates from the dawn of time" creatures that have appeared this season. He's certainly my prime candidate for calling in the Weeping Angels. He also used the appearance of the Raknoss in his campaign - is it even worth betting that he had a hand in that?

I have a feeling that this is all building up to something fairly cataclysmic next week. I think it's going to be very different from the previous two season enders, but no less traumatic. My biggest concern is what will happen to Martha. All of the unrequited love stuff has to have a pay-off and I'm thinking that whatever it is will be fairly nasty for Martha. RTD may seem to have a "thing" for putting in chemistry between Doctor and companion, but he hasn't let it end well at any stage and I think this might be his biggest nasty pay-off yet.

It's going to be hard work staying spoiler-free until next week but I'm determined to do it because I think that episode thirteen is going to be huge. Is it next Saturday yet?

Comments

[yma2.livejournal.com]

Good review, I agree with you on nearly every point...

I think the 'running ever since' thing was more a... metaphore though. Not meant to be taken literally. The Doctor, in some ways, has never really been very good at facing responsibility, in sticking around for hte cleanup operation, as it were. I'd take 'running ever since,' to be a way of saying that. He's always had itchy feet. I think that his actual, logical reasons were probably due to wanting to escape the pomp and ceremony and sterility of Gallifray, I think the fact he ran from the Vortex is more a sign of his... personality.

At any rate, that's how I interpreted that bit.

[selenay]

Good review

Thank you :-)

At any rate, that's how I interpreted that bit.

That's an interpretation that fits much better with what we know of the Doctor from the classic series. His manner when he made the "running ever since" comment seemed to me to be breaking out of the confession tone he'd had and I wondered whether he gave a flip response rather than have to explain everything. I would agree that, to some degree, he's been running all his life at least metaphorically speaking. He's also been painting rather a rose-tinted view of the Time Lords since they were destroyed. Maybe he's reluctant to tell Jack and Martha about some of the bad sides of them now that they're gone.

Hmmm.

[yma2.livejournal.com]

I think it's also probably a case of 'you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.' Now he's lost his entire people, and they died by his hand, he's gotta feel some sort of... nostalgia and guilt. I mean... think of it this way; If you parents died you would't say, 'Oh well, they were pretty shit really.' You might acknowledge their flaws if they came up, but as a whole you'd concentrate on the positive aspects of them, even if when they were alive you didn't like them.
And not that most of the Doctor's 'positive' descriptions of the Time Lords have been to do with the beauty of the place itself, and the job the Timelords did. He's never really remarked on their society until this episode, as far as I can recall.

[isisnancy.livejournal.com]

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