DOCTOR WHO: "Utopia"

[rj_anderson]

The really sad thing about "Utopia" is that I would have enjoyed it so much more if I hadn't seen what was coming six weeks ago.

You see, as soon as I heard that Derek Jacobi would be appearing in one of the final episodes as a character identified only as "the Professor", I thought to myself, "Time Lord. Probably the Master in disguise." Because, after all, Derek Jacobi had voiced the Master in the Shalka webisode, so it was a natural connection. And then I heard the rumour that John Simm was going to be playing the Master in one of the final episodes too, and I thought, "Ah, so he regenerates."

So as soon as we were introduced to Professor Yana, my question was not, "Is he a Time Lord?" but "Why doesn't he remember being a Time Lord?" to which the answer was obvious given what we'd just seen in "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood"... and therefore enabled me to anticipate pretty much the whole rest of the plot about twenty minutes in.

I think I would have seen it coming even without the rumors, though. Right from the beginning of new Who, I'd been sure that the Master would return eventually; the only question was how many seasons it would take before they broke down and reintroduced him. And knowing RTD, I didn't think it would take very long. Anybody camp enough to want the Daleks and the Cybermen in the same episode is surely not going to balk at bringing back the Master. Plus, falling anvils with the Face of Boe's last words etc.

Which is not to say, I hasten to add, that I didn't enjoy this episode, because I did. The feral humans (oh, sorry, they're NOT humans, not that you could really tell the difference aside from the teeth) were pretty weak, but I liked Chan Tho with her internal milk (heh) and her alien speech habits. Martha was splendid as usual, if only she would stop angsting about the Supposedly Unrequited Love of Doom and just get on with being splendid. Jack was... well, I could write a long post about how Jack is even more RTD's Mary Sue than Rose is, especially now that he's immortal, but I'll settle for rolling my eyes and moving on. Derek Jacobi is, of course, Derek Jacobi. And I have never seen John Simm before but he looks smashing in puffy sleeves and he skips beautifully, so I give him the thumbs up.

And now that I've got past the part where I wasn't surprised, I can look forward to the part where I am. As in, how are the Doctor & Co. going to get out of this one?

Comments

[kerravonsen]

Well, I tried very hard to ignore the rumours, so I wasn't anticipating things like you were. Yes, I'd heard that John Simm (Mr. Saxon) was the Master, but I thought, "Oh dear, I hope not, that would be too tacky." But I'm now reassured by those last five minutes that John Simm will actually be able to pull it off, and even if it's tacky, it will be splendidly camply tacky, so that's okay.

I didn't know that The Professor was going to be a Time Lord until we saw The Watch, but I wasn't surprised that he turned out to be The Master, because, like, most obvious other person to have survived (apart from Romana).

As in, how are the Doctor & Co. going to get out of this one?

Well, I would say that the Doctor builds a one-trip-only time machine out of Jack's broken gizmo and all the equipment that Yana left behind. And they get back to 2007 or thereabouts, because the Doctor is a genius.

The Master will do a lot of bwa-ha-ha-ing (and/or smirking), and do evil stuff.

No, I don't know how they'll defeat him, but I'm certain that the Master will get away (probably leaving a lot of minions to die). Even if he's trapped by a situation of Certain Death, of course he's going to escape.

[jamesbow.livejournal.com]

Erin managed to stay unspoiled, and didn't guess the Master until Professor Yana said, "that's not my name" (which is an obvious giveaway, since when you say that line, you know he's going to come up with a name that everybody recognizes. Derek Jacobi wouldn't deliver "I... am... FRED!"

With the watch, she initially thought that Timothy had gone immortal on us.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I hated the start. Bands of cannibalistic mutants hunt for humans on Earth's surface, while above, a detached aristocratic person observes it as he is working towards an ill-defined hope in which he himself seems not to believe. Do you want a list of the hundreds of similar situations I have seen, all harking back to HG Wells' The Time Machine? And this after Blink, mind you. The whole episode was wrecked for me.

[tybalt-quin.livejournal.com]

If you want to see more John Simm, I'd heartily recommend State of Play - a British tv series starring him, Bill Nighy (who I worship and adore), James 'Mr Tumnus' McAvoy, David Morrissey (and why he did Basic Instinct II is way beyond me) and Kelly McDonald (from Trainspotting). It's a political thriller written by Paul Abbott and it's one of the best things shown on British tv this century. They're doing a sucky movie with Brad Pitt, so see the original before it's tainted beyond recognition.

[tree_and_leaf]

John Simm is currently most famous for being the protagonist of 'Life on Mars', about a contemprary policeman who has an accident and finds himself back in 1973, trying to work out whether he's mad, in a coma, or a time traveller - and how to get home. One of the most original things I've seen on telly for ages; Simm was superb, as was the ensemble cast round about him (especially Philip Glennister as his politically incorrect, monstrous and yet wierdly lovable boss) and the scripts were sharp and inventive.