Totally Frakked: "Doctor Who" And The End Of The Universe
Doctor Who
Title: "Utopia"
First Aired (US): 09/21/07
There have been a lot of good villains in the course of "Doctor Who." the Daleks are so universal they even made it into the dictionary and the Cybermen personify metal menace. Personally though, I've always had a soft spot for this week's villain, another classic Who big bad who has returned to taunt The Doctor in his newest incarnation.
Speaking of welcome returns, Jack Harkness is back again, carrying along a severed hand which The Doctor lost during "The Christmas Invasion." When the TARDIS stops over in Cardiff to refuel, Jack comes running out to hop aboard, clinging to the outside and forcing the TARDIS off course and all the way out to the end of the universe. Nice going, Jack. Slightly confusingly for American audiences who are following "Dr. Who" on The Scifi Channel and "Torchwood" on BBC America, this event takes place out of step with the current plot on "Torchwood," but should connect up to an event later in that season.
After landing, Martha and The Doctor discover an apparently dead Captain Jack lying outside the TARDIS, but he revives quite suddenly. Despite the fact that their locale is not topping the list of vacation spots, The Doctor, Martha and Jack decide to take a look around. At the end of the world, it's looking unpleasantly Battlefield Earth-y. The few remaining humans are being chased around by the pointy-toothed "futurekind," trying to get into a small compound that appears to represent the last of human civilization. The threesome make their way into the compound, narrowly avoiding becoming food for the evil futurekind.
On the inside, they meet Professor Yana and his insectoid assistant Chantho, along with a lot of dirty and downtrodden humans milling around. Yana is building a rocket system to propel the remaining humans to a place they think is Utopia. Yana seems like a nice guy other than constantly being distracted by the sound of beating drums, a characteristic that doesn't exactly scream "mental health."
The Doctor helps Yana fix the final part of the ignition system, but of course there's some minor detail that has to be fixed in the Room Of Special Danger. To illustrate how dangerous the room is, one of the dirty and downtrodden humans gets vaporized by its Very Bad Radiation. Good thing Jack is the man who can't die, and is willing to head on into the Room Of Special Danger to twist the Very Important Thingy. I make fun, but really it's all very tense.
While Jack and The Doctor are working on the Very Important Thingy, Martha hangs out and chats with Professor Yana. When Martha mentions time travel, Yana's drumbeat in the brainpan gets much worse. He starts mumbling some nonsense about his childhood and pulls out a suspiciously familiar looking watch. It appears to be precisely the same as The Doctor's soul watch from the Family Of Blood two-parter. When Martha questions him about it, he says he's had it since childhood, but that it's always been broken. Martha, being a pretty bright girl, puts one and one together and comes out with Oh Crap!
Martha runs to The Doctor just as Jack's finished with the Very Important Thingy. There's a nice little flashback where The Doctor realizes that Yana is an acronym for the Face of Boe's final message to him: You Are Not Alone. Uh oh. The three run back towards Yana's lab, but not in time to stop him from opening the watch and regaining his memories. Thus reminded of his true self, the infamous Timelord bad guy The Master turns on poor Chantho and electrocutes her. She manages to live just long enough to shoot him, but he stumbles into the TARDIS and away from her. He also steals The Doctor's hand, which is probably going to be really bad for everyone later on.
All of this is, of course, Really Bad. The Doctor, Martha and Jack manage to make it back to the TARDIS just as The Master is regenerating (too bad, I liked Derek Jacobi in the part), but can't get inside the locked TARDIS before The Master takes off, stranding the three at the end of the world with nothing but a dead insect girl for company.
Recaps don't convey tension very well, but there was tension aplenty in this episode. The return of The Master is no small thing, The Doctor has his Moriarty again, and he's back in fine style. The episode keeps you on pins and needles for the entire final act, breathlessly awaiting the next installment (this is the first of a three-part season ender).
Previously On MeeVee:
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