TV with MeeVee: Totally Frakked: "Doctor Who" And The Paradox Machine

Doctor Who
Title: "The Sound Of Drums"
First Aired (US): 09/28/07

Let me take a moment to say it again; The Master is an awesome villain. The penultimate episode of the season is all about The Master's Big Evil Plan, and watching him caper about, cracking wise and generally being crazy is easily as much fun as the big suspense. John Simms is the seventh actor to play The Master, and he brings a particular gleeful, manic humor to the part that seems like a cracked reflection of Tennant's Doctor; it's masterfully done (pardon the pun).

Of course, at the end of last episode, Martha, The Doctor and Jack were trapped at the end of the universe, so it's convenient that Jack happened to have an only slightly broken vortex manipulator with him. A few shots with the sonic screwdriver and the trio is back in London, only a few days after they left. Ain't time travel grand?

Speaking of time travel, remember how we've been hearing about this Saxon fellow, and his archangel network? His name has popped up a few times, notably in "The Lazarus Experiment" where it seemed like he might be after The Doctor. He's been lurking in the background of the story, running for Prime Minister and getting a sinister network of satellites online. If you're like me, you've wondered about him more than once, but you need wonder no more. When the threesome arrives back on earth, they discover that the elections have occurred and Saxon has been elected Prime Minister. Oh yeah, and he's The Master.

It seems that when The Doctor shorted out the TARDIS controls he forced The Master to return to the last place the TARDIS had been, which it more or less did, just 18 months earlier. In that time, The Master has managed to set himself up to be elected Prime Minister, and now that he's arrived he's killing off anyone who annoys him. Like, say, the cabinet who he gasses, and a nosy reporter who gets sliced and diced by some evil looking little floating metal balls.

After a little housecleaning, The Master breaks the big news to the British public. He has been contacted by friendly aliens, little floating metal balls called the Toclafane, last seen making julienne fries out of a reporter. This is bad news for the world; bad news for Martha is that The Master bombed her flat, kidnapped her parents and gave her sister a job. Fortunately, she manages to warn her brother before Saxon sends his goons. The Master cuts in on Martha's phone call with her brother, harassing her a bit before The Doctor takes the phone. In classic super-villain style, Saxon tells The Doctor a little bit about what he's been doing - getting resurrected by the Time Lords and fleeing - but is smart enough to not reveal his master plan. After getting off the phone, he reassures his friends, the creepy metal balls, that "the device" will be ready at 8:02 the following morning. Coincidentally, that's the same time as the introduction of the Toclafane to the people of the world.

On the run, The Doctor figures out a cunning plan that doesn't actually make a lot of sense, but he does make some handy perception filters which allow the threesome to travel around unnoticed as long as they're careful. After witnessing the arrival of the President of the United States, who insists on taking over operations, the trio use Jack's vortex manipulator to sneak into the introduction of the Toclafane, which is apparently happening on some kind of floating... space platform thingie called the Valiant. They find the TARDIS on board the Valiant, but it's been converted to something called a Paradox Machine, which does something... something bad. It's a little hazy.

Of course, when the big introduction happens, it all goes horribly awry. The Master's shiny metal balls of evil show up and kill The President, and The Doctor gets caught trying to snag the Master and put a perception filter on him, presumably to interrupt his hypnotic effect on the population. The Master crows that he has a laser screwdriver which is installed with the LazLabs genetic manipulation technology, and uses that to drastically age The Doctor. How you can artificially age an immortal being, I'll never know, but it seems to work pretty effectively. He also kills Jack, but of course that only lasts a few minutes.

With his Paradox Machine up and running, The Master opens a giant rift in the sky, welcoming in billions of the Toclafane, who he instructs to kill one tenth of the human population. As the (literal) decimation begins, Martha takes Jack's vortex manipulator and beams back to earth. It doesn't look good for humanity, or The Doctor for that matter, but there's one more episode to go and no doubt our heroes will save the day.

Previously On MeeVee: