This is the third part of “The Master” story arc, and the series 3 finale. We start out one year after the Master has unleashed the Toclafane on humanity. Martha comes ashore in Britain in the dead of night like a secret agent (though her makeup and hair are perfect). She has been abroad for one year. She meets up with a man named Tom, who incidentally, was meant to be Martha’s brother. If you recall, her brother was the only family member not captured. I believe that the actor who plays her brother had a scheduling conflict, so they had to rewrite the part for a stranger. One would think they could have planned that a little better, but since her brother as a character was really never developed, it makes little difference. Tom describes Martha as a “legend”–I’m already not liking where this is going. Apparently she has walked around the whole world–if everyone knows about that, I’m not quite sure how she keeps evading arrest–maybe it is the teleport bracelet? That would make sense, but it is never explained.

Next up, the Doctor and the Master are interacting. John Simm is a deliciously evil Master. The old Masters were a bit cartoonish (as were many of the Doctors for that matter)–Simm looks like someone you might walk by on the street, which makes him that much more menacing when glimmers of his evil are revealed.

Unfortunately for American viewers, they have totally cut out a scene where the Master lip syncs a song and dances around triumphantly. During that scene, the Doctor climbs out of a tent (you see it in the background in other shots). There is also a dog dish, which he apparently must eat out of! Who knows what else they cut out of the episode. If I were you, I would go to mininova.org and download the uncut version of the whole series–or purchase the DVD of Series 3 (when it is available). Maybe BBC America will play the full episodes.

Here is the youtube clip:

The Doctor is still old, and the Master is keeping him around for laughs. Martha’s family members have been turned into servants and Jack is chained up in the mechanical room. The group executes a rather feeble attempt to attack the Master, but it is foiled when the Doctor is unable to use the Master’s Laser Screwdriver (I still love that) because it is set to only work in his hand–duh.

The Master has created huge statues of himself all over the world (he even carved himself into Mount Rushmore!). Apparently the Master is building hundreds of thousands of rockets to wage war on the universe and build a new Time Lord empire, which may be a little difficult since there really are only two left.

Tom takes Martha to see a professor who is working on getting a television to work. Apparently, The Master is planning a television broadcast–which seems a little strange since the world has been devastated. The camera pans from The Master to the Doctor, and he says “Say hello Gandalf”! The Master decides to make the Doctor even older, turning him into a big eyed elf. Not quite sure I’m buying all this . . . I thought that turning him old was lame, but plausible. Turning him into Yoda is just plain stupid.

The Master and Lucy Saxon (looking like the Days of Wine and Roses cubed) talk to the Doctor, who is now in a parrot cage. The Master explains he has heard “the drumming” since he was a child and looked into the time vortex. The Doctor confesses that he can’t hear the drumming.

Martha brings the professor a disc with technical information about the Toclafane, and they use it to capture one. They break it open, and find a head that looks like Davros. In fact, it is one of the humans we last saw leaving for utopia. Apparently the humans did not find a refuge at the end of time, canabilized themselves, and need to come back to survive. Since the Master has created a Paradox Machine out of the TARDIS, it is possible for them to come back and not screw up the timeline to the extent where they never would have been created in the first place. I find it a little hard to believe that one TARDIS could fix a Universe-wide paradox (it would have to be if he is going to mess with the entire Universe, not to mention the fact that the path of humanity–which spread out from the Earth–would be entirely changed). The head remembers Martha–apparently all of the Toclafane share each others memories (ala The Borg). If you remember, the Professor (the Master) noted that some signal was coming out of Utopia–that, however, is never explained.

Martha shows the professor a gun she claims is capable of killing a Time Lord and preventing the ensuing regeneration. Martha says she has found three of the four chemicals needed for the gun from their hiding places around the world, and has returned to London to find the fourth. After Martha departs with Tom, the professor reveals her whereabouts to the Master. Martha “preaches” the Gospel of the Doctor to the people she is staying with. Panic ensues when the Master comes personally to capture Martha. He even invokes “What Would The Doctor Do” to convince her to give herself up. The Master destroyed the Time Lord killing gun and took Martha back to the Valiant so he could execute her in front the Doctor and her family.

As the clock counts down to the launch of the rocket fleet, and Martha kneels before the Master preparing to be killed, Martha reveals the real reason she travelled the globe. It wasn’t for a Time Lord killing gun, but merely to talk. She told everyone about the Doctor–she told everyone to think of the Doctor at the same time the Master plans to launch his fleet. Combined with the Master’s Archangel satellite network, which the Doctor has had an entire year to “get in tune with,” this has the effect of charging the Doctor with the combined “psychic energy” of the people of Earth. This enables the Doctor to restore his youthful form and end the Master’s control. Like a Time Lord messiah, the Doctor floats across the room, and as the Master cowers, the Doctor says the words the Master was afraid to hear: “I forgive you”. (Eye roll–I’m not sure how the billions killed by the Master and tortured feel about it.)

What is irritating about all this, in addition to the Jesus parallels that are spread on WAY, WAY, WAY too thick, is that it is similar to the “deus ex machina” used to wrap up the first series. I don’t want my Doctor Who episodes solved with a bunch of magic gobbledy-gook, of whatever variety.

In any event, back to the story. The Master teleports to the surface, but not before the Doctor grabs him and goes with. Meanwhile Jack gathers some soldiers, and moves to destroy the Paradox Machine. Suddenly time “reverses” and they are taken back one year to the time prior to the Toclafane being unleashed. Suddenly all is right with the world, but the people in the “eye” of the Paradox can somehow remember–how conveniant.

The Doctor decides to settle down and “care for” the Master (i.e. keep him prisoner in the TARDIS). Lucy Saxon has other plans, shooting the Master in the stomach. The Master “refuses” to regenerate so as to avoid an eternity imprisoned. The Doctor bawls his eyes out, which is a little strange, since the Master is so evil and just killed billions of the humans he claims to love. If the Doctor cared so much for the Time Lords, why did he destroy them in the first place? I don’t like this strain of Time Lord elitism that has crept into the new series. The Doctor should not act like Time Lords are “better” than human beings–even implicitly. He hasn’t said as much, but how else do you interpret his reverence for even the most evil of Time Lords. It’s all a little ridiculous if you asked me.

Cut to the Doctor burning the Master on a great pyre (ala Darth Vader)–in a quarry no less! (and identicial to the one in Utopia) The Doctor invites Jack to come with, but he needs to get back to his team. If he realized how hated the series was, maybe he would abandon them to their lousy story-lines.

The Doctor tells Jack there’s nothing that can be done about his immortality–apparently he’ll never be able to die — though he isn’t sure about aging. Thinking about what he might look like millions of years from now, Jack recalls how, as the first person from the Boeshane Peninsula to join the Time Agency, his good looks earned him the nickname “the Face of Boe”, much to the surprise of the Doctor and Martha. I’m not sure exactly if I’m buying the fact he will one day turn into a huge head floating in a jar, but, ironically, it might be the least ridiculous thing in this idiotic finale.

With the TARDIS repaired, the Doctor is ready to move on. Martha, however, has decided to stay so she can look after her family and finally qualify as a medical doctor. She confesses her unrequited love and they part. Meanshile, a female hand is shown pulling a Time Lord ring from the ashes of the Master’s funeral pyre. Presumably it was LUcy Saxon, and presumably she will bring the Master back in some form–though I have read, unfortunately, that John Simm will not return as the Master. It would be a lot of fun if Lucy became the Master–there has never really been a female super villain in Doctor Who.

The TARDIS takes off, but is suddenly shaken with great force as the bow of a ship smashes through a wall. Picking up a life ring that says “Titanic”, he only responds flatly, “What?!” The Doctor will return to unravle this mystery at the X-Mas special.

Overall, I was disappointed with this season. Season 1 was great, even with its super-cheap special effects, and Season 2 was even better, David Tennant proving that he was the equal (perhaps even the better) of Christopher Eccleston. This year, not so great. It was too derivative of the prior season (did we REALLY need to revisit New New York AGAIN), and it had some real clunkers–e.g. Daleks in Manhattan. I really liked the Martha character, but hated her family. And, can we get the Doctor out on to alien planets again? Having him more or less based on Earth (either physically, or by grounding the series to family members), is getting a little stale. Also, the last episode was a disaster–the Doctor should not be portrayed as a saviour–at least not quite so literally.

Here are some responses to some good comments I’ve gotten:

everett says:
October 1st, 2007 at 6:01 pm e
Well-done write up. I’m eagerly awaiting the third part of this story, too. Any thoughts on Torchwood?

Cadet Happy says:
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:46 am e
thanks, i had high hopes for torchwood, but about half the episodes are unbelievably bad — not sure if the cyberwoman episode aired yet, but the series really jumped the shark for me on that one — if you go read the reviews of torchwood on outpost gallifrey, they BRUTALIZE the entire series — it’s actually quite funny to read some of them

LadyGunn says:
October 4th, 2007 at 6:19 am e
I’ve not seen most of series 3 yet as they’re still downloading on Shareaza but I know a lot of what happens just from youtube & reading fan sites. I stumbles across the episode ‘Love & Monsters’ while babysitting & have been hooked since. I even have a Sonic Screwdriver pen.

My problem with Torchwood is that it’s so slutty. Although there are some hilarious spoofs of both shows on youtube - search for ‘Dead Ringers Doctor’.

CH - Do you have a Rose/Martha preference or a 9th/10th Doctor preference?

I COMPLETELY agree with you. Torchwood is too slutty–everybody is sleeping with everybody else (male/female, male/male, male/cyberwoman, and who knows what else). In addition, most of the stories are just too stupid for words. I was so looking forward to seeing the Jack character get his own show, but I’ve come to believe that he makes a far more compelling supporting character–a little Jack goes a long way. I also don’t like most of his team, because they are all so personally flawed.

I will have to check out the spoofs you reference. Sounds fun.

Regarding Rose/Martha, I’m not sure on that one. I kind of liked the romantic tension between Rose and the Doctor, but I never would have liked it to blossom–thus, she had to go sooner rather than later. Billie Piper is fine, but I thought she was a little hammy. She also was kind of weird looking, but that’s neither here nor there. I also got really tired of the constant Rose references this season–this isn’t Eastenders for heavens sake! As for Martha, I really liked her character, but she wasn’t given much to do except run around with the Doctor looking pretty. I would have been fine if they could have totally avoided yet another companion falling in love with the Doctor. So, I guess, if I had to choose, it would be Rose because she was in more of the episodes that I really liked. I think Martha could be better if given more development–I wonder if they will do that next season (she isn’t going to be in all the episodes, but they have hinted she will be in at least some). I also HATED HATED HATED Martha’s family, so that is a big strike against her. The companion I liked a lot, was Caterhine Tate–the Runaway Bride. I thought the chemistry between her and the Doctor was phenomenal on the Christmas episode (though I appreciate that most die-hard Who fans did not like her). If you didn’t know this already, she is going to be the companion at the begining of next season, so I look forward to that!