Good evening everyone, and welcome to the inaugural (yet already esteemed) ‘Doctor Who returns in two weeks and I’ve still got one episode I forgot to review’ awards! And no, Richard Wilkins, there’ll be no red carpet, so you can fuck off.

Largest contrast in quality between the opening part of a story and the rest of it: ‘Utopia’. As the unexpected ‘part one’ to ‘The Sound of Drums’, it’s awesome, and ranks alongside ‘Bad Wolf’ and ‘Army of Ghosts’ as one of the most intriguing set ups ever. Most flaws in the episode are only those by association with the various disappointments in the next two stories.¹ But it hardly seems fair to criticise it for those.

Best Return of a Previous Companion: The return of Captain Jack, flying about on the back of the TARDIS. Back from his sombre period on Torchwood‘s first season, ‘Utopia’ restores him to his more familiar roots as comic relief. It also manages to explain the Doctor’s rather casual abandonment of the character, and in a surprisingly interesting way. Having left such an explanation hanging for over a year, I was surprised they managed to make it actually sound convincing.²

Most Dramatic Reveal of a Fob Watch: Martha asking the Professor what’s on the back of his watch. Even though I had heard rumours of the Master’s return, I never figured that they’d be using plot elements from ‘Human Nature’ to explain his previous absence. This of course happens in the same episode where the reason the Doctor left Jack and the reason the TARDIS runs to the end of time are tied together neatly.³ I get the feeling that the young Russell T Davies used to excel at explaining away errors in classic Who episodes. Generously, he’s made a few of his own elsewhere so future generations can enjoy the same pleasure.

Best Master since Roger Delgado: Derek Jacobi. The Professor’s an important role; Jacobi’s playing the first Time Lord we’ve seen in the new series who isn’t the Doctor himself, and if he’d been weak, it might have devalued the Doctor, in the sameway that the pissweak Daleks of ‘Daleks in Manhattan’ rather took the shine off the cooler Daleks of previous seasons. Given Jacobi’s history, it’s probably not even necessary to point out that he doesn’t disappoint, especially his heartbreaking scenes as the weary Professor.⁴

Best Cliffhanger: Well, to be honest I still love ‘Bad Wolf’ and ‘Army of Ghosts’ more. But perhaps ‘Utopia’ wins “Most Perilous Cliffhanger”, given that our heroes are stuck in a room being attacked by psychotic mutants, at the end of time, with no means of escape and the TARDIS stolen. Obviously, you wouldn’t do something like this unless you had an awesome clever way to resolve the cliffhanger, would you? Oh.

Well, it seems we’ve come to the end of our evening already. Congratulations to all the winners. Condolences to the dull colonists, and especially to the dull colonists with bad teeth.

1. ‘Utopia’ really is generous. It’s setting clever points up for the next two stories that don’t even get used. Witness the nice trick of having the Master regenerate out of view of the rest of the characters; only to be recognised by the Doctor, in front of his companions, within two seconds of the next episode. ↩
2. I was, however, somewhat disappointed that they didn’t manage to make Jack-on-the-TARDIS lead straight into the title sequence, and have Jack riding the box for one episode only. ↩
3. And strictly speaking, it’s not even limited to them. Other moments like the Doctor’s certainty in ‘Dalek’ that no other Time Lords have survived fit in rather nicely, too. ↩
4. Some have noted that Jacobi’s performance is reminiscent of William Hartnell. And it is, kind of, though as noticed, a fair bit sadder. It is a lot more like Hartnell than Richard Hurndall’s turn in ‘The Five Doctors’. ↩

This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008. It concerns such pressing issues as Doctor Who, tv. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.