The Sound of Drums / Last of the Time Lords [TV/2007.6.23 ~ 6.30]

★★★★☆

  Gosh, I remember watching this in 2007 and being absolutely gutted by it. I enjoyed it, yeah, but it was just very new that the Doctor was dragged to the ground this low -- and on a finale slot of a series as well! Don't say Russell T Davies never took any chances; this is one of his boldest attempts in my eyes, to turn the Doctor into a geriatric (and then into what would become a laughingstock/relic for years to come) and to have a companion take actual centre stage for half its two-hour runtime. Rose got the spotlight for half of The Parting of the Ways, but Martha here? She wouldn't settle for co-lead, she was taking that spot for herself and showing everyone how good she is. I love her, really... and how can anyone not after this two-parter? Can you imagine how grueling it must have been to travel around a dystopian Earth for a whole year in a mission to spread one single world to everyone in the world? This is a good culmination of everything that's been happening in Series 3, with the Doctor and Martha. When she leaves the TARDIS, she finally gets a chance to lay things bare in front of him and show him that he'd been quite tactless a lot of the time in front of Martha -- she truly loved him (or at least, she thought she did), but he couldn't see her as more than a friend. It was probably one of Freema Agyeman's best performances just for the final moment when she gets that entire rant off her chest in such a dignified way with still so much love for the Doctor. Remarkable stuff, really. I know some people are bothered by this, but I'm not. The Tenth Doctor was always an incarnation custom-made for Rose Tyler, and that's how it was always going to be. 

  So this two-parter might just be one of the new series' best yet. The Sound of Drums is genuinely airtight with our heroes on the run, with stylised direction (hesitate to call it truly "stylish" because some parts have some atrocious editing choices) and great use of all three of our main leads. I point this out because Last of the Time Lords has so much to accomplish on its plate that it sort of leaves Jack behind to be used as a fixed-point-in-time human equivalent of a scratching post for the Master. Well, at least he gels so seamlessly with the Series 3 duo; John Barrowman's rapport with the two other actors is insanely good. I like Jack Harkness, I really do... and the whole Face of Boe thing does give him some sort of lasting impact in the grand scheme of things. Still, at least Utopia was partly dedicated to him -- not to mention that Torchwood Series 2 was just around the corner. 

  Then we have John Simm's Master, who's not as manic and off-the-walls insane as many say he is. In fact, in the first part, he's quite a mildly insane fellow who has more than enough reserved and utterly serious moments that ground him a little bit. Simm plays both aspects of his incarnation so well, and his rapport with Tennant is what's truly insane. He plays the part like a repressed gay man barely hiding his hateful lust towards his ex-boyfriend; I suspect RTD had a hand in this, and I'm glad he (or whoever gave Simm that idea -- maybe himself) did. The Master's dystopian vanity project/desperate cry for help is one of the most bleak endeavours ever done on television, on this scale. Think about it: presidential assassinations on live telly (then again, it is the US president), an entire race of future humans and their children turned into killer sphere machines, allusions to domestic abuse and a Time Lord equivalent of suicide? This is when RTD properly started to bring in his adult, piercing sense of drama into his favourite science fiction show. Sure, he indulges in his own frequently exhausting brand of hero worshipa bit, but it's done in such a gloriously ridiculous way that I can't help but be elated by it. Dr. Who can be practically anything, and I love it when it's a political thriller and a dystopian race against time at the same time. God bless Murray Gold for his work on this two-parter.