WRITER: Russell T. Davies DIRECTOR: Colin Teague
CAST: David Tennant (The Doctor), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), John Simm (The Master), Adjoa Andoh (Francine Jones), Trevor Laird (Clive Jones), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Tish Jones), Tom Ellis (Thomas Milligan), Ellie Haddington (Professor Docherty), Tom Golding (Lad), Natasha Alexander (Woman), Alexandra Moen (Lucy Saxon), Zoe Thorne (Toclafane Voice #1), Gerard Logan (Toclafane Voice #2) & Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis (Toclafane Voice #3)
WARNING! SPOILERS! WARNING! SPOILERS! WARNING! SPOILERS!
Martha struggles to free The Doctor from The Master's clutches, as he builds warships to help create a new Time Lord Empire...After a fine build-up, Last Of The Time Lords sadly crumples under the weight of expectation for another startling finale to rival last year's Doomsday. Here you'll mainly just find confused plotting, irritating contrivances and stacks of bad decisions by writer Russell T. Davies. Cumulatively, they all serve to suffocate any sparks of brilliance and imagination along the way.
The primary failing of the finale is the story's shifting of focus onto Martha (Freema Agyeman), with The Doctor (David Tennant) reduced to looking grouchy in wrinkled make-up. Even action man Captain Jack (John Barrowman) is nullified in chains until the inevitable escape plan kicks in and he gets to shoot things with a big gun. Oooh, macho.
So it's left to Freema Agyeman to carry the show. As an actress, she may be up to the task, but the plot never gives her the opportunity to prove it. Last Of The Time Lords picks up one year later, with The Master (John Simm) now a reviled dictator who has spent the past 12 months ruling a scorched Earth from his skybase. His Toclafane cohorts (flying killer spheres) are ruling the planet, keeping the fearful populace in order as The Master prepares a huge weapons arsenal to dominate the universe and usher in a new Time Lord Empire.
Grand stuff, to be sure. However, it's such a major shake-up that you know it can't last and things will inevitably revert to the status quo. Subsequent episodes of Doctor Who just wouldn't work if the planet had been subjected to such alien horrors. Lord knows it wobbles enough just from the destruction of Big Ben by alien spaceship, the global Dalek vs Cybermen mayhem and the numerous UFOs that have descended on London recently.
As you await the reset button to be pressed, Russell T. Davies present us with a post-apocalyptic Earth of survivors dodging robotic drones. But it sounds more exciting than it is. Essentially, Martha participates in a weak subplot alongside freedom fighters Thomas Milligan (Tom Ellis; bland) and Professor Docherty (Ellie Haddington; unmemorable).
A great deal of time is spent trying to convince us that Martha has become a legendary figure in the interim, but she never comes across as particularly mythic. As much as I've enjoyed Freema Agyeman's performances this year, as an actress she's unable to make you believe she's witnessed worldwide horrors and has become the planet's only hope for salvation.
John Simm continues his wild and crazy routine as The Master. It remains entertaining to watch, but with the battle essentially won last week and The Doctor debilitated, his manic showboating doesn't have much to bounce off. He becomes mildly annoying as a result of the change in dynamics, although a few moments of sadistic torture keep his threat bubbling away. I love the way he casually pushed the wheelchair-bound Doctor into the wall -- the rotter...
Unfortunatey, The Doctor (David Tennant) is forced to sit this episode out (literally) and is pushed into the background most of the time. This is Russell T. Davies' biggest mistake, as he's incapable of writing Doctor Who episodes without the eponymous character taking centre stage (see the Love & Monsters debacle).
There are also a number of misjudged moments and confusion in Last Of The Time Lords. The Master continues to take pleasure in aging The Doctor, but now disables his ability to regenerate at the point of death, meaning The Doctor is transformed into a shrivelled version of Dobby The House Elf from Harry Potter! Quite why an ancient Time Lord would shrink into an imp is anyone's guess! The CGI is adequate enough, but it means David Tennant is basically absent for a huge chunk of the episode, something that's unforgivable given the fact we want a Master versus Doctor battle of wits. Sigh.
The Master's plan with the Toclafane (oddly revealed to be the future humans seen in Utopia), together with his desire to build an Empire, just comes across as shaky storytelling. Russell T. Davies probably thinks the story he's concocted is clever sci-fi, but it's barely intelligible clap-trap. I just don't buy the idea that you can make the TARDIS into a "paradox machine" (so future humans can essentially cause their own extinction), sorry.
Too often it seems Davies will twist anything he can to make an unwieldy story work, throwing technobabble into the script willy-nilly. Never mind the fact he's on the record as saying he'd avoid science mumbo-jumbo on Doctor Who...
The greatest crime is reserved for the final moments, where the manner of The Doctor's escape is pure nonsense: Martha has been spreading the word about "The Doctor" to the world's population, who collectively think of his name at three o'clock, leading to a mass telepathic wave across The Master's Archangel phone network, which The Doctor somehow uses to rejuvinate and rise (Christ-like) into the air before his enemy, blessed with special powers. Ahem. Yeah, right...
It's this level of pseudo-science piffle that gives sci-fi a bad name. It doesn't make sense -- so Davies throws in waffle from The Doctor to "explain" it... which doesn't make sense either. But never mind. He'd clearly painted himself into a corner, so turned to his trusty book of technobabble.
All said, Last Of The Time Lords is a big disappointment, particularly after the beautiful rebirth of The Master in Utopia and the enjoyable set-up in last week's The Sound Of Drums. A number of bad decisions ruin the finale, which ends with The Doctor immediately forgiving The Master (yep, even after 600 MILLION people have died, folks) and deciding to keep him a prisoner in his TARDIS (because he's lonely, awww). That's like being the last man on Earth and deciding to keep Adolf Hitler chained up in your basement for company!
Overall, this episode only narrowly avoids a 2/5 rating, as there's enough enjoyment to be had from John Simm to make it worthwhile, together with a surprising denouement concerning Martha, an amusing revelation about The Face Of Boe, an intriguing glimpse of a likely new enemy (the Rani?) and the obligatory set-up for Voyage Of The Damned -- this year's Christmas Special, taking place aboard the Titanic!
I just hope the show focusing on a sinking ship isn't some kind of omen for season 4, particularly with the news Catherine Tate's screeching character from The Runaway Bride will be returning to the TARDIS next year...
