Utopia

[gervase_fen]

I had as much fun watching that as, evidently, John Simm had by being in it. Russell T Davies' defiantly ho-hum cliche-counter planetary setting seems to me to be saying to the viewer, Here's the bog-standard Blake's 7/Star Trek:TNG,DS9,VOY scenario that you've seen countless times before - and here's what Doctor Who can do with it. The Stet Radiation room is a shameless crib from The Wrath of Khan, and it doesn't matter, because we're busy gauging the Doctor's reaction to the newly immortal Captain Jack.

Amidst all of the spectacular paying off of set-ups going back as far as The Parting of the Ways, there's still time for some felicitous minor details - such as the 'Professor' pocketing a disk which seems to indicate that the Utopia that the rocket is heading for has never existed. (If my theory is correct he's essentially been sheltering from hard times on Malcassario by living out a version of a plot strand from Full Circle - the rocket was never going to fly but provided a privileged and safe occupation.)

I much prefer Doctor Who's Captain Jack to Torchwood's - perhaps he's better as part of a team rather than leading it?

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I couldn't really concentrate very much on the episode, as I had a six-year-old confused by the absence of 'baddies' - the Futurekind are probably encountered every day in the playground - and a four-year-old intent on going through old photo albums and wanting me to identify distant cousins and explain what I am doing, aged one or thereabouts, in a babywalker. I could follow Jacobi's performance though - this role had to be given to an actor of great ability to give it the weight it needed. I'd not picked up on the Professor's amorality, but he is human and sympathetically portrayed, and I did have a sense of loss even though I had a good idea what device would be found about his person.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Small children to tend to be rather a distraction, not least because they start talking and asking odd questions at *just the wrong time*

I hadn't anticipated that this would be the way in which the Master returned- I thought that he would posess Harold Saxon's body- the Chameleon Arc hadn't occurred to me. Also I didn't perceive the Professor as amoral- he seemed to be genuinely caring.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Small children to tend to be rather a distraction, not least because they start talking and asking odd questions at *just the wrong time*

Guilty of this at times anyway, last night I found myself doing exactly the above more than once. Fortunately we have one of those pausable rewindable PVR boxes. Otherwise I suspect I would have been sent out in disgrace. I was always (enjoyably) petrified of the Master (that doesn't sound right but I'll leave it in)...and am pleased to announce, still am :)

The best new Dr Who of all 3 series for me...probably due to the quality of writing and acting (Jacobi - excellent), and the fact that things seem to have been well thought out. Probably the first one that I actively must watch again soon, too.

[viala-qilarre.livejournal.com]

I simply didn't see the Chameleon Arc plot twist coming. I'm thick. But I'm delighted.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I'd not picked up on the Professor's amorality, but he is human and sympathetically portrayed, and I did have a sense of loss even though I had a good idea what device would be found about his person.
I was almost entirely unspoiled for the episode and so thought that he was the last incarnation of the Doctor, until my mistake was revealed to me...

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

thought that he was the last incarnation of the Doctor. I was wondering about that possibility as well.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Oooh I hadn't thought of that!

I thought that he was going to mutate into a futurekind until I saw the watch, then realised that he was The Master. I had't imagined the chameleon arc being used that way though- I'd assumed that Harold Saxon was posessed, not that he really was The Master under an alias.

[tree_and_leaf]

I'm glad I'm not the only person who saw the Wrath of Khan reference; the people I was wathching it with didn't know what I was talking about....

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

I saw it, and so did the people that I was watching with.

[gervase-fen.livejournal.com]

Hello everybody! Bookselling anecdotes available by request...

Pondering the amorality of the Professor further, I think this is exactly what the Chameleon Arch does - creates a human with personality echoes of the original Time Lord. Perhaps the Master was originally just impersonating the Professor a la Professor Keller, the Reverend Magister, the Administrator - i.e. in a position of respect and authority.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Hello! Sorry for not introducing myself; I followed the link from parrot_knight's LJ and just jumped in. I do believe we've met in person, though.

My lack of knowledge about the Master and Time Lords in general probably precludes me from following this line of conversation any further, I'm afraid....

[gervase-fen.livejournal.com]

Hi! I have to apologise because I've just spoiled The Daemons, The Mind of Evil and Colony in Space for you :-)

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

No worries. The spoiler doesn't mean much to me, and I doubt that I will remember it when (if) I go back to watch the older episodes.

*is now ashamed at her lack of OldWho knowledge*

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Um...me too. Sorry and hi.