One Sentence Review

A highly enjoyable Christmas Special so long as you dont think too much about the plot

Episode Synopsis

The episode opens with a narration of how in the last days of planet Earth everyone on had bad dreams but forgot except for one man, and we cut to Wilf (Donna Noble’s Grandfather). Wilf then enters a church and sees an image of the Tardis in a stain glassed window. A woman then tells him that it is called the legend of the blue box and tells him a tale of the Doctor defeating a Demon in the 1300s, she then tells Wilf that perhaps the Doctor is coming back but as Wilf turns around the woman has disappeared we then see Wilf see the Master laughing.

We then see the Doctor visiting the Ood following on from his vision at the end of The Waters of Mars, the Doctor then tells the Ood what he has been doing since he saw a vision of him on Earth and gets told he should not have delayed. The Doctor is then impressed by the progress the Ood have made until he learns it has only been 100 years since he saved the Ood, which means they are advancing too quickly.

The Doctor then shares “the dreaming” with the Ood and is shocked to see a vision of the Master laughing and is told that everyone in the universe dreams of him, and is told events in the past are changing the present. The Doctor is then shown Wilf, and two people he does not recognise and Lucy Saxon (the Master’s wife). After telling the Ood of the Master’s death, he is then shown a woman picking up the Masters ring and before he leaves is told that the Master is part of a greater design and that a shadow is falling over creation amd that the end of time is coming. The Doctor then rushes to the Tardis and heads to Earth.

Back on Earth Lucy Saxon, is introduced to the new Governor of the prison she is held in, and standing next to the Governor is the woman who picked up the Masters ring. Lucy Saxon is then told that Harold Saxon returns that night. We then cut to Wilf who senses something is wrong and behind him the woman from the church appears on the TV but he does not see her. Back in the prison Lucy is forced to aid in the resurrection of the Master, it then turns out though that Lucy had anticipated this and made plans to counter his resurrection leading to a massive explosion killing most people present.

The Doctor arrives on the scene but it is the next day and all he finds is a ruined prison. We then cut to the 2 people the Doctor was shown and we see footage of the night the prison exploded and it appears someone survived. He then goes into a laboratory and tells people that Christmas is cancelled and to prepare the Gate. Back at Wilf’s he goes out on an outing with several of his OAP friends in order to find the Doctor.

At a ruined warehouse area, the Master appears however he is more insane than ever, after getting some food he eats at a manic pace. The Master at times also becomes “translucent” with his skeleton becoming visible and has “superpowers”. Later on the Doctor appears and they sense each other. A chase ensues and the Doctor asks the Master to let him help him. The Master then escapes and Wilf arrives on the scene.

Later the Doctor and Wilf are at a Café and Wilf talks about old times, the Doctor then wonders why Wilf could find the Doctor so easily and if they are still connected in someway. The Doctor then tells Wilf about how it has been prophesised he will die. Donna then appears outside the Café and Wilf then asks the Doctor to help her but he cant due to what would happen if she remembered.

We then return to the narrator who tells of how the players had took their final places for the events to come, how the Master would achieve glory, the Doctor (called the Master’s saviour) looked upon the wilderness hoping to change his fate, the idiots and fools (the two mystery people) dreamt of a shining future that would never happen and that the Dawn would bring the final day.

The Doctor finds the Master again who shoots “lightning” from his hands at the Doctor eventually incapacitating him. After the Master rants at the Doctor the Doctor asks the Master for his help as something is returning, the Master laughs and tells the Doctor of the drums in his head, when they touch foreheads the Doctor is shocked to hear the drums, as he assumed it was just the Masters insanity. The Master is elated to hear that the drums are real and runs off. As the Doctor catches up to him, they are interrupted by armed men in helicopters who capture the Master and leave with him.

At Wilf’s he is surprised to have received a book from Donna called Fighting the Future by Joshua Naismith (one of the two mystery people) and Donna just claims to have seen it and thought of Wilf and felt he should have it. We then cut to Joshua Naismith and the woman seen with him was his daughter who was responsible for recruiting the master who is tied up in the room with them.

Back at Wilfs he sees the woman from the church on the TV but no one else can see her. The woman then tells Wilf that he stands at the heart of coincidence and is an old soldier but was too late and never killed a man. The woman then tells him that the time will come to take up arms. The woman then tells Wilf not to tell the Doctor as his life could still be saved but only if he tells him nothing. As Wilf goes to his room to get his old gun he sees the Doctor outside. The Doctor then asks Wilf if he has seen anything strange, Wilf then shows the Doctor the book Donna got him, Sylvia then leaves the house and spots the Doctor, the causes both the Doctor and Wilf to run off in the Tardis.

At the Naismith’s the Master is shown the laboratory and the device which is called the Immortality Gate, as he enters two scientists leave for the basement. It then turns out that they are aliens planning to hijack the project. We then learn that Naismith acquired the gate due to the collapse of Torchwood and is used to heal. The Master then senses the Doctor’s arrival and gets to work.

The Doctor arrives in the basement and finds one of the disguised Aliens and cancels her “shimmer” revealing her true appearance. Simultaneous with this the Master completes the repairs. After the second alien arrives in the basement and has his shimmer cancelled, the Doctor learns that they are a salvage team sent to retrieve the gate and that it is used to mend entire planets. The Doctor then realises what the Master is planning and rushes to his location.

As the Doctor arrives the Master uses the distraction to escape and enter the Gate. Wilf arrives and is put inside a shielded location by the Doctor. Wilf then gets a phonecall from Donna who is not affected by the Master, the Master then tells the Doctor that he will change all of humanity into him, we then see everyone except Donna and Wilf change into the Master, this ten causes Donna to start to remember what happened. The Master then declares that there is no human race but there is a Master race.

We then return to the narrator who states that on Christmas Day the human race had ceased to exist but that the Master was still unaware of his role in greater events as this day was also the day that the Time Lords returned as the narrator is revealed to be a Time Lord on Gallifrey speaking to a gathering of Time Lords.

Thoughts and Analysis

The penultimate episode/special in many ways highlights some of the best and worst aspects of Russell T Davies time on Doctor Who, with it on one hand being a highly enjoyable fast paced episode with good character development and mysteries but on the other having a plot with holes so big you could drive a truck through them and an strong element of Deus ex Machina.

Starting with the bad, the return of the Master was handled in a completely silly fashion and the only reason for his silly resurrection going wrong was so he could get into the Immortality Gate later on. It also has to be asked why did it take so long for his “cult” to return him to life as if all they needed from Lucy Saxon was to press a napkin against her lips they could have done that at any time. Personally I was expecting it to have been revealed that the Master had taken a leaf out of the Doctors book and had made a human/Time lord hybrid which had been killed at the end of Last of the Time Lords which would also explain why he did not regenerate at that point.

I also did not like how manic the Master was for most of the episode as he was overpowered with the lighting powers and speed and did we really need to hear him obsess about food so much. Despite this though I was impressed by John Simms Master and I am interested to see how the resurrection of the Master ties into the return of the Time Lords.

I also have mixed feelings about the Master’s use of the immortality Gate to turn all of humanity into himself, if it wasn’t for the fact the Master is insane it would be classed as bad since anyone with a hint of intelligence would see that this could cause a lot of problems for themselves in the future despite it’s initial “coolness”, and whether this plot twist is stupid, inspired or somewhere in between is something I am withholding judgement on until I see how it pans out in part 2.

Moving onto the Good, the first thing I was impressed by was the handling of the reveal of the return of the Time Lords, while anyone who watches any trailers of sneak peaks will have known it was coming, what is not certain is how they have returned or even if at the moment the narrator speaks they have returned as “Timothy Dalton Lord” could be speaking in the past (a prophecy), the present (overseeing these events) or the future (how they came to return), the sneak peek on the BBC website from just after the opening credits of Part 2 implies that it could be the past as it appears we are going to find out how the Doctor ended the Time War.

The next thing I liked was the mystery woman who keeps appearing to Wilf, the big question is of course who is she? while one possibility could be a friendly Time Lord such as Romana, the way she only appears to Wilf makes me wonder if it could be a modified projection of an Ood from further in the future.

This also brings up the question of is there a greater significance to Wilf, since as the woman says he is at the heart of coincidence and the Doctor has also realised Wilf seems to run into him a lot. Once again it will be interesting to see what the truth is.

As normal though it is difficult to judge the first part of an episode by itself and a lot will depend on how Russell T Davies handles the second part. While Russell T Davies does IMO have a bad track record on making satisfying endings due to overuse of Deus ex Machina and the “reset button” given that all indications are that the ending will not be a “clean” one in term of victory for the Doctor it may be that for a change the second part of a RTD finale lives up to the potential of the first part.

Episode Rating

7/10