Doctor Who: 3x11 "Utopia"
Well, that was good, but the way my flist was squeeing about it, my expectations were too high.
Jack resenting the Doctor abandoning him: check
Jack happy at seeing the Doctor: check
Jack flirting with everything in sight: check
Jack getting back his groove: check
Interesting explanation for why the Doctor abandoned Jack -- though I had personally assumed that the explanation was (a) he thought Jack was dead (only Rose knew that Jack was alive, and she'd forgotten what she did) or (b) the Doctor was half nutty because of his regeneration crisis and wasn't really thinking. But it brings things together -- the reason for Jack having the hand (and being so obsessed about it) and also why the Doctor deliberately takes off when he sees Jack coming.
Derek Jacobi: yes! Gravitas and bewilderment flipping over into arrogance and scorn.
You could see it coming; Martha being innocently encouraging, assuming that any Time Lord is a good Time Lord -- after all, how would she know that the one most likely to escape by running away and hiding, the one Time Lord of all their race most obsessed by survival, would be the Master...
It was so like him to turn on his devoted assistant with rage. Megalomaniacs are not nice people. Though it makes me wonder how he turned that way in the beginning, what made him so obsessed with power and pride. I mean, by now, sure, he's not likely to be at all sane -- if the Doctor had a bad time, the Master wouldn't have had a good one. Though they also seem to have had different reactions to being human; the Master's stint as the Professor didn't seem to have softened him one iota.
John Simm: unexpectedly good. The way he relished leaving the Doctor in the lurch "Tell you my plans so that you can foil them? I don't think so!" Yes, he's completely unlike the classic Master, but in the same way that the Doctor gets a personality change, he's the same person also. Except a bit manic and cheeky, like a naughty boy playing with nuclear bombs.
Why did the Master take the Doctor's hand? To use as a Doctor-detector of his own?
Is there any particular reason why the end of the universe had to get its wardrobe from Mad Max? I suppose it's the post-apocalyptic feel. And what's with all the pointy teeth? And why do they want to hunt humans anyway?
The way that the Master said "Utopia" at the end, with such scorn, makes me wonder if Utopia is a dupe, a trap. He took away the data about it - why? To make sure that the Doctor didn't have it, or that he himself did have it?
I guess the Doctor sabotaged the TARDIS as it was taking off.
From the preview of next week, looks like Mr. Saxon does get elected, and starts taking over the world (after all, if you want to rule the universe, you've got to start somewhere...). And that he's getting off on taunting the Doctor. Which is also very typical: the Master has to let somebody know how clever he is, and the only one that he can really do that with is the Doctor.
Obviously they're going to get back to 2007. And they're going to defeat the Master. And he's going to get away to fight another day. Only question is, is it going to take one episode or two to do it? Probably two, I expect.
ETA: I think the reason is that it didn't make me squee like everyone else is that it suffers the way many RTD scripts do: lots of cool character stuff and snappy dialogue, but the plot itself is a bit meh. "Blink" was much better.
Jack resenting the Doctor abandoning him: check
Jack happy at seeing the Doctor: check
Jack flirting with everything in sight: check
Jack getting back his groove: check
Interesting explanation for why the Doctor abandoned Jack -- though I had personally assumed that the explanation was (a) he thought Jack was dead (only Rose knew that Jack was alive, and she'd forgotten what she did) or (b) the Doctor was half nutty because of his regeneration crisis and wasn't really thinking. But it brings things together -- the reason for Jack having the hand (and being so obsessed about it) and also why the Doctor deliberately takes off when he sees Jack coming.
Derek Jacobi: yes! Gravitas and bewilderment flipping over into arrogance and scorn.
You could see it coming; Martha being innocently encouraging, assuming that any Time Lord is a good Time Lord -- after all, how would she know that the one most likely to escape by running away and hiding, the one Time Lord of all their race most obsessed by survival, would be the Master...
It was so like him to turn on his devoted assistant with rage. Megalomaniacs are not nice people. Though it makes me wonder how he turned that way in the beginning, what made him so obsessed with power and pride. I mean, by now, sure, he's not likely to be at all sane -- if the Doctor had a bad time, the Master wouldn't have had a good one. Though they also seem to have had different reactions to being human; the Master's stint as the Professor didn't seem to have softened him one iota.
John Simm: unexpectedly good. The way he relished leaving the Doctor in the lurch "Tell you my plans so that you can foil them? I don't think so!" Yes, he's completely unlike the classic Master, but in the same way that the Doctor gets a personality change, he's the same person also. Except a bit manic and cheeky, like a naughty boy playing with nuclear bombs.
Why did the Master take the Doctor's hand? To use as a Doctor-detector of his own?
Is there any particular reason why the end of the universe had to get its wardrobe from Mad Max? I suppose it's the post-apocalyptic feel. And what's with all the pointy teeth? And why do they want to hunt humans anyway?
The way that the Master said "Utopia" at the end, with such scorn, makes me wonder if Utopia is a dupe, a trap. He took away the data about it - why? To make sure that the Doctor didn't have it, or that he himself did have it?
I guess the Doctor sabotaged the TARDIS as it was taking off.
From the preview of next week, looks like Mr. Saxon does get elected, and starts taking over the world (after all, if you want to rule the universe, you've got to start somewhere...). And that he's getting off on taunting the Doctor. Which is also very typical: the Master has to let somebody know how clever he is, and the only one that he can really do that with is the Doctor.
Obviously they're going to get back to 2007. And they're going to defeat the Master. And he's going to get away to fight another day. Only question is, is it going to take one episode or two to do it? Probably two, I expect.
ETA: I think the reason is that it didn't make me squee like everyone else is that it suffers the way many RTD scripts do: lots of cool character stuff and snappy dialogue, but the plot itself is a bit meh. "Blink" was much better.