What works? The "one year later" conceit works surprisingly well -- it actually lets the Master win for a bit, and we see that he's about as awful a ruler as you might expect. He's crazy and selfish and generally terrible, but he's clearly having a ball being in charge. John Simm is presenting us with an unhinged Master, one who has come a long way but hasn't quite completed his goal yet. The way he humiliates the Jones family is handled well, and the abuse that Lucy Saxon endures is subtle -- a line here, a bruise there -- but effective; it makes sense that she would be the one to shoot the Master.
The stuff with Martha traveling the Earth also works well; we get to hear about some of the atrocities the Master has committed (such as the destruction of Japan) without the Mill having to knock up an unconvincing visual effect to try and sell it. Martha is shown to be still in control, even despite what she's seen, and that's a good move. Meanwhile, her discovery of the true nature of the Toclafane -- that they're the humans we saw in "Utopia" -- is a great moment, tying in with the first part nicely (if bleakly) and providing us both the reason why the Master turned the Doctor's TARDIS into a paradox machine and some insight into his mad plan to make the Toclafane into the new Time Lords and Earth the new Gallifrey. (What's not clearly explained is why the Master thinks this will be an acceptable substitute, but we can probably excuse that away as a consequence of the drums in his head.)
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| Jack says goodbye to the Doctor and Martha. ("Last of the Time Lords") ©BBC |
Where "Last of the Time Lords" goes off the rails is with the Doctor. The old man stuff isn't too bad (although it took them a year to come up with a plan to get the Doctor the Master's screwdriver?), and while the little Doctor troll is daft, there's something charming about such a bold move as Davies makes here. What's ludicrous, however, is the deus ex machina ending (yes, another one), which really is a move too far. Nothing, not the earlier descriptions of the Archangel network, not the Doctor making a statement about how he had a year to "tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices", can paper over the sheer silliness of the Doctor being de-aged and flying around thanks to the power of worldwide love. It's far and away Davies' most blatant deus ex machina resolution yet, and it weakens the whole episode. The Master's refusal to regenerate, and the Doctor's desperate desire to not be the only Time Lord, is nicely played though.
So as I said, there are some good moments in "Last of the Time Lords" and some risible ones. But when you take the first two episodes into account, you get a solid take and a great reintroduction for the Master. It's only when tasked with a resolution to this story that Russell T Davies comes up short; everything else is firing on all cylinders.
But then that's been par for the course for most of series 3. After the unevenness of series 2, Doctor Who seems to have regained its footing. The stories are of a higher quality than last year's, and they've really lucked out with Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, who consistently turns in an excellent performance and makes us care about Martha from almost her first moment onscreen. It's a genuine shame that they made her primary characteristic appear to be pining after the Doctor, because both the character and the actress deserved better. There's also the related problem that this series spends a bit too much time in Rose's shadow; it doesn't happen as much as it sometimes feels, but there is a danger of the show looking back too often instead of forward, and that's also grossly unfair to Martha/Freema.
But these concerns aside, series 3 provides us with a show that's shaken off its sophomore slump and reemerged victorious. David Tennant is in fine form, and the show under Davies seems as vibrant as ever. It's certainly the most consistent in tone and characterization that Doctor Who has been since 2005. Now, will they be able to keep it going in series 4?