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3.13 The Last of the Time Lords (2) Review by Billie Doux Master: "Dying in your arms. Happy now?" You know, maybe the Academy's policy of having kids look into the time vortex was one they should have rethought. I enjoyed some of this one. I really did. But the Doctor as a tiny elderly big-eyed muppet in a bird cage was just a bridge too far for me. Everyone in the world reviving him by chanting his name was way too Peter Pan, too. I was just shaking my head and saying, no, you've got to be kidding me. And "I forgive you"? Come on! Killing billions, enslaving the remainder, making plans to destroy other worlds? Yes, the Master was once his friend, and yes, the Master was the only other living Time Lord, but geez! What does someone have to do to piss the Doctor off? All that, and we got a hint that it wasn't over. That hand with the long red fingernails picking up a... was it a ring? from the Master's funeral pyre. It's like leaving that one Dalek. They can't completely close that plot hole. Maybe they should. I do give them credit for doing a really big story. You always see megalomaniacal villains threaten to destroy the world, but you rarely get to see them actually doing it. And maybe it would have worked if they'd hung on to Derek Jacobi and avoided the muppet fiasco. But how could the Master have created a new Gallifrey? Was he hoping to have half-human half-time-lord babies with Lucy? It was fitting that Lucy was the one to stop the Master. But again, they really didn't show us why. She seemed to be all into him in part one. Even Jack in chains wasn't as much fun as it could have been. Couldn't they have stripped him down? :) And hey, it's not that I want to watch Jack die over and over, but I had gotten the distinct impression that the Master was going to do just that. Did they run out of time? The best part of the episode was again the Doctor, Jack and Martha, mostly at the end. Martha's goodbye to the Doctor made me cry. If this is indeed the end of her travels, she certainly got to go out big. And I'm glad that she has too much self-respect to spend years pining for the Doctor, hoping he'll finally notice her. Plus, I think she was interested in that hot young doctor Tom Milligan. She may get a doctor of her own, after all. Finally, I really liked that the Doctor asked Jack to travel with him again. Jack just spent a year in chains for the Doctor; he certainly earned it. That final bit about Jack as the Face of Boe was just hilarious, and made perfect sense. Although how did he manage to mutate into a big giant head? Bits and pieces: -- The time reversal was no help for all those poor things trapped at the end of the universe in metal balls. And you know, after Daleks and Cybermen, I knew there would be people in those balls. Too predictable. -- The president was still killed, too. Oops. President-elect. -- The Master called the elderly Doctor "Gandalf." That was rather fitting. -- Jack grew up on the Boeshane Peninsula. He was first one to be signed up for the Time Agency, and a poster boy. "The Face of Boe, they called me." -- I guess it wasn't all bad. I bet Martha's parents got back together. -- Jack was killed by the Master's storm troopers. -- "Titanic," huh? I rather wish they wouldn't keep sticking a preview at the end of a season finale. It's always distracting and feels jammed in. Paul Kelly says... Like Billie, this episode also reminded me of Peter Pan. Saying the Doctor's name at a predetermined point in time, thus bringing him back to health, was a dead ringer (concept wise), for JM Barrie's “do you believe in fairies... clap your hands... don't let Tink die”. There were numerous messianic parallels too... from the rejuvenated Doctor's outstretched arms... to his forgiveness of the Master. No wonder the Master shrieked in protest. I felt a bit like it myself. Out of all the episodes which could have benefited from an extended running time, this would have been my last choice. It just made an already weak episode drag on for that much longer. The CGI Doctor was an embarrassment. The plot was average. The Master was dire. In fact, it's hard to find something good to say about it. Is the Master really dead? His refusal to regenerate, apart from being really rather stupid (a real super villain would have settled for incarceration, and then spend a millennia trying to escape)... it also seems to have sealed his fate, seemingly forever. But then we saw a woman's hand picking up the Master's ring -- which suggests that the door's been left open for his return. I'm not sure how, but the writers could no doubt wangle it if they tried hard enough. The season finales seem to be getting weaker. I dread to think what next years will be like. Quotes: Tom: "You've been in space?" Martha: "Problem with that?" Tom: "No! No, just... wow. Anything else I should know?" Martha: "I've met Shakespeare." Yeah, I don't think I could resist dropping that name, either. Master: "Revenge. Best served hot." Clearly, he's never heard of the original Klingon proverb. Master: "Is that your weapon? Prayer?" Jack: "Hey, I need that!" Doctor: "I can't have you walking around with a time traveling teleport. You could go anywhere. Twice. Second time to apologize." I thought that was way unfair. Jack was a time agent and it was originally his own vortex manipulator, after all. But yeah, it would have been a too convenient and possibly inappropriate plot device for Torchwood. Doctor: "You're an impossible thing, Jack." Jack: "Been called that before." View all comments or post a comment. |
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