Day 740: The Fires of Pompeii

Given that The Fires of Pompeii is a story that concerns itself with prophecy, is it any wonder that the episode itself ended up being so prophetic? Not only does it feature David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the present Doctor and companion, respectively, but it also dares to feature a future Doctor and a future companion, with Peter Capaldi (later the Twelfth Doctor) appearing as Caecilius and Karen Gillan (later Amy Pond) as a soothsayer. And once you get over the joy of seeing two Doctors on screen at the same time, what you're left with is a really good story.

The entire point of the episode is to look at the concept of fixed moments in time and point out how heartbreaking they are. As we watch it, we're constantly reminded of how the Doctor sees the world, with moments in time that can't be broken, no matter how tragic they might be. Importantly, the story calls for the Doctor to be implicitly against this, as seen in some of the final moments as he angrily states that he had no choice but to leave Pompeii to die. There's even a throwaway line, stated in a joking sort of manner as the Doctor discovers the Pyrovile's plan, where he states "Then the whole planet is at stake. Thank you. That's all I needed to know". On first viewing, one can see this as just an extension of the joke of having a villain explain their plan in detail to the Doctor, but repeated viewing clearly shows that this moment is clearly the Doctor weighing up between tragedies, and deciding in that moment that it is better for the timeline as a whole if Pompeii dies.

But, perhaps most importantly, the story is not through the Doctor's eyes. Instead, we see things as Donna sees them, a world full of ordinary people, all of whom are going to die. If memory serves me correctly, Russell T Davies, whilst re-working James Moran's script into its final form, worked particularly with the characters to make them feel more real, thus making the tragedy more real. This can be seen, for instance, in the scene between Donna and Caecilius' daughter Evelina where they are just allowed to talk like normal people, with Donna curious as to what young women do for fun in Ancient Pompeii, letting the character, and by extension the audience, grow to have a connection with the family of Caecilius, making their apparent death at the end feel all the more sad.

Of course, Caecilius doesn't die, instead going on to be a beacon for the Doctor in a future adventure. But that's another story for another day...

Day 737: The Last of the Time Lords

The problem with The Last of the Time Lords is its flaw. If you ignore the flaw, then you get a reasonably good story. Sure, whilst seeing the Master in control of the Earth isn't quite as fun as you might have hoped, and the fact that Tennant is mainly reduced either to being an old man in a wheelchair or a CGI monstrosity leaves the story without its best element - the Tennant/Simm scenes, but it does have some remarkably good things in it such as the Tennant/Simm scenes that we do get, or the powerful scene where the Doctor stops Francine Jones from shooting the Master. But the problem with all of these scenes, as I said, is that the flaw overpowers them.

The flaw starts off slowly. The revelation that Martha has been travelling around the Earth to tell others about the Doctor, in order to get them to pledge their belief in him as the Master prepares to turn the Earth into an all-out warship is kind of nice, and whilst on prior viewings I may have looked down on it, now I see it as something rather nice; a way for the Doctor to win without using violence. The revelation that the collective thoughts of humanity are being amplified by the Archangel network, the very network which the Master used to take over the world, is actually rather neat and plays well into the themes that I talked about yesterday about the plot of The Sound of Drums being based around the Master taking absolute control, and that other Master plots focus the conclusion on the Doctor re-taking control. Here, he takes control using the same method as the Master, a nice duality to the pair. But, getting back on track, this all comes across as something a little bit fun, but you can't help but feel that something's going to go wrong soon.

And then the Doctor becomes a flying God and the story's flaw reveals itself in all its glory. It is not only a step too far for stretching the credulity of the story but it comes completely out of nowhere, making the whole story feel cheap by comparison. Comparing this to another finale, we have Rose in The Parting of the Ways. There, the heart of the TARDIS was signposted as a plot element a story prior in Boom Town, planting the seed that this could be possible. We also get to see Rose actively try to do something to get back to the Doctor and save him, which allows us to get some perspective of how everything worked out after watching the episode. Here, whilst the Archangel network was shown, it was only shown as a field that allowed for the Master to control people, not to allow the Doctor to fly. And whilst we did see Martha go out into the world and spread the word about the Doctor, it didn't lead to the logical conclusion that them thinking about him would make him into a Jedi.

It's a flaw that overpowers the finale, and kind of prevents it from being rather good in my opinion. The story's still not outright bad, but it doesn't quite work, and you can't help but feel that the story could have used an extra re-write to make the ending work just a bit better. But anyway, tomorrow looks set to be something rather special...

Day 736: The Sound of Drums

The Sound of Drums is an astonishing episode. It takes the very foundation of what one would expect from a Doctor Who story with the Master and turns it up to eleven, creating one of the most memorable finale build ups in the revived series' history.

To understand why it is so good, consider first what a normal episode with the Master is like. The Doctor and companion(s) begin the adventure and realise that there are some strange goings-on. They make some allies, delve into the conspiracy and, at some point, realise that the Master is behind everything, and then events escalate to the point where the Master has taken complete control of the situation with the Doctor and companion(s) otherwise indisposed. The rest of the story consists of the Doctor taking back control of the situation, and normally ends with the Master getting away by some means of escape. The Sound of Drums plays on this notion by taking one of the more interesting aspects of the Master structure and increasing its importance.

The episode is an exercise in the Doctor losing control as the Master gains control. Every step forwards that the Doctor makes, the Master always seems to be two steps ahead of him. The best example of this is the scene towards the end of the episode where the Doctor and co. find the TARDIS. Unlike other episodes, where the TARDIS is seen as some beacon of hope to suggest that the end is nearly in sight, here it is revealed that the TARDIS has been horrifically altered to suit the Master's purposes. The Master's impact on the story, this time round, is so strong that he's even taken control of the very basis of the show itself, kidnapping the Doctor's TARDIS and using it for his own ends.

Consider also that he has also taken control of the narrative, with Simm's Master having roughly equal screen time to Tennant's Doctor, reflecting the importance of the character and showing the gravity by which he attracts the viewers. But through all of that screen time, we never find out his actual plot. Instead it's used as an exercise in tension, where he shows off his house of cards to the whole audience, ready to show everyone the beautiful and fragile nature of what he has created, and relishing in the anticipation of when the whole thing will come down.

This all leads up to the climax, where the Master reveals that he has taken control of the situation to such a great extent that it's entirely possible that he has won. Every aspect of the story is set up to leave the Doctor with virtually no escape from the Master's scheme, leaving the Master in absolute control and leading into the finale, where it's clear that the Doctor has no hope of taking control back of the situation. This makes The Sound of Drums such a fantastic episode: it takes the basic structure of a generic Master story and takes it where no other writer would dare take it - Davies has put the Master in a position where he has unequivocally won.

And, to take a brief moment away from talking about The Sound of Drums, I should perhaps mention that this is the fifth episode in a row that is pretty much perfect. It's hard to think of another stretch of episodes throughout the revival series that is as good as these five episodes, and that shows that Davies really does deserve commendation for the work that he has done for this period. Nothing could possibly go wrong after this though...