New Who Review for “Utopia”
Posted By Kathleen David on September 24, 2007
This was my favorite episode of the season.
A few things before I get into the review itself. I have been a fan of Derek Jacobi for many years. He is brilliant on stage and brilliant on film. I have watched some rather sucky movies to just see his performance. Fortunately this doesn’t happen often since he tends to pick good projects. When I heard he was going to be on Doctor Who I was giggling like a schoolgirl. I frankly didn’t care who he was going to play or if it was just going to be a cameo, I was thrilled to hear that he had accepted a role on the series. I got a lot more than I had hoped for and was not disappointed with his role or the script. Yes I started giggling again during the episode and I rarely get giggly.
This is the beginning of the end of the season. It was done as a three parter of which this was the first part. And even with what you have seen in this episode, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The Roller coaster has only gone over the first hill and you have quite few to follow.
I feel sorry for those of you who have not finished TORCHWOOD. This episode dove tails rather nicely into the last seconds of the last episode and you get an explanation for some of Jack’s actions before you have seen the episodes in which the actions or inactions were taken. But it is not too big a deal.
Of course, as per the rule of the game, spoilers behind the cut and in the comments. I strongly request that you stick to Utopia and the episodes already aired in the US and not for the next two. Patience my pretties, we’ll get to them soon enough.
I am so grateful for Sir Derek’s performance in this episode.
The Master is back! *does a happy jig* He is back and badder than ever. The casting of both Derek Jacobi and John Simms was just bloody brilliant. And the transformation from Yana to the Master when he finally sees the watch by Jacobi was a performance to behold. Also when Professor Yana examines his fob watch, voices of Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley are heard. I know I watched and re-watched that section a number of times. And didn’t you just get chills when you saw the watch in his hand and realized the same time as Martha exactly what he held?
Then there is the scene between Jack and the Doctor where everything is laid out including why the Doctor abandoned him and what Jack has been doing since then. Both actors put in just wonderful performances. And it made sense (well as much as anything makes sense in the Whoverse). I also love the Doctor keep cutting off Jack’s moves on other people.
Martha’s confusion over the hand was great too. There was not a bad performance in the bunch on anyone’s part.
And then there were two lines that so sent me back to wanting to write slash again and it wasn’t the lines but how they were delivered.
“Use my name.”
“Master… I’m sorry.”
Tons of slashy goodness delivered that made me start to giggle again.
So now The Master has the TARDIS. Martha, Jack, and the Doctor are stuck at the end of the universe with the bad guys beating down the door. Hold on kids the ride has just started.
*giggle*
What a great episode. I wish I hadn’t seen the DWM covers which proclaimed that Derek Jacobi also played The Master. I think it might have been more powerful not knowing that. It definitely would have been a different experience. Since I had seen that I was wondering just what Yana (The Master) was up to. I really had no suspicion that The Master had pulled a Human Nature in order to survive the Time War until I saw the time piece. I was thinking that he was just acting that way as a cover or something. It was all very well done. I didn’t recognize the voices of other past Masters coming out of the watch the first time. When I listened to the commentary they said that Roger Delgado’s voice came from The Daemons.
I have now only seen the first 3 episodes of Torchwood, but at least now I know why Capt. Jack was so concerned about the mysterious hand in Torchwood Episode 2 last week. I had no idea what the hand was when watching Torchwood Ep. 2, but was soon as the Doctor said it was his I froze the screen and went through it all with my son and then they showed the flashback. I didn’t think that the Doctor really knew that Jack had been brought back to life at the end of Season 1. I thought he might have been preoccupied with other things at the time.
As far as the cliffhanger, I am guessing that the Doctor does something with Captain Jack’s broken vortex manipulator in order get them back to 2007.
Even though it was clearly there on the screen it wasn’t until I saw it a second time that I got that YANA was “You Are Not Alone.” The looks from Chantho made me think that she knew more about what was going on than she let on. She must have been working with The Face of Boe somehow. I presume we’ll find out in the final two parts.
Neil
Man, I wish I could address a few of your predictions, since I saw these several months ago (thanks, Usenet binary groups!), but I’ll refrain for the sake of those seeing these for the first time…
Will echo Kath on the rollercoaster comment, tho – the next episode is even better!
I unfortunately knew in advance both that Jacobi was playing the Master and that it was something at least vaguely akin to “Human Nature.” Didn’t matter much — like Kath, I’ve adored Jacobi’s work pretty much forever (going at least as far back as when I was 7 or 8 watching “I, Claudius”). His “transformation” is something I’m going to be able to go back and watch about a zillion times without it losing any power, I suspect.
(Lisa didn’t know that Jacobi had a connection to the Master, and hearing her gasp when she saw the watch was almost worth all the spoilers I’d stumbled across. Wheeeeeee!)
I wish they’d been able to afford keeping Jacobi on as a regular performer. While I really enjoyed what little I’ve seen so far of Simm’s younger Master, Jacobi as a recurring antagonist would have kicked ášš from one end of the universe to the other.
(As for Simm … boy, they’re really going to play up the “Master as the Doctor’s distorted reflection” angle with this, aren’t they? Not that I mind…)
I haven’t seen any of Torchwood yet, so I can’t see how this ties in yet, but I’m glad it does. Great fun to see Jack again, regardless.
I was somewhat underwhelmed by the actual setting and the “Futurekind” monsters so far, but there’s clearly more to come there, so I’ll hold off.
And more than just about any episode this season, I was ready to go homicidal whenever SciFi had a bad commercial cut (i.e. every time). Grr.
Great, great fun — and a fun distraction at times when I needed it last week. Can’t wait for the other two parts.
TWL
Oh Kath, you get giggly…i tend to punch the air and bounce on the bed (only place i have to sit and watch the tv…also the gathering ground of the Rescue Kitties)…whenever i do that the cats flee like i just yelled “bathtime”! I did that when i saw the look on ‘Yana’s’ face when he really saw the watch for the first time.
I haven’t seen the rest of the shows nor Torchwood since you can’t get BBC America around here. So i know i have lots to look forward to!
Oh…and if you ever do write that Slash fic I’d sure like to see it;) Master…esh….that sort of made me do a ScoobyDoo “Huh?” 🙂
According to tardis.wikia.com, Derek Jacobi also played the Master in the Doctor Who webcast story “Scream of the Shalka”. It also states that he “played a role usually occupied by the Doctor in a Big Finish audio drama ‘Deadline'”, but I’m not sure what they mean by that.
It also states that he “played a role usually occupied by the Doctor in a Big Finish audio drama ‘Deadline'”, but I’m not sure what they mean by that.
From the Big Finish site:
“A series of self-contained stories deliberately placed outside of accepted Doctor Who continuity. Each plays stars an actor new to the role of the Doctor and poses a ‘What if…?’ question that explores what might have happened if things had been different. ”
‘Deadline’ is one of the audio adventures in the Doctor Who Unbound line starring Derek Jacobi as the Doctor. In many of them, they’re teamed up with a companion reprising their role (such as Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan).
Deadline was very good, though it was quite a different sort of piece. You need to have some familiarity with the first few stories of the original series in order to properly get all the references and appreciate it fully.
Neil
without a single doubt, this and the subsequent two episodes to follow are the best stories to feature the Master since the days of Roger Delgado. Excellent, masterful performances from both Jacobi and Simm, as the modern Doctor finally gets to deal with his “best enemy!”