New Who Review for “Sound of the Drums”
Posted By Kathleen David on September 30, 2007
Most of this is going to be behind the cut and remember comments may be very spoilery.
Over all this took what happened in Utopia and kicks it up to the next level. Solid script and solid performances all around. I really like what John Simm did. Also the logic that is Doctor Who continuity manages to keep most of itself together.
On another note that I really don’t consider a spoiler because it is the music related. When this episode came out in the UK the song “Voodoo Child” by Rogue Trader went back onto the charts and it ran up on the iTunes download list. You couldn’t get it in the US just the UK but one week later it was available in the US too because of demand. The power of the fan.
I am grateful for good music in Doctor Who.
Wow. The Master as totally loony just works for me on so many levels. And the teletubbies were a nice touch too.
The Doctor in the pit of despair and Martha yanking him out of it.
Captain Jack being….well Captain Jack. The Torchwood riff just worked on so many levels. And I am wondering what they did in Tibet.
The Doctor figuring out how the Master did it which does play into next week.
Old Doctor. Martha escapes. Jack dies again.
I just enjoyed the heck out of this (but Utopia still remains my favorite)
Next week the conclusion which had fans talking, debating, fighting, and groaning (not the good kind of groaning either).
Looking forward to the conclusion next week. Then the long wait ’till Season Four.
I’m glad that the cliffhanger solution that I (and presumably most others) thought of was used – fixing the vortex manipulator. What had been done to the TARDIS was quite a surprise.
The Master/Saxon being around for 18 months was a surprise. I don’t think we’ve seen The Master’s wait around so long before to his plans come to fruition. It appears that over those 18 months, there were two time versions of the TARDIS around at the same time.
Did we hear the “sound of drums” in earlier episodes that took place during this timeframe? One thing that didn’t seem to make much sense was the homeless person doing the drum sound. If it was being spread via cellphone and such, how was he exposed?
The commentary has Freema Agyeman (Martha), Trevor Laird (Clive Jones) and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Tish Jones). It was the first time they saw the episode and they mention their surprise and delight at seeing some of the special effects and such. Gugu Mbatha-Raw mentions how delighted her mother was in sending in a 7-year old picture of her that was seen in Martha’s flat.
I’m looking forward to seeing how it all wraps up next week.
Neil
What I liked (if you can call it that) is that the Master asks his wife whether they should decimate the human population and I explain to my wife Kathy about your husband Peter saying that the recent Mutant decimation was misdifined in Marvel Comics, as it was more than 10 percent. Then the Master shows he does, indeed, know what it means.
Actually, it’s possible that there were three TARDISes around during Saxon’s rise to power, at least part of it. The one the Doctor has been using for the last year and a half of the show, the one that the Master stole, and the one that was in “Blink,” which had been sitting in the police lot for who knows how long.
I’m not sure what my favorite episode is. The last four just kept getting better and better, so I have a problem not thinking of them as a single unit. My favorite MOMENT was in Blink during the time-delayed conversation between the Doctor and Sparrow, when Martha mentions that she’s been working in a shop to support herself and the Doctor, I loved it. The thought that he would be helpless in some ways without the TARDIS and dependent on his Companion was a great reversal.
Ah, the conclusion. As I’ve already seen it, all I’ll say is don’t get your expectations up, folks. You’ve already seen the best this season has to offer (and it *was* great, wasn’t it?).
My fave so far has gotta be “Blink”.
But my favourite line from the new series (did imention this already?) is when Rose and the Doctor are on the rooftop and she’s wittering on about how she’s seen aliens and spaceships and and and no-one else on Earth knows… And then that huge alien ship comes roaring in over London calling major attention to itself and she stares for a moment, and then says “That’s just not *fair*!”