Dr Who S3-E12 'The Sound Of Drums'

[Antilles]

[move]+++ ALERT - WARNING - THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD - IF YOU HAVE SEEN THE EPISODE PLEASE KEEP OBVIOUS SPOILERS HIDDEN BY USE OF THE SPOILER TAB - THANK YOU. ALERT ENDS! +++[/move]

 

:Antilles: This is the Official discussion thread for Episode 12 of the 2007 Doctor Who. 'Constructive' criticism is welcome.

 

[glow=white,2,300]ADDITIONAL: This Episode is airing at a slightly later time of 19:15 PM (GMT) [/glow] Though not officially announced, best to set your recorders for the usual 7PM just in case!

 

 

Official Synopsis - The Master arrives in 21st Century — as Mr Saxon, Prime Minister — and the UK enters a period of terror when contact with an alien race known as the Toclafane is announced.

[TFMF]

I can't wait for this episode. Although i am wondering, in that image you've got there, Antilles, what does "The circle is closing in..." suggest? Is is somthing i just missed from an earlier ep?

[Antilles]

Apparently, and this is only what Ive been reading in various places, is that all this series (and i think in certain episodes last series and perhaps even Ecclestons year) that a trap has been laid for the Doctor and this is it coming to its head. The most crucial spoilers and exciting words Ive read recently are

"Warships of the New Time-Lord Empire are coming..."

whatever the hell that means but it sounds friggin cool, I hope they dont disappoint!

[flicky1991]

From what I've heard, it's the Master who announces that they've made contact with aliens (i.e. Toclafane), so what if it's a trick, and they're really Time Lords, disguised by hiding their... um... Timelordiness in watches?

[Halmir]

A great episode tonight, my reservations about John Simm as the Master are now laid to rest!

 

The SKy Captain flying aircraft carrier was a bit out of place, but hey it didn't detract from a good fast paced show :)

[Ulysses]

Yeah I also thought this was well put together episode, question is what is the master gonna benifit from all theses orbs invading earth? unless he has something much bigger  planned as being the master of earth some how doing fit with my idea of the master..

 

[Antilles]

Yes I quite enjoyed it, all the classic Time Lord references were in place, including no changes to the Gallifrey robes, brilliant, glad they kept that.

So the Time Lords 'ressurected' him, i guess that means hes got a completely new life but I suppose that would depend on how they ressurected him, with just one regeneration or a full set, but I dont wanna get into the whole 'How many regens do they have' anymore! :)

 

It was a little too fast paced if you ask me, but I have to watch it again now as its hard to concentrate with the living room bursting with the screeching of a 14 year old girl whos David Tennant mad, it would have been quieter at an Osmonds concert in 1976!

 

Killing the American president...CLASSIC, shame he didnt look a bit more..Bushy if you get my meaning!

 

These Toclafane, are they simply what we see them as, little Star Wars mind probes on the rampage or are they something else, the Master and the Doctor said the Toclafane were just a myth, like the bogeyman, so perhpas well find out next week. My worst fears for the episode is its going to end so quickly like in Doomsday when the Doctor suddenly hatches a plan to diperse the Toclafane and rid the Master somehow and itll all be over in a flash, Id really really like to see a full series cliff-hangar and keep our tongues wagging till next March/April. They used to do that in the old days, especially Blakes 7 and it worked so well.

 

I was also a bit disappointed in the simple way out of the Utopia storyline, that effectively made the 'Futurekind & the Spaceship going to Utopia kinda pointless, unless theres still something to happen connected to last weeks story.

 

Ha Ha, nice effect on making the Doctor older, but come on, 100 years and hes aged that much, surely hed regenerate if pushed that far ahead so quickly.

 

Anyway, Ill have more to comment when Ive seen it again, report back later. So far so good!

[flicky1991]

The Fourth Doctor lived for around two hundred years, though. And the Doctor's gone through much worse than old age!

 

As for the episode- I'll reserve judgment on the story until the end of the series, but the Time Lordy stuff was great, and the Jones family's involvement was a nice touch.

[TFMF]

Absolutly Fantastic! I just loved this ep so much.

 

Where to begin. Well i'll start with what i really liked - the background we got on. I just loved it when we got to see some history of Galafrey (sp?) and the master - and even got a glimps of the TimeLord Citidel!

 

It was a nice fast paced episode, with plenty going on and a great story. The Master was also nice and evil :D

 

The alien bots were quite cool - hope we find out more about those little guys. The way they flooded from the sky near the end was amazing - with some excellent effects as the sky was torn open.

 

CAN NOT WAIT till next Saturday :D

[Antilles]

I think I just found the Masters TARDIS, you know the 'Thunderbirds' style skyship, which although a little over the top, pretty cool, well just look at this Behind the Scenes picture...are they roundels in the wooden panel? Its certainly got a Time Lordy design in the background!

 

[Tenebrae]

Not too bad.

 

100 years? Was a JOKE. Maybe 1000 years, then we could talk... RTD didn't really write this episode. It was too good.

[Megalith]

I missed the first second or so of this episode and thought damn it started at 7 and i missed how they got of the end of the universe but then the titles rolled and i realised i hadn't missed anything :) as mentioned above i was a lil bit miffed that they didn't show the escape from eou but it was explained in the episode, as expected, that jacks device was used and they arrived back 18 months after the master.

 

It was a brilliant episode better than last weeks and very fast paced with a lot happening in a small time slot. It ended a bit abruptly imo but its still set up for next weeks finale being something special. Not sure exactly what Martha can do on her own on the planet surface. Will see next week huh.

 

Gallifrey was good especially the robes as Antilles pointed out but the Citadel itself was totally new, the original Gallifrey was not a domed city but I'll forgive them for kinda modernising it for this day and age.

 

The master being resurrected to be a warrior was a nice (but expected) touch and i was right in that the end of the universe where even Timelords feared to tread was the perfect place for him to hideout.And damn what The Master did to the Tardis.

 

I especially liked the childish innocence of the Toclafane and the Doctor/Master talking of them as myth was interesting and yep i'm sure next week will explain more on these weird adversaries.

 

Antilles spoiler above sounds interesting and i hope it is true, it will be a truelly amazing finale if it is the case.

 

Well its another week of waiting :( I hope it isn't too big a cliffhanger at the end as i hate waitin for like 10 months to see how cliffhangers are resolved.

 

Score then for this one hmmm tricky, wasn't 100% cuz of the bad start and the utopia/futurekind story being unresolved but it was better than last weeks so i have to give it 9.9/10 next weeks i'm sure will flick all the right switches. Overall this series has been incredible and way way way better than the Ecclestone series (i bet he is kicking himself for not staying with it with such amazing story lines)

 

Antilles, do you really think that the Master would have been given a Tardis by the TimeLords? how he got to the eou however is a mystery but the Toclafane may have had something to do with it, Yana had the beating of drums thing.

 

The Master always was a coward :) oh and the gassing of the cabinet was a nice touch lol

[Vyperion]

I think I just found the Masters TARDIS, you know the 'Thunderbirds' style skyship, which although a little over the top, pretty cool, well just look at this Behind the Scenes picture...are they roundels in the wooden panel? Its certainly got a Time Lordy design in the background!

He mentions that he designed it whilst in the MoD so it's a safe bet that he incorporated some of the designs of his former home.

 

I think those that doubted John Simm were firmly put into place, he filled the role quite expertly. Little black humour at the start when the reporter tries to unveil the truth to his wife and then while she's being cut-up(?) he keeps opening the door slightly and closing it. His face can certainly be creepy and loveable at the same time.

 

I only hope that he doesn't get killed off and replaced so soon and that the rivalry continues well into the next series, perhaps even the next Doctor.

 

That was annoying about the intro - "Oh, we're back in the 21st Century, let's go" - complete detraction from the cliffhanger ending of episode 11 - "How the heck are we gonna get back?". Given that we got swept away with all the other stuff that was happening it was a minor distraction, quickly forgotten.

 

Now the biggest question I have will be how they come back from all this? The whole world is witnessing devastation beyond measure and if we get yet another "It was all a dream" scenario I will be sorely ticked off. Most likely the paradox machine will be able to undo all the damage that has been done since it activated

[Tenebrae]

The USS Valiant was OBVIOUSLY Skybase. If you've seen the CGI Captain Scarlet, you'll surely agree it was nigh identical.

 

And yes, the flirtyblorgajimjams or whatever were very much like the little drones from Star Wars. Cutesy and deadly.

 

The American President was pretty hilarious... I wonder how that's going to fly in the former colony... because it seemed to be a pretty thinly veiled "Bush is a douche!" His death was funny but I think the unsubtle commentary (my RTD, it must have take a few minutes to conceive!) was funny because it was so badly done.

 

I did enjoy Simms but RTD's such a ham fisted writer that he made the jokey aspect rather annoying... still, I think this episode was far more enjoyable. The start was irritating in its BOOM! PLOT DEVICE! Style but the Time Lord stuff was interesting and I think Simms was good. With suspense and everything. The show is a lot better when it's not rushing to wrap up in 45 minutes.

[Halmir]

My fear (upon reflection) of all of this with the Toclafane is that we've suddenly got a new super-enemy who are far more devastating than the Cybermen or Daleks ever were, they move far faster and kill loads more whilst having a sillier name!! It takes the series to a new plateau, hope they've got the ramifications figured out.

 

The spiderphones popping up and spewing the deadly gas is horrible, I'll never look at one of those the same again :)

 

Despite all that, there were UNIT again!! aah my childhood contained many memories of the valiant British Tommy and his SLR shooting ineffectually at moving compost heaps or robots!! If only the Brigadier hadn't perished fighting that Angel thingy it would have been great to see him once again (presumably as a Sky Marshal or similar by that point). It's still great stuff.

[maybrick]

The Toclafane have the same, or very similar, voices as The Gelth. Very curious. Toclafane are also invading Earth through a rift. This also brings to mind The Gelth. Hmmmmm.....

[Antilles]

Yes I thought the girly globes voice was the same as the Gelth, the same desperation in the voice about 'The Darkness etc'.

 

And also, whats with the Master & Jelly Babies, thats a Troughton-Tom Baker thing. Is RTD playing mind games with us or is there more to this 'Resurrection' than were being told. WHY did he need the Doctors genetic code? Is/Has the Master been some kind of future regeneration of The Doctor all along (since even the classic days?)

 

So many questions, so many days till the finale! :)

 

EDIT: Just re-read my post and 'girly globes' just sounds a bit 'porn' LOL

[GorunNova]

Ummm... the Master stated why he wanted the Doctor's genetic data... to use against the Doctor, in this case with that 'aging beam'.  There's a reason why the genetic data of the Time Lords was so closely guarded even in the old series.

 

Meh... as for Simms being a good Master, I'm still uncertain about that.  He just doesn't have that natural menace, and obviously cares more for destruction for it's own sake than for control over anything at all.  The Master wanted to be just that... Master.  This Master couldn't care less about leadership.  His motives for this whole thing seems to be just to see humanity die for it's own sake... maybe to make up for his missing out on the ultimate destruction of the Daleks and Time Lords?

 

Then again, it could also be a nice underlining of what time and the Time War have done to both the Doctor and the Master... they've been changed, the Doctor tarnished and the Master made psychotically homicidal instead of megalomanical.

[Antilles]

... maybe to make up for his missing out on the ultimate destruction of the Daleks and Time Lords?

 

He did mention that he was scared and ran away (in not so many words) once the Time Lords resurrected him to be a warrior in the Time War!

[Mav]

The American President was pretty hilarious... I wonder how that's going to fly in the former colony... because it seemed to be a pretty thinly veiled "Bush is a douche!" His death was funny but I think the unsubtle commentary (my RTD, it must have take a few minutes to conceive!) was funny because it was so badly done.

 

 

That was the low point of the episode for me ;\ They always gotta bag on the Americans man wtf is up with that? I love Doctor Who but if I gotta suffer lame jabs at my nationality I might stop watching. I'm no Bush supporter, didn't vote for him but either way, they didn't need to do that to a president.