New Who Review for "Utopia"
Sep. 24th, 2007 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
puppetmakerThis 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*
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*
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 12:57 pm (UTC)There were bits in the final episode that I genuinely winced at...
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 01:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 02:07 pm (UTC)I appreciated your slash moment, and there were a couple of moments between Jack and the Doctor that felt very slash-inspiring to me, too. :)
I'm both glad and miserable that the Master is back. :P
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 02:21 pm (UTC)John Simm has become my favorite Master and he had to go a long way to replace Delgado for me. I like Ainley a lot but Delgado just still held the title for me until Simm bounced into the picture.
Now I want to see "Life on Mars" which I had heard good things about.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 04:05 pm (UTC)"That is not my name!" Jacobi does that explosive-anger thing better than anyone (it reminded me favorably of his "Repeat it!" in I, Claudius), and when he screams it, the goosebumps are just everywhere.
(And it's John Simm, not Simms....)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 09:25 pm (UTC)But one should not poke the allergy suffer who might also have a head cold. They might decide to come to lunch with the group and SNEEZE on you.....
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 11:30 pm (UTC)*cheeky grin*
(Great icon, BTW...)
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 04:59 pm (UTC)You are an EVIL woman....
I *knew* the Master was back. Like I said....
I want to beg you to send me the rest of the advance copies of the Torchwood and Doctor Who episodes you have....
(as an asside, I wonder about what acronym they will come up with to disguise Dr Who now?)
I thought the Master had used up all his regenerations back forever ago, back with the 4th Doctor? What happened?
no subject
Date: 2007-09-24 09:30 pm (UTC)The Keeper of Traken is the episode that explains how the Master got his second chance by absorbing the life force (and body) of Nyssa's father. The problem was breakdown which was referred to in Survival (last McCoy episode with the Cheetah people and some funkiness in the script that was cut implying that the Doctor was the Time Lord Ghod)
So he absorbed another body in the movie with the cheesy explanation.
I think there is another try at explaining everything in the "Sound of the Drums" which is the next episode.