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| A fantastic beginning. Captain Jack grabs hold of the TARDIS as it
dematerialises and flies through the vortex. We don't get to see the effect
of the timewinds but we do see the Doctor's expression. He already knows
Jack is immortal so while Martha is doing her best to revive him the Doctor
stands back, aloof and unconcerned.
Jack revives and the crew see a city built into the rocks, then a man running, being chased by futurekind. They help the man to sanctuary and find the last of the humans from the dying universe gathered together. Russell T Davies made sure he included a line about the many different humans and how they retain their basic shape. Hmm. This is a 'hang a lantern on it' situation, isn't it! Professor Yana has an assistant named Chan Tho, the last of her race, who is helping him rescue all the humans and send them to Utopia. The Professor keeps getting headaches which sound like drums beating out the steady beat of the Doctor Who theme. There are problems with the system and the footprint concept won't work but the Doctor fixes it. Martha finds a glass case containing the Doctor's hand in Jack's backpack. The Doctor explains that he grew it back. Jack tries to boost the power and connects two high voltage electrical cables together, electrocuting himself in the process. Martha tries to give him mouth to mouth but the Doctor tells her to stand back. Jack, of course, revives. A terrorist futurekind mysteriously has access to the secure and fortified base and manages to destroy electrical equipment and make problems for everyone. Jack and the Doctor fix the problems with the equipment and help the rocket on its way. During this time the Doctor explains his prejudice against Jack as Jack is a 'wrong' fact of life that he has trouble dealing with. No fight scene, just a casual agree to disagree discussion. During their discussion Professor Yana listens and remembers things that he'd forgotten a long time ago. When Martha asks him how he's feeling he's crying and pulls out a broken fob watch. Martha realises the watch is exactly the same as the one used by the Doctor in 1913 and runs to tell him. The Doctor realises who the Professor really is. The Professor holds the watch and we hear voices from his stored past. Words voiced by Roger Delgado, laughs by Anthony Ainley amongst other impressions. The presence of the TARDIS, the Doctor's hand and everything that has been said encourages the Professor to open the watch, as Martha, the Doctor and Jack rush back. The Professor realises who he really is and shuts down the power, allowing the futurekind to come in and attack Jack, Martha and the Doctor. ChanTho tries to stop him damaging their work and aims a gun at him. He tells ChanTho that he is the Master then promptly electrocutes her. Because she's a bug rather than a human she has a little bit of energy left to be able to shoot the Master as he goes into the Police Box. The futurekind have broken into the base, after seeing the rocket fly off and the power go out, and are about to attack the Doctor and co. The Master has sealed the door but they manage to overide it, just as he enters the TARDIS. The Master locks it from the other side and the Doctor can't get in. The Master stands against the console and regenerates. (So goodbye Derek Jacobi and hello John Simms) He is excited to be alive, leaping about the console room with the same energy and vitality that the Doctor displayed after regenerating. He announces to the Doctor that he's back then dematerialises the TARDIS. The Doctor activates the same security protocol he activated when Rose was sent back and the Master is sent to the 21st century. But they are now stuck in the year 100 trillion with no way home and the futurekind are about to break in. I enjoyed this episode but to be honest I'd read so much about it that it was kind of disappointing when I finally got to see it. The Futurekind are definitely the most cheapest and hammiest monsters in Doctor Who so far. We finally get a quarry episode which, unfortunately, looked far too much like a quarry, and John Simms has got to be the hammiest Master since Eric Roberts. Having said that, for a dark future there were so many shining lights and fantastic performances that you could be blinded by the talent. Actors awards all around - Derek Jacobi was the doddering old professor performing perfectly though I had suspected he would turn out to be the Doctor, especially with his 19th century clothes and BBC English. It was a bit too over-the-top for him to be called Professor Yana though. Yana stands for You Are Not Alone and smacks of a cop out. Who called him Yana? The face of Boe for the Doctor's benefit? John Barrowman is his friendly, effervescent self and Captain Jack gets to flirt with 3 different sexes in the episode, much to Martha's surprise. My favourite word in the whole episode actually comes from The Ark in Space. "Indomitable". It was used to great effect in that story when the fourth Doctor stumbles upon a race of humans in suspended animation in the far future, and now the Doctor stumbles on a race of humans at the end of time. It's definitely the most appropriate word to use and kudos to Russell for writing it in. Kudos too, to the affects team for including lines by the Master from the classic series. I also liked the fact that clips from previous episodes of the new series were used when Jack was recounting his past. But a couple of things in this episode are telegraphed. 1. This sets up the Doctor's journey to Utopia in Season 4 and maybe season 5. 2. At the beginning Captain Jack pointedly points out his fried time watch which the Doctor and co could easily convert into a time ring to escape. A couple of things also don't make sense. Why are the futurekind on the planet? Who brought them there? Why did one manage to get into the base when it has very good security? Did she hide on one of the trucks? Did the humans kill off all the bugs? Why do some of the humans have 21st century hair styles and wear 20th century clothes? This episode may have been made at the same time as Blink and so the budget looks to be split between them. In fact it looks as though this is the cheapest episode made so far. Very character driven, little special effects. Even though the Master returned in this episode, the hammy acting by John Simm was a disappointing end to the episode so 7 out of 10. Having said all that... finally a story equivalent to having 6 classic parts, in tradition Master style. Doctor Who – Utopia Ep 11/13
David Tennant plays the Doctor and Freema Agyeman plays his companion, Martha Jones. John Barrowman, Rene Zagger and Sir Derek Jacobi guest star. Captain Jack Returns To Doctor Who
By Ian M. Cullen As is very much common knowledge Captain Jack is returning to Doctor Who for two perhaps even a three-episode stint. The first story that Jack will feature in will be episode 11, which is titled utopia. However unlike many of the episodes, which have been synopsised on the Internet, just recently all that has been revealed about this episode is what follows: 311 - Utopia (Original UK Airdate: Spring 2007)
Fairly major spoilers ahead. Do not read any further if you do not wish to have the episode spoilt. Our source Dr. Phibes who resides at a black tower somewhere out there in time and space can reveal a little more about this episode. “First off as already stated the episode starts in Cardiff Bay where the Doctor and Martha set down to use the spatial rifts energy in order to recharge the Tardis.” Phibes revealed. “Obviously this episode picks up where the finale of Torchwood left off as far as the fate of Captain Jack is concerned anyway.” “While the Doctor and Martha are enjoying a quick banter about Cardiff
we will see Captain Jack running and shouting after the Doctor only to
barely latch onto the Tardis as it dematerialises, this one moment promises
to be a rather impressive CGI shot which is illustrated by the script excerpt
included below.”
FX: CUT TO WIDER – and he’s clinging on, yelling, to the outside of the Tardis as it hurtles through the vortex! As you can imagine in order for Captain Jack to come back onto the series, the plot had to be something pretty big and outlandish for the episode to work. “Big is an understatement,” our man in Havana Phibes revealed. “The episode sees the Doctor and his friends going to the year one hundred trillion which the Doctor claims is impossible.” (Script Excerpt Below of conversation between The Doctor and Martha) THE DOCTOR
MARTHA
THE DOCTOR
MARTHA
The DOCTOR
And he grins, grabs his coat, he & Martha run out. “While there aside from meeting Jack they encounter two distinct races of humanity. One known as the Futurekind and the other who are normal human beings. It is this aspect which is the central mystery of the episode.” It would be fair to say that the episode with its use of two different types of humans living on the same planet is a gentle nod to the Eloi and the Morlocks, which we read about, in HG Well’s classic novel ‘The Time Machine’. Dr. Phibes also revealed that the episode gives some clues as to how exactly Captain Jack found his way back to Earth. “Indeed, it turns out that our friend Captain Jack was able to utilise a primitive form of Time Travel, however it is far from a Tardis, and below is some quite funny banter between Jack and the Doctor about our good captains chosen way of time travel.” (Script Excerpt below of banter between The Doctor & Captain Jack). EXT. MOORLAND – NIGHT
CAPTAIN JACK
(his wrist – strap) I used to be a Time Agent, it’s called a Vortex Manipulator, he’s not the only one who can time travel – THE DOCTOR
MARTHA
CAPTAIN JACK
THE DOCTOR
CAPTAIN JACK - then I had to live through the entire twentieth century, waiting to find the version of you that would coincide with me – MARTHA
CAPTAIN JACK
- and here we are! Of course as the episode progresses we see plenty of locations ranging from missile silos to quarries. Yes you heard right. Quarries, but as the above script excerpts illustrate the episode will answer a fair few questions regarding what happened to Captain Jack after the Doctor and Rose departed for earth after he regenerated. So well worth viewing this episode, which is, number 11 in the running order and is titled Utopia. As ever thanks go out to our intrepid friend Dr. Phibes for providing us with this exclusive intelligence concerning the much-awaited return of Captain Jack. This news report is no longer available on the scifi
pulse news page
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Jack's back!
As Captain Jack storms back into the Doctor's life, the Tardis is thrown
out of control, to the end of the universe, in tonight's episode of Russell
T Davies's Doctor Who. There, they find the savage Futurekind ruling the
wilderness, while a lonely Professor tries in vain to save the last of
the human race.
