How Doctor Who Pulled Off Its Best Twist

[Music] at the end of the 1960s doctor who was struggling and on its last legs closer cancellation when patrick tralton and his co-stars left the role it was time for a big risky transformation to keep the show fresh and interesting this resulted in john pertwee's third doctor getting stranded on earth working alongside unit without being able to properly use his tardis to travel in space and time along with this season 8 of the show would introduce a new recurring villain the time lord known as the master who was the intellectual equal of the doctor but evil the master was a huge success and helped to reinvent the show eventually appearing more often and becoming a staple of the show throughout the 1970s and acs despite claiming he didn't want to bring the master back modern doctor who showrunner russell t davies was actually a huge fan of the character and planned to bring him back in series 3. to do this davies wrote the episode utopia where the doctor is reunited with captain jack harkness at the end of the universe meeting the enigmatic professor yana who is secretly the master in human disguise this twist is one of the most ambitious and cleverly written twists in the show's history but is the rest of the episode still good and has it aged well after all of these years youtube the opening of utopia is a good way to establish a firm line of continuity along with setting up for the episode being very continuity heavy it starts with the doctor landing in cardiff to refuel using the rift which was a concept established in boom town all the way back in series 1. revisiting this idea creates a real sense of familiarity for the viewer who has likely seen this plot point before in boom town it's explained well to martha who is obviously the audience surrogate so anyone who missed boomtown or only jumped in recently can understand why this is an important factor even includes a nice reference back to that story with martha mentioning there being an earthquake in cardiff a couple of years ago and do you remember who was there with the doctor in boom town captain jack harkis as soon as the doctor notes the recent activity of the rift we get jack running towards the tardis with a great contrast between the two characters the music is frantic with jack as he runs but then it's more subdued and quieter with the doctor inside the tardis i like to think it shows their different approaches to adventures with jack being more action-packed and gun-toting like a conventional hero whilst the doctor has a preference for diplomacy and reasoning it's a good way to bring captain jack back into the show since torchwood series 1 had extensively explored jack always being on the lookout for the doctor so he can fix his curse of immortality end of days had ended on a cliffhanger of jack hearing the tardis and disappearing so if you follow both shows this cold open is satisfying but i think the episode still does enough to explain it for the people who didn't watch torchwood since utopia itself is a very jack-centric episode i do think it's a great touch that the doctor immediately tries to leave the moment he sees jack with an almost disgusted look on his face trying to avoid confronting the man he left behind all those episodes ago in the passing of the ways it shows how the doctor always runs from his past and his mistakes desperate to not face consequences we can all kind of relate to this on a personal level but it's very in character for the doctor who began everything by running away from gallifrey you mean you're deliberately choosing to go on the run from your own people in a rackety old tardis why not after all that's how it all started captain jack jumps onto the tardis which tries to shake him off but the machine ends up at the end of the universe because he has an infinite lifespan i think it's a good clever way to push our characters along to this extreme setting they'd never usually go to i do love this setting it's all dark and desolate with the stars themselves all burned up causing perpetual nights it's such a chilling concept that this is it this is really the end and everything else is dead simply because time catches up to everything in the end even once prospering cities like the shell of the city we see on this planet sure it's all filmed in a classic welsh quarry but i think it works well for the story they're telling since there's a complete absence of almost everything when the doctor and martha first arrive on the planet they find jack's body and martha immediately goes into medical mode once again utilizing that background established in smith jones and further shown in the shakespeare code i think it's a good way to use her job and prevailing character traits of being compassionate and selfless always trying to help those in need it says a lot about her character that the first thing she notices on this strange alien world is this dead man on the floor that she instantly tries to save i think it's a smart way to use her even though she kind of fades into the background after this point which isn't surprising because rose once again gets mentioned i think the confrontation between the doctor and captain jack is well handled they're friendly yet cautious in the way they talk to each other it creates an uneasy atmosphere and communicates their feelings well making you understand that the doctor doesn't want to face his past and jack wants to confront him for being abandoned on the game station i think it's the right way to go about this reunion showing the consequences rather than them being all chummy straight away i think there are some parallels to school reunion in series 2 where sarah jane was upset with the doctor did i do something wrong because you never came back for me you just dumped me both sarah jane and captain jack have been waiting for the doctor for years feeling abandoned by him whilst the doctor just moves on and doesn't look back at them i think it's a smart way to continue exploring that theme of being left behind by the doctor who can drop you on a whim if they feel like it regardless of what you want is that what happens though seriously you just get bored of us one day and disappear it's especially interesting when you realize that pretty much the first act of the tenth doctor's life was to run from captain jack as shown in the born again when he sewed maybe we should go back let's go and find captain jack we know what to do ah he's busy he's got plenty to do rebuilding the air the doctor and captain jack's relationship is later explored further with a very good character moment as jack is doing the couplings to launch the rocket it turns out that the doctor knew all along that jack could come back to life which explains the rush to run away during the cold open i feel like captain jack is absolutely right to feel betrayed by the doctor because jack gave his life to protect the doctor on the game station sacrificing himself in a futile attempt to hold the daleks back but he found himself abandoned because of something rose did and he had no control over you can really feel the resentment bubbling underneath jack's upbeat exterior i think it's a good exploration of the aftermath of the parting of the ways giving some weight to jack's gimmick of not dying and adding an emotional aspect to it because it portrays it as more of a curse than a superpower i do like that the doctor straight up asks jack if he wants to die the doctor is also immortal and as twice upon a time would later explore even they just want to die sometimes to relieve themselves of this immortality can't i ever have peace can't i rest i think this creates some good parallels between the doctor and captain jack also jack escaping the game station by using his vortex manipulator is a good explanation for his presence here and it clears up any lingering confusion but it also serves as smart foreshadowing for the cliffhanger of this episode as the start of the sound of drums shows that they escaped their predicament by using the device to get back to modern day much like professor yana being the master this opening sees that element of the ending by presenting it for the audience to understand later on it's like anton chekhov famously said you can't put a vortex manipulator in act 1 if you don't use it later on i already spoke about the setting but i also love the aesthetic of the human settlement on the planet everything is so dirty and industrial very reminiscent of the impossible planet in 42 which makes it feel like humans actually made this out of what they had left it gives us a good sense of familiarity because of those two stories i think the aesthetic helps to create a very gritty and post-apocalyptic feeling since humanity is surviving but as refugees under these harsh conditions i like how russell t davies actually twist this into a positive and optimistic look into the future with the doctor expressing glee at how the human race always survives no matter what i think it's a nice touch because it's true humanity always seems to overcome and stick around in some form or another especially in doctor itself it's nice to have that celebrated as a silver lining since all the way at the end of the universe the human race still holds on the fact that humanity constantly evolves to survive until this point also serves as a reflection of the daleks inability to do so in the earlier episodes daleks in manhattan and evolution of the daleks in that story darling sec became part human and tried to push the skaru down this path of evolution to keep their race alive but he failed because the daleks lacked that human nature of surviving and thriving no matter what end of the universe here you are indomitable that's the word also when it comes to the humanity of this episode i love the concept of utopia itself the mysterious signal from the stars is not only a classic sci-fi concept but it's also so incredibly human as a species we struggle to fathom the very idea of there being nothing after death so naturally when you escalate it to its highest level we almost refuse to accept the fact that the universe itself will end so i think it's very grounded and realistic that the humans in this episode will continue to believe in some kind of survival and escape from the inevitable end utopia heaven reincarnation it's all the same all the same core refusal to accept a lack of existence because it's incomprehensible for the human mind to imagine not existing in some form because that's all we know all we know is existence i think it's a very powerful element of realism within the story to preserve mankind to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself we're soon properly introduced to our main characters within the human settlement professor yana and his assistant chantho they're immediately established as a pairing similar to the doctor and the companion with jana the eccentric idealist being in charge and chantho aiding him and doing the explaining to other people chantho being this companion-like figure is a good way to explore martha's relationship or lack thereof with the doctor it turns out that chantho has an unrequited love for yana which martha is able to relate to because she feels the same towards the doctor even though i don't like this overall arc for martha i think the companion parallel explores it well i also think it's a good way to subtly hint at both yana being the master but also subtly hinting at the doctor and the master being very similar yet contrasting characters since it shows this familiar pairing the show has been built around this contrast is also shown because jana is willing to leave a guy outside to be killed by the future kind even though he could easily be saved should i alert the guards though no no we can't spare them it shows that different moral compass because the doctor would immediately try to save him as long as there's even a slight chance whereas the master doesn't care to save people so that element remains within yana i do love that the doctor respects and admires yana as an intellectual equal not only does it do a lot to establish yana's intelligence and ability but it also continues to show his true nature and establish the doctrine masters relationship as they were always presented as equals just as smart and cunning as each other you see doctor you're my intellectual equal it was so extensive that there was even an unused plan during the chompertwi era to make them two sides of the same coin the pair revealed as the ego and the id which i talked more about in my video about the third doctor's unmade episodes the fact that the now so-called warmaster regenerates into the much younger john simm master is another good way to characterize them as two sides of the same coin because sim's instant chaotic energy mirrors the 10th doctor's youthful bundle of energy personality it's an intentional choice by davies who wanted to draw the parallels with a sociopathic lens to make the master more dangerous and threatening the sim master is a controversial portrayal because of this chaotic and insane energy but i feel like it keeps the two time lords on equal pegging and this aspect of their relationship would be further explored in the sound of drums and the last of the time lords i think the mysterious drums in yana's head are a great mystery that appears throughout the episode especially because they first start when the tardis signal begins to show up on the scanner it immediately establishes a connection between them which continues as the episode goes along along with ceding the idea of him being a time lord as he gets drawn to key words and phrases reminding him of his true nature lurking inside i think one of the most under-appreciated parts of the setup to the twist is this line not even the timing this far it's short and easy to overlook but it lays the groundwork for the twist from the very beginning planting that seed of time lords into the viewers mind i just think it's very smart storytelling another part of smart storytelling comes when the doctor and jana are on screen together when they first meet there's a nice piece of orchestral music playing which just so happens to be the track this is gallifrey our childhood our home it plays every single time they're with each other and it would go on to appear prominently in the rest of the finale especially when the doctor burns the master's body in the last of the time lords you never notice it at first in utopia but in retrospect it plants those c's for the twist like so many other aspects of the story linking things together another link comes in the form of the doctor's severed hand in the jar much like the rift and captain jack it establishes a strong sense of continuity linking all the way back to the 10th doctor's first adventure in the christmas invasion continuing this ongoing thread of consequences as the doctor's hand was cut off and fell to earth so it's smart to revisit and acknowledge that this scene also reintroduces yana to concepts like the time lords pushing him further and further towards the master which is strengthened even more at the sight of the tardis the drums starting up once again much like the tardis signal from earlier it lets the audience know there's a link between the tardis and the drums and it makes even more sense with the hindsight that the tardis is how the master ultimately makes his escape so it's like the future according to his past pushing jana towards his destiny as the master as i mentioned certain words and visuals seem to trigger the drums in jana's head and cause him to space out but this really kicks into overdrive whilst the doctor and jack are talking and dropping all kinds of key words and doctor who lingo such as the time war daleks and regeneration along with martha casually mentioning the doctor traveling through time and space in the tardis it all starts to overwhelm yana as he stares at the tardis almost like activating a sleeper agent all this taco double cross is making me hungry for a slice of blueberry pie the whispers and drums in his head caused quite a claustrophobic feeling and i think it successfully communicates the idea that there's something within him trying to force its way out with all of the pieces really starting to fall into place once the phrases mount up on jana he has a very good short monologue about time travelling existing in the old days which is good world building and the moment is punctuated once again by this is gallifrey but it suddenly cuts into an impactful silence once the watch is pulled out freema admin does a great job with martha's reaction of dread as she like the audience she represents realizes what this means remembering the watch from human nature where the doctor used it to become human it's such a well built up scene that always gives me goosebumps with the mounting dread it has to be one of the greatest scenes in the entire show building and building to the realization the master vainglorious ramping up with the violins and drums kicking in to accentuate the moment and slap you in the face with this huge dramatic revelation the moment works so well because it builds off human nature and family of blood which told us exactly how the comedian arch works and how to spot the telltale signs of a time lord in hiding it set all of this up without the audience knowing so seeing the watch here instantly puts the pieces together for the viewer and explains why this is so significant and what this simple fob watch represents i think it's a great way of using previous stories as a way to build up later ones because it plays off the viewers familiarity with the show so he's got the same watch yeah but it's not a watch it's this chameleon thing no no no no this thing this device it rewrites biology changes a tunnel into a human much like any companion would do martha immediately runs to tell the doctor this random professor at the end of the universe has a fob watch just like the one the doctor used to hide himself i like his refusal to accept her story of jana having the watch he almost refuses to even entertain the possibility showing how much he doesn't want other time lords around even though he's so nostalgic for them as a collective martha and captain jack serve as effective audience surrogates here since they're certain it must be a good thing which is likely how the audience feels too because the doctor has always fondly remembered his people since the show's revival particularly during that famous scene at the end of gridlock just for a bit i could imagine they were still alive underneath the burnt orange sky this all makes it even more impactful when the doctor panics at the revelation making the viewer realize that another time not surviving really isn't a good thing after all because the doctor is actually scared of the possibility the final reveal is so well done with the fantastic moment of the master whispering from inside the watch demanding he open air which is different to what john smith's watch did in human nature telling latimer to keep it hidden we then get that frantic variation of the iconic all the strange strange creatures blasting as the rocket launches and jana finally opens the watch into cut with the face of bo's prophecy from gridlock giving a brilliant dramatic payoff to that cryptic hint from earlier in the series i think the whole jana you are not alone thing is a bit on the nose but it still serves as a very strong visual that makes the scene so memorable and intense because the episode has spent so much time building it up and seeing it with all of those small details and moments newly transformed the master unleashes the primitive future kind into the base and locks the doctrines companions inside everything in this scene works together to establish a very climactic and intense atmosphere of panic and danger because of the music and the sudden fast-paced action the rug has been pulled out from underneath the characters and the viewer so the chaos unfolding on screen accentuates the chaotic drama of the reveal complementing it perfectly whilst causing the stakes and importance of the episode to skyrocket i love how sinister derek jacoby becomes once jana transforms back into the master he completely changes his demeanor really communicating how he's an entirely different person just like how john smith and the doctor were such different people the newly reborn master advances on chantho ready to kill his faithful companion demanding to know why she never drew his attention to the watch he honestly feels terrifying and it's like a monster has been unleashed from within yana you can also feel chantho's pain at having this man she adores completely change and ruin everything they have worked together to achieve actor chipo chung does such a good job communicating chamfo's struggle to pull the trigger and you really feel for her this scene and all of the episodes build up culminates in this absolutely spine tingling line from jacoby yeah baby that's what i've been waiting for i've seen that moment so many times but it still gives me goosebumps to this day i can't even begin to imagine how incredible this reveal would have been to a classical fan who grew up with the master it's perfectly written and played to appeal to both new and older fans since classical fans instantly understand what the master appearing means but nuhu fans have been given just enough build up to understand that this master fellow is a really bad dude i genuinely think it is hands down the greatest twist the modern show has ever pulled it's incredible and it feels so good to watch even after you know it's coming this fantastic twist is then followed up with an equally fantastic cliffhanger to end the episode chantho shoots the master who flees into the tardis and seals the doctor out of his own machine i love how the doctor has to meekly and desperately beg his old enemy to stop suddenly so very helpless already knowing he was right to dread the time lord returning the master's regeneration is well handled because they used the same effect from the doctor's regeneration in 2005 to keep the audience aware of what's happening and retain the impact but they changed the colours ever so slightly to show how different this is i love the visual of the doctor backing away in fear of his own tardis as the yellow light beams through the windows completely overwhelming our hero and establishing the master as a huge threat it's so effective because it builds up a villain by weakening the protagonist making the doctor look powerless and ineffective much like how the weeping angels in blink were made so strong and threatening because they claimed the doctor and martha is victims forcing them to rely on other people to save them the master takes the tardis and leaves our protagonist stranded at the end of the universe and that's how it ends just like that our protagonists look like they're in such a hopeless and impossible position with no way out i think it represents that hopelessness we expect from the setting of the last refuge in the universe it's such a brilliant way to end the first part of the story it feels different from the endings of previous first parts in new who it's different to endings like aliens of london or rise of the cybermen because the stakes in utopia have been ramped up so high to the point that the climax delivers on the setup and you can't imagine our protagonists getting out of it i think the cliffhanger is made so much more daunting because of the next time trailer for the sound of drums besides this one blurry shot of our protagonist far in the background there's no doctor martha or captain jack in the preview it's only the master it furthers that sense of hopelessness by giving absolutely no indication that the doctor martha and jack are even going to be in the next episode which makes the prospect terrifyingly amazing it even seems like a real possibility because blink the episode airing the week before barely had the doctrine martha in it so it doesn't even seem like a stretch of the imagination to think that sound of drums will just be the master running rampant unopposed you may have noticed that i've name dropped a lot of previous stories in this video especially all of the series 3 stories this was intentional because this episode is so continuity heavy and thematically linked to so many stories in the show stuff like the younger monstrous master forcing his way out of the old iana's body is thematically similar to the literal monster forcing its way out of professor lazarus in the lazarus experiment from the watch in human nature to the visual style of 42 there's a real sense of cohesion and familiarity within utopia the heavy use of continuity isn't derivative or damaging to the episode it actually improves it because it continues these themes and builds upon them in a satisfying way there are flashbacks to episodes like passing of the waves and human nature for those who need them helping unfamiliar viewers understand but they're not intrusive and don't detract from the experience if you already know what the flashbacks are telling you it's one of the most cleverly written episodes of new who everything plays into the episode in an important way the most obvious piece of smart writing is the master reveal but there are so many other examples throughout take the scene of the guy preparing the couplings under the rocket a future kind sabotages the base and kills the guy which means that captain jack has to go and do it because he can't die which is shown by him getting killed by sparking cable it's a smooth transition to get jack into the radiated area but chantho also throws the sparking cable to the side and guess what the master uses to kill her at the end of the episode you guessed it chekov spark and cable i just think it's a shining example of how smart the writing in utopia is i know i've waffled on about this episode for a ridiculously long amount of time but utopia is an absolutely staggeringly good episode of doctor who everything hits the right heights exactly as intended the setting and aesthetic of the episode is so strong creating a real feeling of it being the last humans at the end of the universe the future kind are established well as primitive and tribal devolved humans separating them from our own idea of humanity and making them intimidating monsters even if they're not a focus of the episode all of the character work is exceptionally done giving a very good spotlight on captain jack and the fallout of the passing of the ways along with that slow burn of yana and the build to that big reveal it's a slower more dialogue heavy episode but the chase scene with the future kind and the preparation to launch the rocket inject some pace into the episode breaking up the slower moments effectively to give the best possible viewing experience every single aspect of this episode is top notch so it easily earns an s rank on the series 3 tier list and one of the highest s ranks in all of new who i've seen this episode so many times but when i watched it again for this review i found myself sucked in all over again and i became so excited and pumped up by how superb it was just ask my discord how much of a blast i had with it even though there's a huge twist of jana being the master it doesn't make utopia any less rewatchable it isn't made off of the twist or reliant on it like some episodes are spyfall part one fugitive for the jedi the twist is definitely the biggest aspect but it's so perfectly executed that you enjoy it for how magnificently it's done not that it's just done at all i think that's what makes this episode so great it remained exhilarating even when i knew exactly what was going to happen i still found myself entranced and waiting for the reveal because i knew it was coming and i was so hyped for it to play out in my mind that's what a twist should be a twist should never be a twist that just exists and only ever works for one-off shock value a good twist is one you can still enjoy long after it happened and that is exactly what utopia does which makes it timeless in a way forever enjoyable i can't express how much i adore utopia and everything it does i don't like to use number rankings for episodes but if i did this would be a 10 out of 10 without a shadow of a doubt it's hands down the best episode of series 3 and i could honestly talk about it until the actual heat death of the universe but you know this has gone on long enough so see you next time and i'd like to give a special thank you to my gold level patrons steph never miller and mark hip old guy taylor thank you a lot for your support you

Channel: Harbo Wholmes

Views: 302,071

Keywords: doctor who, weeping angels, doctor who weeping angels, harbo wholmes, doctor who series 12, doctor who 2005 series, doctor who best moments, doctor who martha jones, doctor who best martha episode, doctor who 2007 series, doctor who series 3, best doctor who episode, doctor who video review, doctor who utopia, doctor who the master, doctor who best ending, doctor who best twist, best doctor who twists, doctor who captain jack returns, doctor who series 3 finale

Id: 7B02C9hkyfE

Length: 27min 10sec (1630 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 05 2020