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Cleverly, and not so cleverly, "Last of the Time Lords" was both a fitting climax to the saga begun with "Utopia", and a worthy standalone episode as well. The surprising "One Year Later..." caption that kicked it off made it clear that, skilfully, this was watchable on its own, yet at the same time part of a larger story. And yet while "Utopia" was more dependent on the subsequent two episodes (thus forging the false impression that it was rather inconsequential when we were led to believe it stood alone), "The Sound of the Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords" were both epic stories in their own right. Only "Last of the Time Lords" was by far the better of the two episodes, for all sorts of reasons. The main one was that it didn't, despite my fears last week, follow a similar path to "Doomsday" last year. The Earth wasn't seen to be invaded and we didn't get a manic episode full of people being subjugated before the Doctor pulled it back with a super weapon at the last minute. Instead, we were instantly taken to the point at which it was all over; Martha was turned into a legendary freedom fighter, the Doctor a shrivelled slave of the Master. It was a most welcome and unexpected twist; have we ever seen this in Doctor Who before? Have we ever glimpsed a scenario where the Doctor has lost to such an extent? And has the Master ever been quite as genuinely despicable as the moment when he kicked the crone Doctor in the face? This was something new. Somehow more "evil" than in the old days, when all he did was wipe out planets and shrink people, one was constantly expecting the Master to give the Doctor "one last chance", as he always used to sportingly do. Not this time. This episode developed the character of the Master into a truly nasty proposition. Technically it was better than "Drums" too - all the money was on screen, and where-as last episode we got a couple of cheap explosions and a lame car chase, this week we were treated to the incredible spectacle of the Yoda-Doctor and the pitiful human heads inside the Toclafane - gorgeous and chilling CGI creations both. As for the end, well in my book it worked. It wasn't a conventional "turn back the clock" copout ending, for the simple reason that the world with the Toclafane Invasion was stated to be the 'paradoxical' one; it couldn't happen, because it would create a paradox. So until the entirely plausible Paradox Machine was prevented from 'holding it in place', the reality our heroes were fighting against was always stated to be the unreal one. Somehow, this just worked. Add to this Simm being altogether more subtle and less irritating than last week. Cheekily, even the 'cheat killer-Time Lord weapon' was introduced, only to be one massive double bluff. Now THAT'S excellent. Less successful was Captain Jack, given almost nothing to do (but worth having for the jaw-dropping reveal concerning his character at the end) and Martha's departure, unnecessary and again bizarrely kept as a 'surprise', despite having next to no impact either dramatically or consequentially (she's back next year). I stand by previous reviews - "Utopia" didn't work as a single episode, and "The Sound of Drums" was poor and lacking in spectacle. "Last of the Time Lords" was a marvellous closer though, packed with emotional resonance and incident without appearing to be an episode full of people shooting at each other. Together though, these three episodes will stand as one of the greatest Doctor Who stories - a mini-trilogy revival of the Master that took the series into new waters, both in terms of storytelling and effects. And while the way we were presented with these episodes was rather baffling, at least the production team kept us guessing until the very end (again!). "Last of the Time Lords" was a patchy season going out on a major high.
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