Doctor Who: The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords REVIEW | Review of Death

[@stevemcqwark7061]

Petition to unprivatise Matt’s ancient Stolen Earth/Journey’s End review. That shit was glorious. Came out right at the peek of the angry reviewer trend at the time!

[@Thedocwills]

@@stevemcqwark7061 yesss! I was one of the few who saw it when it was uploaded and remember him throwing the dvd out the window

[@Stevooo]

And I was having such a nice day…

[@KennyBacchus-z9s]

Doctor who. The sound .of. Drums last. Of. The. Time. Lords

[@Dray1]

Excellent review as always. I always find this 3 parter to be a very easy watch, and have revisited several times just own its own. The chemistry between our main 3, Jacobi and later Simms is just astonishingly good!

[@50l12]

Saxon's party is quite confusing, could be a Tory but in the cabinet room he says to the ministers they abandoned their parties to join him. But if he was an independent how did he form the government? Most likely he formed his own independent party SAXON which everyone around the country is voting for, that would have been a mad election campaign...

[@TheValeyard92]

(Whispers) It's because Russell doesn't really understand how British politics work all that well, and still doesn't. 🫢🤫

[@CTheRobot]

@@TheValeyard92or it may be due to the BBC’s core directives, and how the show (a family aged show nonetheless) shouldn’t take a political side and possibly alienate large parts of its audience?

[@JD-Media]

​@@CTheRobotIn that case, you just have Saxon form a new party and don't state its political stance. So Russell probably didn't get how it worked.

[@MuseBySecrecy]

Excellent that you’re covering this. After Empire of Death, this is the one I thought of.

[@Thedocwills]

Great review lads do miss the live format but this is the gold way to do it. Also just missed the announcement of season 25 first season 15 announced same day as a review and now this. Took me longer than I like to admit the anagram of Mister Saxon was spelt for that to make the (Master No. Six anagram work) I do wish though tv listings would do anagrams if the master was to return

[@TheValeyard92]

It's actually even worse than you remember, guys. Not only does the Doctor fail to acknowledge what happened to Martha in Series 4, the way he describes it to Donna in Partners in Crime is "yeah... she fancied me." Thats the 10th Doctor's takeaway, godawful braggart that he is. On which note, I'm glad you mentioned the awful "I forgive you" tripe. That always stuck in my craw too. (However, I'm afraid nothing in S14 even approaches the mid-tier of S2... I mean, I liked 73 Yards well enough, but i wouldn't give it a higher accolade than "good.")

[@wilf9356]

Please do a series 1 (Eccleston) Retrospective episode. Would be really interesting to compare RTD's 'reboots'. I highly recommend you watch some episodes form series 1 you have not seen in a while. In my opinion its the best new who series. Episodes like Father's Day are truly top tear Doctor Who. Keep the good work going lads!

[@CarolJudeOon]

So much fun, thanks for this! You two are so much fun to listen to (great banter!) and the ease that you work references in to classic episodes and their connections is a lesson each time for this intermediate 'scholar.' Anyway... always struck me odd that Ten doesn't seem to understand what Jack was saying at the end; Martha has to give him a nudge before he reacts. Perhaps somehow he's worked it out already is all I can think, it seems so strange that they didn't use a different take. (Don't know how and don't really think there's an in-universe reason...) (I watch S3 a hell of a lot...it's the one that starts and ends happily 😅

[@tomorrowsclassic505]

I read that Martha Jones book at the time. "The Story of Martha" Really great, from memory, but I've no idea if it would hold up to a re-read

[@CTheRobot]

Only one way to find out 👍🏾🔷

[@phantomsidious2934]

Wasn't the biggest fan of this story at the time, no way it could live up to the last 14mins of Utopia, but as the years went on I enjoyed it much more. The Master being in control is done well, and unlike Tennant I think simm does the over the top silliness so much better, I prefer the Master being like Delgado obviously but the drumming sound is driving him to his peak insanity so there's some kind of explanation for his behavior

[@StevenErnest]

And of course, later the drumming is somewhat retconned, or given more context.

[@phantomsidious2934]

@@StevenErnest yes and it's an important thing for later, which adda more context for the Masters madness in this incarnation, drumming is getting louder because master is getting closer to the moment the time lord's return

[@TheTonie4]

Saxon is an independent party as in the cabinet session he says they abandoned their parties and jumped on the Saxon bandwagon

[@drwhotvwam]

Johnny will be happy that season 25 is coming to blu ray

[@TheScientificdude]

Wasn’t the master supposed to be a stand in for Tony Blair? This new young politician who comes in out of nowhere and hypnotises the nation to vote for him in a landslide victory (Blair was backed by the media). But then he betrays the people by not producing any meaningful change and getting involved in an morally dubious overseas war (why there is suddenly this turn into a universe war at the end of the episode). I thought the master was supposed to be a criticism of new Labour, not the Tories, written by a voter that felt betrayed. And Doctor who never used to be political.

[@FunK0Slap0GB]

Rushing the resolution is a long-running issue in RTD’s finales for me. He seems to care more about the drama elements than the sci-fi, grand enemies. S4 is the worst for it, but it’s something you can see throughout both runs. I think Parting of the Ways is still his magnum opus.

[@vickyxleigh]

RE Jack becoming the Face of Boe, I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying Jack was supposed to be in A Good Man Goes To War and get his head chopped off by a Headless Monk. But due to scheduling conflicts for John, he was unable to appear. For me knowing that and even though it wasn't televised (sadly), I personally consider it canon and the answer to what happened. Surprised you both didn't know this one already!!

[@JD-Media]

They specifically mention Saxon isn't from any of the major parties.

[@Jaketherobonrd]

Nice to have the old schedule back. Ok from my experience with this story was i vaguely remember my next door neighbour at the time telling me the master would be returning and he was right. I was really hyped for this story. I do Like John Simm’s Master he’s great, but he’s no Delgado. But i like how the Master triumphs over the Doctor, he looks him in the the eye and tells him, he’s beaten

[@jaimesandoval1941]

honestly rate this finale pretty poorly but your review made me realize how many of the problems happened in the second part, much like we saw last weekend with the series 14 finale. is it impossible to get a really good season finale? seems like something has always gotta give

[@meatrace]

It's always the Part 2 where it falls apart. I don't think there's been a bad Part 1 of a 2 part finale, but more often than not Part 2 falls apart.

[@phantomsidious2934]

@@meatrace it falls apart at the end mostly I think because the showrunner thinks more about the big cliffhanger and shock factor of the first part rather than the resolution to the story, hence deflating endings like the last finale, robot suit doctor at the lake in series 6, Amy just remembers etc

[@Thomas_of_the_forest]

She does mention what's happened to her family at the end ,to be fair, But you're right in that they could have highlighted it a bit more

[@HjRobins]

I quite like Scissor Sister's Laura

[@thomasjohnson8391]

Still got the sonic and laser set from that story

[@TheNickofTime]

If not the most egregious, then at least the most obvious example of that mistake Doctor Who makes over and over again, writing themselves into a corner with a finale whose stakes are too high to reasonably come down from. Doctor Who likes to keep its depiction of Earth recognizable and relatable to the real world, so the only alternative to a disappointing reset is just to sneak off without addressing the apocalyptic aftermath and hope no one will notice, like in Parting of the Ways. The thing is, the solution here is obvious, stop having your finales center on present day Earth - or Earth by proxy with a universe-ending threat - and you don't need to worry about re-setting everything! Have the finale take place somewhere else, anywhere else. It's worked before: Series 7 had its final battle at Trenzalore, and didn't need to clean up its mess after. Timeless Children had its finale on a post-apocalyptic Gallifrey, and it didn't need to reset either. Despite having stumbled into the solution more than once, they keep making the same mistake after all these years. Apart from that though, this is actually one of my favorite series finales. Great stuff. Just a shame it goes out on such a sour note.

[@Birdboy029]

Saxon should have had a better fitting suit. That's my only take.

[@StevenErnest]

And later, the history of the drumming is somewhat retconned, or given more context.

[@meatrace]

I'm disappointed you didn't compare this to the recent finale. Magical thinking, wizbang finale with no stakes, everything put back in the box, etc. You guys have spent ages glazing Series 3 but it has the exact same problems as "Season 1" (Series 14) does: e.g. RTD at the helm.

[@falke_blade9341]

Will you do anymore stop motions?

[@AnubisX1]

I loved the sound of drums but felt that Last of the Timelords just fell apart, once dobey doctor came along. Just didnt work and the whole doctor jesus moment... Don't get me started! For this is is when the season finales started to collapse, had a wee convo with Billy about this. After this i felt that each season they kept trying to up the anti and with the exception, series 5 they all failed, even the Doctor falls has issues. I felt that started here. John as the master i enjoyed him here and Doctor falls, End of time nah i don't like that version of him, except for his lucid moments, sadly which are few and far between.

[@MrAJMan12]

It was in the red button trailer

[@rosemarytulip355]

I remember hearing that Saxon was based off Tony Blair

[@timelordvictorious]

Would say that Saxon is Tory. As Saxon itself implies Aristocratic racist probably love Nigel farage.

[@mediakira6621]

Don’t really get the comparisons between ledger Joker and modern master. Ledger Joker was all brooding and monologues about how people suck. If any thing Modern masters are Arkham joker, over the top crazy, boners fkr the main character, obsessed with just killing

[@danielcox3152]

Great review. I won't be voting, I don't trust any politicians. The options for the two main parties are either people being (possibly) forced to join the armed forces or having to pay £4,000 extra in Income Tax. So from my point of view they are reducing our freedom of rights . Sorry for the rant

[@timelordvictorious]

You realise that those things will happen because. You didn’t vote

[@stephenreed2093]

You’re still affected by the outcome though, so you may as well take part.