Doctor Who - 33 x 12 - The Sound of Drums (spoilers)

[Theta Sigma]

First of all I thought the resolution to the excellent cliffhanger to Utopia was bit of a cheat, with the Doctor, Martha and Jack already out of danger at the beginning with a brief explanation via flashback on how they escape. Thankfully this is easily forgotten as the episode progresses.
As I was watching it in anticipation I was tapping my fingers not realising that tapping of fingers would be significant to the plot.
Harold Saxon (aka The Master) becomes Prime Minister and quite a bizarre coincidence that just four days after its UK broadcast, Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in real-life Britain.
Having only briefly saw him at the end of Utopia, John Simm has his first full episode as the Master and my he was excellent in the part. Absolutely kooky. However there is one disappointment to Simm's formal Master debut in that he did not kill Vivian Rook by the TCE (Tissue Compression Eliminator was a device the Master used to kill people in the original series by shrinking them to the size of dolls). Seeing the TCE again would have been great.
The scene of Gallifrey was superb.
Seeing the Doctor grow old physically I found very disturbing.
Despite some gripes that I have expressed about this episode this has been an excellent penultimate episode to the season.

 

[Theta Sigma]

Rewatched it on Australian ABC:

Harold Saxon (aka The Master) becomes Prime Minister and quite a bizarre coincidence that just four days after its UK broadcast, Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in real-life Britain.
However there is one disappointment to Simm's formal Master debut in that he did not kill Vivian Rook by the TCE (Tissue Compression Eliminator was a device the Master used to kill people in the original series by shrinking them to the size of dolls). Seeing the TCE again would have been great.

Given the timing of the ascension of the fictional and real life Prime Ministers, someone predictably says that Gordon Brown is the Master!
John Simm plays the sixth version of the Master and Mr Saxon happens to be the anagram of Master No. 6. However when this was brought up in his interview in DWM 384, Russell T Davies says his choice of the Saxon name was not deliberate in tying up with the Simm Master.
Instead of the TCE the Master has the laser screwdriver and since he used it on Jack, wonder what would have happened if the Master had use the TCE on Jack instead. Would Jack remain small and grow back to full size again?
The episode includes a clip from Army of Ghosts which I am currently rewatching it on the season 32 DVD release.
Wonderful to see Lachele Carl again as the US newsreader (as a reminder she was in Aliens of London/World War Three & The Christmas Invasion). She looks pretty good in this episode.
When Martha made a guess about the Doctor and Master being secret brothers, the Doctor says that she watches too much television. The Doctor seems to have forgotten upon their first meeting in Smith and Jones that he did mention to Martha that he no longer had a brother. Also the idea of the Doctor and Master being brothers went as far back to the 1990s when it became part of the plot outline for the Doctor Who project which ultimately became the 1996 TV Movie. While the Master did appear in the TV Movie, the idea of him being the Doctor's brother did not.
Seeing the Doctor, Martha and Jack teleporting to the Valiant made me think of the Fourth Doctor, Sarah and Harry using the Time Ring at the end of Genesis of the Daleks.
Nitpick: Colin Stinton as Winters says that he is the President elect of the United States. Wonder if he had said "elect" by mistake because if he was the President elect who has yet to be formally President, he should be preparing for the transition period (given what I seen in The West Wing) not performing official duties still being done by the President he is about to replace.
The trailer for the season finale is just wow.

After The Sound of Drums, the ABC showed an ad for the programme What The Future Sounded Like which included a Doctor Who clip from the first Dalek story in which Barbara first sees a Dalek. It will be on Tuesday September 18 10pm. More info:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/netw/200709/programs/ZY8539A001D18092007T220000.htm

 

[Theta Sigma]

When Martha made a guess about the Doctor and Master being secret brothers, the Doctor says that she watches too much television. The Doctor seems to have forgotten upon their first meeting in Smith and Jones that he did mention to Martha that he no longer had a brother. Also the idea of the Doctor and Master being brothers went as far back to the 1990s when it became part of the plot outline for the Doctor Who project which ultimately became the 1996 TV Movie.

I have since been corrected on when the idea of the Doctor and Master being brothers first came up - it was back in the 1970s when it was planned to have a final story with the (original) Delgado Master which was ultimately abandoned due ironically to the untimely death of Roger Delgado.