Wednesday 30 January 2008

S03E11-Utopia

11)Utopia
Originally aired: Saturday June 16, 2007 on BBC-1
Writer: Russell T. Davies
Director: Graeme Harper
Show Stars: David Tennant (The 10th Doctor (Season 2 - )), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness (Season 1, Episode 9 -13)), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones (Season 3 - ))
Guest Stars: John Simm (The Master) , Derek Jacobi (The Professor) , Chipo Chung (Chantho) , Neil Reidman (Lieutenant Atillo) , Paul Marc Davies (Chieftain) , Robert Forknall (Guard) , John Bell (Creet) , Deborah MacLaren (Kistane) , Abigail Canton (Wiry Woman) , René Zagger (Padra)
Production Code: NCFT091F

The TARDIS arrives in Cardiff where the Doctor announces he needs 20 seconds to refuel from the rift. A running man heads for the TARDIS: Captain Jack Harkness. He manages to grab the outside just as the Doctor dematerializes, and Jack’s presence somehow disrupts the sequence. The TARDIS accelerates into the distant future, to the end of the universe, while Jack holds on outside.

And in that future, a savage tribe of people on the planet Malcassairo sense humans in their vicinity.

The savages, the Futurekind, are hunting down humans. Professor Yana and his insectoid companion Chantho sense the human’s presence but realize there’s nothing they can do. Yana is under pressure to produce results, but seems to have problems as he hears a distant drumbeat inside his head. They find something on their sensors: the TARDIS.

The Doctor warns that even the Time Lords haven’t come this far into the future but insists on going outside and seeing what there is to see. They find Jack Harkness outside, seemingly dead, but he immediately revives. Jack isn’t happy with the fact the Doctor left him on the Satellite 5, and wants to know what happened with Rose. In return, the Doctor is oddly hostile toward Harkness. Jack is happy to know that Rose is still alive. He explains that he had a vortex manipulator and was able to escape the Satellite but was stranded in the 19th century. He waited for over a hundred years trying to locate the Doctor when he arrived at the rift to refuel.

They find a hive city and spot the human being pursued by the Futurekind. The Doctor, Jack, and Martha come to his aid but the Futurekind surround them. The human directs them to a launch silo and they get to the gate where they prove they’re not mutated to the guards. The guards drive off the Futurekind and assure them that they can be taken to Utopia.

Professor Yana is informed of the new arrivals, including the fact that one is a Doctor. They find a silo containing a gigantic spacecraft, and Professor Yana introduces himself, happy to find a fellow scientific genius. None of them aware that one of the base occupants is secretly a mutated Futurekind. Martha discovers that Jack has a hand in a tube: the Doctor’s hand (from “The Christmas Invasion”). Jack has been using it as a Doctor detector to find him. The Doctor identifies himself as a Time Lord and Chantho identifies herself as the last of the Conglomerate, the race that originally inhabited the planet.

Yana explains that a point in space transmitted the message “Utopia” throughout the universe, calling them to a barren point in space. A project to find Utopia has been underway for thousands of years, but Yana is again briefly overwhelmed by the sound of drums in his head. The Doctor provides a means to get the rocket working and everyone prepares to leave, unaware of the Futurekind infiltrator.

The Doctor and Professor Yana chat and Yana admits his title is purely honorary. The Doctor notes that Yana will have to stay behind to launch the rocket and the Professor admits Chantho won’t leave him behind so he’s lying to her. However, the base guards have found the TARDIS, which triggers another round of drumbeats with Yana. The Doctor uses the TARDIS to power up the system and Yana confesses his problem to the Doctor. Lieutenant Atillo, head of security, sends a man in to get the power couplings. The chamber is heavily irradiated but safe as long as they hold back the stet radiation. However, the Futurekind infiltrator sabotages the systems and the man is killed when they can’t hold the radiation stable. Jack tries to break the connection but is electrocuted, and the Doctor stops Martha’s efforts to revive him. Jack comes back to life and the Doctor realizes they need him to get into the chamber and get the couplings.

As Jack goes in, he asks the Doctor how long he’s known and the Doctor admits he’s known for some time. Jack then accesses the couplings while Martha explains to Yana that the Doctor travels in time. Yana examines the TARDIS as its name echoes through his mind.

Inside the chamber, Jack discusses the fact that he is now effectively immortal, and the Doctor knew all the time. The Doctor left him behind because of an instinctive Time Lord reaction to the fact Jack is a fixed point in time and space, and even the TARDIS reacted against him. The Doctor explains that Rose gave Jack immortality when she revived Jack after his encounter with the Daleks. With Rose stripped of the power and trapped on a parallel world, there’s no way to restore Jack to normal. As they discuss regeneration, the words seem to stir memories in Professor Yana. He shows Martha a watch… the same type of watch that the Doctor carried when he changed himself to human. Yana explains he was an orphan and can’t get the watch open. Martha nervously backs away and goes to tell the Doctor of what she’s discovered.

Jack frees the power couplings and a countdown begins as he works with the Doctor to make sure the ship launches. Martha explains that Yana has the same watch that the Doctor did, and it changes a Time Lord into a human. The Doctor wonders which Time Lord Yana might be, and is concerned that now Yana can see it despite the perception filter. Yana begins to hear voices in his head, commanding him to open the watch, while Chantho tries to reassure him. The Doctor initiates the launch while Yana considers the watch… and opens it. And the Doctor realizes that the Face of Bode’s last words--“You Are Not Alone”--are an anagram of Yana.

Confirming the ship has lifted off, the Doctor heads for Yana’s lab but the Professor cuts off the power, opening the gates to the Futurekind. The Doctor cuts his way through the security doors while a despairing Chantho pulls a gun on Yana for destroying their work. He takes an electrical cable and advances on herm, furious that she never told him of the watch. Yana announces that “the Professor” was a disguise and that he is truly… the Master.

The Doctor, Jack, and Martha make their way through the corridors to the lab while the Master takes the Doctor’s hand and the data file on Utopia. He prepares to enter the TARDIS after killing Chantho, but she fires one final shot and mortally wounds him. The Master enters the TARDIS and locks it behind him, then staggers to the console. Jack and Martha try to hold the doors against the Futurekind while the Master resolves to be young and strong… then regenerates into a new form. The Master announces himself to the Doctor as Martha recognizes his voice. The Doctor tires to interfere with the TARDIS power systems using his sonic screwdriver but the Master dematerializes the TARDIS and leaves them stranded…

(to be continued)

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