Doctor Who S03E13 (BBC)

I just realized for some strange reason that I had not posted my blog on the last show of Doctor Who. Well, here is the lost post.

[Ed. note: A reader mentioned that crucial parts were missing. I went over the post and edited it to add those parts. Some of them were taken from the wiki entry on his episode, which you can find here (Last of the Time Lords). I intentionally didn’t write about those parts because I didn’t want to include too many spoilers.]

We learn more of the Doctor, the Master and the Face of Bo. It’s the gripping season finale of Doctor Who. I was quite happy with the way the season ended. It resolved a few threads of the story and created new ones. I’ve been a fan of the Doctor Who series since the mid eighties, when I started watching them for fun on PBS. When a new series finally started in 2005, I was pretty happy. On top of that, the special effects were great as well as the acting. I think that David Tennant makes a great Doctor and I’ll be sad when he stops playing this noteworthy character in popular fiction. However I’m sure that his replacement will do great.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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A year later, Martha comes back to Britain. She is there to meet a researcher. The Master still has the Doctor in custody and is torturing him daily. Martha Jones’ mum is his maid. The Master knows that Jones is back. The Doctor told her something before she left. Jones’ whole family is there. Captain Jack is still being held prisoner. The Master is building a large fleet of ship to invade the rest of the universe.

The Doctor figured out what the Toclafane are. Martha has the key around her neck, she is unnoticeable. The attempt to steal the Master’s screwdriver doesn’t work. The Master takes the opportunity to torture the Doctor even further and sends a message to Jones. The Toclafane contain the conscious remains of the humans from the year 100 trillion. The Toclafane claims there was no Utopia, only more darkness, and with everything dying around them the humans cannibalised and regressed themselves, becoming the child-like Toclafane. The Master brought them back in time using the TARDIS, which could only travel between Utopia and present-day Earth. The contradiction of the Toclafane killing their own ancestors is made possible by the paradox machine built by the Master.

Jones finds a way to disable the spheres. The Master is still going on about the drumming in his head from the vortex.

The spheres are humans from the future. Therein lies the paradox. The Master plans to destroy the universe in a fashion. Martha has a gun to kill the Master. She needs the last component from North London. Parts of it were scattered all over the world. It was designed by Torchwood. It was revealed that the gun was just a lure to get Martha back to Torchwood.

When Docherty asks if the rumours about Martha are true, Martha reveals a gun, developed by Torchwood and UNIT, purportedly able to kill a Time Lord and prevent the ensuing regeneration. Martha has retrieved three of the four chemicals needed for the gun from their hiding places around the world, and has returned to London to find the fourth. After Martha and Thomas depart for a shelter in Bexley to hide, Docherty (who is desperate for information regarding her missing son) reveals their whereabouts to the Master.

The researcher betrays Martha and the Master comes for her. This was a plan set forth by the Doctor. They knew the researcher would betray Martha. They use the Archangel network to regenerate the Doctor. The Doctor stops the Master.

As the clock counts down, Martha reveals the real reason she travelled the globe. It wasn’t for a fictional anti-regeneration gun, or to fight back, but merely to talk. She told everyone about the Doctor; specifically, she told everyone to think of the Doctor at the same time the Master plans to launch his fleet. Docherty’s betrayal was expected, engineered by Martha so that she would be brought on board the Valiant to rejoin the Doctor. Combined with the Master’s Archangel satellite network, which the Doctor has had an entire year to get in tune with, this has the effect of charging the Doctor with the combined psychic energy of the people of Earth. Now renewed with powerful psychokinetic abilities, the Doctor restores his youthful physiognomy and ends the Master’s control. As the Master cowers, the Doctor says the words the Master was afraid to hear: “I forgive you“.

The Master holds the Earth hostage with the missiles. But he won’t use it. Captain Jack destroys the paradox machine. The Master’s companion kills him. Time reverses itself.
The Face of Boe is actually Captain Jack. Since he can’t die, it’s logical. He reveals to Martha and the Doctor that he was the first person from the Boeshane Peninsula to join the Time Agency, earning himself the nickname the Face of Boe, much to their surprise.

With the Master out of the picture, Jack rounds up some soldiers to destroy the paradox machine, but is delayed by the Toclafane. The Master, using Jack’s vortex manipulator, teleports himself and the Doctor to Earth, threatening to detonate his fleet and take the Earth with it. The Doctor knows that the Master would never kill himself, and manages to teleport both himself and the Master back to the Valiant just as Jack destroys the paradox machine, rewinding time to just after the US President is killed and just before the Toclafane arrive. All those on the Valiant remember the events due to being at “the eye of the storm”, but nobody else will know of the Master’s reign of terror in “the year that never was”.

Martha doesn’t go with him. Someone takes the Master’s ring, repository of part of his soul. The Tardis crashes into the Titanic.

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Relevant Posts

• Doctor Who S03E01
• Doctor Who S03E02
• Doctor Who S03E03
• Doctor Who S03E04
• Doctor Who S03E05
• Doctor Who S03E06
• Doctor Who S03E07
• Doctor Who S03E08
• Doctor Who S03E09
• Doctor Who S03E10
• Doctor Who S03E11
• Doctor Who S03E12

Or try other Doctor Who posts in the articles section.

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Relevant Wiki Link

• Doctor Who
• Doctor Who Episode List