Doctor Who Series 3: Episode 11

A man scampers across broken ground under a clear yet starless sky, panting, clearly panic-stricken. Suddenly, as if from nowhere, a woman appears in front of him -- she has leapt down from a ledge above. But when she snarls at him, she bares teeth that are anything but human. These are needle-sharp canines.

This is life at the end of the universe, true humanity holed up in a silo, all around them their devolved cousins living on whatever they can scavenge. Mostly this involves a diet of any stray humans, which explains the fugitive's panic.

Inside the silo, a lone scientist (played by Derek Jacobi) is engaged in a race against time, aided by an insectile humanoid, the sweet Chan-doh, to prepare a spaceship that will take the humans to the semi-mythical world of Utopia, "Out toward the WildLands, and the Dark Matter Reefs."

But Professor Yana is out of his depth, and when he hears of the arrival of a scientist called the Doctor, and his companions, he greets him with open arms. There is tension within the Doctor and his friends, for at the start of the episode the Doctor and Martha met up with Captain Jack, who cannot die; in the Doctor's eyes this makes him an abomination. "Even the TARDIS fled from you," the Doctor says. "All the way to the end of universe."

Instead, the Doctor and Yana team up to repair the ship, and the Doctor remarks that in another time Yana would have been revered as a genius. Just as Yana and the Doctor are getting along, so are Martha and Chan-doh, who is every bit as much in love with Yana as Martha is with the Doctor. She has been with Yana seventeen years. "And he doesn't even know you exist, does he?" Martha asks, and Chan-doh nods. Martha and Jack exchange significant glances.

Ever since he was found by the edge of the Silver Desolation, naked but for an antique fob watch that he was clutching. The professor has spent his life since as a refugee, haunted by the sound of drums within his skull. Although Yana has had them all his life, the headaches are getting worse, "As if something is coming nearer."

Indded it is, but what 'it' is unexpected. Even though the Doctor manages to help Yana, disaster strikes; there is an intruder within the base; one of the devolved humans, or 'FutureKind,' as they are known, has infiltrated the base, and sabotages the starship.

Jack and the Doctor must go to face certain death in the reactor room, but even as they race against the intruders to repair the starship, and become reconciled to Jack's inability to die, Yana is himself undergoing a terrible transformation, and the episodes ends with triumph and tragedy.

Derek Jacobi is on outstanding form and steals the acting honours from David Tennant and his team, and yet is himself almost upstaged by novice Chipo Chung as Chan-doh.

In a series that started slowly but which took off in its second half, Utopia is one of the highpoints; it's a complex, relentlessly fast-paced episode which for once justifies the running up and down of corridors that mars so many lesser episodes, and that relies on earlier stories for its critical revelations. To say any more would be to spoil a fantastic and yet poignant ending, which then segues into the next episode, and leaves the Doctor and his companions in mortal peril.

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds