Last of the Time Lords (TV story)

Last of the Time Lords is the 13th episode of Series 3 of Doctor Who. It was broadcast on 30th June, 2007.

"Can you hear it..the never ending drumbeat!"

- The Master

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Synopsis
It has been one year since Martha was on board the Valiant and the Earth is enslaved by the Master. Martha has travelled and seen, she has spoken and she has searched. Was it for a weapon to end the tyranny of the Master? Now the Master is ready to begin his new Time Lord Empire, with the Doctor aged beyond the point of return and Jack locked away below the Valiant's decks, only Martha can stop the Master.

Plot
One year after the Master's takeover and decimation of Planet Earth, the Earth (Sol 3) is announced to be closed from space traffic as it is entering extinction. On a beach on the coast of England, a man named Tom Milligan directs Martha's boat in using a lamp. She arrives back in the UK for the first time since the Toclafane invasion, having traveled the world. She tells Tom she has to talk to a woman called Professor Docherty, and asks him why he is allowed to travel. He says it is because he is a doctor, and Martha is happy to realize she is traveling with a Doctor. Tom tells Martha that she has become something of a legend around the world as the one person who can kill the Master, and asks her if this is true. She does not answer him.

The Master enters the deck of the Valiant, singing and dancing happily. He rings a bell to summon the Doctor out of his tent on the floor, commenting that there is one day until launch. The Doctor is still unnaturally aged and is now refusing to speak. He only responds when the Master mentions that Martha has apparently returned to England. He tells the Master to leave her alone. The Master tries to force him to talk more, but realizes that the "Toclafane" broke the Doctor's hearts when he realized what they are. The Doctor says he has just one thing to say, and the Master knows what it is, but the Master walks away. Francine is forced to be a waitress for the Master. Lucy looks beaten and seems to be much more miserable than she was before. Clive and Tish are also working on the Valiant. Tish's job is to feed Jack, who is chained to the engines. Tish gives Jack a hand signal to explain her plan, and Jack winks in acknowledgment.

Martha and Tom walk up a hill and see an enormous statue of the Master at the top of it. Looking out at the miles of countryside in front of them, they see thousands of spaceships being built. Martha explains that the Master is preparing for war with the rest of the universe. Suddenly, two Toclafane arrive and demand an explanation for Tom's traveling. He presents identification that he is allowed to travel and the Toclafane taunt him and move on. Tom asks Martha how the spheres didn't notice her, and she reveals that she is still wearing her TARDIS key perception filter. and that is how she has managed to travel the world.

Tish continues to spread her hand signal of three fingers, indicating that they will rebel at 3:00pm. As the Master picks a girl to give him a massage and insults Lucy, Jack manages to break free of his chains, Clive pours water over all the technology and equipment, and Francine throws the Master's laser screwdriver to the Doctor. He points it at the Master and says once more that he only has one thing to say and the Master knows what it is, who simply laughs at the Doctor. Jack is shot dead (again) by the Master's guards. The Master explains that the screwdriver has isomorphic controls and it only works for the Master. He demonstrates by torturing Francine and forcing her to apologize. She does so and the Master warns everyone that siding with the Doctor is not recommended. The Master continues to insult the Doctor and decides to take his revenge.

Martha and Tom arrive at Professor Docherty's workplace. She is trying to fix a television so the can watch a transmission from the Master. They are successful, and the Master speaks to the world. He asks them how much hope does the Doctor have, and on camera, ages the Doctor a further 900 years. On the televison, the Doctor apears to be dead, and the transmission ends with a word of warning to Martha to surrender. On the Vaiant, a tiny, disfigured creature emerges from the Doctor's clothes - a 1000 year aged Doctor. Martha is undisturbed, saying she knows the Doctor is still alive.

Martha tells Professor Docherty that she came to see her so that they can cath themselves a sphere. They know that a lightning strike can strike down a sphere, and Professor Docherty manages to produce enough electricity to simulate one. Tom attracts attention by shooting into the air, and draws the Toclafane into the lightning. The sphere is struck down, and Professor Docherty prepares to find out what is inside.

Upon examining the sphere thus captured, they make a horrifying discovery: 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 cannibalized 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. Martha is horrified when the Toclafane quotes young Creet that she met on Malcassairo, telling her that the Toclafane have shared memories of the last of humanity. When questioned as to why it wishes to kill its own ancestors, the Toclafane responds, "Because it's fun" and laughs maniacally. Tom, sickened and horrified, shoots it dead.

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 Master thus comes to Earth's surface to capture Martha, killing Tom, destroying the special gun and taking her back to the Valiant. He intends to execute her before the Doctor and her family, at the moment his fleet is launched. 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. This enables the Doctor to restore his youthful physiognomy and end the Master's control. The combined psychic energy gives the Doctor great power and he is not only able to restore himself with it, but it shields him and temporarily grants him telekinesis with which he removes the Master's laser screwdriver from him, defeating him. As the Master cowers, the Doctor says the words the Master was afraid to hear: "I forgive you".

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."

The Master, now defenseless, is handcuffed and stands before the Doctor. The Doctor announces that, since the Master is a Time Lord, he is the Doctor's responsibility and will be imprisoned on board the TARDIS. Francine Jones is talked out of shooting the Master, but Lucy Saxon, with a glazed expression, seizes a gun herself and shoots him. Rather than be a prisoner for the rest of his lives, the Master lets himself die, refusing to regenerate despite the Doctor's desperate pleas. Just before dying in his opponent's arms, the Master muses on the constant drumming in his head, wondering if it will finally stop, and with a smile says, "I win," leaving the Doctor to weep uncontrollably for his lost adversary and fellow Time Lord. The Doctor cremates the Master's body on a pyre. However, after he leaves, a female hand wearing red nail polish is seen taking the Master's signet ring from the burnt-out pyre, while the latter's malevolent laughter echoes in the background.

In Cardiff, Jack decides to remain behind to look after his team, "defending the Earth". The Doctor disables Jack's vortex manipulator to keep him from jumping through time unsupervised. The Doctor then tells Jack there's nothing that can be done about his immortality: it seems likely he'll never be able to die — though he isn't sure about aging. Thinking about what he might look like millions of years from now, Jack confesses his vanity and recalls how, as the first person from the Boeshane Peninsula to join the Time Agency, his good looks earned him the nickname "the Face of Boe."

With the TARDIS repaired, the Doctor is ready to move on. Martha, however, has decided to stay so she can look after her family and finally qualify as a medical doctor. She gives the Doctor her phone so they can keep in touch and says she will see him again, but when someone is in love and it's unrequited, they have to get out: "this is me getting out." The Doctor sets the TARDIS controls - until the room is suddenly shaken with great force, and the bow of a ship smashes through the console room wall. Picking up a lifebelt, he finds "Titanic" written on it, to which he can only respond flatly, "What?!"

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * The Master - John Simm
 * Lucy Saxon - Alexandra Moen
 * Francine Jones - Adjoa Andoh
 * Clive Jones - Trevor Laird
 * Tish Jones - Gugu Mbatha-Raw
 * Thomas Milligan - Tom Ellis
 * Prof Alison Docherty - Ellie Haddington
 * Lad - Tom Golding
 * Woman - Natasha Alexander

Crew
to be added

Story Notes

 * "Toclafane" roughly translates into "Fool The Fan" in French.
 * The Master seems to be a Scissor Sisters fan. He's singing along to I Can't Decide from their Ta-Dah album on the flight deck of the Valiant.
 * Since the programme's revival, this is the first series finale not to feature the Daleks.

Ratings

 * 8.61 million - Final Ratings
 * 0.86 million - BBC Three Sunday repeat

Myths
to be added

Location Filming
to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * How did the Doctor know about the countdown a year before it was due? The Master is predictable
 * How did Martha know to walk round the Earth for a year based the Doctor telling her "use the countdown"? Viewers only heard some of the conversation.
 * How did Martha and the Doctor know when the countdown would take place? She has been plotting against the master and so she could have got hold of some files that told her when the launch day is and the doctor has tuned himself into the archangel network and could have found out.
 * Where did Martha get the idea for the gun from?She is a doctor, so she's a smart girl, so it wouldn't be that hard to think of.
 * Why do the guards help destroy the paradox machine? (The Archangel network had been disrupted at that point and they saw the Master for who he was)
 * If televisions don't work any more (as Martha states), why does the Master broadcast his humiliation of the Doctor? (Televisions "don't work" because the Master has manipulated them. They are still basically functional but receive no broadcasts - The Master is in control of all broadcasts)
 * Their is no Explanation for Leo, Martha's brother, Was he killed in the Attack? Did he hide like Martha asked? Did he join the resistance? (It would be safe to assume Martha never was able to find out, or had grieved over the year period and was "over" his death. Either way, it wouldn't really matter since he wasn't aboard the carrier, and thus was rewound with the rest of the world.)
 * How did Master know about Rose and about she absorbing the Time Vortex? (Professor Yana overheard the conversation between the Doctor and Jack about Rose when Jack is in the radiation chamber.)

Continuity

 * The 'Toclafane' are the last humans seen in Utopia.
 * The Third Doctor fought the Sea Devils in The Sea Devils and the Axons in The Claws of Axos.
 * Earth was first referred to as Sol 3 in The Deadly Assassin.
 * The central London UNIT base was first appeared in Terror of the Autons.
 * The idea of a devastated London over run by rabid dogs was first shown in NA: Blood Heat.
 * Jack returns to Cardiff for season two of Torchwood.
 * The TARDIS has previously held back a paradox in EDA: The Shadows of Avalon to The Ancestor Cell.
 * It appears that the Master's funeral takes place on Malcassairo however it could've taken place on Earth.
 * An explanation of why the Master is afraid of the Doctor with a glowing halo around his face is explained in The Daemons.
 * While previous regenerations of the Doctor show regeneration as a involuntary feature of Time Lords, the Master's choice to die rather than regenerate shows that there is some control a Time Lord has over their regenerative process. This is supported by Romana's regeneration in Destiny of the Daleks where she is seen "trying on" various forms before settling on one for her new body.

DVD and Other Releases

 * This has been released along side Utopia and The Sound of Drums
 * It is also part of the series 3 box set.