Well, it’s true that I did say that I was looking forward to last Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who. And that was indeed the case. It must also be said that Captain Jack and Derek Jacobi did not disappoint in the episode: Utopia. But, I have to also say that I found some of the plot devices (the plot being written by Russell T Davies) somewhat laughable. No, strike that, they were bloody ludicrous.
I mean, we’re supposed to be at the end of time – trillions of years into the far future, when the heat death of the universe is practically complete, and yet, here are perfectly recognisable human beings, who have apparently not evolved one jot or tittle from their 21st century selves. And not only that, here’s a wee Scots lassie orphan. Er, excuse me? Did I just have a credibility by-pass or something? And, and, even worse, if such a thing is possible, the baddies appear to have been shipped in en masse from Mad Max II – the Thunderdome. Gawd, but that is really, really lame.
You can tell that I found the background setting of the story woefully inadequate. It could have been OK set a few thousand years in the future, but at the end of time? I’m sorry, but that’s stretching it, and the time-space fabric, too far.
And then there is also the little niggle of Professor Yana turning out to be The Master in human form, and who then regenerates into the John Saxon character and promptly steals the TARDIS to bugger off back to 21st century Britain. Supposedly, the Master has pulled the same trick as the Doctor by becoming human (Professor Yana) so that the Doctor would not sense the presence of a fellow Time Lord. Er, but as Mrs. Whyte so pertinently asks: "how come he couldn’t detect the presence of Mr Saxon/the Master in the early 21st century"?
To which, I suppose, the only real answer – and one that I would do well to heed myself – is: "don’t take it all so seriously, it’s only a story, stupid". Well, that’s true, but I do like at least a token verisimilitude in my fantasies.
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