Utopia (Doctor Who)

The Ninth Doctor's former companion Jack is stranded on Earth and has based himself in 21st-century Cardiff to wait for the Doctor, knowing the Doctor would eventually land there to refuel with the Cardiff Rift.{{refn|group=N|The Ninth Doctor did this before in the 2005 episode "Boom Town".}} He uses the severed hand of the Tenth Doctor as a Doctor detector.{{refn|group=N|The Doctor's hand is cut off, and immediately grows back, in the 2005 episode "The Christmas Invasion".}} After landing the TARDIS in Cardiff to refuel, the Tenth Doctor sees Jack racing towards the TARDIS and departs.{{refn|group=N|Jack prepares to leave 21st-century Cardiff shortly before "something" takes him away in the 2007 Torchwood episode "End of Days".}} Jack grabs onto the outer shell, causing the TARDIS to fly to the end of the universe trying to shake him off. Jack dies on the journey but revives seconds later as he cannot stay dead. As they explore the planet Malcassairo, the Doctor, Jack, and the Doctor's companion Martha encounter Padra, a lone human running for his life from cannibalistic humanoids called the Futurekind.

The Doctor, Jack, and Martha help Padra reach a missile silo where a rocket intends to transport the last of the human race to "Utopia". While there they meet the elderly Professor Yana and his insectoid assistant Chantho. The Professor asks the Doctor to look at their rocket engine to determine why it will not launch, and the Doctor helps him repair it and give it power. During the repairs, the Professor repeatedly hears a rhythmic drumbeat he has heard his entire life. When the rocket is ready to launch, the refugees board it. One of the Futurekind shorts the system out, filling the room with the rocket couplings with deadly radiation. Jack is enlisted to fix the couplings.

While Jack is inside working, the Doctor admits he abandoned Jack purposely because of the immortality Rose granted to Jack.{{refn|group=N|Though not mentioned at the time as granting him immortality, the 2005 episode "The Parting of the Ways" depicts Rose bringing Jack back to life.}} Jack readies the rocket for launch. Martha unintentionally draws attention to the Professor's fob watch, similar to the one which changed the Doctor from a Time Lord into a human.{{refn|group=N|As depicted in the 2007 episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood".}} She rushes to tell the Doctor about the watch as the Professor hears voices coming from it.

The Doctor initiates the launch sequence of the rocket at the same time that the Professor opens the fob watch. A frantic Doctor runs back to the control room, but the Professor lets the Futurekind inside the silo. Chantho confronts the Professor. He responds that his name is the Master. Chantho and the Master both fatally injure each other. The Master leaves in the TARDIS, with the hand inside, and regenerates into a younger form. The Doctor, Jack, and Martha are stranded.

The episode marks the return of the Master, who last appeared during the 1996 television movie Doctor Who.

Derek Jacobi plays the fifth version of the Master whom the Doctor has encountered on screen, and John Simm is the sixth.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/episodes/2007/facts/fact_311.shtml |title=Doctor Who - Fact File - "Utopia" |access-date=17 June 2007}} At least one television pundit speculated whether "Mister Saxon" was an intentional anagram of "Master No. Six" or was perhaps "a big red herring".{{Cite web|title=Of a Thursday|url=http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a44695/of-a-thursday.html |work=Digital Spy |date=1 April 2007|access-date=17 June 2007}} However, when asked, Russell T Davies stated that it was not deliberate.Radio Times 30 June–6 July 2007: Doctor Who WatchDoctor Who Magazine issue 384: Return of the Master

This episode was announced as the first of a three-part story in Totally Doctor Who, broadcast the day before. Prior to this, only the following two instalments had been linked. Later reference material, including Doctor Who Magazines season poll, treated the three episodes as a single three-part story. Russell T Davies has said that he regards "Utopia" as a separate story, but notes that the determination is arbitrary.{{Cite magazine|last=Davies |first=Russell T |author-link=Russell T Davies |date=4 March 2009|title=Production Notes |magazine=Doctor Who Magazine |issue=406 |page=4 |publisher=Panini Comics|location=Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent |quote=And I certainly feel the Series Three climax was two stories, no matter what the DWM' season poll says. I'm sorry! I just do! I could rattle off the reasons, but we're into the mystical land of canon here, where the baseline of the argument simply comes down to "because I think so!"}}

This is the first episode in the revived series to credit three principal cast members within the title sequence, with the addition of John Barrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness.

This is Derek Jacobi's third involvement in Doctor Who. The first was in the September 2003 audio drama Deadline,{{Cite web|url=http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho_unbound/dwu05_deadline.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050526235207/http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho_unbound/dwu05_deadline.shtml|archive-date=26 May 2005|publisher=Big Finish Productions|title=A New Doctor, A New Dimension? |access-date=11 June 2007}} where he played a screenwriter who believes himself to be the Doctor. The second was several months later, in the webcast Scream of the Shalka, where he played an android version of the Master.{{Cite news|title=Jacobi confirmed for Dr Who role |work=BBC News |publisher=BBC |date=25 January 2007 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6297661.stm}} In 2017, Jacobi reprised his role from "Utopia" in the audio drama series The War Master.

Other actors returning to the franchise in this episode are Neil Reidman had previously played Tom Braudy in the Eighth Doctor audio drama Memory Lane{{Cite web|url=http://bigfinish.com/88-Doctor-Who-Memory-Lane|title=Doctor Who - Memory Lane|publisher=Big Finish}} and Robert Forknall, who plays Lord Byron in the Eighth Doctor audio drama The Company of Friends.

Chipo Chung, who played Chantho, would later go on to play the Fortuneteller in "Turn Left". Paul Marc Davis, who played the Futurekind chieftain, also returned to the Doctor Who universe, going on to play the role of The Trickster in The Sarah Jane Adventures stories Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. He also had a small role in Torchwood story Exit Wounds and played the lead villain Corakinus in Class.

John Bell was a nine-year-old who won a Blue Peter competition to appear in this episode.{{Cite news|title=Future Boy |work=BBC Doctor Who website|publisher=BBC|date=7 June 2007|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2007/06/07/45505.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819032701/http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2007/06/07/45505.shtml|archive-date=19 August 2007|access-date=10 July 2013}}

John Simm reprised his role as the Master in the Tenth Doctor's final story "The End of Time" and reprised the role again in "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls", the finale of Series 10, the final series to feature Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor and Michelle Gomez as Missy. Simm reprised the role once again in the audio drama Masterful by Big Finish Productions.

Music originally composed for Torchwood can be heard in the background of this episode: a variation of the Torchwood theme plays when Jack runs towards the TARDIS and a motif plays when Jack lies dead, having ridden on the TARDIS through the Vortex. The drumming motif is suggestive of the fifth and subsequent bars of the Doctor Who theme tune as composed by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire.{{cite podcast|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/312_commentary?size=au&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1|title=The Sound of Drums commentary|website=BBC's Doctor Who microsite|author1=Freema Agyeman|author1-link=Freema Agyeman|author2=Trevor Laird|author2-link=Trevor Laird|author3=Gugu Mbatha-Raw|author3-link=Gugu Mbatha-Raw|access-date=25 June 2007}}

"Utopia" was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 16 June 2007. Overnight rating showed that it was watched by 7.3 million viewers, which rose to 7.84 million when time-shifted viewers were taken into account. This made it the fourth most-watched programme on BBC One for the week.{{cite web|url=http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-30?|title=Weekly Top 30 Programmes|publisher=Broadcasters' Audience Research Board|access-date=4 June 2012}} It received an Appreciation Index of 87.

IGN's Travis Fickett gave the episode a rating of 8.4 out of 10, calling it "one hell of a way to kick off the finale episodes of the season", particularly praising how various elements planted in previous episodes came into importance. However, he was critical of the beginning of the episode, writing that Jack's entrance was "a bit silly" and "the remnants of civilization look like Mad Max rejects being chased by space vampires".{{cite web|first=Travis|last=Fickett|url=http://tv.ign.com/articles/822/822942p1.html|title=Doctor Who: "Utopia" Review|website=IGN|date=25 September 2007|access-date=23 March 2012}} Richard Edwards of SFX gave "Utopia" four out of five stars, feeling that it was "minimally plotted" as it was part of a larger story but praising Jack's backstory and the return of the Master.{{cite web|first=Richard|last=Edwards|url=http://www.sfx.co.uk/2007/06/16/doctor_who_3_11_utopia/|title=Doctor Who 3.11 "Utopia"|work=SFX|date=16 June 2007|access-date=25 March 2012}} The Stage reviewer Mark Wright was mixed towards "Utopia", disliking the first 20 minutes on the planet but enjoying the introduction of Jacobi as Yana, particularly the reveal of his true nature. He wondered what casual fans would make of it.{{cite web|first=Mark|last=Wright|url=http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/tvtoday/2007/06/doctor-who-311-utopia/|title=Doctor Who 3.11: Utopia|work=The Stage|date=17 June 2007|access-date=10 July 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130128153003/http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/tvtoday/2007/06/doctor-who-311-utopia/|archive-date=28 January 2013}}

The episode has been noted by various reviewers and writers for its cliffhanger. It was listed among the best cliffhangers of the series by Charlie Jane Anders of io9,{{cite web|first=Charlie Jane|last=Anders|url=http://io9.com/5625151/greatest-doctor-who-cliffhangers-of-all-time|title=Greatest Doctor Who cliffhangers of all time!|publisher=io9|date=31 August 2010|access-date=23 March 2012}} Den of Geek's Jeff Szpirglas,{{cite web|first=Jeff|last=Szpirglas|url=http://www.denofgeek.com/television/925062/10_classic_doctor_who_cliffhangers.html|title=10 classic Doctor Who cliffhangers|publisher=Den of Geek|date=2 June 2011|access-date=23 February 2012}} and was chosen by Mark Harrison as the best cliffhanger of the Tenth Doctor's era in another Den of Geek article.{{cite web|first=Mark|last=Harrison|url=http://www.denofgeek.com/television/519071/doctor_who_10_cliffhanger_screamers.html|title=Doctor Who: 10 cliffhanger screamers|publisher=Den of Geek|date=24 June 2010|access-date=23 March 2012}} It was also chosen among the five best of the revived series by Morgan Jeffery and Chris Allen of Digital Spy; Jeffery referred to it as a "stunning accumulator cliffhanger" while Allen called it a "superb cliffhanger" that "lifts 'Utopia' from a fairly average episode into something altogether different".{{cite web|first1=Morgan|last1=Jeffery|first2=Chris|last2=Allen|url=http://www.digitalspy.com/british-tv/s7/doctor-who/tubetalk/a322771/doctor-whos-best-ever-cliffhangers-friday-fiver.html|title='Doctor Who's best ever cliffhangers: Friday Fever|website=Digital Spy|date=3 June 2011|access-date=23 March 2012}} Stephen Brook of The Guardian called it "perhaps the best moment of the entire series" in his review of the third series.{{cite web|first=Stephen|last=Brook|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/organgrinder/2007/jul/02/doctorwhoitsseasonfinalet|title=Doctor Who: it's season finale time!|work=The Guardian|date=2 July 2007|access-date=27 July 2012}}

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• {{BBCDWnew|year=2007|id=311|title=Utopia}}
• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/311_preview?size=16x9&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1 "Humans are coming"] - episode trailer
• {{IMDB episode|1000259|Utopia}}

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Utopia

Category:2007 British television episodes

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