Last of the Time Lords

191c - Last of the Time Lords
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companion Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)
Production
Directed by	Colin Teague
Written by	Russell T. Davies
Executive producer(s)	Russell T. Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	3.13
Series	Series 3
Running time	3 of 3 episodes, 52 mins
First broadcast	30 June 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by "The Sound of Drums" Followed by → "Voyage of the Damned"

"Last of the Time Lords" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 30 June 2007, and is the thirteenth and final episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. The episode, the third and final part of a three-part story, was described by Russell T Davies as "an epic and heartbreaking story" in BSkyB's June 2007 TV magazine.

Synopsis

One year has passed since the events of "The Sound of Drums". The Earth has been conquered and its population enslaved, the Doctor is the Master's prisoner, and the warships of a new Time Lord Empire rise from the ashes. The fate of the world is in Martha Jones' hands.

Plot

File:Last of the Time Lords.jpg

The Toclafane prepare to descend for war.

Martha returns to England having travelled the world for a year. During this time she has seen Japan destroyed, the people of South Africa burned alive and many populations destroyed. She claims that she has been looking for a gun, developed by Torchwood and UNIT, that is able to kill a Time Lord and then prevent the ensuing regeneration. Unfortunately the four chemicals needed for the gun have been scattered around the world and she is travelling to North London to retrieve the final part.

The Master is tipped off about Martha's arrival, manages to capture her and takes her back to the Valiant. Here she sees the Doctor who has been aged another 400 years, Jack who has been held prisoner and her family. Meanwhile missiles and the Toclafane are preparing to attack other planets. The Toclafane are revealed to be the last humans who went to Utopia. Once they reached Utopia they found it was not so perfect but dark and cold. The Master, who was only able to travel between 2008 and 100 trillion, went to Utopia and saw the humans' fate. He changed them into the Toclafane, similar to the creation of the Daleks, and made himself their leader. They came back to 2008 so that they could kill the current humans for fun. This would not be possible due to the Paradox Theory but since the TARDIS has been turned into a Paradox Machine, it is able to happen.

Back on the Valiant, Martha Jones tells the Master what she has really been doing. She had travelled the world in order to tell people her story and also gave them an instruction. At the activation of the missiles, people around the world will say one word - Doctor. The Doctor, having accessed the Archangel network through his mind, is able to absorb the power. He de-ages and has access to a large amount of psychic energy, being able to deflect gunshots and move things with his mind. As the Doctor advances, the Master cowers and the Doctor says the words he was afraid to hear: "I forgive you.". Meanwhile Captain Jack, having been freed, runs to destroy the Paradox Machine. He is successful and time reverses.

The Earth is restored back to 8:02 am, a year and a day earlier, just after the President is killed and just before the Toclafane arrive, No one on Earth is aware of the event, except those on the Valiant. Back on the Valiant, the Doctor explains that they remember because they were at the eye of the storm. The Toclafane are stuck at the end of the universe. The Master, now defenceless, is handcuffed and stood before the Doctor. Francine Jones attempts to kill him but is unable to do it. The Doctor announces, since the Master is a Time Lord, he is the Doctor's responsibility and will be imprisoned on the TARDIS. However, Saxon's wife, who earlier explained she had gone with the Master to 100 trillion AD, shoots the Master. The Master refuses to regenerate despite the Doctor's pleas and reminder that they are the last of the Time Lords. The Master then says "I win", referring the fact that this is the only way he can gain a victory on the Doctor, punishing him with loneliness. He then dies in the Doctor's arms, leaving the Doctor distraught, crying over him.

The Doctor is later shown to have cremated the Master's body at an unknown area in a Viking-style funeral. In Cardiff, Jack tells Martha and the Doctor he will be staying there to look after his 'team'. Before leaving he tells them that as a child he was known as The Face of Boe, much to the surprise and denial of the Doctor. Back at Martha's home the Doctor asks Martha where they should go next, but Martha tells him she is staying home to look after her family and to finally become a true doctor. She gives him her phone so they can keep in touch. The Doctor accepts this and leaves shortly after Martha has left the TARDIS. The Doctor begins to relax in a chair until the TARDIS is shaken with great force. To the Docter's shock, a ship is shown to have broken through the TARDIS wall. Picking up a life belt the Doctor can only say "What?", as the wording on the lifebelt reads "Titanic".

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
• Professor Docherty — Ellie Haddington
• Lad — Tom Golding
• Woman — Natasha Alexander

Continuity

• Captain Jack Harkness' nickname in his home era and location is the Face of Boe.
• The Doctor has described himself as "the last of the Time Lords" on numerous occasions since the revival of the series in 2005.
• A quote by The Master from this episode makes reference to The Sea Devils and The Claws of Axos.
• This episode features the last regular appearance of Captain Jack Harkness to date.
• Where as Martha Jones has departed the TARDIS, it is not the first time The Doctor has left behind a companion that will inevitably return, Tegan Jovanka departed at the conclusion of Time Flight and returned for Arc of Infinity
• At the end of the episode, the Doctor repeats the word "What?" three times over (after the Titanic crashes into the TARDIS), as he did at the end of the episode, "Doomsday".
• The idea of faith as a psychic power was previously used in the The Curse of Fenric.
• The Ninth Doctor claimed that the TARDIS doors could withstand "the assembled hordes of Genghis Khan". Here the Titanic is seen to shatter the wall.
• The Master's laser screwdriver is said to be isomorphically controlled, an attribute previously assigned to the Doctor's TARDIS in the classic serials.
• Clips from "Smith and Jones", "Utopia" and "The Sound of Drums" are used in this episode.
• Martha mentions that she once met William Shakespeare (The Shakespeare Code)
• In this episode, The Master is shot by Lucy Saxon and he quotes "It's always the women" referring to when he was shot by Chantho in Utopia, and similar to the quote given by the Doctor in The Lazarus Experiment "It's always their mothers", referring to when he was slapped by Francine Jones in this episode and Jackie Tyler in Aliens of London.

Outside references

• The Master requests "track 3" and is then seen singing along to "I Can't Decide", track 3 from the Scissor Sisters album Ta-Dah.

Production and publicity

• "Last of the Time Lords" was a subtitle proposed at one stage for a film version of Doctor Who that was in development from 1987 to 1994.
• This episode was broadcast live to the crowds attending Pride London in Trafalgar Square via a giant screen. Freema Agyeman and John Barrowman also attended.
• In order to keep the episode's details secret, access to preview copies of this episode was restricted. There was a similar moratorium on copies of "Doomsday" the previous year.
• The episode was allocated a 50-minute timeslot for its initial broadcast, as with "Daleks in Manhattan" previously, and 55-minute timeslots for the BBC Three repeats. According to Russell T. Davies in Doctor Who Magazine 384, this is because it ran over-length but they did not wish to lose the material. The official run time from freemaagyeman.com for the episode is almost 52 minutes. The final episode of The Trial of a Time Lord was also extended by five minutes in 1986.
• Reggie Yates is credited as playing Leo Jones; however, the character Leo only appears in this episode as background (in the scene in Martha's family's home, through a window)
• The BBC's "Fear Forecaster" reviews of the episode were not publicized on the official website until the Monday after the episode aired on Saturday, as they were not given a copy in advance.