Doctor Who 'Sound Of Drums' Review - Lucozer's drum solo (with SPOILERS)

Umm, er, scratch, scratch. Well it was gooood! but, um, was it the whizz bang 'give up & go home' episode we have been hungry to gnaw on like rabid dogs all week? No, it wasn't. Twas lots of ('spirit fingers' gesture) & not perhaps enough ('clawed hand with palm to the sky & a little shake' gesture...quite similar to the 'grabbing someones bollocks' gesture actually, but done at chest level) The Co-Pilot knows what I mean even if no one else does! It was lacking that special something that 'Utopia' had in oodles. The Co-Pilot felt it lacked the finesse & depth of emotion of Utopia & I have to agree. It had moments, but Utopia had us by the heart strings throughout the episode. 'Sound Of Drums' just gave them the occasional, slightly fumbled pluck.

The episode was dominated by Simm, who's Master so far seems to be a comic-book evil 'fool', all smart arse one liners & unresolved adolescent brattiness. It is not the Master I know or was hoping for. The Co-Pilot & I do feel though that if he starts in 'fifth gear', so to speak, there will be nowhere for the character to go. Perhaps he is now at 'Boomtown' level on RTD's 'fabulometer', with the intention of being cranked up to 'Bad Wolf' in a year or two. There may be some Rusty wisdom at work & we may have to live with a slow build if we want to see many more Dr/ Master tete-a-tetes over the next few years that aren't bogged down by plateaud repetition. Let's hope a darker, less comedic characterisation will emerge with time. Simm does well & is marvellously entertaining, but the characteristation (for now at least) is flawed & he is capable of much more than the (albeit expensive smoked) ham we have seen so far.

Capt. Jack felt a little superfluous to proceedings this week, I hope he gets more to do in the lavish finale. Freema's Martha was lovely to watch as per usual & was kept busy. Tennant was pretty strong again & one of the few moments of real emotion in the episode was seeing the resigned hopelessness in the face of the aged Doctor as he looked at the havoc being wrought by the Toclaphane. A rare occasion in the new series where I couldn't imagine an easy escape with a boastful quip & a good sonic screwdriver-ing. The other emotional bits were Martha's reaction to her family being bundled away in the van. The scene at her house was a tidy little action set piece. I also felt the scenes on Gallifrey were well handled. They looked sumptuous & had a suitable grand austerity about them. Lovely to see the Time Lord garb hadn't changed too. Speaking of nice little bits of fanboy foaming continuity; the Masters 'People's of the earth, please attend carefully' speech had me putting a big golden tick in a mental box & sending flowery notes of telepathic congratulation to RTD & his feverishly busy quill.

All the drum schtick (sorry!) had such a sinister, foreboding bent in Jacobi's hands; shame it became a nasty party trick set to the wretched strains of Rogue Traders with Mr Simm. Quite a let down even though the idea was clever. I hope there is greater significance to the drums to be explored next week, beyond the coded mobile phone bleeps.

So, the action was flash, the master's meddling using another species was truly in character (see 'Terror Of The Autons' & 'Survival' etc) & the cliffhanger was pretty tense. So let's have some more emotional resonance generally & a little less 'vengeful spoilt teenager' from the Master & we may yet have a classic on our hands. Instinct says it will be more 'Doomdsday' than 'Parting Of The Ways', which isn't a great thing, but neither is it bad thing. It is merely the lesser of two pretty goods.

Cheers & Chockers, Lucozer.