There's this radio guy in Seattle named Pat Cashman (who happens to be the reason I met my wife, but that's another story), and he had a running joke of always calling The Sound of Music by the wrong name -- calling it The Sound of the Music. It's been a running joke in our household for nearly twenty years now. For some odd reason I thought about that this morning.

So anyway, let's talk about today's Doctor Who episode The Sound of the Drums.

The Sound of Drums

(TARDIS Data Core recap)

Fun piece of trivia: Producer and writer Russel T Davies swears that the titular sound of drums that pervades this story comes not from the rhythm of Ron Grainer's theme music, but rather from Davies' alarm clock. I am certainly not going to call the man a liar, but it surely seems to be quite the coincidence that the rhythm is identical and so pervasive that fans of the show universally assumed it came from the opening music. Especially given that the modern series uses an arrangement that is much more percussive than any of the classic versions.

As for the story, the show takes a hard turn into camp for the season finale. It is an odd swerve, especially given the very dramatic nature of the stories that lead into it. I will concede that the Master has always had a bit of Pantomime in him, but in the classic series it was always more along the lines of a sort of heightened evil. John Simm's version of the Master, on the other hand, is all about mugging and making wisecracks. It's fun, sure, but it is a radical departure from previous incarnations. 

The gist of the story is that the Master has returned to the United Kingdom circa 2008 and gotten himself elected Prime Minister under the guise of Harold Saxon. By the time the Doctor, Martha, and Jack arrive from the end of time (using some Whatever Technology rigged up from Jack's vortex manipulator wristband), the Master has had eighteen months to establish himself. He has used a global wireless telephone network to extend his hypnotic skills to epic length, and as it turns out he has used the TARDIS to power a Paradox Machine in order to allow six billion MurderBalls called the Toclafane to invade the Earth and decimate the population. By the end the Doctor has been radically aged by using the Whatever Technology from The Lazarus Experiment, Martha has teleported away to relative safety, and mankind is doomed.

I don't hate this episode, not really, but it's not a favorite of mine either. I like John Simm a lot, especially in the show Life on Mars, and I admit that his performance as the Master is a lot of fun. But it just doesn't feel right to me. Of all of the on-screen versions of the Master over the years (and in the upcoming seasons), this is my least favorite. It also doesn't help that we are still getting callbacks to the Sainted Rose even though at this point she has been gone longer than she was there. I am so ready for the show to move on.

On the other hand, just the fact of the modern series finally bringing back the Master was a huge deal. He was the most significant Classic Who baddie to have not made an appearance (although we still haven't seen Sontarans, Silurians, or Zygons yet). After sealing away so much of the history of the show through the device of the Great Time War in order to make the show accessible to new viewers, those constraints are slowly falling to the wayside. 

One more episode for this season, where Martha Walks the Earth, and then Thursday it is Christmas again already. Where does the time go?

STATS:

Doctor(s): Tenth
Companion(s): Martha Jones, Jack Harkness
Episode(s): The Sound of Drums
Steps Walked: 7,461 today, 2,837,876 total
Distance Walked: 3.89 miles today, 1,480.16 miles total
Push-ups Completed: 100 today, 1,914 total
Sit-ups Completed: 82 today, 422 total
Is the Doctor So, So Sorry?: Nope.
Weight: 249.50 lbs (five day moving average), net change -57.80 lbs