Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Countdown - Last Of The Time Lords


To celebrate the fact that 2013 is the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, we are taking a look back at all of the episodes of the show which featured David Tennant as the Doctor. At the end of our look back we'll be asking you, the fans, to vote for what you think is the ultimate David Tennant episode of Doctor Who....
We continue with the next David Tennant episode.... Last Of The Time Lords
Read our previous Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Countdown posts here.

28. Last Of The Time Lords
First Broadcast on 30th June 2007. Running Time: 51 Minutes. Viewing Figures: 8.61 million.
Written By Russell T Davies.
Directed By Colin Teague.
Executive Producers Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner.
David-Tennant.com Rating: 10/10.


Synposis:
Earth has been conquered and the Master rules supreme, with the Doctor a helpless prisoner. The entire human race has been reduced to slavery, as the mighty warships of a new Time Lord Empire rise from the ashes. Only Martha Jones can save the world...

Extras: Promotional Photos | On Set Photos |  Videos | Articles | MP3 Commentary



Martha Jones - The Brokenhearted Saviour Of Mankind
It was on a trip to Malcassairo, a planet at the end of the Universe, that Martha first met the Master, who was masquerading, in human form, as Professor Yana. 
Eventually Martha, Captain Jack and the Doctor returned to Earth only four days after her first meeting with the Doctor. Martha's flat was destroyed by the Master, who then took her family prisoner in an attempt to lure the Doctor and his friends in to his trap. Having never engaged in any criminal activity, Martha became an unlikely fugitive as part of the Master's plans. She teleported aboard the Valiant with the Doctor and Jack, where they were taken prisoner. Escaping with Jack's Vortex Manipulator, Martha was then left on Earth to defeat the Master alone.
Unable to return to Britain for an entire year, Martha travelled the world, carrying out the Doctor's instructions. She sailed the Atlantic single-handed and walked across America, travelling from the ruins of New York, to the Fusion Mills of China, and across the Radiation Pits of Europe. She was said to be the only person who escaped Japan alive, and legends claimed that she had travelled the world in search of a weapon capable of killing the Master. In reality, she had been telling her tale of the Doctor to the world, and used her knowledge of Docherty's son to ensure she was on board the Valiant for the Doctor's victory.
Following the Master's defeat, Martha Jones decided to stay on Earth to look after her family, and to seek out Thomas Milligan, who had sacrificed his life for Martha in the year that never was. She also reminded herself of the advice she had given to her friend Vicky, and took the opportunity to escape her unrequited love for the Doctor, her self confessed Heart's Desire. Parting on good terms Martha left her phone with the Doctor determined that she would see him again one day soon...



The Jones' - Prisoners Of War
Taken in by the lies of Harold Saxon's minions Martha's mother Francine became terrified about her daughter's involvement with the Doctor. Francine agreed to help Saxon's people if it would rid her daughter of the Doctor's influence, and she allowed a number of her phone calls from Martha to be recorded by a Sinister Woman in an effort to trace the time travellers. Eventually Saxon's people found Martha's father Clive and brought him home, hoping that a fake reunion between her parents might persuade Martha to break her cover. But Clive warned his daughter and, to Francine's horror, the Sinister Woman revealed her true colours and had them both arrested alongside Martha's sister Tish. Taken aboard the Valiant, Francine and Tish  spent a year serving as the Master's maids, and after he had released the Toclafane on earth he forced the Jones family to watch the slaughter of millions. 
When the Doctor finally defeated the Master, a distraught Francine wanted to shoot him dead, but the Doctor quickly persuaded her not to. Because the Jones' were on board the ship when the Paradox Machine was activated, they were among the few people on Earth for whom the previous 12 months was not erased. 



Lucy Saxon - The Female Of The Species Is More Deadly Than The Male
Educated at Rodean and St Andrews, the wife of Harry Saxon, the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, met her husband while working in the publishing house that published his book. She was well aware of his real identity as the Master, and was a willing accomplice in his plans with the Toclafane, having travelled to Utopia. She betrayed Vivien Rook to him, and danced as the Toclafane invasion began. However, as the year of the Toclafane domination went on, Lucy seemed to lose favour with the Master, receiving beatings from him that changed her view of him, and she became more withdrawn, the spell was broken. When the Toclafane were stopped and the world sent back a year so that the majority of Earth had no idea what had transpired, Lucy remembered. As the Master surrended, she shot him, exactly as Chantho had shot his previous incarnation.


The Toclanfane Terrors:
On Gallifrey 'Toclafane' was the name give to imaginary evils to frighten the children. The Master chose the name for the last humans at the end of the Universe in 100,000,000,000,000 who he discovered had, upon reaching Utopia, degenerated in to cannibals, similar to the Futurekind on Macassairo and experimented on themselves, reducing themselves to nothing more than shrunken head, with the instincts and emotional responses of children and armed with knives and lasers. The Master planned to use them to subjugate Earth and be the army in his New Time Lord Empire. The Doctor realised that Toclafane was not their real name because of the Gallifrey connection and was horrified when he worked out who they really were. The Master was using the Doctor's TARDIS to power the Paradox Machine which enabled six billion Toclafane to reach 21st Century Earth and slaughter their progenitors but, when Captain Jack Harkness destroyed the Paradox Machine, the Toclafane were instantly propelled back to their own future, trapped on Utopia for what little time remained in the exsistence of the Universe.


Quotes:

Martha Jones: I travelled right across the world, from the ruins of New York to the fusion mills of China, right across the radiation pits of Europe. And everywhere I went, I saw people just like you - living as slaves. But if Martha Jones became a legend then that's wrong, because my name isn't important. There's someone else; the man who sent me out there, the man who told me to walk the Earth. And his name is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times before and you never even knew he was there. He never stops, he never stays, and he never asks to be thanked. But I've seen him, I know him. I love him. And I know what he can do.

The Doctor: Regenerate, just regenerate! Please, please! Just regenerate, come on! 
The Master: And spend the rest of my life imprisoned with you?


Facts:
The Master seems to be a Scissor Sisters fan. He's singing along to I Can't Decide from their Ta-Dah album on the flight deck of the Valiant.
"Toclafane" roughly translates into "Fool The Fan" in French. Magnifique!
Dictators love their big statues. Probably the most famous one in recent years was the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad, toppled by occupying forces at the end of the second Gulf War. That was only 20ft tall though, not quite up there with a 200ft Master.

The Master has added his likeness to Mount Rushmore - joining 60ft granite sculptures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The god Xoanon did something very similar, carving the giant head of the Fourth Doctor into a mountain in The Face of Evil.
Doherty complains about her useless computer system, saying that she misses Microsoft head Bill Gates. Bill's probably working for the Master to make his laser screwdriver Vista compatible, whilst Apple boss Steve Jobs continues to develop the iToc...
Earth was first referred to by its Gallifreyan name of Sol 3 in The Deadly Assassin (1977). It's in Mutter's Spiral, the Gallifreyan name for the Milky Way.

The Doctor is not stranger to wheelchairs. He escaped from hospital in one in Spearhead From Space (1969) and used an electric wheelchair to get around the TARDIS in his weakened post-regenerative state in Castrovalva (1982).


The Master refers to the Doctor's previous battles with the Sea Devils in, er, The Sea Devils, and the Axons in The Claws Of Axos.
This episode marks the first mention of the Medusa Cascade, which plays a major part in Series 4.
Cast:
  • David Tennant - The Doctor
  • Freema Agyeman - Martha Jones
  • John Barrowman - Captain Jack Harkness
  • John Simm - The Master
  • Alexandra Moen – Lucy Saxon
  • Adjoa Andoh – Francine Jones
  • Trevor Laird – Clive Jones
  • Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Tish Jones
  • Reggie Yates – Leo Jones
  • Tom Ellis – Thomas Milligan
  • Ellie Haddington – Professor Docherty
  • Tom Golding – Lad
  • Natasha Alexander – Woman
  • Zoe Thorne, Gerard Logan, and Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis – Toclafane voices

Videos:


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