I've got to talk about Utopia

[kalleah]

Every time we get to a "major" episode, I worry about the impact it will have on my ability to write in this fandom.  Well, I may or may not get anything productive done tonight as I am currently high on Utopia, but I'll be just fine.

And yeah, if you're playing at home, that does mean I'm working.  I'm currently four chapters into a sequel to Voyages of Discovery.  Anyway, that's not the point of this post.  :)

For next week, I have some theories.  Here they are, in no particular order.

• I cringe at the idea of the Master with the Doctor's TARDIS, but the Doctor obviously did some jiggery-pokery as he was leaving.  What will be funny is if they end up having to use Jack's vortex manipulator to get back to Cardiff, which the Doctor made quite a lot of fun of in the beginning.  There's some lovely irony for you.
• The fact that the Doctor's hand is inside the TARDIS has to be significant.  Either the Master is going to start cloning away with it or it's going to be useful somehow in getting them back inside the ship.

Let's also not forget some outstanding questions, besides the obvious.

• What or where is Utopia?  Let's not forget that in all the distraction around the Master.  Someone or something put out a beacon for the remainder of humankind.  I can't think it's just a throwaway plot line.  So what happens with the humans on that ship?  I'd like to see them again.  If we don't, and I think it's a good possibility that we don't, then that's some damn fertile ground for fanfic.
  
• How did the Master end up in a watch?  My thought on that is that he hid on purpose to avoid the Time War - not necessarily knowing that the Doctor was going to obliterate both species, but being generally sneaky.
• So, while the Master was safely hidden as a human during the Time War, and thus avoided being obliterated, how did the Doctor not realize he was around when they were both in the same time and place?  Saxon's been operating in the UK for some time, obviously, and the Doctor has been in the same vicinity several times since Saxon presumably made his appearance.  I thought there was some general timey-wimey Time Lord psychic detection.
• About the election.  Saxon's running for Prime Minister?  Now, I'm an American, but I didn't think that was a generally elected position.  Wouldn't he be locally elected, say, in London, and then chosen by his party as Prime Minister?  If that's the case, why did a "Vote Saxon" poster end up in Cardiff?  (It was on the door of the dance hall that Jack and Tosh went into in Captain Jack Harkness.)

And general observations and love:

• "Stop it."  Bwahahaha.  It's Jack, all right.
• I am pretty sure that the lovely tentacled lady, whose name I cannot spell, didn't say her beginning and end word when she said "I'm sorry" and shot the Master.  Also bwahahaha.
• All the pretty.  ::sighs::
• John was in the credits!  Yay.
• And, as a final note, I'm impressed by the Beeb's ability to keep us all from finding out that this was truly a three-parter.  I assumed, from all the discussion about the last two episodes, that this was a standalone episode.  I loved that I was surprised by that.

EDIT:

It occurred to me after the fact that I had assumed (as most had done, I suspect) that the title Last of the Time Lords referred to the revelation about the Master/Saxon.  I was dead wrong about that and hadn't expected it to happen as early as Utopia.  Wow.

So, mulling over the last title, I am convinced that the reference may be to the Doctor's choice whether to kill the Master or not.  If he does, then he is finishing a genocide he began and killing the only other member of his species.  If he doesn't, then an evil goes free.  He couldn't do it to the Daleks, on several occasions, and this will be worse.

I suspect this is what RTD and crowd meant by a "bleak" and "devastating" end to the season.

Poor, dear Doctor.  I'm almost glad Rose isn't here right now, because she would be nothing but a target for the Master to use against him.  I'm not entirely convinced that he won't make the threat -- he overheard the discussion about Rose and the Time War while still the Professor, after all.

Comments

[neth-dugan.livejournal.com]

The 'Vote Saxon' thing also confuses me... greatly. Not so much that is says 'Vote Saxon' because even if you don't vote for the Prime Minister directly, they do campaign a lot and your vote is influenced by them.

The basic system is that you vote for your MP (Member of Parliment, like a congresman), and the party with the overal majority forms the government, and the head of that party is the Prime Minister. You don't vote for HIM, you vote for the party, as it were. Which is how Tony Blair can stand down and no public election is needed - just one within our party (well, for deputy anyway, there weren't enough MP nominations for anyone other than Gordon Brown for leader so he got it, there are several candidates for Deputy though - Go Alan!).

ANY WAY. Given this, for Saxon to become PM, he'd need to be the head of a party. Whils an indipendant can become an MP, he can't become PM. Unless they've some how changed the lawas DRASTICALLY. Doing so would basically create the elected PM something similar to head of state, which you can't with out making the Queen not head of state.

It's all rather confusing how Saxon would become PM, basically. And makes no sense at all from what we currently know.

It's just very, very ODD.

[kalleah.livejournal.com]

Given this, for Saxon to become PM, he'd need to be the head of a party.

We can't rule that out, can we?

[neth-dugan.livejournal.com]

No, not really. If he were, they'd have to make up some new party cause they (the BBC) can't back any existing part. Major or small.

The posters we've seen are SO basic and devoid of colour you'd think the party affiliation almost impossible, cause they always have colours. But then you'd run into supporting an existing party cause Red, Blue and Yellow are already taken, as is Green and there's major colours gone. And Purple, think UKIP uses that (or is it Pink they use?). So that COULD explain the B/W nature of the posters, but still, they're so simple...

Ach, not impossible but also a story in and of itself. How would he BECOME head of the party? He'd have to become an MP and then become prominant enough that he'd be a candidate for it's leadership and WIN, before even going to the General Election....

So many back stories possible here...

[kalleah.livejournal.com]

If he were, they'd have to make up some new party cause they (the BBC) can't back any existing part.

Didn't think about that POV. No, he absolutely can't be affiliated with an actual party. Whoa badness. They'll have to make one up and be vague enough about the platform not to confuse it with a real one, I guess.

[neth-dugan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, can't even make it central because even THAT is an affiliation. Maybe just general things like 'wow, dead people is bad. Lets.... grow carrots and potatoes and help education!'. Or something.

Will be interesting to see how they pull it off.

[neth-dugan.livejournal.com]

Damn typos