I don't have any answers...

[strange_complex]

...just a big list of questions. If anyone has thoughts or theories, let me know. Otherwise, this just acts for my own reference, so I know what I'm looking out for in the next two episodes.

1. How did Boe know? About the Doctor not being alone, and about the fact that their encounter in Gridlock would be their only one after New Earth, and their last? Does this relate to the mystery of how old the Face of Boe is? Millions, even billions of years - impossible or not? Can the Face of Boe travel in time? Had he been to the End of Time? Or is it simply that he can 'see' to both ends of time (or at least the future) in some kind of omniscient fashion? He certainly seemed to be able to send the Doctor a psychic message without the Doctor needing to be in the same time-period as him. Either way, there is a lot we still need to know about him.

2. After Professor Yana (ooh, that name was a nice touch, wasn't it?) has opened the watch and become the Master again, he removes a circuit-board from his navigation screen thingummy, and scoffs about the 'Utopia' dream. To me, this made it pretty clear that although there might once have been a real Utopia project, that signal didn't come from it. It must have been set up by the Master before he transformed himself into a human, to 'trick' his human self, and the other humans on Chantho's home world (Malcassairo, it's called, apparently), into believing in it and trying to get there. To me, two subgroups of rather important questions spring from this:

2a. Was the Professor really found on the shores of the Silver Devastation (the Face of Boe's home world - if it is a 'world' as such) as a naked child, or are those false memories like John Smith's parents? Because of the false signal, my working assumption is that the memories, too, are false - he arrived on Malcassairo at the End of Time still as a timelord, infiltrated the group of humans living there, set up the signal, and then transformed himself. Presumably, this was about 17 years before the Doctor and co arrive, since that's how long Chantho says she's been with him. Given all this, was the reference to the Silver Devastation just intended to remind us viewers of old Boe, or was it a clever in-story clue left by the Master to himself?

2b. Again, assuming that the signal was false and deliberately set up by the Master - WHY? Was it just to give himself something to do as the Professor? Perhaps to prevent himself thinking too hard about his pocket watch while the Time War was still raging and it would have been dangerous to open it? Also, what's going to happen to all those poor people on the rocket now? Are they blasting off to the middle of nowhere? Or was there something where the false signal was coming from - just not the Utopia project, as everyone thought? If so, was that something in some way connected with the Master's plans?

3. What actually was the Master's long-term plan? Presumably at some point he'd hoped to return to his Time Lord self, and to eras in which he could Reign Supreme once more (ideally with all the other Time Lords, including the Doctor, having been wiped out by the war in the meantime). How did he intend to make this happen? Surely he couldn't have banked on the Doctor and his TARDIS turning up on Malcassairo, even if he might have guessed that the Doctor was strong enough to survive the war. Would the launch of the rocket - a project which he knew would take a good long time after his arrival on Malcassairo - have triggered it? What if he'd died while still Professor Yana? Would that, too, trigger a return to Time Lord form?

4. Somewhat related to the above - where is the Master's TARDIS? It seems the most logical way for him to get to Malcassairo - so is it still there? If it is, I'm betting the Doctor will be able to detect it using his Sonic Screwdriver, no matter what shape it's in.

5. Will that be how the Doctor, Jack and Martha get back to Earth? It needn't be, as angelich has pointed out the alternative route offered by Jack's carefully-explained watch.

6. I'm not in all honesty sure I care about this, but it has to be asked - how / when did the Master escape from the Eye of Harmony in the TV movie? The most likely theory for the moment seems to be that he was taken out by the Time Lords to help them in the war, but then did a runner.

7. Why drums? Someone somewhere on doctorwho (can't find the post now) suggested that it was a memory of his second heartbeat as the Master. I really like that theory, as the sound effect we heard did include something that sounded distinctly like a heartbeat, as well as actual drums. Until it became clear that he was a hidden Time Lord, I assumed that noise was just his own, human heart, beating loudly as they sometimes do when we have a funny turn. But as soon as I saw that theory, it made sense. Doubtless we'll learn more next week, anyway, given the episode title.

8. How did the Master manage to regenerate? (A question which is of course particularly important for its implications about the Doctor's future). Has he got himself a new stock of regenerations from somewhere? Does it have anything to do with his time in the Eye of Harmony? Or how he got out of it? I don't, for the record, think it had anything to do with the Doctor's hand - there was absolutely nothing at all in the episode to suggest that. My assumption is that he took the hand into the TARDIS to somehow fool it that its rightful owner was present, and thus allow him to fly it successfully - and of course if that was necessary, logically the Doctor won't be able to use the Master's TARDIS to chase him, since he doesn't have any of the necessary DNA. It'll have to be Jack's watch.

9. The conversations between the Doctor and Jack seemed to me to be suggesting that the Doctor knew perfectly well that Jack had become immortal in the year 200,100, and actively chose to leave him behind on Satellite 5 for that reason (his 'Wrong'ness) - not just in Cardiff when he was running towards the TARDIS. If this is so, how did he know? I really don't remember any sign from The Parting of the Ways that the Doctor knew Jack had come back to life (or indeed been killed in the first place) - as far as I understood until I heard their conversations, the first time he'd set eyes on Jack since Jack went off to fight the Daleks was in Cardiff. Maybe this is just messy plotting - I don't know.

10. Anyway, why does Jack still so desperately want to see the Doctor again? He says that he originally travelled back to Earth in 1869 using his watch, and then realised that he was immortal after a fight in 1892. He's had over 100 years to come to terms with being immortal, then - and he also explicitly says that he doesn't want to die. So what can the Doctor do for him that nobody else can? Is it just get him off 20th / 21st century Earth? Make him a Time Lord, maybe? Or something else mysterious that we haven't thought of yet? (I'm ruling out "He just thinks he's that hot" as unlikely in a children's programme). Whatever it is, it seems it will be resolved to the extent that Jack is free to (and wants to) go back to Torchwooding by the end of the current series, since there's to be a second series of Torchwood, and by all appearances John Barrowman will be in it.

Er, yes. That was quite a lot of questions, wasn't it? It's good - I'm done now.

Comments

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

Good questions. On the point of #9, recall that the Doctor absorbed the energy of the Time Vortex from Rose, so I imagine all sorts of knowledge could have come along with that. Including, wrt #10 and why Jack would want to be reunited with the Doctor, possibly the ability to render Jack mortal somehow (though obviously the Doctor hasn't considered how just yet, judging by the dialog so far).

And a good catch from angelich about Jack's watch. I imagine with the assistance of a sonic screwdriver it could arrive back on Earth at just the right time.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, excellent point about the Time Vortex energy. Yes, that makes sense.

[inbetween-girl.livejournal.com]

2. I can only assume the ship is headed for 2007 London.

10. I believe he is seeking what is referred to in the popular parlance as "buttsecks". If it's not that Jack really is that shallow, I think he just wanted answers. Also, he provides their only means of escape without the Tardis, if the Doctor can repair the watch.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

2. Hmm, that's possible, actually, although it requires a few more things to be assumed. Firstly, it couldn't have been built to do so by Professor Yana, because he thought that time travel was just a story about the past, and didn't really believe it was possible. That suggests that neither he nor any of his human compatriots knew how to build time-travel technology. The rocket could only be capable of travelling in time if the Master had started building it himself before he turned himself into the Professor, in such a way that the Professor would never notice it later on. The destination of London in 2007 (or whenever the present day is actually meant to be now in the series) would also only be possible if the Master had planned all along that that is where he would go as soon as he became a Time Lord again.

So, it is possible, but I think a bit unlikely overall.

[inbetween-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm not denying it would take a lot of convoluted exposition to get them there, but I'm basing my guess on the preview scenes for the remaining episodes.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ooh - what was it in them that gave you the idea, then?

[inbetween-girl.livejournal.com]

What we already know about Mister Saxon, the fact that next weeks action takes place in London, and something about an invasion or an arrival that was mentioned. But it's just a guess. :-)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Oh - I thought he just meant his spherical floating friends.

[ladyguinevere83.livejournal.com]

Re: 9, also, when TARDIS!Rose said she could see all of time and space, Nine said he could too. And also if he felt the wrongness that Jack shouldn't exist, he might have known right away by sensing it.

With 8, I thought that the Master took the hand with him so he could detect it if the Doctor was in the 'present' at the same time as him.

I also think that they'll use Jack's Space Hopper timey-wimey thing somehow... simply because I can imagine they'd get a lot of jokes out of it :)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's also a good point about question 9. I think I'm satisfied on that one now.

8. Yes, it would also be 'handy' (boom-boom) for that. Although, from Jack's account of it, I'm not actually that convinced that the hand makes a terribly good Doctor Detector. I'm saying that because there are loads of times between The Christmas Invasion (which is presumably when Jack first got the hand) and Utopia when the post-Parting of the Ways Doctor has been on earth, and Jack doesn't seem to have known about it. Admittedly, most of those times the Doctor was in London, not Cardiff - but it does suggest that hand is a rather short-range detecting device.

[ladyguinevere83.livejournal.com]

You're right, it does seem to be quite short range as far as detectors go.

What I don't get (which I have just thought of), is why Jack was running to the TARDIS, when he just disappeared in Torchwood, and also the fact that their lifty thing is right where the TARDIS parks on the rift!

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Good point! Mind you, I guess the TARDIS actually being there, right on top of the lift, might have put it out of action temporarily?

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

I would link 2(a) with 1, to say that the Professor WAS found on the Silver Devastation, it wasn't false memories. Perhaps he was found by Boe, and that's how Boe knew there was another Time Lord. Maybe Boe did the transforming, and the Master didn't plan to be a human at all - that would obviate the need for questions 2b and 3, too.

Maybe Boe changed him into a human and chucked him forward in time, without the Tardis? We know Tardises aren't the only way to travel in time. Maybe there's a Rift on the shores of the Silver Devastation. (What is it about this programme that makes me capitalise everything?)

As for the Master regenerating, I like the theory that his change from human and back to Time Lord "rebooted" him, because that would mean the Doctor was rebooted too.

I have no idea why Jack wants to see the Doctor so badly. I believe this is time for the "Because of Plot" answer. (The other answer for Who, of course, being "The Time War did it".)

Ooh, long comment. Interesting questions.

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Maybe Boe did the transforming

Yes, I've heard someone on doctorwho (which I've finally caved in and joined!) suggesting this. It's a very intriguing theory, and perfectly possible. After all, it's only Jack (I think) who comments that the end of time would be the perfect place for a Time Lord to hide - the Master himself never says that that's what he intended to do.

Dammit, I am going to have serious trouble living through the next week in order to find the answers to these questions! Especially since I will miss the episode due to being at a wedding, and will then be travelling directly to Oxford for a week, so I have no idea at all when I'll get to see it. :-(

[pickwick.livejournal.com]

Bah, these people who have weddings when Doctor Who's on, so inconsiderate! They should at least have a big screen at the reception :D

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Maybe Boe changed him into a human and chucked him forward in time, without the Tardis?

Yes, I think it may be something like this. I'm also wondering whether Boe has somehow sent the Master's TARDIS forward in time so that the Doctor, Jack and Martha can use it to get back to Earth.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Only just seen it (was out last night).

Anyway: drums? I think that's what Yana had convinced himself they were. What it really sounded like was the memory of the noise a Tardis makes. Whirrrr-THUMP. They even mapped his first attack in the programme on top of the Tardis arrival, noises included, and when he's looking at the Tardis later he hears the drums again, again with the sound of a Tardis on top.

10: he's actually just as much in love with the Doctor as Rose was. If you were immortal and in love with someone, wouldn't you try as hard as he did to find that person?

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Ah, well actually that is even more clever, isn't it - if the same sound can evoke the TARDIS, a heart-beat or drums. So many levels! ;-)

10. Do you think so? I'm not sure, but I can certainly see how initially he'd want answers, while later on, once he'd realised he was immortal, the Doctor would become very much a kindred spirit for him.

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

ya see I'm of the opinion that we'll never know whether utopia is real or not, and persoanlly I'm quite happy like that...... and I reckon the master can't know *for sure* seeing as he's the first time lord to come forward this far......
anyway after wathching the episode I figured that the doctor was doing something to the tardis with the screwdriver which would make it return to him, it was only after someone else pointed out the capt'n jack watch thing that I was converted to that idea - BUT the watch can only travel through time and they ain't on earth anymore...... (watch as this is forgotten about)

re: the masters plan. I'd assumed that the master hadn't had a choise in his prediement, that someone/thing had humanised him and hidden him at the end of time (boe maybe) which would be why he has no tardis of his own and stuff - if boe did this (he could have humanised him and send him forward in time expecting to live that long until gridlock happened), it would explain boe's "you are not alone" equalling yana as a name

I'm guessing that a time lord dying as a human would mean death, otherwise the family of blood would just have killed john smith in order to get they're hands on a time lord

as for jack - to me is seemed like he wanted adventue and to live the life of the doctor's companion - this is why he said he used to want to die and now he wasn't so sure - being on an adventure with the doctor had brought him back to heath.....

my understanding of the second series of torchwood is that while jack will make appearances, he won't be in all of it - personally I hope he stays as a companion - he makes a much better supporting light-hearted character than serious leader

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Well, the watch must be able to travel through space a bit, because Jack used it to get from Satellite 5, in orbit around the earth in 200,100, to the actual earth in 1869. Now, OK, he's immortal, so he could have just fallen to the earth's surface and survived. But he said he didn't find that out until 1892, whereas he'd probably have noticed if his arrival on earth in 1869 had involved falling from several miles above the earth's surface.

Good point about the Family of Blood, yes - they definitely needed Smith alive, didn't they?

And that's interesting about Torchwood. Yes, like you say, DW!Jack is much better than TW!Jack. But then again, TW!Jack is still pretty much the best thing in Torchwood, so I dread to think what it'll be loike if he isn't in it much. Hey-ho - it could be OK if Ianto takes over the reins, I guess.

[p-dan-tic.livejournal.com]

I thought the best thing in torchwood was the phillis guy ;)

anyway I didn't think it was that much of a stretch for jack to hitch a life from satalite 5 to earth - especially as there would have been a rescue party sent......

and annoying ginger drug-rapist character said he was second in command of torchwood in the last episode so i doubt Ianto would be given command :(

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - I guess so about the lift. Hadn't thought of that.

And bummer about the drug-rapist character - Owen, I think it was.

[felinebird.livejournal.com]

primitivepeople posted something on his LJ today asking for comments to which he'd respond with the username of a person on his flist he thought we'd be good friends with.

I was instructed to then go to the journal of whoever he suggested and request to add them straightaway, citing his post as the reason if you must. So, here I am asking to be added. I'm Lucy (28), an education/community worker in Surrey, main interests being music (playing and listening), reading, photography and travel. Nice to meet you :)

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Well I'm certainly ready to give you a try on that basis - so I have just friended you. Welcome!

[big-daz.livejournal.com]

2/3. That spoiler I mentioned the other night said something about the MAster invading the Earth and making a new Timelord Empire- perhaps the people who were on the Utopia-bound ship are part of this plot- could they become infected with Timelord DNA or some such?

4/5. Somewhere in the Lab? Unless the futurekind turn out to be merely misunderstood and are really pussycats, I wouldn imagine its the only way he's going to get out of that one.

7. The last episode is called "The Sound of Drums". I think the Master still hears them now he's not the Professor anymore- when they did the "coming soon" trailer a few weeks back, Mr Saxon was seen beating out the same rhythm on the desk in No 10 after he'd gassed the cabinet. Dunno what the significance is though..

8. The Time Lords limited the number of regenerations they had, but were able to give more (eg to the Master in the 5 Doctors). Now they've gone, perhaps any remaining Timelords can regenerate ad-infinitum?

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

could they become infected with Timelord DNA or some such?

You know, before Evolution of the Daleks, I'd have scoffed at this idea. But that episode did explicitly established that Time Lord DNA can be passed on to other beings. So maybe you're right - if not about the people in the Utopia rocket, then at least about people on Earth.