Utopia (Doctor Who)

Plot

Jack, a former companion of the Ninth Doctor, finds himself stuck on Earth and sets up in twenty-first-century Cardiff, where he waits for the Doctor. He knows the Doctor will eventually need to refuel using the Cardiff Rift, so he keeps the Tenth Doctor's severed hand handy as a detection device. When the TARDIS lands in Cardiff for that refueling, the Tenth Doctor spots Jack sprinting toward the ship and takes off immediately. Jack grabs the outer shell, and the TARDIS flies to the universe's end in an attempt to throw him off. During the trip, Jack dies but comes back to life seconds later because he cannot stay dead. On the planet Malcassairo, the Doctor, Jack, and the Doctor's companion Martha meet Padra, a human fleeing cannibalistic humanoids known as the Futurekind. They help Padra get to a missile silo, where a rocket is meant to carry humanity's last survivors to a place called Utopia. Inside, they encounter Professor Yana, an elderly man, and his insectoid assistant Chantho. The Professor asks the Doctor to examine the rocket engine, which will not launch, and the Doctor repairs it and supplies power. Throughout the repairs, the Professor hears a rhythmic drumbeat that has plagued him his entire life. When the rocket is ready, refugees board it, but a Futurekind shorts the system, flooding the coupling room with lethal radiation. Jack is sent to fix the couplings. While Jack works inside, the Doctor confesses he abandoned Jack on purpose because of the immortality Rose gave him. Jack prepares the rocket for launch. Martha notices the Professor's fob watch, which resembles the one that turned the Doctor from a Time Lord into a human. She hurries to tell the Doctor as the Professor hears voices from the watch. The Doctor starts the launch sequence at the same moment the Professor opens the fob watch. The Doctor rushes back to the control room, but the Professor lets the Futurekind inside the silo. Chantho confronts the Professor, who declares his name is the Master. Both Chantho and the Master fatally wound each other. The Master escapes in the TARDIS, taking the severed hand with him, and regenerates into a younger form. The Doctor, Jack, and Martha are left stranded. This episode brings back the Master, who had not appeared since the 1996 television movie Doctor Who.

Production

The episode "Utopia" was first described as the opening part of a three-part story in the magazine Totally Doctor Who, which aired the day before its broadcast. Before that, only the next two episodes had been connected to each other. Later guides, like the season poll in Doctor Who Magazine, grouped all three episodes together as one story. Showrunner Russell T Davies considers "Utopia" a separate tale, though he admits the distinction is somewhat random. This installment marked the first time in the revived series that three main cast members were credited in the title sequence, thanks to the addition of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness.

Derek Jacobi appeared in Doctor Who for the third time here. His first role was in the September 2003 audio drama Deadline, playing a screenwriter who thinks he is the Doctor. His second was in the webcast Scream of the Shalka, where he voiced an android version of the Master. In 2017, Jacobi returned to the role from "Utopia" for the audio series The War Master. Other actors making return appearances include Neil Reidman, who previously played Tom Braudy in the Eighth Doctor audio drama Memory Lane, and Robert Forknall, who portrayed Lord Byron in the Eighth Doctor audio The Company of Friends.

Chipo Chung, who played Chantho in this episode, later appeared as the Fortuneteller in "Turn Left." Paul Marc Davis, who played the Futurekind chieftain, later took on the role of the Trickster in The Sarah Jane Adventures stories Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane, The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith, and The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith. He also had a small part in the Torchwood episode Exit Wounds and played the main villain Corakinus in Class. John Bell was a nine-year-old who won a Blue Peter competition to appear in this episode.

John Simm reprised his role as the Master in the Tenth Doctor's final story "The End of Time," and again in "World Enough and Time" and "The Doctor Falls," the Series 10 finale which was also the last series for Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor and Michelle Gomez as Missy. Simm returned once more as the Master in the Big Finish audio drama Masterful.

Broadcast and reception

"Utopia" aired on BBC One in the UK on 16 June 2007. Its overnight audience was 7.3 million, climbing to 7.84 million with time-shifted viewing, making it the fourth most-watched BBC One programme that week. The episode earned an Appreciation Index of 87. Travis Fickett of IGN rated it 8.4 out of 10, describing it as a strong start to the season's finale and praising how earlier plot threads came together. He did, however, criticise the opening, calling Jack's entrance "a bit silly" and noting that "the remnants of civilization look like Mad Max rejects being chased by space vampires." Richard Edwards of SFX gave it four out of five stars, noting it was "minimally plotted" as part of a larger story but commending Jack's backstory and the Master's return. Mark Wright of The Stage had mixed feelings, disliking the first 20 minutes on the planet but enjoying Derek Jacobi's portrayal of Yana, especially the reveal of his true identity, and wondered how casual viewers would react. The episode's cliffhanger has been widely praised. Charlie Jane Anders of io9, Jeff Szpirglas of Den of Geek, and Mark Harrison (in another Den of Geek piece) all listed it among the series' best. Morgan Jeffery and Chris Allen of Digital Spy included it in their top five revived-series cliffhangers; Jeffery called it a "stunning accumulator cliffhanger" while Allen said it was a "superb cliffhanger" that "lifts 'Utopia' from a fairly average episode into something altogether different." Stephen Brook of The Guardian went further, calling it "perhaps the best moment of the entire series" in his review of the third series.