Doctor Who (2005)

Utopia

Season 3, Episode 11, Aired 6/16/07

Episode Summary

Location: Malcassairo
Date: The Year 100 Trillion
Enemies: Futurekind, The Master
''
''After being brought back to life in The Parting of the Ways, Captain Jack Harkness was just left on the Gamestation by the Doctor and Rose. In this episode, Captain Jack Harkness storms back into the Doctor's life, and the TARDIS is thrown to the end of the universe itself.moreless

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Cast & Crew

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David Tennant

The Tenth Doctor
Freema Agyeman

Martha Jones
John Barrowman

Captain Jack Harkness

Fan Episode Reviews (30)

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Who knew the End of the Universe could be so boring and just a prop piece for the return of an old enemy?

6.5

"Fair"

By ronindave, Dec 31, 2010 Report Abuse

Gotta admit, I wasn't too crazy with this story because basically there wasn't one. The characters were all great especially Derek Jacobi's Professor/Master but the story they were in was rather 2 dimensional, lifeless, and extremely vague.

I'd have thought the Year 100 Trillion would be a bit more intriguing and humans would have had better tailors and not be using chain link fences and bullets by that time. Serious lack of imagination here.

We have some surviving humans living in fear of futurekind (bad name) which are people with sharp teeth and bad attitudes. We have some remnant humans who are living in the hope of some place called Utopia where humans could survive the collapse of the universe. There's a rocket that can't fly until the Doctor sizes things up in about less than a minute and solves the problem - there's too much of this in the new Doctor Who at times: problems solved with a flick of the wrist or sonic screwdriver.

What I like most was simply the interaction among the characters. I just wished they had a better story backdrop to work with.moreless

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0 5
Utterly excellent stuff that only Doctor Who can do.

10

"Perfect"

By CellBlocknutter, Oct 09, 2010 Report Abuse

This episode was a pure joy to watch. Endless tension, exceptional charecter development, Excellent twists, and superb acting.

This episode is certainly a personal favorite, everything it did was why I enjoy the show as much as I do.

Naturally the return of Jack was highly anticipated. Thankfully they executed it well. His enterance was definatly OTT, but it nicely set the tone of the episode; that were gonna have a lot of fun. Being able to dramaticaly change the tone episode to episode is what make DW a joy, and this was much welcomed after the serious tone of the serveral excellent episode before it.

The return of the master was executed perfectly, the tie ins with the stop watch was excellent, and a jaw-dropping moment, if you were lucky to not see it coming! Even more draw-dropping if on top of that you also didn't realise it would turn out to be the master!

The effects department had a depreesing drop in quality on the rocket (in the silo), but this niggle isn't really worth being to critical over: Like with many episodes, in term of sets and effects DW is as about as ambitious as TV gets anywhere. This episode is definatly in that catagory.moreless

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4 1
A Brilliant episode in series 3!

10

"Perfect"

By lovin_torchwood, Oct 09, 2010 Report Abuse

This episode begins with the TARDIS landing in Cardiff with a familiar face sprinting towards it. The doctor refuels the TARDIS and then sets off whilst the figure leaps onto the side of the TARDIS. They end up at the end of the universe where the Doctor and Martha find Captain Jack Harkness lying dead on the floor. He gives martha a shock when he jumps up again. Together the three off them end up being chased into a base. There they find a desperate professor Yana trying to get the rocket to work. This episode ends with a shock twist of events and an intriguing cliff hanger!moreless

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3 1
Captain Jack is back... and it's about time.

9.0

"Superb"

By Scorptilicus, Oct 09, 2010 Report Abuse

The best part of this episode with so many good parts to it? The return of Captain Jack Harkness to the show. Not only that, either. For Jack, it's a return to his season one form, a sly, cocky, good looking man who knows it and will shamelessly flirt with each and every creature the universe has seemed fit to create. He's finally found his Doctor again and it's about time. The Doctor is a little less happy to see him than I would imagine most of the fans are, but even with a bit of the tension here (which we thankfully get an explanation for) the dialogue we get between them is fast and funny, fitting to the good captain whom we've missed since the first year. Of course, there's much more to this episode than Jack's return. It's the end of the universe as we know it, and there's no restaurant in sight! And we get a guest spot by renowned actor Derek Jacobi, playing the professor who's hoping to give the human race one last chance even as the universe itself draws to a close. The mystery surrounding him and his character are intriguing, but the twist coming at the end, well I'm guessing that many Who fans (who weren't spoiled) were pleased to see that. It's a game changing episode and as the year comes to a close, the threads we've hinted at leading up to here will be tying together. It'll be fun to see.moreless

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3 0
A Superb Episode from Season 3.

9.5

"Superb"

By AgentAlbertross, Oct 09, 2010 Report Abuse

I really liked this episode and I enjoyed it even more as I watched it a second time on DVD with the forehand knowledge that this time the Professor was The Master.

My memories of previous episodes featuring The Master made me empathise more with what The Professor was feeling as he too was once a time lord. In the original series; The Sea Devils the Doctor Works alongside the Master as if they were good friends and a similar feel is shown in this episode especially when The Doctor says that the Professor is a genius! Well of course he is! The Master is even more of a genius than the Doctor. The plot for the spaceship to Utopia was a little thin on the ground [pardon the pun!] and its not mentioned whether Utopia exists but it probably doesn't as The Master laughs as he takes the disk circuit out - it was probably concocted to keep him sane until he could become The Master again. It was nice of the producers to play excerpts of dialogue from the Master from past shows though I think John Sim was a bit OTT at the end.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- As can be seen when Captain Jack enters the irradiated chamber, one hundred trillion years into the future, humanity is still using the QWERTY keyboard. Edit
- The Professor states that he was found as a child on the Silver Devastation. In The End Of The World, this is stated as being the home of the Face of Boe. Edit
- According to the commentary for this episode, the Professor's attire (white shirt, waistcoat, etc.) was supposed to be an homage to William Hartnell, the original Doctor. Edit
Notes
ADD NOTES
- International Airdates:
  Turkey: January 9, 2011 on CNBC-e Edit
- Parts of this episode were filmed using the same location (a disused paper mill in Wales) for The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit, albeit a different area within that location. Edit
- The opening scene was filmed in Cardiff Bay by the Wales Millennium Centre and Roald Dahl Plass. This has been shown before in Doctor Who in the episode Boom Town as well as extensively in Torchwood (as the Torchwood Hub is based beneath the Plass). Edit
Quotes
ADD QUOTES
- Captain Jack: [while running to save a human from the Futurekind] Oh, I've missed this! Edit
- The Professor: The Doctor? (points to jack) The Doctor: That's me. The Professor: Good, good, good, good good good good good good! The Doctor: It's good apparently. Edit
- The Doctor: The rift bleeds energy. Every now and then I need to open up the engines and soak up the energy and use it as fuel. Martha: So it's a pit stop! The Doctor: Exactly. It should only take 20 seconds. The rift's been active. Edit
Allusions
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- Captain Jack: So what about those things outside, the beastie-boys?
  The Beastie Boys are a musical group from New York, who have enjoyed over 20 years of international critical acclaim and commercial success. The name 'Beastie' originally stood for "Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence". They are one of the longest-lived hip-hop acts. Their biggest hits include 'Fight For Your Right (To Party)', 'Sabotage'and 'Intergalactic'.
  Edit
- The savage look of the Futurekind, combined with the time setting of the story, is an allusion to H. G. Wells's novel The Time Machine. In fact, in Doctor Who Confidential, Russell T. Davies mentions the influence of Mad Max in the look of the Futurekind.
  Edit
- The title 'Utopia' refers to the 1516 book written by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) which describes an imaginary island that holds a perfect social, legal and political system where all evils of society have been removed. Edit