The Sound of Drums

187b – "The Sound of Drums"
Doctor Who episode
A rift opens above the Valiant.[1]
Cast
Doctor David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
Companions Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) John Barrowman (Jack Harkness)
Guest stars
John Simm – The Master Adjoa Andoh – Francine Jones Trevor Laird – Clive Jones Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Tish Jones Reggie Yates – Leo Jones Alexandra Moen – Lucy Saxon Elize du Toit – Sinister Woman Nichola McAuliffe – Vivien Rook Nicholas Gecks – Albert Dumfries Colin Stinton – President Olivia Hill – BBC Newsreader Daniel Ming – Chinese Newsreader Lachele Carl – US Newsreader Sharon Osbourne – Herself McFly – Themselves Ann Widdecombe – Herself Zoe Thorne, Gerard Logan, and Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis – Sphere voices
Production
Writer	Russell T Davies
Director	Colin Teague
Script editor	Simon Winstone
Producer	Phil Collinson
Executive producer(s)	Russell T Davies Julie Gardner
Production code	3.12
Series	Series 3
Length	2nd of 3-part story, 45 minutes
Originally broadcast	23 June 2007
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → "Utopia" "Last of the Time Lords"
IMDb profile

"The Sound of Drums" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was broadcast on BBC One on 23 June 2007,^[2] and is the twelfth episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series. It is the second of three episodes that form a linked narrative, following "Utopia" and followed by "Last of the Time Lords".

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Plot 3 Cast notes 4 Continuity 4.1 Gallifrey 4.2 The Master 4.3 Torchwood 4.4 References to other stories 5 Outside references 6 Production and publicity 6.1 Music 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Reviews

Synopsis

The Master arrives in the 21st Century—as Harold Saxon, Prime Minister—and the world enters a period of terror when contact with an unknown alien race whom the Master calls the Toclafane is announced.

Plot

The Doctor, Martha, and Jack manage to escape from Futurekind in the year 100 trillion through Jack's repaired Vortex Manipulator, finding themselves in London. They quickly learn that the Master has taken on the persona of "Mr. Harold Saxon", the current Prime Minister, using his Archangel phone network to subliminally influence the population into voting for him while masking his presence from the Doctor. The three narrowly avoid a bomb placed in Martha's flat, and the arrest of Martha's family, before the Master contacts them to gloat about his seeming victory.

The Doctor learns that the Master was resurrected by the Time Lords to fight in the Time War to be the perfect warrior, but instead the Master fled to the end of the universe and made himself human when defeat seemed inevitable. The Master reveals that the three are now England's most wanted criminals and has stripped them of any help, including sending Jack's Torchwood team on a wild goose chase to the Himalayas. Hiding in an abandoned building, the Doctor uses parts of Martha's laptop and the TARDIS keys to create a perception filter so they can move about unnoticed. He explains some of the Master's past: that as a child, the Master looked into the Time Vortex, and was likely driven mad as a result. They come to discover that the Master, as Saxon, is planning to reveal Earth's first contact the next day with an alien race known as the "Toclafane", (in truth, the name 'Toclafane' refers to the Gallifreyan equivalent of the "bogeyman",) and the Doctor insists they must be present.

As the appointed time of first contact nears, United States President-Elect Winters arrives in England and places the operation in the hands of UNIT, transferring the meeting aboard the flying aircraft carrier, the Valiant; the Master accepts this change, as it suits his purposes, and along with his wife Lucy and the rest of Martha's family, board the vessel. The Doctor, Martha, and Jack teleport aboard with Jack's vortex manipulator, discovering the Doctor's TARDIS has been "cannibalised" by the Master to create a Paradox Machine which is building up power to be activated at the appointed time of first contact.

As the three make their way to the bridge, the Doctor tells them to try to get their perception filter around the Master to reveal who he really is to humanity and stop his plan. As they enter the bridge unnoticed, the first four Toclafane, floating metal spheres, appear on the bridge and demand to see the Master; the Master delightedly reveals himself and orders the Toclafane to kill Winters. The Master then reveals that he is well aware of the Doctor's presence in the room by using his laser screwdriver upon the group, temporarily killing Jack while aging the Doctor by 100 years through the use of LazLabs genetic manipulation technology using biological data from the Doctor's severed hand that the Master had stolen. Jack gives Martha his vortex manipulator and tells Martha to get off the Valiant, as there is no way they can defeat the Master.

The Master brings Martha's family into the bridge as the Paradox Machine nears activation, and taunts the aged Doctor about the nature of the Toclafane and his victory. The Paradox Machine activates as the Master tells the people of Earth that it's the "end of the world" and plays the song "Voodoo Child".^[3] A massive rift opens above the Valiant, and six billion Toclafane descend from it. The Master orders the Toclafane to "remove one tenth" of the Earth's population. As Martha tends to the aged Doctor, he whispers into Martha's ear. Martha, unable to save the Doctor, Jack, or her family, promises she will return, and uses Jack's vortex manipulator to teleport off the Valiant to find safety on Earth; she then flees into the distance as the Toclafane wreak havoc on humanity. The Master himself gloats about the fall of the human race and forces the Doctor to look upon his "new dominion as Master of All."

Cast notes

• Lachele Carl previously appeared as the American news anchor in "Aliens of London", "World War Three"' and "The Christmas Invasion". The spin-off website "Who is Doctor Who?" states her name as "Mal Loup". This is mangled French for "Bad Wolf". This newscaster's name has subsequently been specified in the end credits as "Trinity Wells."
• Zoe Thorne previously voiced the Gelth in "The Unquiet Dead".
• Olivia Hill played a TV Reporter in The Sarah Jane Adventures episode "Invasion of the Bane" (2007).
• William Hughes, who plays the young Master, played the even younger Casanova in the BBC serial written by Russell T Davies, in which David Tennant played the adult Casanova.

Continuity

Gallifrey

The Time Lord homeworld, Gallifrey, appears in this episode in a flashback sequence. This is the first televised depiction of Gallifrey since The Five Doctors and shows the Time Lord citadel, a conglomeration of buildings protected within a vast transparent dome. The planet's orange skies are consistent with descriptions going back to the sixties era and last seen in The Invasion of Time. The citadel and surrounding landscape also match the Doctor's description of them in "Gridlock".

The first televised black Time Lord appears during this Gallifrey flashback, although a black Time Lord appeared in the spin-off novel The Shadows of Avalon by Paul Cornell, and Time Lord founder Rassilon was portrayed in several audio plays by black actor Don Warrington, who also appeared in "Rise of the Cybermen" as the President of Great Britain.

Whilst the boy Master wears a black-and-white outfit like those worn by the first Time Lords seen on screen, in The War Games in 1969,^[4] the adult Time Lords are depicted dressed in the ceremonial robes first seen in The Deadly Assassin in 1976. Created by then BBC staff designer James Acheson prior to his film career, the huge stiff collars of these outfits remained the distinctive look for officials of the Doctor's race. The collars used were the originals, on loan from the Doctor Who Exhibition in Blackpool.^[5]

The Seal of Rassilon—the equally well-established Gallifreyan symbol employed by Acheson (originally in the non-Time Lord-related Revenge of the Cybermen)—appears here for the first time since its prominent use in the television movie.

The Master

In "Utopia", Professor Yana refers to a lifelong "sound of drums", which only he can hear. In this episode, the Master tells the Doctor that he is still distressed by the never-ending sound. The narrative in the trailer for the concluding part of this story, "Last of the Time Lords", suggests that the Master has heard the sound calling him to war ever since he first looked into the Time Vortex as a young child on Gallifrey.

As previously in the Jon Pertwee era, the Doctor admits that he and the Master were initially friends, and their attendance of the Time Lord Academy is referenced—young Gallifreyans, it is explained, are inducted at the age of eight. It is also strongly implied that this initiation, which involves looking into the Vortex, drove the Master insane.

The Master reveals that the Time Lords "resurrected" him to fight for them in the Time War—in his last televised appearance (in the Doctor Who television movie), he was sucked into the Eye of Harmony. Instead of standing and fighting in the Time War, however, the Master admits that he fled in terror before the conclusion of the war, after the "Dalek Emperor took control of the Cruciform". He hid himself at the heat death of the universe (where no Time Lord had ever ventured) in human form. He learns of the destruction of Gallifrey and the Daleks from the Doctor and wishes to know how the Doctor felt, personally destroying two ancient civilisations.

When talking to the world's press cameras toward the end of the episode, the Master begins his speech "Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully." This paraphrases part of a speech he gave in episode four of Logopolis (1981), which began "Peoples of the Universe, please attend carefully."^[4]

The Master refers to his wife, Lucy Saxon, as his "companion", a title regularly assumed by the travelling partners of the Doctor. This "companion" relationship, however, seems to be a fully romantic one, unlike those of the Doctor. The Master was previously seen to seduce a woman for his own ends in The Time Monster.

The Master is shown enjoying an episode of Teletubbies, continuing a fascination with children's television first seen in The Sea Devils, when he was shown watching Clangers. He wryly analyses both series' characters, remarking how amazing it would be if they were real.^[6]

Martha jokes that the Master might have been revealed as the Doctor's "secret brother or something". The Master's final line in Planet of Fire, before his apparent immolation, is "Would you show no mercy to your own...?" followed by a final scream, originally intended to imply the connection. The Doctor replies, "You've been watching too much TV!"

Saxon is not a member of any political party, although he became Minister of Defence in the administration following the downfall of Harriet Jones. The Harold Saxon site states that "leaders of all three major parties—and even some Scottish Nationalists—defected to his banner of unity".

In The Mind of Evil the Master's fear is revealed to be a Godlike Doctor towering over him. This fear appears to come true as the Doctor breaks out of his cage, and hovers over the Master.

Torchwood

Jack and the Master refer to Jack's colleagues at Torchwood in Cardiff. The Master says he has sent them on a "wild goose chase" to the Himalayas, thus preventing Jack from contacting or requesting help from them. The Doctor and Jack talk about the events at the Battle of Canary Wharf as seen in "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday". The Doctor is still extremely wary of Torchwood; Jack insists that under his leadership it was rebuilt in honour of the Doctor rather than opposing him. (The Doctor remains sceptical, commenting on Jack's very Torchwood-like suggestion that they break the Master's neck.) Music cues composed for Torchwood are used when Jack reveals to the Doctor that he works for them.

In the Torchwood episode "Captain Jack Harkness", there is a 'Vote Saxon' poster on the main door of the dance hall.

The abandoned building where Jack, Martha and the Doctor hide from the Master is revealed to be a former facility of Torchwood One in the special Children of Earth.

References to other stories

• The Master offers Lucy Saxon a jelly baby and enjoys one himself; the confection is associated with the Second, Fourth, and Eighth Doctors.
• Vivien Rook refers to the fall of Harriet Jones, who first appeared as an MP in Aliens of London before being elected Prime Minister by the time of The Christmas Invasion. Although that episode hinted at her downfall due to the Doctor's intervention, this episode confirms it, mentioned as being the point at which Harold Saxon arrives.
• In his first cabinet session the Master refers to the reconstruction of the Cabinet Rooms and Downing Street, which were destroyed at the climax of "World War Three".
• Clips from "Aliens of London", "Army of Ghosts", "Doomsday", "The Runaway Bride", "The Lazarus Experiment" and "Utopia" are used throughout the episode.
• Martha's television is branded Magpie Electricals—this company originally rented and sold televisions manufactured by other companies in the 1950s, as seen in "The Idiot's Lantern".
• The Master reveals that he was responsible for Tish getting the job working for Professor Lazarus—whose work he was funding—in "The Lazarus Experiment", hoping to trap the Doctor and Martha. He has since incorporated the genetic manipulation technology into his new laser screwdriver.
• The Doctor has previously been prematurely aged in The Leisure Hive,^[4] while the Master has previously been seen to shrink his victims by means of a hand-held rod weapon (the Tissue Compression Eliminator) in many of his previous appearances.
• The Doctor tells the Master that the Daleks are "more or less" dead, referring to the mass annihilation of the species, of which only Dalek Caan is known by him to be still alive.
• A close-up of Martha's mobile phone in "42" shows the Archangel network logo when the Doctor upgrades it. The logo appears several times in this episode, in Vivien Rook's message to Torchwood, on Martha's laptop when Mr Saxon is about to make the announcement about the Toclafane, and on the back of the Master's laptop computer in the Cabinet room.
• This is the first episode in which it is explicitly established that the TARDIS' anachronistic nature goes largely unnoticed in part due to its "perception filter". This was previously hinted by Torchwood episode "Everything Changes", where it was explained that this property of the TARDIS had been welded to a pavement slab. The second use of the term was in "Human Nature" where the Doctor noted that his TARDIS could place one on his fob watch.
• US President-Elect Winters states that UNIT protocols for alien first contact were established in 1968; this was the year UNIT was introduced to the series in The Invasion.

Outside references

• As in many previous episodes of the revived series, the Doctor is seen watching BBC News 24. However, unlike previous occasions when the channel was clearly named as BBC News 24, this time the channel is simply captioned on screen as "News 24" and the logo consists of an "N" inside the BBC News globe. This is actually the logo for the Welsh language news programme Newyddion, which is also produced by BBC Wales and whose studio is used for this segment of the episode.
• The Master's final speech to the aged Doctor quotes phrases and words from the King James Version of the Bible (e.g. "thought it good" from 1 Thessalonians 3:1, Daniel 4:2, and the Prologue to Ecclesiasticus; "it came to pass" from Luke 2:1, among others), and generally parodies it by using what in modern speech would be archaisms (e.g. "dominion", "fell" and "was no more").
• Writing in the episode's BBC Fact File, Peter Ware observes that the Master's introduction of the Jones family as having come "all the way from prison" is similar to the style used in the TV show This Is Your Life.^[4]
• Winters refers to himself as the President-elect, though he is called President by other characters. The President-elect, in real-world U.S. Government, is an individual who has been elected as the next person to hold the office of the President, but has not yet been inaugurated, nor assumed the authority and responsibility of the position, as the incumbent President is still in office.

Production and publicity

• This episode, along with "Utopia" and "Last of the Time Lords", are treated in several sources as a three-part story, the first such story in the revived series of Doctor Who. However, Russell T Davies has said that he regards "Utopia" as a separate story, but notes that the determination is arbitrary.^[7]
• This is the first instance in the revived series of a multi-episode story not starting a later episode with a montage of clips from the previous episode.
• The episode was advertised on BBC television with a spoof party political broadcast, featuring testimonials from celebrities Sharon Osbourne, McFly and Ann Widdecombe showing their support for Mr Saxon, a version of which is seen in the episode itself.^[8] Also during the broadcast, drums can be heard. There is also a different trailer that showed still shots of the Doctor, Martha Jones and Captain Jack over the top of which Mr Saxon's speech, in which he says "... what this country really needs, right now, is a doctor", can be heard and at the end there is a small clip of him showing his trademark smile.^[9] The celebrity appearances in the episode itself differ from those in the trailer, most noticeably that of Ann Widdecombe, who appears alone in the trailer but alongside Mr Saxon in the episode.
• The BBC created two fictional websites in connection with these episodes, Vote Saxon and http://www.haroldsaxon.co.uk. The latter site replicates the video and web pages seen by the characters in The Sound of Drums.

Music

• Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders is played diegetically within this episode. The song, from the album Here Come the Drums, has the phrases "the sound of drums" and "here come the drums" in its lyrics.
• The drumming motif used several times in the story bears similarities to the underbeat of the Doctor Who theme tune.^[10]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Tenth Doctor

• The Sound of Drums on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• "The Sound of Drums" at the BBC Doctor Who homepage
• "Utopia" / "The Sound of Drums" / "Last of the Time Lords" at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• "The Sound Of Drums" / "Last Of The Time Lords" at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
• "A new species" - episode trailer

Reviews

• "The Sound of Drums" reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

v • d • e Doctor Who: The Master television stories Third Doctor Terror of the Autons • The Mind of Evil • The Claws of Axos • Colony in Space • The Dæmons • The Sea Devils • The Time Monster • Frontier in Space Fourth Doctor The Deadly Assassin • The Keeper of Traken • Logopolis Fifth Doctor Castrovalva • Time-Flight • The King's Demons • The Five Doctors • Planet of Fire Sixth Doctor The Mark of the Rani • The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe Seventh Doctor Survival Eighth Doctor Doctor Who Tenth Doctor "Utopia" / "The Sound of Drums" / "Last of the Time Lords" • The End of Time Minor appearances The Caves of Androzani See also The Curse of Fatal Death • Destiny of the Doctors • Scream of the Shalka • Mister Saxon

v • d • e Doctor Who : UNIT television stories Second Doctor The Invasion Third Doctor Spearhead from Space • Doctor Who and the Silurians • The Ambassadors of Death • Inferno • Terror of the Autons • The Mind of Evil • The Claws of Axos • The Dæmons • Day of the Daleks • The Time Monster • The Three Doctors • The Green Death • Invasion of the Dinosaurs • Planet of the Spiders Fourth Doctor Robot • Terror of the Zygons • The Android Invasion Seventh Doctor Battlefield Tenth Doctor "The Christmas Invasion" • "The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky" • "Planet of the Dead" Minor appearances Colony in Space • The Time Warrior • The Seeds of Doom • Mawdryn Undead • The Five Doctors • "Aliens of London" / "World War Three" • "The Sound of Drums" / "Last of the Time Lords" • "Turn Left" • "The Stolen Earth" / "Journey's End" Torchwood "Fragments" • Children of Earth The Sarah Jane Adventures Enemy of the Bane See also Dimensions in Time • Wartime • Downtime • Auton • Auton 2: Sentinel • Auton 3 • History of UNIT • List of UNIT personnel • UNIT dating controversy

v • d • e Doctor Who: Gallifrey television stories Second Doctor The War Games Third Doctor The Three Doctors Fourth Doctor The Deadly Assassin • The Invasion of Time Fifth Doctor Arc of Infinity • The Five Doctors Sixth Doctor The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet • Mindwarp • Terror of the Vervoids • The Ultimate Foe Minor appearances Colony in Space • "The Sound of Drums" / "Last of the Time Lords" See also Time Lord • Eye of Harmony • Gallifrey • Skaro

v • d • e Doctor Who series 3 episodes "The Runaway Bride" • "Smith and Jones" • "The Shakespeare Code" • "Gridlock" • "Daleks in Manhattan" • "Evolution of the Daleks" • "The Lazarus Experiment" • "42" • "Human Nature" • "The Family of Blood" • "Blink" • "Utopia" • "The Sound of Drums" • "Last of the Time Lords" Animated serial: The Infinite Quest