REVIEW : Doctor Who - The Sound of Drums

The last couple of episodes of Doctor Who have caused some considerable excitement amongst longer-memoried Whovians.  the reason for this excitement is the return of The Master, one of the Doctor's more memorable opponents thanks, in no small part, to the performances of Roger Delgado who gleefully chewed scenery opposite the Earth-bound third Doctor played by future Worzel Gummidge Jon Pertwee.  In many ways a pedestrian rather than a barn-storming episode, "The Sound of Drums" nonetheless includes a number of interesting SF ideas lurking just beneath the surface.

"The Sound of Drums" follows on from the events in previous episode "Utopia" where the Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack discover humanity huddled together at the end of the Universe trying to scrounge together the materials to build a space ship capable of taking them to Utopia.  Here the Master exists disguised as a human and ignorant of his true nature until Martha Jones inadvertently reveals that his old broken pocket watch is, in fact, a piece of Timelord technology allowing Timelords to hide out as members of a particular species.  Suddenly aware of his identity and forced to regenerate, The Master steals the Doctor's TARDIS and returns to Earth where he uses his scientific skill to hypnotise the entire world into thinking he is British politician Harry Saxon.  By the time the Doctor and his companions return to Earth, The Master has made himself Prime Minster and is announcing a First Contact meeting with the Toclafane, a species of intelligent robotic orbs that bear a name from Timelord mythology comparable to our bogey-man.  In an attempt to stop the Master, the Doctor teleports onboard the UNIT ship Valiant, a flying aircraft carrier designed by the master that contains the Doctor's TARDIS, now transformed into a "paradox machine".  Foiling the Doctor's attempts at stopping him by zapping Captain Jack, artificially aging the Doctor and holding Martha's family hostage, the Master uses the Paradox machine to tear a hole in space-time and bring the Toclafane through, ordering them to wipe out one tenth of Earth's population.

As a piece of television, "The Sound of Drums" is long of FX shots, explosions and running and short on... well... pretty much anything else.  It is also eerily similar to the first of the two episodes that ended series two.  "Army of Ghosts" also featured millions of alien creatures appearing out of nowhere to wreak havoc upon the Earth and it also featured to inadvertent collusion of a British NGO.  In the case of "Army and Ghosts" the colluding body was Torchwood and in "The Sound of Drums" this body was UNIT (who, also featured heavily during the Pertwee years and was intended to play the part played by Torchwood in the new Doctor Who series until the UN, somewhat unsportingly, complained).  Indeed, as impressive as the FX shots might be, and billions of spheres destroying a city is pretty impressive, "The Sound of Drums" is really not showing us anything we haven't seen before.  However, this does not mean that it does not contain a few interesting ideas.

Firstly, there is the issue of the New Master.  Many hardcore Who fans expressed concern at the decision to cast a young man such as John Simm in a role previously played by a much older actor.  Many also complained about the Master giving his victims two thumbs up, playing pop music and generally gurning and enjoying himself in a most unbecoming fashion.  The casting of John Simm was definitely a very media savvy move as Simm is known best for his role in the OTHER BBC time-travel drama Life on Mars.  However, this casting is typical Russell T. Davies as both of RTD's Doctors were experienced and recognisable British TV faces thanks to Christopher Ecclestone's time in Cracker and The Second Coming and David Tennant's roles in the live remake of The Quatermass Experiment and Casanova. 

Indeed, the key to understanding Simm's casting and performance lies in the basic concept of the Master.  The Master is not just another Who baddy, he is supposedly the Doctor's Nemesis... his equal in all matters except for where the Doctor is good and devoted to saving people (hence the name), the Master is evil and devoted to dominating them.  At a time when the Doctor was played by a 51 year old man who was very much a traditional action hero, it made sense for the Master to be an older and more traditional monomaniacal villain.  However, David Tennant's Doctor is young, hip, attractive and has a marked tendency to gurn.  Given that this is who the Doctor is at this time, it makes perfect sense for his evil reflection to be just as attractive, just as hip and just as prone to gurning.  In Simm's Master, RTD has created a perfect foil for his own Doctor.  Indeed, the similarities even extend as far as their companions with the Master having as a "faithful companion" a beautiful blonde with whom he is clearly sexually active.  Lucy Saxon is an evil, upper class parody of Rose, again confirming that the Master is the Doctor's evil reflection.

Secondly, the episode contains some interesting politics.  "The Christmas Invasion" featured Harriet Jones firing upon a retreating alien battleship.  A clear reference to Mrs. Thatcher's decision to destroy the Belgrano during the Falklands war despite the fact that the ship had exited the area of engagement.  "The Sound of Drums", by contrast, seems to be far more internationalist in its politics with Saxon initially going out of his way to antagonise, mock and generally annoy the American President, who uses the UN charter to justify taking over something that he had no right to take over.  Clearly, the portrayal of the Americans wielding international law because it suits their vanity to do so is a reference to the highly suspect justification of the invasion of Iraq on the basis of the cease fire that ended the Gulf War.  Equally, one suspects that Saxon's antagonistic attitude towards the Americans is a reference to the widely held belief that Tony Blair was George W. Bush's "poodle", deployed to put a multilateral sheen on what was clearly an illegal and unilateral war.  However, the most interesting political aspect of the episode comes during the sequence where the Doctor talks about his homeworld Gallifrey.  The Doctor mentions that the Timelords were "sworn never to interfere, only the watch".  Indeed, this is reminiscent of Star Trek's Prime Directive not to interfere in the internal affairs of a pre-star travel civilisation.  The Doctor himself has walked a similar fine line to his Star Fleet counterparts in that, more often than not, he'll step in if a civilisation is attacked by sinister aliens but by and large you don't see him handing out cures for cancer or telling people how to have access to unlimited clean energy.  Politically speaking, this is an interesting position to take.

Both Doctor Who and Star Trek are products of their eras, namely the 1960's.  The 1960's were an interesting time as, aside from the Vietnam and Cold Wars that made up the bulk of international news, it was also the period during which the first serious wave of post-colonialism was sweeping the developing world.  Following the end of the colonial era with the Second World War, the 50's and 60's saw many former client states not only gain their independence but also become full players in the games of international politics as they tried to position themselves between the American and Russian empires.  Indeed, 1957 (less than a decade before Doctor Who was first made), saw Britain going to war in the middle east because the Arab nationalism of Nasser, and the decision to nationalise the Suez canal.  Similarly, 1971 (less than a decade after Doctor Who was first transmitted) saw the birth of Zaire with Mobuto Sese Seko as "father of the nation".  What is interesting about this period was that the onus was very much on these states being sovereign and not mere puppets of Western or Eastern Imperialism.  In such a context, the correct liberal response is to agree that these states should be left entirely to their own devices and more powerful Western nations should not interfere.

However, consider the most recent round of G8 talks and you will see a very different picture as liberals lambast their governments for not sending aid and help to stop people within these countries from dying of starvation and living their entire lives in poverty.  Indeed, the idea of a developing nation seeking out Western business concerns and trying to enrich itself by selling their natural resources is generally seen as unacceptable and exploitative.  Hence the term "neo-colonialism".  In fact, the fair trade movement is all about people in the developing world not being left to their own devices but only interacting with the West in accordance with certain principles of humanitarianism and environmentalism.  Under contemporary moral thinking, the Doctor does not interfere anywhere near enough in the goings on on Earth.  Sure he saved us from Cybermen and Daleks, but what of all the illnesses Timelord medicine could cure if the Doctor was not withholding them?  is the Doctor withholding his medicines not like the pharmaceuticals company refusing to give out cheap drugs in Africa?

I am exaggerating slightly, but one thing is clear to me and that is that as attractive as "non-interference" might once have sounded to the writers of Doctor Who and Star Trek, modern standards of realism demands a far more complicated foreign policy of any wanna-be benevolent pan-galactic civilisation.

Thirdly, "The Sound of Drums" features what is referred to as a "Paradox machine", implying that it is a machine that creates temporal paradoxes.  A temporal paradox is an event that occurs whereby a time traveller changes historical events so as to create a state of affairs that is logically impossible.  The classic example of this is the man who travels back in time and kills his own grandfather.  If he does kill his own grandfather than it follows that he would not have been born meaning that he could not have come back in time to kill his grandfather.  however, if he did not kill his grandfather then he should exist and therefore be in a position to travel back in time and kill his grandfather.  In other words, if event A occurs then event A cannot occur.

What is interesting about the paradox machine is that it, in effect, allows for a complete break down of the laws of narrative by bracketing said breakages within a set of clearly demarcated criteria.  In other words, the question the paradox machine poses is, does it make sense for a story to contain bits that intentionally don't make sense?  can a story explicitly defy the laws of logic and narrative and still not collapse in on itself.  As a philosopher I suspect that it can seeing as there are two sets of laws here.  Firstly, there are the laws of logic and physics as they apply in the Doctor Who universe and secondly, we have the higher order laws of narrative and logic that apply to all stories in such a way that said story makes sense.  these higher-level laws are necessary because without them you can have characters be married or dead one second but single and alive the next.  These are the laws that set off alarms in your head when characters start doing things they wouldn't normally do.  In creating the paradox machine, RTD is saying that the plot of the final episode of series 3 will not make any sense, but it will make no sense for a reason that makes perfect sense (namely there's a machine that bends the rules of narrative logic).  So, in effect, the first levels laws of narrative logic are shattered by the paradox machine but the second order laws remain in tact because there's a reason why something will happen for no apparent reason.

Comments

[A.R.Yngve]

The problem (and challenge) of all time-travel stories is precisely that they threaten to break up narrative logic.

SF writers know this, and yet they can't resist the challenge... ;)

[Jonathan McCalmont]

This is true. I imagine every time travel story ever written involved a moment when the writer stood back and went "wait... does this make sense?"

The film Primer is an excellent example of this as it contains so many timelines it's actually very difficult to follow.

What interested me about this particular story was the creation of a machine that states "this isn't going to make sense if you look at it too closely". I liked how brazen it was. It also reminded me of fantasy stories in which magic is used to solve all outstanding plot problems but through no obvious mechanism.

[p7tms]

I do find it interesting that the first new season and this season have a bit in common: a near paradox. Rose needed to post "bad wolf" in the previous episodes to remeber to do what she did in the ending of the first season. This season has a similar "flow" with the Master being around before he was found in the 11th episode.

I have a hunch (so much for inductive or deductive logic) in reguards to the "paradox machine". I will not say it directly, however, after I point out a few things you might come to the same conclusion as I have:
1. The Master stated the Time Lords brought him back (for the Time War).
2. The Doctor talks about how he and the Master are the only time Lords left.
3. Paradox Machine: if you are using it to bring something back from being wiped out (as in a race of beings) - that would explain why a machine would be needed to bring them back into existence.
4. The Master told the Doctor that if he told the Doctor the real name of the aliens - his hearts would break.

Unless I am completely off the mark, the indicators seem very direct.

What I still do not get - is why - when the Master was on the cellphone with the Doctor -- why he stated that when the Time Lords brought him back for the war - he hid and he was scared. YET -- if he was scared, why create a war with Earth???

[Harry]

Simple. The Master was not scared of war in general, as evidenced numerous times in the old series. What scared him in the Time War was seeing the Dalek Emperor sieze the Cruciform, whatever that may be.
Face it, this Emperor (which is the same one we saw in Series One) was scary as heck. I dont blame the Master for running.