Adeola apologizes, but the Doctor rebuffs her attempts to reconcile and instead tells her that he's taking her home. It is then that they pick up the distress signal of the SS Pentallian and head into what we know as the episode proper. Rather than being separated from the TARDIS by heat, the Doctor actually does manage to get it back from the heat using a Stattenheim remote control. However, the attack of a heat zombie keeps them from getting into it. The Doctor works to get the engines back up while Adeola heads off with Riley to get the trivia doors opened. From there, the episode plays out pretty much the same. The Doctor saving Adeola from the capsule adding to things by him telling her that "it's what Martha would have wanted".
Adeola, too, ends up helping to save the Doctor at the last minute from the Heat Zombie infection, which ends things on a much better note than they began. While their relationship isn't repaired, it's at least a bit better off. Enough so that when the next episode comes up, it's a bit more believable that he'd ask for Adeola's help.
Next comes Human Nature, and it can also pretty much play out exactly as the episode in question without too many changes. I would question the Doctor's need to completely erase his memories to fit in. You'd imagine the Doctor, with his telepathic abilities, might be able to lock away all but at least a basic set of things he could carry in a human brain but still use for survival, so he wouldn't be completely useless.
Eccleston could have just as easily pulled the role of John Smith as Tennant was able to in the actual broadcast episode, if not even better given Eccleston's grounding in drama. The relationship between John Smith and Joan can go pretty much the same as well.
Same goes with The Family of Blood. Very little to no changes need to be made here, unless it's giving Son of Mine more screen time, because yes. I could easily see Nine giving out the same punishments that Ten did in the actual episode, if not more extreme.
At some point, however, Adeola will destroy the communication device to Torchwood and we'd get a bit of Jack and Mr. Saxon discovering this.
Blink is a jewel that basically needs no touching done to it. I imagine besides Nine being a little more harsh and straightforward than Ten was in the broadcasted episode. Doubly funny seeing as Blink is originally based from a Moffat short story starring the Ninth Doctor.
Utopia will have a few changes. First of all, the Doctor and Adoela arrive in Cardiff to refuel and find Jack...along with a Torchwood firing squad. As in the broadcast episode, the TARDIS attempts to escape from Jack. He grabs on and they get transported to the year 100 trillion. In the present, a car drives up to the site and we get the first appearance of the mysterious Mr. Saxon we've seen...and he's no one we recognize.
Yet.
For the rest of the episode, it can go off as broadcast, though with a few obvious changes. Rather than the mostly friendly relationship that the Doctor and Jack fell back into during the events of the actual episode, things are a great deal more strained between the two. Given the nature of the last time the two met, this is understandable. The Doctor doesn't trust Jack, particularly when he learns he's working for Torchwood (and doesn't just drop it like the Doctor does in The Sound of Drums) and Jack considers the Doctor a murderous psychopath who committed genocide against the Earth in 200,100.
Adeola is caught in the middle of it all, her repaired relationship with the Doctor clashing with her duty to Torchwood that has been instilled in her, Jack promising that they will forgive her defection if she follows through. Eventually, however, Professor Yana gets reawakened as the Master and eventually shot by Chantho...and regenerates into Mr. Saxon before making his escape in the TARDIS. With the Futurekind baring down on them, the Doctor, Jack, and Adeola make their escape.
The Sound of Drums will not be titled as such, mostly because the sound of drums are a little ridiculous and the ultimate reason for them is likewise ridiculous on a number of levels. One could easily say the Master's subconscious was affecting him while he was Professor Yana, as we saw with John Smith having the Doctor in his. Small, subtle touches here and there...though, as we've seen with most of the Russell T. Davies era, subtlety might as well be a four letter word.
As in the broadcast episode, the Master is living under "Mr. Saxon". In this version, he isn't the Prime Minister, but is the Minister of Defense under Harriet Jones. Adeola attempts to contact her family to warn them, but they've all been taken by Saxon already. The Doctor, Adeola, and now Jack are forced to go on the run, Jack being told point blank by the Master that he's outlived his usefulness. The Doctor is also told by the Master, in no uncertain terms, that he's going to pay for his crimes.
With Martha's family subplots being out, we still get the same set up for the finale - the Master "reveals alien life" to Earth, the U.S. President gets involved, and the Doctor forms the plan to get aboard the Valiant and stop the Master with the perception filter keys. As in the episode, the plan doesn't work...and then, the Master reveals a bit of a surprise.
Unlike in the episode, where the Master takes over the Earth using the Toclafane...here, they're a trick. As is the President of the United States and all of the set up. The Master doesn't need an army to take over the Earth, he's already won. The Doctor was able to pick out the Archangel network for what it was, but the Master mocks him for having no real knowledge of how far it really went. The mind control was effect to the point where even the Doctor was affected by it, allowing him to have him and his companions believe whatever he wanted.
Instead of an alien invasion that decimates one-tenth of the population of Earth, the Doctor and company find themselves in what the Doctor will see as a very familiar court room...
For the third time in his lives, the Doctor is being put on Trial.
Last of the Time Lords will see the Doctor in the mental prison of the Court Room, with the Master declaring that court is now in session. He is both the judge and the prosecuting attorney, with Adeola finding herself forced into the role of the defense lawyer (a bit of a nod to Freema Agyeman's role on Law and Order UK).
The Doctor's charge? Genocide of both Gallifrey at the end of the Time War and Earth in the year 200,100.
Using the TARDIS, which is intact and not turned into a paradox machine in this version, both sides are able to pull witnesses out of the Doctor's more immediate past. Blackthorn calls upon one of the Slitheen from the Downing Street massacre, Queen Victoria, Toby from Sanctuary Base 6, actual vampire Miss Flannigan, Lazlo being converted into a Dalek, and finally Shareen Costello, taken from a part of her timeline where she was being turned into Dalek herself. The evidence they give is damning enough, forcing the Doctor to reflect on the darker sides of his actions.
Shareen's return to her part of her timeline is also tragic, as she begs not to be sent back. While the Doctor and Jack, who accepts this as going too far, attempt to save her paradoxes be damned, the Master ultimately sends her back before they can succeed. He also uses his Tissue Compression Eliminator on Jack, who does die...but gets better, albeit being doll sized.
A shaken Adeola is nonetheless able to bring up others from the Doctor's past, such as Charles Dickens, Brigadier Bambera, an extra from the Game Station, the actual Harriet Jones just after Christmas, Sir Robert MacLeish and Captain Reynolds, Sarah Jane Smith, survivors of The Beast rising from Krop Tor, Donna Noble, the survivors of the Heat Zombie Incident, and - most shockingly of all - Mickey Smith!
However, it is the Master's court and it's a kangaroo court at that. The Master dismisses all evidence in favor of the Doctor and sentences him to death for his crimes. In this time, the Doctor's been able to figure out how the Master has been boosting Archangel - realizing that the Master has managed to find a link to the Matrix and has reentered it. Without the Time Lords to stop him, he has gained access to the entire sum of Gallifrey's history and knowledge as well as complete control of the micro-universe.
With this god-like power over the Matrix, the Master reveals that they have been in the Matrix since they came aboard the Valiant. Escaping from the ship, the Doctor gives chase and finds himself in the wastelands on Gallifrey...or, rather, the image of what was left of it in the final days of the Time War. The Master reveals that finding this link, entirely by accident, allowed him to work out everything. Back in Utopia, his memories being unlocked saw him seek out any and all Time Lords he knew of, but all his searches came back to just the Doctor.
During their battle, while the Master does seemingly have infinite power within the Matrix, the Doctor reveals he has much the same. While the Master has spent however many decades hidden as Yana, the Doctor has been cognizant and his will is quite strong. It all comes to a head at the Eye of Harmony, the Master opening it as a physical representation of overloading it. Like their battle at the actual Eye ages ago, the Master loses his footing and falls into a chasm. Unlike that time, however, the Doctor catches him.
The Master is a spiteful one, of course, and forces the Doctor to let go.
Look at that, the Doctor was able to defeat the Master...and didn't have to turn into Psychic Jesus to do it. Weird how that works.
Without another influence, the Doctor is able to take full control of the Matrix and lets himself, Adeola, and Jack (who is not doll sized in the real world) out. The pair of them are okay, and they find the Master in a comatose state as they were before...except that he seems to be going into shock as if he suffered a great fall - his body taking on the stress of what happened to him in the Matrix. Before the Doctor can move to stabilize his condition, Adeola stops him and questions if they should. The Master is, after all, a delusional egomaniac who will keep on doing what he's been doing if he's saved...something which the Doctor ponders over. Jack, on the other hand, decides to just shoot the Master in both of his hearts and end the matter immediately.
The Master flatlines, but the shots missed their marks ever so slightly. However, between them and the trauma from the fall, it's enough to trigger a regeneration. Golden energy begins to light up his form. The Doctor disarms Jack before he can shoot him again, Jack giving a whispered "I'm so sorry" to the Doctor. The Master does indeed regenerate, going from the former incarnation of Mr. Saxon...to one that will be very familiar to anyone who has seen Series 8 to 10 of the actual show.
Yep, Missy is there when the regeneration energy clears, but the Doctor decides to take a very rare opportunity. His hands rest against the sides of Missy's head, using his telepathy. When she awakens...she exhibits no traits of the Master, or indeed even seems to know who she or they are. The Doctor has, it seems, locked away his...or rather, now, her...memories entirely.
With the denouement, the Doctor says good bye to Adoela and Jack. Jack, having seen the terrors the Master could inflict (as well as having seen some of his history through the Matrix), apologizes to the Doctor. He still doesn't entirely trust the Doctor, but he knows that he'd much rather have the Doctor running around out in the cosmos than the Master. The Doctor, likewise, still doesn't trust Jack but think Torchwood could be in worse hands and, now that the deceptions of the Master have been dispelled, Jack isn't so bad a choice. Adoela, likewise, has elected to remain on Earth to help Jack rebuild Torchwood rather than continue traveling with the Doctor.
They both express some reservations about the Master being left in the Doctor's care, but ultimately agree that it's for the best. The Doctor hopes to rehabilitate his old foe, something which he was never able to do before. The pair of them are, after all, the last of the Time Lords. He leaves them there, going to tend to his new charge - "Estra", Missy as we know her on the main show. The Doctor has also plugged the link into the Matrix into the TARDIS, so he still has access to it. In fact, he may be the only person in the universe with access to it now, being that the Time Lords are well and truly gone.
The Doctor has explained to Estra that she suffered an accident and her memory appears to have suffered greatly as a result of regeneration. He brings up a few things from their past while chit-chatting such as Auto Plastics, mathematicians at the end of the universe, and a cat planet, none of which seem to trigger any response from Estra. It appears that, for better or for worse, the mental blocks the Doctor has put up still stand. Confident in that, the Doctor prepares them for travels through time and space...and then his sensors pick up something hitting the exterior shell of the TARDIS.
..because, as we discussed in both Last of the Time Lords and Time Crash, the bow of the Titanic could not push into the actual interior of the TARDIS because that isn't how the TARDIS works.
And thus, we leave Series 3 in this strange little What If complete. Hell of a twist, huh? Now the Doctor isn't alone for the upcoming Series 4. Will "Estra" begin to remember her past lives and realize what the Doctor has done? Will we see some old friends and new faces? Well, obviously, but that's all going to come after my review of Series 4 is finished. Next time, we'll have a different What If a more...masterful...one.
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