The Sound of Drums

Dear Gary—

I have to go back to Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and the style over substance mentality of New Who; except that rather than a fireworks display The Sound of Drums and its companion piece Last of the Time Lords is more of a boring Cirque du Soleil. There are long stretches of be-sequined filler punctuated by the occasional hold-your-breath, ‘oh that was good’ moment.

“The moral is, if you’re going to get stuck at the end of the universe, get stuck with an ex Time Agent and his vortex manipulator.” That nicely disposes of the cliffhanger from our previous story Utopia. It has a bit of a swept-under-the-carpet feel to it, but our questions about those unfortunates of our far distant future will come into play eventually; you could say that Utopia is the first ring of our three ring circus.

I suppose that makes The Sound of Drums our middle ring; as such it has lots of bridges to maintain; and lots of explanations are in order. Break out the sequins to add some flash to this filler.

The majority of exposition concerns the Master and it is delivered in a series of mini rings within the larger; cuts between the Doctor/Jack/Martha and Lucy Saxon’s interview and the Master himself; truth be told, I’m kept so busy that I don’t have time to realize I’m bored. I actually am more entertained, marred by moments of annoyance.

The annoying parts are those glittery bits that go wrong; cheap laughs; cheap thrills. Most of these are courtesy of the Master.

“Oh, go on, crack a smile. It’s funny, isn’t it?” The Master is forcing the humor and I can only sympathize with the dour faced Dumfries. It’s not funny, and when the Master slaughters the entire Cabinet I have to wonder how he manages to cover this up as “the Cabinet has gone into seclusion.” This is followed by the brutal murder of Vivien Rock. I was quite enjoying the interview between Vivien and Lucy Saxon. Vivien’s switch from the fluff piece reporter to the hard hitting journalist is convincing and Lucy’s wide-eyed innocence juxtaposed with her deal-with-the-devil realism is fascinating. But then we have the Master opening and closing the door on the cartoon screams emanating from the scene of the crime and all is demeaned.

The Master isn’t the only clown in this circus, though. His buffoonery is augmented by President Elect Winters. And I have to wonder what authority the President Elect has, unless the sitting President so authorized him; or perhaps he is operating under his UN credentials. In any case, I can’t imagine why he is given carte blanche in this matter, and I question the lack of world presence and of security.

For the most part, though, The Sound of Drums holds hypnotic sway, much like the Master’s Archangel Network. “I don’t know; he always sounded good.” (Tap, tap, tap, tap; tap, tap, tap, tap.) “Like you could trust him. Just nice. He spoke about . . . I can’t really remember. But it was good.” (Tap, tap, tap, tap; tap, tap, tap, tap.)

I can’t say that I am exactly mesmerized by the proceedings, but the glitzy display manages to cover most of its defects.

Helping the script along are some solid performances. I especially like Martha showing her independence. Some of her anger at the Doctor is misdirected, but at least she isn’t all starry eyed for a change. Jack, too, is memorable even though he doesn’t really have much of importance to say or do. He is mainly there to look good and facilitate exposition, but he just looks so darn good and facilitates with such ease; he is the perfect magician's assistant. The Doctor takes a strong lead as ring master of this show, and although I question whether his TARDIS key cloaking device would really fool the Master or even guards who are supposedly on high alert, it is an effective scene as he manufactures and explains its use and is rather clever if not examined in detail.

I have to say a word about Lucy Saxon as well. Like Jack she isn’t given much in the script, but she plays it for all she’s worth. I have already mentioned her brief interview with Vivien Rock, but there are two non-speaking background moments that really stand out for me. Both are on the Valiant. The first is when the Master offers her a jelly baby (!) and she rather gleefully bites the head off as she glares at President Elect Winters. The second is the subtle dance she does as strains of Voodoo Child fill the air and the Toclafane descend.

The Master, too, when not playing the clown, has some nice moments. His phone conversation with the Doctor for one. Their re-telling of the Time War is perfunctory but compelling. And who doesn’t love the Teletubbies bit and the nod to Roger Delgado’s Master from The Sea Devils?

The high wire act, however, is reserved for the flashback to Gallifrey and the Master as a child.

“They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems,” the Doctor says of his lost home planet. “And on the Continent of Wild Endeavor, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below.” His description sounds idyllic, like Susan’s long ago burnt orange sky and silver leaves.

“Well, perfect to look at, maybe.” I have learned along my slow path that in practice this Gallifrey is not a place I would ever want to visit, and from what the Doctor says in The Sound of Drums I am even more convinced. Children are torn away from their parents at the age of eight in the world of the Time Lords and sent to the Academy. (No wonder the Doctor has a hard time maintaining attachments.) At the age of eight these youngsters are exposed to the Untempered Schism, “staring at the raw power of time and space.” The Doctor continues, “Some would be inspired, some would run away, and some would go mad.” The Master went mad and the Doctor ran away. (I wonder where all the inspired Time Lords are; aside from possibly Romana, most Time Lords in Doctor Who are more or less bored.)

In the final act of The Sound of Drums we have a deluge of denouement. A few Toclafane spheres appear, Winters is killed, the Doctor is exposed (I knew his device wouldn’t work against the Master), Martha’s imprisoned family is presented , Jack is killed (temporarily), The Lazarus Experiment and the Doctor’s cut off hand from The Christmas Invasion are referenced and tied in to the current plot, and the Doctor is aged.

Now we have two spotlights on our center ring. The first is reserved for the horde of Toclafane as they descend from the opening rift in the sky; an inspired special effect to be sure. The second is for Martha. With chaos around her, Martha quietly cradles the feeble Doctor, a tear in her eye. Then with a look to her family she teleports out using Jack’s vortex manipulator.  “I’m coming back,” she vows amidst the destruction on the planet’s surface. All seems lost, but Martha provides a ray of hope.

When it is all over I think it was good. It was about . . . I don’t really remember, but it was good. And I look forward, Gary, to viewing the third and final ring.