Biggest problem first: I’m always thoroughly annoyed when vague mentions of ‘faith’ are used to cover up plot holes in any programme, and the Doctor channelling people’s belief through the Archangel network was one of the worst offenders. I always thought the point of Doctor Who was that ingenuity and fighting spirit would win the day (which, incidentally, was exactly what Martha Jones was doing up to the end). But no; apparently, it’s about blind faith and some rubbish about psychic powers. That’s right, make the Tenth Doctor hover. That’ll help his God complex.
What was probably most annoying about the episode was how much it threw away. Really, can you remember how they wiled away 50 minutes? They didn’t give Captain Jack anything to do. The aged CGI Doctor was plain daft. And I really didn’t keep on top of what exactly the Master’s dastardly empire-building plan was, existing as it did exclusively on a couple of CGI shots of rockets.
And then there was the Toclafane. It was such a hypnotically wonderful idea that, after the Doctor wouldn’t shut up all series about humans keep on surviving everything, that humanity survived to the end of time – only to go mad and cannibalise themselves. The volume of ‘end of civilisation’ commentary to be wrangled out of it was enormous. But the entire topic was boxed in favour of – well, I don’t remember to be honest. Like Utopia will apparently turn out to be, the episode was something of a nothingness, designed to infantilise the human race.
