"Doctor Who" The Sound of Drums (2007)

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Director:

Colin Teague

Writer:

Russell T. Davies (written by)

TV Series:

"Doctor Who" (2005)

Original Air Date:

23 June 2007 (Season 3, Episode 12)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Doctor, Martha and Jack return to the 21st Century eighteen months after the Doctor and Martha left. They find they've missed the election, and the new Prime Minister, Harold Saxon, is someone they've met before by another name. |

Plot Keywords:

Political Satire | Master | Alien | Time Lord | Tardis

Cast

David Tennant	...	The Doctor
Freema Agyeman	...	Martha Jones
John Barrowman	...	Captain Jack Harkness
John Simm	...	The Master
Adjoa Andoh	...	Francine Jones
Gugu Mbatha-Raw	...	Tish Jones
Trevor Laird	...	Clive Jones
Reggie Yates	...	Leo Jones
Alexandra Moen	...	Lucy Saxon
Colin Stinton	...	President
Nichola McAuliffe	...	Vivien Rook
Nicholas Gecks	...	Albert Dumfries
Sharon Osbourne	...	Herself
McFly	...	Themselves
Ann Widdecombe	...	Herself

Runtime:

45 min | 45 min (50 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Trivia:

When the Doctor and the Master are speaking to each other the phone, they really are talking to the other person. Instead of having the lines read to them on the set, David Tennant and John Simm called each other in order to make the scene more authentic.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Harold Saxon puts on the gas mask, the valve is at the top. When he takes it off to speak, it has switched to the bottom.

Quotes:

Lucy Saxon: You promised, you said Archangel was one hundred percent.
The Master: Oh... ninety nine, ninety eight?

Movie Connections:

Features "Teletubbies" (1997)

Soundtrack:

Voodoo Child

Strange Mixture Of Good And Bad

Watching this episode is like someone giving you all your favourite food . Salmon , steak , pasta , , curry , blancmange and apple crumble all on the same plate . Seeing as the chef is Russell T Davies he'll also give you everything you don't like such as rabbit , marmite and appropriately tripe on the same plate as your faves .

The Sound Of Drums gets off to a bad start with a quite terrible resolution to the previous week's cliffhanger . What is with episodes dovetailing in to one another ? The writers can't seem to make an effort at all with The Doctor Dances and Age of Steel both suffering from ridiculous resolutions and this episode is no different . The story continues with aspects that left me thinking I was watching a children's programme . We see a bunch of red sticks with the word " Dynamite " written on them which is kind of like seeing a cannonball with a burning fuse , and we're treated ( RTD's words not mine ) to umpteen ridiculous examples plot contrivance like " perception filters " , what a load of nonsense

There are good aspects too such as John Simms take on a Tony Blair type of character and the use of The Rogue Traders rave track Voodoo Child which shows Nu-Who in a radical light . Imagine away back in 1973 we had Roger Delgado's Master as a prime minister who was in to sailing and conducting orchestras battling against Jon Pertwee against a Slade soundtrack . You'd never be able to conceive that would you ? All this helps The Sound Of Drums but it's far from being a classic episode