"The Sound Of Drums"

Season 3, Episode 12, "The Sound Of Drums"

"The Sound Of Drums", first aired in the UK on the 23rd of June 2007 is the second last episode of this Doctor Who season, as well as the second installment in the three part episode.

This episode, although not as good as the last one, in my opinion, was still amazing. It was the body of the story, if you think about it. It's an episode in three parts, this being the second part. So, last week was the beginning, the introducing us to the characters. This week was the main part, the story, the body of the whole thing. And next week will be the conclusion.

Remembering what happened at the end of last week, the TARDIS was stolen by the Time Lord known as The Master, leaving The Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack Harkness alone with the "Futurekind" trying to eat them.

This week starts off with the trio teleporting into a quiet street on 21st century earth. We find out that they used Harkness' Vortex Manipulator to teleport from the end of the Universe to where they are now, which is four earth days after Martha first met the Doctor.

They come back to find England has just elected a new Prime Minister, Mr Saxon, who is in actual fact The Master. He was elected by brainwashing the whole of England using his newly launched mobile phone network. Each phone emitted a drumming sound embedded under heaps of code and signals, thus, brainwashing the whole population into voting for him. We then find out he is planning to take over the world with an unknown alien race he calls the Toclafane.

This leaves our trio to save the day, but can they? After hitching a ride onto The Masters air ship, they attempt to stop him by putting a perception filter necklace around his neck so the world will see who he truly is. The Master is wise to their plans though, and shoots down Harkness in an oh so evil manner, then uses genetic manipulation technology (as seen in previous episodes) on the Doctor, leaving him more that 100 years old.

The Toclafane are released onto the world, being told to kill ten percent of the population. So now it seems only Martha can save the day. Will she be able to?

I sat there watching the episode then casually glanced at the time. Uh-oh. I realized there was only five minutes left. That realization of knowing that there is no way the episode could be summed up in less than five minutes caused my heart to drop. As always it means...

...to be continued...