Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “Utopia”

At first I thought this was going to be a rather silly episode, what with the opening sequence which had Captain Jack Harkness hanging on the outside of the Tardis for dear life and the introduction of the Futurekind, a race of futuristic mutants that seemed suspiciously like a ripoff of the Morlocks from H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. (I guess if you're going to steal, you might as well steal from the best.) However, it eventually morphed into one of the better episodes of the third season and its ending is hands-down one of the best cliffhangers of both series.

The great Derek Jacobi of I, Claudius fame played the mysterious Professor Yana, who was working on a mysterious project at the end of the universe, a project designed to take the remnants of the human race away from the planet they shared with the Futurekind and towards a mysterious location known as Utopia. The Doctor arrived on his planet along with Captain Jack and Martha Jones and started assisting the Professor on his project. But as they worked together, the Doctor got more and more suspicious of the Professor's past.

Then Ms. Jones unintentionally called attention to a mysterious pocket watch in the Professor's possession -- a pocket watch the Professor never before remembered possessing. Shortly afterward, the Doctor suddenly realized the professor's true identity. At roughly the same time, the professor also discovered his true identity -- but his discovery was not a happy one.

Meanwhile, a spaceship took off with the last remnants of humankind aboard, and the Doctor, Captain Jack, Martha, the Professor and his alien assistant were left behind in a site guarded from the Futurekind by an electric fence. Suddenly some fool started shutting off the electricity to the fence and opening the big metal gates that kept out the Futurekind. Coincidence? Probably not. For at the same time, the same fool locked the Doctor and his crew out of the same lab where the Tardis -- his only means of escape -- was located. And the Futurekind were starting to get in. And the Professor was already in the same lab as the Tardis...

But, ah, I have already said too much. See the episode for yourself. And if you can keep from asking yourself how the heck the Doctor gets out of danger this time, then you are a better man than I, Gunga Din...