S03E12: 'The Sound of Drums'

The penultimate episodes of the revitalised Doctor Who have raised the stakes and provided sustained thrillls and suspense as the season hurtles towards the inevitably shocking climax. However, 'The Sound of Drums' isn't quite as satisfying an experience as its predecessors.

John Simm revels in his role as The Master, delivering an appealingly malevolent performance that just steers the right side of pantomime villain caricature. Quite believable as a politician under his Harold Saxon guise, Simm equips The Master with an undercurrent of melancholia and a disturbed, fractured persona which is given a background in the plot via a tantalising flashback to the Time Lord's destroyed planet of Gallifrey.

The narrative does sag in places as it builds up to the eagerly-anticipated cliffhanger, specifically during the scenes featuring The Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack. The time travelling trio are curiously redundant, their presence barely felt throughout the episode. The less said for Martha's tedious family, the better. You felt for the plight of Jackie and Pete Tyler during the previous seasons, but if the Jones clan are thrown to the Toclafane and carved up then barely an eyelid would be battered. Not sure it would make for ideal family teatime viewing though.

Fortunately, 'The Sound of Drums' clicks as a cohesive whole during the final, frantic few minutes. Sparked into life by a magnificently inspired sequence involving dance track 'Voodoo Child' and the Toclafane army breaking through the thunderclouds, events are set up superbly for the finale with a distinctly nihilistic cliffhanger. Just how much botox can The Doctor inject to regain his former dashing young persona?