'Last of the Time Lords' (Story Code 3.13) by Russell T Davies

“It’s time we had the truth Miss Jones... Legend says you travelled the world to find a way to kill the Master. Tell us – is it true?” – Professor Docherty

The Master’s evil plan has been put into effect, as hoards of alien Toclafane descend on the Earth and decimate one tenth of its population. As the planet enters terminal extinction, the call goes out to all space lane traffic across the universe: Sol:3 is now a closed world…

One year later, Earth has been conquered and the Master rules supreme, with the aged Doctor his helpless prisoner. Returning from her travels, Martha Jones arrives under cover of darkness on the shores of England; here she meets her contact, Doctor Thomas Milligan, who will take her to Nuclear Plant Seven to meet Professor Alison Docherty. Tom tells Martha that she has become something of a legend: the only freedom fighter on Earth who knows how to kill their oppressor, the Master. Meanwhile, aboard the helicarrier Valiant, the insane renegade Time Lord continues to enjoy his reign of evil; his wife Lucy is now a shattered shell of her former self; Martha’s mother, Francine, is the Master’s personal maid; and the ancient Doctor is forced to live a life of humiliation inside a dog kennel. Extolling the virtues of his New Time Lord Empire, the Master gloats over his defeated enemy, observing that once the Doctor learnt the secret of the Toclafane, his hearts broke; the Master reveals that he knows that Martha has returned – but he doesn’t care, because ‘Launch Day’ will occur in just twenty-four hours. Unseen by the Master, the Doctor signals to Francine, who in turn passes the message to Clive, as he cleans the Valiant’s floors; Clive passes the message to Tish as she brings food to the Master’s other prisoner, the chained up Captain Jack. Meanwhile, Martha and Tom travel to the South Coast of England, where the Master has set up a vast shipyard creating the huge rockets with which he plans to wage war upon the universe. The whole planet has now been ravaged by the Master and the Toclafane; whole countries have been devastated, huge statues of the evil Time Lord have been erected everywhere, and even Mount Rushmore now carries his terrible visage. Tom uses his cover as a doctor to avoid a Toclafane patrol, while Martha remains unobserved with the aid of the perception filter in her TARDIS key. On the Valiant, Jack breaks his chains and effects an escape; an alert goes off in the control room, distracting the Master and allowing Francine to pass his jacket to the Doctor to seize his enemy’s laser screwdriver; however, the device’s isomorphic controls render it useless – the Doctor is swiftly overpowered, and Jack is killed by guards; the Master gloats at his perfect revenge on the Doctor. Martha and Tom arrive at Nuclear Plant Seven, just as Professor Alison Docherty receives a television transmission from the Master, addressing his people. The evil Time Lord sends Martha a message by suspending the Doctor’s ability to regenerate –the Doctor’s nine hundred years immediately catch up on him, transforming him into a tiny, pitiful, wizened creature. Professor Docherty tells Martha that the Master’s satellite system, the Archangel Network, is broadcasting a telepathic signal that keeps the population of Earth in terror. Martha wants to see inside a sphere, and has managed to obtain a recording of the readings taken when lightning destroyed a Toclafane sphere; duplicating the energy signature, and using Tom as bait, it isn’t long before Martha and the professor capture one of the globes. Aboard the Valiant, the Doctor has now been imprisoned inside a birdcage; elsewhere, Francine, Clive and Tish vow to kill their malicious captor. Clearly insane, the Master tells the Doctor that the drums in his head have called him to war, but he is doing everything for the Toclafane. Opening the sphere, Docherty is shocked to find a disembodied head augmented with cybernetics; with horror, Martha realises the creature shares the memory of Creek, the boy she met in the Silo in the far future. The Master explains how he used the Doctor’s TARDIS to take his wife, Lucy, to the planet Utopia in the year One-Hundred-Trillion; instead of a paradise, the world was dark, cold and inhospitable, and as the universe finally collapsed, the survivors of humanity were forced to augment themselves with parts salvaged from their ship, and regressed into a child-like state. Creating a Paradox Machine, the Master changed the universe’s history by taking the ‘Toclafane’ back in time, giving them the opportunity to save themselves by killing their ancestors. After a disgusted Tom kills the obscene creature that was once Creek, Martha reveals that she travelled the world searching for U.N.I.T.’s most secret weapon: a device capable of killing a Time Lord; this gun requires four special chemicals – Martha has three, and the fourth can be obtained from a secret base hidden in London. On the way, Martha and Tom decide to stop off at a safe house, unaware that Professor Docherty is about to trade their whereabouts in exchange for information on her son, who is a prisoner of the Master; making their way through the capitol’s ravaged streets, they soon arrive at the house, where the distressed occupants recognise Martha as their salvation, the only person who can kill the Master. As Martha inspires her audience with story of her friend, the Doctor, a man who has saved them countless times, the Master arrives outside with armed soldiers and several Toclafane. To protect those inside, Martha is forced to give herself up; she hands over the gun to the Master, who promptly destroys it before turning his weapon upon her; however, when Tom sacrifices his life to save Martha, the Master realises that he can have more fun if the Doctor watches him kill her, and so he takes Martha back to the Valiant. On the flight deck, the Master shows off his new prisoner to the Doctor, Jack, Francine, Clive, Tish and Lucy, before activating the countdown that will cause two hundred, thousand warships and a phalanx of spheres to head into space to wage terrible war on the universe. Forcing Martha to kneel before him, the Master prepares to execute her; however, Martha merely laughs – everything has gone according to plan: she knew that Professor Docherty would betray her, and so used the gun as a distraction; Martha’s real mission, as per the Doctor’s last words to her, was to travel the world, telling everyone about her friend, urging them to spread his story, and, at the culmination of the countdown, to think of just one word: “Doctor”. Too late, the Master realises he has been outmanoeuvred: as the countdown reaches zero, the entire world shouts the Doctor’s name, overloading the Archangel Network with a telepathic surge that restores the ancient Time Lord to his former self – and more! Bathed in powerful psychic energy, the Doctor easily shrugs off the Master’s laser blast and advance upon his cowering enemy; but instead of killing him, the Doctor forgives the Master for his crimes. With their Master defeated, the Toclafane realise that the Paradox Machine will be under threat. Jack and several reformed guards head for the TARDIS, only to come under attack by several of the spheres; they manage to destroy them with their guns, allowing Jack to enter the ship and destroy the Paradox Machine. The Master tries to use Martha’s confiscated teleport device to escape, but the Doctor grabs hold of him; transported to the shipyards, the Master threatens to destroy the world by activating the warships’ black hole converters; the Doctor tries to stop him, and in the struggle they activate the teleporter and return to the bridge of the Valiant, just as billions of Toclafane attack. But the destruction of the Paradox Machine causes time to flow back on itself, reversing history to just before the moment the rift opened; all trace of the Master’s evil reign is wiped out, and the Toclafane are sent back to their rightful time at the end of the universe. Although everyone on Earth is no longer able to recall the terrible events of the Master’s domination, all those in the eye of the storm aboard the Valiant can still remember what happened. Francine pulls a gun on the Master and prepares to kill him, but the Doctor manages to talk her down, and instead offers to take responsibility for his comrade’s crimes; however, Lucy then picks up the gun and shoots her husband. Mortally wounded, the Master refuses to spend the rest of his life in the Doctor’s captivity, and, choosing not to regenerate, he dies in the Doctor’s arms. The Doctor is devastated – he is the Last of the Time Lords once more…

Some time later, a solemn Doctor burns the body of the Master in a funeral pyre in a nighttime ceremony. The next day, Martha presents Professor Docherty with flowers and forgives her, even though the woman has no idea who she is; Martha then joins Jack and the Doctor at Cardiff’s Millennium Centre. Realising that he must accept his own responsibilities, Jack informs his two friends that he will stay behind to help his comrades at Torchwood; saluting the Doctor and Martha goodbye, Jack wonders if he will ever get old, explaining that ever since he was a poster boy at the Boeshane Peninsula where he grew up he has always been vain; he was the first Time Agent to sign up, and his friends called him the Face of Boe… While the Doctor waits in the TARDIS with his retrieved severed hand, Martha bids goodbye to her family and then phones Doctor Thomas Milligan. But when Martha rejoins the Doctor in the ship, she tells him that she too has reached a decision: seeing the world in turmoil has given her a new look on life, and she now wants to stay behind to continue her doctorate and help people. Martha is about to leave when she turns back to tell the Doctor that she loves him; handing him her phone, she then vows that he hasn’t seen the last of her… Elsewhere, a woman’s hand picks up the Master’s ring from the ashes of his funeral pyre… As Martha returns to her parents, the Doctor leaves in the TARDIS; however, his flight is suddenly interrupted by a terrific crash – as the ocean liner S.S. Titanic inexplicably smashes into the control room…

David Tennant (The Doctor), Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones), John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness), John Simm (The Master / Harry Saxon), Adjoah Andoh (Francine Jones), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Tish Jones), Trevor Laird (Clive Jones), Reggie Yates (Leo Jones), Alexdra Moen (Lucy Saxon), Tom Ellis (Doctor Thomas Milligan), Ellie Haddington (Professor Alison Docherty), Tom Golding (Lad), Natasha Alexander (Woman), Zoe Thorne, Gerard Logan, Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis (Sphere Voices)

Directed by Colin Teague
Produced by Phil Collinson
Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner
A BBC Wales production

TX:
30th June 2007 @ 7.05 pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Tenth Doctor, Martha and Captain Jack

*Part 3 of a 3-part story

*Instead of the usual forty-three minutes duration, this season finale is fifty-one minutes long

*The Master pushes the captive Doctor around in his wheelchair to the tune of 'I Can't Decide' by Scissor Sisters

*As well as David Tennant and Freema Agyeman, John Barrowman is also credited during the main titles