I must confess to have been a bit disappointed by Utopia and the revelation contained within it.

For one thing the story (revelation aside) is really dull and boring.

If it had been set on the ship shown in 42 but trillions of years in the future and the ship had to be repaired to get it moving again, the piece would look as cheap as it does.

If Chanto had looked hideous but had still been an adorable character it would have underlined the don't trust appearances subtext (the alien make up looks like someone wearing a cycling helmet and a pair of deely boopers, it would have looked pretty crap during the McCoy years).

Yana being the Master though seemed too obvious (for me).

It would have made more sense if he was a dark version of the Doctor (created from the hand).

That way the watch could be the same, the Tardis could be the same, you could have had everything in the show the same but kept the Master for later.

The finale was like most RTD finales too overblown, too derivative (Vader's pyre meets Emperor Ming's ring) and too disposable.

The bit where Sir Derek opens the watch and finds his inner Delgado was priceless stuff but it deserved to be in a much better story.

John Simm's Master was I guess suitably cheesy (when you look back to the Delgado years it sort of fits) but seeing as my Master was the Peter Pratt one I kind of wanted more Hannibal Lecter which I got from Jacobi but not from Simm.

The gas mask scene is great though.

Do you think the Tochlafane were originally The Master's attempt to win the Time War (I would have loved to have seen them cutting open Dalek shells and having fun with what the found inside)?