Next we have Utopia from Series 3, technically part one of a three part finale but this episode on its own stands head and shoulders above the other two that it’s worthy of its own recognition. Another reason is that rather cleverly the episode doesn’t really give any indication of it being part of the finale up until the final ten minutes. After bringing back the Daleks for Series 1 and then the Cybermen for Series 2, everyone guessed that the villain for the Series 3 finale would be the Master and all the trailers heading into Series 3 indicated that John Simm would be in the role of the Doctor’s nemesis. And outside of bringing back Captain Jack, Utopia gives off this vibe of being a throwaway penultimate episode like the previous two years while the audience is waiting to get that out of the way before the two-part return of the Master. Only to pull the rug out and reveal that the Master had been hiding in plain sight all along as the gentle and kind Professor Yana, catching everyone off guard. Even as someone who was unfamiliar with the Master when I first watched this back in 2007, I still got chills when they pulled this twist, so I can only imagine how older fans felt seeing this play out.

Jacobi is my all time favourite Master and his moment in the climax is just a taste of what he delivers in audio. I’m not exaggerating when I say the last ten minutes of Utopia is some of the best Doctor Who ever made. The show has done plenty of surprise villain reveals in the years since, most recently being Sutekh in Series 14, but none of them have carried as much power as this episode, and it’s all thanks to Jacobi’s performance. Going from this kind old man who’s willing to sacrifice himself to save the last humans as the universe collapses, to pulling the mask off like the Master of old and become this chilling and terrifying figure. Jacobi once said in an interview that he was a runner up alongside Daniel Day-Lewis for the role of Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs, and I’ve no doubt Day-Lewis would’ve been great as well, but Jacobi would’ve fit the role like a glove!

The rest of the episode is also very solid, not really any complaints. Rewatching it again given recent years in the show, I do miss scenes of characters talking to each other for a few minutes without running around to speed up the plot. We get a great scene where the Doctor and Jack catch up with each other on what’s happened after they parted company back in Series 1 and it’s just excellent. It goes at an almost leisurely pace with only two action scenes, and then suddenly it just goes all out in the final ten minutes and creates this intense climax with an epic cliff-hanger. Utopia is honestly one of the show’s most under appreciated episodes, maybe its cos people put it alongside The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords which are nowhere near as strong, but it really doesn’t get talked about as much as it deserves.

Definitely one of Modern Who’s strongest episodes, I never get tired of revisiting it and for a long time I did have this bittersweet feeling knowing that this was all we would ever get from Derek Jacobi as the Master, but thanks to Big Finish I can now enjoy the War Master’s machinations in all his majesty, seriously go look into The War Master series, it’s f**king awesome!