Wow, what a stacked episode!
Not only do we see the return of Captain Jack, which was great on its own in my opinion, but we finally receive the answer to the Face of Boh's riddle, and how both he and the Doctor can be correct. The Doctor isn't alone, there is another Timelord, yet the Doctor is correct as well, as he can't sense him since he is human. Brilliant!
But what are the odds that of all the Timelords, the only other one to survive is The Master? 😱 Then again, he is so clever and whatnot, that what better way to protect himself from the Time War then to become human and hide at the end of the universe! 😉
This episode caught me by surprise, as I wasn't expecting a lot of fireworks until the last 2 episodes of the season, which I thought would be the standard 2-parter with cliffhanger. Now, essentially, we're getting a 3-part finale to the season, and we do indeed have The Master back as well!
On the one hand, I'm not sure if I like the fact that they brought him back, but it's still too early to say. It just seems like in a way the producers/RTD are doing things to appease the fans and their fantasies. Last season it was, "Hey, let's have the Cybermen battle the Daleks!" and now I wonder if this is going to be more of the same or not. It reminds me of the Alien vs Predator movie - an artifically created movie just cuz some fan really wanted to see it happen - and look at the result. 🙄
As for the Master himself, I thought the older man played him very well - he really reminded me of Delgado with his dialogue and mannerisms, as subtle as they were once he became his true self again. With the new actor though, although we didn't see much of him so I didn't have much time to form an accurate judgment yet, I'm not sure yet if I like him or not. Some of his lines and mannerisms seemed very un-Master-like. The Master always had a warped quality of "class" in my opinion, as evil as he was, yet it was there - he was clever and refined in what he did - I'm not sure if I see that (yet) with this new actor. But again, we'll see in the next episode....
All in all, I liked this episode though and can't wait for next week to see how the Doctor gets out of this one! How does one recover a stolen TARDIS? 😱