Oh Brilliant: The best use of Whittaker by several country miles and a watershed episode for her Doctor. There were many seminal scenes here and she pulled them off with real aplomb. There is something very compelling about the Doctor and the Master being pitted against one another and just like having her come against the Daleks in the previous story it really sells the idea that this is the Doctor like no other. If that wasn’t enough having her traverse history and cherry pick some of the most memorable women from history to create a team to fight the Master says something unique and powerful about this Doctor. The scenes featuring the Doctor, Lovelace and Khan feel iconic in the same way that those between the Doctor and the Master do. This is real girl power; three women astride history, bringing their skills together to bring down an evil man. Those scenes have real strength to them. What’s more this is a wonderful chance for the Doctor to reclaim her identity, to reveal who she really is to her friends (who have had a taste of her vast history and now have a lot questions) and she even gets a chance to go home to Gallifrey. If you don’t feel as though Whittaker is the Doctor now then you have no hope. What impressed me was how she walked this episode; facing up to the Master, taking down a plan of insane ambition, and reacting to the horrific developments on her home planet. Whittaker is a dab hand at this now and can tackle the exposition and the emotional scenes with equal alacrity. The look on the Doctor’s face when the Master makes her get on her knees and say his name is priceless. If looks could freeze dry your balls and make them fall off. They have paired up each Doctor and master skilfully on NuWho and essentially made this conflict the core of the series and Whittaker and Dhawan are electric together. ‘When does all this stop for you?’ she asks the Master, a very pertinent question. When Doctor Who ends, I guess. The Master strangling the Doctor atop the Eiffel Tower during the Second World War. Iconic. Mind, the Doctor stripping the Master of his perception filter and mind wiping Lovelace and Khan have some ugly undertones, which is very refreshing for Whittaker’s goody goody Doctor. Maybe she does have some darkness in there after all. The ending of the episode certainly seemed to suggest we were going to see more.
Graham, Yaz and Ryan: They come as a trio in this episode and how well do they work away from the Doctor? I’m not saying that this should be a regular occurrence but sometimes you have to give the companions their own space to see what they are made. The most important thing is that they really sound like Doctor Who companions now rather than soap characters that have been dropped into Doctor Who. They are in danger and having fun with it. That might sound odd but that is essentially the core of the life of a Doctor Who companion. The laser shoes had me howling. I love Graham and that might be his funniest moment yet. ‘What do you mean - I didn’t read the instructions!’ Asking the Doctor to explain who she is the ultimate moment of them claiming their companion status. ‘Who are they and are we being replaced?’ made me laugh a lot.
The Master: What a fascinating take on the character, possibly one of my favourites since he was first introduced (and again that isn’t just because I really fancy Dhawan). I heard plenty of people whinging about how the Master could possibly be this evil again, post Missy, and that it sabotaged all of the development that Moffat gave the character. Little did they know just how much Chibnall would be waving aside of Moffat’s tenure in this episode and this was only the tip of the iceberg. This Master is suffering from a form of post traumatic stress, he’s seen something so distressing that it has unhinged his mind and he is essentially reaching out to the Doctor in the most perverse way imaginable; handing her an alien invasion and a big, whacky plan to foil in order to get her attention. He wants her to know what he has discovered about their people but to just sit her down and tell her just isn’t his way. He hates her and he wants her to suffer too. Dhawan has moments of complete mania and sadism and he really wants Whittaker’s Doctor to suffer. It’s almost like he is a version of all of those fans who hate this incarnation, he’s so desperate to bring her down and yet wants to be a part of the show. It makes it doubly satisfying when se bests him later in the episode because his reaction of pure frustration must be how those fans feel when Whittaker owns this show in Spyfall. Ludo turned to me halfway through and commented about how aggressively sadistic this Doctor is and it’s true. Unlike Missy who was all witty retorts and clever clever thinking, Dhawan’s take is a man who is suffering and wants everybody else to suffer too. The fact that he has the means to reach into history and hurt people is terrifying. I also adore the fact that the last time the Doctor and the Master met he was a man and she was a woman and now she is a woman and he is a man. It’s a quirky reversal. Watching his TARDIS flying through the vortex as a shack is glorious. Good grief, if the Master here has lived through the 20th Century I wonder if he checked in on Delgado in the 70s and Ainley in the 80s. Yeah, it isn’t all the schemes of world domination that make this Master so interesting, it’s how completely damaged he is to his core. When he leaves a message to the Doctor promising dark revelations to come and welling up with tears, I was really paying attention. A huge round of applause for giving some substance to a character I have often struggled with.
The Good: The get-out clause for the plane dive feels pure Moffat in having the Doctor set up the release of her companions at the end of the episode, whilst we see it in action at the beginning. Watching Ryan discover clue after clue and eventually learn to fly the plane that is threatening to kill him, Graham and Yaz is the best thing he has done yet in the series. It’s pulled off with a great deal of liveliness and humour, despite the impending death that is staring them in the face. I loved the shots of the plane from outside with the cockpit ripped free. I could only dream about Doctor having this level of dynamism before it came back in 2005. Maybe it’s not that much like Moffat’s Doctor Who because it feels earnt but not like a blatant plot manipulation.
You could suggest that this episode is a hotchpotch of other stories all smashed together to make a big love letter to the new series and you would be right but this has enough unique elements to give it its own identity. Besides this far into the new series why can’t you look back and celebrate everything that has passed. They did it in season ten of the original series with The Three Doctors. You’ve got the timey wimey nature of the Doctor leaving a video for her friends in the future for them to watch in a desperate situation in the past (Blink), important women from history out of time (The Girl in the Fireplace), an invasion of beings who have populated the entire Earth through time (much like the Silence), the hijack of a plane (Death in Heaven), the Doctor’s friends on the run from the law because of the Master (The Sound of Drums), the rhythm of two hearts (The End of Time) and the fate of Gallifrey (Hell Bent).
I’m impressed that Lenny Henry’s Barton still gets his moment to shine in an episode where there is so much more happening. The scene where he tells his mother how well he has done and she refuses to give him any acknowledgement before he kills her really shocked me (but then that might have something to do with the fact that I recently lost my mum and had a similar sort of relationship with her). The moment when his plan comes to fruition is a very well written (talk about making us all paranoid about our technological devices, cheers Chibnall) and Henry plays Barton as a suave Bond villain taking over the entire human race, barely breaking a sweat. He’s excellent.
The destruction of Gallifrey. What again? Oh no wait, thanks to Moffat this is actually the only time it has happened. I love love love that. Gallifrey was destroyed by Russell T Davies until Moffat came along and showed that up to be a huge dramatic piece of sleight of hand. And now Chibnall has trumped that by having Gallifrey genuinely destroyed this time and returning the show back to its dramatic heyday (because I much preferred the show when the Doctor was a tortured victim of a great Time War). This is the Master’s doing, which automatically elevates Dhawan’s incarnation and gives the Doctor something to truly emote about. It’s dark and twisted and (thanks to Moffat’s revision) completely original. I was on the edge of my seat as the show confidently reset itself and basically did away with the hideous developments of Hell Bent. All this bait and switch with the destruction of Gallifrey is very Doctor Who. And Chibnall has finally made his mark. I love it, you might hate it, but that’s the game.
Either they are shooting it better or it really has had a nifty redesign but I am really loving the TARDIS interior this year. Wasn’t it great how it turned blue in mourning for Gallifrey?
The Bad: Anybody who is mourning the developments of Missy and her redemption arc should take some solace in the fact that she probably, because of that redemption, the most unique incarnation of the Master. Like, was the Master really going to be a good guy/woman now? We’d miss out on all this fun.
The Shallow Bit: Wanting to do bad things to the Master when dressed as a Nazi probably says more about my personal life than anybody needs to hear.
Result: A brilliant, chaotic, ultimately hugely satisfying second part to a story that has redefined what the 13th Doctor’s era can do. We’ve not just reclaimed the teasers, the cliff-hangers and the ambition of previous seasons, but Chibnall is all about continuity and arcs this season too. It’s the Doctor Who template that we are used to albeit spun with much more energy and a huge dollop of fun, which I felt the Moffat era often lacked. This episode has to satisfyingly tie up the huge cliff-hanger from the previous episode, justify and explain the return of the Master, wrap up the masterplan that takes in the history of the Earth and beings from another dimension and bring the Doctor and her friends back together again. It does all of these things adeptly and takes in many memorable scenes and chances for some strong acting along the way. It’s a shock that Chibnall has pulled this off because last year his efforts were so unenterprising but in comparison this is as striving as Doctor Who has been in quite some time. What’s more it holds together as a piece of drama despite the multiple plot threads, locations and huge list of characters. A massive bravo to the audacity of the script and for being able to pull it off so well. It offers real hope for the future. I’m sure it is illegal to say that about something Chris Chibnall has written but there it is. This was a real watershed moment for the era and Whittaker’s Doctor. This is her Remembrance of the Daleks. This is essentially a huge reset of the Moffat era (Hell Bent can go hang) and a hand waving attention seeking scheme of the Master’s (he really should have just sat down with her but then he wouldn’t be the Master, would he?) but it gives Whittaker a chance to go head to head with a worthy new foe (Dhawan truly impresses) make some new friends, bring down an alien invasion and come face to face with something shocking (something she cannot brush off with a smile) and ponder portents of the future. Whittaker handles it all effortlessly. What a choice she was. Great work with the companions too. Ambition and fun go hand in hand and despite a few flaws that still hold it back from perfection (mostly how a huge alien plot was foiled in about 4 seconds), Spyfall opens series 12 with confidence, shocking revelations and a huge dose of excitement. It’s brilliant telly: 9/10
5 comments:
I'm afraid I have to disagree with you.
Even for a "Start the season off with a bang!" episode, there was WAY too much going on.
What was the end game of the Kasaavin? One could guess that they were trying to take over the human race by "copying" themselves onto people, but nothing at all was even suggested in the story. And it's telling about their irrelevance that you didn't mention them at all in this review.
What was Barton's role in all this? What was he hoping to get out of the Kasaavin's scheme?
Was the scene in Paris really necessary? There was absolutely nothing about the setting that was relevant to the plot. And for the record, Paris was never subjected to the sort of destruction depicted in the episode. The Allies weren't going to attack one of their own like that! And for the Germans, Paris was a place where they went for R&R! It wasn't a battleground!
I did think that when the Dr was trapped in the past that wouldn't it be cool if she was trapped there for another episode
I was watching this in my pants. My cat walked past, and it's tail brushed between my legs. It was a bigger thrill than this episode. PS - I am not a pervert. And I don't even have a cat.
Joseph, that is more about your imaginary personal life than i ever needed to know.
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