Last week’s episode World Enough and Time left us not just with a hell of a cliffhanger, but also a hell of a setup. Two Masters, the return of one of the Doctor’s greatest foes in the Mondasian Cybermen, and in a glimpse of the future, a Regeneration on the horizon.
Synopsis:
In the season finale, the Doctor makes a final stand against an army of Cybermen, to protect a tiny band of humans from destruction.
Succinct right? Even more so considering this is an hour long special. But it’s an episode that not only uses its extra length to great effect pacing wise, it’s one that actually manages to deliver on much of the promise of the setup, something not often guaranteed with Who two-parters. It was an emotional ride, teeming with iconic moments that will satisfy even the long term Who-fans.
The situation is grim. Bill has been cyber-converted. The Master and Missy are conspiring, and the Doctor is tied up, being taunted by both iterations of his nemesis. Of course our venerable Time Lord manages to turn the tables on them, reprogramming the Cybermen to recognize life forms beyond humans for upgrade, turning their creator into a target. Forced into an uneasy alliance, they make their escape to an upper deck of the ship, although the Doctor is mortally wounded in the process. The arrive at a solar farm, a level that looks like an idyllic English countryside, its human inhabitants holed up at a farmstead, protecting themselves against attacks. Early Cybermen-prototypes shuffle across the landscape seeking fresh bodies to upgrade. With Cybermen below growing in number and technological advancement, the Doctor and Nardole begin planning for the assault and properly arming the people to defend themselves while Bill begins to come to terms with her conversion.
The approach and setting is certainly a change-up from what was shown last week; overall it works pretty well, but relocating to the countryside of an upper deck was a little disappointing. The dark world with smoke filled skies that had given rise to the horrors of the Cybermen below was a far more interesting place. That said, the visuals of proto-cybermen lurching across fields after children is pure ‘watch behind the sofa’ Doctor Who fare. Director Rachel Talalay puts together an impressively paced episode, a siege-like setting on the old frontier, with many visuals that are felt instantly iconic, all while maintaining a somber, dark tone, one often made all the more chilling by the Master’s ‘quips’. The ‘time dilation’ problem from last week was mined to successful effect, ramping up the threats and the urgency. Also, there was SO much sexual innuendo (Master/Missy Nardole/Hazran). The episode should also be commended for not using any wibbly-wobbly timey wimey stuff to undo the impact of last week, at least in terms of the Doctor’s perception and his accountability for Bill’s fate. We’ll get into the cleanup of her situation later, but in regard to the Doctor, he fucked up, seemingly shell-shocked by it at times, unable to even say goodbye properly in their final moments. Pearl Mackie has done outstanding work all season and continues that here with a Frankenstein-inspired portrayal of this monster in the midst of scared humans, coming to terms with what she is. It’s moving, largely because they smartly kept Bill in character, rather than her Cyber-form; the latter’s robotic speech would have completely undone the poignancy of her struggles.
The Cybermen are restored to the chilling, relentless menace of eras past, while the depiction of the Master is something of a mixed success. On the downside, we never really see the battle of wills that often characterized the struggle between the Doctor and his most dangerous foe, the plot moving them into a tenuous alliance to survive negating that. On the upside, Moffat shows an understanding of the character that completely eluded Russel T. Davies, whose writing for Simm was frankly awful, making him a gurning fool instead of a maniacal genius. Michelle Gomez has always been perfect. Having two incarnations of them was delicious at times, never more so than at the beginning, delivering quips about how the Doctor has and might like to die. Let’s recap shall we?
- Old age
- Forced regeneration/exile to Earth by the Time Lord High Council
- Poisoning by Metebelis crystals
- A fall from a radio telescope while foiling the Master
- Spectrox toxaemia poisoning
- An injury when the TARDIS is attacked by the Rani
- A shooting by gang members in San Francisco
- Deliberate regeneration into the War Doctor
- Old age at the end of the Time War
- Absorbing the energy of the time vortex from Rose Tyler
- Absorbing radiation to save Wilf
- Old age (again) after defending the inhabitants of Trenzalore
I guess come Christmas, when Twelve finally succumbs, we can add electrocution by a Cyberman to the list. He certainly begins his exit in style, a whirling dervish of destruction, detonating charges and exploding Cybermen to give the children time to clear the level before he blew it all up. Speaking of Time Lord deaths, the ending to the Master/Missy was perfect for someone with such a self-destructive personality, but for anyone who thinks that Missy’s death means the last of the character, c’mon…
Another ‘death’ is found to be not so final either, with Bill’s fate getting a happier resolution than threatened. It’s hard to critique the show too much for offering up a happier ending for her; it is a family show after all. The return of Heather (Stephanie Hyam), “the girl with the star in her eye,” from series-opener The Pilot provided a rather touching way to save Bill from her metal prison, a resolution that certainly tugged at the heartstrings, largely because how quickly Bill has endeared herself to us. It would have resonated all the more if her relationship with Heather had been developed more than just being a flirtatious thing. Also, this ending had too many echos of Clara/Ashildur for my liking.
I had an exchange with a colleague on Twitter after he remarked how surprisingly somber Capaldi’s Doctor is, given he’s the first incarnation to not be so burdened by his actions in the Time War. Twelve is clearly a more mature manifestation of the Doctor, one who accepts his responsibility. He confronts, rather that being the man who regrets (Ten) and the man who forgets (Eleven). This is a point it’s taken time for Capaldi to solidify, from the crotchety Alien beginnings to his speech in this episode, which marks him as being at a point where he knows his place, his purpose, and the value of life. He doesn’t want to learn it all over again, gamble on the new mix of personalities he may emerge with. He also may not want to relinquish the anguish over losing Bill, at least not yet, while angrily staving off the Regeneration forces and risking his life in the process.
The episode itself ended with a scene that drew gasps of delight from Who fans across the globe. Twelve, meet One. Yep, the original incarnation of the Doctor, the irascible old man who originally took his Granddaughter and a stolen TARDIS from Gallifrey thousands of years ago. David Bradley did sterling work playing William Hartnell, the original actor to play the Doctor, back in the anniversary biopic An Adventure in Time and Space in 2013 for the show’s 50th Anniversary. It’ll be tremendous to see him fully embrace the character in a Christmas romp, which will probably serve as something of a therapy session for Twelve, reconnecting with himself and learning to let go, and allow the Doctor to accept his Regeneration…one that the episode can’t help but tease about. When asked “will the future be all girl?” the Doctor’s response is, “we can only hope.”
The Doctor Falls not only serves a great followup to World Enough and Time, but as a great capper the season as a whole. It nestles into the shows iconic history nicely while beginning a fitting sendoff for Capaldi’s outstanding tenure. Roll on Christmas Day! But until then, I’ll leave you with this prescient clip.