An Hour of Who a Day

September 6: "Praxeus"

Promotional photo for "Praxeus" (from BBC One - Doctor Who, Praxeus
gallery) ©BBC

All around the world, birds are falling out of the sky, while people in Madagascar and Peru are dying of a strange disease that causes them to spontaneously explode. What's going on? And what does all this have to do with a kidnapped British astronaut being held in Hong Kong?

It's interesting; in many ways this episode feels like a sister piece to "Orphan 55", but while that often seemed like it went out of its way to make the guest characters as irritating as possible while hammering home its climate change message, "Praxeus" is much more content to let the drama arise naturally from the situation that's predicated on the spread of plastics throughout the entire planet, and to let us actually like its cast. Even Jake, the cop on sabbatical who starts the episode out as abrasive and reckless, has us firmly on his side by the end of things -- due in no small part, it should be noted, to Warren Brown's performance, which provides a sympathetic component for us to latch on to. And the relationship between him and his husband, the astronaut Adam Lang (Hooray! Finally, another goodie named Adam!), is handled very well, being realistic and touching without being overbearing or maudlin. I also love how the story doesn't go for the emotional heartbreak of having Jake sacrifice himself to save the planet but instead goes for the last-millisecond rescue at the end, allowing them to have their cake and eat it too: "What can I say? I'm a romantic," the Doctor says.

There's also Gabriela, who's constantly (and amusingly) annoyed that no one's heard of her travel vlog, while even Suki, who turns out to be part of the people who brought the Praxeus pathogen to Earth in the first place, engenders sympathy by ultimately trying to save her race rather than just destroying Earth for fun. "Look at us, Suki," the Doctor says. "Two brilliant scientists. We can fix this. Work together, find a cure for you, and then we can stop Earth from being taken over by Praxeus." The Doctor doesn't condemn Suki for the accidents and mistakes that were made, and so neither do we -- although she does end up succumbing to Praxeus in the end, so there is a modicum of poetic justice there if you're looking for it.

Gabriela and Yaz examine an alien device. ("Praxeus") ©BBC

In fact, the only real thing worth noting regarding the characters is actually how Yaz behaves. We've gotten some hints that Yaz is behaving a little more recklessly (such as her eagerness to be a spy in Spyfall, even after she's been transported into the Kasaavian realm), but that seems to be cranked up a notch here, with her wanting to go back into the warehouse to recover the alien tech and to follow the alien through the transport pad. She feels a bit more forceful than before, and not necessarily in a good way. Maybe she's looking to be considered as more of a leader, or more independent? But regardless, she seems a bit more argumentative and a bit more upset about things than she has in the past. I'm curious to see if that's deliberate (perhaps they're preparing the ground for Yaz to leave the TARDIS?) or just something of a coincidence.

But as I said, the main issue here involves the spread of plastics all over Earth -- but while it brings it up and makes it the focus of the alien pathogen, it doesn't get overly preachy about it. "Praxeus breeds in plastic, and this planet is saturated in it," Suki tells the others. "We travelled across three galaxies to find the perfect living laboratory." It brings up the point, makes it the focus of the SF problem they've created, but it doesn't beat us over the head with it. It's a more subtle approach that benefits the episode, and so that also helps put us on its side.

I also like how expansive the setting feels. We're in Madagascar, Hong Kong, England, Peru, and somewhere in the Indian Ocean all in the same episode, without feeling rushed or superfluous. In fact, it gives the proceedings a more urgent feel, because Praxeus is an issue that affects the entire globe, not just one particular region with the possibility of its spreading. It's the sort of thing that the production teams don't tend to use that often, which is why it's really neat to see it put to good use here, with the wide distribution of the locations reinforcing that feeling of a global pandemic about to break out -- a subject which has a much greater resonance just a few months after this episode first aired, with the COVID-19 pandemic still (here in the United States, at least) showing no signs of being controlled. (Although the original airdate -- 2 February 2020 -- was late enough for some to note the similarities between Praxeus and COVID, even if COVID hadn't been declared a pandemic at that point (that would happen on 11 March) and had only just been declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the WHO a couple days earlier.) It kind of makes you wish the Doctor could cook up a cure for us that could be dispersed throughout the atmosphere the way the Praxeus antidote particles are done here. But either way, an unintentional byproduct of the global pandemic is that it helps that aspect of "Praxeus" connect with the audience even more than it did before.

I don't know that this is the most brilliant or flashy episode of the show, or even of series 12, but "Praxeus" does what it sets out to do with a minimum of fuss and a lot of sophistication. The lack of a "proper" monster or villain means that this might not rate as highly as some other stories in fandom, and maybe that does hurt it a little bit (after all, how would kids act this story out on the playground?), and maybe the situation feels a bit slight compared to other episodes (although again, I think the 2020 pandemic has made that part of the story age better than anyone would have perhaps realized). But none of that is the worst of sins. "Praxeus" may therefore not be the most impressive story ever, but nevertheless it's still quietly wonderful.

September 5: "Fugitive of the Judoon"

Promotional photo for "Fugitive of the Judoon" (from BBC One - Doctor
Who, Fugitive of the Judoon gallery) ©BBC

The TARDIS intercepts a Judoon warning transmission regarding 2020 Gloucester, so the TARDIS fam heads down to investigate and stop the Judoon from wreaking havoc on the planet. But why do the Judoon seem interested in two seemingly normal people? Who really are Ruth and Lee Clayton?

Well. I think it's a measure of the kind of episode "Fugitive of the Judoon" is that the surprise return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness (for the first time since Torchwood: Miracle Day in 2011 -- or "The End of Time Part Two" in 2010 if you don't count the spinoffs) isn't even the most exciting part of the proceedings here. (And it was a surprise: like Sacha Dhawan being the Master in the series opener, this was a secret that they managed to keep under wraps.) This episode, written by Chibnall and Vinay Patel (who, you no doubt recall, wrote one of last series's standout stories, "Demons of the Punjab"), is full of surprises.

I like the way it starts relatively small; we're introduced to a married couple, Ruth and Lee, who don't seem particularly out-of-the-ordinary, while in the TARDIS the Doctor is brooding about the Master and Gallifrey. "Is that where you go, when you leave us to explore and you say you'll be back in an hour but you never are? Are you out looking for him? Where do you go?" Yaz asks. But rather than dwell on that, that Judoon signal comes through and it's off to the main storyline. And it does feel like this will probably be a smaller episode at first: it's not the fate of the planet at stake but just a couple people, while the Doctor tries to stop the Judoon from going too nuts. And it's fun to see the Judoon back for the first time since "Face the Raven" (where they had a small cameo), looking more or less the same save for the addition of the short mohawk on the top of their heads. Oh! And they've brought back Nicholas Briggs for the voice, and Paul Kasey to play the lead Judoon (returning to the show for the first time since "Deep Breath"), which is really quite lovely. But yes, the Judoon are here, looking for their fugitive, who may be Lee Clayton; at least, the owner of the bar/café Allan seems to think so -- although he's creepily pining after Ruth (a married woman, don't forget), so it's hard to get worked up about what he thinks. And I like the way that Graham unknowingly takes the piss out of Allan, after he sees the cake that Allan has ruined for Lee on behalf of Ruth's birthday with the message "You Can Do Better": "Look at the state of that! That's the worst cake I've ever seen!" And then suddenly Graham vanishes, to be joined with Captain Jack.

"Ha! You missed me, right?" ("Fugitive of the Judoon") ©BBC

And make no mistake, the return of Jack is genuinely thrilling. Hearing his voice, especially if you didn't know he was returning, is an exciting moment, even if it ultimately ends up being little more than a cameo and a tease for an upcoming episode. Jack's a little older-looking but it's still the same old Jack, ebullient and loving life even as it's going to pot around him: "Ship's security is fighting back. You gotta be kidding me! Anti-theft attack system? Well, now I'm offended." And the way he gives Graham a big ol' kiss, mistaking him for the Doctor, is also great -- although Graham's "Ah" after he realizes the mistake Jack has made may be even better. And I love the little interaction with Ryan, after Jack scoops him and Yaz up as well ("Seriously? Three of you?"): "Listen, kid, working with some low-rent equipment here," Jack says. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" Ryan replies. "Oh, she likes them mouthy, then, huh?" Jack snarks. "Yeah, one up from cheesy," Ryan fires back, taking in Jack's whole shtick. "Okay, he's my favourite," Jack says. Really, it makes you wish there were more Jack, either in this episode or later on in series 12, but regrettably this is all we get. But a little Jack Harkness is better than nothing, especially when it's unexpected, and so I'll still take it.

But as I said at the top, the return of Jack isn't even the biggest surprise of the episode. That, by far, is the introduction of Jo Martin as Ruth Clayton. Because it turns out Ruth isn't as human as she first appears. The initial fake-out with Lee, with all the suspicion falling on him, is well played, but no, it seems Ruth is the one the Judoon are really after -- and the scene in the cathedral, where Ruth turns into a fighting machine, is also orchestrated really well. The first time around I'd guessed that she was a Time Lord who'd been altered by a Chameleon Arch (as seen previously in "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" and also "Utopia"), but I definitely didn't guess who she really was. "Let me take it from the top," 'Ruth' says to the thirteenth Doctor. "Hello, I'm the Doctor." And given that she has a TARDIS that looks like a police box, it seems likely that she's telling the truth -- something that's confirmed when Thirteen scans them both with her sonic screwdriver. But the mystery still deepens, as neither remembers being the other:

RUTH: And how did I end up like... that? All rainbows and trousers that don't reach?
DOCTOR: What? No. How did I end up like you?
RUTH: You don't. You're in my future, not the other way round.
DOCTOR: I've never been anything like you. Trust me, I'd remember. Especially that shirt.
RUTH: So would I, if I'd ever been you, which I haven't. ...
DOCTOR: No, this doesn't make any sense. Either I should know you or you should know me.
RUTH: Agreed.
DOCTOR: So why don't we?

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - Fugitive of the Judoon)

And while there are clues that suggest that Ruth is indeed from our Doctor's past (the look of the TARDIS console room (although, possibly significantly, it's a little different from the classic look), the fact that the Ruth Doctor doesn't recognize the sonic screwdriver, and the fact that Gat, the one pursuing Ruth, is a Gallifreyan -- which should be impossible given the Master's actions at the start of this run), there's nothing definitive to place her somewhere in the Doctor's timeline. "She said she was my past, but I know my past, and she's never been me," Thirteen later says. It's certainly an interesting and unexpected hook for the episode, even if it doesn't get resolved here.

Promotional photo for "Fugitive of the Judoon" (from BBC One - Doctor
Who, Fugitive of the Judoon gallery) ©BBC

Really, if there's a complaint to made about this episode it's that this is an episode designed to fit into a larger storyline, rather than being a largely self-contained episode. There's no resolution to events here of any sort, which means this is all pure setup for something else. Consequently, it feels like it would be a bit difficult to enjoy on its own, in the way you could with, say, the Capaldi episode "Oxygen" (which has larger ramifications for later on in series 10 but still manages to tell its own independent tale). That's definitely a departure for how Chibnall has been doing things so far, and really even for the show as a whole -- I can't think of an ostensibly standalone episode, other than maybe "Mission to the Unknown", that exists purely to set up another story down the line (acknowledging things like "Face the Raven" or "Utopia" that are kind of sort of standalone but in many ways feel like the first part of a multi-part story that immediately follows said episode). So that does weaken the overall effect a little bit. (There's also the potential concern that you need to be a fairly dedicated follower of the show to understand or care about what's happening here -- note the way the Chameleon Arch isn't really explained at all, or the way it's assumed we should just automatically care about the mystery of where the Ruth Doctor "fits".)

But if you're a fan of the show and you don't mind the occasional unresolved moment, this episode is a real winner. It's built up well from something seemingly minor to something major (again, the structure is really well done), the reveals that we get are handled and spaced out well, and everyone does their very best -- Jo Martin in particular is fabulous both as the kind, slightly confused Ruth and the less cuddly, firmer, slightly more dangerous Doctor (oh, and we should also note that this makes Martin our first black Doctor (and therefore first black female Doctor as well), which is pretty damn cool). Overall, "Fugitive of the Judoon" is an excellent example of what this show can do when it's firing on all cylinders.

Oh, and I really like the little pick-me-up speech at the end too:

RYAN: We do know who you are. You're the woman that brought us together, the woman that saved us and loads of other people. You're the Doctor. Whoever you were in the past or are in the future, we know who you are right now. Right?
YASMIN: Right.
GRAHAM: The best person we know.
YASMIN: And whatever is coming for you, we'll be here, 'cos we're your mates.
GRAHAM: Well, not just mates. Family.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - Fugitive of the Judoon)

September 4: "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror"

Promotional photo from "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" (from BBC One -
Doctor Who, Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror gallery) ©BBC

The Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla is looking for funding to complete his Wardenclyffe Tower project, but it seems no one is particularly interested in the idea while also having concerns regarding the safety of the project. But it seems someone from another world might be interested in Tesla himself...

"Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror" is the first Doctor Who episode from writer Nina Metivier (although she script-edited a couple of episodes last series), and it feels a lot closer to the style of series 11 in terms of providing educational content within an entertaining story. This is a good thing, by the way; one of the nice things about series 11 was how it tried to provide more of an educational grounding a lot of the time rather than just relying solely on action-adventure content, and while I'm not saying that's a bad thing it's good to see that the show is still pulling on that thread rather than jettisoning it in the new series. And so here we learn all sorts of stuff about Nikola Tesla and who he was, as well as some stuff about Thomas Edison and how the two of them were rivals. Goran Višnjić, playing Tesla, does a great job of making Tesla likeable and engaging, while Robert Glenister (who you might remember as Salateen from The Caves of Androzani) excels as the more testy, prototypical capitalist Edison. And while it's been fashionable in recent years to make Edison the villain of the Tesla-Edison feud (not completely without reason, it should be noted), Glenister and the script both do a good job of making Edison more than a simple caricature -- note, for instance, his reaction after seeing that all his employees have been killed. Edison in this version is more someone who has a much better grasp of how the world works practically and how to speak to people: the way he gets people to clear the streets after Yaz's unsuccessful attempt being one such example.

Tesla and Edison inside the TARDIS. ("Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror")
©BBC

Really, I could happily watch Tesla and Edison interact for the whole episode, but because it's Doctor Who we get an alien element as well. This time around it's a race of alien scorpions, led by none other than Anjli Mohindra, The Sarah Jane Adventures' very own Rani. She certainly seems like she's having fun, and the makeup is pretty good (although it seems weird how human she looks, especially compared to the other Skithra -- and is she meant to look so much like a Racnoss from "The Runaway Bride"?). I also like the idea of how the Skithra are essentially a scavenger race, with no understanding of how things work, and so they're going to kidnap Tesla to be their engineer. It's a nice change from wanting to conquer the planet or wipe out all life -- although we get some of that too, with the Skithra threatening to overrun Earth as revenge for being thwarted by the Doctor. Plus, the presence of the Skithra in their stolen Venusian spaceship provides a reason for Wardenclyffe Tower to start firing off energy bolts (a real-life event that Tesla never explained), which is quite nice.

But it's Tesla and Edison who are the highlights of this episode. They're just so much fun, and the episode is nicely informative about them, but the script never comes off as preachy or condescending. It's a great peek into an area of history that (somewhat surprisingly) hasn't been explored on the show before. (And another trip to the United States, as well!) It's just about the perfect balance of history and SF, and that's why it's probably my favorite story of series 12.

September 3: "Orphan 55"

Promotional photo for "Orphan 55" (from BBC One - Doctor Who, Orphan
55 gallery) ©BBC

Graham finds enough cards to earn an all-expenses-paid two-week holiday to a place called Tranquility Spa, which the TARDIS fam is instantly transported to. (Pro tip: don't make a cube out of the cards until you're ready to go.) But things aren't quite as tranquil (sorry not sorry) as they seem...

"Orphan 55" is the second script from Ed Hime, after last series's "It Takes You Away" -- a generally solid and imaginative story let down a bit by some padding and a couple questionable characterizations. So you'd hopefully expect that the sophomore effort would be along an upward trajectory, with some of the rough edges smoothed away. Unfortunately, that isn't the case here.

To be fair, it starts out reasonably well; there are some nice jokes in the TARDIS ("I've got to go and fetch my Speedos!" Graham exclaims, after the Doctor tells them they're about to be transported. "Only joking. Already got 'em on," he says, to the slight horror of his companions), and the way the place is set up is quite nice, with the discussion of the Hopper virus, while Ryan starts to flail, being quite delightful ("Now suck your thumb until the hallucinations stop. And remember, they're not real bats," the Doctor tells him). And most of the characters are reasonably likeable, which helps. The only exception at the beginning is the person running the place, Kane, who's played by Laura Fraser (who you might recognize from A Knight's Tale or Breaking Bad, but who I actually recognize as Door from the 1996 Neil Gaiman show Neverwhere). I think she's meant to be no-nonsense, but Fraser chooses to play her as more pig-headed -- and honestly, that would probably be a reasonable reaction to the Doctor's presence, and if it were just her things would likely be fine. But unfortunately she's just the start of the rot.

Because in order to get his characters to move to the places he needs them to be, Ed Hime makes literally every single one of them (with the possible exceptions of the regulars, and even they don't escape completely unscathed) behave like idiots from time to time just to keep the plot moving. Benni going to get Vilma's hat isn't perhaps the worst of sins (other than from the horror movie cliché point of view), but this means that we're subjected to his girlfriend's endless wailing about "Benni!" I'm sure Julia Foster is a lovely, wonderful person in real life, but if I have to hear her call out "Benni!" one more time I think I'll have to punch someone. And none of the other guest characters are safe: Bella seems like she'll be nice but sassy, but then she undergoes a massive heel turn to start threatening everyone else's lives because she's mad at her mommy Kane, even after it's abundantly clear she'll be condemning everyone to death; Nevi keeps putting his son down for comic relief, just so they can share a supposedly touching "I need you" moment at the end; even the son in question, Sylas, who seems initially to be the most level-headed among them, storms off in a fit of pique while he knows the Dregs are attacking the place because the script needs him to be separated from his dad for a bit. I guess Hyph3n and Vorm aren't too frustrating, but that's more because they're turned into cannon fodder before they can undergo their own transformations into idiots. And even the Doctor to an extent isn't spared: it's her suggestion that they go get Benni in the first place, even though it doesn't seem like there's any way an old man like him could be moving around outside the Spa at high speed and this is very clearly a trap. Yes, it speaks well to her moral code about not leaving anyone behind if she can help it, but the minute it becomes clear this is a trap she should be more on the ball.

The Doctor makes telepathic contact with a Dreg. ("Orphan 55") ©BBC

This is already a lot, but then comes the Big Twist: Orphan 55, the uninhabitable, lifeless planet that Tranquility Spa is on (although if it's as dead as they claim, why are there very much alive trees in some of the background shots?), is in fact the future Earth! It's Earth after climate change has rendered the place uninhabitable, save by the last vestiges of humanity, who've adapted to become the not-bad-but-not-the-greatest-monsters the Dregs.²⁹² Look, I'm incredibly sympathetic to the viewpoint that climate change is a massive problem that we as a species haven't done remotely enough to address, and I recognize that in that regard "Orphan 55"'s heart is in the right place, but by the time we learn this I found I was so completely done with the episode and the people in it that my reaction was a profanity and an eyeroll.

Because the thing is, "Orphan 55" hasn't remotely earned that payoff. It's so intent on manhandling its characters into annoying and frustrating situations that all attempts at believability have long since left, and so this is yet one more thing we're being asked to accept in an episode full of unnatural situations. (My brother suggested that maybe the characters are meant to be metaphorical, acting that way because they represent the various ways humanity chooses to ignore the dangers of climate change in favor of their own petty squabbles. This may in fact actually be the point, but if it really is then Hime hasn't done a very good job at successfully conveying the metaphorical side of things.) Which is perhaps why the final moments at the Spa, where Kane suddenly reappears out of nowhere after being apparently killed in order to rescue the daughter, are so aggravating: because they are completely unearned. Bella's supposed to be all hunky-dory with the mom she's spent most of her life despising just because of a deus ex machina rescue? Come on. The TARDIS fam teleports back to the Ship before we see Bella and Kane's final fate, so at least we can hope the Dregs got them in the end.

As I said, "Orphan 55"'s heart is in the right place, and the final speech makes that perfectly clear and direct (and it's a message worth hearing!). But Ed Hime has to work so hard to force his pieces into the positions he wants them in that the whole thing simply collapses under the stress. Maybe another draft would have helped. Maybe giving it to someone else to work on might have helped. But as it is, "Orphan 55" is easily the worst thirteenth Doctor episode to date, and possibly the worst episode the show has ever done: worse than "Boom Town", than episode 4 of The Time Monster, than part 2 of The Horns of Nimon. It might even be worse than "The Lazarus Experiment" -- honestly, its main competition at this point is "Kill the Moon", and right now that would be a tough call for me to decide which was worse. "Orphan 55" has the right general idea, but the complete wrong way of going about it.

Still, at least it looks pretty; the location filming on the island of Tenerife clearly paid off.

²⁹² And knowing that, part of me wishes they could have been the Haemovores from the dying future in The Curse of Fenric instead. But maybe that would have given the game away too soon.

September 2: Spyfall Part Two

Having laid into the Bond theme pretty heavily last time, this episode shifts gears somewhat; it's as if the presence of the revealed Master changes the direction of the story. And while the Doctor has been pulled into the realm of the aliens (the Kasaavin, we subsequently learn), Ryan, Yaz, and Graham are stuck on the crashing airplane. The way out of it for them is fun though, with the instructions ready for Ryan scattered throughout the plane. It's also a relatively clever way to get our heroes out of their jam. (And it made me think of the seventh Doctor story Battlefield and the Doctor's instructions to himself, although "Blink" might be a more likely antecedent.)

Promotional photo for Spyfall Part Two (from BBC One - Doctor Who,
Spyfall: Part Two Gallery ©BBC)

But honestly, although the companions' plotline helps advance the story in certain ways (even if it's a bit reminiscent at times of "The Sound of Drums"), it's the Doctor's side of things that's the more engaging half. Having the Doctor meet Ada Lovelace in the weird realm and then appear in 1834 is really interesting, and it helps give the episode a shot of energy -- especially when the Master shows up, his TARDIS having detected that the Doctor has moved from 2020.²⁹¹ Sacha Dhawan excels at being a gleefully murderous, insane Master -- Missy is probably closest in terms of previous Master characterizations, but even she didn't go as far as the Master does here, essentially killing out of spite. "When I kill them, Doctor, it gives me a little buzz. Right here, in the hearts," he says. The sparks between him and the Doctor just fly -- especially the moment where the Master orders her to kneel and call him "Master"; there's such a charge of energy between the two of them (and I love how Jodie Whittaker gives a little eyeroll before both kneeling and saying "Master").

But it's also nice to see that, while Spyfall has been leaning a bit more RTD/Moffat than anything really in series 11, we still get some of the educational moments that were peppered throughout that season. Here it's information on Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, a bit (although the episode seems to just assume the audience either already knows about the Difference Engine or will be inclined to look it up), as well as about Noor Inayat Khan, the first female wireless operator to be sent into occupied France during World War II (though they don't mention the part where she's later captured by the Germans and executed at Dachau -- but I suppose there's not time to cover everything). The Doctor's interactions with both Ada and Noor are simply wonderful; you get a sense of the respect and awe the Doctor has for the two of them. There's also the nice little speech the Doctor gives, as Ada looks upon war-ravaged Paris: "These are the dark times. But they don't sustain. Darkness never sustains, even though sometimes it feels like it might." (Good advice for our current times as well.) Really, if there's any complaint, it's that meeting Noor actually continues the spy theme established in Part One, but there's a curious lack of emphasis that makes it a bit difficult to realize this is in fact the case. But that's just a minor quibble in a generally excellent part of the episode.

But it's still ultimately the interactions between the Doctor and the Master in 1943 Paris that basically steal the show. I also personally like the little nods to 20th-century Who, such as the four beats in sequence ("The Sound of Drums", although here it's described as the heartbeat of a Time Lord), "Contact" (The Three Doctors), and the little exchange about the events of Logopolis:

DOCTOR: It's cold up here! It's worse than Jodrell Bank.
MASTER: Did I ever apologise for that?
DOCTOR: No.
MASTER: Good.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - Spyfall part 2)

Watching them spar is so entertaining, and listening to the Master explain his convoluted plan (although I can't decide if there's more or less effort and planning involved than in, say, The Mind of Evil or The Time Monster) is great fun. The way the Doctor escapes from the Master (turning off the perception filter that let him pass as a member of the SS, thus revealing he doesn't look like an Aryan archetype) is perhaps a touch cruel, given the actions of the Nazis, but given he'd thrown his lot in with them and we've seen him murdering lots of people, it feels justified.

Really, the only place this episode falls down is the resolution of the villains' plot. Individually, the pieces all make sense: the Kasaavin are interested in computers, so that's why they're tracking them through Earth's history; they're also being used as spies by the Master to help set up his fiendish trap; Daniel Barton is also a computer person and perhaps one who's tired of humanity (as he says in part one, "We did something great, and it got hijacked. I get to see both sides of humanity in this job")... as I said, the pieces make sense on their own, and you can see the thought processes involving computers. It's only when you try to piece it all together that things start to fall apart. Ok, so human DNA can be used to store computer information instead of "how to be human" information -- fine, I guess (although something still feels slightly unworkable about that that I can't quite put my finger on), but why would the Kassavin care about this in the first place? Why are they interested in computers at all? What do they gain from this? Do they really need hard disk space that badly? It doesn't really make sense. (Potential get-out: the Master hints that this was ultimately his plan and that the Kassavin are just happy to go along with it; if that's the case we can probably file this under the same category of plan that required the Master to stand in a field pretending to be a scarecrow until the Doctor happened to walk by (The Mark of the Rani, if you need to be reminded), or to place an elaborate fictional trap location in the TARDIS databanks even though he expects them all to be killed in Event One (Castrovalva).) The ultimate problem is that it's a very unsatisfying resolution, and the fact that all these events have been hinging on something so mundane means that it all feels rather hollow at the end. (And we don't even see Barton get his comeuppance! Last we see he's leaving out the side door, and that's it.)

(Oh, and long as I'm griping a bit: what's with destroying Gallifrey again? Steven Moffat went to such pains to bring it back (successfully, I thought) that it seems a bit churlish to get rid of it again barely a season after he's left, and it also risks creating a yo-yo effect about the place where it's constantly gone and then back and then gone again. But I'll discuss this further when I get to "The Timeless Children".)

But Spyfall isn't the first overall satisfying Doctor Who story to have a wet squib of an ending, and it probably won't be the last. Overall, this is a great ride, with lots of action and fun and one of the most exciting Doctor/Master pairings we've seen yet. Only at the end does it disappoint, and then only a little.

²⁹¹ Contra to the previous footnote under the last entry, this (and the later reveal about Gallifrey) would seem to be evidence that there actually is a Gallifreyan Mean Time, since these events don't really make sense (or at least are much harder to explain) without the idea of a shared personal "present".

September 1, 2020: Spyfall Part One

And we're back! It's been a full year since the last time Doctor Who has been on our TV screens, but the show is back -- not for a Christmas special, but once again for a special New Year's Day premiere. But this isn't just a one-off: instead, we're kicking off the start of series 12 proper, with Part One of Spyfall.

Now, one of the things that marked series 11 was its seeming push toward an older-school approach, and while we get that a bit here (after all, it's our first explicit Part One since 2009!), in some ways this feels like Chibnall loosening up a bit, as if to say, "Now that I've demonstrated that there are other ways to do Doctor Who, here's something more like what you were used to." Because this feels a lot closer to a Steven Moffat season-opener (complete with a pre-titles sequence, Chibnall's first), with lots of globe-trotting and energetic rushing around.

Of course, part of that might be because what Chibnall's really doing (in case the title didn't clue you in) is a take on James Bond, and that necessarily leads to lots of globe-trotting and rushing around. So we get spies around the world being attacked by strange creatures that come out of the walls, while the head of MI6, C (instead of M, but close enough), brings the Doctor and her companions in to brief them on what's going on. C is played by almost-Doctor-Who-writer Stephen Fry, who fills them in just enough before he too is assassinated -- and so it's off to Australia (in reality South Africa again, filling in for all the exotic locales in this two-parter) to meet former MI6 employee O (instead of Q, perhaps?), who was the only MI6 employee to seriously consider the possibility of aliens -- and as agencies such as UNIT and Torchwood are gone (as the Doctor points out), O is the best option that Earth has.

It's nice how Chibnall really goes all-in on the Bond pastiche (and I really enjoy how Segun Akinola matches the pastiche with the music) while distorting it just enough with aliens such that it goes off in a different direction. We're still sent all over the world, only now it's in service of figuring out what's up with the aliens. This not only splits up the TARDIS fam, giving them more to do, but it also allows them to hit more of the Bond tropes, with Yaz and Ryan going undercover while the Doctor and Graham coordinate with the agent in the field (the aforementioned O), without feeling too jumbled or convoluted. Ryan's kind of cute while pretending to be a photojournalist, and Yaz feels like she's loving every minute of it. They're investigating Daniel Barton (played by Sir Lenny Henry!), a sort of Jeff Bezos character in charge of a company called Vor, who's only 93% human and who seems to know more about the aliens than he's letting on. Henry is great as Barton, giving the character the right amount of charm and malice -- perfectly fitting for a Bond-style mastermind.

The Doctor/Graham/O plot strand is more typical Doctor Who than it is Bond, with aliens attacking O's remote homestead, but it's still handled well, with more hints that these aliens are up to no good. "We are ready," the alien they've managed to capture tells them. "...To take this." "To take this what?" the Doctor wonders. "Hut? Country? Planet?" "Universe," the alien replies. And then it disappears, replacing itself with Yaz, who the aliens captured while Yaz and Ryan were snooping around Daniel Barton's office (and there's something rather wonderfully old-school about how the bizarre, completely alien place that Yaz is transported to in the meantime is made up of what's pretty clearly lots of distressed ducting hanging around). This, of course, brings the two plotlines back together, so that it's clear they have to go investigate Barton more closely -- especially since his servers contain alien code with steganographic images of multiple Earths. "They're alien spies embedded here on Earth!" the Doctor realizes. "OK. If you really think they're spies," O muses, "we should be asking who's the spymaster? Who's running the alien spies? Because that's the person who holds the answers." And that, of course, leads them back to Daniel Barton, which means everyone gets to dress up in tuxedos, just like in a Bond film. (And I like how the Doctor's tux is just a black version of her regular outfit -- although is that flash of red on the inside meant to evoke Peter Capaldi?)

I've neglected, by the way, to mention how Sacha Dhawan delights as O, with his happy wonder at the Doctor and his curiosity about the aliens. My wife and I noted while we were watching how it was nice to see him playing a goodie role after having been the villain in Iron Fist (though, of course, he was also Doctor Who's very first director, Waris Hussein, in the Adventure in Space and Time docudrama). He seems so happy and fun that it's a tiny bit sad that we don't get to see more of O. Because, of course, the big twist at the end (that, impressively, they somehow managed to keep secret) is that O isn't O at all; he is, in fact, the Master, returned with no explanation after the events of "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls". Dhawan is definitely having a blast as the Master, playing him with so much evil giddiness mixed with outbursts of sudden rage. It's great to see, even if it's only at the very end here. "I met O," the Doctor says, confused. "I know," the Master replies. "Years ago," she says, still confused. "I know!" he exclaims with glee. "Ambushed him on his way to work for his first day. Shrunk him, took his identity and set myself up in MI6."²⁹⁰ It was an impressively shocking twist at the time, and even with repeated viewings it still holds up -- plus you get to see how the Master pretends to be impressed by things like the TARDIS when he's playing at being O. And if that weren't enough of a cliffhanger, we also get the Master blowing up the cockpit of the plane they're all flying through the air on, while he leaves the Doctor with a cryptic parting shot, one that sets up the rest of series 12: "One last thing. Something you should know in the seconds before you die. Everything that you think you know... is a lie." And then he teleports away, and then the Doctor gets absorbed by the alien creatures, and things look really bleak for the rest of the TARDIS fam...

It's certainly one hell of a cliffhanger, and it's an impressive series opener as well. The main thing to know about this episode is how fun it is. Spyfall Part One is pretty much a blast from start to finish, with lots of great setpieces and mysteries being raised. And bring on Part Two! (Which, because this was a New Year's special, fans only had to wait four days for instead of a whole week.)

(And it's rather sweet how the episode is dedicated to the memory of Master co-creator and prolific Doctor Who writer and author Terrance Dicks, who passed away on 29 August 2019.)

²⁹⁰ Of course, the fact that the Doctor met this incarnation of the Master back when the Doctor was a man (assuming O/the Master is telling the truth at that point) means that this is the first real evidence contradicting the idea of Gallifreyan Mean Time (roughly, that all Time Lords meet each other at the same points in their respective time streams). Maybe it doesn't apply if one of the Time Lords chooses to live on another planet and stay within that time zone? This might also explain the concern with Shada that we've largely glossed over.

August 31: "Resolution"

Another episode without a title sequence! Does Chibnall not actually like the opening titles?

For the first time since Doctor Who came back in 2005, we don't get a Christmas special; instead, it's been delayed a week until New Year's Day 2019. (The cynical part of me thinks that's because, with the announcement that series 12 won't begin until 2020, this way they could still say Doctor Who had aired in 2019.) And so we get a story tied into New Year's instead of Christmas, but in other respects "Resolution" is basically the same thing we've come to expect. It's a longer, bigger episode, with something to entice the casual viewers, and that "something" is the return of the Daleks. Well, a Dalek, at least. But yes, after a season of new threats and planets, Chibnall finally chooses to dip into the show's past and bring back the audience's favorite monster for the "end of series special".

The opening sequence is a bit odd, though; it's like Chibnall wants to create this epic backstory, with pieces of the Kaled mutant being separated across the globe and defended for centuries by a group called the Order of the Custodians, but then he doesn't really do anything with it. The Kaled mutant is able to teleport itself back together once one of the pieces is revived, without any battle or anything, and so we're kind of left wondering what the point of that was. Chibnall could have just had the whole mutant uncovered and revived in Sheffield without any damage to the plot.

But elsewhere we get a pretty solid tale. Chibnall appears to be borrowing from the episode "Dalek" the idea that a lone Dalek is more terrifying than an army of them, but he puts his own spin on it, with the stuff of the mutant being able to latch onto people (kind of like the spiders in Planet of the Spiders, or the time beetle on Donna's back in "Turn Left") and to take over their bodies being an effective and disturbing threat. Plus it gives Charlotte Ritchie, as Lin, the Dalek's victim, a chance to act evil without compromising the sweetness of her character. And hooray! Despite all the changes from the Moffat era that Chibnall has made, we still get Nick Briggs as the voice of the Dalek!

But in other regards this is a whole new Dalek (described as a special kind of Dalek, a reconnaissance scout, in order to maintain good faith continuity with the older versions of Daleks), with a new look and new weapons, such as missiles behind the giant Dalek "bumps" on the front of the skirt section. (And, in another first, this Dalek was completely radio-operated, with no person inside making it move or anything.) The Dalek looks a little ratty and slightly odd, but that's partly because it's reconstructed its shell from odds and ends. ("What do you call this look, junkyard chic?" the Doctor taunts.) It's a clever way of letting the production team design a new version of a Dalek without having to be married to it, the way the Moffat era was stuck with the iPhone Daleks for a while. And this Dalek is still incredibly dangerous, as shown by the way it takes out a squad of soldiers and a tank without much difficulty, so although the look may be different the danger is just as potent as ever.

So the Dalek storyline proceeds nicely, but we do get some character moments thrown in as well to help sweeten the deal, such as at the beginning, with the Doctor having taken her friends to nineteen New Year's celebrations in a row (and I, like the rest of the world, utterly adore the thirteenth Doctor's scarf here). And Jodie Whittaker has an understated but gorgeous line reading, after she works out that the creature in the sewers is a Kaled mutant: "I always I think I'm rid of them. Never am." But the main character bit is the introduction of Ryan's dad, Aaron, who's been hinted at throughout the season but not actually included until now. What's fascinating about his scenes is that Daniel Adegboyega, playing Aaron, makes him a surprisingly sympathetic character. It's not like when Clyde's dad showed up in The Sarah Jane Adventures; here, it feels like Aaron genuinely has regrets and genuinely wants to make amends as best as he can. This really shines through the scene between Aaron and Graham, where Graham has a box of Aaron's stuff that Grace had kept. "I wish I was better at life, Graham," Aaron says. "Well, there's still time," Graham replies. Aaron comes across as flawed but not irredeemable, and while Ryan's acceptance of his dad at the end feels a bit too easy, it's not the worst thing in the world. And Aaron shows himself to be not completely useless, which is nice; he has some engineering skills that not only allowed him to designed a combination oven and microwave, but also let him come up with the plan to defeat the Dalek, after the Doctor points out that this version has a lot of metal in its shell.

Of course, because this is a holiday special and they're expecting more casual viewers to tune in, they've decided to include some "jokes" in the episode as well. The one about UNIT isn't terrible, with its implication that UNIT was shut down as a result of Brexit ("All UNIT operations were put on hold following financial disputes and subsequent funding withdrawal by the UK's major international partners") -- and hilariously, some pro-Brexit viewers were apparently really upset by this -- but the one about all the WiFi and internet and phones going down starts with a good joke from Graham and Ryan ("What, on New Year's Day, when everything's shut and everyone's hung over?" Graham asks. "What a monster," Ryan replies), but then it cuts to a pretty cringe-inducing scene with a family worried that they'll have to talk to each other now. Less of this in future, please.

So it's not a perfect story by any means, but there's quite a bit to like about "Resolution". The actual Dalek itself is pretty terrifying, and the majority of the story is focused on the Dalek, so this part comes off well. If the surrounding material lets the side down, that just means that "Resolution" is ultimately more a solid tale than a brilliant one. Not a bad way to start the New Year at all.

And so that wraps it up for this run of Doctor Who stories. I hope to see you here again on September 1, 2020, when I'll cover series 12 (currently rumored to be airing early in 2020 -- so they basically just pushed the start date back by a few months, rather than scrapping a year altogether).