WHOTOPIA #37 out now

 The new issue of the Canadian Doctor Who fanzine is now available for free download from whotopia.ca. 

This latest issue features two pieces by me: my review of "Revolution of the Daleks" and the latest (and presumably final, but who knows?) installment of my Master Who column, looking at Sacha Dhawan's incarnation.

As well as that, there are articles on the unmade serial The Masters of Luxor, The Return of the Cybermen,  the Children of Time, Doctor Who on film, the physics of time travel, authorship in the series, horror in Who and the mystery of the Timeless Children, plus the first chapter of a Cybermen comic strip.

WHO REVIEW: 12-11 - "Revolution of the Daleks"

 

After a very peculiar year, Doctor Who gives us a special which perfectly fits the times. Which is pretty remarkable, since this was all recorded before lockdown was even on the horizon (aside from a couple of picked up scenes, according to reports, but I couldn't tell you which these were). Aside from the sheer amount of hugging going on – not allowed these days – there's a distinct lockdown feel to the entire story, beginning as it does with the Doctor suffering enforced isolation, and continuing with a reunion with friends she hasn't seen for months. It's serendipity, but it adds something to the episode.

It's an interesting but effective choice to make a special so directly linked to previous episodes. "The Timeless Children" was ten months ago (the same time the Doctor's companions have been waiting for her, which is a nice touch), but the more direct precursor is the last special, Resolution, which was exactly two years ago. Thankfully, the concepts being followed up on are pretty straightforward and easy to grasp if you have missed or forgotten about the earlier adventures. Even the Timeless Child revelations boil down to "the Doctor learned something about herself that she doesn't understand" and this is enough for the special. She's reeling, the details aren't important right now.

The Daleks are the big draw of the episode, of course, but there's plenty of time spent on the Doctor and her many companions. The prison scenes are fun – lovely cameos from some old monsters – but the toll it's taken on the Doctor is clear. She's essentially in solitary confinement for most of her time there, it appears, which we learn has been decades. It's not even clear that she's tried to escape. I mean, it's the Doctor, so you'd expect her to, but she's still dealing with the revelations about herself and it seems she's spent a lot of her confinement just stewing over that. The other big deal of the episode is Jack, making his first proper return to the series after his cameo in "Fugitive of the Judoon." John Barrowman steps back into his role like he's never been away, and he shares a great, easygoing chemistry with Whittaker. Having the immortal Jack wait a full nineteen years in prison so he can get close to the Doctor is wonderful, and shows that he's learnt some considerable patience during his centuries of life (he did spend two thousand years in a grave once after all). On the other hand, having Jack swagger in and rescue the Doctor does make her seem like a damsel in distress, which is not where the Doctor should be at all.

In fact, Jack takes on a lot of the Doctor's role as the fun adventurer for the episode, as the Doctor herself doesn't quite slide back into her usual happy-go-lucky mode, and quite right too. It's wise having both the companions and the Doctor feel each other's absence for some time, although I wonder if the Doctor will ever tell them just how long it was for her. We know the TARDIS has a tendency to take the Doctor to where she's needed rather than where she wants to go, so I feel that arriving ten months late was a deliberate move on the Ship's part. Time for the fam to grow as well. I love how Yaz, Ryan and Graham are still investigating, but aren't immediately up to spin-off series standard. They still need a little time traveller help. Jack has some great chemistry with the team, but particularly with Yaz, who's slotting into the trainee Doctor role that Rose, Clara and indeed Jack all had as their character arcs. As with them, Yaz is clearly in love with the Doctor, but cannily, Chibnall is keeping any feelings the Doctor has for her ambiguous. She's certainly very happy that Yaz isn't leaving...

It's Tosin Cole as Ryan who comes across strongest though, which I admit, was a bit of a surprise. As I said when reviewing Resolution, Cole is strongest with the real life emotional scenes rather than the sci-fi gubbins. It's quite right that it's Ryan who actually sits down with the Doctor and persuades her to talk, and that he's the one who makes the decision to stay on Earth. He's developed just as much as Yaz, but in a different direction, and being the more down-to-earth of the two her naturally elects to stay on solid ground. Cole's magnetic in these quiet, dialogue-based scenes. The only companion who gets short shrift is Graham, a shame considering he's also leaving. Still, his final moments on the TARDIS are lovely. He clearly wants to continue travelling with the Doctor, but stays behind out of loyalty to Grace and Ryan. It's a quiet but powerfully effective moment from Bradley Walsh.

Following up on the Dalek scout from Resolution is a good decision. Everything in the episode is a consequence of previous events, rather than yet another unlikely situation coming out of the blue. The scout design was controversial (because no one's ever happy) but I liked it, but given that it was designed as a kitbash Dalek built on the run it didn't seem like it could be followed up. Having a bunch of humans acquire the remains and use it as the basis of their own Daleks is a clever way of reusing and reviving this new design. The new Earth Daleks work brilliantly, with the scout design built upon to become something sinister and imposing. Sadly, they're rather wasted. We know from the beginning that somehow an actual Dalek will find its way into the drones, but there's virtually no time to see the drones in action before this, or the effect this has on the British populace. Equally, once the drones have been co-opted by the Daleks, we have scarcely any time with them before the bronze Daleks wipe them out.

Still, there's some excellent Dalek action on display. I enjoy how in both episodes there's a focus on how the Dalek is a life form, not just a war machine (even if the Doctor refers to the mutant as "the creature that lives inside a Dalek," but I guess that's just simplification for Robertson). The Daleks are almost as dangerous outside their casings as they are inside, and honestly more frightening. The episode does rerun the previous special a bit, with the Dalek possessing Leo, but this doesn't last long and is more of a way to get from one part of the story to another. Having Leo clone the previous story's Dalek (cannily revealed to have a genetic memory as well, so it can pick up where it left off) is a great way of kicking off the plot, but I feel they missed a trick. Nathan Stewart-Jarrett is excellent as the young scientist, but having him as just a patsy and then killed off wastes him. He could have been a Davros figure, working with the Dalek.

Instead we get Chris Noth back as Jack Robertson from "Arachnids in the UK" nearly three years ago. I doubt anyone was desperate to see him again, but to be fair, he's much more entertaining this time round. Noth hams it up marvellously, and he's written as more deliberately villainous, so he's far more effective as a baddie. However, it's infuriating that once again, he gets off scot free. Surely they're building up a third appearance where he finally gets his comeuppance? Dame Harriet Walter, playing the power hungry politician Jo Patterson, is completely wasted. She's a great actor and makes for a great villain while she has time, but is also killed off far too quickly. I think it's inarguable that there are pacing issues in the episode, with some parts run virtually on fast forward. It brings to mind the seventh series during Matt Smith's tenure, when episodes were run at an absolutely breathless pace. It's certainly a fun, exciting episode, but the plot needs room to breathe as well as the characters' relationships. Still, for sheer spectacle, this is great stuff.

The Doctor's been through a rough time, of course, but she's particularly ruthless here, which, personally, I love. None of that nonsense about claiming to be pacifist or complaining that the other Doctor picked up a gun. The Doctor here tricks one lot of Daleks into coming to Earth to wipe out another lot, in the full knowledge that she'll have to destroy them too. It's a pretty mental plan, but it works, and the ruse of trapping the entire Dalek force in a collapsing TARDIS is brilliant. Again, incredibly ruthless though; that TARDIS is a living being as well. Can't imagine the Doctor's TARDIS was pleased about that.

Finally, we look to the future. We can look forward to an eight episode season this year, a sensible compromise in the face of COVID-19 restrictions. I'm glad we don't have another year without a series, and I'd much rather a shorter one than none at all. I would be very surprised if we don't see Graham and Ryan again, or Jack, and the dialogue around the latter checking in on Gwen certainly sounds like a hint we might see a Torchwood revival of some kind. (Chibnall, of course, was showrunner on the first two seasons of that.)

The sudden reveal post-credits that John Bishop is to join the cast was a surprise, but a welcome one. I enjoy his stand-up, and we've had enough comedians cast in the past that turned out well for the series (going right back to Pertwee, really). We'll see what he's like, but I'm optimistic. Interesting that we're getting another older man in the TARDIS as well. It's been confirmed that he's a new companion, however the BBC made such a big deal before about there being an entirely female TARDIS team for the first time that surely we'll get an episode or two with just the Doctor and Yaz? In any case, Bishop's character is called Dan, which is good news. About time we had a Dan in the TARDIS.

Monster, Monster, Monster

The prison asteroid (a whopping 79 billion light years from Earth, which is absurd) has amongst its inmates a Sycorax, a Weeping Angel, a Pting, a member of the Silence, an Ood, and hiding i the shadows, a Thijarian and a Skithra.

Ryan and Graham are keeping tabs on international paranormal events. They're off to look for trolls in Finland – that has to be the Sontarans we've seen filming, right? - and gravel creatures in Korea.

The Doctor starts a (mercifully short) Dalek civil war here. This is at least the third time she's done that.

WHOTOPIA 36

 Issue 36 of the Doctor Who fanzine Whotopia is now available for download. This special, one-off issue features an in-depth review of Series 12 (refreshingly positive, as well), features on the Thirteenth Doctor, a piece on the soundtrack to The Krotons of all things, and my last installment of "Master Who," looking at Michelle Gomez's glorious Missy.

The issue is available for free download via Dropbox.

WHO REVIEW: 12-10 - The Timeless Children

So, has the whole of Doctor Who canon been blown open, irrevocably altered for ever so that nothing will be the same again?

Well, no, but it has been played with, enriched, and spun around. The thing is, Doctor Who has never really had a canon, per se. There's no specific, official edict as to what "counts," what is apocryphal, and what we should take as part of the "truth" of the story. Pretty much everyone agrees that if it's on TV, it's a part of "real" Doctor Who, although some still-angry fans refuse to accept anything since 2005, or even 1996. Even if we ignore the hundreds of books, audios, comic strips, video games, stage plays and sweet cigarette cards, there are still over eight hundred episodes broadcast over fifty-six-and-a-third years. The Doctor Who backstory has been rewritten and added to so many times it's barely coherent as it is.

SPOILERS FROM HERE

WHO REVIEW: 12-9 - Ascension of the Cybermen

I don't usually review part ones, but this one was a bit of an event. You might say that this season has been a little cynical, in that is has piled shock upon twist to keep people talking about the series. But hell, it's worked; there's a sense of engagement and excitement about this season that was missing from series eleven. This is an episode that's designed to keep viewers guessing all the way through, but unlike most times the series has tried this, there are absolutely no answers on offer.

Some fans have compared this to "Utopia," what with the surprise appearance of the Master, the threat to all humanity and the (implied) Time Lords in disguise, but the closest episode in terms of structure is "Silence in the Library." Both that and the gloriously-titled "Ascension of the Cybermen" run with two seemingly unrelated parallel plots, one of which is sic-fi shenanigans and the other seemingly in a familiar, Earthly setting. Only in "Silence in the Library," there were at least hints that the little girl in her front room and the events in the Library were somehow linked.

But this? There's virtually nothing in the story of Brendan that suggests any kind of link with the Cyber-assault on the last survivors of humanity. Naturally, we're desperately looking for links there, and there has to be something, but we're clutching at straws. I think it's pretty obvious that Brendan is the Timeless Child, or one of them at least, but what that actually means is anyone's guess.

With all the speculation, it's easy to miss just how good this episode is. It's a fast-paced, storming adventure that really pushes the Doctor and the fam into a desperate situation. Whittaker is at her best when the Doctor is against the wall, and while she misreads some lines (there are a couple of times that she delivers a line earnestly when it was surely meant to be off-the-cuff), for the most part she plays the desperate Doctor well. It's quite right that the Doctor is guilty for bringing her companions into this situation; at least previously, when she came up against the Cybermen it was accidental. (Although the Doctor did take Bill right into a Dalek fight once to try to shake off a puddle, but that worked out OK.)

Bradley Walsh is at his best as Graham, perfectly balancing the ordinary bloke with the hardened TARDIS traveller. Mandip Gill is great as Yaz now that she actually has something to do with the character, although I fear Yaz's new-found cockiness and deliberate Doctorishness is going to get her killed. Ryan... well, I can't say anything bad about Tosin Cole this episode, but he doesn't get much to do. Even his regular role of bonding with the guest characters is reduced here. Still, there's a lot going on, and maybe he'll have a bigger role next time.

Splitting the fam up into two teams is by far the best thing for the script, giving the guest cast some room to actually have characters without completely swamping the regulars. They're broadly drawn characters, but they're recognisable, believable ones. I was a little underwhelmed by Julie Graham, who's normally very good, but I particularly liked Steve Toussaint as the de facto leader of humanity.

The Cybermen, though. The Cybermen absolutely rock in this episode. "Rise of the Cybermen" tried to reinvent the Cybermen with a Davros-type character, and it didn't really work, so they've been mostly faceless since (with a sort-of exception of Miss Hartigan in "The Next Doctor.") Ashad works as both a formidable monster and as an inverted Cyberman, leading them while being apart from them by his nature. Indeed, the parallels with Davros are clear when you look at them. While they're personalities and appearances are poles apart, they are both drawn up as half-human/half-classic monster, determined to bring their chosen monster race to superiority. Patrick O'Kane has a genuinely threatening presence in the episode, the kind of relentless power that Tim Shaw could only dream of.

Worn out, rusting Cybermen are always good for a creepy but dangerous foe, but it's the new variants of the Cybermen that work best here. Having multiple versions knocking around at the end of a war makes sense, even if the Cyber Empire doesn't look as defeated as it's made out to be. The Cyber-drones are a great idea - are there heads inside those or are they just robotic? - but ti would have been great to see them dropping down onto people to convert them. Indeed, for all the talk of conversion, the Cybermen here seem mostly out to simply "delete" humanity, which is going to leave them in a pretty pickle once they realise they've wiped out their main resource. The new warrior-class Cybermen look fantastic, a perfect halfway point between the modern era versions and the classic designs. The faces have a look of the versions that appeared in 1968's The Invasion, which would then influence the 1975 version and, to a lesser extent, the '80s versions. These guys are just spot on.

The fact that the Boundary wormhole leads to Gallifrey is the one predictable element of the episode, but that's fine. A touch of predictability is fun, and we were all waiting for the Master and the Time Lords to show up. Sacha Dhawan's sudden appearance was positioned less as a surprise than as an, "Oh, there he is."

Brendan, though. The credits are a bit ambiguous and I'm not sure which Brendan actor is being listed, but they all make the nice policeman into a likeable and sympathetic character through very little screentime. The final attack on him, by what seems to be his adoptive father and police superior, is really upsetting. At first, I presumed this was linked to the Cybermen, and the headset and its effects do look rather like they could be early Cyber technology for wiping emotions. Notably, there's no caption that says IRELAND like is the standard for this season. Are we wrong to assume this is Ireland? Is it even Earth? I find myself wondering if this could, in fact, be Mondas. We've never seen it pre-Cyberman, so who knows. As Star Trek: Picard has established, lots of planets have an Ireland.

On the other hand, on second viewing it seems that the device that Brendan is subjected to is very much like a Chameleon Arch. His reaction to it is virtually identical to Tennant's reaction in "Human Nature." Could this, then, be somehow linked to the Time Lords? Brendan is found as a baby, like Professor Yana, and seems to, somehow, be immortal, although his return to life is played out more like Jack's than a Time Lord regeneration. Ko Sharmus seems like he could be a much, much older version of the character, but he's played by yet another actor, and there's no direct link between his planet and Brendan's home (although the vistas do look a little Irish).

In the end, all or none of these could be true. "The Timeless Children" has 65 minutes to answer all these questions, and presumably explain away Jo Martin's Doctor, and see the Doctor save the last of mankind from Cyber-oblivion. Is there any way it can actually pull this off? We shall see. For now, I'm very excited.

WHO REVIEW: 12-8 - The Haunting of Villa Diodati

The two-part finale is going to have to be pretty special to top that. "Diodati" is an absolute cracker of an episode, starting off as a creepy yet fun haunted house story before segueing into a brilliant new variation on the Cyberman story that kicks the season's story arc into high gear.

Doctor Who hasn't done haunted house stories all that often. We had "The Unquiet Dead" in series one and "Hide" in series seven, and there were elements of the genre in "Blink," but that's only three episodes in fifteen years. Back in the day, we had 1989's Ghost Light and 1972's Day of the Daleks, which is perhaps the closest antecedent to "Diodati," with apparitions explained away as temporal anomalies, leading to a battle with a classic Who monster with humanity's future in the balance. Where "Diodati" stands out is in setting its story on a single specific evening from history, one that has gone down in legend and, indeed, contributed so much to the horror genre that it would be unrecognisable without it.

My favourite moment in the episode is when the Doctor argues for the value of Shelley's life, not on the usual basis that a human life is worth saving regardless, but that his cultural contribution is so great that allowing him to die early would cause irrevocable damage to human history. Indeed, the legendary night at Villa Diodati in 1816 made such a lasting impact to English literature that there has perhaps never been another single night more important to our literary culture. Not only did Mary Shelley devise Frankenstein on that night, essentially creating the modern science fiction genre in the process, but Dr. John Polidori wrote the first draft of The Vampyre, a landmark of horror fiction that would go on to inspire Bram Stoker in his writing of Dracula years later. The cumulative effect on literature and pop culture of this two works cannot be overstated. Polidori was inspired himself by Lord Byron's Fragment of a Novel and loosely based the vampyre of his tale on Byron, but as Polidori actually finished his story and had the greater impact on vampire fiction. In any case, I'm prouder about what I've written than what's been written about me, although Byron probably thought the opposite.

The casting is spot on for the historical cast, with Jacob Collins-Levy making a excellent Byron. The man was, after all, notoriously both arrogant and charming, and it would be very easy to overplay one or the other of those characteristics, but Collins-Levy balances it perfectly. Byron's constant hitting on "Mrs Doctor" is perfectly in character and one of the funnier elements of the story, continuing even as the situation turns into a living nightmare. After all, it would take more than the potential death of humanity to stop Byron flirting. (Loved the Doctor's namedrop of Ada, as well, surely the only time that a father and daughter have been met in reverse historical order - River doesn't count, because she cheated.)

Lili Miller is excellent as Mary, although I feel she doesn't get the amount of screentime she really deserves here. She has some nice moments with Ryan and a good rapport with the Doctor, but given her astonishing genius as a writer I'd have thought more would have been made of her contributions to history, especially given that she essentially created the genre in which the characters exist. (Indeed, having the erasure of Mary's work threaten the Doctor and companions' future would have made more sense in a metatextual way, as without Frankenstein, Doctor Who could not exist.) Instead, most of the accolades go to her husband-to-be, also brilliantly portrayed by Lewis Rainer. Nadia Parkes is strong as the often-overlooked Claire Clairmont, who tells Byron to shove it in the most satisfying moment of the story, but hats off to Maxim Baldry (previously of the fantastic Years and Years) as a perfectly off-his-nut turn as Polidori.

The early part of the episode looks like this is going to turn into a historical romp like the aforementioned "The Unquiet Dead," or the other, author-focused celebrity historicals "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Unicorn and the Wasp." Like those, there's a real focus on how "words matter," but the genre runaround is played straighter, with some genuine chills even as the characters joke with each other. Once the house closes in on them and it seems impossible to escape, there's a real sense of dread, but events are moving quickly and the mind races as to what's going to happen next.

The missus and I were throwing guesses at each other. I was convinced that the Villa was actually a TARDIS, given that its dimensions were folding in on themselves, while we both correctly guessed that the white shadow breaking into reality was a Cyberman (after briefly entertaining the idea that it might be the Kassavin from the season opener). We were briefly convinced that the Lone Cyberman was Shelley, which would have been rather cool but quite hard to square back with established history.

Having the Cybermen crash into the story an episode early is a great way of keeping things surprising even while we're forewarned as to their involvement in the finale. The Cybermen haven't been used for body horror nearly enough, in my opinion, with perhaps the best use being their last appearance, series ten's two-part finale that almost wrote out the Twelfth Doctor. We might have expected a more Franksteinian take on the Cybermen in this story, had we known they were cropping up, but as an unexpected villain, the Lone Cyberman is all the more effective. The use of lightning to recharge him is a bit of a cute joke, but it kind of had to be done, and it doesn't retract from the nightmarish conception of a broken, beaten Cyberman fighting on out of sheer anger and willpower. The script draws attention to how different this Cyberman is to the usual conception (if not always depiction) of the emotionless cyborg, and it works. This is an entirely new version of the classic monster, showing that it's still possible to find a fresh way to approach the oldest elements of the series. Patrick O'Kane is terrifying as this rage-fuelled monster, especially in the moments when his humanity is visible. Most powerful of all is the scene in which it appears Mary has gotten through to him through his once being a father, only to have him spit it back in her face in an astonishing display of bloodthirst and hate.

Not only is the Doctor rightfully outraged and terrified at having to face the Cybermen again - after all, they both killed her previous self and mutilated her last companion - she bears the enormous weight of responsibility for her role in the universe. If anyone's still waiting for Whittaker to get her "Doctor moment," then this is it, with the Doctor shutting down her companions as she balances future and past. Whittaker is brilliant in this scene, showing just how good she can be when given strong material.

While I'm sure, due to the strong links to the season arc, Chibnall must have advised heavily on the story, the script is credited only to Maxine Alderton, and she cements herself as one of the best writers on the series in years. This script manages a moment of focus for all the regulars, be it Ryan's uncomfortable pragmatism, Graham's incredulity and fear, or Yaz's sudden openness about her feelings for someone-who-I-think-we-all-know. The lack of focus on Mary's contributions to literature is a major flaw with the script, but this remains a strong episode and easily a contender for the best Thirteenth Doctor story so far.

Maketh the Woman: I love that the fam are dressing in appropriate period costume as a matter of course now, and they all look great in their 19th century get-up. But what does the Doctor do? Puts on a waistcoat over her T-shirt and puts her usual coat back on top.

The Shallow Bit: This episode is, naturally, is full of very gorgeous people, and I'm particularly taken with Maxim Baldry and Nadia Parkes. Can we please have a moment to recognise how stunning Mandip Gill looks in her period costume though?

Random Thoughts: Why does the Doctor suddenly decide to take her companions on a hasty trip to drop-in on the party at Villa Diodati? Such sudden urges to go see a specific people and places isn't out of character for the Doctor, but is there something else at work here? Did something influence her into making that decision, specifically so she would be in the right place when the Lone Cyberman manifested?

Continuity Corner: This episode was always going to be a tricky one to fit in with the larger Whoniverse. Big Finish have featured Mary Shelley heavily in the past, played by Julie Cox, in adventures with Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor. This started with a typical name drop by the Doctor in the first Eighth Doctor audio, 2001's Storm Warning, which eventually led to "Mary's Story," an installment of 2009's anthology release The Company of Friends. This rather brilliant story saw the Eighth Doctor arrive at Villa Diodati on that fateful 1816 evening, partly inspiring Frankenstein. She then goes travelling with him, appearing in a trilogy of releases in 2011, one of which, The Silver Turk, even features the Cybermen and further inspires Frankenstein. This obviously contradicts this episode, but fortunately, this entire adventure involves a diverted timeline, neatly explaining away any historical or fictional discontinuities.

However, in checking up some of the above details on the TARDIS wikia, I discovered that there was yet another instance of the Doctor inspiring Mary to write Frankenstein, in 2008. "The Creative Spark" was a short comic strip featuring the Tenth Doctor in the Battles in Time trading card magazine. Fortunately, very few people feel moved to include these comics as part of continuity, and even if you do, if we can cope with at least four explanations for Jack the Ripper and three utterly incompatible fates for Atlantis then we can cope with this.

WHO REVIEW: 12-7 - Can You Hear Me?

The last time Doctor Who did an episode about mental health was "Vincent and the Doctor," which was, it astounds me to realise, ten years ago. That was a wonderful episode which illustrated the horrors of depression well, but by focusing on the mental problems of one of history's greatest artists, it fell into the common trap of conflating mental illness and brilliance. It's certainly not uncommon that those with great minds can have equally great mental anguish, but it glosses over the fact that anyone can suffer from such illness. It forgets that mental illness is, in fact, very normal.

"Can You Hear Me?" explores it mental illness in a similar way to "Vincent and the Doctor," however, with both episodes physicalising the illness as a monster. Van Gogh's depression was represented by the Krefayis, a creature that was as invisible to most people as mental illness can be to everyone but the person experiencing it. In this episode, Tahira's nightmares manifest as the werewolf-like Chagaskas. That's merely a small part of this chilling episode, though, a source of literal nightmare fuel which seems built on throwing as many unsettling images at the screen, with little heed for whether they go together.

Not that this is a weakness. Sometimes, Doctor Who's greatest strength can be in putting together wildly incompatible elements and seeing what happens. Here, the clash of visuals is absolutely the point. Everything about this episode is uncomfortable, from the Team TARDIS' difficult reunions with friends and family to the imagery of Zellin's lair. The only part that escapes this oppressive atmosphere is the remarkable animated sequence that illustrates the aliens' history, a sequence unlike anything we've seen on Doctor Who before.

Ian Gelder is basically perfect as Zellin, the ideal actor to play a smug, creepy, million-year-old wizard. He's unsettling enough just standing in the corner of a darkened room, watching, but then he starts to detach his fingers, a bizarre and arresting image which only gets stranger when he starts to stick his detached bits into his victims' ears. I mean, it's utterly ludicrous, and could easily have come across as a silly, comedic effect, but its shot and rendered with such utter seriousness that its genuinely creepy as hell. Worse still is that his various discarded fingers have gone black and necrotic over time. Fortunately for the Doctor and her team, they're still sending signals out to Zellin and his technology (presumably they're digital).

His counterpart, Rakaya, isn't as effective. Clearly spending millennia inside a sun keeps your skin in good condition, because she's young and beautiful rather than aged like Zellin, although the contrast between their appearances is arresting. Clare-Hope Ashitey is a fine actor (she was excellent in Children of Men, which was released fourteen years ago and I really do feel old today). However, she doesn't have the same villainous charisma as Gelder and so comes off as a lesser monster, even though she is ostensibly the worse of the two.

It's the human characters who are given the best material though. Indeed, the companions get some of their best material yet. I've remarked before that Tosin Cole is clearly more comfortable in mundane settings, dealing with realistic scenes, than he is in fantastical moments. He's at his best here opposite Buom Tihngang as Tibo, a man with very believably portrayed depression and anxiety. Yaz, too, finally gets some real depth; the flashback to her near suicide three years earlier is beautifully underplayed by Mandip Gill, as is the awkward homecoming with her sister.

Graham, in contrast, is perhaps a little less convincing than usual in his dream sequences, with the prospect of his cancer returning not evoking the depth of response we'd expect. He does, though, get a brilliant scene in the TARDIS after the adventure's conclusion, one which has been savaged by some fans for spurious reasons. I'm not going to link to clickbait because it annoys the hell out of me, but a small few commentators have suggested that the Doctor's awkwardness when Graham opens up to her is both out of character and inappropriate. Which is nonsense, because this sort of social awkwardness is absolutely in character for the Doctor, particularly the Thirteenth Doctor, who perhaps surprisingly shares a lot of the bluntness and emotional distance of the Twelfth. There's a straight line between Thirteen's declaration that she'll go play with the console until she thinks of something to say and Twelve's desperate "Can I talk about my planets now?" to Clara.

Once again, the plot fails to hold together terribly well when it's looked at too closely. While I appreciate the trip to 14th century Aleppo and the chance to learn more about the medicine of the time - I realised the Arab nations were well ahead of the West medically in that period but had no idea that extended to mental healthcare - there's not really any reason to include the diversion. While the conceit to get the Doctor involved is more believable than in many stories, Zellin could easily have set the bait in Sheffield, where he was already apparently operating, rather than set an entirely separate trap in Aleppo.  Equally, the Chagaskas, although reasonably effective as monsters, don't really serve a purpose.

Indeed, there doesn't particularly seem to be a need for Tahira at all, as good as Aruhan Galieva is in the role. Still, her defeat of the immortals is climactic, even if it is over a little too easily. Nonetheless, "Can You Hear Me?" is something of a triumph, with some of the most effective imagery and a consistency of tone that's often missing. It's an episode with a very important message at its heart: that we all have our demons, but they can be defeated. There will be many young people watching the series who needed to hear that.

Continuity Corner: I had a little moment of fan-delight as Zellin named-dropped the Eternals, the Guardians and the Toymaker within seconds of each other. Do you think all these capricious, immortal aliens hang out together? Is there a social club?

You Can't be Syria's: Galieva isn't Syrian at all; she's of mixed English and Kazakh descent.

Where in the World? This is the first TV Who story set in the Middle East since The Crusaders, way back in 1965.

WHO REVIEW: 12-6 - PRAXEUS

Some fans, who have been watching since the original series, are wringing their hands over the turn of the series today, which is ramming home environmentalist messages every other episode. It lacks the subtlety of the original series, they say.

Apparently, none of these people remember the "subtle" environmental messages of Invasion of the Dinosaurs or The Green Death. Or even the Ninth Doctor berating the plastics and oil poisoning the Earth in "Rose." I'm first to agree that the handling of the eco message in "Orphan 55" was as ham-fisted as a bun vendor, bolted onto the end of a schlocky, poorly-scripted episode. "Praxeus" is altogether better; an episode that manages to be both pacey and atmospheric, with a rapidly moving script that still holds together, and an environmental message that drives the story rather than appearing as an afterthought. It's everything "Orphan 55" was trying to be. Indeed, with both episodes in the line-up and both serving a similar purpose, why wasn't the earlier episode just dropped? "Praxeus" would've have held up even better if the season hadn't already been tarnished with the "woke" brush by the sorts of fans who somehow managed to avoid the political connotations of every season of Doctor Who so far.

The script, by Pete McTighe (who wrote last season's "Kerblam!") and Chris Chibnall, is busy and complex, jumping from place to place quickly enough that there's little chance to get bored, but still keeping the story pretty clear. It's a deft sleight of hand; if you take a moment to think about the story, it really makes very little sense. There's not really any logical link between the lab in Madagascar, the other one in Hong Kong, the base beneath the sea, the submarine, the river in South America, or the ISS mission. They're simply places where things happen, different locations included to keep things visually interesting. There are some sloppy plot holes, too: where does Adam's text message come from?

But there are plenty of Doctor Who stories that fall apart when they're prodded by the logic stick. If you can carry it off for the episode's duration, and keep things entertaining, then you've done the job. And "Praxeus" does work. It handles a much larger TARDIS team than we usually find better than could be expected. Much of this is down to the canny decision to split the team up and have them explore different parts of the overall story, but the episode doesn't keep them apart for all that long. The Doctor drops in repeatedly before getting everyone together, along with a bunch of guest stars. It should be too much, but the characters are interesting enough (well, except Suki) and given enough to do, and so it doesn't feel as crowded as it is.

There's too little time spent in each location to make them feel truly distinct beyond the visual, but it's a fifty-minute episode. It's a short runtime in which to fully explore a single setting, so the writers do the opposite and throw in a bunch settings so there's no time to lose interest. Some of the visuals are effectively creepy, as well, with the uncomfortably haphazard Hong Kong lab and the island under the ocean providing grim, dark contrast to the sunny climes of Madagascar. The Praxeus effect itself is deeply unsettling, rather impressive for how simple it is. It's the same visceral unpleasantness as teeth-faced Tim Shaw in the last season - indeed, the brief glimpse in the trailer made me wonder if it was connected - and making the threat a pathogen sets the episode apart from the usual monsters and/or villains. However, we do eventually get a villain figure in the shape of Suki, who turns out to be a rather boring alien doctor instead of a rather boring human doctor. No disrespect to Molly Harris, who is quite likeable in the role, but Suki just isn't a very interesting character.

Far more successful are Gabriela, Adam and Jake. Joana Borja has a lot of charisma, and makes a fine one-off companion. She shares great chemistry with both Yaz and Ryan. In fact, it makes me wonder if they're trialing her for new a new regular role, which presumably would mean one of the three current companions would turf out. I also really like Warren Brown and Matthew McNulty as, I believe, our first married gay couple who are actual characters and not merely a joke. I love that they're both strapping, butch blokes with serious, manly jobs. They make a believable couple, even if one them is a flippin' astronaut. For a moment, it looks like we'll get a cliched "kill your gays" moment, but it's just the writers trolling us.

Not that everyone gets dealt with well here. Poor Amaru gets pecked to death by a Hitchcock flock and no one even asks after him. The regulars get good material, though, particularly Graham, who shows once again that he's the heart of the programme. Both Ryan and Yaz get to show what they're made of, leading their own investigations. If anything, their stronger than the Doctor this episode, who mostly gets to spout technobabble.

When it comes down to it, your appreciation of this episode depends on whether you consider an alien menace based on an environmental crisis to be a strong science fiction concept or a preachy sermon. Personally, I'm of the former opinion. This is a story where the environmental message is part of the storyline, not an afterthought, and frankly the Indian Ocean's giant garbage patch is both a horrible reminder of our abuse of the Earth and such a weird phenomenon that it's asking for a sci-fi story.

And I shouted "Autons!" at exactly the same time as the Doctor.


The Ratings War: UK overnights indicate only 3.97 million people watched "Praxeus" on broadcast. Dropping below four million isn't a very good sign, although it remained the fourth most watched programme of the day with 20% of the audience share. Ratings for previous episodes show around an extra million are watching after broadcast, but the weekly positions are dropping. The Sunday night position certainly doesn't seem to be working right now, and there's a lack of advance publicity which isn't helping either. There was some fanfare for "Fugitive of the Judoon," but it mostly seemed to be on Doctor Who related pages and sites, so it's preaching to the converted.

Pedantry corner: It's Malagasy, not Madagascan.

Star Turns: Warren Brown (Jake) is no stranger to Doctor Who, having performed a whole bunch of roles for Big Finish.

WHO REVIEW: 12-5 - Fugitive of the Judoon

Look, I'm not averse to a spoilery review, but if you haven't seen this episode yet, you really need to go an watch it now. Then you're allowed to carry on reading.

SPOILERS

WHO REVIEW: 12-4 - Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

That was a great little story. I like that we've gone back to the celebrity historicals - fun romps with a charismatic figure from history and an alien threat. Last season we had "The Witchfinders," which was one of the better episodes of the year. "Rosa" was a more serious story, as close as we've gotten to a pure historical since 2005, but had some similarities to this episode.

Nikola Tesla is the perfect historical figure for Doctor Who to feature. The gentleman inventor is a character trope that goes right back to the beginnings of the Doctor - that's essentially how Doctor was first characterised, and an element that has been introduced back into the Doctor's performance with Whittaker's incarnation. Of course the Doctor is going to be a huge Tesla fan. Setting an episode during the "Current War" - the legendary rivalry between Nikola "AC" Tesla and Thomas "DC" Edison - is the sort of historical story I really enjoy. This series we seem to have something of a theme of the history of electronics and computing, following on from Ada Lovelace and Noor Khan to Tesla and Edison.

It's the sort of historical situation that is ripe for exploration on Doctor Who - absolutely within its themes but not terribly well known. There's been a big resurgence in Tesla enthusiasm in recent years, with a lot of fictionalised versions of him appearing on steampunky sci-fi productions, but when it comes to his actual history, he's still little known  by most people. The educational aspect of Doctor Who, there at the very beginning, is a strong element of this latest iteration of the show and a welcome one.

Goran Višnjić is absolutely spot on as Tesla. He's made up to look physically almost identical to him, and is essentially of the same nationality (Višnjić is a Croatian-American, Tesla was Serbian-American, but both were born in what is now Croatia and was under a greater country's control at the time). It's his performance though that makes Tesla such a compelling character in this episode - eccentric, bewitched by the possibilities of technology and quietly passionate. Just as good is Robert Glenister as Edison - the more famous of the two inventors, as the script is happy to point out. He plays him with a gleeful arrogance, and to be honest, the script really eviscerates Edison for much of the episode. True, Edison was a capitalist of the first order, but he was also a brilliant inventor in his own right and, arguably, made more of a direct impact on history than Tesla. That said, he at least gets to argue his case, and he is shown to have genuine compassion for his staff, even if he is a dickhead to Tesla (who, lets be fair, was no saint himself).

The TARDIS fam is used pretty well throughout here. It still feels like the writers are struggling a bit with finding something for them all to do, but Nina Metivier manages it better than most. Yaz gets to pair off with Tesla for her own mini-adventure, while Graham backs up the Doctor and Ryan gets some nice character moments with Dorothy (Haley McGee). It still feels a bit overstuffed - you could manage this story happily with the Doctor, Dorothy, Tesla and Edison and none of the regular companions - ut on the whole it works.

As do the Skithra. Yes, they're an awful lot like the Racnoss, with the Skithra Queen both looking and sounding reminiscent of the Racnoss Empress, but "The Christmas Invasion" was over thirteen years ago, so it's been long enough. Plus, Anjli Mohindra's performance as the Queen is pretty great, and a lot subtler than Sarah Parrish's as the Empress, even if she is channelling a lot of the same tics. I feel like the two species are probably related in-universe. The Skithra are conceptually quite different, though; if anything, as scavengers they're more like the Santa robots that the Racnoss co-opted than the Racnoss themselves. I like the idea that there are loads of alien chancers hanging around primitive planets waiting to nick stuff off more advanced passers-by, safe in the knowledge they probably won't get caught.

On the other hand, there are some conceptual problems with the Skithra. They're said to have a hive mind, something that is used against them in their defeat, but they don't act like they do. Sure, they have a humanoid(ish) Queen and a bunch of scorpion-like drones, but the drones seem to have distinct personalities and self-awareness. It also seems like Metivier is trying to draw a parallel between Edison using his employees' inventions to make money, and the Skithra stealing technology from other races rather than building it themselves, but they're not really equivalent.

There are some other little quibbles - where did that Silurian gun come from, for instance? - but it's hardly the first time a decent Doctor Who romp failed to make sense when looked at closely. This was a lot of fun, and I'm not arguing with that.

Maketh the woman: The companion trio all get kitted out in early 20th century outfits, all perfectly chosen to suit the actors, but the Doctor just wears her usual gear. After the black tie twist in Skyfall, I'd been looking forward to Thirteen in a period costume for a change.

Ethics is my manor: There's a serious problem with the Doctor's morals here. She forcibly wipes Ada Lovelace's memories to protect her memory, against her protestations, but let's Edison and Tesla carry on after seeing the TARDIS, alien technology and all sorts of history-damaging things. Alternatively maybe it's inconsistent writing, more evidence for needing a decent script editor to take his marker to this series.

Whose face is this? Robert Glenister previously appeared on Doctor Who as Salateen in the 184 classic The Caves of Androzani. Anjli Mohindra was, of course, Rani Chandra for four seasons of The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Title Tattle: Yeah, that's a lovely title, but I'd have gone with "Current Affairs."

Oh look, rocks: One thing Tesla has in common with Rosa Parks: they both have asteroids named after them. So does Edison, as it happens.

WHO REVIEW: 12-3 - Orphan 55

Damn, that was disappointing. After such a great start, series twelve drops the ball completely with a real hash of an episode. Though not without its entertaining moments, "Orphan 55" is nonsensical stream of events that fail to cohere into anything worthwhile.

Which is a shame, because Ed Hime is trying to say something important with this script. Speaking out about global warming is important, even though it's probably screaming into the void at this point. "You're arguing over the washing-up while the house is burning down," is a genuinely excellent line. It's just a shame that there aren't really any others in the script, and that it comes in the midst of a tediously long monologue from the Doctor. A decent script would have made the importance of changing our environmental impact part of the story, not tacked it on the end. And frankly, a message about changing our behaviour to tackle global warming is hard to swallow from a programme with such a gigantic carbon footprint. A series that films in Tenerife, South Africa and Australia lecturing about the environment feels like one of the big blockbusters that seeks to teach us that money isn't everything. 

It's a very derivative story as well, but then again, some of the most enjoyable episodes of Doctor Who have been derivative as hell. But to make a derivative episode work, you have to do it somehow differently to what's come before, or at the very least make it entertaining. Hime's previous episode, "It Takes You Away," was an oddity that didn't quite work, but at least it was different. This episode was merely a series of set pieces that were done better on previous episodes. So Orphan 55 is Earth in the future? So was Ravolox, and when The Trial of a Time Lord is the better handling of a concept, it doesn't look good. The bus ride through the deadly environment was done far better by "Midnight," the holiday camp built on the home of deadly creatures was done better in The Macra Terror. 

The reveal that the holiday spa is a faked environment is nicely handled (like the "fakation" neologism) but the hostile environment doesn't convince. It's hard to persuade an audience that the outside is inimical to all life when there are visible trees. Then again, Hime seems to think that trees "breathe" carbon dioxide and uses this to explain the Dregs, apparently not realising that plants respire oxygen as well. Still, having the Dregs turn out to be mutated humans is a fairly nice twist, even if it's one that's completely obvious the moment it turns out Orphan 55 is Earth, and let's be honest, that was hardly the biggest shock ever. (I honestly expected them to use that twist for Desolation on "The Ghost Monument" last series.) The "dregs of humanity" angle could work well - the idea being that the rich and elite abandoned the Earth, leaving the little people behind - but it's thrown in and passed over too quickly. Nothing has time to stick in this episode. In some ways, this seems like one of the more frenetic comic strip stories - everything is there because it'll briefly look good. 

And for the most part, it does. The Dregs are a very ordinary monster design, but are nicely realised all the same. Then again, you've got Hyph3n, the furry. At least, I assume that what she's meant to be - if she's actually meant to be an alien, then god only knows what the costume designers were thinking. Again, it's a script just going, here's an idea. Oh, didn't work, try the next one. Characters aren't developed beyond simple character traits, and most of them get no closure beyond a sudden burning need for self-sacrifice - three times in one episode, in fact. 

Laura Fraser is completely wasted on this episode. They have James Buckley and give him no funny material. Gia Re does at least share some chemistry with Ryan, but her character is so nuts it's hard to take her seriously as soon as her motivation is revealed. By far the worst element of the episode is Vilma, played by Julia Foster, who hams her way through the episode, spending half of it screeching "Benny!" at the top of her lungs. That's BEnni, who for a moment becomes a spooky voice from the deadly outer wastes, before calmly asking to be murdered. Because he's apparently being tortured by monsters. But can still have a conversation. 

I can't say I'd like another episode of this, but it might have had a chance to work if it had been a two-parter. The concepts might have had time to be explored, the characters could have been developed. Instead, everything steamrollers ahead with no regard for logic or characterisation, until everyone except the regulars is apparently dead. Still, it's hard to care too much. Before we've had a moment to think about them, we're onto the lecture anyway. Although the moral seems to be less "global warming will render the Earth uninhabitable" and more "if you don't change your ways you'll turn into monsters." Actually, it's not a comic strip - it's like a story from a World Distributors Doctor Who annual. 

Graham gets some funny moments at least, and Jodie Whittaker really tries to sell her lines. At the end of the day, though, there's too little that works in amongst the nonsense. I preferred this warning when The Curse of Fenric gave it. 

Maketh the Woman: I do like the Doctor's knitted version of her signature top. 

Future History: The revelation that all futures we see in the series are merely potential futures that can still be changed is really the only way that Doctor Who history can make any sense. As much as I like AHistory and the mad attempt to tie all of the events of the series into a single chronology, the futures shown in the series across its 55-year run contradict each other so much they really can't fit together. Plus, this way all future stories can happily ignore the Earth's fate as Orphan 55 and the events of this episode. 

WHO REVIEW: 12-1 & 12-2: SPYFALL

Well, wasn't that a return to form? As much as I enjoyed series eleven - and I really did - there's no denying that it wasn't quite at the level we'd come to expect from Doctor Who. The writing is sharper, though hardly perfect - character's still explain what they're doing all the time, but at least the show is self aware enough to poke fun at itself while it's doing it.

But the confidence this year! We waited a full year between "Resolution" and Spyfall, Part One, the longest gap between episodes since the series returned in 2005, and then the very shortest, with only four days till part two. We needed a barnstorming return, and we got one. Episode one had scale, riffing on the Bond themes with a globetrotting series of locations, ridiculous spy tech and some serious guest casting. There's some guts in casting Stephen Fry as M - sorry, C - and then bumping him off that early, but he's always good value and it's a treat to finally have him on the series. (The TV series, that is. He's done Who before). Lenny Henry gives good villain here, underplaying the role of Daniel Barton to good effect. In spite of many years as a straight actor, he's still best known as a comedian, so this is a good reminder just how classy he can be when he wants to be.

The regular cast all get to show what they're capable of, all having material that's better suited to their characters than they often got last series. It's gratifying that Chibnall and his team have been listening to some of the complaints about series eleven and gone out of their way to fix them. There's over-the-top adventure for Thirteen and her fam, of course, but also a sense that the companions actually have lives, something that was forgotten so often last year. It's a small thing, but noting that Yaz's career has been hit by her recurrent "secondments," that Ryan's been making excuses to his mates but acquiring new skills, and that Graham needs to visit an actual doctor occasionally are all satisfying.

It makes throwing them all into the Bondian escapades all the more entertaining. Glitzing them up in their finest and sending them to the casino, and the ludicrously killer car chase where it's the car itself trying to kill them - all pure holiday season movie highlights. The show can't keep up this level of incident all the way through the series, but this is exactly what we needed for a season opener. There's mystery as well, of course, with a visually arresting alien race, conspiracies and an unknown realm all thrown into the mix.

It all builds up to that reveal, though. Sacha Dawan is another actor who seems like he should have appeared in Doctor Who years ago, especially considering his previous involvement with Mark Gatiss and other genre television, yet here he is as the likeable and handsome O. Then - my god! - how did they keep that secret? There's always a rumour that the Master will be back, but when it's true, it's usually spoilt. Everyone knew Yana and Saxon were likely to be the Master, and most of guessed Missy was as well, but this came right out of left field. Not that there weren't a couple of clues, but with the story belting along like this, they were very hard to spot. As always, the Master's patience and acting ability seems remarkable, but that's nothing new. It all pales with that reveal, and a stonker of a cliffhanger.

Part twos are never as good as part ones, but this one did come pretty close. It has the hallmarks of Moffat's classic two-parters, throwing in enough new elements and curveballing the story onto another path (and if that's not as mixed metaphor, I don't know what is). I absolutely love that the Master is using the Tissue Compression Eliminator again (I don't think we've seen that since 1984), and I had imagined that the Doctor had been shrunk. The alien realm did look rather like the fronds of a carpet, after all. But no, it was your common or garden alternative dimension. Bizarrely, we then meet Ada Lovelace and get transported with her to 1834. That's the sort of unexpected shift in location that we don't get often enough in the series these days.

Teaming the Doctor up with Ada Lovelace (a lovely performance by Sylvie Briggs) as part of the celebration of computer science is a wonderful idea, and quite right to include Charles Babbage but not allow him to overshadow her. From there we jump again to the 1943, to meet Noor Inayat Khan. Aurora Marion is especially good, although she doesn't get as much material as Ada. In some ways, this is an odd move - separating the Doctor from her companions only to give her two more - but as a celebration of two of the most incredible women in British history it's wonderful. Really, the only complaint is that either Ada or Noor Khan would have easily carried an entire story, not just a small part of one episode.

The Master pursues the Doctor through time, something that gives an air of desperation to the adventure. Given time to explore the role a bit more, Dhawan is brilliant as the Master. It's a shame, in a way, that Missy's arc has been cut off and forgotten about, but the Master was always going to come back and always going to become a villain again. It's been only two years since we last saw the Master (Masters, really) which is a very quick introduction for a new incarnation, but when the character is as entertaining as this, who cares? Dhawan's Master is a furious, hurt man lashing out at the Doctor and the world, and having fun doing it. Putting him in Nazi gear was a bit of a step - at least the script accepts that he'd never get into the SS looking like that, and came up with a bit of Time Lord magic to cover it up - and the episode's most tense moment, in Khan's house, came close to poor taste. Hell, it worked though. The WWII secret resistance brought in a new angle on the spy themes as well.

Meanwhile, 77 years later, the companions gets some strong material for themselves, showing that the best way to handle a large team is to split them up and actually give them something to do. Who'd have thought? The off-grid survival angle gives another side to the spy genre as well, more Bourne than Bond. Henry doesn't get nearly as much decent material in this episode, however. The aliens, named now as the Kasaavin, are as generic as they come, but essentially they're there to provide a threat and look cool while the humanoids do the plotting and talking.

The ending is a bit rushed, but the timey-wimey resolution works (both for the opening and closing of the episode), as long as you don't worry about the logistics too much. It's a fine line they're skirting, but Doctor Who has gotten away with more flagrant abuse of time travel before. Still, the Master, for all his contrived plotting, doesn't seem very prepared when he arrives back at the scene of the climax after several decades waiting around. I'm not entirely sure whether this story was in favour of information technology or not. While Barton lords it over the masses and blames them for allowing technology to infiltrate their lives, the Doctor hero-worships Ada and Noor Khan for their contributions to computing and coding. Before mind-wiping them, that is. She really hasn't learnt anything since she was played by David Tennant.

There's still time for that revelation about Gallifrey. Finally, the Timeless Child, after that one evocative mention in "The Ghost Monument" last series, is recalled. The Time Lords have been destroyed again, this time by the Master himself out of sheer rage at their lies. It's all very intriguing, and promises interesting things to come. Whittaker's best moments so far have been in this episode, either face-to-face with the Master or alone contemplating Gallifrey's fate, and I really hope she gets more of this sort of material. While I admire Chibnall's decision to spend his first series as showrunner focusing on the new, he failed to replace old monsters and concepts with anything equally memorable. After the Master, Gallifrey and the Daleks, there's more to come this year, and while there's a delicate balance to be found between the old and new, if it's presented with this verve it should succeed.


Time, Gentlemen: Both Stephen Fry and Lenny Henry have been involved with Doctor Who before, as Time Lords, no less. Fry played the Minister of Chance on the webcast Death Comes to Time in 2001, while Henry was the Doctor himself in his own 1986 comedy sketch - somewhere between the Doctor's sixth and seventh incarnations.

Maketh the Woman: Everyone looks great in black tie, but the Doctor's outfit is just perfect. It's not a tuxedo, whatever anyone says, but a light formal overcoat. Bringing back the bow-tie is a nice touch as well, and I love that she's still got the culottes and boots. She looks amazing.

Ethics is My Manor: The Doctor says she's a pacifist, but she's really, really not. She's just very bad at knowing when to use force. Her morals are all over the place here - she casually hands the Master over to the SS, while making sure they can see how Asian he looks. I mean, she probably figures he'll just kill them, and fair enough, but wow, that's jarring. Barton, on the other hand, seems to get away scot free.

Master-y: So, is the new Master after Missy, or from somewhere else in their convoluted timeline? I somewhat doubt he's from before Yana and Harry, but he could be between Harry and Missy. He could even be from an alternative timeline, but it's probably simplest to assume that "O" follows Missy and has reverted to type after, you know, being abandoned, dying, on a devastated starship and then discovering something nasty about the Time Lords.

I love how the Master gets beardier as his villainy goes on.

Links and references: The Master "apologises" for killing the Doctor at Jodrell Bank. Except it wasn't Jodrell Bank, it was the Pharos Project. It was just filmed at Jodrell Bank...

Missing Pieces: "O" met the Doctor in one of her earlier incarnations, all to ingratiate with her in his current plan. The Doctor apparently once lived in the Austrailian Outback for 123 years (when?!)

Patterns that aren't there: I had half convinced myself that the aliens were the Voord, if only because of the outline and the social network/search engine being called VOR. It would be willfully obscure of Chibnall to bring back such a little known monster, but it would have made them a bit more interesting.

Infinite Earths: I struggle to accept that the multiple images of the Earth represent different points in time and not different versions of the Earth. We haven't had a proper alternative reality story for ages.Unless you count the frog-verse.

Learn to talk: Chibnall doesn't know what "momentarily" means.

The Ratings War: OK, those overnights are not encouraging. 4.88 million for episode one, 4.6 million for episode two, both about 22% of the audience for the night. That's less than last year's New Year's special, but on the other hand, part one was the second most watched programme of the day, after Emmerdale, which only got 5m, and beating Corrie. Part two was the fifth most watched programme, but there still wasn't a great deal in it.

Clearly, people just aren't watching telly on the night anywhere near as much as they used to; the overnights have been dropping while catch-up and downloads have increased for some time. Nonetheless, I think it's clear that the move away from Christmas was not a clever one. Nice experiment, but it doesn't look like a New Year's launch works particularly well for the series, especially after a whole year's gap.