"We could call this the Master's Dalek plan..."(!)
I love the line above. A nice little fourth wall breaking riff on a story that was televised fifty-six years ago and three quarters of which no longer exists.
Anyway, before I proceed to, yes, praise this epic story by Chris Chibnall (yes, I know), let's just briefly acknowledge that it makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, yes, I can dig the Master getting Daleks and Cybermen to join forces against the Doctor a la The Pandorica Opens... but get them to share ownership of Earth as a foundry for their respective races? Nah. Also, the Doctor is about to regenerate so she effectively tells Yaz to naff off? That's cold, even though the script tries to pretend it isn't. What happened to their romance? Dan's departure seems forced as well.
And yet... it works. It's entertaining, it made me laugh, it made me cry. It contains everything but the kitchen sink, and the TARDIS full of the Doctor's "extended fam" at the end even outdoes Journey's End. Yet it works, all of the characters get room to breathe without outdoing Jodie on her swansong. Even the glimpses of past Doctors- David Bradley, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann- are nice bits of fanwank, but kept in proportion.
And there's a lot of fanwank here. The Companions Anonymous meeting at the end is outrageous. I mean... Mel, Jo, bloody IAN CHESTERTON: William Russell will be ninety-eight next month. Yet, emotionally, it works.
Oh, and who's shipping Ace and Graham? Because Chibbers is.
Ace and Tegan are pitch perfect and absolutely joyful to see. With Tegan, she's the mouth on legs we love so much, brave hearted, wonderful, missing Adric. With Ace we have the jacket, the Nitro 999(!), and even the bloody baseball bat. Ace is absolutely herself, middle aged yet absoklutely the same teenager we know and adore so much. And both of them get to meet their Doctors, courtesy of plot necessity.
Tegan's line to Yaz- "We used to be you, decades back" is a delight.
And I can't believe the early scene of the Cybermen being demagnetised into space isn't a nice little reference to The Moonbase. I love Ace's shock that Cybermen are now explicitly no longer vulnerable to gold. It's about time that was cleared up.
Sacha Dhawan is superb as the Master. His performance here- ever gaslighting and playing with our heads- makes him a serious contender to be the best Master ever. Yes, possibly better than Roger Delgado, John Simm, Derek Jacobi, even Michelle Gomez. And it cannot be denied that the Master, as Rasputin, in 1916, playing Boneyb M's "Ra Ra Rasputin" is one of the greatest televisual moments ever. The idea of Rasputin's hold over the Tsar and Tsarina being due to the "I am the Master, you will obey me" thing is genius.
But we end with the regeneration. Which, despite the rather forced departure of Yaz, is very well handled indeed. Jodie Whittaker is superb. She and Yaz get one last date and one last ice cream. It's just a shame they didn't kiss.
And then she does indeed, as rumoured, regenerate into David Tennant. Yet it's clear this is not a degeneration but a new incarnation with an old face. Tennant's dialogue is, of course, predictably amusing, but that's what RTD intended.
This was not without its flaws. It's possible that I may revise my opinion downwards in future; that happens with Chibnall scripts. But this episode was a joy.
We end with a preview for next year. Ncuti Gatwa is in it... and he's playing it Scottish?
I have not watched this episode apart from the Classic Doctors appearing, Ian cameo and Tennant’s sudden return but I can't help but think that this was some sort of misdirection by Chibnall to ward off any cirticisms of his era. Along with “The Timeless Children”, some people said that they didn't like Chibnall make the “Save Gailfrey” in the 50th pointless by destroying it for real. In regards to Classic Doctors and Companions appearing, mind you, this could have been preemptive damage control to ward off criticisms of his run, especially as Chibnall is almost certainly aware of how controversial his run was.
ReplyDeleteAlso, considering we may now count Billie possibly playing 16, I think there was a missed opportunity to make Paul McGann the 14th Doctor instead of Tennant. Could you imagine that, considering he’s still the Doctor with the least amount of screen time? Having McGann a proper tv screen time, would be a dream.
I still actually like this episode. Of course, it just goes off and does its own thing and leaves all the Chibnall arc stuff completely unresolved... but that's an era thing, not an episode thing. So the criticisms of the era remain... so much unresolved, and I still maintain that treatment of Yaz was just coooold.
ReplyDeleteI don't like Chibbers destroying Gallifrey either. So unimaginiative... and it's probably gone forever now. bringing Gallifrey back again would be just as unoriginal as destroying it again.
Would've been nice to see McGann as the 14th Doctor... but it had to be Tennant for commercial reasons, sadly: to bring back the casual viewers who'd stopped watching.
I know this might seem an unpopular opinon but with all the complex regeneration issues, i am hoping we lessen on multi Doctor stories. I remember in the cinema opening for the 50th, Matt Smith's Doctor jokes about a 100th anniversary special with 46 doctors, but I think that would be one Doctor too many! Plus, I think RTD had a point when he said he felt multi Doctor stories tend to focus on too many characters.
ReplyDeleteAgreed with that last point- there are simply too many Doctors. And, again, there's the general excessive focus on the past, and the show's lore. This needs to be cut back sharply, including limiting multi-Doctor stories.
ReplyDeleteExcessive focus on lore goes against the show's USP- every new story is a new start in a new time and place.
For some reason, no one has ever been able to make a mulit Doctor with every single character and make it work with the exception of Rich Morris' fan made 10 Doctors comic.
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