Last week's episode, World
Enough and Time, was one of Moffat's best scripts in years. This episode
was the closing half of the story. Moffat has previously bungled a number of
second episodes. I didn't feel he would this time though, perhaps because there
was so much good work done in WEaT that
he would have had to make a concerted effort to do so. Also because his four
central characters (the Doctor, Bill, the Master, and Missy) were being played
by such a talented bunch that it didn't seem feasible. Pleasantly, I was right.
This is not to say this was a faultless piece of TV. It
was slow in places. Much of what was wrong with the episode can be attributed
to Steven Moffat's propensity to become overly dramatic. I mean, the episode
climaxed with the Doctor running through woodland gunning down an army of robots1.
That's a level of mindless, empty-headed action heroics not even Colin Baker
sunk to. His fetishisation of the Doctor was as prevalent as ever. His
fascination with writing companions who are borderline obsessed with the Doctor
threatened to be a problem but just
avoided becoming one thanks to the trope playing out differently to usual and a
final excellent performance from Pearl Mackie.
But really, everything else was great. I've already
mentioned Pearl Mackie and she seems like the obvious place to start with
praise because this is the last time we're going to get to see her (at least
until she gets a Sarah Jane-esque return in 2047). Despite having slightly
leaden dialogue in places(due to her spending the majority of the episode as a
Cyberman) she gave what is amongst her best performances on the show, getting
past the by this point tedious obsessing over the Doctor to focus on the more
interesting material given to her. The anger at him having taken ten years to
save her, the brave acceptance her inevitable death, and her understanding of
the simple farmer stereotypes being fearful of her and allowing herself to be
further ostracized to make them more comfortable.
Bill's ultimate fate could be seen as a cop out. I mean,
a character from twelve episodes ago appearing out of nowhere, with no hint
that this would happen, to inexplicably bring Bill back to life runs the risk
of undercutting everything she'd gone through across the previous couple of
hours of television. I think it did
undercut things to an extent but not enough to be ruinous. Bill dying would
have been sad and moving but it would probably have been too much given the
fate of Missy and the Doctor's death coming in the next episode. Better to give
her a happy ending in which she finally got together with
the-one-that-got-away(-to-become-a-time-travelling-space-puddle) from The Pilot and triggered the Doctor's
regeneration with a tear, which, y'know, she cried because she was sad her
friend had died. It's trite and schmaltzy but it worked as a believable reason
for Bill to abandon the Doctor. And this isn't a show that should shy away from
leaving its characters happy the majority of the time2.
Michelle Gomez also gave a good final performance. Hers
was all about keeping us guessing as to Missy's true intentions. Which she handled
well, playing a suitable level of detachment from the Doctor and coyness with
the Master. It could be seen as disappointing that she didn't get to give us
one final rendition of the utterly crackers character she initially played but,
really, we've had that enough to satisfy. It was far more interesting to see
her as a Master finally ready to repent and work with the Doctor.
Her death scene was one of the best things she's gotten
to do on the show. She made the sacrifice of leaving with her previous self even
though she knew (because she'd lived it before) that it would mean her death.
That the Doctor was kept in the dark about this gives it that extra bit of
tragedy: he'll always think Missy escaping with the Master was an act of
selfishness instead of the sacrifice it was. It was also a good use of
established character traits and continuity (something that Moffat's era has
been light on), pivoting on what was seemingly the core motivation of John
Simm's Master: his need to win a victory over the Doctor,. This may have been something
introduced by RTD but it was paid off here. This was the way Simm's Master
always should have gone down, not stepping in to save Tennant's Doctor at the
last moment but trying to one-up his archenemy and get the last laugh.
Speaking of Simm, his was probably my favourite
performance in this episode. I mean, there was the humour of him knowingly
stroking his goatee as he talked about nostalgia and casually reapplying his
guyliner as a siege was about to kick off. That was great. But he was also
wonderfully, unrelentingly callous from start to finish, killing his own future
self just to deny the Doctor the satisfaction of having saved her. Taking his
three performances together I think his is probably the most fleshed out take
on the character since Delgado. That final shot of him, slumped on the floor of
a lift knowing he's about to die but cackling his head off anyway because he's
convinced he's denied the Doctor something, is a perfect send off for that
Master.
The supporting cast were... fine, I suppose. There were
no standout roles for anyone except the regulars. Even Nardole was clearly an
afterthought, understandable with so much continuity kicking about and far more
significant characters to write for (and out). I shan't miss Matt Lucas. I
still don't really understand, having seen the entire series, why his character
was brought back. He seemed superfluous most of the time. The handful of
contributions he made to the series' arc could have been handled in a couple of
guest appearances. Still, at least he wasn't Matthew Waterhouse.
The Cybermen were... also fine, I suppose. After the
effort that was put into reinventing them as exploited, eternally tortured humans
in World Enough and Time it was a bit
of a shame that they reverted to far more generic Stompy Killer Robots™
this week. It's understandable though. There simply wasn't space in this
episode for them to be more. Their starring role was last week and I'm
perfectly happy with that. I do find it a bit odd that a species so keenly
obsessed with constant upgrading would assemble an invasion force that
prominently included old models though.
Which leaves me only Capaldi's Doctor to discuss. This
episode very much like a payoff for his time on the show. He got to be clever
and brave, choosing to stand and save innocents knowing he couldn't possibly
survive himself, which is obviously the endpoint this incarnation of the
character was always headed for after his 'Am I a good man?' beginnings. His 'Stand
with me!' speech to the Master and Missy, while well-delivered, ultimately felt
it was trying a little too hard. I've not doubt it will go down as one of the
Twelth Doctor's most remembered moments though, because it was so clearly
designed for modern "fandom." If this were his final episode he'd be
going out on a high.
But it's not, is it? He's got a Christmas collaboration
with the First Doctor to get through first. Which is something that could
either work quite well as a study on how the character has felt about
regeneration all this time or fall apart spectacularly in a blaze of continuity
porn and audience apathy. Which somehow feels like the perfect setup for Moffat's
final episode.
***
1 Look, I know Cybermen technically aren't robots. "Robots" was
just a better word for that sentence than "androids."
2 I could have done without her getting the
exact same fate as Clara though. Especially after she'd just been saved from
the exact same fate as Danny Pink. And the Brigadier.
