I approached the opening episode of Series 12 with more than a little trepidation. I recently rewatched all of Series 11 (yes, including The Tsuranga Conundrum and that's forty-five minutes of my life I'll never get back) and, although it holds up better than expected, it's got serious issues that I feared might be structural features of Chris Chibnall era Doctor Who. What's more the thing that anchored the entire season and by far the best thing about it, namely Graham's character arc, had pretty much been resolved. Series 11 without Bradley Walsh is not a series of Doctor Who it brings much joy to think about.
And for thirty minutes, it felt like I was living in that world. The first half drags. It takes ten minutes reassembling the TARDIS team without telling us anything notable about the companion's lives while it's at it. Yaz is still (at least nominally although you'd never know it) a police officer, Ryan still has dyspraxia and Graham's wife is still dead. There's nothing new here. It then deploys tropes from spy thrillers left, right, and centre without ever threatening to do anything remotely interesting with them. Even the presence of Stephen Fry playing the Head of MI6 as if he was...Stephen Fry isn't enough to maintain interest.
The pace picks up considerably as we move into the final half though. I particularly enjoy the Bond pastiche of the casino party. It's a cliche for sure, but it gives a chance for the characters a few moments of fun rather than having to relentlessly exposition the plot. They all look great in their formal gear as well. The aliens threatening the characters (both the Doctor and co in Australia and Ryan and Yaz in America) are solidly well constructed set pieces as well. I doubt the Kasavin are going to top anyone's list of the show's greatest monsters, but they're reasonably intriguing here, and give off the air of being dangerous.
The casting of Lenny Henry as an evil version of Mark Zuckerburg is an interesting choice (although I'm not sure Zuckerburg would manage to register as even 93% human on the Doctor's gismo, but moving passed that). It feels like someone as good as him could make a lot more of a meatier role, rather than seemingly as the human lackey to either The Master or the Kasavin, but he gives a characteristically strong performance. I particularly enjoy the scene he gets with The Doctor, and it gives Jodie Whittaker a chance to perform something other than zany light-heartedness. More of this please.
At this point, after a car chase that is well shot and pretty fun, it looks like the episode will end a bit limply. And then it turns out that O is actually The Master and all hell breaks loose.
It's a twist that I (along with everyone else in the universe) didn't see coming. Mostly because I was surprised that Chibnall decided to resurrect the character so soon. It's been two and a half years since Missy's "death" in The Doctor Falls, but in story terms, it's actually only been a dozen episodes. I don't mind Sacha Dhawan's performance here, and he does the switch from good to evil pretty effectively, but it feels just a bit too similar to John Simm's RTD era performances in those couple of minutes. My major concern bringing back the character is that whatever they do with them next will necessarily not be as interesting as Missy's redemption arc, and the character performing like a crazed villainous version of The Doctor is just about the most boring take on the Master you could imagine at the moment. Missy showed us there was a great deal of potential in doing something different with the character, so let's hope that's what we get with Dhawan's incarnation eventually.
But the twist itself is very effectively executed and leads to a stunning cliffhanger. I'm a sucker for fanwank so the reference to the Tissue Comprehension Eliminator and previous Masters' predilection for shrinking people brought a smile to my face. His parting words of "Everything you think you know is a lie" promises a season arc that Series 11 was sorely lacking. The final few minutes are the shot of ambition the show desperately needed at this point and hooks you in to find out what happens next.
Random musings
- The Doctor finds out O is lying because he lies about not being good at sprinting. That's...decidedly rubbish but never mind.
- It was nice not to be spoiled on a big reveal for a change. A lot of people compared it unfavourably with the John Simm spoilers in Series 10, which I think is unfair. It's a lot easier to hide the surprise when you have a new actor playing the Master and the fact that Simm had been shooting on location was bound to leak at some point.
- Humour that was such a natural part of the RTD and Moffat eras is still very thin on the ground here, but there are a couple of moments: the Doctor yelling "snap" during a game of blackjack is fun.
- The tribute to Terrance Dicks at the end is suitably lovely.
Verdict
A tough first half gives way to a much more interesting final 25 minutes. Everything from the moment the Doctor and co enter the casino party is incredibly compelling and the cliffhanger is a major shot across the bows in terms of a new direction for this season. It's weighed down by many of the flaws that afflict a lot of Chibnall episodes but it's pretty good nonetheless.
Rating
7/10
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