As The Doctor Falls opens, the odds are heavily stacked against the Doctor. A new army of Cybermen is about to take over the Space Ship, the Master has teamed up with Missy and Bill has been converted into a Cyberman. How would these elements be resolved?
The pre-titles sequence introduces us to another level of the ship. In contrast to the polluted city, this level resembles a nice countryside with an artificial sky and a solar farm where a woman called Hazran protects children from converted patients. As the children are walking along, the ground starts to break underneath them as a Space Ship bursts through from a lower level. A Mondassian Cyberman also emerges, carrying the Doctor. It’s a nice image.
After the opening titles the story cuts back to some time previously, back in the city at the bottom of the ship. The Doctor is now a prisoner of the Master and Missy, who are gloating over their victory and the rise of their Cyberman army. It's a similar scene to those at the beginning of Last of the Time Lords and The End of Time Part Two and works just as well here. In this scene, the Master gets to explain how he escaped from Gallifrey, his reason for disguising himself as Razor and for converting the ship's crew into Mondassians. It's nice that these things are addressed as its the kind of detail that can sometimes be hand-waved away.
The Master and Missy’s victory is short lived. True to form, the Doctor has secretly managed to outwit the Master by tampering with the Cybermen programming. They will now pursue Time Lords as well as humans. As the Cybermen advance, the Master and Missy are forced to make their escape with Nardole on a Ship while the converted Bill resists her programming and helps the Doctor to escape. Our five main characters arrive at the Solar Farm that we saw in the pre-titles sequence and the story leaps to two weeks later.
From here on in the plot is very straightforward. Everyone on the Solar Farm prepares to defend themselves from the Cybermen long enough to allow the children to escape to one of the upper floors of the Ship. Despite all of the hype, the actual Cyber-Attack is very short, and the Doctor can dispose of them by blowing up parts of the ship. Where the episode excels is in the character interaction and development that occurs in the build up to the assault.
Bill has a particularly hard time in dealing with being a Cyberman. Although her body is cybernetic she has been able to able to retain her emotions due to her link with the Monks in Lie of the Land. She spends most of the episode trying to come to terms with her new appearance and the fact that people are afraid to approach her. She even tells the Doctor she does not want to live if she stays like this which is heartbreaking. Bill still images herself as human, which means that Pearl Mackie still feature heavily in the episode. It’s a clever writer trick by Steven Moffat, and Rachael Talalay pulls the transitions between human-Bill and Cyber-Bill with great aplomb. Cybermen voices are not great for conveying emotional depth so it makes sense to have Pearl Mackie.
The Master and Missy are unwilling to involve themselves in the conflict and decide to escape in the Master’s Tardis. The character don't really contribute much to help but they are splendidly written in this episode. The Master is sadistic when he taunts Bill. Missy’s true allegiances remain ambiguous. Together are flirtatious and sometimes answer the others’ thoughts. The fact that they want to run away from a dangerous situation is perfectly in keeping with the Masters of the past. We see that the Doctor’s attempt to redeem Missy did have an effect as she tries to kill the Master and return. The Master shoots her so the Doctor will never know that she tried to redeem herself. It’s a suitable fate for the character. Neither of them regenerates which means that Chris Chibnall could easily bring either of them back if he chooses. Although I would like to see them again, this would be good enough a conclusion for the character as it is.
In a nice contrast with the two Masters' cowardice, Nardole gets to show off his bravery. He was sidelined in the previous episode but here he gets to play a crucial role in helping the solar farmers to prepare their defenses, There is also a lovely little subplot where he falls in love with Hazran, the woman looking after the kids. This episode serves as a departure for Nardole as he stays behind and look after the kids and protect them from further Cyberman attacks. His farewell to the Doctor and Bill was touching. It’s a nice ending for a character that started off as a bit of a coward and comic relief. It was grat to see what Matt Lucas could do.
With all of the competing elements mentioned already, it would be easy to imagine that Peter Capaldi's Doctor would be overshadowed. Fortunately this is far from the case as he shines above verything else. As the episode progresses he is gradually weakening, and it seems that several wounds are causing his regeneration rather than one big event. Nevertheless he shows his bravery by plowing on. The speech he gives to the Master about kindness is probably one of his stand up moments. The Master’s response is great and the Doctor imploring Missy is also heart-breaking. We see the warrior side of the Doctor when he uses the sonic screwdriver to blow up parts of the ship and take the Cybermen with it. His regeneration is started when the Cybermen shoot him. The Doctor's regeneration is very reminiscent of previous Doctors. He gets flashbacks like Tom Baker's in Logopolis and also quotes 'I don't want to go' and 'the Doctor was me' from the last two. This time though his regeneration is more weary.
The Cybermen themselves were decent even if they weren't really the focus on the episode. We not only see the Mondassian ones but also the Cybus and Cyberiad versions. The Doctor suggests that Cybermen evolve because of parallel evolution. There is a nice throw in to the Cybermen coming from Marinus in The World Shapes. The Cybermen are after the children because there is less spare flesh and blood to throw away which is sick. Although they do not get so much attention this week, they are at least in control of their situation and not actually pawns of the Master this time around.
By the end of the episode all of our characters go their separate ways. The wounded Doctor is on his way to regeneration and Nardole is staying behind to look after children. The least satisfying of these was Bill’s departure. Throughout the episode she is crying tears and these turn out to be Heather, the undead girl from The Pilot. She saves Bill by taking her on as a passenger and they go off into the universe. It’s very similar to what happens to Clara in Hell Bent, although since Bill is a lot more likeable than Clara it is easy to let it pass.
Although Bill’s departure was less than satisfying, everything else was so sublime that it was easy to let that go. Rachael Talalay’s direction was fantastic and I am sad that we may only have one more episode to go, unless Chibnall asks her to come back. Murray Gold’s score is decent, with callbacks to Rise of the Cybermen and Heaven Sent.
There was certainly a lot of fan references in this episode. We got references to previous Cyberman stories as well as the Master having the same dematerialisation circuit as in the original series. Steven Moffat is definately not worrying too much about fans.
The episode ends with the Twelfth Doctor in the snow, meeting his first incarnation played by David Bradley. It will be interesting to see the difference between his performance as the actor, William Hartnell and the character of the First Doctor. Will he be a better substitute than Richard Hurndall? I’m excited to find out.
Series Ten has been a fairly good series. Nothing bad but nothing brilliant. The Doctor Falls was one of the better episodes.
8/10
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