TV Review Dr Who The Doctor Falls

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Spoiler alerts Just about everyone falls over in this episode with Bill and Missy both looking like they are bowing out too. There were some nice poetic touches to Bill’s swan-song, as yet another Cyberman sentient enough to remember her past was handled better than usual, and a second chance rather akin to that of Clara Oswald’s. While the arrival of the 1st Doctor was indicated in pre-publicity, the return of the Pilot girl was not and it had a very nice poetry and symmetry to it. Her assertion that as a pilot she can fly anything and everyone made me wonder how well the Wright Brothers would cope with finding themselves suddenly on the flight deck of a Boeing 747. That she had flown Bill suggested that her added tear had been what had kept the essence of Bill alive within the Cybersuit. That she and Bill go off to adventure and explore the universe was nice but surely Bill would first want to help Nardole and the other Mondassian people still moving up the decks of the ship with cybermen in hot pursuit. They just bog off and leave everyone else to get out of that mess for themselves. So selfish. The Cybermen scarecrows was reminiscent of the Family Of Blood, while Nardole’s Magnificent one of Seven stance of blowing up random chunks of ship’s fuel cells and electrics (on a ship they are still on board and sort of useful in life-support and that ongoing struggle against the black hole) was odd, as was sending a child as bait to give the cybermen an apple bomb. I half expected the child who looked liked a younger version of Bill to be just that, but the Pilot return was a great alternative direction to go. Nardole’s developing romance was a nice touch though. The Master & Missy interaction worked well, with him turning more into Delgado / Ainley (referencing his ‘old school’ goatee) and hilariously absurd efforts to seduce himself. Their literal back-stabbing scene is quite powerful, with him killing off the future self who represents that in him who is willing to empathise with the Doctor. Interestingly he tells her that the full blast of sonic screwdriver has crippled her efforts to regenerate. Not only is he determined to survive forever on in the same incarnation, it indicates that there are levels of damage Time Lords can’t recover from, a contrast to their ‘any requests’ line to the Doctor as the episode opened. The Doctor was hit by multiple Martian-style heat ray blasts from the cybermen, which are clearly not as potent as a single screwdriver discharge. We got the Doctor will-fully holding off his regeneration again just as we did at the two-parter’s opening – the longest stalling of the inevitable since Tennant’s interminably long goodbye tour after his last adventure. Sad to see how quickly the cloth-faced Mondassian Cybermen were upgraded to their now standard model full metal jacket silver fascist clanking armour rocketeer versions as the battle progressed. The 1st Doctor arrival was touching and beautifully played. We now have the current Doctor on the brink of regenerating, along possibly with Missy, and the First Doctor also caught up in events right before his 10th Planet departure. The Xmas special could end with multiple time lords regenerating in tandem. Simm is clearly turning into panto-villain mode and relishing every moment. It should be an interesting Xmas finale. Arthur Chappell