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22 October 2018 at 19:55 #64817
@craig With a title referencing the first ever episode of AG Who,…
OK, I admit that it took me forever to get this. I’m slow sometimes!
22 October 2018 at 16:36 #64807@misterf55 JW is a good actress (not actor)
Why not “actor”? “Actress” is in that mob of needlessly gender-specific terms we are burdened with. “Actor” refers to a person who acts, which perfectly describes Jodie Whittaker (along with all the other actors who have played the Doctor).
@thane16 Sadly I don’t think The Civil Rights Movement can ever be over.
Given the current state of things, I fear you are right. It seems we are in a “one step forward, two steps back” world.
22 October 2018 at 16:04 #64803I loved it! For me, this episode hit it out of the park. The Doctor and her companions are melding together and learning why what the Doctor does is so important. It reminded me of so many of the classic Doctor Who episodes where the TARDIS drops them off in unexpected, unplanned places, and then they realize why they are there.
I admit that I had become a little tired of the focus being so much on the relationship between the Doctor and his companion. It’s not that I don’t want any character development in that direction, but it had become such a focal point that I felt we were losing out on those moments that felt more spontaneous, rather than something generated specifically for or by them. (If that makes any sense.)
I must remember to stay away from Doctor Who’s Facebook page. Far too much “It’s too PC!” whining over there. I’ll take a socially conscious show over a vapid or morally bankrupt one any day!
18 October 2018 at 19:00 #64633OK, on second viewing (this time via Space’s on-demand stream, which, while it has commercials, has far fewer of them than the cable broadcast channel), this episode held together much better for me. I actually liked the Doctor’s uncertainty and fear that she’d failed her companions. As others have noted, it’s not that she’s never experienced failure. But she’s early enough into her regeneration that I’m sure she wouldn’t want it to happen so soon.
And I loved the Doctor’s greeting of her old friend, the TARDIS! Her relief at them being reunited was palpable.
17 October 2018 at 14:22 #64595@missrori … but I do think it would help if BBC America would, at least for the premiere airing, drop the commercials. They are REALLY killing momentum.
We have the same problem with the Space channel in Canada. The ads totally disrupt the flow of an episode. It’s always such a relief to be able to watch these episodes, sans commercials, on CraveTV.
Barring that, I enjoyed this week’s episode, though I agree with others who noted the constant running, which reminds me of many David Tennant and Matt Smith episodes. A little too “action hero”y for my tastes. I’m hoping things will calm down a bit in future episodes, and the writing focuses less on nonstop action, more on fleshing out the characters. But it’s early days yet, and it seems this is always my problem with getting used to any new Doctor. I struggle to let go of the rhythms and patterns of the old ones!
13 October 2018 at 01:11 #64414How she paid for all this is another matter. Maybe her new friends supplied the money, or maybe the 12th Doctor was carrying sufficient cash in his coat pocket 🙂
I’m pretty sure that right at the end, as she settled on her outfit, she asked her companions if they had any cash, because she had none.
13 October 2018 at 00:30 #64411Sorry to be so late chiming in. I was away in the States, visiting my family (and witnessing what seems to be the usual political mayhem these days). My 91-year-old father is having some health issues, so it was necessary to be away. I didn’t get to watch the season premiere until tonight. My husband and I are in agreement: We like her!
Jodie Whittaker was wonderful. I enjoyed her as the Doctor, liked the companions (was sad about Nan), loved the reboot (similar to the radical shift in style that arrived with Matt Smith) and am looking forward to seeing what this season brings. The only problem I had with Whittaker’s Doctor is the same problem I have with every regeneration: getting used to the new actor’s take on the role. So much is similar, yet so much is different because each actor brings a different interpretation to the Doctor. Having a new showrunner creates a more marked transition. But even as things change, much stays the same, and I am confident the magic of Doctor Who is in good hands.
30 December 2017 at 01:09 #62869@missy Exactly! Why couldn’t I have said that? With me, when emotions take hold, I become almost incoherent. I too liked Christopher Eccleston and those two episodes. I found it very amusing when they used “Are you my Mummy.” in at least two other episodes.
This is something I try to remember when I read posts by others who don’t love what I do. The pivotal term is “love” … obviously not a rational reaction, but an emotional one. So of course we don’t all love the same people, places, things, for the same reasons. It helps to understand how uniquely human that response is.
29 December 2017 at 03:00 #62836I just rewatched this episode tonight and caught so much more than I did when it originally aired. Now I love it! (Yes, I know, I am slow to catch on.)
Question: There’s a waitress who interrupts River and the Doctor at their table. I would swear she looks just like Rosie Jane, the actress who played Bill Potts’ mom, but I don’t see her credited in this episode. Did anyone else notice the resemblance?
29 December 2017 at 02:57 #62835@karenmarie Yup, I loved Chris Eccleston, too. Thinking back to Steven Moffatt’s first two Doctor Who episodes, I decided to rewatch “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” … brilliant!
28 December 2017 at 23:22 #62819Last night I rewatched “Dark Water” and “A Death in Heaven” (plus “Last Christmas”), and was struck by how young Peter Capaldi looked, compared with how he looked in “Twice Upon a Time” (plus most of Seasons 9 and 10). At the time all we heard about was how old he looked. Of course, after Matt Smith, who wouldn’t? So I sort of accepted that he looked old. But at least to me, looking back on it now, he doesn’t look old at all. Certainly, in his last two seasons, Capaldi’s Doctor looks increasingly weathered. Despite Smith’s youth, at times his Doctor seemed ancient. It’s been interesting to see the progression all the actors make throughout their time as the Doctor.
28 December 2017 at 23:05 #62818@karenmarie Thank you for your compliment! I do enjoy writing.
Like you, I enjoyed the camaraderie between Matt Smith’s Doctor and Karen Gillan’s Amy. They had a delightful rapport, and adding Rory to the mix provided another neat payoff. Instead of turning Amy into another Rose, they neatly dodged that trap by having Amy choose Rory. So the tension was there, but then relieved so that we could get on with the business of the Doctor and his companions having adventures together (rather burying it all in romantic fixations).
But I was so taken, first by Chris Eccleston’s Doctor, then even more with Tennant’s, that I couldn’t imagine either being matched or improved upon. How wrong I was!
28 December 2017 at 22:44 #62817@tardigrade However, I have to register my discomfort with the First Doctor being portrayed with 1960’s (or earlier) attitudes to gender roles, even with that being played for comedy. I have difficulty in reconciling that with the Doctor’s character as I know it- I’d have preferred that those dated elements were treated just as a by-product of making a show at that time, rather than intrinsic to the First Doctor, essentially just retconning them away, or being part of an act to fit in. As an alien from a society where people can change gender, having ingrained “traditional” gender roles isn’t something I could imagine as part of the Doctor’s character.
The part about this that seemed off-kilter to me was the fact that Capaldi’s Doctor even noticed at all. I realize they were playing this for laughs (and I agree with the observation by @jimthefish that “the First Doctor’s sexism was just over-egged slightly”). It was not so long ago that the Twelfth Doctor was fumbling with Clara’s index cards containing her notes on human social cues he’s supposed to heed. Has he really finally picked up on those clues? I can’t think of an episode in which he turned the corner in a big way (though certainly toward the end of his time with Clara, and then later on with Bill, there were plenty of small moments). So for me, his admonitions of the First Doctor seemed jarring and not quite believable, more so than the First Doctor’s comments, themselves.
28 December 2017 at 20:55 #62813@missy I don’t think you are as alone in your opinion as you might think (or maybe the opponents are more vocal). Earlier today I made the mistake of checking out Doctor Who‘s Facebook page. Not pretty.
I’m trying to keep an open mind. As I’ve said many times before, I often find myself resisting the regeneration casting changes … only to feel foolish afterward, when I discover how much I enjoy the “new” Doctor. In the beginning, I wasn’t wild about Peter Capaldi, but he quickly won me over. I was even less enthusiastic about Matt Smith, and boycotted the series till the entire fifth season came and went, and I was watching a pre-Christmas special Doctor Who marathon. I loved the Peter Pan whimsy of his introduction, and was kicking myself for having a closed mind. But, better late than never. So I remind myself of that every time a regeneration rolls round.
For me, the issue has nothing to do with whether the Doctor is male or female. It’s how the part is written, and if the actor is up to the task. If both of those things are good, then I will continue enjoying the series. If either part is off, then I won’t love the series so much. But neither has anything to do with the sex of the character. Last night I rewatched “Black Water” and “Death in Heaven” … and was struck anew at how delightfully layered Michelle Gomez’s portrayal of Missy was. Proving that the Master needn’t be inherently male. And if that’s the case, then why must the Doctor be male?
I realize that for most, this question doesn’t have a rational answer, because our love for the series isn’t imbedded in the rational, but in the emotional. So it’s hard to pinpoint why we want and need certain things from whatever it is we love, and why we feel we’ve been failed when those things don’t deliver, or the payoff isn’t what we expect.
27 December 2017 at 23:00 #62789@pedant I guess I missed that. I know that Smith and Tennant’s Doctors mentioned they didn’t like to think of that incarnation of themselves, and Hurt’s Doctor mentioned not considering himself worthy of the title. But I thought he came around when they ended up saving Gallifrey (though they also noted that none of them would remember doing it). Thanks!
27 December 2017 at 18:15 #62787My favorite part was the poignant Armistice Day scene, …
Uh, I’m not sure why I wrote that, as Armistice Day was a completely different event. This was a Christmas truce or ceasefire. I apologize for my humongous historical gaffe!
27 December 2017 at 17:55 #62786OK, I just watched this episode again last night, and loved it once again. For me, it was a nearly perfect celebration of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.
But I have one question (and I know I’m not the first to ask about this): Where does the War Doctor fall in the numbering system? I’m thinking he came between Paul McGann’s Doctor No. 8 and Chris Eccleston’s Doctor No. 9, correct? So shouldn’t the numbering of the Doctors have been changed to reflect this? Thus making Eccleston No. 10, Tennant No. 11, Smith No. 12, Capaldi No. 13 and now Whittaker No. 14? Or does that make the timeline more hopelessly complicated than it already is?
27 December 2017 at 17:44 #62785Thanks for that explanation, @missrori! Makes sense to me. I was thinking a bit too literally … as usual!
27 December 2017 at 16:05 #62781Thank you for the link to that article, @missrori! So, a question I have after reading that is, was Jenna Coleman asked to return for this Christmas special, and it didn’t work out? The author indicated that Bill Potts got what is essentially Clara Oswald’s ending. I got the impression, after reading other posts, that Pearl Mackie’s casting in this episode came about at the last moment, due to scheduling.
27 December 2017 at 15:58 #62780@countscarlioni and @bluesqueakpip Thank you for those detailed explanations! I was never sure how that was handled at the time, if William Hartnell was indeed in his Doctor’s regeneration scene. It’s also quite cool to learn some of the details behind the filming/editing of that, and how it managed to be archived when other early Doctor Who footage wasn’t. Such a shame, but at least this scene, and others, were saved!
27 December 2017 at 05:55 #62777Funny, I rewatched “Into the Dalek” tonight (along with “The Day of the Doctor”) and found I enjoyed it far more than I did the first time around. But it didn’t really give me any more of an emotional connection to Capaldi’s Doctor, other than that Twelve asked Clara if he was a good man, and Clara couldn’t answer him, other than to say she thought he tried to be one, and that counted. But Rusty insisted that Twelve was “a good Dalek.” The long way round to that linkage.
Question from someone who obviously has not seen many of the earliest episodes: Was regeneration of the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell, actually witnessed by the audience? Or did we see only see that first regeneration played by the second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)? I know how we saw it brilliantly inserted into this episode, but was that Hartnell in the regeneration scene?
26 December 2017 at 22:55 #62753I finally got to watch the episode on Boxing Day (on Space; yes, way too many commercials!), due to a windstorm that caused a massive power outage throughout much of Nova Scotia and other Maritime provinces. With power restored, hubby and I could watch this afternoon.
My favorite part was the poignant Armistice Day scene, which fit in beautifully with putting the captain back in his timestream. And watching both Doctors, the first and the twelfth, together was very satisfying. The hard part was not understanding all the references in the dialogue, which I’m sure trace back to the first Doctor, but which I don’t know by heart, since I’m far more familiar with the post-gap Doctors.
For me, the scene with Rusty (from the “Into the Dalek” episode, which is one of my least-liked) felt clunky and extraneous. As if, we must some sort of menace, and who better than a Dalek? Except that as with most aspects of this episode, there really wasn’t a villain. Not even a Dalek. Still, for me it felt like the episode ground to a halt here, then picked back up when we left Rusty.
How wonderful it was to see the Doctor teamed up with Bill and Nardole at the end, for their goodbye, plus Clara restored to the Doctor’s memories. Missing, at least in the literal sense, were Missy and River, but some of the Doctor’s references seemed to invoke them. I will miss Peter Capaldi. I didn’t warm up to his Doctor right away, but he quickly won me over. Here’s hoping that Jodie Whittaker does the same. I think she will. Particularly with Matt Smith, I found myself resistant to the change in Doctors … then, once I started watching, chided myself for my lack of imagination. As I discovered well after Smith joined the series, he was delightful!
It’s also bittersweet to acknowledge the end of an era with Steven Moffat. He’s had a few missteps along the way, but it would be impossible to chart a perfect course in any creative endeavor. He reshaped Doctor Who for a whole new generation of viewers, and did so in a tremendously intelligent, joyous and respectful way. I hope he is taking a well-deserved break, and I wish him nothing but the best in whatever projects he takes on next.
13 October 2017 at 02:25 #62147@hiker You and I are of like mind. I too find comfort in the words of Dan Rather. At least it makes me feel I am not alone. (P.S. I’ll bet you already know a lot about being kind.)
15 August 2017 at 15:30 #61725@winston I thought about buying them, but it would be an investment to get all the episodes I want. So I’m happy with my new CraveTV subscription. Not only do I get post-gap Doctor Who, but a lot of other stuff besides. It will be fun to review more episodes, including some I’ve not watched in a long time.
14 August 2017 at 04:12 #61710@bluesqueakpip Yes, it’s hard when you didn’t like the new showrunner’s previous show. The only thing I can say is that I found Jodie Whittaker’s performance as Beth Latimer very memorable.
I agree. I was blown away by her performance in Broadchurch, though far less blown away, overall, by Season 2 of that series. Season 1 was fabulous, in my opinion, and Season 3 mostly redeemed that promise. So I’m excited about what she will bring to Doctor Who.
14 August 2017 at 04:03 #61709Very well put, @hiker. Thank you!
Many of you may remember me whining when Netflix was set to drop Doctor Who. Where was I to find my Doctor Who fix? In Canada, CraveTV has carried on with the licensing, and we signed up over the weekend. I was finally able to watch “Heaven Sent” … sans commercials. What a difference! I knew it was a brilliant episode, having watched it on Space. But how much better to see it uncut, flowing as it must, without interruption, in order to be properly absorbed. I can’t wait to see Season 10 in this way!
1 August 2017 at 02:12 #61571@juniperfish I agree with you completely about Clara. Like you, I was blown away by her introduction in “Asylum of the Daleks” (which held so much promise, yet I think, in subsequent episodes did not deliver with that character quite as I’d hoped). I liked Clara, but I also found myself worn out by her. I kept wondering when I was going to get to relax with her, and that never happened, I think for many of the reasons you described. When Bill arrived on the scene, then I could relax with her and the Doctor.
29 July 2017 at 01:01 #61519@wolfweed It’s fair enough to challenge Davison’s viewpoint (But in a polite, constructive way). It’s not about winning – It’s about being kind.
@jimthefish If we had recommends on here, you’d get a thousand for this comment.
But yes the factionalisation of the whole debate is just horrible — and it’s what, I’m afraid to say, the Press seems to be doing more and more. We’re no longer allowed reasoned debate. It has to be House Stark vs House Lannister. Slytherin versus Gryffindor. Brexiter versus Remain. Cybernat versus Yoon. It’s not healthy and it’s degrading our society, I think.
I also suspect that the whole issue of a female Doctor has been co-opted on both sides by groups who don’t really give a damn about the show either way but who are just using it as another means to fight their usual special-interest battles.
Yes to this. You both have summed it up far more eloquently than I could. Society and its ills, along with reaction to this latest casting of our beloved Doctor; you’ve nailed it. Discussion is no longer allowed. It must be a debate, which implies a winner and a loser. In whose world is communication a contest? Why must anyone lose, when all we’re trying to do is express thoughts and and ideas, and learn from one another?
29 July 2017 at 00:22 #61518I will always see “Heaven Sent” as the episode that won me over to Peter Capaldi’s Doctor. It was just such a tour de force performance, and the fact that he carried the episode almost singlehandedly makes it even more impressive. It helped me see his entire run up to that point very differently, and I have appreciated him ever since. He’s had so many great speeches, but his speech on being kind in “The Doctor Falls” is one for the ages. I’ll miss him!
28 July 2017 at 23:48 #61516@miapatrick Sorry I’m so late on this, but congratulations! You amaze me!
@missy Oh, and happy birthday, Missy!
18 July 2017 at 18:05 #61029I posted this on Doctor Who‘s Facebook page, so thought I would repeat it here:
I am am intrigued by this casting. You’ve been signaling it all year, with Missy, so it comes as no great surprise. With Moffat & Co. leaving, we could see it was time for a clean start, much as Moffat did with Matt Smith’s Doc. So I’m looking forward to this.
I will miss Peter Capaldi; I thought he did a fabulous (but underappreciated) job performing this role. I liked Jodie in Broadchurch, so I know she brings a good acting range to this role.
BTW, folks should not claim to know who “the real fans” are. The opinions of real fans that I’m seeing are across the board. Many like this casting, others dislike it, while still others have adopted a “wait and see” attitude. While the casting may be controversial, there is no universal pro or con opinion on it. I am happy to give Jodie a chance. After all, I was so sad at David Tennant leaving the role that it took me a while to start watching Doctor Who again. And then I found myself surprised and delighted by Matt Smith. I learned my lesson. Let the work tell the story.
17 July 2017 at 03:20 #60842Hey, is her hair ginger? Wasn’t Matt Smith’s Doc always going on about wanting to be ginger? Finally got his … er, her wish!
(Edit: Drat, @rorysmith beat me to it!)
9 July 2017 at 22:34 #60497@serahni I agree with you. I liked Rose, and admit that I did get a bit teary-eyed over some of the soap-ish plots involving her and the Doctor. And I ain’t no teenager. Wasn’t then, and certainly am not now. But I also found myself growing a bit weary of that, especially when Martha was sent down a similar road. Which is why I was so happy to have Donna arrive on the scene. No romantic entanglements or pining, just a solid, believable friendship. It was interesting to see something of a return to that tension between Amy and Raggedy Man, of only to be nipped in the bud once it was clear that Amy had chosen Rory.
With Clara, it was sort of left up in the air as to whether she felt that kind of attraction to the Doctor. When Capaldi’s Doctor was introduced, it seemed important to address that directly. Hence, his comment to Clara of “I’m not your boyfriend,” followed by her reply of “I never thought you were.” And then he followed up with, “I never said it was your mistake.”
9 July 2017 at 20:08 #60491I just got a friendly invitation from “Alice” to go visit her page.
9 July 2017 at 20:06 #60490@rorysmith I loved the eyeliner moment, too! My favorite Missy/Master exchange was when they were asking the Doctor about all the different ways he’d died:
MISSY: Well, we thought we might chuck you off the roof, but I wasn’t sure how many regenerations you had left.
MASTER: Yeah, we could have been up and down the stairs all night.
8 July 2017 at 20:44 #60479You make some very good points, @tardigrade. The interesting thing is that as Missy firmly clasps the Doctor’s hand, the words she speaks indicate she will not stand with him. But maybe her gesture is “the other mind” side of it. That’s why these “layered” scenes are so good; the layers can lead to many different interpretations.
8 July 2017 at 03:00 #60469Someone may have already mentioned this, and so I apologize if I’m repeating an earlier post(s):
Much attention has been given to Missy clasping the Doctor’s hand as they part ways for the last time. (Did she hand something off to him?)
Near the beginning of the episode, right after Missy knocks out the Master with her umbrella, she tells the Doctor, “I was secretly on your side all along, you silly sausage!” He asks her, “Is that true? I need to know” and clasps her hand. She replies, “I’m in two minds. Fortunately the other one is unconscious.” And then the Doctor walks away to contact Nardole, while Missy steps back and looks unsettled.
So I think this is why Missy clasps the Doctor’s hand as they part ways near the end. Without words, just this gesture, she is reassuring him that she is on his side.
6 July 2017 at 03:55 #60419@winston Well, at the end of “Empress of Mars,” Missy did asked the Doctor if he was all right. So maybe she has known all along that his regeneration was impending, and that’s part of why she decided to stand with him. Also, would she have somehow known that the Master would destroy her in the end? If so, then “without hope, without witness, without reward” is a lesson that finally came home to her.
5 July 2017 at 17:13 #60404@bluesqueakpip For me, “Face the Raven” worked precisely because of the reasons you say it didn’t work for you. Clara had escaped “certain death” so many times (and, of course, earlier on she didn’t … or versions of her didn’t) that it felt like she and the Doctor were always going to find a clever way out. Then – Boom! – she is undone by her own certitude, her conviction that she could save Rigsy by taking on his chronolock, which the Doctor would then be able to “fix” (as he had so many times before). Clara became complacent in her assumptions, and it was her undoing.
4 July 2017 at 04:38 #60338I watched the episode again, and now I remember why Hazran reminded me of The Woman. It’s early on in this episode, when she grabs a gun and runs for the porch. It was just her facial expression, which reminded me of a facial expression The Woman had (for the brief times we saw her).
Another bit of recognition: When the Doctor is firing again and again on the Cybermen, there was a musical theme that harked back to “Heaven Sent” (where the Doctor is punching away at the wall of Azbantium, is overtaken by the Veil, then returns to the teleportation chamber and starts the cycle all over again, all to a voice-over of “The Shepherd Boy”). How many times has he fought the Cybermen, but like the bird, keeps chipping away till he breaks through? I’m not sure if that was Moffat’s intended symbolism, but it resonated with me.
3 July 2017 at 17:44 #60282I have enjoyed reading everyone’s posts. Thank you so much, as always, for shedding light on so many subtleties I missed the first time around.
Earlier I mentioned that I saw a resemblance between Hazran and The Woman in “Hell Bent” (it could just be the presence of a barn in both episodes). Looking at photos now, they don’t look much alike, but when I saw Hazran, I immediately thought she looked like she could be a daughter of The Woman. And then I wondered what tricks were being played within the story.
3 July 2017 at 02:30 #60239@donnawho I felt that this Doctor wasn’t rebelling so much against dying; he knows he isn’t dying. But it’s more about changing … yet again. He doesn’t want to wear another face. He doesn’t want to change, he wants to stay as he is. And that certainly reverberates on a personal level. Many of us don’t want to change, but must. It’s reality. It doesn’t mean we welcome it.
The most emotional part of this episode, for me, was Bill perceiving herself not as a Cyberman, but as herself. Utterly heartbreaking! I did a fist pump when Heather came to the rescue.
By the way, am I the only one who noticed a resemblance between Hazran and the woman in the barn in “Hell Bent”?
1 July 2017 at 03:12 #6006730 June 2017 at 22:59 #60063@countscarlioni Thank you for that video! I think I will have to play it in slow-motion. My poor little mind still doesn’t quite get it. But I’m glad it helped my husband, and I do think it looks like an amazing movie.
@thane15 Puro, I’m with you once again. It’s like I almost get it … then realize I don’t. Shades of algebra coming back to haunt me.
30 June 2017 at 03:15 #60009My husband tells me that the film, Insignificance, gives the clearest explanation (via Marilyn Monroe, no less) of Einstein’s theory of relativity that he’s ever heard. So I think I must put it on my watchlist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insignificance_(film)
28 June 2017 at 20:09 #59881@tardigrade Yes, that’s how my husband explained it to me. He’s a science guy, I am not (neither science nor guy), and so my understanding of this in the abstract is limited. Thanks for correcting me!
28 June 2017 at 02:33 #59824@geoffers Thank you for that explanation. My husband had to explain the black hole/time perception thing to me two different ways before I (sort of) got it on his second explanation. Abstract ideas and I have never got along very well.
27 June 2017 at 04:34 #59754@lisa I too am intrigued by the Master’s presence here, along with his future (?) regeneration as Missy. As you say, he seems to be “stuck” here and needing an escape hatch. Is that via the Doctor, and also Bill? Or are they the barriers to his freedom, and part of the reason he and the Doctor are at such an impasse? Interesting question. I guess we will find out how it’s resolved next week. Or maybe by Christmas.
27 June 2017 at 03:30 #59752@tardigrade I’ve lost track of who said it now, but I’ve got to agree that the initial scene with Missy was the weakest part. Much as I enjoy Michelle Gomez’s portrayal of Missy, this felt like she was channeling Captain Jack Sparrow, or was straight-up drunk (the distinction is slight). So a little too over the top for me, even allowing for Missy being cooped up for decades, glad to be out, and engaged in a test she feels is beneath her.
But oh, how it stood in such stark contrast to the the fate awaiting Bill. Because I’d read some spoilers, I knew that Bill’s fate was to be devastating, but I had no idea it would come so early on in the episode. So as Missy was capering about with her “pets” (or whatever terms she gave them), I was relaxing a wee bit too much … then shocked at Bill’s seeming demise. So even though it was a bit campy, it worked for me because it blindsided viewers on what was to come.
26 June 2017 at 19:12 #59730@thane15 Oh yeah, I get you!
I really must watch this episode again to fully absorb it. (Have I mentioned that I loathe the commercial interruptions on the Space Channel? Yes, I have. And I do.)
One thing that struck me is that Bill’s fate is very much what I’d imagined for Clara, before we discovered what her true destiny was to be. I thought she was going to end up as Oswin, forever trapped inside a Dalek. But now we have the twist that it’s Bill, trapped inside a Cyberman. Someone mentioned that if they’d seen the “hospital” proceedings as a child, they would have been terrified. Same here. As an adult, I found them horrifying.
Because of the spoilers regarding the Master, I actually recognized him almost right away. I’ve got a thing for facial recognition. Had I not read any spoilers, I would have been much slower to pick up on that. (That’ll teach me.) What an amazing interplay between Missy and the Master. My husband and I were trying to figure out how there could be two of them (same way we got multiple Doctors in The Day of the Doctor). Superb acting, and writing.
And poor Bill. Gosh, I’m with the kids who adore her and are heartbroken by what’s befallen her. I want her to get a happy ending! Kudos to the sharp-eyed souls who think they spotted Heather looking out of one of the windows. Let’s hope that she and Heather are reunited … somehow.
@missrori I too have wondered if Missy is somehow the key to saving Bill (but at a very steep price).
So, two Masters. Does that mean we get two Doctors? The signs seem to be pointing in that direction.
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