I enjoyed this more than a lot of the Chibnall stuff to date. The cast is good, the writing lets them down. My first thought when Yas appeared in the tendrils was she had been shrunk down into the carpet which she clearly wasn't but when I saw O in the matchbox I was delighted by the return of the tissue compressor. Do all the alternate earths mean the invaders are from another earth and are invading them all? They mock our form because they evolved differently on their earth? Probably not, loved the Masters Wizard of Oz Tardis flyby.
Very much enjoyed this episode. It built on the quality of the previous New Year's special. It's fitting that this episode was dedicated to Terrance Dicks because it was very much in the vein of the Third Doctor era, one of my favorite eras. I was spoiled about The Master returning but it was still very, very well done. Nice to see that the writers remembered that Yaz was a police officer.
If he still hears the drums it would suggest being an incarnation before Simms even. After the events in The End of Time the drums -- which were a signal to guide the Timelords to that particular point in time and space -- should have stopped. And the behaviour of the older Simms Master in World Enough and Time/ The Doctor Falls suggests he doesn't hear them anymore.
It's harder to do comedy acting, which he excels at. If you've not seen it, check out "Chef!" from 1993. But, damn, he's got the entire range. True, I did forget about that sketch. I wish he was the Doctor in the official show, though I did like his show from 1985. I'd still prefer a more consistently serious Doctor again, we've had 4 incarnations in a row that have some comedy act as a primary personality characteristic - all in a show that, until 2006, had radical personality changes where humor would be limited, flawed (by intent), or virtually nonexistent. Even then, lines about french kisses are definitely the avenue of Smith. Today's kids must surely be different if every incarnation has to be the same, while reminding us with a sledgehammer it's about change in the oddest of ways. I'll confess I was looking up a few reviews beforehand, avoiding spoilers but to get a gist. Some of the negativity on some reviewers feels as forced as the ostensibly comedic dialogue Jodie has to slog through. Especially by that one grifter channel who utterly loves to pretend to do anger acting by repeating his shtick twice in a row. Repeating his shtick twice in a row. And unconvincingly poorly. Unconvincingly poorly. Not even tautology, he is literally using the same words twice in a row. Sorry for trying to do thrice in a row, but he often treats his audience as lamely as the actual show does to its at times (but for wildly different reasons!) The point is, the show HAS noticeably improved when all is said and done, though I'll admit when the plane lost its pilot I was thinking "Remember Jodie's first episode where she plops on Earth after falling sans spacesuit from orbit and hadn't any scratches? Piece of cake." But I let that go because season 11 felt like one half-baked rough draft after another and Spyfall definitely felt more polished. I read overnight ratings were 4.88M. Consolidated ratings won't be in for a few days and with luck they'll be higher than the 1.2M I am guessing. With luck positive word of mouth will give either a temporary or permanent boost. Series 11 was often bad, hence the overall ratings and the low overnights but if most of those 4.88M liked it we would see a substantial increase for the post-week consolidated ratings. And pt 2's ratings would hopefully add to that as well; if one likes the first week they definitely will return for the next installment. Time will tell. But so far my hopes have been justified that I'll roll with the new Doctor's trademarks of sonic overuse and rehash of Tennant and Smith jokes. She needs her own humor, not tacking on a predecessor's in the belief that's all it takes because the previous one did the comedy and got big big ratings just because of that.
I'm not sure the Time Lords gave a flying monkey's whether the Master kept hearing the drums after he guided them to their exit point... they were planning on getting out of Dodge and sod him and the Doctor for being renegades. If it survived his death in Last Of The Time Lords then it's probably fixed for his/her whole timeline. Missy was still bananas, after all - perhaps the drumming only got unbearable around the time of Saxon but is quieter at other points... so all Masters are mad but Saxon!Master is up to 11 (not regens). Missy just might not have felt the need to mention it. I just got an email from the BBC Doctor Who account asking how much I remembered of S11 and "was I ready for S12?" asking me to take a quiz. Could just be clickbait, but might hint that seeds of this series were laid in S11 - the Timeless Child is obvious, but anything else? What if that sentient universe in S11 didn't want the Doctor to go so just made her and the fam THINK they won and fashioned all their subsequent adventures? And now the Master is helping it invade our universe again, intending it to be safe this time?
Or it's a continuity gaffe, but the Master always had the knack of surviving at the end of one story to go into another. Or it's become "theme music" to the character, which is definitely fine by me. Speaking of music, Segunda's a truly refreshing change and I'm very glad he was kept. Spyfall showed both proper incidental music as well as action scores, which were rock solid.
Been established since Tennant that Time Lords can survive/instantly heal major injuries if within 15 hours of regenerating. This was within minutes.
It's clickbait. My guess is, based on Krasko, they might have been thinking of future ideas but the additions came in late into some of the scripts and feels way too rough. Wouldn't it be interesting if Krasko is another incarnation of the Master and being off the cuff when claiming that by only one act the whole of history would be changed (even though history was already building long before Parks, as Claudette Colvin and Jackie Robinson and many others of all types prove). A minor retcon is all that's needed to polish up what was a good idea, added too late to really add polish. But "Rosa" proved a historical without sci-fi third party characters is viable, something deemed otherwise after "The Highlanders" and the ill-fated attempt to try it in "Black Orchid". Chibnall and his crew do have some strengths.
Only after so many incarnations. In a show where continuity for the Doctor went from "it's part of the TARDIS, without it I can't survive" (Power of the Daleks) to "Get me to the zero room, the TARDIS is hurting me" followed by going to a place that's free of all technology in order for convalescence ("Castrolvava") and every story in between or since adding to or replacing canon with something different... making it up as they go along each time. For regeneration, there just is no consistency and RTD just about ruined it by using it as a lame "get out of peril free" card and then when it came time for him to regenerate or use the sonic screwdriver, the contrivances used were laughably bad. So to try to carry that over into later (or retcon into previous) incarnations isn't going to work. After the laziness of RTD, to reintroduce proper threat involving its use... Sadly, Chibnall didn't help by cutting and pasting the "falls out of TARDIS in upper Earth orbit" routine to have the latest Doctor land without a scratch, which renders the "ooh, the plane is going to crash and the Doctor will diiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeee!" rather moot, hence the rather much better cliffhanger we actually got instead because that, for many reasons, kept the story interesting. It's so different. We know she will escape but how to get back - and I hope it's not with a wave of the sonic magic wand - is far more interesting than a bogus moment of implied death. )
The drum beat seemed strange to me, other than in World Enough and Time/ The Doctor Falls, The Master and The Doctor appear concurrently with each other regarding regens. - Admittedly, DhawanMaster could be doing the beat for any number of reasons, including to get under the Doctors skin, or it might not be him, or it could be someone completely new. Traditionally, Auntie hasn't really concerned itself with chasing ratings, it's nice to get viewers and it's nice to beat the terrestrial competition, plus getting viewers justifies spending the License Fee on programming, but with viewing habits even more segmented, with streaming and other services, Legacy media with individuals watching at the time of broadcast on a Sunday evening will and has be lower and shouldn't be used as a barometer of success. - There will be a time, maybe by the 20th anniversary (or more realistically, the 25th anniversary) of iplayer, that all of BBCs output, minus the News Channel will go that of BBC!II and be online only, similar to Netflix. (other streaming services are available)
Saw it, loved it, really must look into getting the DVD I believe was released of the series. For me, comedy has given us some of our best character actors - Ronnie Barker, David Jason, Rowan Atkinson, Robbie Coltrane and more, and Sir Len's up there. I've a concert DVD of his that's half sublime character sketches created purely with voice and body language. In a weird way, I'd actually be slightly more excited to see him as the Master, so he can really cut loose. Speaking of, on a more general note, I suspect the four beats are either being used as something of a calling card for the Master - you hear them, he's coming, get ready - or he knows they'd get a reaction from the Doctor; four beats cost TenDoc a lot, after all. Wherever this goes, I'm up for it. I don't believe Chibnall to be nearly as bad a writer as many of you do. Inconsistent, yes, but when he's on song, he can deliver. He's certainly managed, here, to recapture much of the energy that made me love NuWho in the first place. Feels like an adventure, again!
For those bothered about ratings, remember it was the second most watched show on British TV of that day, and probably will end up being of the week too.
Finals will push it to around 6 million and besides 21% (will likely be closer to 25%) of all tv viewers were watching it. iPlayer figures will likely add millions too. TV has changed and the show is in no danger.