I'm torn on the presentation of Bill throughout the episode. On the one hand, I loved Pearl Mackie's tortured performance as a converted Cyberman, not able to come to terms of her new being, but on the other hand, I wish we had seen the full horror of Bill's situation and stayed with the physical appearance of Bill as a Cyberman after she left the barn. Stay with the sing-song voice and have the conviction of Bill's words demonstrate that deep inside the Cyberman is still Bill.
That being said, I wasn't thrilled with the predicted rescue Bill received from Heather and they went gallivanting into the universe a la Clara and Me. I did like how her oil tear revived The Doctor though.
Speaking of The Doctor's revival, I'm also torn by his Tenth-esque reluctance to regenerate, refusing to ever change again. He was holding it back since the Cyberman attack on the rooftop, but it feels sudden and out of place that The Twelfth Doctor would be so reluctant to regenerate. I don't think this refusal had been properly built up to throughout the season or even in this story.
I loved how not only Missy predictably stabbed The Simm Master in the back, but The Master turned around shot her in the back, too. Nice how they laughed at the predicament, although it's a shame we didn't get to see Simm regenerate into Gomez. Perhaps to leave the door open for Simm to return and/or squeeze in another incarnation? Of course, this isn't the end of The Master. He's been back from worse without explanation. Either way, I do love the final revelation, after all of the teasing, that Missy was indeed turning towards good. Will that change remain when she returns?
Weird how Nardole and company are left on the ship, forever fighting the Cybermen, forever slowly retreating from the black hole (however utterly impossible that particular scenario is). It's a rather dark ending for a companion, yet treated rather happily. I hope we see Nardole again and not left in that situation.
I wish I hadn't spoiled myself with David Bradley's appearance, although at the same time, even without that foresight, his appearance wasn't all that surprising. There have been plenty of callbacks to
The Tenth Planet (and the episode's earlier reference to The First Doctor), so The Twelfth Doctor's arrival at a snowy location felt like a foregone conclusion that it would lead up to The First Doctor's appearance. Seems very likely the Christmas episode will be a case of The First Doctor convincing The Twelfth Doctor to not fear change and to accept his regeneration.
Pity the rumor about glimpsing The Thirteenth Doctor's face proved to be untrue. I very much hoped Moffat, Chibnall, Capaldi, BBC, and everyone else managed to keep the casting a secret. Alas. On the plus side, I got a strong sense they are building up to a female Doctor with The Twelfth Doctor's "We can only hope" reply to The Master's "Is the future going to be all girl?"
Kind of weird the old Cybermen still existed alongside with the newest model, but not big deal. I sure wish the Cyberman that showed up in the elevator had been one of the old Classic Series models. That would've been a cool callback, although there were other multiple verbal callbacks to past Cybermen adventures. Still hate the stomping, especially from the original model and it was odd there were a few instances where they didn't, so it wasn't even consistent. On the plus side, The Doctor's comments about parallel evolution along with the ship not having even picking up the Mondasians pretty much confirms that this is just
one iteration of the Cybermen and
Spare Parts can easily exist alongside this story.
Pity Mickey was left out of the (sigh, new series only) companion roll call. Odd that Strax was left out while Vastra and Jenny were included.
Overall, while not quite as good as "The World Enough and Time," it was a very good follow-up and not even remotely as disappointing as previous two-parter conclusions, like "The Last of the Time Lords" and "Hell Sent." The Cyberman plot kind of disappeared into the background, but I didn't mind that because of the focus on Bill's situation and The Two Masters scenario, although I wish we had seen just a bit more of Simm and Gomez chewing up the scenery, mutual flirting and all.
Something else I've just remembered, when the Doctor was listing times he had defeated the Cybermen, didn't he list Marinus? Therefore making the Voord becoming Cybermen canon?
Yeah, I noticed that name drop, too. Maybe not the Cybermen themselves, but their evolution will lead towards cybernetic conversion.
I'm guessing Missy hijacks part of Simms regen energy to kickstart her own, thus accounting for the lost memories even the "timelines being out of sync" couldn't.
Maybe, although Missy already provided an explanation for the memory lost: The timelines are out of sync, which has already been used as an explanation for multiple Doctors stories.
5. The doctrine of sonic screwdrivers not being weapons appears to have gone out of the window.
Yeah, that bothered me as well. I know it'll never happen, but I wish the sonic screwdriver would go away again, if only for a couple of seasons.
Right, that was OK. Two Masters was way funnier and more sensible than multi-Dcotr stories we've seen. Ended exactly on the moment I expected. Still too similar an end to the last time we had a season finale, of course... (dead-b ut-not-dead lesbians in space! Again! I mean, the more lesbians the better but...)
Oh is it just me, or did the lighting make Simm really look like Simon Pegg throught...?
No, I noticed that as well. Similar round faces.
. I'm probably the only one that thinks this but I can't help shake the feeling that Peter Capaldi is not leaving the role just yet, and I don't mean the Christmas Special. That he may in fact have another year in him at least and that the announcement that he's leaving is either misdirection or was true at the time and he's had a change of heart subsequent to that.
