The Tenth, Eleventh and War Doctor battle Daleks, smooch a Zygon and seemingly prove that the gun is mightier than the pen in this glorious Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special
Series 12 came to our screens early in 2020 and we couldn’t wait to discuss its opening double-feature
Podcast: Play in new window | Embed
In lieu of a Christmas or New Year’s Special this time around, Series 12 instead arrived early, blasting through the gates with the Bond-inspired, inter-dimensional, trans-temporal, two-part, science-fiction espionage thriller, Spyfall. And we couldn’t not have a little chat about it on the record!
Have a listen to this bonus episode now, recorded mere minutes after we watched Spyfall part 2, in which we discuss:
- The Master’s return and what his long game was really all about
- What the deal was with Barton’s mum
- Whether this signals a departure from Series 11 Doctor Who
- Voord-hiding™
And much, much more!
And when you’ve listened to this Bonus Doctor Who Review, head on over to the blog and read Richard Tarrant’s awesome, fact-packed article about The Strange Symmetry of James Bond and Doctor Who!
[Mini Review submitted between Spyfall Parts 1 and 2…]
The Master
It’s only been 12 episodes since we last saw the Master.
It’s such a short gap that makes it feel so disconnected from what came before.
Like Chibs just hitting the reset button on the series and calling it a day.
Also Sacha Dhawan has so far portrayed an absolutely terrible caricature of the master like, I get John Simm was all about the hoohoo hahas, but this just takes the fucking cake, I was cringing so hard when he started flailing like a child who’s just heard they aren’t getting beaten tonight.
“Call me Master”
the way he says it, how fast he says it, who the fuck is this? this isn’t the master, where’s the grandious entrance, the flair, THE FUCKING ANYTHING?
What I found funny
>When O asks about Graham, “Is he just here for commentary?” Just because Chibnall points out his writing flaws, doesn’t negate that they are writing flaws.
>Lenny Henry trying to act
Dislikes
>Whitaker in particular acts like she’s presenting a CBBC show
The writing is somehow worse with this generic, characterless dialogue, doing nothing but explaining the convoluted plot or whatever obvious thing happens on-screen.
Rating
It’s incredibly dull, Doctor Who has never been strictly a kids show but by god this sure as hell feels like one.
Not looking forward to the rest of this series and idk if I’ll bother watching. If this is the big opener meant to draw people in, if anything its pushed me away more, so much so that I don’t care about the second half of this story :(
0.8/5