N143 The Doctor Falls

Hey it’s a Moffat finale I like! I feel like it’s a novelty.

Compared to some it’s a lowkey affair. The Doctor is set to try to save a few people because it’s the right thing to do. And the Doctor is dying due to the actions of the Cybermen, linking back to The Tenth Planet. Bill and Nardole are great and brilliant camerawork of getting the differing shots of Bill in both her forms.

I like the Master/Missy dynamic and bickering. Is the Master dead? No, as the classic gang are about to discover in a few eps time, it’s very hard to kill the Master (and of course we know about Dhawan, wherever he fits in).

A minor gripe that the modern stomping feels out of place with the tenth planet style cybermen. They aren’t that mechanical in nature, it just feels a bit silly.

Also Heather turns up and sort of resurrects Bill without the Doctor knowing. Hmm, so Moffat has copied his previous finale. I’m going to say I prefer this one but it does grate a little that he effectively reused the same plot from the previous one. Also I would have preferred there to be a reference to Heather in between The Pilot and this one. That might have sold it a little better.

A good continuation from the first half, Moffat didn’t fuck it up this time 4.0/5

Hey, nice snowy visual of the doctor regenerat-….Oh wait….we still have that one to go…

Next Week: Kieren Has A Rant

Hello Who Back When Team!!

This episode was a great, if heartbreaking, sendoff for Bill, although much too soon. I was also sad to see Nardole leave, but maybe he can come back later, eh?

Since I’m limited to 250 words, I’ll just stick to some of the great lines Moffat loaded into this gem.

In the second post intro credit scene, the when they are dancing:
Missy “Hold me.”
Master: “Kiss me.”
Missy: “Make me.”
Doctor: “I guess you want to be alone. Which in your case would mean more than it usually does.” (Leon must’ve had a meltdown over this scene.)
When the software upgrade takes effect, and the Master is confused, the Doctor says: “You two: you should know by now, when you are winning and I’m in the room, you are missing something.” And the whole exposition there, ending with “Welcome to the menu.”

And “You know the stories. There’s only been one way to stop that many Cybermen: Me.”

When Nardole brings the shuttle and The Master enters: “The Doctors dead. He told me to tell you he always hated you.” Then Missy comes in and says the same thing.
Then Nardole says, “Yeah, I heard you the first time.”

When they are asking the Doctor “how many ways have you died?” Missy says “I know you have fallen.” which is a callback to Logopolis (Tom Baker’s farewell story).

The Master calls Missy “Sister” and “Lady Version” among other things.

When they camouflage the lift in the woods:
Doctor (referring to Bill): “Do as she says.”
Master (mockingly): “‘Do as she says?’ Is the future going to be all girl?”
Doctor: “We can only hope.”
I had a few small beefs with this episode, but no words left.
I give this 4.7 mondas cybermen scarecrows out of 5

Likes:

• Missy & the Master’s delicious chemistry and perfect demise. More multi-Master/Missy stories please.

Beefs:

• Bill coming back from the dead as some alien ghost puddle. When companions die they should stay dead. Adric is as dead as a dormouse and we respect him all the more for it.
• The kids. And the Peter Pan ‘if we really believe it, the apples will be real grenades’, or something (or were they real grenades? I didn’t really get that).
• Those Cybermen are blasting the Doctor over and over. How is he still standing? Those lasers are blowing up trees. Cyber Bill blew the side off a barn. Chunks of the Doctor’s flesh should be decorating the forest.
• Missed opportunity for some Seventh Doctor era Cybermen booming ‘eradicate them!’ whilst shaking their silver fists.

Summary: There should have been another way.

Rating: 2.5/5 Waltons kids not being horribly slaughtered in sufficient numbers for me to fully enjoy the episode. My audience demographic is not being catered to!