 This story is the third and final part of three loosely connected stories known as "The Monks Trilogy". This story continues on after Bill Potts gives her consent to The Monks to save The Doctor who is trapped in a laboratory that is about to explode (see the previous story "The Pyramid at the End of the World"). Bill and Nardole have to find a way to rescue The Doctor after he is imprisoned, and end The Monk's invasion of Earth. We also get to see him enter the Vault to consult Missy, revealing his endeavour to turn her from her destructive past to a path of ‘good’.
This story has been written by Toby Whithouse - making this his sixth Doctor Who story; his most recent being the 2015 two-part story "Under the Lake/Before the Flood". He also who wrote "School Reunion", "The Vampires of Venice", "The God Complex" and "A Town Called Mercy". This is the first time he has written for a returning enemy.
This story was directed by Wayne Yip. Although this is his first Doctor Who story he was at the helm for two episodes of the BBC Three spin-off series Class. Wayne Yip's other previous credits include Secret Diary of a Call Girl (which starred Billie Piper), Utopia and Misfits.
The read through for this story took place on the 11th January 2017. Filming started five days later, as part of Block Six along with the subsequent story "Empress of Mars", on the 16th January and was completed on the 22nd February.
For this story The Doctor has a change of costume, reverting to the ensemble first seen during the flashback sequences in "Extremis". This costume was designed by Costume Designer Hayley Nebauer.
Nardole is seen performing a Tarovian neck pinch to knock out Alan, using only his thumb. Ian Chesterton demonstrated a similar act on Ixta in the 1964 First Doctor story "The Aztecs". Nardole confirms that he has reached the level of Brown Tavard in Tarovian martial arts.
Nardole mentions being contaminated by Raoultella Planticola (see "The Pyramid at the End of the World") and states it laid him up for six weeks.
Nardole again hints at his cybernetic nature (see "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", "The Pilot" and "The Pyramid at the End of the World") when he tells the group invading the pyramid that his left hand is not his original hand but is one that he won in a game.
In the first scene with Missy, the visual of two eyes superimposed over a panning shot is a homage to a similar scene from the 1996 Eighth Doctor film "Doctor Who: The Movie". In that story, when The Master is introduced, we see two planets morph into his eyes. At that moment The Doctor is recounting a request made by The Master that meant the two Time Lords meet up again. In this story the effect follows The Doctor making requests, providing a neat inversion of the original ‘eyes across a scene’ motif.
In the 2015 story "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar" Missy previously scoffed at the idea that she had ‘turned good’ when questioned by Clara Oswald. As early as his seventh incarnation, The Doctor had vowed to one day save his friend after The Master was forced to revert following a temporary spell as the kindly John Smith (see the Big Finish Productions audio story "Master").
Missy continues to demonstrate her skill on the piano. When The Doctor and Bill first visit her in the vault we hear her briefly playing selections from Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No 1 and later in the visit she picks out a little of Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer - an altogether more upbeat classic from 1902.
Missy is heard to ask for some ‘toys’ like a particle accelerator, a 3D printer and a pony, in return for her help.
The Doctor deduces that The Monk statues around the world act as beacons for the false propaganda. The Monks have erected these statues in cities including Bristol, New York City, Paris, Moscow, Sydney and Toronto, among others. Statues have also been erected near famous locations, including Mount Rushmore, Niagra Falls and Stonehenge.
The Monks propagate falsehoods through Bill, and have injected themselves into all of human history - taking credit for all of humanity's achievements.
In images showing The Monks' aid to humanity brief clips showing the Daleks, the Cybermen and Weeping Angels are seen at the beginning of this story. ‘Who can forget the time the Monks defeated the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Weeping Angels?’ The Doctor’s voice-over is accompanied by brief clips from "Into the Dalek", "Nightmare in Silver" and "Blink". To further add to the broadcast’s sense of untruth, the first two excerpts aren’t even set on Earth. Later in the story we also see several moments from "The Pilot" and in the central chamber of The Monk's pyramid there are still images from other scenes from the current season.
It is revealed that Time Lords can apparently 'fake' a regeneration seemingly by starting the process only to abort it before any actual healing, if needed, is enacted.
No scenes featuring the TARDIS were shot for this story. This is unusual since the show was revised in 2005 but not unique as the TARDIS did not feature in "Mission to the Unknown", "Doctor Who and the Silurians", "The Mind of Evil", "The Dæmons", "The Sea Devils", "The Sontaran Experiment", "Genesis of the Daleks" and "Midnight". We do however, glimpse a fraction of the TARDIS very briefly in this story when Bill mentally fights The Monks in the central chamber of their pyramid.
The Vault is dimensionally transcendental like some other Time Lord technology.
The Doctor is located on an old prison ship off the East coast of Scotland.
UK locations on Nardole's map include: Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Other UK locations include the Hebrides, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands.
Magpie Electricals makes a return. Just after the opening titles we see Bill watching one of The Doctor's broadcasts that is being shown on several televisions in a shop called Magpie Electricals. It has similar (but not quite identical) branding as we have seen on Magpie Electricals goods - such as the guitar amplifier in the 2015 story "The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar" and Martha’s television in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords" - and on Magpie Electrical outlets, including the store in "The Beast Below" and the business which apparently started it all - Mr Magpie’s corner shop in London, as introduced in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "The Idiot’s Lantern".
Although not named in this story, altered versions of the Lascaux cave paintings, Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man and the Mona Lisa appear. Each of these is altered to incorporate The Monks. Photos also appear of The Monks with Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Neil Armstrong and Winston Churchill.
The Doctor suggests that he would make some modifications to history, like ending racism and people who talk in cinemas.
The Doctor explains that Bill is unaffected in ‘Fake News Central’ because they are at the eye of the storm.
To gain Bill's trust, Nardole tells her they went to Australia on the run from ‘The Heather Creature’ (see "The Pilot") and that space doors should go ‘shuck, shuck’ (see "Oxygen").
In testing Bill we hear The Doctor telling her about the creature under the Thames (see "Thin Ice").
It is revealed that The Doctor had Bill write a 3000 word essay on free will, which she never completed due to The Monk’s invasion.
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The Firsts:
The first Doctor Who story to be directed by Wayne Yip.
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(Position = 12 out of 12)
