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 In this two-part story The Doctor, Bill, Nardole and Missy answer a distress call from a gigantic spaceship that is trying to escape a black hole. The Doctor must save himself and the population of the colony ship from the Cybermen, while also dealing with two different incarnations of The Master at once.
This story marks the first time that more than one incarnation of The Master has appeared on-screen at the same time, as it features both Missy, the character's latest incarnation played by Michelle Gomez, and an earlier incarnation as played by John Simm who was last seen in the 2009/2010 story "The End of Time".
This story depicted the origins of the Mondasian Cybermen who were last seen on-screen in the 1966 First Doctor story "The Tenth Planet", which was the Cybermen's debut.
This story began with what appeared to be the beginning of the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration. The regeneration would be postponed, however, as The Doctor refused to change.
This story wraps up the story-lines of several recurring characters; Bill and Heather begin their own travels through time and space, Bill leaving The Doctor (who is mortally wounded in the battle against the Cybermen) behind in the TARDIS; Nardole stays behind on the Mondasian colony ship to help Hazran and her children escape the Cybermen; The Master is forced to regenerate by Missy after she stabs him. Both agree that he then regenerates into Missy, in his own TARDIS, and he forgets the whole adventure; Missy is killed by her previous incarnation, left unable to regenerate. In their own words, they were shot in the back by themselves.
This story has been written by Steven Moffat and was directed by Rachel Talalay. This is the third story that she has directed. Her first, the 2014 story "Dark Water/Death in Heaven", brought Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and Michelle Gomez’s Missy together for the first time.
This story marked the return of John Simm as the Master, acting alongside Michelle Gomez's Missy. The BBC confirmed, on the 6th April 2017, that John Simm would be returning as The Master during this season, appearing alongside his successor for the first multi-Master television story in the show's history. Previously, there have been multi-Master stories in the audio dramas, books, and comics but this is the first multi-Master story on television.
John Simm’s incarnation was first seen in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Utopia" when the character (as played by Derek Jacobi) regenerated on the planet Malcassairo.
John Simm is heard to say, about his return to the show as The Master, ‘I can confirm that it’s true, thanks to the power of time travel I’m back. It’s always a pleasure to work with this great team of people and I can’t wait for you all to see what The Master gets up to in the next series’.
Steven Moffat, writer and Executive Producer revealed ‘Nothing stays secret for long on Doctor Who but you'll have to wait a little bit longer to see exactly what The Master is up to and how he makes his return to face The Doctor. It’s been a huge pleasure to have fan favourites John Simm and Michelle Gomez face to face in the same role! It’s not often you get to see a solo personality clash’.
The read-through for this story took place on the 21st February 2017 with filming starting on the 24th February 2017. Filming concluded on the 7th April 2017. However the final scene, involving David Bradley, was filmed as part of the filming of the Christmas Special in June 2017.
The Doctor again employs Venusian Aikido, a form of unarmed combat much-favoured by the Third Doctor who was forever getting into scrapes that forced him to use it. It appears to be similar, if not the same, as Venusian Karate, which The Doctor discussed on a number of occasions. (Later, he did mention ‘Venusian Aikido’ directly in stories such as "Inferno", "Colony in Space", "The Mutants", "The Green Death" and "The Time Warrior"). In the Target novelisations of the 1970’s adventures, it was customary for any reference of The Doctor’s prowess in Venusian Aikido to be joined with a reminder that he was one of the few two-armed beings in the universe to have mastered the discipline!
The topic of The Doctor's ‘real name’ is discussed (see "The Name of The Doctor"). The Doctor again states how he actually likes being asked ‘Doctor Who’ (see "The Bells of Saint John"). Missy also claims to know The Doctor's real name; previously, River Song possessed this knowledge (see "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead") and Clara Oswald briefly did so before a time reset in "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS".
The line spoken by Missy ‘Hello, I’m Doctor Who...’ is a reference to a common misconception that the central character is named ‘Doctor Who’ and indeed, when the first two Dalek stories were adapted for the big screen, Peter Cushing played that scourge of the Daleks, owner of the TARDIS and brilliant scientist, Dr. Who! But in the show the words have been used as a question as opposed to an actual name for The Doctor. A memorable exception occurred in the 1966 First Doctor story "The War Machines" when WOTAN is heard to say ‘Doctor Who is required!’. While in the 1966/1967 Second Doctor story "The Highlanders", The Doctor introduces himself as 'Doktor von Wer' (German for 'Doctor of Who'); in the 1967 Second Doctor story "The Underwater Menace", The Doctor signs a note with 'Dr. W.'; and, in the 1971 Third Doctor story "The Dæmons", The Doctor introduces himself as 'the great wizard Qui Quae Quod' (Latin variations of 'Who'). It is also worth noting that unusually the Third Doctor’s second story was called "Doctor Who and the Silurians" and the fifth episode of the 1965 First Doctor story "The Chase" was entitled "The Death of Doctor Who". However, it does seem like a bit of an in-joke and from the 1970 Third Doctor story "Doctor Who and the Silurians" to the Twentieth Anniversary Special "The Five Doctors", The Doctor's car Bessie's plate read WHO 1, while in the 1989 Seventh Doctor story "Battlefield" it read WHO 7; in the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Rose", a website called whoisdoctorwho.co.uk asks 'Who is Doctor Who?'. In this story even though Missy claims that 'Doctor Who' is The Doctor's real name, she also explicitly says she calls herself 'Doctor Who' to head off the usual response heard when The Doctor introduces himself and people reply, 'Doctor who?'.
The Master also refers to The Doctor as ‘Doc’. The Doctor's first incarnation had previously taken umbrage at being addressed like that (see "The Five Doctors").
The Doctor refers to him and The Master meeting at the Time Lord Academy (see "Terror of the Autons", "The Sound of Drums" and the BBC Books' The Past Doctors Stories novel "Divided Loyalties"). The Doctor and Missy also mention how they chose their names that day, as well as making other promises (see "The Sound of Drums" and "The End of Time").
The Doctor is seen offering a jelly baby to a small girl. Although most commonly associated with the Fourth Doctor, the Second Doctor and the Seventh Doctor enjoyed jelly babies and the Eighth Doctor went a step further, using them as a distraction whilst battling The Master in San Francisco. Much later, in the 2014 story "Mummy on the Orient Express", we saw the Twelfth Doctor carrying jelly babies around in a very fancy case - much smarter than the old paper bag he’s now reverted back to! In the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords" it was revealed that The Master carried a bag of jelly babies around and he even offered one to his wife before tucking into one himself!
Whilst discussing ways in which The Doctor has ‘died’ - in other words, events that have triggered a regeneration - Missy states ‘I know you’ve fallen’. She knows this because, as an earlier incarnation of The Master, she witnessed this event in the 1981 Fourth Doctor story "Logopolis". Whilst derailing The Master’s plan to gain dominion over the entire cosmos, The Doctor tumbled from a radio telescope and plummeted to the ground. This fall resulted in his transformation into the Fifth Doctor.
The Doctor resists the idea of change and presumably believes this is the final end, declaring that wherever the TARDIS has brought him, he is staying. The final episode of the 1967 Second Doctor story "Evil of the Daleks" was broadcast exactly 50 years to the day before the second episode of this story was first shown. In that early story The Doctor’s closing words were ‘The end. The final end’.
The Doctor has resisted regenerating in previous stories - namely when nearing the end of his fifth incarnation ("The Caves of Androzani") and tenth incarnation ("The End of Time").
As he begins regenerating The Doctor is heard to say ‘I don't want to go’. These are the exact same words the Tenth Doctor said before he regenerated in "The End of Time". They were also the last comment he made to the Eleventh Doctor before leaving him in "The Day of The Doctor". Coincidentally, David Bradley, playing William Hartnell in An Adventure in Space and Time, uttered the same line when his character is contemplating stepping away from Doctor Who, which in the show itself, resulted in the very first regeneration.
The words ‘When The Doctor was me’ are a fragment of the last thing the Eleventh Doctor ever said to Clara Oswald. Aboard the TARDIS, about to become the Twelfth Doctor in "The Time of The Doctor", he promised her ‘I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear, I will always remember when The Doctor was me’. He is also heard to say ‘it's starting. I'm regenerating’, the final words the Tenth Doctor stated before his aborted regeneration in the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End"). The Twelfth Doctor also shouts ‘no!’ repeatedly while his regenerative energy flairs up. These were the final words the Second Doctor said in "The War Games".
Just before The Doctor starts to regenerate we see a succession of former companions and friends. The Fourth Doctor had similar visions moments before regenerating at the end of the "Logopolis". Back then he too heard them saying his name. On that occasion, moments before, The Doctor had a flashback of enemies, the first of which was The Master, gloating ‘Predicable as ever, Doctor’. In this story, his fellow Time Lord is not the first face he ‘sees’ but in the succession of flashbacks, Missy’s is the slightly separate, final one.
In the sequence of flashbacks the Twelfth Doctor recalls Rose Tyler from the 2005 Ninth Doctor story "Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways", Martha Jones from the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks", Donna Noble from the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "Partners in Crime", Jack Harkness from the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "Utopia", Madame Vastra from the 2013 Eleventh Doctor story "The Name of The Doctor", Jenny Flint from the 2013 Eleventh Doctor story "The Crimson Horror", Sarah Jane Smith from the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End", Amy Pond from the 2011 Eleventh Doctor story "The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon", River Song from the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang" and Clara Oswald from the 2014 Christmas Special "Last Christmas" - despite having her wiped from his memories in the 2015 story "Heaven Sent/Hell Bent".
This story features a cameo of the First Doctor, portrayed by David Bradley. He had previously played William Hartnell, the original actor to play the First Doctor, in the 2013 Doctor Who docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time.
David Bradley has appeared in Doctor Who before, playing the sinister Solomon in the 2012 Eleventh Doctor story "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". He also provided the voice of the Shansheeth in The Sarah Jane Adventures story, "The Death of The Doctor", which featured the Eleventh Doctor and Jo Jones (aka Jo Grant). But in the world of Doctor Who he is better known for his peerless portrayal of William Hartnell. Here he plays the First Doctor, complete with the character’s familiar cloak, hat and habit of gripping his lapels. His appearance in this story posed the question as to where in the First Doctor's timeline do we join him and what will happen when these two incarnations of The Doctor collide?
The Doctor has met previous incarnations of himself before (see "The Three Doctors", "The Five Doctors" and "The Day of The Doctor").
The line ‘You may be a Doctor, but I am The Doctor... The original you might say!’ is a mixture of two lines previously spoken by The Doctor. In the 1974 Fourth Doctor story "Robot", shortly having regenerated, The Doctor told Harry Sullivan, ‘You may be a Doctor, but I am The Doctor. The definite article, you might say!’ While in the Twentieth Anniversary special, "The Five Doctors, when Tegan asks who the First Doctor might be he replies tetchily, ‘I might be any number of things, young lady. As it happens, I am The Doctor. The original, you might say!’.
This story marks the first time, since "The Five Doctors", that the First Doctor, as an adult, has been portrayed outside of archive footage. The First Doctor did appear as a child in the 2014 story "Listen".
Once again The Doctor witnesses a companion suffer a mortal injury (see "Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead" and "Face the Raven"), only for technology to be used to arrange for them to stay alive.
In this story Bill is converted into a Cyberman. This is not the first time that someone close to The Doctor has become a Cyberman: Jackie Tyler, in a parallel world, was converted into a Cyberman in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel"; Yvonne Hartman in the 2006 Tenth Doctor story "Army of Ghosts/Doomsday"; while in the 2014 story "Dark Water/Death in Heaven" Danny Pink is converted into a Cyberman. A Cyberman version of The Brigadier is also seen at the end of that two-part story who, after rescuing his daughter Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, is seen shooting Missy. A similar fate also occurred to Oswin when she was converted into a Dalek (see "Asylum of the Daleks").
The Doctor tries to remember if he ever had a female incarnation. All incarnations of The Doctor up to and including the Twelfth are accounted for in "The Day of The Doctor", so the answer would appear to be no. This isn't the first time, however, that a question mark has been raised over past incarnations of The Doctor and whether all are indeed accounted for (see "The Brain of Morbius").
The Doctor criticises Bill for eating a bacon sandwich when arguing about Missy's morality. This echoes an earlier conservation between the two in "The Pilot" when The Doctor stated ‘Hardly anything’s evil. Most things are hungry. Hungry can look a lot like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Do you think your bacon sandwich loves you back?’.
Nardole mentions how he used to be a black market dealer before meeting The Doctor (see "The Husbands of River Song") and further indicates he is a cyborg (see "Oxygen" and "The Eaters of Light").
The Doctor reiterates River Song's words that Nardole once spoke to him from her diary (see "Extremis").
Blue-skinned humanoids are seen again (see "The End of the World", "The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang" and "Oxygen").
Missy is heard to state that nothing comes out of a black hole but she is with someone who did just that. In the 1973 Tenth Anniversary story "The Three Doctors" two incarnations of The Doctor (The Second Doctor and the Third Doctor), several of his friends, his car and UNIT HQ are all transported into a black hole – and more specifically, the anti-matter domain of Omega. All of them made it back to Earth!
Missy not remembering being on the spaceship in her previous incarnation echoes how the Eleventh Doctor, in "The Day of The Doctor", didn't remember meeting his other selves until ‘time caught up’. In that story, the War Doctor and the Tenth Doctor, along with all other incarnations involved, did not retain memories of saving Gallifrey until the Eleventh Doctor went through that adventure himself.
Missy comedically remarks on the age gap between The Doctor and his companions. The Dream Lord made a similar remark in the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "Amy's Choice".
Missy is heard to tell The Master ‘I loved being you’. The Tenth Doctor said the exact same thing to the Fifth Doctor when they meet in 2007 mini-story "Time Crash" also written by Steven Moffat.
The Master is heard to say that he loves disguises - a fondness which dates back to his debut appearance in the 1971 Third Doctor story "Terror of the Autons" when he posed as a telephone engineer. In the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Time-Flight" he became a genie-like figure called Kalid, in the 1982 Fifth Doctor story "Castrovalva" he adopted the guise of the kind and elderly leader, the Portreeve, and in "Utopia" his disguise as Professor Yana was so convincing even he believed that was who he was! In the 1971 Third Doctor story "The Dæmons" he put on a pair of glasses and a dog collar and claimed to be the Reverend Mr Magister. The Doctor though was able to see through his cunning disguise.
In this story The Master adopts the guise of Razor so Bill would not recognise him from his time as Prime Minister in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords", under the alias Harold Saxon. The Master also mentions being ‘someone's former Prime Minister’.
The Doctor’s early friendship with The Master has been referenced in many stories, but details of their time at the Academy together - as mentioned in this story - are sparse. However, in the 1971 Third Doctor story "Terror of the Autons", a fellow Time Lord pointed out to The Doctor that ‘His degree in cosmic science was of a higher class than yours’. The slightly dismayed Doctor retaliated by saying ‘I was a late developer!’.
The Doctor mentions The Master's desire to destroy the universe rather than explore it, as they had initially promised (see "Last of the Time Lords" and "The End of Time").
The Master has allied with the Cybermen before (see "The Five Doctors", "Dark Water/Death in Heaven").
When The Master unmasks himself, an alarm bell in the background sounds in time with a drumbeat. The drumbeat is also heard when he enters the operating theatre alongside Missy. The Master has had an association with drums before (see "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums", "Last of the Time Lords" and "The End of Time").
The Doctor recalls last seeing Missy's predecessor heading to Gallifrey, deducing that the Time Lords cured his 'little condition' before kicking him out (see "The End of Time").
The Master once again moves The Doctor around in a wheelchair and is seen gloating over his dominion to a wheelchair bound Doctor just as he did with the aged Tenth Doctor during the 2007 story "Last of the Time Lords", even calling him ‘grandad’.
This is the fourth time The Doctor has witnessed the 'genesis' of some form of Cybermen (see "Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel", the Big Finish Productions audio story "Spare Parts" and the comic strip story "The World Shapers").
The return of the original Mondasian Cybermen was announced on the 6th March 2017.
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The Firsts:
The first time that more than one incarnation of The Master has appeared on-screen at the same time.
The first appearance of the Mondasian Cybermen since they were last seen on-screen in the 1966 First Doctor story "The Tenth Planet", which was the Cybermen's debut.
This story marks the first time, since "The Five Doctors", that the First Doctor, as an adult, has been portrayed outside of archive footage.
The first Doctor Who story to feature the First Doctor, portrayed by David Bradley.
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(Position = 1 out of 12)
