Bradley wasn’t very useful in this. I quite liked him last season (by comparison) but the O comment of ‘is he only here to provide a running narrative’ was pretty spot on.

It’s the trouble with three companions, one is always going to be left with nothing to do - particularly countering in a guest cast, and a de facto companion in O! Yaz and Ryan finally got something to do, had a bit of responsibility and side plot which left poor Graham with nothing!

Happy with those ratings, a lot of pessimists of course noting how far down it is on series 11 but of course that was to be expected. Second highest of the night is brilliant, and the highest for BBC1 - the context is very important and it will surely timeshift well too!

It would be a bit ironic if it doesn’t.

That was really good, one of the best in a long time. Really hope the second part and rest of the series can keep the pace

Sacha has spoke out about his casting (the timescales make me think someone pulled out, surely you don’t cast someone in the role of the Master so soon before filming!!) and his mental health. Really honest and interesting to read and I’ve suddenly turned into a Sacha stan. He’s raising money for Mind charity in January and there’s a link to his JustGiving page!

 

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I really enjoyed the first episode. It was so interesting and complex, just like proper Doctor Who is supposed to be. I LOVED the reveal of O although I have strong opinions on that (and I hope I am wrong!)

 

 

I have a horrible feeling that this new incarnation of the Master comes AFTER Missy, even though Moffat set it up perfectly for there to be countless regenerations between John Simm and Michelle Gomez. It would really frustrate me if this was the case because the Master FINALLY turned good!

 

My thoughts re the Missy thing are first of all that everything in this show eventually ends up resetting back to the essential format/character etc. The Time War was the biggest change to the series but even that essentially reset after the Time Lords and Gallifrey are back hidden away somewhere! I feel people overemphasis the change in Missy and always perceive her to be less menacing than she actually is (even before s10). I feel the ‘good’ in Missy only solidified in that final scene with the Saxon Master and of course it ended killing her. The regeneration therefore would like respark the evilness that will always prevail in the Master and perhaps turn him further against the Doctor for essentially causing his previous regeneration’s downfall!

 

 

I’ve seen a lot of focus on the multiple Earth scene from Wednesday and people linking it to ‘everything you know is a lie’. I’m not really... keen on the idea of multiverses in any ‘franchise’ as I feel it can be, unless integral to the concept of the show (like Fringe), quite a cheap method. I know of course the multiverse DOES exist in the Doctor Who world due to Rose Tyler’s parallel world (and also from a Third Doctor episode) but I think those were fine as the focus was ultimately quite limited. I just hope this doesn’t become a series arc or lead to Sacha being from an alternative universe or so...

It's lazy writing on Chibnall's behalf to just make The Master evil again after the entire arc of Series 10 was literally devoted to turning Missy good. There are ways to do it and to do it in a way that doesn't retcon the work of previous (better) writers.

ok Chibnall really is doing Moffatt dirty with that wipeout hmmm

Grrr as much as I hate the whole doctor explaining how she fixed everything for 5 mins as a resolution, it was actually quite an enjoyable episode. The series arc sounds veryyyy interesting, really hoping Chibs can pull out something good because it’s got me all very excited tbh. Pls don’t fall completely flat

There’s a LOT to digest (which makes a massive change from the previous series!), very very VERY intrigued where this arc is going. I didn’t want to see the Time Lords/Gallifrey return as focus within the show but I am bummed about it being destroyed again when the whole point of the 50th anniversary was to bring it back!!! It’s a real shame to shit on that occasion really unless all is not as it seems. I was totally fine with it sitting in it’s bubble universe. Very interesting though that we’re exploring what the Time Lords actually are. Dangerous territory to tread considering it could change our perception of the Doctor and cause a huge retrospective change across previous events/episodes. I would feel more confident if it was Moffatt doing it rather than Chibnall. A bit scared but we’ll see what the next 8 weeks bring!

 

I do definitely agree that the moment the two episodes have been building to in terms of the Spyfall/alien plot fell very flat due to it starting and being over in 2 minutes. I would have liked to have had more of the actual alien plan coming to volition. Especially as Lenny Henry essentially gets forgotten about!

 

Otherwise an amazing episode, a massive improvement on Series 11! So greatly paced and focus once again on Yaz, Ryan and Graham.

Omg axe bloody bradley walsh!!!

It suffered from the classic Doctor Who two parter mistake of everything being resolved in five minutes, and they set up A LOT here so it was quite a comedown when the build up to it was so intense and the stakes so high. I was worried it would happen and it did.

 

Otherwise though, it was very enjoyable. Very interested about what happened with Gallifrey, who the Time Lords are (big task on your shoulders there, Chibnall!) and the Master's future involvement and I'm glad the series finally has an arc to be working up to. I hope the companions continue to challenge the Doctor as it's finally giving her (and them) some much needed development, and they were actually mainly engaging to watch this week (although it was Yaz's turn to get sidelined this time). Barton seemed to get away too, I wonder if he's going to feature again or if they just forgot to write him out. Hopefully the former, he's been a surprisingly good villain.

 

I'm just glad to finally be excited to watch a series again after the opening, hasn't happened in a long time.

 

 

4.6m last night against Dancing on Ice’s 5.14m, solid retention from New Year’s Day. I do wonder if it may have been higher if Part One had been on yesterday.

I sort of liked this but felt it was disjointed from Part I, I think I'd rather that the historical elements were used for a completely separate story as they didn't really gel with the spy aspects from the first part. Barton was odd, like others I'm hoping he's going to reappear or something as the way he just left the stage never to be seen again was really unrewarding for his character. I think it could have been a stronger story if Barton was the main enemy in league with O who wasn't the Master at all but just a spy turned renegade. There were too many strands to be coherent and I was left a little underwhelmed on the whole.