It is always difficult to judge a two part story on just the first half, especially when that first half is also a festive special. Intricacy of plot isn't expected - only something fairly bright and breezy, and that's what we got last night. The episode quite literally flew along, as began with some globetrotting in the pre-titles sequence - something we haven't had for a while. Something is incapacitating secret agents all over the planet, and we see fairly early on that it is the new aliens from the trailer - the ones who can walk through walls, even those of the TARDIS. (In fact it now appears that most of the trailer derived from this first episode). As a new species, they were eerily effective, appearing either as bright figures of white light, or taking on the texture of the walls and other objects they phased through. It would appear that they derive from another dimension, or even another universe altogether. We learned very little about them, but they did help add some darkness to an otherwise lighthearted story.
Team TARDIS were found to be all back at home as the story opened, finding excuses to give loved ones and colleagues for their recent travels. The Doctor was repairing the TARDIS in a garage, the box propped up on a hydraulic lift like a car getting an MOT. Stephen Fry's C brings them all together again, as he is the head of MI6, and he wants the Doctor to investigate the attacks on the agents. Sadly he wasn't in it for long, and won't be around for the conclusion. The other main guest artist is Lenny Henry, playing what we were all supposed to assume to be the villain of the piece, an internet billionaire who is in league with the aliens. He is a wrong 'un, but not the main villain.
I had seen it mentioned months ago that Sacha Dhawan was going to be playing the latest incarnation of the Master, but the vlogger who mentioned it didn't seem to think the information was accurate. I did think of that vlog when I saw him appear, especially as he hadn't been mentioned in the cast list, or seen in the trailers. It was still a bit of a surprise to see him reveal his true identity, as he had been playing such a sympathetic character, an old friend of the Doctor.
If there is one negative about this episode, it's that we didn't get enough Graham. I think there was more Yaz in this episode than in all ten episodes of the last season put together.
Overall, a very good start to Series 12, but hardly indicative of what may follow. Hopefully Part 2 won't go off at too great a tangent, as Moffat two parters were wont to do, as a lot of questions remain unanswered.
Chibnall has promised a theme running through this series, rather than a more explicit story arc. Hard to judge what that theme might be after just half a story, but it could be about our over-reliance on technology, or things being not what they appear to be. The Master's statement that everything the Doctor knows is a lie might hark back to that rumour of a regeneration cycle before the one we have seen since Hartnell. Maybe.
One last thing, did you watch Dracula as well last night? And if you did, did you spot the Clara Oswald reference (mention of the barmaid of the Rose & Crown)?
It was very intense, and actually had stakes, which is a cooling. But the O revelation for me ended as kind of a bummer, like they just rebooted him to factory mode and ignored all the progress made in Missy arc from the Twelfth Doctor era.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Should have looked back to Delgado as a starting point, rather than Simm.
ReplyDeleteYa know, that stopped bothering me in Part Two, as I felt flamboyance really fitted Sasha's Master well. Oh yeah I would prefer it if we get some clarification about his place on their timeline, but guess I can register the behavior he exhibited where as result to (assuming it's a post-Missy incarnation) the lack of moral reward whatsoever to her choice of standing side to side with the Doctor's beliefs and deep disillusion with their roots, plus collateral damage of whatever Chibnall trying to pull off in the Big Gallifrey Dark Time Ret-Con Extravaganza.
ReplyDeleteJust can't see something like that happening considering the Delgado's Master mindset. He has always struck me as being too fuzzy with universal domination and Doctor-bickering, simply unfazed for matters regarding the Homeworld to actually give a fuck.
It was interesting the way the Master's behaviour changed when he didn't have an audience, just the Doctor on her own. He even gave that warning via hologram, suggesting a more subtle relationship with the Doctor underneath all that manic grandstanding.
ReplyDelete