#choices’ last part (the library scene) beat me to death in the docs

[sollucets]

wheres that post thats like. [emerges from google docs covered in blood] anyway oowu4. done. i think. just editposting now

[cwalshuk]

Doctor Who review - Spyfall Part Two

Spoilers! Obviously.

If you haven’t watched the second episode of the 2020 series, then go watch it now. Seriously.

Spyfall Part Two sees The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham attempt to survive the rather tricky situations they were left in at the end of part one.

You can catch up on it on BBC iPlayer in the UK, check local listings for your own country.

Spyfall Part Two begins with a ‘Previously on’ - it's been a little while since we needed one of those! And, armed with the knowledge from the cliffhanger, we can see C’s murder in a new light. He tries to tell Thirteen and fam that he suspects O! Lovely stuff.

Post-titles, we’re back in that somewhere weird place, temporarily home to Yaz, currently to The Doctor. As she's alone, the Timelord is consoling herself by thinking out loud. And what would she say to Yaz, Ryan and Graham, currently on Daniel Barton’s crashing plane? Don't Panic.

I’m tempted to see that choice as a reference to Douglas Adams, not least because there are a number of references to the work of other writers from past eras of Doctor Who, but ‘Don’t panic’ is pretty good advice anyway, right? Particularly as there really isn't any need to, when you’re friends with someone with a time machine.

Y’see, The Doctor (eventually) uses her Tardis to go back in time and install in the plane exactly what Ryan, Yaz and Graham need to land safely. It's a great funny action sequence, and, whilst this sort of solution will be familiar to a big chunk of the audience, new fans need to know that Doctor Who can do this with it's sort of time travel, and does it with panache. I particularly like the reference to Blink, Yaz calmly realising how Ryan's new app can help, and Graham just being Graham.

Meanwhile, The Doctor is exploring the somewhere weird place, theorising that she’s inside something, noting the electrical pulses snaking about, and hoping she isn't in someone's liver. Not because that’d be eurrghhh, but because people tend to take offence! I love that sort of joke, where we end up wondering what happened all the other times she was in someone’s liver.

But then she hears a voice! Thirteen finds a slightly creepy lady called Ada and deduces with her help that their only way out is via a Kasaavin, the light-up alien spies. Introducing pre-marriage Ada Lovelace this way, but not her full name, was cool, and intriguing, keeping my attention through the next scene with the fam - all exposition, the plane will land itself wherever Barton was intending to go.

The Master’s Tardis is in the vortex! Fantastic! He’s in there, congratulating himself with a less than impressed Daniel Barton, when his console and Barton’s phone clue them in to Thirteen’s escape.

Having The Doctor wake up tasting the time period like a fine wine is a lovely touch. She’s back in Ada’s time, at a 19th Century inventors convention, with Charles Babbage! Who wonders how Miss Gordon and The Doctor appeared in their midst. A magic trick, decides Thirteen, so she can carry on without further interruption. Babbage is still unconvinced, not least because The Doc has to ask him what year they’re in. Confirmation of her exact plight brings Thirteen’s thoughts back to the fam.

Ryan, Yaz and Graham have kept out of sight as Daniel Barton discovers from an airport employee that his plane landed autonomously, but empty. We’re back in Blighty, luckily, and Essex too, as Barton has a speech in London that evening. Graham’s joy at being back in his manor is tempered by Yaz’s fears for The Doc’s safety. And Barton is sending some goons after the fam!

Inquisitive Ada gets brought into the loop by Thirteen (with Babbage eavesdropping), but the trio are interrupted by The Master, who must've dropped Barton in the present before raiding his own Tardis wardrobe for his big entrance. Timelord showdown!

Sacha Dhawan is chilling and funny - ‘Hands on heads!’ - as his Master shrinks random convention goers and orders Thirteen to kneel - ‘Call me by my name!’ He does let slip that he isn't in control of the Kasaavin though, but can't divulge ‘news from home’ because Ada’s commandeered a number of prototype weapons from the convention to turn on him, despite her being ‘a lady’. Ada gets The Doc’s grudging approval with her violence, in a way that brings to mind the Seventh Doctor and Ace. The Master gets to disappear in a cloud of smoke, like a panto villain, though he is wounded.

Ryan, Yaz and Graham don’t get far from the airport before Daniel Barton is turning the full force of his tech empire on them. Yaz gets to call her mum before the three of them smash their phones and scarper.

Back in 1834, The Doctor realises she’s in the company of Babbage and Lovelace and is a little star struck. She gets Charles talking about his Difference Engine, an early ancestor of the modern computer, and decides her presence there is a clue. Also catching her eye is the Silver Lady, a gift to Babbage from The Master. It moves and makes apparitions, says Charles. Piecing together everything she knows so far, she concludes that the Kasaavin have been studying Ada by transporting her to their dimension. And they’ve had the Master’s help stabilising themselves in our dimension, readying themselves for an attack in the present day. Thirteen sonics the Silver Lady to bring out a Kasaavin, explaining to Lovelace and Babbage her hope that she can get it to return her to the present day. But Ada doesn't like the risk The Doc’s taking, so grabs her hand. Thirteen shouts ‘No!’ as they both disappear. Charles, now alone, downs his drink.

And that's the last we see of Mr Babbage, brought wonderfully to life by Mark Dexter, who you might remember as the Dad of the little girl in Stephen Moffat’s River Song introducing two-parter Silence In The Library/Forest Of The Dead.

Graham, Ryan and Yaz meanwhile have hidden out at a building site. They realise how little they know about The Doctor, and Graham states his intention to ask for more, sure that he’ll get the opportunity. Yaz channels Thirteen and both Ryan and Graham admit to keeping hold of some of C’s spy tech, just as the Kasaavin appear outside!

Back to The Doctor, who is surprised to find herself and Ada transported to Paris 1943, where a young woman rushes them inside, out of sight of an approaching Nazi patrol. The music swells, the patrol halts, and out of the car steps The Master, still angry, but this time in full Nazi uniform, Doctor-detecting gizmo to hand.

Fleeing the Kasaavin, Yaz, Graham and Ryan risk using the Laser shoes Graham had borrowed from Q, which holds off the aliens.

Meanwhile, Daniel Barton argues with his mother, who he has tied up. She isn't proud enough of his achievements, apparently. That’s enough for him to set the Kasaavin on her, the first victim on this ‘last day’. Pretty ruthless for the fake-out villain, right?

Back in 1943, the Nazi patrol raid the young lady’s home, with The Master hobbling in behind them. ‘You’re new.’ she notes of the injured Timelord. Beneath the floorboards, The Doctor spies radio equipment, and Ada. The Master orders the Nazis to shoot the floor, with just a tap of his cane, but hearing no screams, and getting nothing from the young lady by staring her down, he leaves with the Nazis. As the young lady frees Thirteen and Ada from their hiding place, the Timelord puts two names to the face. ‘Code name: Madeleine, real name: Noor Inayat Khan. First female wireless operator to be dropped behind enemy lines.’ The Doctor’s a fan! And she has a theory about how they ended up in World War II when she was aiming for the 21st century - Ada grabbing her hand knocked them off course.

Noor and Ada are confused, so after The Doctor explains the time travel stuff, Noor tells Ada of the horrors Paris has suffered through. Ada, shocked to learn that the devastation outside the window has happened twice, is consoled by the Timelord that ‘the darkness never sustains’. After assessing Noor’s skills and resources, Thirteen comes up with a plan.

I’m a big fan of The Doctor meeting real people from history, particularly when they can inspire the younger side of the audience, as Noor and Ada surely can. I seem to recall one or both ladies being suggested as new faces for British currency, an honour both merit, though neither succeeded this time around.

Yaz, Ryan and Graham get the better of Daniel Barton’s goons by revealing their location, accidentally on purpose, and then steal their car with the aid of Graham’s laser shoes.

Back in wartime Paris, The Doctor is tapping out a four beat pattern on Noor’s radio equipment. ‘The rhythm of two hearts’. The Master cannot resist responding, allowing Thirteen to make telepathic contact with her old friend. ‘Old-school’ he notes. ‘You’re not the only one who can do classic.’ she replies. They agree to meet at the obvious place - the Eiffel Tower - though it's less of a date, more like a trap.

I love that Chris Chibnall’s script acknowledges how much influence he’s drawn from past Master encounters. The return of Tissue Compression Eliminator, which the Master uses to shrink people to death, suggests that this incarnation has reverted to a personality last seen in the classic era of the show, but elements of Sacha Dhawan’s performance bring to mind more recent ones. I don’t think we’ve seen The Master’s Tardis onscreen for a while either, but that doesn't narrow it down as much as you might think.

Thirteen and The Master use their Eiffel Tower rendezvous to reminisce, which gives us a subtle reference to Logopolis, and The Doctor a chance to pin down exactly which crimes The Masters committed so far in this story. Intriguingly, he also reveals that the Kasaavin were already a looming threat to Earth before he got started meddling, comparing them to modern day Russia, and teasing that he merely improved upon the aliens’ plans.

Yaz, Graham and Ryan, arriving too late to save Daniel Barton’s mum, but just in time for him to gloat before his big speech, learn that the tech CEO allowed the Kasaavin to experiment on 7% of his DNA, and that he has designs on the entire human race. They gather around the Silver Lady.

Noor, at her base, messages London, but doubts she should be trusting The Doctor. Ada reassures her, though neither understands the device the Timelord left with them - a flip-phone! They search Paris by night, discovering ‘something anomalous’, and alert The Doctor.

Hiding the message from The Master, the pair, still high above Paris, interrogate each other. Thirteen reckons she and Yaz survived their encounters with the Kasaavin due to the artron energy they’re covered with, as time travellers. She gets The Master to gloat about his manipulations of Daniel Barton and the Kasaavin. ‘Win, win, win!’ he reckons. She doesn't understand why The Master doesn't stop his games, after all these years, and although he claims its for chaos’ sake, he also concedes that he wanted The Doctor’s attention. He says he visited Gallifrey, their home planet, and found it in ruins, but Thirteen thinks it's another trick. Before he can continue, some Nazis arrive to confront him. The Master, not best pleased, grabs The Doctor by the throat, pushing her to the edge of the viewing platform. Now it's her turn to gloat! She’d got Noor to send a message back to London describing The Master as a double agent, ensuring it could be intercepted by the Nazis. Now they’ve got him at gunpoint - How’s he going to get out of that one!

Daniel Barton walks onstage for his speech, whilst, in 1943, The Doctor catches up to Noor and Ada, who, thanks to Noor’s local knowledge, have discovered the Master’s Tardis. He hadn't even bothered to change it from its Australian outback home appearance! Breaking in, she uses the console to find out another part of The Master’s plan. He’d helped the Kasaavin to spy on people key to the rise of the modern computer age, so that they and Daniel Barton could collect enough data for something they are working on. Something that is connected to human DNA - experiments of some kind!

Barton delivers his speech. His time to gloat. Humanity has allowed itself to be spied upon through our addiction to tech, and it has left us vulnerable. To being reformatted as hard drives. Barton and a few others will be spared, of course, but the rest of us are finished. The Silver Lady spins and glows ominously as humanity begins to be rewritten. Stolen spy tech can't stop it and now The Master arrives (via the slow path) to gloat some more. But then it stops spinning. So Barton flees and humanity is saved.

In strolls The Doctor with Noor and Ada! Thirteen explains that they traced the Silver Lady from its first owner Babbage right through to Barton, and that she hacked it, to ensure it would shutdown if ever loaded up with a massive amount of Kasaavin energy. Angry at the foiling of their plan, the Kasaavin arrive, but before they are exiled by The Doctor, they turn on The Master when she plays them a recording of him gloating earlier on the Eiffel Tower, of his plan to double cross them. He ends up in their somewhere weird place screaming after The Doctor.

Yaz notes that the Doc has more explaining to do, with Graham worried that Noor and Ada are replacing them, and Ryan asking how the Timelord saved them from the crashing plane. Turns out she hasn't, yet! Quick montage to prepare the plane in advance, then back to her own Tardis - hope she keeps The Master’s one somewhere safe!

Before she comes back for the fam Thirteen stops in 1943 to drop Noor back. After reassuring her that the fascists never win, so long as there's people like her, the Timelord wipes Noor’s mind of their whole adventure, to preserve history. She does the same to Ada in 1834, despite the young lady’s protests, assuring the now unconscious Ada that she doesn't need a preview of future tech, since her own imagination helps dream up those advances.

These mind wipes are presented as necessary evils, but leave a bitter taste nevertheless. Couldn't both brilliant women have been slipped the names of fellow Tardis travellers from their respective eras? Perhaps that would be a little too much referencing to previous stories.

The Doctor decides to visit Gallifrey, hoping not to witness the ruins The Master claims, but is disappointed. Devastated, she discovers a device deposited discreetly in her coat. A message from The Master. He destroyed Gallifrey in revenge at his own species for covering up ‘the lie of the Timeless Child’. His words stir a fragment of memory in The Doctor’s mind, but he won’t reveal more out of spite, she Thirteen can only hurl The Master’s device across her console room in rage.

She stews in this mood for days, ‘five planets’ according to Graham, before she gives in to the fam’s questions. She finally tells them - her home planet, it's constellation, her species and that they can regenerate their bodies. She tells them she ran away in a stolen Tardis, and that The Master was one of her oldest friends, but takes a very different path. That’s enough for Graham right now, but Yaz has one more thing to ask. ‘Can we visit your home?’. So innocent, too perceptive. ‘Another time.’ replies Thirteen before rushing to the edge of the console room, back to her fam, to conceal her sadness, her fear. The camera lingers for a second.

Credits roll.

Looks like next week is a lot less heavy, if James Buckley’s appearance in the Next Time trailer is anything to go by. I think we need it after that!

A momentous conclusion to the story (for now), Spyfall Part Two is a triumph.

Chris Chibnall has succeeded in opening the series with a bang, and kicks off what is presumably a series arc by picking up the remnants of one dropped in series 11.

Let's see what Ed Hime brings us on Sunday!