C+Q - Spyfall Part 2 (2020)

I'm so much more engaged by Series 12 than I ever was by Series 11. That's not to say Spyfall Part 2 is perfect - there are bits of it I'm unsure of. Whether I like or dislike certain scenes though, I care way more about what I'm seeing here. I care more about these characters, I care more about this story, and Chris Chibnall is slowly winning my trust as showrunner. I've got most of what I wanted out of this series already, to varying degrees of success. At last, we have an ongoing mystery to pull me through the series. I'm a bit nervous this Time Lord deep lore stuff will include a drastic rewriting of established material, but then again Part 1 did have the Master acknowledging the wonderful elasticity of Doctor Who canon ("A lot of inconsistencies but it's very, very interesting") so maybe Chibnall 'gets it' and will keep things mythically vague.

The continuity stuff in this episode is kinda weird in general. On the one hand, it brings back the TCE and casually references Logopolis, then on the other it almost completely ignores Missy's redemption arc and clearly doesn't give a shit about the mindwipe morality lesson in Hell Bent. I say 'almost completely' because there is a reason given why the Master turns evil again: the Timeless Child, whatever it is, is just that serious apparently. Which, fine, I guess we need to wait to see how valid a motivation that is. The continuity references in this episode are delightful to someone like me who loves this lore stuff, but it's all really surface level - none of the deep thematic character-building stuff that actually matters from previous stories is remembered. Oh, and Gallifrey's been destroyed again. Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be back by Wednesday. Of all the surface level continuity fan service though, my favourite is Contact coming back from The Three Doctors. And of course the 2020 version of Contact works like Rey and Kylo's force bond. Honestly, the scene at the end in the TARDIS with the hologram of the Master maybe could've benefitted from being 'live' via Contact rather than being a recording. Same scene, same staging, but the Doctor and the Master mentally linking from one TARDIS to another so there's a bit of back and forth with their performances, like in Star Wars. I don't know, maybe it would've been cool.

This episode does a good job pushing Jodie Whittaker's performance to some new places and deepening her version of the Doctor. It's also nice to see the three companions talking about their experiences with the Doctor and showing how useful they've become on their own. There's a clumsiness to their attempt to be solo adventurers, like the fun slapstick of Graham's laser shoes, but they ultimately get the job done. They still need the Doctor but they're also not useless. We're seeing growth from all four leads here. It's not as much of a character expansion as Clara ungoes from The Time of the Doctor to Deep Breath, but it's firm movement in the right direction. Already this TARDIS crew feels stronger. Maybe by the time we get to that clip in the trailer of Graham referring to the four of them as 'family', it'll actually hit somewhat.

The Doctor's side of the story is where the real focus is, and it's fun seeing her jumping through time and picking up historical companions. I'm a fan of Sacha Dhawan's take on the Master too, although it's still so frustrating that Missy's redemption arc has mostly been swept away. He's very old school, shrinking people with his TCE and getting into an appropriate disguise for each time period he arrives in. I do like what appears to be his default costume though (pictured above). It's definitely crossing over into Doctor costume territory but it works. Maybe next time we can get some lighting that allows us to actually see it. I had no idea it was purple until looking at the publicity shots. I'm glad this ended up being a big juicy Master story rather than a Kasaavin story feat. the Master. After Resolution gave us a Dalek story with only one rusty broken Dalek, it's nice to have Spyfall as a huge scale multi-part adventure starring one of the show's Big Three villains.

There are bits I think are a bit iffy, mainly because they show a lack of understanding of the show's history like the mind wipe bit, but I ultimately enjoyed this episode. As for Spyfall overall, this is one of my favourite Whittaker adventures. There's a real movement towards a vision of the show I want, where all four main characters are given meaningful roles and the story feels like it's progressing. With Series 11, I was left with the feeling that the Thireenth Doctor hadn't even had a full series, what with the reduced episode count and the lack of a big overall story. If nothing else, Spyfall does actually make it seem like Whittaker has started. At least she's explained the basics of the show's lore to her companions now, in the second episode of their second series. Better late than never I suppose.

Now that we've had the opener, I feel optimistic about Series 12. Episode 3, Orphan 55, is written by Ed Hime who did my favourite Series 11 episode, It Takes You Away. The synopsis - the TARDIS team going for a holiday at an alien resort - sounds like a nice standalone low-stakes adventure. And unlike the 10 standalone low-stakes adventures in Series 11, this actually feels earned given how Spyfall spent two weeks establishing a big eventful tone and set into motion an arc that could rewrite Time Lord mythology. I just hope the weird alien setting is appropriately weird and alien to break up all the modern day Earth and Earth historicals we're apparently getting. Beyond that, it's fun not knowing exactly which episodes are happening when. We don't even have any titles beyond Episode 3. We know the Cybermen and Judoon are in the mix somewhere. A whole bunch of Daleks were seen filming on the Clifton Suspension Bridge in October, so hopefully that's more of a full-on Dalek story than Resolution. Also, the Master will likely be back around the finale for the Timeless Child stuff. The next eight weeks could be wild.

Next: Orphan 55