Hey there, Captain Mutant here.

On new year’s day, the BBC released Spyfall, the first part of a two parter, and the return of Doctor Who after a whole year’s absence… and I didn’t even know this was happening.

Yes, I knew the series was coming back, but I’d missed any info that new year’s was the date.

Anyway, thanks to iPlayer, I watched it at my leisure later on… and I was impressed.

Now as with my thoughts on the Rise of Skywalker, I’ll be doing some major spoilering in this article, so if you haven’t yet seen this two-parter and don’t want to know anything about it, bookmark this video for later.

Part One

OK, I thought the first part worked extremely well. They set up the mystery, introduced a new character from The Doctor’s past, lay the groundwork for many questions to be hopefully answered in part two.

Yes the action sequences were laughably subpar, especially the events in the car at the start, and the chase through the vineyards. Really poor. But I was willing to give that a pass because the mystery was, well, so mysterious.

Callbacks

There were strong callbacks to previous episodes, like the Sontaran Stratagem, and Army of Ghosts, to name but two, suggesting this season won’t shy away from reintroducing the series’ previous villains, rather than creating new ones.

I’m certain many will groan that The Doctor referred to her new incarnation as an ‘upgrade’, but that’s what all new versions say about themselves: they’ve always felt they’re the best version of all doctors that came before them, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s a non issue.

Great Twist

And I loved the twist at the end, when it’s revealed this new old friend of the Doctor’s was actually The Master. I didn’t see it coming and I was very excited by the idea.

I was puzzled though as to why all the work The Doctor did with Missy seemed to have been for nothing, even though we know Capaldi’s Doctor has succeeded in changing Missy by the end, but hopefully that will all be explained in Part 2.

All in all, I’d give part 1, 3 tentacles out of 4. I think this was Chibnall’s best story to date, and I was quite excited for the next one.

Part Two

Well, until I saw the next one.

Oh boy, what a let down.

Despite the obvious references to Army of Ghosts and the hint of parallel Earths, those glowing creatures weren’t Cybermen (thankfully actually ), but we still have no idea what they wanted by the end of the story.

Lenny Henry’s character went from a mysterious and powerful Bond villain to cartoon evil who wanted to turn people into hard drives – because reasons.

There was no explanation about The Master and why he reverted more to the Matt Sims version of himself rather than all the growth witnessed through Michelle Gomez’s fantastic and layered portrayal.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Nothing made sense in this story.

Casual Crashing

The plane the companions were in was crashing to the ground at the start of the episode, yet there was very little sense of urgency. They had plenty of time to find clues, to figure out what was happening, listen to a recording from the Doctor and finally pilot the plane out of danger through a phone app. All while the plane was supposedly falling from the sky.

OK, Doctor Who is supposed to be cheesy, so the plane app is fine, but the complete lack of a sense of danger wasn’t.

Past Encounters

The Doctor meets two characters from the past. Big historical female characters. That’s fine too. After all, we’ve met many historical figures before, like Agatha Christie, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth the First, Shakespeare, Van Gogh, and Churchill to name but a few.

But the difference here is, they weren’t actually integral to the plot. They hardly said anything, or hardly did anything. The story could very much have happened without them in it. They felt more like cardboard cutouts than actual people, just tagging along, with the Doctor fawning over them for who they are, and them just going along with it.

It felt like a wasted opportunity.

Pink on Brown and Nazi all Over

Then there was a pretty uncomfortable moment when the Doctor and the Master find themselves in France, 1943. The Master, who’s an SS officer, monologues, explaining his plan to the Doctor.

Now it’s important to note that he’s brilliantly portrayed by Sacha Dhawan, and it’s hard to miss that being of Indian descent, he couldn’t really pass for a member of the Aryan race, so he explains that he’s got a perception filter to help him be a Nazi officer.

Then, the Doctor reveals that she managed to send a message to the Germans, letting them know the Master’s actually a double agent and the Nazis aren’t too happy with him now.

But what makes this moment disturbing is The Doctor disables his perception filter, so the troops will see him as he truly is.

Now on the one hand, this makes no sense since they wouldn’t be able to recognise him now, and yet they do with no difficulty, and arrest him.

But on the other hand, we’ve got a blonde woman plotting to get an Indian man arrested by the Nazis… and the BBC were ok with that? Are you?

Had she not removed the perception filter, there would’ve been no problem with that scene, so why write that into the story?

Gallifrey, No More

And finally we get the big reveal, not only that Gallifrey was completely destroyed, but that the Master did it because apparently the whole concept of Time Lords is based on a lie.

Now I must admit not to being a fan of Doctor Who until the relaunch in 2005, so I don’t know much about the intricacies of Time Lord culture, but from what I’ve learned since, is that the Time Lords are essentially the military/political side of the culture. There are millions of others who are just people getting about their business.

Yet the Master killed every single one of them. Not just the military, not just the politicians, but every man, woman and child. I can’t imagine what is going to be revealed that will justify this action, especially since we spent years following a Doctor who had to live with the consequences of this very action – which was what he thought he had been forced to do to end the Time War.

It was a great moment of triumph for the Doctor during the 50th anniversary when we learned that Gallifrey hadn’t been destroyed. Wiping that clean had better be worth it – but I have a horrible feeling it won’t be.

My Mutant Verdict

So we’re back with me having horrible misgivings about this season of Doctor Who. I hated the previous one and couldn’t even watch all the episodes. BBC, you drew me it with Part 1, and dropped me like a sack of mutant potatoes with Part 2.

I’m giving it 1 and a half tentacles out of 4. Yes that’s right, I’ve had to cut half of one tentacle for this review.

So what did you think of it? Did you like it? Hate it? Do you agree or disagree with my points? Let me know in the comments and I’ll speak to you soon.