Well, my Whovian friends. We’ve made it. The sophomore season of the Chibnall-Whittaker era of Doctor Who was no stranger to risks while embracing the series’s long history. But that ambition proved a double edged sword, as it seemed time and again a show in search of a way to sustain momentum and bring all that ambition together cohesively.
Does the start of our two part finale tie up all those loose ends? Let’s take a look at “Ascension of the Cybermen” – – and as always, spoilers within.
1. The Ballad of Brendan
We juxtapose the Doctor and fam’s race against time to find the Lone Cyberman in the far future (you know, cleaning up that mess from last week), with the story of Brendan, a young man growing up in the Irish countryside in what seems to be a picture-perfect mid-century life, though with a few moments that most folks would write off as lucky strikes. (Like being shot, falling off of a cliff, and walking away with nary a scratch.) It doesn’t make sense (much like this season at moments, we can all agree), these two very parallel storylines. The final moments of the Brendan arc do give one pause. There goes pensioner Brendan into a back room by his dad and police force supervisor (who by the way, haven’t seemed to age) to have his memory wiped.
What are we seeing happening? The birth of Ashad, our lone Cyberman who holds on to his tattered humanity by threads? Or perhaps the birth of the Timeless Child? Yet another Time Lord? Or nothing in particular and this whole thing has been a red herring?
2. Brush Up Your Bible
This episode aired right before the start of the Christian season of Lent. Maybe it’s just king cake and pączki on my mind (this recap is going up on Fat/Shrove Tuesday, after all), but I noticed a few fleeting moments of biblical words and imagery.
Just like Moses, baby Brendan was found by his father in a basket. The later appearance of Ko Sharmus positions him as a Moses-like figure that The Ten Commandments put in our minds. The number of survivors the Doctor and fam find after the cyber war is seven. In the Bible, seven has not only represented completeness (as God rested on the seventh day of creation), but sacrifice, forgiveness, and even punishment. The use of the word “Ascension” in the title has me thinking of Ascension Thursday, the day in the Christian faith when Jesus left this earth to reside on the right hand of God the Father in Heaven. And Ashad’s line “But that which is dead can live again… in the hands of a believer” certainly calls to mind the Resurrection.
So this could all have a deeper meaning as we walk into the finale, or it’s just subconscious guilt from my mom for not really having gone to church lately.
3. Doctor Desperation
While the Doctor has been the take-charge-I-always-have-a-plan-even-if-its-just-one-eighth-of-a-plan Gallifreyan this season, there’s a vulnerability and desperation throughout all she does here. She knows she done messed up with letting that Cyberium go (though to be fair, she was between a rock and a hard place), and she knows she’s got to fix things. Nor does she want to lose any of the fam to the Cybermen; the memory of Bill Potts is not far from her mind.
I’ve always found the overconfidence that borders on condescension aspect of the Doctor annoying, so to see Thirteen show her hearts on her sleeve is a character growth I welcome. And if the hints of “everything you’ve ever known is a lie” do bear fruit, I expect and hope a Doctor shaken to her core – – and the ramifications of that – – will be a major part of series 13.
4. The Fam
One thing you notice here is just how well the fam works together, unlike the Surviving Seven (as I will call them) who can’t get anything done with all their bickering. Their time in the TARDIS certainly shaped their can-do attitude, especially Yaz. (I see a fair bit of Ace from the Seventh Doctor days in Yaz. What a fun crossover that would be!) And it’s sure fun seeing Graham get a little bit of flirtation with Ravio. That, and a comment from Yaz about him coming a “long way” also seem to set up his departure. Perhaps him and Ryan decide they need some good ol’ family time together?
Continued below5. Guess Who’s Back
Oh hey look, there’s Sacha Dhawan again, channeling a little bit of Mr. Mxyzptlk with a side of chaos, as we bookend Spyfall with a Gallifrey on fire. (And if you looked at the casting announcement closely and like wordplay, you probably figured out he was coming back already before this episode aired.) It certainly hints that the Doctor’s efforts of the past 49 minutes may just be for naught; death and destruction comes to her future whether she likes it or not.
This would have been a moment that had more emotional impact had these ideas – – that of the Doctor’s world being turned upside down and past the point of no return – – been borne more throughout this season. Like last week’s Lone Cyberman appearance, it reads of writing staff having the “oh crap we gotta deal with this and we only have one episode left.” And Dhawan is just so effervescent in his brief appearance, how I wish we could have had more of that.
But with the show back for another series (though heaven knows when), perhaps we will get our wish for more of him. (And Ruth Doctor too, where’s she been lately?!)
Strap in, fam. We’re going to have a lot of figure out in 65 minutes come next Sunday night.
Afterthoughts:
– Someone in the casting department really likes Game of Thrones; that’s Barristan Selmy aka Ian McElhinney as Ko Sharmus, our second alum of the show showing up this season.
– Look at the Doctor stealing that Cybership with ease. It’s like she’s done this stealing a ship thing before or something. 🙂
– That cold open with Ashad’s voiceover and the floating Cyberman head in space leading to the opening credits is a nice twist on the classic Who credits which had the Doctor’s head floating in space.
Line of the night:
The Doctor (to Ashad): “Oh? I’m correct, am I? I’m going to have to bill you for therapy at this rate.”
