It’s been a year – literally – since the TARDIS graced our TV screens (with 2019’s New Year’s Day special, the appropriately titled “Resolution”), so it’s nothing short of spectacular to not only have another New Year’s special, but to have it kick off the twelfth season of our revived series (which, in a first for this revival, will air on Sundays). And with the news of Daniel Craig’s swan song as 007 dropping this spring, combining two of Britain’s finest cultural outputs seems like a no-brainer.
So did it work? Does the Doctor like her martinis shaken not stirred? Can we trade in the TARDIS for an Aston Martin DB5? Let’s find out as we look at “Spyfall, Part 1.” And of course, spoilers within.
1. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
When the Doctor and friends go off on an alien investigation at the behest of the government, one would expect UNIT and Torchwood to be taking the lead. But not here. It’s Her Majesty’s Secret Service that beckons our TARDIS crew to London (complete with Stephen Fry cameo) to lay out the tenets of their mission: something not of this earth has been killing MI-6 agents and their DNA, and former agent now tech billionaire bro David Barton may have something to do with this. This is obviously out of MI-6’s league, so they need to call in an independent consultant.
It’s obviously convenient for the James Bond homage to sideline Earth’s foremost government organization specializing in things not of Earth in favor of MI-6. And UNIT, along with Torchwood, do get a passing mention before Stephen Fry’s C meets his (untimely) end. It’s odd that they don’t play a larger role here, especially since showrunner Chris Chibnall has gone on the record on embracing the show’s history this season.
2. TARDIS Royale
In this kind of mashup, you do worry that one element outweighs the other: too much sci-fi, too much espionage. Here, they have a pretty decent amount of balance, picking here and there from the best of spy films. There’s cool spy toys from MI-6 both silly and useful to the narrative, tuxedos, and a glamorous casino party. There’s high stakes chases on motorbikes and cliffhanging action that leaves you wondering just how things could get there logically, but then you don’t care because, hey, cool action and stuff! At no point does the elements of what makes Doctor Who what it is end up playing second fiddle, save for the possible earlier confusion about the omission of UNIT.
All that said, this was a breakneck pace episode, and I only hope things keep up for part two.
3. The Real World Is Not Enough
The start of this episode shows two of our TARDIS three living essentially double lives. Ryan’s made up medical ailments to explain his absences to his friends (appendicitis and a hernia) and Yasmin tells friends and family her long disappearances are the result of job training (that her superiors approve with chagrin, as they’re getting tired of these absences as well). Could this be a sign that one of these two is getting tired of life with the Doctor? Ryan seems to have a thing for Yaz’s sister (much to Yaz’s chagrin), so there’s a convenient excuse for him to take some time off.
Companions have gotten fed up with life with the Doctor before. Sarah Jane Smith had enough of the Doctor after the events of “The Hand of Fear” and was packing her bags when the Doctor received a summons to Gallifrey, for which he could not bring her along. And Tegan Jovanka left Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor after “Resurrection of the Daleks,” having reached her limits of time and space travel as well, though she had second thoughts.
4. From The Master, With Love
There’s a reveal I don’t think any of us saw coming: MI-6 agent O that the Doctor and Graham met earlier in Australia turns out to be the Doctor’s greatest foe in disguise.
“But Kate,” you’re asking yourself, “didn’t the last version of The Master, Missy, die? How can The Master still be alive?”
Canon in Doctor Who, particularly around The Master, does get rather wibby-wobbly timey-wimey, so let’s dig into a little history. The Master’s first appearance came in 1971 during Jon Pertwee’s tenure in “Terror of the Autons.” Through the course of Pertwee’s run, he and The Master met many times, and the story itself was to end (along with Pertwee’s appearances) in a serial titled “The Final Game,” but the sudden death of actor Roger Delgado, the face of The Master, put an end to those plans. Later appearances of The Master throughout the 70s had him trying to regenerate or transfer his essence into a new human form, which doesn’t itself stick until the 1980s when we meet Nyssa and her father Consul Tremas, the latter whose corporeal form The Master takes.
Continued belowPost-classic series, The Master makes many returns: the 1996 American TV movie, Derek Jacobi’s Professor Yana in “Utopia,” Prime Minister Harold Saxon, Michelle Gomez’s Missy. The Master is a Time Lord with more regenerations than a phoenix, transferring their essence from one body to another when their first body dies. And within all this, you have to ask the question: much like we saw River Song’s life, could we be seeing the life of The Master out of order as well? (We may have the answer for that one in a bit.)
I’m rather eager to see what Chibnall can do here, especially after The Master’s final line to The Doctor (“Everything [she] thinks [she] knows is a lie”) and hints that this Master may have some connection to The Timeless Child hinted at last season. There’s certainly going to be history used and history upended, but let’s not hope by too much. Remember to play the cards you’re dealt. (Looking at you, The Rise of Skywalker.)
5. A View to a Crossover
The Master drops the hint that this version of himself (herself? themselves?) met The Doctor before when The Doctor was a man. It confirms that we are seeing the Master’s lives out of order, and sets up a possibility for a flashback episode . . . maybe with one of the recent Doctors making an appearance? If Chibnall wants to wade in the pool of mythology and lore this season, and he’s done a cannonball in with introducing The Master, why not more? Titan’s Doctor Who comics will feature Thirteen meeting Ten in a storyline this year, and Titan’s insistence that the comics are canon with the show sets up very well Converses and four button suits returning to our TVs.
Afterthoughts:
– The message hidden in the fish picture on the Doctor’s phone is a clever 21st century update on the psychic paper.
– This could very well be a factor of the acquisition of a new TV over the Christmas holidays, but never have the opening credits appeared so vibrant, or so much an homage to the opener of Jon Pertwee’s tenure as the Doctor, which itself celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
– There was a quick flash of bright red underneath Thirteen’s tuxedo jacket, which had us wondering if she borrowed the Twelfth Doctor’s wardrobe for a moment.
– That shrunken original O in a matchbox? Could we be seeing a new Tissue Compression Eliminator?
– This isn’t Dhawan’s first time with the TARDIS; he appeared in An Adventure in Space and Time, the 2013 biographical film about the creation of Doctor Who, as director Waris Hussein.
– Note the lovely tribute card at the end of the credits to longtime writer and script editor Terrance Dicks, who passed away at the end of August.
Line of the episode:
C: “I’ve read the files. The Doctor is a man.”
The Doctor: ”I’ve had an upgrade!”
