Crashing plane with a bomb and no cockpit, the Doctor’s old foe back and more menacing than ever . . . and speaking of which, where is the Doctor? That’s where we left Doctor Who after New Year’s Day, so let’s see how everyone is going to get out of this jam in “Spyfall, Part 2.” As always, spoilers within.
1. Where’s the Doctor?
The second half of “Spyfall” features the Doctor and her companions in separate storylines. Graham, Yaz, and Ryan are off pursuing Barton in the present day, and the Doctor’s jumping through history (Master following closely behind), meeting everyone from Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage to Noor Inayat Khan. (Don’t know who Ms. Khan is? She was the first British female wireless operator to be sent to France to help with the Resistance. Her life was short, but it was pretty remarkable.) Doctor Who’s roots are in history and science, and my favorite episodes have always been the ones that incorporate real life historical figures with everyone as a participant in real world (or real world inspired) events.
Does separating the Doctor and the companions work? On one hand, yes. It’s fun seeing the companions get a moment to shine and show off that they’re skilled in detective work in their own right. This is a Doctor who treats her companions as equals. But on the other hand . . .
2. Overstuffed and Undercooked
To borrow from our review of The Rise of Skywalker, this episode was fun and decently crafted with a good message at its heart, but felt overstuffed and undercooked.
The separate Doctor and companion storylines are a lot to cover in an hour, and neither one really gets the room to breathe properly, particularly in the modern-day plot. Concepts get quick treatment, (like human DNA as a hard drive), mentioned and discarded before we the viewer have a chance to process them. (Though the montage at the end showing just how the Doctor saved everyone on Barton’s plane works in its speed.II do love a laminator too, Doctor.) And while there are still some fun spy touches, like Graham using his laser shoes, the Bond elements that were so much fun in Part 1 are nonexistent.
Complex storytelling such as this to be most effective needs to borrow another page from the classic series and perhaps extend plot over three or four episodes. It’s a risk in a 2020 world of shortened attention spans, but as the Doctor says, there is no hope without risk.
3. The Circle
Barton/Vor versus Graham, Yaz, and Ryan is a haunting wake-up call for the reach of technology in our lives. In an instant, he’s not only tracked every detail on their lives (“right down to how many stamps you need for a free coffee”) but he can freeze those lives, revoking passports and freezing bank accounts.
The convenience of the technology we rely on for daily existence in 2020 can turn on us on a dime when it is in the interests of those that control it, from privacy to national elections, and everything in between. And when we have created the machines that are smarter than us, what purpose is there left for humanity? It’s chilling watching Barton and the Master absorb the essence of humanity via smartphones, literally tying their human bodies to their smartphones and computers. Are we losing our souls to iPhones and laptops?
If you want another take on the growing influence on technology on daily life with a darker perspective, I recommend reading Dave Eggers’s The Circle, which is essentially Barton’s manifesto had he and The Master succeeded.
4. “Darkness Never Sustains”
This episode got philosophical in a very deep way with Barton’s thoughts on the effects of technology on society, but it balanced that darkness with a little bit of light in moments with Whittaker, Ada, and Noor. At its heart, The Doctor has always been about hope, even when the world is on fire. And right now, our world is on fire, whether it’s literal flames in the Australian bush or the figurative flames and drumbeats of potential war in the Middle East (again). Despair is easy, but hope is harder.
5. But Series Arc!
Continued belowIf you weren’t convinced Chibnall was leaning hard into series history this season to set up something newer and larger with the reintroduction of The Master with a new face, the final five minutes of this episode will convince you. There’s a trip back to Gallifrey where The Doctor sees the Citadel in flames, and a recording of The Master declaring that the planet’s existence, the mere existence of the Time Lords, is nothing but a lie . . . and it all ties back to The Timeless Child, that mysterious mention from last season that had to mean something, but what?
So here we are with the marching orders for this new season, dancing on the knife between that past and that future, asking ourselves the questions that Graham and Yaz and Ryan ask their friend back in the TARDIS: just who are you, Doctor?
Line of the episode:
Noor: “Answer me one question. The fascists, do they win?”
The Doctor: “Never. Not while there’s people like you.”
