Doctor Who Review: Spyfall: Part One (Season 12 Episode 1)
It’s a new year and the Tardis fam is back and already dealing with a universal crisis. Doctor Who Season 12 Episode 1, “Spyfall: Part One,” accomplishes its mission as a strong opener and leaves viewers with many burning questions.
“Spyfall: Part One” has strong James Bond vibes and there is no shortage of action on this episode complete with all the epic spy movie essentials. While the series leans into the spy genre, it doesn’t lose its own unique voice, walking a line between stoic and silly.
GRAHAM: Yea, bring on the bling.
SEE: They are not toys.
RYAN: Yea, they’re not toys, Graham!
GRAHAM: No, they’re not Ryan, and if you say otherwise, I will shoot you with my laser shoe!
But let’s start with the return of the Master.
I often wrote about how Doctor Who Season 11 had a lack of mythology and worldbuilding that made me feel like I was watching standalone episodes and that the strength of this series was always in how it balanced the planet, case, or monster-of-the-week with these broader concepts that have been present throughout the series’ run.
The return of the Master doesn’t solve that problem, but it does lean heavily into one of the things I thought the latest run was missing.
Sacha Dhawan is spectacular in his performance as O spending most of the episode as a nervous and scared addition to the Doctor’s Tardis fam. When he ultimately reveals who he is, in taunting and malicious fashion, his demeanor immediately changes.
Watching the childlike clapping and how giddy he is at having stumped the Doctor is delightful to watch, but at the same time, it feels like a step backward for the overall mythos of The Master.
It’s been a few years since Doctor Who fans said goodbye to the previous incarnation of The Master, Michelle Gomez’s Missy. Throughout her three seasons, Missy’s plotlines have given this friend-turned-enemy a lot of growth.
Season 10 was particularly instrumental in giving the character a meaty storyline with the introduction of The Vault, and the villain that’s gone “cold turkey from being bad.”
O’s reveal comes shortly before the credits roll, and it’s far too early to judge what this means beyond the initial reveal, but I personally hope that the progress Missy made in the vault hasn’t be retconned.
The thing about Doctor Who is that time is never in the right order, so it is possible that we haven’t followed the Master linearly, or we could be looking at a master from an alternate universe. (See data that displayed multiple Earths.)
Right now, there is evidence to support that O could be one of many things, and hopefully, “Spyfall: Part Two,” will have the answers that fans are craving.
Personally, I’m banking on some timeline insanity coming into play here. The fact that MI6 doesn’t realize that UNIT and Torchwood are gone seems suspicious. It makes sense if he doesn’t have access to UNIT or Torchwood’s notes he wouldn’t have known the specifics of the Cybermen from “Dark Water.” At the same time, the fact that this invasion seems to be an echo of some previous Doctor Who incursions and storylines.
In some ways, I keep thinking these beings remind me an awful lot of the Cyberman who invaded at the end of Doctor Who Season 2 Episode 12, “Army of Ghosts.” The aesthetics of these beings seem similar but the way they operate feels a little more that time the Master resurrected himself.
Hopefully, these questions will be answered in the conclusion of this two-parter, and if O is back hopefully he’s around for more than just these two episodes and will make an appearance later on in the season as well.
When it comes to the overall story itself, it’s an impressively layered feat, and it’s hard to imagine that these parts aren’t connected. There are aliens attempting to invade the universe and rewriting the DNA of spies, a strange alternate dimension like space (supposedly), and they’ve explored some real-world connections with VOR and MI6.
How it all fits together doesn’t quite make sense. Several of these pieces can play off of each other in different ways to give viewers a satisfying conclusion. Fortunately, fans don’t have to wait too long for the answers with “Spyfall: Part Two” airing this Sunday.
Stray Thoughts:
- Something is up with Yaz. Was no one else screaming when they let her out of the containment enclosure? Come on Doc, that’s just asking for it.
- The nod to Ten’s timeline was not unnoticed. The moment the car decided to attempt to kill the Doctor I had immediate flashes to Tennant screaming “Drive into the river!” at the ATMOS device.
- I want to see the Tardis fam play Snap! That casino scene was just about perfect.
- I am glad to see that Ryan and Graham’s relationship hasn’t been lost in this episode. The fact that Graham worried about his grandson being safe was a nice touch. We saw the bond during Doctor Who Season 11 Episode 12, “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos,” and I’ve really wanted to see more of that.
What did you think of this episode of Doctor Who? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Doctor Who airs Sundays at 8/7c on BBC America.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.