Posted in: BBC, Doctor Who, TV | Tagged: bbc, doctor who, spyfall, timelords

Ten Thoughts About Doctor Who: Spyfall Part Two – Time To Rewrite The Time Lords? (Spoilers)

Tonight saw the airing of Doctor Who: Spyfall Part Two on BBC 1. By getting rid of all the spy stuff. And going a very different route… spoilers of course. Come back once this has aired in your timezone.

1. The Timeless Episode

Can every episode of Doctor Who be an hour long? The second part of the New Year's Day opener had a little more room to stretch out and get jiggy across the timelines. Trips to Victorian England and Nazi-occupied Paris, picking up new crew members along the way was very Bill & Ted – and we didn't know the half of it. They had to have to have something to replace the dropped James Bond cosplay. Well, Bill & Ted did nick the telephone box look from Doctor Who so fair is fair.

2. If Someone Is Called Ava in a 19th Century London Technology Fair…

Surprised it took the Doctor that long. Though it did give her a chance to turn Ava Lovelace into a weapon. For a pacifist Doctor who disapproves of such violence, she does get people to pick up guns, grenades – or laser shoes – quite a lot. A bigger question is why does Charles Babbage look (and sound) so much like David Cameron?

3. The Master Race

The Master as proper Nazi in World War II Paris, I mean, it's just making the subtext the text, right? Especially with this new casting – and a Tiny Teutonic psychic perception filter.

4. References Please

Oh it's reference time. The Eiffel Tower taller than the Jodrell Bank – for which the Master never apologised. The Master was responsible for the Fourth Doctor falling to his death from the Jodrell Bank satellite dish at the end of Logopolis and regenerating into the Fifth Doctor. A mention of Artron Energy again, the first for quite some time, as a result of being time travellers. Then of course the Morse Code of the Time Lord heartbeat, straight from Doctor Who: The End of Time and the Prime Minister Master, beating across the universe… and in the theme tune to Doctor Who as well, of course. And of course the fate of Gallifrey and the Timeless Child.

5. Social Media Is Going To Scoop Out Your DNA

"All that's needed is to reformat the whole of humanity. Luckily, there's an app for that." I mean… we knew that didn't we? Are we going to stop? Barton may never use Facebook (apart from contacting his mother – possibly the most damning demographic issue with Facebook – Tik Tok is where it's at, kids). Felt quite a waste though, tracking the Fam, setting up the big plan and then… what? Just running off?

6. A Brief History Of Computers

Okay so the Kasarven are a lot of nonsense, not multiple dimensions, but inserting themselves across time to influence computer technology so they can take over human DNA as hard drives with the help of Zuckerman Barton and the Master. And then they just turn on the Master when a double cross is revealed – I'm sure the Doctor already did this with the Master and the Daleks. Then… what? Nothing? Just back to their own dimension as the Doctor jury-rigged their big machine? And since we never actually got to see them, just living walking space/time portals, a return match must be on the cars. Maybe they could fight the Weeping Angels? There are many similarities.

7. Bill And Ted Rules

Now this is rare for Doctor Who. They usually stick to cause and effect 'except for tricks' but effect and cause does mean that they can escape from anything anywhere ever, as long as the Doctor remembers the trashcan. This actually goes against former Doctor Who writing rukes that the TARDIS has to remain in place and you can't just wait till later to fix something that's happening right now. In Doctor Who this was most prominently seen in the Steven Moffat parody The Curse Of The Fatal Death. Has that been made canon now? Actually on that point…

8. Going The Long Way Round

The Master has to live through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to get to this point Actually the Master had to live the long way round in The Curse Of The Fatal Death as well – three times I think. So why didn't the Master fix more for this moment like the Doctor did? Also, at some point this means that the Master turned the Master into the Master – just a previous version of himself. At a point where the High Council of Gallifrey were messing around with Earth, he could have made his revenge up close and personal. Or maybe helped out some previous versions of himself? Or maybe just nicked their TARDIS for a bit?

9. Non-Consensual Mind-Wipes

Not the only time the Doctor has wiped the memory of them from people, but possible the time that this has been most strenuously objected to be someone. And the Doctor has left plenty of other people with their memories of the Doctor, time travel and the like. HG Wells wouldn't have been the same without it. A lot of colonial 'for their own good' notes here…

10. The Timeless Fan Theories

This is not the first time that everything we knew about the Time Lords was wrong. A wise and noble, if stultified, race, they have been revealed to be corrupt and even downright evil courtesy of Rassilon's High Council. What more is there to learn? Well, Chris Chibnall has been a Doctor Who fan (and writer) for a very, very long time, and now he's going to get the chance to pull out all his Time Lord fan theories and make them canon – and a truth so awful it led the Master to destroy them all. And whatever gubbins that was about The Timeless Child from a couple of years ago…

Let's all remember Eltingville shall we? Oh I don't care, I love it all…

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