The first part of Doctor Who’s season finale is here, and… I’m sorry, I’m about to all-caps vomit all over the keyboard, so I’ll just stop there. Go below the cut for thoughts. And shouting.
I’m a very happy Whovian today.
Summary
Clara is going to confess everything about her adventures with the Doctor to Danny over the phone. He is walking to her flat, and as they’re speaking, she begins by telling him that she loves him completely. Unfortunately, Danny walks out into traffic and dies. Clara is destroyed, and calls for the Doctor. She slaps him with a sleeping patch and takes him to an active volcano—the only thing that can destroy TARDIS keys. She tells him that she’ll destroy them all if he doesn’t save Danny. He tells her no. She proceeds to drop all of the keys into lava. The Doctor reveals that he made a switch on her; the sleeping patch actually induces a dream state, and he wanted to see how far she’d go to get what she wanted. Clara assumes it’s all over, but the Doctor wants to help; she may have betrayed him, but her friendship will always mean more to him. They turn off all the safeties use the TARDIS telepathic circuits to find Danny wherever he is now.
They end up in a place called the Nethersphere where they see skeletons in tanks. They are greeted by a woman named Missy, who claims to be a robot of the facility maintained by a Doctor there. She kisses the Doctor (who promptly panics), then asks if she should adjust her intimacy setting before doing the same to Clara. They stop her, but Missy has the Doctor check her heart. The Doctor seems confounded by this, but they go to speak with a Doctor Chang of the facility—called 3W—to find out what it’s all about. It turns out to be a place where the dead go after dying, a city contained within a sphere. Their consciousnesses move to this place, but they still maintain a connection to their physical bodies; this means they can feel the pain of whatever is done to their body after death, such as cremation. 3W exists to eliminate such discomfort. The skeletons in the tanks are actually surrounded by exoskeletons that do not appear in the water.
Danny is in the Nethersphere, being handled by a man named Seb. He has a visitor, who turns out to be the boy he accidentally killed while on duty as a solider. Then he gets a call from Clara and the Doctor. The Doctor tells Clara to be skeptical about this place, and only believe that the voice on the end of the line is Danny if he can answer tough questions. She begins to grill him, but Danny realizes that if he proves he is himself, Clara will want to come and find him, potentially ending her life. He refuses to continue their conversation, simply saying that he loves her. Seb tells him that he can stop feeling all this pain is he chooses to delete his emotions. His finger hovers over a delete button just as the little boy he killed appears behind him.
Clara turns around in the 3W office to find that the tank nearby has drained its water, revealing the exoskeleton encasing the corpse—it’s a Cyberman. The Doctor makes this discovery at the same time while he’s with Missy. He begins to question who she is, revealing that he noticed earlier that she has two hearts. She admits to being a Time Lady, and points to the sphere at the center of her facility—a piece of Time Lord technology where the Nethersphere is located. She’s been collecting the dead to power a Cybermen army. The Doctor desperately tries to figure out who she is, and tries to escape; he opens the doors to find that he’s in modern day London, at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Missy sets the Cybermen loose, while the Doctor tries to shoo everyone away. He asks Missy again who she is, and she scolds him for not seeing the obvious; Missy is short for Mistress, a name that seemed more appropriate to her current form than the one she had before—the Master.
Commentary
THE MASTER
YOU NEED TO GIVE ME A MINUTE I AM NOT OKAY AND BY THAT I MEAN EVERYTHING IS PERFECT I AM SCREAMING, BETTER, EVERYTHING IS BETTER, I FEEL SO MUCH BETTER, I WAS REALLY TRYING TO STOP MYSELF FROM BEING DISAPPOINTED JUST IN CASE AND NOW IT’S ALL FINE AND I CAN TAKE DEEPS BREATHS AGAIN.
*cough*
I’m sorry. It’s just. My favorite is back.
I know that Missy being the Master had been a guess from the beginning, and while some fans may be upset to have seen it coming, I feel pretty much the opposite way. One of the biggest problems the Moffat era has had (especially with season finales) is in trying to keep us guessing to the point where nothing really makes sense. I would much rather have guessed Missy’s identity correctly because it felt less forced than any other possibility. The cues were all there, and to not have them pan out would have been a pity. The point is not the surprise—it’s the excitement. I spent the last ten minutes of the episode shouting at the television “Say it! Say it. I KNOW IT’S YOU, SAY IT.” That was most of the fun. The Doctor’s inability to deal makes it more enjoyable—it’s not hard to guess that he feels two hearts when she insists that he check, but he literally cannot go there. It’s too much.
It seems likely that this just happened to fall together exactly as it needed to. John Simm said a long while back that he didn’t want to give up the character, but he has been working on BBC’s The Intruders. My guess is that they offered him the opportunity and he simply didn’t have the time. With that in mind, they needed to cast someone new. Though Moffat was unwilling to make the Doctor female this time around, the fan community being so vocal on the subject likely led to the consideration of trying a Time Lord gender switch with a different character. The Master is pretty much the perfect candidate for that in every aspect. Part of me is a little miffed that she feels the need to change her title to the Mistress, but it is the exact sort of misdirect you’d expect from the character, designed more for confusion than anything.
(I do take issue with the idea that the Master is only comfortable making out with the Doctor when she’s a woman, but provided that a male incarnation of the Master eventually goes there, I’d rescind that. Yes, I appreciate the desire to amp up the flirting between these two—they’ve always done it and, heck, I’ve always shipped it—but it’s distressing that it’s only acceptable for these sorts of rivalry pairings to make out when they appear to be a heterosexual duo. See: Elementary.)
Writing this move off is a mistake, because it has major portends for the future of Doctor Who, all of which are incredibly promising. For one, women who identify with the Master now have an avatar that’s aligned to them. For two, this perfectly sets up the possibility of a female Doctor. Now that we’ve had a prevalent Time Lord make the switch (the reference to the Corsair in “The Doctor’s Wife” was nice, but not really enough), there’s precedent. So in effect, this decision is monumental. It has opened the door wide to these changes without bluster. The Master is a woman now. The Doctor can be, too.
Did I mention that I love her? Michelle Gomez has a clear take on the character that still plays well with previous incarnations. Her comic beats were on point, her glee was infectious. And her playfulness works so well alongside Capaldi’s grumpier take on the Doctor. It is essential for these two to bounce well off one another, and it seems we have another winning match from what we’ve received so far. What we don’t know is precisely where this version of the Master comes from or how she got there. It seems as though she’s alluding to bringing this tech over from the locked-off Time War, which is the most likely, since we know that getting back to Gallifrey is something that Capaldi’s Doctor is probably heading toward. Knowledge of how the Master wriggled out of there could help him find his way home. (If that is indeed where she came from, who is surprised that the Master figured out how to cross that barrier first? Very not me.)
There are plenty of things in this episode that clearly appear for shock value and don’t quite make sense. For example, Clara’s move with the TARDIS keys and the lava seems silly because we’ve never been told that the keys are particularly difficult to make, and we know that the doors can be opened with a snap of the fingers (for some time) now. Clara even did this a few episodes back, so how are the keys this relevant? The Nethersphere hasn’t quite come clear, but I assume that’s for the next episode to flesh out. The idea that a human retains a tie to their body in that realm is one of the more insidious bits of psychological horror that the show has pulled in a long time, and I honestly don’t feel capable of dwelling on the idea for that long.
The real question is, will they save Danny? You’d assume they have to because Clara met their ostensible great-greaty-great grandson in the future. It’s a bit of a tired move on Doctor Who of late, bringing back dead boyfriends, but the idea of Danny dying because Clara chose the wrong moment to say ‘I love you’ might be too much to bear. With that in mind, perhaps retreading the material should be allowed. At least the way back to Danny seems a little more cut and dry than usual. His choice to prevent Clara from coming after him was a beautiful piece of drama that sets the stage for the second act with all the tension required.
The dynamic between the Doctor and Clara is stronger than ever, and his choice to attempt the impossible with her, even after her “betrayal,” was easily the most touching moment Capaldi has ever been written. We’ve seen the Doctor act cruel in moments of disappointment before; it makes this choice seem even kinder by comparison. We know he has been concerned over what he’s taught Clara in her journey as “the Doctor” in the past few episodes. What he’s neglected to recognize is the compassion he seems to have absorbed from her company.
So far the Cybermen twist is actually quite interesting, particularly since they are not acting of their own hive-mind volition. Having the Master in control of them is smart while also being a little familiar—the Master has aligned with the Daleks before, so taking over the Cybermen seems exactly the sort of thing she might do. (Yay, I get to write ‘she’ now, this is awesome.) The next episode will decide if their use was a good move, but so far I’m impressed.
Fingers crossed for an excellent part two. And Missy better survive this—I want a lot more of her in the future.
Emmet Asher-Perrin wonders what her neighbors must think of all that shouting she did at the television. You can bug her on Twitter and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
Completely agree with you @Emily Asher-Perrin. Missy had to be the Master – but you can never tell with Moffat’s tendency to fold and crease a story-arc into narrative origami. I think it’s been a wonderfully strong season. The moment of the Psychic Paper being seen to have so much swearing was a gentle nod to Capaldi’s role as Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It.
I am curious as to whether this gender switch will be seen negatively by anyone who wanted a female Doctor. If you wanted to be really contrarian you could argue that the gender switch was done on a character that is normally considered perverse, and therefore this implies something negative about gender choice.
Well that was the quietest road accident that I’ve ever (not) heard, maybe he accidently hit mute just before impact.
I’m a person who has occasionally asked the morbid question – If you were thought dead but woke up just too late during your funeral, would you rather be accidently buried alive or burned alive? So this episode is one to really play on your hypothetical fears.
The other popular hypothetical question is – If you were on a burning boat but the water was full of hungry sharks, would you stay and burn or jump and be eaten? Looking forward to the episode of Who that builds a plot around this idea.
Of course the last such question would be along the lines of if you had to remove one from history would it be fruit salad or blackjack – Bill and Ted or Wayne’s world – Marvel or DC and so on.
The point of being called Mistress is that the Master had already run out of languages to get a pseudonym. He had to change genders.
“It’s a bit of a tired move on Doctor Who of late, bringing back dead boyfriends”
When has it happened, apart from Rory? And Rory? And Rory? … I might be forgetting a few others.
The Master often has great plans for others, that don’t work when it’s time to reap the benefices. In fact, that’s precisely why he stopped his plan in his first appearance, Terror of the Autons.
That episode struck me as utterly terrible in all the worst ways Moffat can be, and with no real options to redeem itself in the second half, but the previous six have been so strong this season is secure as the best NewWho yet no matter where it goes from here.
Good episode. I was a little creeped out at first, when it seemed like the show was trying to explain metaphysical things like the afterlife, but then they switched and made it clear that this wasn’t really the afterlife, it was all some sort of SF construct created to support the Cybermen. I think all the stuff about feeling your body after death, and the evils of cremation, was just red herrings.
I thought Missy might be the Master. Actually, I hoped she would, because it instantly gave some meaning to all of the little hints we had been getting all season. And she is a delightfully creepy incarnation of the Master, by turns cloyingly friendly, and then pure evil.
I didn’t see what Danny was doing during the show, but I think you are right Emily, he was refusing to say things that would prove he was who he said he was precisely so that Clara would not try to follow him into death.
The dead child was heartbreaking, and well revealed, and explains a lot about Danny’s difficulty with talking about his career as a soldier.
The whole dark water thing was very convoluting, and improbable, but can be forgiven because it created such a great visual of the Cybermen revealed by the draining tanks.
I did like the scene where the Doctor forgives Clara for trying to sabotage him through the Tardis keys (although the thought that Tardis would refuse entry to her Doctor just because of the lack of a key isn’t plausible). So again, convoluted set up for a nice moment.
So, a good episode which started out confusing, but then snapped into focus, and by the end, gave us a great set up for next week, and made me anxious for the week to be over, so I can see that next episode.
The whole “Ask Danny about things only he would know” seems like a questionable tactic considering that the Nethersphere people had just admitted to reading Clara’s mind. How was she to know that they weren’t just letting her talk to a simulated Danny that was based on her memories?
I think we need a retcon here, very quickly. Hopefuly this is a fake out by Davros, because don’t think I didn’t notice a mention of a Doctor SKAROsa. It would be classic Moffat to put a big fakeout in ep1 to sneak by the real villain. In any course, floating the idea of a female master is basically an attempt to soften up the audience for a female Doctor, something the majority of the BBC licence fee payers just do not want and will probably never want. While fandom is going nuts and claiming it is so cool, I’ve noticed in interactions with non-fans that this move is less than popular already. I think Moffat needs to step out of the fandom echo chamber for a bit.
AlanBrown – I’m a big confused, here: first you say “I was a little creeped out at first, when it seemed like the show was trying to explain metaphysical things like the afterlife, but then they switched and made it clear that this wasn’t really the afterlife, it was all some sort of SF construct created to support the Cybermen.” But then you talk about Danny not wanting Clara to follow him into death and the dead child he killed by accident in Vietnam, which seems pretty conclusively to prove that this *is* the afterlife!
#9
Afghanistan, not Vietnam.
I suspect we’re going to see that a lot of what we’ve seen before is propaganda… the emotional reunion Danny has with the kid could just be manipulation to convince him to push the “delete” button (maybe the Time Lords have some hardcoded restrictions that alterations need to be approved).
The “don’t cremate me” messages and “they feel everything” are probably a method to convince the government to stockpile bodies which then get converted to Cybermen.
Missy clearly has some scheme involving capturing consciousness as it leaves the body, but it’s not a natural process, maybe even interferes with a natural process.
If that’s not the case, I’ll be very disappointed because adding and defining a real afterlife is an awful idea for the series.
Hi everyone.
First off, the three words freaked out my wife, whose mother died this past summer, and was cremated. So, I thought that bit hit too close to home. After my wife left the room, I found the rest of the episode OK. It did take its time building to the reveals, as other reviews have commented on. I hope the second half is better overall…
…and I didn’t care much for Clara’s selfishness. It’s realistic, don’t get me wrong. I just didn’t care for it.
Yeah, I was in the Missy=Master camp from Deep Breath. Capaldi nailed the shocked expression, though, so it was OK…
overall, this wasn’t the best of the season, but it does set of a potential great 2nd part. Fingers crossed!
I always thougt of The Rani as a female Master. So I guessed wrong.
I was annoyed by the afterlife bit and was very glad to realize that it is some sort of technological created afterlife.
Unfortunately I was distracted in the beginning by Clara saying she loved Danny since all I could think was “I don’t think so.” They way she’s been treating him and the way we’ve been shown the relationship. I don’t buy her loving him; closest is that she thinks she does.
What I am left wondering about, though, is how long the Mistress has been up to this? When did we see people arriving in the afterlife? “Deep Breath” was in Victorian times and “Into the Dalek” in the future far from Earth. Danny died in 2014 where the Mistress seems to have set up shop? Why was the Mistress snagging souls/bodies from Victorian times, present day, and the future? That seems unnecessary given the number of people who die on Earth on any given day.
The volcano sequence and its immediate aftermath was really intense. (At first I thought they were inside Mt. Vesuvius and we’d find out that
Clara caused the Pompeii disaster by tossing in the keys, and that would lead into explaining why that guy in “The Fires of Pompeii” looked like Peter Capaldi.) And I liked the trick with the logo — the Doctor says he’s missing something obvious, and the doors close and the twinned logo looks like a Cyberman’s eyes with the little “teardrop” circles below the big circles (and just to make it more heavy-handed, Murray Gold gives us a bit of the Cyberman theme).
But the surprise wasn’t as effective as it could’ve been, because we had all those spoiler photos of Missy and the Cybermen months ago. So I
figured out well in advance that the “invisible support exoskeletons”
were Cyberman bodies.
And speaking of unsurprising things, the reveal that Missy is the Master is the least surprising surprise ending ever. It’s been the leading fan theory for Missy’s identity since the season began — that she was
either the Master or the Master’s daughter — so it’s one hell of an
anticlimax. I’d almost prefer it if my first guess (upon the revelation
that she was a Time Lady) had been right and this had been a twisted,
bitter version of Romana. At least that might be interesting. But this
makes two Master incarnations in a row played by actors that I simply do not like, that play it too broadly and goofily and have none of the
suave, charming menace of Roger Delgado or Anthony Ainley. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the idea of a female Master in principle, but the way she’s being written and acted is, so far, just as terrible as the way Simm’s Master was handled.
@6: I think you’re absolutely right. I pegged it ahead of time that the corpses were being converted into Cybermen, and that the whole alleged “Don’t cremate me!” discovery was just a way to trick people into preserving the bodies of the dead in order to provide more fodder for Cyber-conversion.
Which raises big questions about the time frame, because the ending of the episode seemed to be in the present day, and yet the whole “Don’t cremate me!” discovery seems to have been made years in the past, long enough for the 3W corporation and its facilities to be established. So why didn’t Clara already know about it? And how come they were able to draw in dead people from Victorian London and the far future? They don’t get to use those people’s bodies, so what’s the point of uploading their minds in the first place?
@9: Danny’s reaction only proves that he believes it’s the afterlife. That’s the whole point of the Nethersphere scam: convincing people not to cremate the dead by making them believe that the dead can still feel what happens to their bodies.
But as the Doctor and “Missy”‘s dialogue confirmed, Danny and the others have actually had their consciousnesses uploaded to a Gallifreyan computer mainframe, and the Nethersphere is a virtual-reality “heaven” simulation running within it. The child Danny saw may have been uploaded too, or may have just been a simulation to fool Danny.
@1: I thought the swearing on the psychic paper was caused by the reader, who seemed quite upset at there being another government inspection so soon. The paper took the swears out of his thoughts.
I had suspected Missy was The Master several episodes back; somehow her mannerisms reminded me of Simm’s portrayal. When she said she was a Time Lady I was wondering if she would end up being the Rani just to bring another character from ‘Old Who’ to ‘New Who’.
I suspected that Missy was the Master from the first time that I saw her. Michelle Gomez is made to look like a female incarnation of Roger Delgado which plays out perfectly against the 12th Doctor’s Pertwee-like flourishes. For those of us that are fans of the Pertwee era this season has been a treat!
Wow. Seeing as how The Rani is essentially a female Master, the gender change strikes me as a hollow gesture that smacks of fan service, and furthermore, The Master is just about as overused as Moriarty is in rebranded Sherlock projects. This portrayal is no less two dimensional than that of any previous female Moffat baddy – anyone who says different is straining to see the emperor’s new clothes. I take issue with the fact Missy and The Doctor made out at all – it’s further proof that the Doctor Who canon is degenerating into fan fiction, and the fact that the reviewer cheers the idea of a future male Master flirting with The Doctor is a sad reminder that such entirely inessential narrative detail is welcomed (“I mean, sure she was trying to kill everyone and you saved the day, but more importantly, did you guys you know, like do it, somewhere in the middle?”). This was probably the safest, least interesting resolution to the question of Missy’s identity. The episode was almost wholly predictable, but I did genuinely enjoy the concept (particularly Clara’s betrayal), and it serves as the high point of Capaldi’s short tenure.
“easily the most touching moment Capaldi has ever been written.”
Capaldi writes for the show now?
@19: It’s a confusing syntax, but I take it to mean “the most touching moment that has ever been written for Capaldi.”
Oops, double post. I think Tor.com’s working on its software again and causing some glitches.
(I do take issue with the idea that the Master is only comfortable
making out with the Doctor when she’s a woman, but provided that a male incarnation of the Master eventually goes there, I’d rescind that. Yes, I appreciate the desire to amp up the flirting between these two—they’ve always done it and, heck, I’ve always shipped it—but it’s distressing that it’s only acceptable for these sorts of rivalry pairings to make out when they appear to be a heterosexual duo.)
Yes, this, all of it. And I’m miffed about “the Mistress,” and about the “Time Lady, I’m old fashioned” comment. All of this kept me from enjoying the reveal. I don’t even ship it, and it still bothers me, because it’s just more Moffat crap.
Speaking of Moffat, I can’t even be terrified of the concept of being connected to my body after death because taking something and making it even more terrifying than before is kind of Moffat’s thing along with being way too convoluted and I’m getting bored by it.
@18, yes.
And finding out that “Missy” was actually Romana would have been much more interesting!
This isn’t exactly the first disquieting moment in the show’s continuity in connection with the afterlife. Remember the whole first season of Torchwood, and the depiction of the afterlife as being total darkness with the sensation of something vast and evil moving in it?
(Of course, then they had to go into anticlimax by having it be just another CGI rubber suit monster in the end…)
This discussion thread reflects a lot of what I’ve seen elsewhere, from disappointment that Missy is the Master to dismay with the “don’t cremate me” line. The post itself here is much more laudatory of the episode, but the fan discussion seems to be consistent on all the forums I’ve been checking into.
I liked the episode, though, for one key reason: the acting. Frankly, I thought Capaldi and his attack eyebrows were outstanding this week. Jenna Coleman at the volcano was also quite good, and I enjoyed the entire staff of the 3W center. Only Anderson’s Pink was a bit flat for me, but hey, the man thinks he’s just died – I’ll let that pass. The episode was incredibly well-acted, though, and I enjoyed all the one-liners tremendously.
It seems like this season has been kind of a tale of two Moffat’s overall. My impression is that large chunks of this season can be read as apology episodes. “Sorry for making Clara a plot point rather than a character.” “Sorry for continuing to mess with the Doctor/Companion romance stuff.” “Sorry for failing to give 11 a coherent emotional arc.” “Sorry for being kinda crap about women.” Some of these apologies even came directly, on screen, from the characters’ mouths.
And along the way, there were missteps. There was the weird mixed messages filling out the dragon egg poop episode. Some weird, awful stuff with Vastra and Clara.
And here there’s an apology: “We’re sorry we didn’t cast the the Doctor the way you wanted.” And there’s missteps in the execution.
But, honestly, it’s unbelievable to me that Moffat is even being as self aware about his past shortcomings as he has been. That these apologies even exist is a coup. I don’t need them to be perfectly executed to be satisfied that corrections are happening, even if I’ll groan when they don’t quite go right (or even go horribly wrong).
So, I wasn’t in the „Missy is Master” camp, not for a second, nope, didn’t see that coming, didn’t like the very idea – not of the female Master, don’t get me wrong, but of Missy being the Master. But I like the fact he (she!) is back.
So far I’ve read many opinions she’s actually not, that it is too obvious, she’s just lying, the next episode will start with her saying: „No, I’m kidding, you should’ve seen your face! Seriously, don’t you recognize me? I’m Romana (or Rani).”
Now after being so long against the Master theory I suddenly started to like the idea and I’d feel disappointed if he turned out to be Romana or Rani instead.
Loved the keys and volcano, that was very LOTR! Btw, what was Clara about to say to Danny? She mentioned it’s not all good, started with „I love you,” had something that looked like „pros and cons” papers on her bookshelve… so I take it she was gonna choose Doctor over Danny, and when he got hit by the car she felt guilty, hence the volcano thing, which was more about Clara being angry at herself than anything else.
@27 Tessuna
No, she was about to explain all the things she’d done and how she lied to him. And she wanted to make sure he knew she loved him, and wanted to make things better, first. Hence the post-it speech web.
@28 Random Comments: Oh, that makes sense.
And to think this whole episode would never happen if Clara waited to tell it Danny in the face… wait, was Missy expecting Doctor to come? Could she have anything to do with Danny’s death? And how does the whole “woman in the shop, who gave Clara Doctor’s number, because she has chosen her to be Doctor’s companion for some reason” fit with the “Missy is Master” thing? Why would Master choose Clara?
Anyway, I’m looking forward to the next episode. Hopefully it will provide some answers.
Some quick thoughts:
No way that Missy survives the next episode. I hope she will, but I fear for the worst given such a bold choice. I believed she would turn out to be the Rani right up until the end, especially with her comments about being “abandoned”. Ah well.
While Missy was pretending to be a “welcome droid” there were two references to the video game _Portal_ in the form of her vocal style, and “helping you to help me to help you”.
I’m pretty sad that I let myself get spoiled by watching the teaser at the end of last episode.
@29: Crazy thought, but maybe the Master/Mistress “sent” Clara to the Doctor in order to save him from the Great Intelligence? They’ve always been enemies, but there’s always been an odd friendship there too, or at least interdependence. As the Master said in “The Five Doctors,” “The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.” Maybe she wanted to keep the Doctor alive — if for no other reason to ensure that she, rather than some other villain, got to be the one to finish him off. Or maybe she just found it deliciously ironic to have the Doctor owe his life to her.
I think that some of the disappointment on the trans* issues with Missy/Master comes from Moffat consciously telling a children’s story.
Adults who have a full understanding of trans* issues have a thousand questions as to just what it means to changes sexes while regenerating.
But Moffat’s story isn’t about that, or isn’t about that yet.
I think he’s very conscious that this is a story that might be a child’s first experience of someone transitioning between sexes. So he keeps it simple.
You know someone who is a boy. And you meet them again, and that person is a girl. What do you do? Well, that person is really a girl. (Time Lady, not Time Lord.) And you use girl words (Mistress rather than Master.) And you use their (new) girl name (Missy.) And it doesn’t change who they are, as a person. (It’s still the enemy you knew as the Master. Get ready to fight!)
I thought that was a great ep. God knows we needed a good one after last week’s debacle.
A thought on the TARDIS keys: my headcanon is that the finger-snap only works if you’re in possession of a key.
@32: Missy has openly been the Master for only a few lines, so of course the show hasn’t delved yet into the trans* issues. I expect we’ll get more details about what this means for Missy and how she considers that change (regeneration means she’s a new person in a new body. How is her calling herself Mistress different from the War Doctor saying “Doctor no more”?), but I do hope that when we finally get a woman Doctor, we’ll get scenes like the “who frowned me this face” one in Deep Breath. And that they will be as well written.
@32 – I really don’t believe that much thought was put into it. It is a completely binary transformation – the only adjustments made to The Master’s character involve pure titillation in regards to the opposite sex, which is absolutely the least insightful examination of what it means to be transgender. Additionally, Missy is EVIL – don’t you think it would be an odd choice to intentionally intertwine the most negative trait imaginable with the concept of being transgender? Moffat is not subtle, nor is he an ambassador of transgender politics. This is the man that helmed Coupling, which featured a staunchly binary view of gender (excluding the one character who had a sex change on a whim so he could fondle himself all day and hang out with naked women on the isle of Lesbos without being called a pervert, which does not denote an enlightened perspective). He only wrote this because it was “cool,” and The Master is now 100% biologically a woman as if he was born one (note: not because he felt like he truly was a woman trapped in a man’s body since early childhood – he would’ve made the change a lot sooner in that case) – I would not expect any transgender commentary.
The Master was my guess, also, from the start, but when she stated she Missy was short for Mistress, I had a brief thought that this was Romana as that was what K-9 called her.
The Nethersphere does appear to be a Timelord memory backup device of some sort. How complete it is, remains to be seen.
Next week should be quite interesting.
@15: Related to the “teardrop eye” reveal, there were a couple of other shout-outs to Troughton-era Cyberman episodes: the “mausoleum” with the see-through cells referencing “Tomb of the Cybermen” and the ending shot of Cyberman descending the steps of St. Pauls referencing “The Invasion.”
I was guessing it was The Rani, but the producers seem not to care to revisit her. If any Timelords were to survive the Time War I’d always guessed it would be the Doctor, the Master(Mistress), and the Rani(and maybe Susan Foreman).
I am liking the Mistress and looking back on the previous episodes in the season it is clear that’s who she was the whole time. I hope they keep this incarnation around a while. She is as good a foil as Jim Moriarity in the other show by the same producers.
I am getting a feeling that the people in the Netherspere are really Mostly dead like in the Princess Bride. Until they hit the DELETE button to become Cybermen, they can still be reunited with their bodies as long as they haven’t been cremated or embalmed. Danny and Clara will be reunited or she’ll follow Rose to the other universe. Deus ex Maschina
Did anyone notice the nod to Malcolm Tucker? The psychic paper shows Dr Chang that Capaldi’s Doctor is from the government and includes swearing, to which the Doctor replies: “”Oh, I’ve got a lot of internalised anger.”
::foot stomp of frustration:: I wanted her to be The Rani. I’m very disappointed.
Time for my crazy idea (apologies if someone else has presented it elsewhere):
This is Clara’s last adventure with the Doctor, due to her pregnancy. Yup, pregnant. Danny is dead and stays dead.
Since “Listen”, we’ve known that Danny’s progeny had a definitive link to Clara. The TARDIS uses Clara to find Orson, and he has a few throwaway lines about his grandmother (or great-grandmother, can’t remember). He never mentions his (great) grandfather.
Clara was incredibly intense with Danny on the phone when he died. She had something earth-shattering to say to him (Paraphrasing) “I love you Danny Pink. I want you to understand that those words are for you. No one else, ever.” Her pause after suggests that she wanted to know whether he felt the same. If he did, she would tell him. If not, she goes away and uses her adventures with the Doctor as an excuse. Danny has no chance to answer.
Finally, it would explain the departure of Clara after the Christmas episode.
That’s all, taking off the tinfoil hat now.
No mention so far of my favorite line in the episode…
“Go to Hell”.
We had to scrub the DVR back to make sure we heard what we thought we heard– it was such a perfect, and unexpected, line.
Cybermen afterlife? Ok, I can believe that. The Master turning into Missy without him or the Doctor freaking out. Sure, I can easily believe that too. I believe the TimeLords regenerated into someone of the opposite gender every now and then, according to circumstances and/or whim, so it’s not out of the ordinary for either one of them.
But a professional ex-soldier standing in the middle of the street in shock just because his girlfriend told him she loves him, and getting hit by a ninja car that kills him in the most quiet and painless way possible? That just screams amateur fanfic to me.
@43 – It was an electric car, likely driven by a leaf, and Danny will be ok because The Doctor, Clara and Missy will all touch hands over the TARDIS’ psychic control panel while accidentally three-way kissing and they’ll give birth to a new Danny who wears a military print fez, and does a flying summer sault over Missy and kicks her so hard she flies back into the Gallifreyan time lock, and the camera will pan to the 10th Doctor hiding behind a curtain, whispering something into the 11th doctor’s ear, but we can’t understand because we can’t see his mouth, or hear the dialogue (but he’s probably just saying “I don’t want to go”).
(Actually, didn’t that leaf save Clara’s dad from getting hit by a car? That’ll probably reoccur then.)
@43
I don’t know, given how bad Clara and Danny are in the episode before at safety procedures for their students it seems appropriate.
@35: I suspect you’re probably right. I don’t expect a subtle or sensitive treatment of transgender issues, or indeed any kind of gender issues, from Moffat.
@36: K-9 also called Leela and Sarah Jane “Mistress,” so that was more to do with him (being a robot dog with the personality of a butler) than with Romana. And of course he called the Doctor “Master,” which would’ve been confusing if the Master had still been part of the show at that point.
God, I hope not. I profoundly loathe Sherlock‘s goofy, Jim Carrey-esque excuse for Moriarty. Just an atrociously bad, annoying character. I already dislike Missy, but I pray she never sinks to that horrific level of awfulness.
@43: The fact that Time Lords can change gender during regeneration was already confirmed back in “The Doctor’s Wife,” when the Doctor mentioned that the Corsair had been female in one or two incarnations.
A couple people have made the comment that “the Rani is essentially a female Master,” and while I totally support the idea of having the Rani back on the show (please please please please), that particular insistence makes me super sad.
The Rani is her own character. She is cold and logical and only interested in the pursuit of science. Her megolomania is relegated to a very specific place, and she NEVER obssessed over the Doctor the way the Master does. So yes, I’d like her back, sooner rather than later. But the idea that she and the Master are interchangeable could not be further from the truth.
@46 – I also loathe Sherlock’s Moriarty (by every comparison CBS’s Elementary is a surprisingly brilliant and refreshing take on the mythos), but as the show runners at the time of The Master’s introduction stated, The Master was meant to be the “Moriarty to The Doctor’s Holmes,” and just as Moriarty was only ever included in one of 60 original Holmes tales, yet his inclusion is mandatory in every retelling, the Master is destined to be equally exaggerated and overused. While Missy doesn’t bother me nearly as much as Sherlock’s Moriarty (I’m enjoying Gomez’s peformance), I also don’t believe it was neccessary to include The Master in an ordinary Cyberman conversion plan. Seems a thinly veiled attempt at keeping the less critical, less knowledgeable of lore, and more excitement prone swath of the fanbase on board. Why was the Master featured in the awful 1996 made for TV movie? Not because his story is interesting, inventive, or compelling, but because people knew who he was, and using him had worked in the past. Same reason Missy is the Master.
@47 – Granted, there are differences of approach between the Rani and The Master, but the end result of either villain’s plans is the same -universal subjugation with high casualties. My point in comment #18 is that we already have a pefectly useful evil female Time Lord, who would fit equally as well with the established stakes of universal subjugation – and you’re right, The Rani’s severely logical demeanor could potentially bring fresh story ideas into the mix, but revealing the master as a woman seems a lazy fullfilment of the above “Moriarty” complaint.
@48 I can think of one reason for having the Master/Mistress in a Cyberman story, which is that it is hard to have interesting confrontations with them. I might point out that arguably the best Cybermen story from the classic series, from which this very episode stole a classic shot, was The Invasion, which also gave the Cybermen a more human front man.
@46, 48:
See, I love Jim Moriarty. I thought that was a bit of an audacious coup from the show-runner, there. Moriarty has to be a kind of dark reflection of Holmes; he has all Holmes’ talents and none of his scruples. But the tendency has always been to make him a kind of evil astrophysics don – dusty, spidery, and all about the money and the power. That’s fine, that works, but it’s interesting to ring some changes.
A Moriarty who relishes theatre, and who will only ever reveal himself to Holmes and Watson – and then only at the psychological moment – is much more fun dramatically. The crazy thread of fairy tale through his crimes is actually more fun than ‘the Napoleon of Crime’, and it gives the character more life than Doyle allowed him to begin with.
The performance is great, too, but I can see how it might be Marmite. I think the off-kilter, swoopy, frenetic stuff contrasts beautifully with Sherlock’s minimalism, and it’s certainly more interesting to watch than two robots fencing.
@49 – Hard to have an interesting confrontation with anything the 19th time around, especially mindless automatons intended to represent the loss of individuality, who therfore have no personalities. I’ve never understood why many fans find them so compelling. I assume it’s the fact that next to the Daleks, the Cybermen are the only iconic looking classic Who villains that didn’t appear to be made out of gaffer’s tape and bubble wrap.
@48 Note that we really don’t know anything about the Master’s involvement, or what the plan actually is. We only just found out that’s who she is. It may not even be an “ordinary Cyberman conversion plan.” It probably does have something to do with the still-missing Gallifrey that it’s supposedly 12’s job to bring back, given that was the last place the Master’s previous incarnation was seen.
Something I’ve seen pointed out in other reviews, and I have to admit they have a point, is that two-part Doctor Who stories tend to suffer from pacing issues in the first part, because the natural cliffhanger breakpoint for the Big Reveal doesn’t fall neatly in the middle. They might only have twenty minutes of story and have to pad out the rest. We kind of see some of that here.
This episode was basically about getting all the pieces on the board so the game could commence. The drawback to that approach is we can only see what the board layout looks like; we don’t know yet how they’re going to move or what the players are going to do with them. But it’s probably going to be a hell of a game.
So now the Doctor and the Master are the last two Time Lords and conveniently they are now in a place where biological reproduction is possible. (for humans. who knows how Gallifreayns are born.)
Does this mean that they will have to repopulate the universe so as not to be the last two of their kind?
it is just ridiculous.
Let’s be honest: there was never any chance that Missy was the Rani. No clues, no hints dropped, no groundwork done for it, no indication at all that the program makers were intending to resurrect a villain that 90% of the TV audience would be totally unfamiliar with. Fan service is one thing, but ‘You know who I am’ only works if the audience do, indeed, know who you are once the mask comes off. Otherwise, it just gets blank looks.
@54: Good point. The reason the revival of the Great Intelligence worked is that it wasn’t treated like a revival — there was a passing mention by the Doctor that it seemed familiar, and a background in-joke about the GI taking an interest in the London Underground, but they were just Easter eggs and the story didn’t depend on the fact that the Doctor had met the GI before. So it worked as if it were effectively a brand-new character.
@54 – Should we do something original this series, or try to recapture the magic by chewing it up and regurgitating it onto stacks of paper? Pfff – originality is overrated. Regurgitate. Everybody is doing it.
@56: it’s a little hard to champion the return of a thirty-years-gone classic series character by advocating ‘originality’. ;)
But in any case, that’s not really a reaction to my point. My point was that the groundwork for reintroducing such a relatively obscure character was clearly never there: it could have been done, but it clearly hadn’t been. It was therefore never likely that the Rani would be the answer: there was nothing but wishful thinking powering that idea.
Did we ever hear what 3W (or WWW) stood for? If not, any speculation?
I liked this one a lot better than I expected to, considering the quality of the season-enders so far. Moffat sucks at them. So did RTD. And frankly, I wish the show would move away from story arcs anyway; the characters didn’t know about Missy before now, her appearances were solely there for the audience’s benefit and they threw a wrench in the pacing of some of the previous episodes because they were ultimately extraneous. They could’ve just had her introduced in this two-parter with no prior mention, and the season might have been better off for it. That said, while I haven’t cared enough who Missy is to make even the obvious guess as to her identity, I think she sort of works as the Master. The name’s about as obvious as Mr. Magister or Mr. Seta or
whatever else’s he’s calling himself at the time.
I thought this was a lot better than the incomprehensible mess that was “The Wedding of River Song” or the reset-button resolutions of “The Big Bang” and “Last of the Time Lords.” The Cybermen always creep me out, particularly as they’re much more effective in the current era than in latter-day classic Who, where a gold coin fired from a slingshot could kill them. I’m wondering who’s actually in control of the situation — them or the Master.
Another thing that stood out for me was the use of a Matrix shard. If they’re going to have a virtual world of the dead, they might as well use the correct technology, which I was happy to see they did, as it’s the same sort of thing that happened when the Doctor and the Valeyard were chasing each other around the Matrix at the end of the “Trial of a Time Lord” arc.
Given the flaming sharp-toothed hatestorm that immediately blows up in opposition to the idea of a female Doctor online, I’d say it’s actually surprising they went and confirmed it onscreen as a possibility. Maybe the “dark water” in those Cyberman holding tanks was distilled from the bitter tears of all the people who were still arguing that there’s never been any indication whatsoever that a Time Lord could ever regenerate as the opposite sex. I hope it does happen with the Doctor — but not while Moffat’s in charge of the show. As dissatisfied as I was with some of his material, I don’t actually think he’s awful or anything; he just has some large blind spots in his writing, one of which is writing diverse women. Gatiss or Gaiman would handle a female Doctor more deftly, I think.
@58: Yes, they explained that “3W” was short for “The Three Words.” It’s more tactful than naming the company “Don’t Cremate Me, Inc.”
@59: “I’m wondering who’s actually in control of the situation — them or the Master.”
It would be in the grand tradition of Master stories if she thought she controlled the Cybermen but then turned out to be in over her head, lost control of them, and needed to work with the Doctor to save the day.
@57 – You’re definitely correct – there was no indication Missy would be the Rani. I’m no champion for the Rani’s revival – I earlier said her inclusion (over that of The Master) wouldn’t have made any difference. I was hoping for something original, an actual gamble, and failing that, I’d take the Rani over the done-to-death Master.
Forget the Rani, I still want the Meddling Monk to come back (not as the Mistress, mind you, that really WOULD have come out of nowhere, but just in general)…
Imagine, with the rest of the Time Lords out of commission, the monk, who’d previously been fobwatched or maybe in some kind of other dimension or something, now re-emerges to engage in his favorite past time… meddling with time, and not just in small ways, but hitting one of the big ‘fixed points’ in the present day. The Doctor tries to stop him… and fails.
It’s not a planet-destroying failure. Earth continues. It’s much subtler than that, and longer lasting.
Suddenly, all of future history is different. The Doctor no longer knows all the empires, all the people… some are familiar with a twist, but many have changed completely. Empires he thought were benevolent have turned into threats worse than the Cybermen. Most importantly, the Doctor’s no longer an expert in everything that ever was, he’s something of a stranger again, an explorer, who has to figure things out as they come with the benefit of his brain, and an even bigger dilemma… try to undo the Monk’s mistake, or just do what he can in this altered timeline and try to stop the Monk from making things worse with continued meddlings.
I don’t see it happening, of course, but I so wish it would.
@43 Soldiers and sailors get distracted and die all the time. Their profession does not make them immune from accidents.
1. the “snap your fingers” thing only works when the TARDIS doors are UNLOCKED. When locked, the TARDIS is unaccessible to anyone, including The Doctor, who couldn’t get inside to prevent the Master from stealing her in “Utopia”.
Apologies to anyone who avoided watching the teaser, but there’s no rule saying we can’t discuss it. So, not all of it was addressed in this episode, and:
WHAT THE HECK DID “CLARA OSWALD HAS NEVER EXISTED” MEAN??????
@65: Uh…we have no way of knowing that without seeing the whole episode? It’s probably going to be some twist that comes completely out of left field that we don’t have any way of predicting, like the Pandorica opening to reveal Amelia Pond instead of the Doctor.
Honestly, I can’t see any point to you bringing it up, save to spoil people who hadn’t seen it yet.
This has just been pointed out to me.
Find the “Day of the Doctor” part 2 video on Dailymotion. (I’d link to it, but for some reason comments that post links to such things tend to disappear, so just google it.)
Go to about the 8:40 mark and watch forward, as the Doctors emerge from the Gallifrey stasis painting. Pay special attention to what appears in the right-hand side of the (literal) frame at about the 8:54 mark.
Clever, clever Moffat.
@67: Oh, yes, the hand clutching the frame. Are you suggesting that was Missy’s hand?
@68 Who else could it be? Makes sense that she’s there, given that Simms ended up on Gallifrey at the end of his last appearance, and dialogue in Day indicates that just happened sometime before the painting’s timepoint…
(Though if you want further proof, you could see if her hands are visible in any of her appearances and see if she’s wearing the same rings…)
@65, the trailer included several scenes from “Death in Heaven” as well as “Dark Water”, and that must be one of them.
I suspect it’s somehow not what it seems. The trailer using it alongside Clara-at-the-volcano scenes made that look like they were both part of Clara turning to evil. We know the context of the one was different now….
@71 It looks like it’s at the wrong angle to be Clara, and she’s too far away, and it looks like an older hand than Clara ought to have. It might have been mean to be taken for her at the time at a glance, hidden in plain sight, but if you look closer it doesn’t look right. And some of those rings do look similar, just that they’re on different fingers.
Well, if it is her, I expect we’ll get a flashback that will prove it in the next episode.
@73 – you’ve sold me – that was clara. I mean, the Time Lords are Time Lords. The Mistress could have (will?) escape with the rest of them when the Doctor brings Gallifrey out of stasis eventually, but she’s the only one to break their rules by going back in time to now to start fighting the Doctor again.
On teh other hand, did we actually see the Master go to Gallifrey? I haven’t watched the End of Time in a while. I seem to recall the Time Lords were all there. The Master was flinging energy at them (can all Time Lords do that??), and there was an explosion, and they were all gone. Did the Master simply escape then?
@72 – It’s Clara.
From her perspective, she’s standing just to the left of the frame. She reaches up with her right hand to grasp the frame to balance. Then she leans to her right side to look around the frame and into the other world. It’s as if she’s peeking around the corner while trying to avoid being seen or exposing herself, or to judge if it is safe to step through. (What if the painting were hanging high on a way, and she needed to lower herself down?)
So her hand is raised somewhat above her head, as she balances to lean to her side, and her head is back a bit from where she grasps the frame, because she has to look behind her shoulder to see around.
@@@@@ 74 – Your first theory sounds very plausible. Impossible to say if he went back to Gallifrey with the Time Lords, but Missy got a slice of the matrix from somewhere, (as well as a de-mat, pocket book?) and presumably a new TARDIS (where better to get those than Gallifrey). The resolution will likely be whatever is most convenient for the writers. I’m reading the transcript of Day of The Doctor to see if the Moment dropped any clues about intentionally releasing The Master to bring about Gallifrey’s return. Missy may intend to attack Gallifrey, but her actions may simply lead to it being relocated.
@72: I imagine Jenna Coleman stopping by and going “excuse me, how dare you call my hands old-looking!” She’d be adorably indignant as she said it, too.
@37, 49: I loved the callback to The Invasion; cackled with glee when that scene rolled around. Even better, I walked those very steps (or at least the modern version) while in London on a family trip last year!
Oh, it could have been a number of villians. The Rani. Omega. The Valeyard. Or Morbius. It could have been the Doctor’s Daughter gone bad, Romana gone bad, or Lela’s daughter gone nuts in the Time War. It could have even been a later incarnation of the Doctor as it has been predicted he will have a bad incarnation (Valeyard – unless the War Doctor is the predicted bad regeneration).
Good episode. Very dark! Capaldi is great. One of the better stories unless it all goes ‘nonsensical solution’ next week (Moffett sometimes does that).
Of course… the Doctor could also be the Master/Mistress/Missy… if you really want to twist things up at a later date (Fight Club).
I like the Tardis set – hope they don’t blow it up in the finale (as seen in commercials of it being on fire). Notice that is steams up a lot when in “motion”?
“I AM IN CHARGE!”
Loved Gomez’s delivery of that line, the righteous indignation in her voice.
In light of “Dark Water,” I think I might have a grasp on the plotline that “necessitated” The Doctor’s sudden, baseless sense of self-doubt:
Theory – The Mistress is starved for companionship/a partner in crime, and she wants The Valeyard to come out and play, preferably sooner than later (she knows he’s in there!). She orchestrated the morally charged events of Series 8 in an effort to break The Doctor’s spirit, and has engineered the major events of Clara’s life to culminate in a desperate, grief driven betrayal of The Doctor, which will be seen as a condemnation of his own personality, and will trigger his fall from grace. If I’m right, a few more “impossible choices” are in store for everyone – here’s hoping they choose wisely! As for The Nethersphere, perhaps we’re about to learn more about the regeneration process and its relation to the matrix, and we might get an answer to the question of Capaldi’s recurring face.
@82 – Well, I was right, for whatever that’s worth. I also guessed some weeks ago that the whole soldier plot line was leading up to The Doctor being meant to take control of the army of the dead. Little solace being right, since this foreshadows a Valeyard transformation, which will likely betray the spirit of the series. I’ll try to be optimistic next year – great 2 part episode, but a middling to poor season over all.
@82: Well, the Valeyard was said by the Master to be between the Doctor’s “twelfth and final” incarnations, but we now know that his twelfth incarnation was either Smith or Tennant, depending on whether you count Tennant twice. The War Doctor may not be counted as one of the Doctors, because he didn’t use that title during that life, but he was definitely one of the man’s incarnations.
Not to mention that there’s no way the Doctor after Capaldi will be the final one. As far as the Master knew back in “The Ultimate Foe,” the Doctor’s final life would be his thirteenth, i.e. Matt Smith. He had no way of knowing that the Doctor and Clara would later alter the Doctor’s own future and give him a new regeneration cycle.
So at this point it would be cheating to do the Valeyard story. And it’s something they could just as well skip over, since it was a minor bit of long-ago continuity from an era when the series wasn’t very good or popular anymore anyway, so it’s way too inside-baseball for the mainstream audience. Throwing in a passing reference to the Valeyard as an Easter egg is one thing, but it’s not something they’d be obligated to build a story around, not unless they found a story worth telling.
@83 – “Between your twelfth and final incarnation” is open ended, and regardless of how you count, we’re now in that range. The Mistress’ plan was turning the Doctor into a darker version of himself, and an evil Doctor by any other name will still be The Valeyard – the name isn’t important, the moral alignment is. Whether or not it’s a story worth telling is a matter of opinion, but the indications are clear – it’s getting darker from here.
@84: No fair using retroactive knowledge. At the time the Master spoke those words in “The Ultimate Foe,” as I already said, he did not know the Doctor’s future would be changed. So when he said “final,” he meant “thirteenth.” There is no way he could possibly have meant anything other than that at the time he uttered the words.
And I don’t agree that the Doctor is getting darker. I think that’s a complete misreading of the climax. The Doctor rejected the power he was offered, because he recognized that he didn’t have the right to play games with other people’s lives and deaths in order to shape the universe the way he wanted it. And that’s significant, because all season he’s been doing just that, being callous about deaths that happened in the course of his pursuits. “I’m an idiot with a box” is a renunciation of that arrogance. Also, he gained new respect and compassion for Danny; he gained enough humility to salute the Cyber-Brig; and he selflessly chose to let Clara go so that she could be happy with Danny (whom he believed was still alive). If anything, these events brought out his good and kind side more than anything else has all season.
Plus, I don’t think Santa Claus would personally visit him to help him sort things out with Clara if he were heading down a darker path.
@85 – I don’t think Moffat & Co. are concerned with fairness – they’re concerned with “coolness,” and they need little justifcation to implement an idea.
I truly wish I agreed with you, and that this was only a momentary jaunt into darkness, but I think it’s something else entirely.