Michelle Gomez has said she doesn’t want to play Missy opposite anyone but Capaldi. So while the Master will probably live on, this particular incarnation of Missy probably won’t.
Well, Bill lives on. Just not as a human.
As for the slaughter of the cast… I was getting tired of Peter Capaldi. Or maybe it was the stories this season. A new Doctor, which we inevitably get, might bring us a different style. I never did warm up to Bill. I don’t know if it’s the way the Pearl Mackie played the character, or again, if it was the stories. I do like Nardole, and he seems OK for mow. So I’m ready for a new Doctor and a new Companion.
At least I got to watch it as it aired this week.
Anyone else surprised at how little the Two Masters were used?
They listened to the Doctors speech. Shrugged and left. Then did that spoiler thing mentioned earlier.
Usually the Master dominates any story he/she is in.
Excellent episode. I definitely think it will turn out the Master will have regenerated into someone besides Missy. (And that actress, by the way, would have made a wonderful Doctor, too.)
Note that Bill’s not dead. She can choose to become her old self again…and “make chips”. Wonder if Pilot and Bill will run into a) Astrid or b) Clara and “Me”?
I thought the voice at the end would turn out to be the Doctor’s next incarnation. Interesting, to see One back again.
I think the Christmas episode is being set up as reflective, not just personally for Twelve, but also for Moffatt, and for the whole series - beyond even the modern restart, clearly back to the very beginning. If Twelve is already on his way to regeneration, then there’s not going to be much of an adventure ahead so much as self-exploration.
I also wonder if Susan may appear, either by Carole Ann Ford, who is still around, or by Claudia Grant who played her in the special from a couple of years back alongside David Bradley.
BTW, is this the first time that it has been revealed that Missy’s umbrella is sonic, or did I forget about earlier uses?
I liked the notion that creating Cybermen is not a unique event, but is rather a process that a variety of human societies might happen upon.
I don’t get the praise this is getting, it was a completely lazy “I no longer give a fuck” effort by Moffat. The companion becomes immortal and goes off to travel the galaxy with a girl is LITERALLY the same exact ending we got last season. The companion doesn’t realize she has been turned into a robot? man that sounds awfully familiar too doesn’t it? I gotta defend the explosions though, they WERE fake explosion effects coming out of the ground, they looked exactly like what they were supposed to be.
Oh to me the plot was indeed lazy and a bit stupid but the character work made the ep. Even the minor supporting ones felt like people with some depth, from the woman flirting with Nardole, to the kid with the apple. Gomez brought believability to Missy’s conflicting desires. I liked Clara overall but I cared more about Bill’s tragic circumstance than I did about Clara’s and the solution in-story makes more sense to me.
We also had scarecrows attacking a building full of children. But this is clearly a theme, and has been for most of the season.
So as D12 lies dying, his life flashes before his eyes - he gets visions of past companions calling “Doctor!” while reaching out to him - including Clara, who I thought he had blanked out of his memory. Continuity error, or plot crack to be leveraged later?
I personally loved Capaldi’s performance as the Doctor but disliked or downright hated the plot just about every episode from his first season (Series 8). S9 turned things around, and S10 was, IMO, very strong.
Will be interesting to see the new direction for Doctor Who. I also very much like the idea of him getting lectured on resisting regeneration (to the extent that he actually can - though D10 pulled it off, that one time) from the Original Doctor!
I figured that was a callback to 4’s regeneration to 5.
Wouldn’t that be a little like getting lectured by your teenage self, though?
Interesting contrast between how Missy and the Master face regeneration (or possibly death, in Missy’s case) and the Doctor’s resistance to it.
She’s brandished it before, but I don’t think we’ve seen her actually use it as a sonic tool.
But then, I don’t ever remember the Master ever having a sonic screwdriver, either.
“Laser screwdriver. Who’d want sonic?”
Did anyone else find the music overwhelming this episode? I could barely make out the dialogue.
Yes. I had to turn off Dolby enhancements before I could make out the dialogue.
Yes. Mrs. L.A. has complained about this before, on other BBC shows.
I’ll have to try that – if I can figure out how to do it on the new TV.
So the Doctor mentioned Marinus when he was boasting to the Cybermen about their defeats - but there were no Cybermen in Keys to Marinus The Keys of Marinus - Wikipedia - but the Doctor didn’t appear in two of the three portions of that story; perhaps the Christmas tale takes place on Marinus while “The Keys to Marinus” is going on? Maybe we’ll see Susan?