© BBC Pictures Episode: 10.11 "World Enough and Time"
Directed by: Rachel Talalay
Written by: Steven Moffat
Air date: 24 June 2017
Reviews so far:
Episode 10.01 - "The Pilot"
Episode 10.02 - "Smile"
Episode 10.03 - "Thin Ice"
Episode 10.04 - "Knock Knock"
Episode 10.05 - "Oxygen"
Episode 10.06 - "Extremis"
Episode 10.07 - "The Pyramid at the End of the World"
Episode 10.08 - "The Lie of the Land"
Episode 10.09 - "Empress of Mars"
Episode 10.10 - "The Eaters of Light"
What an intense and breathtaking hour! I need to start by saying that I refuse to believe this is the end of Bill's story. I especially refuse to believe THIS is the end of Bill's story. I kept thinking throughout the hour what I would write about the episode in this review. Every time I had a new angle, a new perspective, the whole thing changed completely. It's a lot to process and what's most surprising is that not many things actually happened. But what did... well, it was the stuff of nightmares. Surely an hour to remember. Now, let's try to break this down.
First, a quick recap. The Doctor wants to give Missy a chance to prove herself so he convinces Bill and Nardole to act as her companions in their next adventure. They all travel to a colony spaceship, trapped under a black hole, from where a distress call was sent and picked up by the TARDIS. When one of the crew members shows up and threatens Bill's life, the Doctor attempts to save her but is unable to stop him from taking the shot. Bill's body is taken from the Doctor and others by the masked men who claim they can repair her. While the Doctor spends a few minutes to figure out that there's a time difference (years apart) between the ship's top (where he's located) and bottom (where Bill was taken) and uses the lift to get to Potts, we see the whole years of her new life at the other end of the ship. Her destroyed heart and chest were replaced with mechanical parts but she is able to function and even befriends a man called Mr. Razor who becomes her guide in the new world. Bill discovers she can't get too far away from the hospital where she lives and works but when she sees the Doctor coming she asks Razor to help her find a way to the lifts the Time Lord is using to reach her. Instead, her new "friend" takes her for a procedure he calls "a full conversion" and when the Doctor arrives he realizes she's being turned into a Mondasian Cyberman. Missy also finds a familiar face at the bottom of the ship when she encounters Mr. Razor who reveals himself to be one of her old incarnations - the Master. The Master tells Missy, the Doctor and Nardole that they're all witnessing the very genesis of the Cybermen.
Bill Potts, such a wonderful character which truly took me by surprise from the first day we met her. Her addition brought a new life to this great series and I hope there's still an impossible way to save her. The only two solutions I can think of, both hard to believe at this point, would be to go back in time before the group arrived at the ship or for the Doctor to somehow use his own regeneration ability to bring her back (like River once did for him). I might be completely wrong here of course, this might simply be the tragic fate of Bill Potts, the sudden death that the Doctor could never stop, but I remain hopelessly optimistic that there's still much more of her story to tell. This was very much Bill's episode after all. Her one request, not to get her killed while travelling with Missy, gets brutally denied by the unexpected circumstances. The entire sequence, from the moment we hear the shot, through Bill's last conversation with the Doctor and finally ending on her fall, was beautifully done and edited. I tend to avoid most of the spoilers for this show, so I'm not sure if anyone knew it was coming, but I certainly did not. I kept waiting for a rewind, a trick to be revealed but nothing like that happened. Instead we got to watch the new and terrifying aspect of Bill's life after her death. The very moment when she wakes up at the bottom of the ship, discovering that there's a metal piece in her chest is the actual nightmare scenario for me, ever since I've watched "Iron Man", so to see how well she handled that news was probably the least believable part of the story in my view. We expect the impossible from "Doctor Who" but this level of denial/acceptance made it all the more shocking to me. Moving on, watching her interactions with Mr. Razor, now knowing his true identity, is both interesting and puzzling to me. For a while there, I could actually see these two becoming unexpected friends, or at the very least, allies in this nightmare, but more on that later. Bill's unshaken faith that the Doctor will come for her, not broken even by the years of waiting and watching him slowly learning of her fate, was truly touching to see. "I waited for you..." I do wonder how much of Bill is still there, locked in the Cyberman suit, especially as we can see her eyes and tears behind the mask at the very end. If there's even some of her spirit there left, I choose to hope not all is lost. But let's see. For now, Bill's is one of the most heartbreaking stories of what might happen when you travel with the Doctor. Made even more tragic by the fact it was so unexpected and scary. Actually, properly scary.
Speaking of genuinely scary things, let's move the focus to Missy and the Master. From the promo last week I was expecting the episode to be more of the challenge for Missy on how to do better and earn the Doctor's trust once more. It turned out to be a rather short test when everything goes completely wrong and the Doctor has to join the group. But for the few minutes, when Missy enters the ship and introduces herself as "Doctor Who" with her "expendable" assistants/companions/pets it's such an entertaining scene. Michelle Gomez plays the role brilliantly and it's hard not to laugh and enjoy the way Missy's acting. What should be noted, though, regardless of how fun and enjoyable her actions and words might appear, she remains one of the scariest foes the Doctor ever faced. It's a different thing to watch from the distance and an entirely different matter to really listen to her words and know how truly little the lives of those around her mean to her. She still sees herself and the Doctor as far superior to any of the humans and cares only as much as she needs to, being able to predict the Doctor's response and understand who he is. There's still a question of whether she really wants to change. While the final scene, when she stands side by side with the Master, might suggest she already chose the side, the part that I found most interesting was her reaction when he reveals his true identity. Just watching her facial expressions in that single moment made me truly consider the possibility that she actually wants to help the Doctor. So her place remains to be seen in the finale and something tells me it has the power to change the outcome of the events entirely.
Things are certainly different when it comes to the Master. While we might suspect already I would like to see the confirmation from which time exactly is he from, or rather, when is the last time he's seen the Doctor. It would definitely help us better understand his current state of mind. Not that there's much to choose from. I was always quite a fan of John Simm's Master so I have to say it's great to see him interact with the Doctor again. His dynamics with David Tennant were brilliant and though clearly different than the relationship between Twelve and Missy, it was always so entertaining to see these two together. The Master was always a truly scary enemy. Again, he might hide it underneath the clever responses and fun appearance but his plans, his intelect, his knowledge of the Doctor, they always put him near the very top of the list of the Doctor's greatest challenges. There was always a sacrifice needed to stop him and the price, the effort to get there never failed to change the lives of the Doctor and his companions. Both excited and worried to see where this story goes. I do think the dynamics between Missy and the Master will make quite a difference in the end. Whether Missy chooses to stand by her old actions and thus her previous incarnation, or decides to stand with the Doctor... Now, that's quite the finale ahead.
I expected to see only a glimpse of the Master in this hour and it turned out he had quite a significant presence during the episode. I'm very interested to explore his choice to keep Bill close to him. I'm sure he must have known what she means to the Doctor, especially as he got to know her over the years. The fact that he chose to spend this much time with her, acting as her friend, actually helping her in this new and scary world she was forced to live in, that's one of the most fascinating parts of the hour for me. It was such a slow-paced part of the story and yet it worked very well with all the sudden twists and shocking turns of events along the way. I like the reference to the times when the Master was known as the Prime Minister. I feel like that's something I was often missing during the Eleven's run on the show - the simple acknowledgement of the things Nine and Ten went through and the people they cared about. All the references to both Old and New Who are definitely one of my favorite aspects of Twelfth Doctor's story. The true bridge between what was and what is, starting from the face he chose for himself. I do hope that whoever Thirteen will be, this will continue to be an important part of the show.
Most of the episode is barely a few minutes from the Doctor's perspective. Yet they're certainly one of the scaries and most painful minutes in his story so far. He remains logical and quickly understands what truly happened with the ship but still chooses to remain hopeful about Bill's fate, even in the face of impossible, even when called out by Missy. Once again, it's the hope that the Doctor can't easily resist. The Time Lord has seen so many of good people, his friends and allies, die right in front of him but it never gets any easier, he's never ready to let them go. In the recent past at least, his friends who died had a say in it, whether it was Clara or River, they chose what their final act should be, and even then, their story didn't end so abruptly anyway. Bill's sudden fall must have been a true shock for the Doctor and then Master's return at the end, just when he meets Cyberman Bill - all of it surely hit him hard. We don't really see him process a lot of these things during the hour, as the things are mostly presented from Potts' perspective. I expect the finale to be much more focused on the Doctor and I can't wait to watch what his actions will turn out to be. The opening scene of this episode, when we see a glimpse into the Time Lord's regeneration was such a powerful place to start the hour. And though I initially thought it's the first preview of the Christmas special, I now start to wonder whether there's a twist in that story as well, and we might be back to that moment in the next hour of the show... I can't believe it's almost the end of Twelve's journey. It's been such an amazing one, and there's still so many more things I would love to see him take part in. It's going to be so hard to say goodbye. But I'm still very glad to see his send-off take place in such a well done season. Kudos to cast & crew for this memorable hour, can't wait to see where this story ends.
1. I didn't mention Nardole in the review, as I don't really have anything new to say about him after the hour. Hope to see more of his perspective in the finale. His interactions with Missy were really fun to watch in this one, though. "But I'm the computer guy, that's always me."
2. Would you prefer not to know about the Master's return? It would probably be a hard secret to keep, but it sure feels like this reveal had the potential to be one of the best in the show's run. It was still very well done, but certainly felt less powerful with the knowledge we already had and the fact we were waiting for him to show up.
3. Where do you think Missy stands in the fight that's about to take place - with her past self or side by side with the Doctor? Or maybe she's only fighting for her present self... There's a hint on where she might end up in the next episode's promo, but not sure if we can trust that at all.
4. How did you feel about Bill's fate in this episode? Do you think it's truly the end of her story? Do you see ANY way for her to come out of it alive and well? I'm currently open to all, even the most impossible theories.
5. We've seen the glimpse of the Doctor's regeneration and his desperate "No!" screams. When do you think it takes place in the story? Is that truly the final moment of the Twelfth Doctor or do you expect things to still end differently?
6. Finally, "Doctor Who". How did you like that reference on Missy's part? I love her explanation behind using "Doctor Who" instead of The Doctor. One of her best lines yet. Bill's reaction was wonderfully done as well. That's not your real name, is it...?
Memorable quotes:
1. The Doctor: "She's my friend. She's my oldest friend in the universe."
Bill: "You've got lots of friends. Better ones. What's so special about her?"
The Doctor: "She's different."
Bill: "Different how?"[...]
The Doctor: "She's the only person that I've ever met who's even remotely like me."
2. Bill: "So, Time Lords, bit flexible on the whole man/woman thing, then, yeah?"
The Doctor: "We are the most civilised civilisation in the universe, we're billions of years beyond your petty human obsession with gender and its associated stereotypes."
Bill: "But you still call yourselves Time Lords?"
The Doctor: "Yeah, shut up."
3. Missy: "Hello, ordinary person. Please maintain a minimum separation of three feet. I'm really trying not to kill anyone today, but it would be tremendously helpful if your major arteries were out of reach."
4. Missy: "I am that mysterious adventurer in all of time and space, known only as Doctor Who, and these are my disposables... Exposition and... Comic Relief."
Nardole: "We're not functions!"
Missy: "Darling, those were genders."
5. Missy: "He says, "I'm the Doctor", and they say, "Doctor who?" See, I'm cutting to the chase, baby! I'm streamlining. I'm saving us actual minutes."
What did you think about "World Enough and Time"? Any favorite scenes, quotes or theories? Feel free to let us know in the comments. Check out the press release & promo for the next episode "The Doctor Falls". As always, thanks for reading!
