World of Who: World Enough and Time

The Doctor is giving Missy a chance to prove she has changed by having her lead Bill and Nardole on a rescue mission to a space station, just outside a Black Hole. Things seem to be going all right until Bill is fatally shot and taken by a group of mysterious figures. As the Doctor tries to find a way to save Bill, can Missy truly be the hero the Doctor needs her to be and what is Bill dead?

The Good

This is in a lot of ways inspired by the audio play "Spare Parts" which is the origin of the Cybermen. First of all I love me some Cybermen and this story is a rather downplayed version of that story. This story is split into two parts like Spare Parts but where that was more of an investigation slowly revealing the secret of Mondas and the Cybermen, this one is a story about the Doctor and Bill with the Doctor and company trying to get to Bill and Bill forced to watch them from a distance because time moves slower on her end. There is definitely an element of the story "The Girl Who Waited" here as well but with less romantic weight and more emphasis on the story as Bill is forced to wait two years as a patient in the hospital and she tries to figure out what is wrong with the other patients whose faces are masked and whenever she turns the sound on, they keep asking to die. On the Doctor's end, well it is clear that the Doctor, like Missy in "Death in Heaven" he wants his friend back and this definitely a hold over from the 10th Doctor era as well as the 3rd Doctor, both of him had a complicated relationship with the Doctor. The Doctor wants to know Missy can be good, he needs it. In terms of the pacing, the story takes it's time and most of it is told from Bill's perspective.

The Bad

The only real problem with this episode was the time, it felt too short and that was pretty much because it was so good and a two part story. If anything I felt how little Nardole was used in this episode was a bit depressing, it feels like this season he was more added on. I also felt that John Simm being in the trailers for this episode was a bit of a mistake because while his reveal was awesome, we all knew he'd be in the episode.