World of Who: The Doctor Falls

So this was a step forward from the season nine finale "Hell Bent" and felt a more complete Cyberman story than say "Death in Heaven" which was more centered around an idea. Overall I say I enjoyed what this episode was trying to do for the most part with only one or two things that didn't pay off so well at the end of it when it all comes together. 

CyberBill

So Bill doesn't realize or accept that she is a Cyberman and this time it works better than the other times this happened or alluded to happening. We've seen three people before either undergo or about to undergo the process and two of those times it's something vague like a strong spirit, or in the case of Dany and Craig, the power of love and those are rather........ lame reasons. For Bill it's because not only is the process still relatively knew in terms of technology but her time resisting the mental reprogramming from the Monks has allowed her to fight it off. The way this is done is rather cool because it goes back and forth visually of us seeing her as Bill and then as a Cyberman and Bill herself says that she can feel the programming trying to take her over. Where it falls apart is at the end, I don't mind Bill going off with the Pilot but wouldn't it have been better if she died saving the Doctor from the explosion and the Pilot saving her consciousness and instead of saying "I can make you human or you can stay like me and travel" and just say she lives on like the Pilot? It just seemed like Moffat didn't want her to die and it's a shame because I think it takes away from the gravity of the situation and her sacrifice.

Double the Master, Half the Effort

Michelle Gomez and John Simm are great actors and played great Masters but other than their back and forth with the Doctor, there was nothing of any real substance. I don't know about you but the idea of three Time Lords or even Two Masters vs. an ever increasing army of Cybermen just seemed like a missed opportunity. There is more "The Master keeps questioning about Missy being a female and making it weird" than anything else, even an arousal joke. Missy at least showed a back and forth on deciding what to do when it comes to leaving or staying with the Doctor. It even seemed like when she left with the Master that she may have had a way to help the Doctor. But it ultimately just ended up with the two of them killing each other, apparently permanently according to the Master but that's never stopped them before.

A Great, Though Wasted Performance

Peter Capaldi has never turned out a bad performance since he took on the role and here it varies primarily because of the script he's given. By that I mean some of what he says, namely to the Masters feels so cliche. He doesn't really feel like he's talking to someone he's known so much as someone he's had a small history with. His decision to sacrifice himself destroying the Cybermen is possibly the best death the Doctor has ever had though I myself wanted something more simple. The fact that he's been delaying his regeneration all this time makes sense since he has trouble functioning physically and mentally for a while after regenerating. Capaldi has if anything played a Doctor who isn't as confident as his previous incarnations and I've liked that about him but his refusal to change seems a bit off here. The scene and his performance is done brilliantly but where the 10th Doctor's issues with this were well established and set up before this (and later beaten over a stick with sad faces) this one felt like it came out of nowhere. Maybe it will be explained better in the Christmas Special which will hopefully be like the Doctor's own Christmas Carol. Also, this may be a more personal angle for me but the mentioning of Donald Trump and a possible hint at the "Future is Female" line from Hillary Clinton just took me out of the episode.

Overall Thoughts of the Season and the Episode Yet to Come

This season was the best the show has had since season six. The stories were simple with great ideas presented, the companion was well fleshed out and there was no obligatory Dalek story. If there was a problem with this season I would say that everything was rather easy to figure out at the end of it all and that was because things were already spoiled. We knew either Missy or the Master would be in the vault and when it was Missy we knew the Master wasn't far behind. Some stories were also taken care of rather easily with no real struggle, Moffat was clearly for simple and clean with his approach this season and it worked more times than it didn't if I'm being honest. There was nothing bad about the episodes but there was rarely anything huge about them.

With the Christmas Special on the way, secretly I'm hoping but nothing but a long drawn out personal conversation between the first Doctor and the recent one with very little outside interaction and maybe the return of Susan Foreman, the Doctor's Granddaughter. This is primarily a way to get us waiting for the reveal of the new Doctor and hopefully it won't be revealed BEFORE the Christmas Special, let people be surprised.