I have a confession to
make. I was never a big fan of the Matt Smith era of the show. Nothing at all
to do with Matt as an actor, because it's blatantly obvious he's a fantastic
actor and one who deserves to go far. But I was so unfulfilled by his era of the
show. For me the stories were most often convoluted and at worst so
incomprehensible for me. I started to seriously lose my faith in the modern era
of the show. And my faith went out of the window when some bright spark had his
Doctor swear on flesh and stone. This for me was a massive no no. The Doctor is
our hero, and to have him swear cheapens him and makes me seethe with anger. So,
from this moment onward I stopped watching regularly.
But when Peter Capaldi
came along as the new Doctor, I was convinced I'd give him a try. I wasn't
overtly wowed either by his debut story. But from his Am I Good Man speech in
Into the Dalek I thought, hey, there is something more of the old classic
Doctor coming out. Then Robot of Sherwood aired and by the end of that I was
convinced Doctor Who might just be starting to get back on track again. And I
was so amazed to be proven right. I absolutely delight in Peter's era of the
show. For me up to this point he was the first modern Doctor to truly 100% feel
like a classic era Doctor, like making me feel hey yeah this is finally the
same show it used to be!
In the end there were only
about five of Peter's stories I didn't like. Thats the complete antithesis of
Matt's era, when I only loved five altogether. And one of my very favourites
was his penultimate Two Parter which I now have to review here.
World Enough and Time/The
Doctor Falls was the Cyberman modern series effort that truly to me felt like
the first decent stab at the Mondasians that the BBC have done since the show
came back. I have felt all the other Cyber stories up to this point have been
weak verging on the ridiculous. I did not like any of either David's or Matt's
Cybermen efforts except maybe for Closing Time. But World Enough and Falls were
by far and wide the best Cyberman story for reasons I'll give you now:
The return of the original
Mondasian Cybermen is almost perfect. There are some truly unsettling and scary
scenes within this story that every modern era story up to this point has not
given us. The unfinished Cybermen plugged in to their voice synthesizers and
Bill finding them is an absolutely creepsville moment of the story. This is the
first time since Attack of the Cybermen that the metal men have truly disturbed
me from my reverie.
John Simm makes his return
as the Master, and this time I am so so relieved that he has restrained himself
somewhat more than in his David Tennant appearances. I felt he was far too over
the top in those stories, so much so so as to be aghast for a moment when I
heard he was coming back to the show. But I was pleasantly elated by how good
John is in this story. I feel the calmer restrained performance he gives here
is far more menacing and the lack of silliness totally gets my vote.
Michelle Gomez too shines
as Missy. I am a huge fan of the arc of series 10 with the Doctor trying to
rehabilitate Missy. I love that here she seems to be showing some serious signs
of leaving the Master behind. Which brings us to the absolutely hilarious final
scene between her and John Simm. For me this is the best Master scene we've had
in the modern era. Missy wanting to go to the Doctor at last, and the totally
dead set against the Doctor Master doing what he does! Oh, it's a somewhat
hilarious and diabolical scene all at the same time. It's bonkers, yet its darn
good bonkers at that!
Pearl Mackie truly excels
herself in this story. And her horrific conversion and her struggle to suppress
the Cyberman inside her make for some intensely moving scenes. She has the
grandmother of all finales and it raises her character to classic companion
status. The scene where the nervous blue alien guy shoots her in the chest and
we see the big hole gaping in her...that is just a very very bleak and
harrowing scene for me. And that yet it leads to such a joyous ending with
Stephanie Hyam's Heather is rather pleasing.
Matt Lucas too is giving a
fantastic outing. He shows us what an awesome and brilliant character his
android Nardole is. He gets to have a fantastic goodbye scene in The Doctor
Falls which truly brings a lump to the throat. I absolutely adore his character
and feel one series was so not enough for him to blossom.
And what can one honestly
say of Peter Capaldi? I absolutely dig his Doctor. There have been some hiccups
along the road with his Doctors where the writers can't seem to make up their
minds what he should be like. But at least here in this climactic two parter
Steven Moffat hits his Doctor truly on the nail. His impassioned kindness
speech before the Master and Missy is most definitely one of his Doctor's
finest moments. The speech is incredibly powerful and moving and unbelievable
intense. I was left with yet another lump in my throat after this scene. Boy,
my love for Peter was just swelling and swelling.
And then, to just round
off the whole thing utterly superbly, we have the sublime David Bradley
portraying the First Doctor and meeting the Twelfth. The hairs on the back of
my neck went up at this scene. It was absolute Doctor Who magic. Somehow David
managed to portray William Hartnell's First Doctor with such aplomb that it
made my heart leap in pure fan joy!
The only single two things
I didn't like in this story didn't really bring it down too much either. Only I
didn't like the gloves they made the Mondasian Cybermen wear (I prefer the
lumpy decaying fleshy looking hands in The Tenth Planet) but I was still so
glad they didn't change their voice. Hearing that weird sing song computer
voice again after so long was so so awesome. And the other thing was next to
the fearful Mondasian types the modern make cybermen just aren't in the same
league. But I really appreciate Steven Moffat giving all the best Cyber scenes
to the Mondasian originals in this story.
Rachel Talalay's directing
of this story is stunning and striking. It's truly filmic in quality and has
she got any awards yet? She deserves one if she hasn't. She is like a female
Graeme Harper. Her stories are all directing with style and it all looks
effortless on the screen even though I am sure it can’t be easy putting
something this epic together for the TV screen.
Steven Moffat for me is a
bit of a see saw, some of his stories flop terribly, yet some stonkingly take
you by storm. The Empty Child, The Doctor Dances, Silence in the Library and
The Doctor The Widow and the Wardrobe all did it, and here we are again in
Peter's penultimate story. Which for me, apart from the absolute exquisite
Heaven Sent, is truly his crowning achievement of the era. World Enough and
Time/The Doctor Falls is, I am positively ecstatic to say, a resonating and
triumphant success of epic Doctor Who.
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