Monday, 6 July 2020

Who Reviews World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls by Matt Rabjohns



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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