C+Q - Spyfall Part 1 (2020)

Well that was amazing, and not just because of the cliffhanger.

Series 12 is already giving me what I wanted. The four main characters are already better defined here and the four actors playing them have settled into their roles nicely. They are distinct as individuals and they all get good stuff to work with. Graham's banter with Ryan has never been more natural and is genuinely LOL-worthy, and Ryan and Yaz are a great duo. With this new start, I think this TARDIS Team could eventually cohere into one of my all-time favourites - a warm and inviting family unit I'm excited to follow on new adventures every week. Another thing on my list of wants was an ongoing mystery, and we certainly have that now. Also, I know it's a small thing but the return to 'Part 1 and Part 2' instead of unique titles for each part is nicely retro. There are pros and cons to both ways of doing things; sometimes you might not want the audience to know it's a two-parter in advance. Still, it's a cool Classic change of pace, and the 'Part 1' fits perfectly with the Pertwee-esque Whittaker title sequence. As with Series 11, the dialogue still has a few words and even whole lines I'd have trimmed away because the images on-screen showed me what I needed to know long before the audio told me about it, but still. So far, Series 12 feels like its TARDIS interior: the same basic idea as Series 11 but with added improvements here and there that really bring it together.

So I was already having a good time, long before my favourite villain (not just in Doctor Who but in general) showed up and made my excitement explode. Sacha Dhawan is very good so far. He has that edge of wackiness from Simm and Gomez but moved slightly more towards Delgado. It's nice to throw a more serious Master in the mix to keep things fresh, like having Peter Capaldi play an older Doctor after Matt Smith. I'll need to wait until Part 2 to fully judge the Dhawan Master, but so far so good. Thing is, it's a shame Missy is now properly gone (unless there's a regeneration flashback which I doubt). I wonder where in the timeline of incarnations Dhawan falls. The most interesting choice is obviously post-Missy, to explore more of a morally-grey Master who's being pulled towards the light side of the force. Continuity housekeeping stuff will probably happen in Part 2. I'd be perfectly fine with him being between Simm and Gomez; it's certainly the easier option for reverting him back to an evil villain.

This episode is so beautifully connected to Doctor Who's history in a way that fired my imagination on first viewing and had me trying to figure out the mysteries. The big reveal I thought we were heading towards is that the glowy people from another universe with distinctive head shapes are the Cybus Cybermen. We know the Cybermen are back in Series 12, the glowing people are very Army of Ghosts, and the way they're working with Barton is very The Invasion, so I put those pieces together. Oh well. How good were those glowing people though? Such a strong image, the way they switch on and off like bulbs. This episode is full of strong images, like the TARDIS in the garage with wires hanging out the bottom.

'Doctor Who does James Bond' is handled well, mainly because that's not all the episode has. The James Bond stuff, like the music, the clothes, and the laugh-out-loud "Snap!" gag, is just one surface-level element. It feels natural for a story about spies to riff on James Bond given how much the Doctor loves Earth culture. It doesn't feel as much like a gimmick to me as the superhero stuff did in The Return of Doctor Mysterio for example. I'd say it's because I'm a Bond fan but then again I'm also a superhero fan.

So Spyfall Part 1 is wonderful. Absolutely love it. If Series 12 stays like this I'll be very happy. There are only two other things on my wishlist. The first is that I hope we see a good variety of settings across the series, including extremely alien planets with aliens who don't look human. Kicking things off with an episode set on modern day Earth is so boring but at least we went all over the globe to different countries. The second is that I hope all four leads stick around after Series 12, especially now they're getting such strong development, both as individuals and as a family unit.

Spyfall Part 2 could be good or bad but it'll be far from boring. I'm curious how much Part 2 will wrap up and how much it'll leave to unfold across Series 12. When it comes to the Master, I want to know whether Dhawan really is the next one after Missy. If he is, I want that to be handled properly. It'd be a damn waste if the Master goes back to factory settings in the span of a single incarnation. Which kinda brings me to his final message to the Doctor: "Everything you think you know is a lie". That could be setting up the Master being on her side after all, or it could mean literally anything else. Still, I can sense we're going deep into some Whoniverse mythology in Series 12 and I'm SO ready for it.