Doctor Who: World Enough and Time (10x11)

Oh, gosh. Sometimes this show makes it very difficult for me to pick a score out of ten. I liked watching this episode quite a bit, but my brain kept interjecting with complaints all the same. Let's take a closer look.

Cons:

In brief, this plot thread tells us the origins of one of the Doctor's most fearsome foes: The Cybermen. Cool. It does so with a twist about a black hole, and time moving more swiftly at one end of a large ship than it does the other. Also cool. Then there's the additional twist that the kindly yet strange old man who has been caring for Bill during most of the episode is actually the Master. C...c-cool? I mean, seeing John Simm back in that role is absolutely thrilling, don't get me wrong. And the idea of watching Missy and the Master riff off of each other is just delightful. I suppose my problem with this is that it seems like a twist for the sake of a twist. You could say that this older, even more evil version of the Master showing up is a chance for Missy to decide where her allegiances lie, and all of that. But for my money, Missy is plenty interesting on her own. There's so much to untangle with her character, and now that we're adding Simm to the mix, I worry that Missy's development will be halted or ignored. This is the first episode where Missy has had anything to do beyond an extended cameo, basically, and she's being overshadowed by the return of a sinister face from the past. Just a little bit hard to swallow.

I rather loved the conceit of Bill being separated from Nardole, the Doctor, and Missy, even though we just saw that happen in last week's episode. But I couldn't help but notice that in last week's episode, Bill had a lot of agency and tried to figure out what was going on. In this episode, however, Bill is taken in by the Master (albeit unbeknownst to her and us) and she sits around waiting for the Doctor to rescue her. Literally. It's a significant plot point. Bill hasn't suddenly become "the girl who waited" or the "mystery girl" or any of the other pithy and sexist epithets given to Moffat's companions in the past. But Bill starts off this episode getting shot, and ends it crying to the Doctor that she waited for him, apparently turned in to a Cyberman. I'm not going to rant and rave and get all angry about this, because I'm waiting for the finale to see how this all shakes out. But if things stand as they are, it's a little annoying, is it not? Bill sits around and waits, and then she ends up being one of the Doctor's most fearsome foes. Sound familiar? Did we not meet Clara originally in the form of a Dalek, and then see her again as a Dalek in a later episode? And now Bill has succumbed to a strangely similar fate.

So, those two massive paragraphs above are both sort of tentative complaints. I always feel a responsibility to critically analyze the way that female characters are treated on this show, especially when Moffat picks up the pen. And even though Bill and Missy both had some incredible dialogue and some great moments, and even though I like them both quite a lot as character... I can't help but notice that they both did a great deal of reacting instead of acting. Bill waited around, and Missy was overshadowed by her male counterpart. Sigh.

Pros:

The origin story of the Cybermen is the kind of thing I never knew I wanted to learn about, but I'm happy to see it now that it's here. The story is actually really chilling - those people at the bottom of the spaceship near to the black hole are moving along so much faster than the people further away, meaning that centuries are passing in the space of days. Everything is falling apart, and this ramshackle civilization, made up of the descendants of the original crew, is dying. The only way to save them is to "upgrade" and make them more resilient to unforgiving conditions. Thus, the Cybermen. The reveal is drawn out superbly, so even as you start to piece things together, you're not entirely sure what the end result will be until you see it.

Bill and the Doctor have such a sweet, pure friendship. When Bill is shot and killed at the start of the episode, we cut between this moment of horror and a scene of the two of them sharing dinner and talking about the vulnerability of human bodies. It might have been a bit cheesy, but the chemistry between these two carries it off. The Doctor is in such denial that he never really lets the grief sink in. By the time Bill has been carried off to be "repaired," the Doctor is already ten steps ahead, trying to think of how to get back to her and move forward. His fierce determination to save her overshadows everything else in his mind. Excellent.

This episode starts off as a way to give Missy a "test run." The Doctor sits back in the TARDIS and lets Missy take point during a distress call. I liked this focus on Missy, and was briefly disappointed when the focus shifted so radically to Bill's journey. However, it was then brought back around, as Missy tries to learn more about the ship they're on. The reveals keep growing and growing, and when the Master shows up you almost feel like you should have known it from the word go. I like the fact that we end not knowing where Missy lies. Is she going to partner up with the Master, or is her dedication to self-improvement strong enough to overcome such an alluring idea? We don't know, and that's a good thing.

Steven Moffat does have a way with the witty dialogue, I'm willing to admit. This episode had so many funny moments. There's a whole exchange at the beginning where Missy informs Bill and Nardole that the Doctor's real name is "Doctor Who" which leads to lots of hilarity. There was also the moment when the blue alien on the ship asks Missy: "Are you human?" And she replies: "Now, don't be a bitch." Nardole takes a selfie with the Doctor when he notices him "doing emotions," which was great. On a slightly more poignant note, I loved the Doctor's description of his early friendship with Missy. He tells Bill that gender is sort of a non-issue to Time Lords, and Bill points out that they do still call themselves "Time Lords." The best line is when the Doctor says that the Master always wanted to see the stars, but... "he was too busy burning them. I don't think she ever saw anything." That casual switch between pronouns was really lovely and subtle.

I think that's where I'll stop for now. Next week is the finale, and I'm feeling very mixed emotions about that. In my opinion, I still feel like we're in the introduction phase for Bill as a companion. She's wonderful, but there's just so much more I want to know about her. My hope is that she can transition to the new Doctor. We need somebody to cross over. Next year there will be a new Doctor and a new show-runner. I think Bill is the bridge we need to keep us consistent. I hope there's a way to keep her around!

9/10