It’s this chase sequence that helps the second part of Skyfall retain the feel of a larger epic, since the adventure is now taking place across multiple time periods rather than multiple continents. Although it was barely glimpsed as such last week, here we get confirmation that the Master’s farmhouse was his TARDIS (it’s… the same size on the inside!) and he’s using it to hunt the Doctor down. Once the Doctor has escaped from the Kasavin dimension – a feat accomplished more by luck than judgement thanks to the arrival of the kidnapped Ada Lovelace – we’re treated to a century-spanning battle of wits between the Doctor and the Master that bumps Barton’s plan into the background for the most part. There’s a shocking physicality to his anger that manifests when he goes for the Doctor’s throat later in the episode, too, and it’s quite an unnerving take on a long-lived character that Dhawan thankfully gets time to make his own as the story unfolds.
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This is a Master full of barely-contained fury a Time Lord who practically shudders with suppressed euphoria at the thought of destruction and succumbs to apoplectic rage when things don’t go his way. This sort of threat is pure nu- Who, of course, but it does rather muddle the message Chris Chibnall is trying to get across – it’s not like there’s a privacy setting that lets you opt out of having your DNA wiped by alien invaders.Īs nefarious as Barton’s plan is, he is very much playing second fiddle to the real villain of this episode – Sacha Dhawan’s Master, who claims to have discovered the Kasavin subterfuge and decided to meddle in proceedings to ensure things get as bloody as possible, not to mention mess with the Doctor.
If we’d seen more examples of social media and video feeds being used to guide Barton to where Team TARDIS were hiding, this theme would have been really effective, but instead Barton proclaims to his audience that it’s their willingness to share data so carelessly that has allowed him to… flick a switch and zap anyone who’s standing near a tablet or a laptop.
Starting with Yaz’s Dad struggling with an uncooperative Alexa back in Part One, both parts of Spyfall have been skirting around a particular piece of social commentary: the perils of Big Data and giving too much information away to corporations who only have their own interests at heart. The laser shoes in particular are a bit daft and not all that effective, but Bradley Walsh is obviously having a whale of a time with these scenes, which offer some of the few light-hearted moments in a fairly bleak episode. The aliens – who we learn are called the Kasavin – soon show up en masse, however, and it’s now that the MI6 fashion accessories alluded to in Part One come into play as Ryan and Graham fend off the attack. As they huddle among breeze blocks and polythene sheets in the grimy remains of their tuxedos, it’s a reminder of just how versatile a programme Doctor Who can be within a single story. Yaz believes she’d tell them not to panic, Graham insists she’d want them to keep fighting.
It’s suddenly much more Bourne Identity than Bond as the trio struggle to survive with minimal resources and get to where they need to be, which is an interesting way to evolve the spy motif and prevent it from outstaying its welcome.Īs they take refuge on a construction site, there’s a sweet moment where each companion thinks about what the Doctor would say if she were around, and their takes each mirror their own personality. The three companions soon find themselves back in England and on the run, forced to abandon their devices and hide off-the-grid in a world where Daniel Barton – not actually dead, as the Master had warned him off of boarding the plane – is able to track every photo and Tweet via his search engine empire and is trying to hunt them down.
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