Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Pearl Mackie (Bill Potts), Matt Lucas (Nardole)
Guest Cast
Michelle Gomez (Missy), John Simm (The Master), Oliver Lansley (Jorj), Paul Brightwell (Surgeon), Alison Lintott (Nurse)
CREW
Written by
Steven Moffat
Directed by
Rachel Talalay
Produced by
Richard Wilson
SYPNOSIS
The Doctor decides to test how good Missy has become by sending heron a trial run with Bill and Nardole. However, when things go wrong, The Doctor takes over. With Bill trapped in a different time zone, can The Doctor make it to her before it is too late, and who are all those people getting cured?
NOTES
This episode marks the first on-screen appearance of the original design of the Mondasian Cybermen since the First Doctor television story, The Tenth Planet in 1966.
This episode marks the return of John Simm’s Master, who last appeared in The End of Time in 2010.
This episode marks the first time that more than one incarnation of the Master has appeared on-screen.
The Master’s line comparing the scenario to being more like a “Genesis of the Cybermen” is a reference to the 1975 Doctor Who story Genesis of the Daleks, which showed the Fourth Doctor being sent to the creation of the Daleks. Following the success of Genesis of the Daleks, a story entitled Genesis of the Cybermen was planned, but never produced.
For the first time in the show’s history, The Doctor actually self-identifies using the name “Doctor Who”. He has previously been referred to as such: in The War Machines, WOTAN says “Doctor Who is required” due to a script mistake, in The Highlanders, the Second Doctor introduces himself as “Doktor von Wer” (German for “Doctor [ of] Who”), in The Underwater Menace, the Second Doctor signs a note with “Dr. W.”, in The Dæmons, the Third Doctor is introduced as “the great wizard Qui Quae Quod” (Latin variations of “Who”), from Doctor Who and the Silurians to The Five Doctors, The Doctor’s car Bessie’s plate read WHO 1, in Battlefield it read WHO 7, and in The Dying Days it read WHO 8, in The Kingmaker, the Fourth Doctor wrote a series of children’s books accidentally published as Doctor Who Discovers, in Rose, a website called whoisdoctorwho.co.uk asks “Who is Doctor Who?”, and in Fogbound, The Master addresses a postcard to the Third Doctor as “Dr. Who”. Although Missy claims that “Doctor Who” is The Doctor’s real name, she also explicitly says she calls herself Doctor Who to head off the usual response heard when The Doctor introduces himself and people reply, “Doctor who?”
“Operation Exodus” was a continual concern for the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha in the 1970s TVseries Space: 1999. There, it was an evacuation plan for an orderly transferof the Moon’s inhabitants to another location–originally back to Earth but eventually adapted to any habitable body.
When The Master unmasks himself, an alarm bell in the background sounds in time with a drumbeat. The drumbeat is also heard when he enters the operating theatre alongside Missy. The Master has had an association with drums before in Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords and the End of Time.
The Doctor detaches a panels of the TARDIS console from the main structure. (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, Flatline)
Missy dances to the alarm sound. She previously danced to the continued “EXTERMINATE” chant from the Supreme Dalek. (The Witch’s Familiar)
The Doctor notes Missy’s use of the TARDIS to retrieve him along with Bill and Nardole from Mars. (Empress of Mars)
Bill is working in the kitchen at St Luke’s University. (The Pilot)
The Doctor again complains about humans only having one heart. (The Shakespeare Code, The Power of Three)
The Doctor and Bill eat chips together. The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler previously did this. (The End of the World) the Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones and Jack Harkness also ate chips together and talked about the Time Lords. (The Sound of Drums)
The original Mondasian Cybermen appear again, and Mondas is shown on a screen. Missy notes that it’s a twin to Earth. (The Tenth Planet) In his fifth incarnation, The Doctor saw the Mondasians who remained on Mondas convert themselves into Cybermen for a similar reason as the colony ship. (Spare Parts)
Nardole screams due to being surprised, as his virtual self was. (Extremis)
The Doctor has to travel to a different time zone of the same location to rescue his companion, who waits for him, but he arrives too late. (The Girl Who Waited)
The topic of the Doctor’s “real name” is discussed. (The Name of the Doctor) The Doctor again states how he actually likes being asked “Doctor Who”. (The Bells of Saint John)
The Doctor says going on an adventure is something he and Bill do on Saturdays, just as Wednesday used to be his day for adventures with Clara Oswald. (Nightmare in Silver)
The Doctor refers to him and the Master meeting at the Time Lord Academy. (Divided Loyalties)
The surgeon explains that the headpiece of the cyber-suit acts as an emotional inhibitor so Bill won’t care about the pain. (The Age of Steel)
Once again, The Doctor witnesses a companion suffer a mortal injury, (Face the Raven) only for technology to be used to arrange for them to stay alive, in both cases, their hearts no longer function. (Hell Bent)
The Master adopted the guise of “Razor” so Bill would not recognise him from his time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (The Sound of Drums)
Missy comically remarks on the age gap between The Doctor and his companions. The Dream Lord made a similar remark. (Amy’s Choice)
The Doctor criticizes Bill for eating a bacon sandwich when arguing about Missy’s morality. This echoes an earlier conservation between the two. (The Pilot)
