'The Blossomiest Blossom' – it is goodnight from her, and goodnight from me
Ok, that’s a wrap from me. The comments will be open for a little while yet. Let me just leave you with some final words from Jodie Whittaker at the premiere of The Power of the Doctor about her time on the show:
It’s a really big deal to me that where people work is a happy space. And we couldn’t have asked for a happier space. We were around an extraordinary crew who made us laugh every day, who worked so hard in every department, and then the cast, everybody that came on put heart and soul into it.
But I think the main thing is I got to hang out with [Mandip Gill] every day. And I don’t get to do that now. It was such a joy. You can’t describe what it’s like knowing you’re in the best time of your life. Like it’s such a weird thing. And we knew it. We knew it from the first week of filming. It’s been the most special time, I’m not even slightly embarrassed about it, it’s been the most special time. And I got to do it side by side with friends and made friends for life.
This family grows, and it’ll be bigger than us, and it’ll go on, and Ncuti will be extraordinary, and he will bring an audience that we haven’t reached, and his performance will be so magical, and now we get to sit back and enjoy it as the fans that we can be now, knowing that whatever is to come, we were once a part of that.
Thank you so much for joining me on the live blog, I really appreciate the opportunity and the time people spend reading it, and I will see you again somewhere on the Guardian website soon.
Also fairplay to the people at the BBC and the Radio Times for being committed to keeping details secret. At one point this week the Radio Times had a delightfully ambiguously titled article: Doctor Who stars reveal how Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison reacted to return
In it, Janet Fielding said:
I’ve seen Peter, and I don’t think gloating is a very attractive thing to do, but there are times when you just have to. We are great mates. But we do spend a lot of time trying to take the mickey out of each other.
And Sophie Aldred said:
Sylvester was delighted — he was one of the first people to text me. He’s an emoji king, so there were loads of little symbols and ‘Congratulations, I can’t wait to see it’.
Neither let it slip how it was going to play out.
“Guess that’s me done. See you around”
Are those going to go down as Jo Martin’s final words as the Doctor on television?
We already have some Fugitive Doctor audio adventures to look forward to from Big Finish though. When they announced she would be doing them, Jo Martin said: “Big Finish do amazing work – they are a vital part of the fandom. I’m over the moon to be joining this iconic show. I can’t wait to see what stories they have in store for the Fugitive Doctor.”
The BBC say “The next Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, will then take control of the Tardis, with his first episode airing over the festive period in 2023”. 🎅🎄
Over the years people have often talked about the off-screen camaraderie between Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado as Doctor and Master. At the premiere, Sacha Dhawan was positively gushing about working with Jodie Whittaker. He said:
I can say to Jodie, because I’ve said it in interviews, but never said it to Jodie herself but she is one of … well … the best actress I’ve ever worked with. And that’s not just because of her acting ability, it is the fact that she is one hell of a company leader. And it’s really hard to explain this – any actors will understand it – because playing the Doctor is a huge responsibility. She’s in every scene. She has so much dialogue that changes and she welcomes – I just I’ve never seen it – she welcomes every actor, no matter how big or small their part is, with open arms.
I was incredibly nervous, and to have someone knocking on your door saying ‘mate, get in my trailer’. I mean, I’ve worked with Jodie on an ITV show years ago, we got to know each other a bit, but on this I got to see this amazing human being who is just absolutely brilliant, and people should know that, because obviously she’s an amazing actress, but she is incredible. I couldn’t be more proud to have done scenes with her.
Updated
The BBC have put out a press release following the episode, with a quote from Russell T Davies, who says:
If you thought the appearance of David Tennant was a shock, we’ve got plenty more surprises on the way! The path to Ncuti’s Fifteenth Doctor is laden with mystery, horror, robots, puppets, danger and fun! And how is it connected to the return of the wonderful Donna Noble? How, what, why? We’re giving you a year to speculate, and then all hell lets loose!
THE FIFTEENTH DOCTOR. HE SAID IT!
The press release also says “The three special episodes will transmit in November 2023 as Doctor Who celebrates its 60th anniversary.”
It was lovely to see Bonnie Langford earlier, and we have seen reunited with her Doctor in the Blu-Ray trailer for Season 24.
Updated
The BBC have just dropped a publicity image of that final scene.
I wonder if there may be some chatter on social media about one particular living past Doctor not featuring tonight. It struck me that Chibnall may have consciously decided to pick all the Doctors who did not feature in Day of the Doctor – assuming that Eccleston has no interest in reprising the role on TV – but I should imagine that health and/or availability may have been a factor as well. Tom Baker is still very active in the world of Doctor Who, but has been looking increasingly frail I’m afraid to say.
Always a Doctor at heart(s) 💙💙
— Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor 🔥 (@bbcdoctorwho) October 1, 2022
Tom Baker signing copies of the new vinyl release, 'Demon Quest' from @DemonMusicGroup, coming soon. You can pre-order here ➡️ https://t.co/SNCQ9hneXF pic.twitter.com/kGRH5fVElc
After the premiere screening, which was in Bloomsbury in London on 11 October, there was a Q&A panel, and this is how Chris Chibnall summed up the whole thing, by saying he really wanted to layer it in with “my love of Doctor Who, and just do those kinds of references to the past, and pack it full of easter eggs.”
He went on to say: “I mean the amount of surprises we have been keeping, and the amount of secrets we have been keeping for a very long time, it feels like a relief to see them up there. It’s so long ago now. But it had to be big. It had to be epic. It had to be emotional. And it had to have lots of golden threads back to the past. And to see William Russell as Ian Chesterton going right back to the first ever episode of Doctor Who, you know that a lot of people work very hard to make all of those things happen.”
Doctor Who BBC centenary special recap – The Power of the Doctor
Jodie Whittaker ended her time as Doctor Who in a feature-length episode that was crammed with special guests and returning cameos, with a towering performance by her nemesis the Master, and a smattering of showpiece showdowns with Daleks and Cybermen. And then we got David Tennant – and Ncuti Gatwa!
“I secretly implanted a holographic chip in your shoulder and that explains why we look older” might have been a clumsy plot device, but the scenes that saw 1980s Doctors Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy resolve differences and reconnect with their now older 1980s companions Tegan and Ace was both overt fan service but genuinely touching.
Sacha Dhawan’s Master stole the show though. Whether it was the gif-able Boney M Rasputin dancing scene, his Doctor cosplay, or his taunting of Unit staff and companions, he positively revelled in being centre of attention and had all the best lines. It would be a shame if we’ve seen the back of him on-screen.
In advance an episode that promised a regeneration, Daleks, Cybermen, the Master, Vinder, Ace, Tegan and Kate Stewart felt like even over 90 minutes it would be a struggle to fit it all in, and yet even more ingredients had been held back. It was nice to get a little bit more of Jo Martin in a role that she excelled at when actually given screentime.
And what about William Russell eh? For the BBC’s centenary they bought back one of the original stars from 1963. Russell may have only had one line, but what a delightful recognition of how it was the cast and crew who made that fledgling programme 59 years ago who did so much to establish it as a success that will continue into its sixth decade.
Just don’t think too hard about how well the Master’s evil plan hung together.
Sum it up in one sentence?
The Master steals the show as show as a host of familiar faces turn up to send off Whittaker’s era in style.
Life on board the Tardis
There was an extremely abrupt and early exit for Dan (John Bishop) who had appeared in some pre-publicity for the episode but clearly hadn’t been around to film much of it. At least Chibnall remembered that he’d previously shrunk his house to nothing.
Yaz (Mandip Gill) did not get her happy ending with the Doctor, or even a kiss. There will be some fans you suspect who will argue that the whole “Yaz fell in love with the Doctor and the Doctor wanted to reciprocate but wouldn’t” plot thread has not been handled completely brilliantly, and has ended up being a bit of a bolted on tease.
Fear factor
Sacha Dhawan’s Master always seems most ominous when at his peak charming and normal - the lecture theatre full of tissue compressed seismologists showed him at his most calmly unhinged.
The Daleks were a bit part here, and Ashad remains the only Cyberman that can shoot straight when needed. The scene where the Cybermen were bursting through the walls to get at Tegan managed to exploit a fear of falling and a fear of enclosed spaces at the same time, and was a highlight.
Perhaps the biggest fear is someone having to explain why the Earth’s volcanos are now frozen steel and that doesn’t have long-term consequences.
Deeper Into The Vortex
Boney M’s Rasputin joins a select band of contemporary music appearing in Doctor Who. The Master sang along to Scissor Sisters in Last of the Time Lords, while Foxes sashayed to Don’t Stop Me Now in Mummy On The Orient Express. Still the best music gags though are Britney Spears Toxic being introduced as “a traditional ballad” in The End of the World in 2005, and Vicky observing a clip of the Beatles in The Chase in 1965 and saying “They are marvellous! But I didn’t know they played classical music!”
On screen we only ever saw happy partings with the Seventh Doctor and Ace in both Survival - “Come on, Ace, we’ve got work to do!” and at the end of Dimensions in Time. Expanded media have had Ace and the Doctor go their separate ways under duress in several different unpleasant ways. That’s why the McCoy-Aldred scene was partially framed as forgiveness and reconciliation.
The Master asks after Tegan’s Auntie Vanessa. He killed her in 1981 episode Logopolis.
Kate Stewart has become an expert at avoiding conversion. The controversial CyberBrig managed to save her during Death in Heaven.
The Master’s Tardis is a type 75. The Doctor has a Type 40, which was mentioned for the first time in The Deadly Assassin in 1976, the story which also introduced for the first time the idea that Time Lords could only regenerate twelve times.
A snap verdict on the Chibnall era
With The Halloween Apocalypse, War of the Sontarans, Village of the Angels, Eve of the Daleks and tonight I think in the last twelve months he has significantly improved the ratio of decent episodes to clunkers in his tenure, which has always looked great, but has sometimes felt like a chore to watch rather than a joy.
Eras of Doctor Who are often looked back on more fondly than they were received at the time, and Chibnall managed to sign off tonight with a special that exuded warmth, fun, had some lovely throwbacks to nearly six decades of the show’s history, which I think will help gloss his reputation over time, and I would shamelessly give tonight’s episode five stars if I could work out how to add review stars to a live blog. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And next time
There’s nothing officially confirmed, but we expect there to be one, two or possibly three 60th anniversary specials next year, at least one of which features Tennant, Tate and Cribbins. When do we see Ncuti? After him saying “Someone tell me what the hell is going on here?” in the trailer that followed, who knows? Who knows.
Updated
I’m throwing comments open!
HOLY MOLY.
Well, I was sort of expecting Tennant and “What? What. WHAT?” but I wasn’t expecting the mini trailer to include Ncuti too!!!
“The blossomiest blossom. That’s the only sad thing. I want to know what happens next. Right then, Doctor Whoever-I-am-about-to-be. Tag, you’re it.”
And there we have it … Jodie Whittaker’s last words as Doctor Who*
[*Until she appears in the 70th anniversary special in 2033]
Right we are getting to the bit I haven’t seen yet now. Hold on to your hats/horses.
Oh what a lovely treat that was too. Dear old William Russell. He’s 97 now. It is 59 years since he first started out with that mild curiosity in a junk yard. And Katy Manning and Bonnie Langford. How absolutely lovely.
On the night of the premiere Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker discussed how she came to the shoot on that day, even though she wasn’t required, just to hang out in the green room. She said “to be on set with people that they paved the way for us to be here, is a really emotional thing.”
It certainly got me right in the feels, that’s for sure.
“Of course she’s OK. She’s the Doctor.”
It is Dan, the space train man, back again!
It has become a tradition now for the Doctor to give a valedictory speech that sounds just as much as if it is from the actor as the character. Here was Jodie Whittaker’s:
A wise person once said to me “goodbyes only hurt because what came before was so special”.
And it’s been so special. You, and Graham, and Ryan and Dan. Nobody else got to be us. Nobody else got to live our days. Nobody.
And my hearts are so full of love of all of you. I have loved being with you, Yaz. And I have loved being me.
Mandip Gill said about that final Tardis scene at the premiere “There wasn’t an awful lot of acting going on. I don’t really cry, I mean it nearly had me there [watching it at the premiere], I might cry. But they were real tears. It was just beautiful, wasn’t it?”
“Even when I was watching it, I was like, that’s not acting. That’s actually just me crying. But it was. It was really emotionally beautiful, wasn’t it? And it was written so well, and I wouldn’t have wanted it to end any other way. And then the scene on top of the Tardis is just so beautiful. I’m just so grateful that like Jodie said, we’ve started together, and we’ve ended together. I might cry.”
I’ve been a big fan of both Yaz as a character and Mandip Gill as an ambassador for the show. One thing I must say as well is that obviously I have been lucky enough to go to the press previews and events, and the genuine, genuine warmth between the people working on the show over the last few years – however well it has been received by fans and *cough* ultra-critical Guardian reviewers – has been a joy to behold.
Croydon is where the Doctor said he had dropped off Sarah Jane Smith at the end of The Hand of Fear. We later find out in School Reunion that it was actually Aberdeen he’d dropped her in. “Right. That’s next to Croydon, isn’t it?” the tenth Doctor said.
Oh mate
💔💔 #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/4SLvX39Hj5
— Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor 🔥 (@bbcdoctorwho) October 23, 2022
Can confirm Colin Baker is not enjoying his return to Doctor Who right now
I am stuck in Frankfurt Flight cancelled and tomorrows flights all booked HELP I need to get back to the UK urgently Any advice welcome
— Colin Baker (@SawbonesHex) October 23, 2022
Of course the Master isn’t dead. How could he ever be? Yaz carrying the Doctor there just like CyberBill did in The Doctor Falls. And then the faces of the companions in that scene just like everyone had gathered around Tom Baker at the end of Logopolis, which also, of course, featured Janet Fielding. Very deliberate echoes in the directorial choices from Jamie Magnus Stone and Chris Chibnall’s writing here.
Last time we saw Vinder, his partner Bel was heavily pregnant, and the Doctor had foisted Karvanista on them, and lots of people were furious on social media because they had convinced themselves during the course of Flux that Vinder and Bel were going to turn out to be the Doctor’s parents. And they turned out to be … just a random couple in love expecting a baby who got caught up in the story.
This has made me laugh too
Spoilers without context #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/ZEno5ql3z4
— sarah 💫 (@lunarcrossing_) October 23, 2022
THE GOGGLES!
Kate Stewart there channelling her dead’s absolute bafflement the first time he actually set foot in the Tardis too.
Ace’s incompetence with setting timers on her explosives were a bit of a running joke on the series during the 1980s.
I’m not entirely clear on the science there of “you press two buttons and pull out one lead and then all the Cybermen get fried” but let’s just roll with it. Tom Baker’s Doctor once averted a neutron star exploding by getting a giant metal-exuding talking plant to wrap it in an aluminium shell so, y’know, the science isn’t always strong with this one.
Updated
“What am I wearing?” – it looks great on you Jodie.
I’m 100% convinced that awkward line about the Fugitive Doctor being a tour guide in Gloucester last time Yaz saw her got added in at the read-through when Mandip Gill or Jo Martin pointed out it was the first scene they’d had together since Fugitive of the Judoon. I will not be persuaded otherwise.
Vinder justifying his entire presence in the story there by being the surprise.
Cue the volcanoes. I wonder whether Chibnall was deliberately trying to channel those bits of old seventies Who in stories like Inferno where they’d suddenly break into stock footage of volcanoes or space rockets taking off or something?
Ashad has been so much better than any of the Cyberleaders during the post-2005 run of Who, hasn’t he? A Cyberman, but with real menace and some unpredictability. He has been a highpoint of every episode he has featured in for me.
Some lovely reactions to those scenes coming in:
Ace and 7 scene was lovely. We’ve been waiting 33 years for that, @4SylvesterMcCoy, @sophie_aldred. #DoctorWho
— Morgan Jeffery (@morganjeffery) October 23, 2022
Bradley Walsh came back for Jodie Whitakers final episode 😭 oh now I’m crying 😭 #DoctorWho #ThePowerOfTheDoctor pic.twitter.com/YZhyuED74M
— Wando (@Wandoful) October 23, 2022
These old Doctor scenes are breaking me 😭 #DoctorWho #ThePowerOfTheDoctor
— Christel Dee (@ChristelDee) October 23, 2022
Not sure in fairness I can disagree with this so far though …
Trying to find the plot beneath the references and cameos #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/Y8d1JVlmpY
— Lewis Knight (@ThatsOurLewis) October 23, 2022
“Friend of the Doctor. Former bus driver. Worried about the amount of Daleks in here.”
Superb surprise entrance there – I mean it was heavily rumoured that Bradley Walsh had been seen filming in Cardiff – but that was a great leftfield twist.
Although that “never on the first date” line is going to spark a load of fan fiction about Ace and Graham that I never want to read.
It is interesting to me that in this scene with Sylvester and Sophie they address the idea that the seventh Doctor and Ace parted on bad terms. On screen we only saw them walking off together at the end of Survival with the much quoted final speech of the regular run of the series:
There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, where the sea is asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, and somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on, Ace, we’ve got work to do!
The pair also got the last word in 1993’s Dimensions In Time, (which is 100% official canon by the way):
Ace: What did you do to her?
Seventh Doctor: Well, there were two time brains in her computer and I used it to propel her into the trap set for me.
Ace: So now your other selves are all free?
Seventh Doctor: Certainly I, I mean we, are difficult to get rid of.
That last line was intended as a barb at the time that the BBC had bought the show back for a charity special just a few years after binning it off, with the same production team and lead cast in place.
However, in the expanded media of books, comics and audio dramas, the relationship between Ace and the Doctor has come to a difficult end in many different ways, including her being killed by Jack the Ripper, becoming pregnant with the child of James Dean, and rage-quitting the Tardis on occasions.
You can read all about that after the episode in this great blog post from a couple of years back by Jordan Shortman: Ace and her many fates – all the ways Ace left the Tardis
“You sort of look like you used to, but not quite”
“I could say the same to you”
Absolutely perfect.
“We could have fun, I am fun”, I just adore Sacha Dhawan in this, hands-on-hip in his question mark Seventh Doctor sweater from Forbidden Planet, with a vegetable clamped to Jodie’s jacket. Not a lot of men can carry off a decorative vegetable.
“OK. That’s high. Oh come on, this used to be easy”
It isn’t just jumping off buildings with parachute gizmos that gets more difficult as you get older Ace, even just getting out of the bath starts to be a struggle in your fifties.
It’s properly good Doctor Who when cyber conversion involves screaming in my book.
I very much enjoy how Chibnall has just basically written Tegan here as if over the last 38 years she just gradually morphed into a very angry Janet Fielding.
AWKWARD CONTRARIAN CONTINUITY KLAXON: In the special episode that Russell T Davies wrote to say goodbye to the much-missed Elisabeth Sladen – Farewell, Sarah Jane – it was heavily implied that Tegan and Nyssa now lived together in Australia as a couple. Maybe Tegan here just felt Kate Stewart wasn’t ready for that revelation.
The air hostess in the early 80s gag was good though.
I’m sure we’ve had emergency Doctor Who holograms inside the Tardis before. Also, what price Rose’s explanation to the ninth Doctor in The End of the World that the Tardis shouldn’t just be messing inside her head to do translation without consent, when this version of the Doctor is just popping staticky microchips into people left, right and centre like some intergalactic 5G-vaccine conspiracy theorist’s dream?
Also seven and eight bickering about clothes. I love how essentially between them Bob Baker, Dave Martin and Terrence Dicks wrote that Troughton and Pertwee’s Doctors would bicker in The Three Doctors in 1973 – and there’s a lot of chatter that off-screen Pertwee was very worried about being upstaged by his predecessor on what was now his show – and everybody has just run with it ever since. Who else is going to start calling their other selves “Sandshoes and Grandad”? Mind you, you would find a younger version of yourself annoying if you met them, wouldn’t you?
How lovely was that? And how well did the BBC keep it a secret?
I must confess that when Whittaker first opened her eyes my heart sank a little – “Oh no, here’s one of those trademark Chibnall dreamscape scenes where the Doctor talks exposition to herself for three minutes against a green-screen backdrop.”
I mean, it sort of still was, but in the loveliest possible way.
This has made me laugh
the master when yaz left him there #doctorwho pic.twitter.com/i54JE53tqB
— rowena ⏳ 5 (@DrUnfuckable) October 23, 2022
There was a huge cheer went up in the room during the premiere when Sacha Dhawan started cosplaying as 70s/80s Doctors there. I suppose it goes with having Tegan and Ace back too. And then another one for producing the recorder, which Patrick Troughton used to play as the Doctor, chiefly to buy time or annoy people it seemed.
That is actually Sophie Aldred’s genuine original jacket which she still had from back in the day. I can’t imagine anything from my 1989 wardrobe would still fit me – apart from socks – so fair play to her.
We did also see the jacket again in 2019, when in character as Ace she starred in a scene to promote the release of the Season 26 Blu-Ray box-set.
This isn’t the first time the Master has tried to steal the Doctor’s life force. That was almost the entire basis of the plot of the 1996 TV Movie. Dhawan is absolutely stealing this episode for me. He’s brilliant. I nearly made that a key event: Dhawan dances to Boney M and then steals the episode – reports.
What an iconic scene for the ages – just how many gifs are we going to get of Sacha Dhawan dancing to Boney M? And that bit where the Dalek and the Cybermen turn to each other.
It went down rapturously in the room at the premiere and more than anything I just enjoy it when Doctor Who doesn’t have to be grimdark all the time. The Master has a long history – watching the Clangers or the Teletubbies, John Simm singing along to the Scissor Sisters – of doing very, very silly things. And this one is perfect.
The Master says that the Time Lords forced the Doctor to regenerate at least once before. Patrick Troughton’s Doctor was made to regenerate in 1969 story The War Games as a punishment for his meddling. They turned him into Jon Pertwee and exiled him to earth. While also maybe making him carry out a few missions on their behalf while looking a little older – see the Season 6b theory for more details.
“Dress for the occasion” – you have to love a good call-back. That was Sacha Dhawan quoting a line from the Master in the 1996 TV Movie, when he suddenly appeared dressed up in Time Lord robes. It has been much mocked over the years for Eric Roberts’ over-the-top delivery.
Mandip Gill was asked at the premiere what she had enjoyed most about being on the show, and she said “what I’m most happiest about was being part of the historical episodes, Demons of the Punjab and Rosa. Like, it was such an honour to be part of such pieces, but in this genre, you don’t really see it happening. And I think that was beautifully done, written beautifully. The directing was great, but it just felt so special to be a part of something that I’m really connected to, and that my family could watch, even if they don’t necessarily watch sci fi-shows, there was a connection there, and I am so honoured to be part of those storylines.”
Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor has been turned into a Weeping Angel and now trapped in a Dalek casing. Just need a Cyberman-conversion for the Trifecta.
As often seems to be the case, unlike Yaz, these Cybermen clearly HAVEN’T had firearms training. Or if they did, they went to the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
Ashad, on the other hand, is absolutely ruthless. I like him a lot. For a Cyberman.
You’ve got to admire the Dalek obsession for tunnelling into Earth and building big blowing-up things. It was their plan back in their second story in 1964 and they can’t let go of the idea.
Say what you will about Chibnall’s era, but scenes like this in tunnels in a volcano are a lot better looking than the ones I remember from stories like Planet of Fire or Survival as a kid in the eighties. Not sure why this Dalek doesn’t come equipped with wifi though.
Dan Martin used to always refer to Sacha Dhawan as the Hot Camp Master and that “bunk up in the bunker” and “darling, I don’t seem to have the room service menu” scene totally explains why.
By the way, Jodie Whittaker was asked at the premiere if she had any advice for Ncuti Gatwa on taking up the role. She said “It’s yours for the taking. It’s yours to own, and you’ve earned it.”
She also said, laughing, with regard to more specific advice, “I’m certainly not giving that phenomenal actor any advice. He doesn’t need it from me!”
VINDER!
Back from the Flux, serving commander Inston-Vee Vinder (@jacobanderson) reporting for duty! #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/XTHvQSBqgC
— Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor 🔥 (@bbcdoctorwho) October 23, 2022
At the premiere they revealed that in that scene just gone actually Mandip Gill was struggling to hold up the gun for that long because, as she said, “he had a big speech, I was like ‘this gun is really heavy!’”
The crew made what Dhawan described as a “contraption”. Gill said “They ended up making a little stand behind my back and were like ‘Do you want to just balance your arm on there?’”
We don’t often get to see Doctor Who companions with guns. At least Yaz gets a line here to confirm that as a police officer she had weapons training. It still remains a huge mystery how Sarah Jane Smith turned out to be a crack shot in 1975 story The Pyramids of Mars, where the plot required her to hit a small target from great distance using an early 1900s hunting rifle. I can assure you that unlike police officers, journalists like Sarah Jane and I do not routinely get antique weapons training.
At the premiere of this episode, Sacha Dhawan spoke about his role as the Master, saying “when I first got cast in it, it is so daunting, stepping into Doctor Who, because it is unlike any other job. It is so big. So you are kind of riddled with nerves. And obviously because of the nature of the role as well. But after doing Spyfall, and settling into the show, what people don’t see when you are in it, is just how welcoming the crew is in Cardiff. And that’s primarily because of how Jodie leads the show. And it’s like coming back to a really nice family who encourage you to do the best.”
He also said he had wanted to try something a bit new for this episode, saying “it was good [to return], but it is also really nerve wracking as well. Because I think for me, once people had seen the incarnation, I was like I wanted to obviously keep that, but try and reinvent it a little bit, and keep the audience guessing. So in working with Chris [Chibnall] again, he is so collaborative, we had conversations early on about mixing up a bit and really proud of that.”
“How did you even escape from Gallifrey?”
“Magnificent attention to detail”
A hill that I will absolutely die on is that one of the Master’s defining traits is that they always come back from certain death without explanation, and I’m pleased to see that the modern series just outright acknowledges that, whether it was Missy with “Death is for other people, dear” in The Magician’s Apprentice or him right now.
Who knew when they finished this episode a year ago that defacing paintings would turn out to be a topical joke, eh?
oh, it's just a bit of soup. #DoctorWho #DrWho pic.twitter.com/HZdIgJuPk6
— Ariadne 🦋 (@Ariadne_Reviews) October 23, 2022
“We used to be you, decades back”
That’s a lot of awkwardness in one scene. Loved it.
UNIT is back, baby. Chibnall got a lot of flack for saying it had been disbanded as a throwaway Brexit joke the other year.
OK, so you can all bin your theories that the child in the box was the Master and Cybermasters intercepting the Doctor and Timeless Child earlier in his/her/its timestream. There’s a sentence to write on a Sunday night. It’s a Quaranx/Coranks/Koroncs. Spell it how you like until the end credits roll.
When I saw the pre-publicity pictures, of course I was a bit sceptical about “How can the Master be Rasputin? That re-writes too much history” etc etc, and then just watching Sacha Dhawan using low-level hypnosis on Nicholas II and Alexandra I was immediately “Oh, OK, that makes sense.”
“Well … that’s a new one” the Doctor says to the Dalek who is working against the Daleks. Let us all take a pause to think about how “Rusty” must feel about this scene, the “Good Dalek” that was in Into The Dalek and Twice Upon A Time, dedicated to destroying the Daleks and now … forgotten. *SAD_DALEK_EMOJI*
Unexpected early companion departure in the baggage area there?
I absolutely adored that Ace was in a café for that scene, just like where we met her first on Iceworld in 1987 during Dragonfire, although not a grumpy waitress this time. And a reminder that Tegan met the Cybermen when they killed Adric in Earthshock in 1982, and Ace previously met the Cybermen in 25th anniversary story Silver Nemesis in 1988.
Just so you know, if I get through this evening without once typing the name of 1966 Patrick Troughton story The Power of the Daleks by mistake instead of 2022 Jodie Whittaker story The Power of the Doctor it will be a miracle.
I’m assuming that this is the last time we get to see this opening sequence and Segun Akinola’s version of the theme tune powering it.
OK, so the Cybermen have a child in a box … let the speculation begin!
I can’t help feeling those Time Lord frilly bits around the Cybermaster leader’s head would easily snap off and be a nuisance in confined spaces. Just not practical.
Dan (John Bishop) saying he’s got a date to get to there. It was nice at the end of Legend of the Sea Devils he got to speak to Diane (Nadia Albina) again. She did seem to quite harshly blame him at the conclusion of Flux for everything that happened to her.
Give them their due, the sequences with the Cybermen in Ascension of the Cybermen stalking through their ship, and this sequence here, are some of the best the Cybermen have ever looked on-screen in the Nu Who era.
Whatever you think of the Timeless Children finale, the idea of Cybermen that simply refuse to die is fundamentally a game-changer for their usually quite terrible plans for galactic domination.
I’ve got a nine year old, and it is the one thing he keeps coming back to from recent years if we ever talk about Doctor Who: “What about those Cybermen that can regenerate!”
Here we go. Doctor Who. BBC Centenary special. Dun-de-dun. Dun-de-dun. Dun-de-dun-Kklak! OooOOO-WEEEEEE-OOOOooooooh oh no hang on we’ve started on a space train. There is a pre-credits sequence. Sorry, ignore me.
Before we start, I just want to raise a glass to the memory of Dan Martin. The popularity of these Doctor Who episode-by-episode recaps on the Guardian website is entirely down to how brilliantly he started them – way back with Matt Smith’s debut The Eleventh Hour in 2010 right through to The Timeless Children in 2020. How time flies. I’ve had huge shoes to fill. I miss Dan very much, and I know the regulars in the comments under the recaps do too.
I faithfully promise not to spoiler anything here until it has been broadcast in the UK, but the Master has given his instructions – if you aren’t watching and want to avoid spoilers from hereon in, you need to get off the internet.
🔥 SPOILER WARNING! 🔥
— Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor 🔥 (@bbcdoctorwho) October 23, 2022
There's one hour until the Thirteenth Doctor’s final adventure, make sure you watch it before returning to the internet. Master's orders! 😈 #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/NLPjOerKoz
Comments will open on this live blog once the episode has finished broadcasting in the UK.
As well as working on our quiz together, Beth Axford wrote this for the Guardian this week, about how the first female Time Lord changed Doctor Who forever:
After 12 male actors, it was a huge deal when Whittaker became the Doctor. There was, inevitably, a backlash. Change can be scary for those who are used to seeing something that has always embodied their own lives. But the negativity doesn’t compare with the positives that have come from diversification.
“As much as I have loved Doctor Who my whole life,” says the writer Juno Dawson, “there was a subliminal message running across the first 50 years: men are the central character and women are the ‘assistant’, ‘companion’. As such, having a woman as the Doctor was a huge cultural moment. Little girls can see that women are heroic, they’re important, and they’re fearless. Women’s stories must get the same capital as those about men.”
It is not just Whittaker’s casting that marked big changes for the show. Mandip Gill became the Doctor’s first full-time Asian companion, whose character Yaz was revealed to be in love with the Doctor during this year’s New Year special, Eve of the Daleks – the first queer relationship between the Doctor and a companion.
This resonated with fans all over the world. Helena Emmanuel, a Doctor Who fan based in the US, says: “When Yaz described that she hadn’t admitted her feelings towards the Doctor even to herself, it resonated with me. I had that exact moment with myself when I was first coming out, not too far from Yaz’s age, and hadn’t ever seen a coming out on TV that felt so similar to my own.”
You can read more from Beth Axford here: How the first female Time Lord changed Doctor Who forever
I’m not suggesting that Sophie Aldred is better value than me for chatting after the programme finishes tonight, but she is doing a Zoom call at 9.15pm UK time when the episode has finished, whereas I’ll just be giving it large in the comments here.
Tickets for that chat have sold out, I understand, but I was lucky enough to get to speak to her earlier in the year for this piece about the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie, so I got to hear first-hand already from her what it meant to be back on the show. She also told the audience at the London premiere of The Power of the Doctor how she got the call:
My agent called and said Andy Pryor has been in touch – the casting director – asking for your availability, and we all know what that means. And I ended the phone call and just burst into tears. It was, I think, the call that probably all of us have been waiting for all these years. And then I had a zoom with you, didn’t I Chris [Chibnall]? You said ‘Would you do me a great honour being in it’ and I was like ‘wild horses wouldn’t stop me’. It was just amazing.
You will find plenty of people on the internet who have not been particularly enamoured of Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker’s time on the show, but already this evening people on social media have also been showing how the last four years has inspired them with their artwork for the finale.
she was the universe 💫 #DoctorWho pic.twitter.com/0sDVuv4Jm7
— eli marigo 🌈 looking 4 work! (@elimarigoart) October 23, 2022
I’m very glad I was able to draw one more thing for Thirteen ❤️ Thank you for the memories.
— Sophie Iles (Fio) ✨🎲🏳️🌈 (@sophilestweets) October 23, 2022
#ThankYouJodie #DoctorWho #ThirteenthDoctor #JodieWhittaker @bbcdoctorwho pic.twitter.com/kTeabL10sr
WWTDD?#DoctorWho #PowerOfTheDoctor #Yaz pic.twitter.com/kJyZE4lGYc
— Georgia Cook (@Georgiacooked) October 23, 2022
The BBC have put together a 35 minute – 35 MINUTES! – video of all the Doctor’s regenerations to date. So if you press play in the next couple of minutes, it should end with Peter Capaldi turning into Jodie Whittaker just in time for the start of tonight’s special.
You know what you could be doing while you are waiting for it to start? You could be doing our Doctor Who quiz! Beth Axford has just had her Doctor Who quiz book published, and I worked with her on a Guardian Doctor Who quiz all about the thirteenth Doctor’s time on the show.
If you need a recap of the last few years of Doctor Who, the BBC produced this trailer in the last couple of days showcasing key moments from the Whittaker and Chibnall era.
Here are some quotes from showrunner Chris Chibnall about what you can expect from tonight’s episode. He told the BBC “You can expect a massive all action thrill ride from start to finish. There will be laughter, there will be huge jeopardy, and there will be tears.”
He also said “it’s a regeneration episode, but it’s also a celebratory episode for the BBC centenary and Doctor Who’s place within the BBC. There are lots and lots of easter eggs. Some are visual, some are verbal, some are so deeply buried that only few people will recognise them.”
On the decision to bring back Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Ace (Sophie Aldred), who we’ve seen in the trailer and in pre-publicity shots, he said: “Those characters and those actors came to mind as I think they’re representative of certain times in the show’s history and they are both incredibly strong and vibrant characters. There are so many to choose from and in a way you want to do all of them but actually, I had to just pick two! And what both of them said separately was ‘Oh I think, Tegan would get on well with Ace’ and then ‘Oh I think Ace would get on really well with Tegan’.”
Updated
Welcome – and how this is going to work
“This is the day you are erased for ever … bit of a conversation stopper”
That is the Master, played by Sacha Dhawan, in the trailer for tonight’s Doctor Who episode, The Power of the Doctor, in which we know that Jodie Whittaker is playing the Doctor for the last time, and is going to regenerate. But how?
I’ll be live blogging along with the BBC One transmission of the special which starts at 7.30pm in the UK. I promise not to spoiler anything before it has been seen in the UK, and I’ll be adding some meta-commentary, jokes, pics, reaction and fun as we hurtle towards the end of the Whittaker era. You’ll be able to second-screen it while it is on without me ruining anything, or read it back after the show has finished.
And when the episode has finished in the UK, I’ll publish my recap here, and throw open the comments for us all to discuss. I appreciate that it is an international show and not everybody is getting to watch it at the same time, but what can you do?
To be clear I’ve been lucky enough to see most of the episode already – up until the very last moments which have been held back from TV reviewers by the BBC – so I don’t know quite how it ends, but I can promise you, without spoilers, that you are in for a ride.
