I admit it: the story for this episode was different than expected but it’s pretty good, considering. It explains a few things (who actually is Ruth, the unknown Doctor’s face) and brings a new light to the moment when Matt Smith’s Doctor got the extra-regenerations.
I have some problem with the part when the Doctor finds a lot of new things about the past of Time Lords, about the evolution of civilization on Gallifrey and her place in this story. That part is not so credible. Everything is happening in her mind, Master’s mind and some historical database that is accessible only for the two of them. I would have prefered the confirmation of the story from other sources because it’s too incredible to be accepted easily. Persons from that time is hard to find, but when you have available a lot of TADISes it’s not too hard to jump into one and travel to the right time.
Probably the following seasons (Jodie Whittaker will be there for us for at least one of them) will clear the situation, but until them you can’t know for sure the information shared by Master are real or not. Nevertheless, nothing will be the same no matter the next series unfolds.
The official number of regenerations is 12, right? That is known for some time, but the rules are made to be broken and we find out only now the extent of that. The legend of the planet Gallifrey and the timeless child are known for some time, where were completed as the show was developed. Nobody said too much about the identity of the Timeless Child and what hapenned with him… until now.
But let’s return to the episode: the ship full with Cybermen reaches to Gallifrey and the Master wants to use them to transform the Time Lords into a new species of cyborgs, one whose members could regenerate after they were killed. And he succeeds, eventually, but the Doctor’s companions are there too and they want to stop him even they have to risk their lives in the process. You should watch the episode to find out more – it’s too interesting to find out the details now. Master’s fate is, at least for now, unclear. We don’t know if he survives or not but we can easily think we / she will be seen in the following series. He has this habit to resurface long after the whole Universe thinks he is dead and it would be surprising to die for good right now. He might even be transformed to something else, something similar to what happened to the Doctor now.
Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone, written Chris Chibnall.
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sacha Dhawan (The Master), Jo Martin (The Doctor), Julie Graham (Ravio), Steve Toussaint (Feekat).
The next episode, a special one, is the Revolution of the Daleks, and it will be aired to the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021. The Doctor will have to escape from the prison she got because of the Judoon and, as some said, she will meet her companions again (they returned home, to their own time).