A quick little bit before I say more about the episode. All this week, I’ve been thinking about the idea of a Doctor Who episode in Ireland. With the accents, there could be a “Demons of Punjab” episode with all the dark themes of The Troubles, sometime between 1918 and 1921. Or they could do a far-future take on a partition of Northern Ireland. As a setting, I think it has some legs. Anyway, that’s my little pitch of an idea, to the episode.

I have to pause again; as this episode, in particular, was interesting and felt a little “Who-like” for me. Generally, I think it was a good episode, but there’s something I’ll need to talk about upfront, and it’s influential spoilers as it goes throughout the episode. Therefore, I have to say that I’m giving “Ascension of the Cybermen” an eight out of ten. For a Chris Chibnall episode with women, Cybermen, and his pen, that’s like giving him a ten for ten. In honesty, it feels weird to say it. Assuming much of what will happen next week, none of it will be tied up well and I’ll probably complain about Chekhov’s guns.

Spoilers Ahead – Read at your Own Risk

The episode opens with a man bordering on middle-aged, at least with the number of lines on his face, who looks like he’s in his 40s pushing into 50s. He finds a young boy barely days old in a basket, alone and in a field. The man takes the baby home to his wife and call round the constabulary to find the parents. Months and years pass by, they adopt the young man now called “Brendan,” and raise him to become a copper; following in his mentor’s steps as he helped Brendan’s parents many years before. Those that have seen the episode will think I’m blasting through this whole plot too fast, I’m doing it for a reason.

Brendan’s story is possibly the only thing that annoyed me about the episode, outside of the usual nonsense. Your time is up to miss spoilers because Brendan is a Time Lord, a Time Lord that all but confirms in-lore how we have Jo Martin as The Doctor in “Fugitive of the Judoon.” Once Brendan has lived his life as Brendan, he retires, is given a clock, and pulled into a “back office” by an unaged mentor and dad. He could be Derek Jacobi’s Master, but that is an unlikely theory as the clock was a clock and not a fob watch. The other theory is that he confirms the idea that a Time Lord’s regenerations can be reset by a mind wipe, hence Jo Martin as The Doctor.

That’s assuming he is a Time Lord and not Chibnall doing “The Power of Three” again with part two explaining him in a quick 10-minute section at the end. As part of Brendan’s early days in “An Garda,” he has a bit of a fall. In those early days he chases a young man who stole items to the edge of a cliff, the young man has a gun. After a bit of back and forth, Brendan is shot and falls off the cliff down to the beach below. Another theory could be that Brendan is The Doctor between the War Doctor and 9. No Doctor has died the same way, 7 was shot and 4 fell, or I’m theorizing too much about someone that’ll never appear again.

Onto the episode itself. After causing the Cyber-war with Frankenstein’s Monster in the last episode, The Doctor and companions are trying to find the last vestige of humanity. In a future somewhere between 2150 and 6048, there are only seven people left alive on earth and a handful of Cybermen. I like the line Jodie gives about how that’s never an easy line to break or to hear, but she’s had to say it so many times before that she doesn’t think twice about it. It gives her more of a character than a historical tour guide.

The people are what Doctor Who has been missing for a couple of episodes really. I understand the idea of going back to historical characters through history, “Let’s Kill Hitler,” “Rosa,” “Victory of the Daleks,” and “Vincent and the Doctor” are great episodes. However, “The Empty Child” didn’t need Churchill to make it a wonderful episode, it was the people in distress that did that and these people are in dire straits. Also, there’s something about an older authoritative Scottish woman makes Doctor Who worth watching.

Oddly, the majority of the group brought something. Ravio (Scottish woman) is second in command, Feekat is a good moral leader, Yedlarmi is justified in his concerns, Bescot works as the engineer, and Ethan is a great scrappy survivor. I know that’s only five of the seven, but we’re past the spoilers so I’ll say it, the other two die. It’s not as if they weren’t good, but Yadlarmi’s brother becomes the focus while a young woman is killed by the same thing, and is never spoken about again. It wouldn’t bother me as much if someone said something, but why have seven and not just six then? It’s little, though it is the last seven humans, they matter.

What I glossed over were the gang, (fam, team, troops?) setting up sci-fi tech to stop the last of the Cybermen, three of which have found the last humans in a disheveled heap of scrap. Of course, with the companies turning up following the arrival of some Cyberman ships in the sky, there’s a gun pulled. Once again Jodie pulls out a brilliant line of “I don’t need your life story,” after asking something simple and getting every detail in response. Though from there on there is a scene with all three companions doing something, yet still Yaz and Ryan can’t gleam personality out of their boring lives.

As usual, Graham is the one filled with some sort of charisma as he explains something he didn’t totally understand, but can repeat something he’s been told in order to catch us and other characters up. The difference between Graham and the other two is how much he adds. Both Ryan and Yaz repeat everything in a flat and drone-like way, which isn’t something a companion should be doing. Meanwhile, Graham is adding “cockle” and such to it, breathing life into his lines. Yedlarmi is the sunshine in Ryan’s bit, bringing his brother over to show there’s hope.

What made the group more than just another piece of fodder for a monster of the week was Feekat’s line. The Doctor asked for information on what supplies the group has, and Feekat tells her just how little they have, basically nothing. After The Doctor says so, he reminds her that the group is just human, a teacher, a nurse, driver, builder, and so on. This reason among others is why I’m praising the episode so highly, it’s a Chibnall episode that’s got some character and some stakes (possibly).

As I’ve already said, two are killed, albeit by “Cyberdrones.” Not the “Cyberdrones” used in “Assimilation2,” the Doctor Who and Star Trek crossover comic where Matt Smith’s Doctor works with Jean-Luc to prevent a future ruled by the Borg and Cybermen as the Klingons, Raxacoricofallapatorians, Vulcans, and the Judoon are all assimilated. Yes, if you are wondering, I do believe some might have a heart attack reading “Raxacoricofallapatorians,” as I’m sure my editor did. Tangent aside, they are just the heads of Cybermen (2006 design) that can fly and shoot from their eyes, ultimately killing Yedlarmi’s brother and the other one.

Once all the dust has settled, the sci-fi tech failed and exploded, and everyone mourns Fuskle but not the other one. Ashad, the semi-broken Cyberman I liked from last week returned with two friends. Of course, being the one that caused all of this and the one that  dragged the companions into it; The Doctor orders the companions to get on a ship and get out with the other humans. This gives Jodie another great moment to show she can pull rank and tell everyone who’s top brass in the group. Not that I watched much of Matt Smith’s run, but Jodie with more of this could be second to Eccleston on how manic he was.

After The Doctor has told the two useless ones and Graham to go to safety, she has a bit of a chat with Ashad. All the time that the three should be running off, they stand about making noise so they can be chased. While we’re on stupid things, is Ryan just stupid or is he trying to annoy me specifically? For no reason, he slows down behind the other two, hides behind something the chasing Cybermen can see through, and just stays there. This is meant to be a grown man that’s held down a factory job, yet he’s acting like that stupid sibling that hides behind a tree while playing hide and seek. We can all see you, you muppet!

At least with that, the two worthless ones aren’t standing gormless and the back of a single shot. Instead, Yaz is with Graham, Ravio, Bescot, and Yedlarmi. Meanwhile, The Doctor is stuck with Ryan (who does nothing), and Ethan. Ethan, at this point, went with Feekat to search for any scrap their group could salvage, something Ashad has issue with as he wants to kill them all. Feekat and Ethan hide in a church, while Ashad can tell they are there, prompting Feekat to just about sacrifice himself before Ethan jumps out from cover. Believing Ethan is the last human on the planet, Ashad lets him go after killing Feekat.

This is where I’d usually drop in the spoiler warning and pick up the pace a little, but there’s act one wrapped already. Yaz and Graham are on the “grav raft,” The Doctor and Ryan half-inch a Cyberfighter, and Ashad takes a ship to chase them both down. The two groups are heading to a prophetic “Ko Sharmus,” all the while we’re getting the Brendan story I’ve already covered.

To keep it short this week, I’ll not go into every detail. The two groups are perfectly devised as The Doctor, Ryan, and Ethan all get to Ko Sharmus first. The others take the long way ’round with a chase by Ashad, leading to them overcooking the engine in the grav raft, causing them to get stuck in space. With Yaz and Graham, the group with Yedlarmi at least have someone with hope and an idea of how to get out of a problem. They might be stuck in space, but with a large ship off in the distance, they can Wall-E their way across space to get there.

Of course, the ship isn’t human and it was a carrier during the Cyber-war. After a couple of louder coughs and big red arrows, I think everyone including Ryan could tell it was carrying Cybermen. It has hundreds of floors, thousands of Cybermen, Ashad after spending five minutes talking to The Doctor, and a couple of human pilots. All of which are heading headfirst into this Ko Sharmus. Given it is a two-parter that’s where Yaz and Graham’s story ends, hanging in suspense as thousands of Cybermen pound at the doors.

However, The Doctor, Ryan, and Ethan have found Ko Sharmus and it’s not a place as the humans had assumed. Ko Sharmus is the last human standing at the gate to freedom from all the Cybermen, sitting and waiting, hoping there would be others needing to go through the gate. It is a gate to paradise, a land that can not be touched by Cybermen (according to Ravio), a bombed-out husk known only as Gallifrey. Something about this old man in desaturated red robes with a staff/rod standing next to Gallifrey reminds me of someone, but I assume Timothy Dolton was a bit busy that week.

With the reveal of Gallifrey came Sacha Dhawan somehow breaking free of the alternate dimension of the Kasaavin. That’s where we get the credits and the teaser for next week which was too focused on The Master for me to care. His last two episodes were just a bit crap and played with too many toys to really make the episodes interesting overall.

You’ll notice Brendan’s story wasn’t added to before the credits ended. I understand a mystery, but there are too many questions that have been asked and not answered, this being the biggest one. He’s even omitted by the teaser for next week’s episode “The Timeless Child,” and with The Master, Rassilon, a Cyber-war, and all of Who as we know it in the balance, 70 minutes might not cut it. I just don’t trust Chibnall enough to pull something as grand as “The Day of the Doctor” and “The Time of the Doctor,” as I did with Moffat. This feels like it needs another two episodes to wrap up everything without it being another “The Power of Three”

This was a very good-ish episode, aside from Brendan’s story not being at least explained. As usual, the companions are, in order, dreadful, awful, and the shining light of hope. Jodie once again pulling rank and really giving it her all made her once again feel like The Doctor rather than a tour guide through time. I also believe this would be the first time we’ve gone to another planet that wasn’t Earth to have that talk with Ko Sharmus, though it did just look like Ireland.

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Doctor Who "Ascension of the Cybermen"

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Great pacing.
• Graham being the beacon of hope.
• Jodie is playing The Doctor balance beautifully.
• The people in distress looked and felt it.
• We left earth!

Cons

• Lack of a knot in Brendan's story.
• Again, why do we need Yaz and Ryan?