The disposables, tinfoil trollops, and Sam Tyler. Oh, Steven Moffat’s final story in Doctor Who had everything. Well, it has everything but a near-perfect story to end an arc, which was de rigueur for his later writing that was far too introspective and focused on cramming in all the old bits he and Peter wanted to bring back before leaving. I’ve said it before, the Series 10 arc of turning Missy from a horrible person to a Master (or Mistress) that does the right thing, that’s probably the best detail from Steven and Peter’s turn in the TARDIS.

The penultimate story with the two Scots, “World Enough and Time” and “The Doctor Falls” has so much behind it that those still watching, despite dwindling viewership and AI ratings, are of course going to love the detail. We see this all the time, even with Chibnall’s run, the crusty coffin-dodging elements are appreciated by fans because they are just that, fans. Though being a fan doesn’t mean you can’t be critical of something, in particular, the choice to bring back John Simm’s Master and more importantly, the completely idiotic decision to spoil that at the end of last week’s episode.

I get it, views were the lowest they had been since the original cancelation in the late 80s, but think about if “Blink” divulged the shock reveal of the fob watch’s occupant for the next week’s “Utopia.” Tables wouldn’t just be flipped, the whole place would look like Hiroshima by mid-August 1945. That build of the creepy hermit helping Bill and knowing everything, while not perfect, is brilliantly put together to pull off another one of those Derek Jacobi-like reveals. Instead, I’m left standing there intonating to myself: “Let’s go, John, we’ve got Cybermen to reveal to the three people in the back too.”

So, finally out of the vault, the Doctor wants to give his best friend a chance to be good by having her play his role: “Hello, I’m Doctor Who.” I might have the Roger Delgado story “Terror of the Autons” and Anthony Ainley’s “Planet of Fire” behind me in my office, as well as growing up on Jacobi and Simm’s Master’s, but only Michelle Gomez could better them on her best days. Her ability to make you believe every part of that performance is a master (yes) stroke. The playfulness and joy that is Missy’s relationship is something I think the initial John Simm’s master lacked, and for all the right reasons.

The two play a magnificent yin-and-yang of a single character, and this is why Sacha Dhawan’s lack of distinctive character features never worked when Chibnall attempted to bring the Master back so quickly. Of course, the Master would be attracted to themselves and simultaneously be disgusted by the come-ons. That makes pitch-perfect sense because they are a person of unrivaled standard. Meanwhile, when the Doctor is in the room with themselves, yes there are comments, but they are checking themselves out because they like themself. I believe this has gotten terribly confusing for someone: The Master won’t settle for themselves but the Doctor loves their-self.

All of that perfectly leads into some of the more, I guess, annoyingly over-the-top attempts to curry favor from The Guardian. Sure, the Doctor’s comments that Time Lords are higher beings that don’t concern themselves with gender or sexuality works for the follow-up of, “yeah, but you still call yourself Time Lords.” Though I don’t think it was entirely needed when Bill was accepting her fate to basically die, to point out: “by the way, I’m gay. I just want to make sure you knew that.” We know. In your first episode, you fell in love with puddles and her lovely David Bowie-like eyes.

I could do a paragraph on the whole gays-for-graves thing that film and TV love to do, but I’m not the best person to do so. Instead, I highly recommend reading Alexx’s piece about that exact problem when it cropped up in The Magicians back in 2019; A trend that has a harmful message. Before it is even said, I’ve noted it time and time again throughout Chibnall’s run despite Twitter (as the kids say) “shipping” this Thasmin thing, and especially when it came to the lovely Warren Brown’s Jake playing the sacrificed partner of Adam. Twitter will ignore it and say we’ve only had the gayest Doctor Who since 2017, but we’ve also had the longest run of tragic LGBTQ+ characters and fridges falling on them.

Is Bill really dead though? I think that needs to be asked because technically the Cybermen aren’t dead humans, they are “upgraded” humans to cope with the dying ship in the gravity well of a black hole. When the Doctor sets fire to the idyllic landscape of the Solar Farm filled with several generations of Cybermen, including Bill, that’s her dead, kind of. Puddles is back, and while I do love Heather for just how lovely Stephanie Hyam is in the role, it feels like a strange way to do a happy ending for a gay couple. Technically, they are both dead in the human sense and are now off making each other wet, so the gays are buried but also not?

Beyond that entire mess of a problem, I think the episode more or less falls because of Steven Moffat trying to do what Moffat does best, just one last time. One of the biggest criticisms I have of his writing is that he tries to make Doctor Who a show about time travel, when actually it is a show that features time travel. There is a difference. See there are four or five different times going on here: Setting up for the Christmas regeneration special, the top of the ship by the heart of the black hole, the pre-adventure where Bill wants Missy in the vault, and the bottom of the ship where all the Cybermen and John Simm are for decades.

How you are supposed to casually watch Doctor Who and keep up with that in your head is arguably why the live viewing figures were always so dismal that the tabloids yelled of doom. The same British tabloids that would yell doom at the height of the show’s popularity and Russel’s first run too. As I’ve said before about Doctor Who in one of my many editorials, the end was never nigh for the Time Lord and their blue box. My point is that mass appeal of audiences can’t and won’t keep up with those ideas unless they are kept simple, and not everyone is like me tuting and saying, “it is the gravity well” when we’re talking about the USS Mondas.

Is it a bad story? No, but it is a muddled story that tried desperately to do so much when it should have been much more, I guess, restricted. Any good story is a simple one told well, and while the arc of Missy is a simple story, this final chapter is one that employs too many elements to keep it simple and told well. It is a one-man band of an episode: Yes, it is impressive you’ve learned how to play all those instruments, but I’d have been entertained as long as you didn’t play “Wonderwall.”

Simm, Gomez, and Capaldi are, if you’ll excuse the phrase, masters of their craft, pulling off a love triangle of friendship and hatred beautifully. Rachel Talalay’s direction has and always will be beautiful, crafting such wonderfully imagined shots that it is hard not to call some of her work cinematic pornography. As I’ve said before, beyond the aforementioned writing issues, I don’t like the supposed constant need to swear in Doctor Who. It is not supposed to be “grown-up,” it is supposed to be silly and fun, hence my love for the Raxacoricofallapatorians despite everyone else’s hatred of the melted jelly baby monsters.

Ultimately, “World Enough and Time” and “The Doctor Falls” aren’t the worst ending to a series, as I’m still writing “I will not kill Chibnall” on my chalkboard following “The Timeless Child.” It is, however, something that stumbles across the finish line as regeneration energy begins to show and David Bradley stumbles up to impersonate William Hartnell, the original some might say. In the end, the Doctor did get his one wish to have his best friend back before she killed herself (twice), and that is what makes Michelle’s run one of the best.

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Doctor Who "World Enough & Time" & "The Doctor Falls"

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Michelle Gomez, that woman can do no wrong.
• Masterful performances from the three Time Lords.
• Rachel Talalay's cinematic delicacies.

Cons

• The prior reveal of Simm's return.
• Drowning the gays.