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| Ice cream in space: A final journey with the 13th Doctor and Yaz. |
1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 87 minutes. Written by: Chris Chibnall. Directed by: Jamie Magnus Stone. Produced by: Nikki Wilson.
THE PLOT:
Siberia, 1916. Self-proclaimed monk Grigori Rasputin is summoned by the Romanovs to the Winter Palace. The desperate Tsarina tells him that her hemophiliac son's health is failing, and that the boy's condition began worsening with the appearance of a second moon in the sky...
London, present day. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart calls on the Doctor with a very peculiar problem. The world's leading seismologists have disappeared, even as famous paintings have been bizarrely altered. The Doctor is annoyed at being summoned for something so trivial. Until Kate introduces her two newest consultants: the Doctor's former companions, Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) and Ace (Sophie Aldred). They show her the altered paintings, each changed so that the figure at the center is Grigori Rasputin.
Except the Doctor and Yaz instantly recognize that the man pictured is not really Rasputin, but rather the Master (Sacha Dhawan)! The Doctor's old enemy happily reveals his present-day location. When UNIT and the Doctor close in, he gleefully taunts her:
"This is the day you die!"
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| An unexpected reunion: The Doctor runs into past companions Ace (Sophie Aldred) and Tegan (Janet Fielding). |
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Jodie Whittaker's final story, and it's a pretty good last outing for her. She is disturbed by the Master's "warning," and makes certain preparations before walking into his trap, which allows her to actively work with her friends even while she's technically incapacitated. I love the way she faces her regeneration at the end. It is neither mawkish nor protracted, but rather a look toward the future as she tells her incoming successor: "Tag, you're it."
Yaz: Sometime during the course of her travels, she has prepared a diagram and post-it notes for steering the TARDIS if the need arises. This speaks volumes about both her sense of preparation and her realism. For all of her love for (borderline worship of) the Doctor, she still realizes that her friend is not as invulnerable as she pretends. If something happens, Yaz doesn't want to end up stranded, and she has paid attention and taken steps for that eventuality. She also reacts with an absolute, forceful rejection to the idea of the Master smearing the Doctor's name, seeming to find that even more loathsome than if the Master had simply killed her.
Dan: After a particularly close brush with death, Dan re-evaluated his new lifestyle and opts to exit with his skin intact. This may have been for the best. This story is already juggling a lot with the Master, the regeneration, the returning Ace and Tegan, and giving good roles to both the Doctor and Yaz. Had Dan stuck around for the duration, he would almost certainly have been consigned (again) to the role of "spare part." At least this way, he gets a couple moments that are his own. John Bishop has been wonderful throughout his brief tenure, making the most of every scrap he's been given, and that continues to be the case here. In a way, though, that makes it all the more aggravating that we didn't get just one truly Dan-centric story some time over the past season-and-a-bit.
Tegan: Janet Fielding is one of two Classic Series regulars who return for this episode. Tegan remains as irritable as ever. She has not forgiven the Doctor for never contacting her again after she left. This is arguably unfair, as it's not as if she gave the Doctor any reason to believe that such contact would be welcome, but it is in character. Her reaction to seeing the Doctor's newest form is to sniff about how young she is. She eventually admits that she still misses the Doctor, and she gets emotional at a reference to Adric.
Ace: The other major Classic Series return comes in the form of Sophie Aldred's Ace. The original series' cancellation meant that we never saw her separation from the Doctor; other media has filled in the gaps, but knowledge of that isn't really needed. We are told enough to know that the 7th Doctor and Ace parted on even worse terms than the 5th Doctor and Tegan did. Despite this, she is openly enthusiastic at their reunion, and happily chirps that the current incarnation is "a good look." She even continues to refer to the Doctor as "Professor."
Graham: It's appropriate that one of the Thirteenth Doctor's own past companions makes an appearance. The final scenes of Revolution of the Daleks established that Graham and Ryan would continue investigating strange occurrences. It is such an investigation that leads to Graham wandering into this story entirely on his own power. He ends up paired with Ace, and they make a surprisingly entertaining duo. Bradley Walsh works well with Sophie Aldred, and the two characters' contrasting personalities make for some enjoyable exchanges.
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: The Power of the Doctor may just see Jemma Redgrave's best performance as Kate. What I appreciate most is how palpably frightened she of the Cybermen. When she confronts Ashad, she is shaking, knowing all too well what fate likely awaits her. She also gets to show a lighter side, with her genuine eagerness at the chance to enter the TARDIS. Her scientific background seems to be remembered in her reaction. Rather than simply express wonder at the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, she asks how it's bigger.
The Master: Sacha Dhawan's Master survived the events of The Timeless Children, though exactly how is never explained ("I'm indestructible; the whole universe knows that!"). He retains the same core of self-loathing. He doesn't want just to defeat the Doctor, or even just to take her remaining regenerations; he wants to be someone other than himself by claiming the Doctor's identity. When the Doctor and her companions thwart his plan, he pleads - as if to an uncaring universe - "Don't let me go back to being me." The irony of this plea being that there's no point in the story at which he behaves as anything other than The Master... which, if I'm honest, feels like a missed opportunity. It might have been interesting if, after taking the Doctor's identity, he had felt some "Doctorish" impulses, but the effect as portrayed isn't particularly different than if he'd snuck into the TARDIS and stolen her wardrobe.
Daleks: Are included because this is the big special celebrating the BBC's Centenary, because there was a chance that this would be the last Doctor Who story for a while, and because the New Series never misses an opportunity to overuse the Daleks. Within the confines of the story, however, they are mostly pointless. They fulfill the narrative demand of giving Ace something to do in the Final Act; but by and large, they could be removed entirely, and the story might actually be structurally cleaner for it. I guess it's nice that Ace's anti-Dalek baseball bat still works, though.
Cybermen: Unlike the Daleks, they actually seem like part and parcel of the narrative, and they work much better as a result. The Cyber-Master design looks just as silly here as it did in The Timeless Children. Thankfully, more is seen of Ashad and the regular New Series Cybermen. The scenes with the Cybermen invading UNIT develop a reasonable amount of tension, with Ashad's exchanges with Kate showing that he's still as vicious as ever. The Cybermen are a bit too easily defeated... but then, that's an issue hardly unique to this story, and the resolution to their subplot still beats "I blew them up with love!" By a lot.
Past Doctors: Chris Chibnall uses the Centenary to celebrate the Classic Series not just by bringing by Ace and Tegan, but also by bringing back Classic Series Doctors. Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy get particularly good scenes opposite their prior companions. Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor also receives a strong scene, which is appropriate since she's been a big part of the current era. Meanwhile, McGann, Colin Baker, and David Bradley's First Doctor show up for less than a minute each - though that's still long enough to enjoy their presence, and it's particularly nice to see Colin Baker giving such a relaxed and restrained performance. I suspect this will be their collective final bow for television Doctor Who, but the way in which this story uses the Past Doctors provides a ready, ongoing excuse for future showrunners to bring them back with no care for the actors' ages.
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| Band of Villains: The Master (Sacha Dhawan) makes a pact with the Daleks and the Cybermen to kill the Doctor. |
THOUGHTS:
The Power of the Doctor hits the ground running with a set piece involving Cybermen attacking a bullet train in space. It never really slows down from there, as we're taken in rapid succession to: 1916 Siberia (Rasputin! And he's the Master!); UNIT HQ; a Cyber planet in Earth's orbit; and a Dalek dig site under an active volcano (did they have to exterminate Blofeld first?). We're zipped from location to location, and the high production values of this era and the large scale make this often feel less like a television special than a movie.
The benefit of this approach is that it's easy to get caught up in the rush. Writer Chris Chibnall and director Jamie Magnus Stone do a creditable job of keeping the scenes flowing nicely in and out of each other, so that it all feels like a unified narrative and not just a jumble of activity. As a celebration of 100 years of BBC history (of which Doctor Who's history is an integral part), it's also a joy to see the cameos by past Doctors and companions.
The downside? The story might be large-scale and fast-paced, but it doesn't really seem to be about much of anything. The plot mainly seems to be there to incorporate the fanservice. I've already mentioned how superfluous the Daleks seem. Add to that the Master's entire Rasputin disguise. As far as I can determine, he passes himself off as Rasputin so that he can taunt UNIT and the Doctor through altered art and then enjoy a dance number in the Winter Palace. This isn't entirely a complaint: The dance number is kind of brilliant, and none of this is even a tiny bit out of character. But on a pure plot level, it doesn't really do much.
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| The Thirteenth Doctor enjoys one last sunrise. |
THE REGENERATION:
One aspect of this story that I cannot fault is the regeneration itself. After a brief protest that she wants more time, the Thirteenth Doctor stops and accepts what's happening - in part, I think, for Yaz's sake, but also because she recognizes the natural cycle of it. Her goodbye to Yaz, as they share ice cream atop the TARDIS while floating in space, is charming and acts as a sort of parallel to their date under the sea. Then she embraces the inevitability of the change in the light of a sunrise: the final dawn for this set of eyes, and the first for the next.
The story itself is far from my favorite New Series regeneration story. That said, I think this is my favorite New Series regeneration scene, and by a fairly substantial margin.
OVERALL:
Back in my Series Eleven Overview, I stated that Chibnall's best episodes tended to be the ones that were the most emotionally authentic, in contrast to Steven Moffat's big concepts and rapid spectacle. In that same overview, I expressed my hope that Chibnall could fix some of that season's issues with pacing and weak character interactions without throwing out those changes that had actually worked.
The Power of the Doctor mostly embraces style over substance. Yet its best moments are once again the ones that ring emotionally true: the Fifth and Seventh Doctor's brief reunions with their old companions; Thirteen standing at a very special crossroads; Kate's genuine terror of the Cybermen; and the Thirteenth Doctor's beautiful final moments. These are the scenes I will remember from this special, long after the bullet train action sequences, lethal skybeams, and dance numbers have slipped from my memory.
In the end, I enjoyed this special for what it was. Still, it would have been nice if there had been something more substantial at the heart of it.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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