Spyfall - Part Two

New Year’s Day’s opening episode proved to be a remarkable tour de force, giving the show a new mission statement and ending on a perilous, enormous cliff-hanger. Could the second instalment be as successful as this first blinder? Perhaps understandably, not quite, but there is lots to enjoy in this sprawling, sumptuous-looking episode, not least Sacha Dhawan’s delightfully insidious Master.

We open with the plane still crashing and the Doctor meeting a mysterious Ada in the strange netherworld. Disappointingly, the scenes with Ada prove dull to look at and dull to listen to, especially compared to the furious energy of the crashing plane. We cut between the two and the scenes with the Doctor, whilst frustratingly lacklustre, mean that the plane seems to take an absolute age to not crash. This sets up a lethargy of pace which is never quite shaken off throughout the episode’s first half.

After a switch in time to 1834, the Doctor’s mission soon becomes less about stopping the nebulous, alien villains and more about simply getting back to the TARDIS and the “Fam.” She is paired with Ada Lovelace and later, in 1943, Noor Inayat Khan. Whilst this is superficially lovely and the relative time-zones’ mise en scene look absolutely gorgeous, the impact these heroines have on the plot is negligible and actually stymies the threat level – we know nothing terrible can happen to either of them. A few mind wipes later and Chris Chibnall ensures tritely that neither can be robbed of their agency, not that Noor seemed to have all that much to begin with, save from providing a helpful hidey hole in the floor. What this story really needs is propulsion. We still don’t know what the aliens want apart from to take over our “universe” which in the last ten minutes manifests itself as actually taking over our bodies with an upgrade or “conversion” as Daniel Barton tells us. (Anyone else getting the Cyber vibe?) Without that propulsion, it quickly becomes a series of events, not necessarily leading into one another, and with no questions to ask other than “What’s going on?” We need a threat other than a stranded Doctor, also made less threatening by the fact we know she has to escape to help land a plane in the future.

What really makes this episode come alive though are our villains. Sacha Dhawan blisters as the Master. He is perhaps the first Master to be truly repellent, almost disgusting. He has an ill manner and an almost sickly complexion. His killing at the science show highlights his true terror and his meeting with the Doctor on the Eiffel Tower gives the episode its best scenes. Whittaker, it seems, really comes into her own during these duologues, with a decent villain to butt heads with. Last week she stood her ground against Lenny Henry – again, quietly sadistic here - and in the scenes high above France, the chemistry between her and Dhawan is felt.

Which brings us to talk of home: Gallifrey. Chibnall’s first foray into Who mythology is a daring one. We hear of times we know nothing about. We witness the planet crippled in a heart-breaking and truly awesome shot. Whittaker plays the loss terrifically. If last week was her best performance so far, here she delivers a performance of true worth, of mournfulness and strength and terror and unease. I’m still not convinced she has quite a handle on the bafflegab but when the narrative beats are clear and the emotions there to be engaged with, she steps up and seems to feel.

We end with the companions finally asking for a disclosure on who she is. “It’s not like we haven’t asked,” says Graham earlier in a crude piece of overwriting. They really didn’t actually, Mr Chibnall, not that you let us see. Did they ask all the big questions off screen? However, now they resolutely have been asked, we finally see some politics between our TARDIS friends. The Doctor is still holding back and given the snippets they now know, the crew ought only to be become more curious. This bodes well for the future. The TARDIS is going somewhere. The story is going somewhere. Surely, Daniel Barton - mother-killer lest we forget - has to meet his comeuppance. Surely, the Master needs to return to give the Gallifrey plot some closure. Surely, the more strain they encounter, the more complicated the TARDIS team dynamics will become. Who is the Timeless Child? Why have the Time Lords been lied to? I’m very excited to discover the answers. If Spyfall – Part Two itself lacked propulsion, it has certainly infused the rest of the series with it. Roll on next week!

6/10

JH