Spyfall (TV story)

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Spyfall
Doctor:	Thirteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Graham, Ryan, Yaz
Featuring:	Najia, Hakim, Sonya, Ramesh, MI6
Main enemy:	The Spy Master, Daniel Barton, Kasaavin
Main setting:	Sheffield, London, Great Victoria Desert, VOR HQ, Vallis Estate, 21st century
Key crew
Writer:	Chris Chibnall
Director:	Jamie Stone
Producer:	Alex Mercer
Release details
Story number:	287
Number of parts:	2
Premiere broadcast:	1 January 2020 –
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	2 x 60 minute episodes
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Doctor Who television stories
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Spyfall was the two-part opening story to series 12 of Doctor Who. It saw the Thirteenth Doctor and company team up with MI6, and re-introduced the Spy Master, now in a new incarnation played by Sacha Dhawan. This Master was also seen to make use of the Tissue Compression Eliminator, marking its re-introduction to the revived series.

Synopsis

Part One

The security of the entire world is at stake, so head of MI6, C, enlists the the Doctor and her team to investigate former agent spy Daniel Barton to see if he's been turned against them. Meanwhile an alien threat that can pass through walls, even TARDISes, known as the Kasaavin is wiping out spy organisations all over the planet. Can former MI6-leader "O" help them, or is he not who he claims to be.

Plot

Part One

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
• Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
• Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
• Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
• O - Sacha Dhawan
• Daniel Barton - Lenny Henry
• C - Stephen Fry
• Najia Khan - Shobna Gulati
• Hakim Khan - Ravin J Ganatra
• Sonya Khan - Bhavnisha Parmar
• Sniper - Melissa De Vries
• Passenger - Sacharissa Claxton
• Older Passenger - William Ely
• Operative (US) - Brian Law
• Tibo - Buom Tihngang
• Sergeant Ramesh Sunder - Asif Khan
• Mr Collins - Andrew Bone
• Rendition Man - Ronan Summers
• Ethan - Christopher McArthur
• Seesay - Darron Meyer
• Browning - Dominique Maher
• Voice of Kasaavin - Struan Rodger

Crew

to be added

References

Technology

• Hakim tries and fails to use Alexa.

Popular culture

• Hakim asks Alexa to play Rubber Soul.
• Ryan decides that his spy name would be "Logan", and starts panicking upon realising he looks "nothing like Hugh Jackman".

The Doctor

• The Doctor once lived in the Australian outback for 123 years.

Story notes

• This was the first multi-part television story to be given one overarching title since 2009-10's The End of Time, and only the second such story in the BBC Wales era.
  • Incidentally, part 1 of the episode aired on the 10-year anniversary of The End of Time: Part 2's airing, and both episodes featured the Master, falling on New Year's Day.
• Some scenes in this story were filmed in South Africa.
• This story's title is a play on the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall.
  • According to one news source, the story also pays homage to Casino Royale, a 1967 Bond film centred on gambling and aristocracy.
  • The concept of MI6 members being known by a single letter ("C" and "O"), may also be a reference to a similar feature in the James Bond franchise ("M" and "Q"), first introduced in Ian Fleming's 1953 novel Casino Royale.
• The first part of this story was dedicated to the memory of the "Masterful" Terrance Dicks.

Ratings

to be added

Filming locations

to be added

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

to be added

Continuity

• A doctor offers Graham his condolences regarding Grace O'Brien's death. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• It has been four years since Graham's operation. Previously, in September 2018, he told the Doctor that he had been in remission for cancer for the past three years. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• As C claims to Team TARDIS, MI6 does not accept the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. However, the organisation has earlier been shown to be well aware of aliens, both making contact and using their technology. (COMIC: The Flood, Hunters of the Burning Stone)
• When C dismisses the possibility of alien life, the Doctor tells him to ask the GCHQ, refering to the Dalek attack of New Year's Day 2019. (TV: Resolution)
• The Doctor notes that both UNIT (TV: Resolution, PROSE: Lucy Wilson and the Bledoe Cadets) and Torchwood (TV: Doomsday, Children of Earth: Day One, AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers) are gone.
• The Master, while still under the guise of O, refers to the Doctor as having once been a man. (TV: An Unearthly Child, Twice Upon a Time, et al.) Graham recalls the Doctor having made this claim, which he believed to be a joke. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
• Graham is mistaken as the Doctor. (PROSE: The Good Doctor)
• The Doctor refers to her regeneration to female form as an "upgrade", much as Missy did. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
• The Master has used his Tissue Compression Eliminator to shrink the original O. (TV: Terror of the Autons et al.)

Home video releases

to be added

External links

• Official Spyfall, Part 1 page on the Doctor Who website