World Enough and Time (TV story)

The episode marked the return of John Simm as the Saxon Master, acting alongside Michelle Gomez's Missy, and the first onscreen appearance of more than one incarnation of the Master. In the vault arc, the Doctor, notably, takes Missy on her first adventure, and entrusts her with his two companions.

This episode began with what appeared to be the beginning of the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration.

It also depicted a third alternative account of the genesis of the Mondasian Cybermen — different origins have been shown in the comics The World Shapers and The Cybermen, and the audio story Spare Parts.

Synopsis

The Doctor decides to test how good Missy has become by sending her on a trial run with Bill and Nardole. However, when things go wrong, the Doctor takes over. With Bill trapped in a different time zone, can the Doctor make it to her before it is too late, and who are all those people getting cured?

Plot

The Doctor stumbles from his TARDIS onto a snow-filled landscape, repeatedly chanting no as he falls to his knees. He begins to regenerate.

Sometime prior, the Doctor decides to test if Missy can turn good, despite Bill's objections. They discuss it further in St Luke's kitchen, Bill claims even Nardole will resist, but the Doctor assures he won't as he "thought it that way", Nardole sheepishly agreeing. Their short dispute causes the Doctor to become emotional, something that amuses Nardole, who takes a selfie with him to chronicle the moment. Later that day, Bill and the Doctor eat together, the latter convincing her it is a good thing to let Missy try to prove herself as she was once his "man crush". After a brief discussion about the Time Lords and gender stereotypes, Bill confesses that Missy truely scares her. The Doctor tries to promise he can ensure Bill won't die, but admits it can't be guaranteed. Regardless, he assures her that he will be there should things get out of hand.

The plan set, the Doctor drops Missy, Bill and Nardole off on a colony spaceship facing a black hole in the hopes of saving it. Missy introduces herself as 'Doctor Who' to the cameras, which she claims is the Doctor's real name despite the Doctor denying such. He soon becomes impatient with their progress, walking around the TARDIS eating crisps. Missy finally follows suit by deducing why a distress call was made. She also mocks Nardole and Bill's roles as "comic relief" and "exposition" given their genders. They are soon met by a blue skinned humanoid named Jorj who demands to know which one of them is a human. Bill confesses, the Doctor exiting the TARDIS, taking charge as Jorj prepares to shoot Bill as creatures at the bottom of the ship begin to come up in the elevators. Despite the Doctor's pleas, Jorj shoots Bill in the chest, mortally wounding her. Figures with bandaged faces in hospital gowns collect her body, and, using a voice synthesiser, claim that they will fix her but shall not return. The Doctor trusts them, leaving a psychic message for Bill to wait for him when she awakes.

Jorj threatens the Doctor when he attempts to scan the elevators but is threatened by Missy with her umbrella, who states only she is allowed to kill the Doctor and that it will only make the Doctor cross. Once things settle down, the Doctor explains that due to the lower part of the ship facing away from the black hole the timezone is faster than the one they are in, the top floor, using a red pen in his sonic screwdriver to illustrate. He also states that the creatures on board the ship are the descendants of the crew who went to the lower part of the ship when it got dragged towards a black hole and needed to be reversed, as decades have passed for them even though it has only been two days for Jorj. The Doctor then knocks out Jorj using Venusian aikido so that he and the others can follow Bill. Nardole, stating it has been ten minutes for them, wonders how long Bill has been living below, to which the Doctor replies he hopes they aren't too late.

Meanwhile, at the base of the ship, Bill awakes in a hospital ward with a cybernetic heart, too shocked to look at it. A feral caretaker looks at her before running off. Bill eventually clambers to her feet and begins to follow the noise of someone chanting "pain", soon finding it be another patient on the ward. She goes to fiddle with its voice synthesise but has to hide as the feral man and a nurse enter the ward, the nurse turning off the synthesiser. The caretaker, revealed to be called Mr. Razor, takes a liking to Bill and brings her to his room. He explains how time passes really slow for them compared to the top and offers Bill tea. He also shows her a live feed of the upstairs, which Bill then spends her time watching despite its extremely slow pace. Months go by, Bill eventually being put to work cleaning the hospital while plagued by the Doctor's message to keep waiting.

After being there some years, Razor takes her out of the hospital, the floor being called 1056, revealing to her that the patients are being converted in preparation for "Operation Exodus" as the humans' finite lifespan cannot survive the journey back up to the top. After a while, Bill's cyber heart fails, forcing them back to the hospital.

More years pass, Bill eventually convincing Razor to take her to the elevators so she can be transferred back upstairs. However, it was revealed to have been a scheme to condemn Bill to a full conversion. The prototype patients restrain her as the surgeon remarks how the headpiece he will fit on her head will inhibit emotion so she won't care for the pain of the process.

Meanwhile, the Doctor, Missy and Nardole make it to the bottom floor, the Doctor having Missy delve into the ship's computer history to find out what has occurred below, annoying Nardole as that tends to be his job. He and the Doctor explore deeper into the hospital, finding a surgery room. The Doctor uses his sonic to activate the light above the bed, Nardole jumping in surprise at there being partially converted patients in the room. Elsewhere, Razor approaches Missy as she researches, the Time Lady threatening to kill him if he comes closer than three feet.

The others eventually learn of "Operation Exodus", while Missy simultaneously learns the ship came from the planet Mondas, twin planet of Earth. Razor teases her again, drawing a pistol, agitating Missy enough to confront him directly, but he discards the weapon, as he would be harming himself. Razor states that he is "worried about his future" and is surprised Missy can't remember being on the ship beforehand. He talks to Missy about his love of disguise, wondering if she still likes disguises, revealing he is in disguise so that Bill did not recognise him as a former prime minister. Razor takes off his mask, revealing himself as the Saxon Master, in his "Harold Saxon" incarnation. He greets his future self, smiles and says "give us a kiss".

In the surgery room, the Doctor opens a door, revealing a complete Mondasian Cyberman. Backing away, he confirms he means no harm and asks for Bill's location. To his horror, the Cyberman asserts that it is Bill. Missy and her predecessor enter, the latter surprising the Doctor as they profess they have made "the genesis of the Cybermen". Bill begins to cry beneath the mask, as the episode ends.

Cast

Crew

to be added

References

Locations

After being taken by a group of Patients, Bill is moved from Floor 0 to Floor 1056.

Cybermen

The Patients are partially-converted Cybermen.

Science

Due to time dilation, time is slower on one side of the ship than on the other.

Technology

The sonic screwdriver can be used as a marker pen.

Culture

Missy briefly dabs.
According to the Doctor, Time Lords don't have fixation on gender and gender roles that humans do.
Nardole takes a selfie with the Doctor.

Foods and beverages

The Doctor eats a packet of crisps.
The Doctor and Bill eat chips.
Bill eats a bacon sandwich.
Nardole eats a Jaffa Cake.

Story notes

File:Brian Minchin Talks World Enough And Time - The Aftershow - Doctor Who The Fan Show

The read-through for World Enough and Time took place on 21 February 2017, and filming took place between 24 February and 28 March.
This episode marks the first on-screen appearance of the original design of the Mondasian Cybermen since the First Doctor television story, The Tenth Planet in 1966.
This episode marks the return of John Simm's Master, who last appeared in The End of Time in 2010.
This episode marks the first time that more than one incarnation of the Master has appeared on-screen.
The Master's line comparing the scenario to being more like a "Genesis of the Cybermen" is a reference to the 1975 Doctor Who story TV: Genesis of the Daleks, which showed the Fourth Doctor being sent to the creation of the Daleks. Following the success of Genesis of the Daleks, a story entitled Genesis of the Cybermen was planned, but never produced.
For the first time in the show's history, the Doctor actually self-identifies using the name "Doctor Who". However, it does seem like a bit of an in-joke. He has previously been referred to as such: in The War Machines, WOTAN says "Doctor Who is required" (due to a script mistake); in The Highlanders, the Second Doctor introduces himself as "Doktor von Wer" (German for "Doctor [of] Who"); in The Underwater Menace, the Second Doctor signs a note with "Dr. W."; in The Dæmons, the Third Doctor introduces himself as "the great wizard Qui Quae Quod" (Latin variations of "Who"); from Doctor Who and the Silurians to The Five Doctors and in What He Wants..., the Doctor's car Bessie's plate read WHO 1, in Battlefield it read WHO 7, and in The Dying Days it read WHO 8; in The Kingmaker, the Fourth Doctor wrote a series of children's books accidentally published as Doctor Who Discovers; in Rose, a website called whoisdoctorwho.co.uk asks "Who is Doctor Who?"; and in Fogbound, the Master addresses a postcard to the Third Doctor as "Dr. Who". Although Missy claims that "Doctor Who" is the Doctor's real name, she also explicitly says she calls herself Doctor Who to head off the usual response heard when the Doctor introduces himself and people reply, "Doctor who?"

Ratings

3.37m (UK Overnight figures)

Filming locations

Scenes outside the hospital were shot in Cardiff Bay.

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

The Doctor notes Missy's use of the TARDIS to retrieve him along with Bill and Nardole from Mars. (TV: Empress of Mars)
Blue-skinned humanoids are seen again. (TV: The End of the World, The Pandorica Opens, Oxygen)
The original Mondasian Cybermen appear again, and Mondas is shown on a screen. Missy notes that it's a twin to Earth. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
- In his fifth incarnation, the Doctor saw the Mondasians who remained on Mondas convert themselves into Cybermen for a similar reason. (AUDIO: Spare Parts)
- This is at least the fourth time the Doctor has witnessed the "genesis" of some form of Cybermen. (AUDIO: Spare Parts, COMIC: The World Shapers, TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)
Missy previously encountered the "Harold Saxon" Master. (COMIC: The Abominable Showmen / The Five Masters)
The Doctor has been on another space colony that orbited a black hole. (TV: The Impossible Planet / The Satan Pit)
The Doctor has to travel to a different time zone of the same location to rescue his companion, who waits for him, but he arrives too late. (TV: The Girl Who Waited)
The topic of the Doctor's "real name" is discussed. (TV: The Name of the Doctor) The Doctor again states how he actually likes being asked "Doctor Who". (TV: The Bells of Saint John) Missy also claims to know the Doctor's real name; previously, River Song possessed this knowledge (TV: Forest of the Dead, et al.) and Clara Oswald briefly did so before a time reset. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)
The Doctor is shown regenerating. (TV: The Parting of the Ways et. al)
The Doctor says going on an adventure is something he and Bill do on Saturdays, just as Wednesday used to be his day for adventures with Clara Oswald. (TV: The Bells of Saint John, et al.)
The Doctor refers to him and the Master meeting at the Time Lord Academy. (TV: The Sound of Drums, PROSE: Divided Loyalties, TV: Terror of the Autons)
The Doctor and Missy each mention how they met at the Academy on Gallifrey and how they chose their names that day, among other promises. (TV: The Sound of Drums, The End of Time)
The Doctor mentions the Master's desire to destroy the universe rather than explore it, as they had initially promised. (TV: Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time)
The Doctor tries to remember if he ever had a female incarnation. All incarnations of the Doctor up to and including the Twelfth are accounted for in TV: The Day of the Doctor, so the answer would appear to be no. This isn't the first time, however, that a question mark has been raised over past incarnations of the Doctor and whether all are indeed accounted for. (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
Bill remarks on how Gallifreyans differentiate gender by calling themselves "Time Lords" and "Ladies". (TV: Dark Water)
The Cybermen are shown to be able to cry and feel pain. (TV: Doomsday, Rise of the Cybermen)
The Doctor knocks out Jorj using Venusian aikido. The fighting style was prominently used by his third incarnation. (TV: Inferno, Colony in Space, The Mutants, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, COMIC: The Celluloid Midas)
The surgeon explains that the headpiece of the cyber-suit acts as an emotional inhibitor so Bill won't care about the pain. (TV: The Age of Steel)
Once again, the Doctor witnesses a companion suffer a mortal injury, (TV: Face the Raven, Forest of the Dead) only for technology to be used to arrange for them to stay alive; in all cases, their hearts no longer function. (TV: Hell Bent, The Name of the Doctor)
Other associates of the Doctor have previously been converted into Cybermen, such as Jackie Tyler (TV: Rise of the Cybermen), Yvonne Hartman (TV: Doomsday), and Danny Pink (TV: Death in Heaven). It similarly occurred when Oswin Oswald was converted into a Dalek. (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
The Master has allied with Cybermen before. (TV: The Five Doctors, Dark Water / Death in Heaven, PROSE: Birth of a Renegade)
The Master adopted the guise of "Razor" so Bill would not recognise him from his time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. (TV: The Sound of Drums / The Last of the Time Lords)
The Master is sporting a beard, similar in style to his previous incarnations. (TV: Terror of the Autons - Frontier in Space, The Keeper of Traken-Survival) He also mentions and displays a love of disguises, as, again, in past incarnations. (TV: Time-Flight, et al.)
Missy not remembering being on the ship in her previous incarnation echoes how the Eleventh Doctor didn't remember meeting his other selves until "time caught up", in TV: The Day of the Doctor. In that story, the War and Tenth Doctors, along with all other incarnations involved, did not retain memories of saving Gallifrey until the Eleventh Doctor went through that adventure himself.
When the Master unmasks himself, an alarm bell in the background sounds in time with a drumbeat. The drumbeat is also heard when he enters the operating theater alongside Missy. The Master has had an association with drums before. (TV: Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time)
The Doctor criticises Bill for eating a bacon sandwich when arguing about Missy's morality. This echoes an earlier conservation between the two. “Hardly anything’s evil. Most things are hungry. Hungry can look a lot like evil from the wrong end of the cutlery. Do you think your bacon sandwich loves you back?” (TV: The Pilot)

Home video releases

DVD releases

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Blu-ray releases

to be added

Digital releases

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External links

Official World Enough and Time page on the Doctor Who website