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The Doctor Falls (TV story)

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The Doctor Falls was the twelfth and final episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It saw the departures of both Bill Potts and Nardole, and the apparent end of the Master's life.

Expanding on the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration teased in the previous episode, it saw him mortally wounded in battle against the Cybermen. The regeneration would be postponed, however, as the Doctor refused to change, displaying how he hates having to be different people when he grows accustomed to being in an incarnation for a long period of time, mirroring the Tenth Doctor's attitude towards the process.

The episode also shows the events leading to the Saxon Master's regeneration into Missy, with the male Master being mortally wounded by his female successor, and he in turn seemingly killing her, this being an example of why, unlike the Doctor who has teamed up with his past and future incarnations, the Master very rarely works with any of his past or future incarnations as he would eventually double-cross himself. With the mystery of how the Master had regenerated into Missy now being shown, this would mark the last appearance of John Simm as the Harold Saxon incarnation of the Master.

The story featured several connections to the 1966 serial The Tenth Planet, including a story featuring humans from Mondas, and featured appearances by the Cybermen from said planet.

More surprisingly, the episode featured the unexpected return of the First Doctor, now portrayed by David Bradley (who had previously portrayed William Hartnell in the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time). This marks the first time since The Five Doctors that the adult First Doctor had been portrayed outside of archive footage, after the First Doctor appeared as a child in Listen, and the second time since The Tenth Planet where the First Doctor was in a regular episode of the show, even though it was a short appearance.

Synopsis

As he struggles to resist regenerating, the Twelfth Doctor prepares to make a last stand against the ever growing army of Cybermen. However, with Bill still a Cyberman, and Missy gradually turning to her old ways as the Saxon Master reminds of her of who she used to be, can the Doctor convince his old friend to finally be good before he falls?

Plot

The episode opens to a group of farmers, adults and children, on Floor 0507 facing against the prototypes from Floor 1056, dubbed "Cyber-scarecrows", shooting them down by night to then restrain on wooden crosses by day. A school child is out in the field one morning when a shuttlepod blasts through the ground, crash landing near her. From the rubble, a Cyberman walks out carrying an unconscious Doctor.

Sometime earlier, the Doctor awakes on top of the hospital, soon recalling how he was subdued by Missy and the Master and Nardole fled and deduces thst the Master was exiled from Gailifrey thus has been hiding on the colony ship. The Doctor, now restrained in a wheelchair, watches the two incarnations of the Master taunt him on the many deaths the Doctor has had and wanting to find out new ways to kill him. The Master and Missy dance and flirt with each other and gloat of their plan of the Cybermen converting all the humans on the ship and jokingly calling the Doctor "granddad" and reminding the Doctor Bill is now a Cyberman. However the Master is stunned to find that the Cybermen are heading towards the building that they are perched on. The Doctor explains that when he was knocked down by Missy, he altered the signal of the Cybermen so they would convert two-hearted beings as well, hence why they are now focusing on the Time Lord's presence. The Masters panic, Missy frantically using her sonic umbrella to lock a metal door to hold back advancing Cybermen while the Master uses his laser screwdriver to destroy advancing Cybermen. The Doctor brags that he is the only one who is has able to stop so many Cybermen at once. Realising this, a conflicted Missy knocks the Master out and frees the Doctor from his restraints. The Doctor starts wondering which side she is on to which she admits her indecisiveness as she is confused and her other half is unconscious.

Nardole, who had commandeered a shuttlecraft, lands near the roof to help escape, but the Doctor is grabbed and electrified by a Cyberman before he boards. Bill, in her cyber form, intervenes, destroying the Cyberman with a blaster based on her head. Missy and the Master try to convince Nardole to abandon the Doctor, but Bill prevents the shuttle from leaving, grabbing the ladders until they rescue him.

They escape to a higher floor on the ship, where time moves slower. They find themselves on a solar farm, where some of the humans and a large number of children protect themselves from the early Cybermen prototypes from Operation Exodus. They spend two weeks there while the Doctor recovers from his injuries. Bill awakes, in the barn, unsure why the villagers are scared on her. When given a mirror by a child, she becomes horrified to discover she was converted into a Cyberman. The girl goes to run but bumps into the Doctor who thanks her for being kind to Bill, offering her a jelly baby as she leaves. The Doctor has somewhat recovered from his injuries, though he still ha a scar from where he was hit by the Master.

Trying to console Bill, she gradually realises that though she thinks she is human, she is still a Mondasian Cyberman in appearance, created by a perception filter, according to the Doctor. She grows angry, the Doctor backing away as Bill accidentally triggers the blaster on her head, igniting the door on the barn, causing an explosion. Nardole, who has been preparing the town for the oncoming Cybermen, passively tells the farmers not to worry.

Bill sheds a tear when she realises the humans are frightened of her, and the Doctor wipes it away, noting it unusual. The Master tells the Doctor that he and Missy have been working on something, and pauses briefly to mock Bill, chastising the Doctor for still referring to her as a female and taunts how he hated the time he had to spend with Bill as "Razor". He stops because Bill claims he is not upsetting her, though she cries beneath her mask when he leaves. The Doctor finds it odd she is still able to shed tears. While traversing after the Master, the Doctor struggles to walk, limping heavily. He briefly stumbles against a tree, regeneration energy attempting to trickle from his hand. Wanting to not worry Bill, he draws up a stick and carries onwards but Bill is still distraught that the Doctor can't fix her current condition, the Doctor remarking there is still hope as she is strangely able to cry.

They soon reach the middle of a forest where Missy has discovered a camouflaged lift in the nearby forest, which she suggests they can escape to the bridge, using her sonic umbrella to call it. However, the Doctor declares that there will no doubt be a Cyberman in the lift waiting to find their floor, as the lift was taken to the bottom by them previously. Understanding this, Bill orders them to stand aside, the Doctor convincing the two Masters to do so. The three Time Lords prepare behind Bill, drawing their respective devices. As guessed, the lift brings up an advanced Cyberman from the lower floor, Bill speedily firing on it with her cyber blaster, the Master following likewise with his laser screwdriver as the Doctor and Missy use their sonic devices to slow its advance with a barrier. After several seconds, they disable it.

The Doctor warns that (through the Cybernet) they will now have much more time to plan, given they now know what floor they reside on, so they must prepare for a battle. While Nardole discovers that the floor below this one has many fuel pipes that he can detonate as weaponry against the Cybermen, the Doctor finds a conduit to another solar on a higher floor that can be used to evacuate the children, knowing this is a fight they will likely lose. The Master and Missy decide to leave and plan to find the Master's TARDIS at the lowest floor. The Doctor runs after the two Masters, pleading for them to be by his side to help, as doing so would just be kind. The Master ridicules the idea, saying that he didn't listen to a word the Doctor said. However Missy was somewhat moved by the Doctor's speech. However she sides with her predecessor.

At the lift, Missy tricks the Master into dancing with her and fatally stabs him, forcing his next regeneration. She announces she will return to help the Doctor, but when she turns her back, he fires his laser screwdriver at full blast, also fatally wounding her and disabling her regeneration. The Master comments that it is the perfect ending, with them both shooting themselves in the back. They both laugh as they die; the Master descends in the lift as Missy seemingly dies from the blast.

An initial wave of Cybermen arrive, but using Nardole's tricks with the explosives, they are able to make the humans appear more powerful, forcing the Cybermen to retreat and develop a new plan, giving the humans more time. Against Nardole's protests, the Doctor downloads the plans for the floor into his sonic screwdriver and sends him to help evacuate the children, intending to stay alone to fight the Cybermen. Nardole resists, the pair arguing over who really should die, the Doctor eventually convincing him helping the children will be his penance for his crimes he committed before meeting him. Bill also insists on staying with the Doctor despite Nardole trying to tell her otherwise.

With all the humans evacuated, the Doctor and Bill prepare for a last stand, each deciding to charge into opposite ends of the forest. Bill says one last goodbye to the Doctor, even joking briefly about her sexuality, assuring him she had still retained her humanity. We that, they face the oncoming wave. The Doctor ignites several of the Cybermen, listing the numerous times he has defeated them while doing so. However, he is inevitably surrounded and receives a full strike from one Cyberman's laser beam. Falling to his knees, he prepares to ignite the floor but it struck again, the blast proving fatal enough that his body attempts to regenerate. Refusing to give in, he holds it back and ignites all the pipes below the floor, engulfing it all in a wave of destruction, destroying all the Cybermen. Above on floor 0512, Nardole waits outside of one of the lifts, hoping the Doctor and Bill will return however, the children convince him to move on and focus on living with them now.

Back downstairs, the floor is now a wasteland scattered with destroyed Cybermen. Bill, barely functioning, finds the Doctor severally wounded. Bill mourns over the Doctor's body, but suddenly she finds herself out of the Cyberman suit, seemingly human, thanks to Heather (from The Pilot) who found her by her tear and restored her to be like she is now. They take to the Doctor's body to the TARDIS, and Heather, as the Pilot, directs the TARDIS to a new location, while offering Bill to live out a different life, and Bill accepts. Before leaving, Bill sheds a tear on the Doctor, but does not wipe it away, saying "Where there's tears, there's hope."

The TARDIS lands in an icy planet. The Doctor, after dreaming of some of his previous companions, wakes up and starts regenerating. He tries fighting it off, recalling the last words of some of his previous incarnations in his confusion. He managed to control the regeneration, angrily stating that he does not want to change again, hating the fact that he must become someone else. He steps outside, declaring to the TARDIS it doesn't matter where she has taken him, he won't listen. Out in the snow, yet again his regeneration attempts to start. The Doctor screams no and stops the regeneration by shoving his fists into the snow, again stating he will not change. Suddenly in the distance he hears a voice mocking his words. The stranger asks for the Doctor's identity. The stranger states that while the Doctor may be a Doctor, he "is the Doctor, the original you may say". Much to the Doctor's shock and surprise the stranger is revealed to be his own first incarnation.

Cast

and

Crew

General production staff

Script department

Camera and lighting department

Art department

Costume department

Make-up and prosthetics

Movement

Casting

General post-production staff

Special and visual effects

Sound



Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.


References

Vehicles

  • Nardole pilots a shuttle labelled SL-16.

Music

Story notes

  • This marks David Bradley's first appearance as the First Doctor in a DWU television story. Bradley previously portrayed a fictionalised version of William Hartnell, the original actor to portray the First Doctor, in the non-DWU docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, in which Bradley reenacted scenes from several First Doctor serials.
  • The Doctor's mention of Marinus as a planet on which the Cybermen originated (COMIC: The World Shapers) is another rare instance of the TV series directly referencing non-televised material.
  • This episode wraps up the stories of several recurring characters;
    • Bill and Heather begin their own travels through time and space, Bill leaving the Doctor behind in the TARDIS.
    • Nardole stays behind on the Mondasian ship to help Hazran and her children escape the Cybermen.
    • The Saxon Master is forced to regenerate by Missy after she stabs him. Both agree that he then regenerates into Missy, in his own TARDIS, and he forgets the whole adventure.
    • Missy is killed by her previous incarnation, left unable to regenerate. In their own words, they were stabbed in the back by themselves.

Ratings

  • 3.75m (UK overnight figures)

Filming locations

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

Home video releases

DVD releases

to be added

Blu-ray releases

to be added

Digital releases

to be added

External links

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