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.
The Doctor's home planet Gallifrey also made a return, having not been seen since the Twelfth Doctor ran away once more in Hell Bent, with the Citadel now in ruins and the Times Lords implied dead at the Master's hand. In an ongoing story arc, the Master reveals that he has uncovered a secret about the Time Lords' history, connected to the Timeless Child.
The two-parter also saw two classic series features making a return: the Master's Tissue Compression Eliminator, and Time Lord telepathic contact, which the Doctor and the Master once again use to communicate via psychic link.
The story further introduced a new wall-breaking aspect to the Time Vortex. Now, when the TARDIS breaks into Gallifrey's "time bubble", the vortex changes from its normal appearance in purple to resemble an orange ball of flaming fire.
Synopsis
The security of the entire world is at stake, so head of MI6, C, enlists the Thirteenth 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 those of the TARDIS, known as the Kasaavin is wiping out spy organisations all over the planet. Can former MI6 agent "O" help them, or is he not who he claims to be?
Plot
Part One
Plot summaries should be concise, and only include plot-relevant details. Most of the finer points included right now need to be moved to References.
On the Ivory Coast, a sniper observes a vehicle, presumably containing her target. However, before she can take a shot, she is attacked from behind by an unknown creature.
On a passenger aeroplane above the Pacific Ocean, en route to Tokyo, a passenger is handed a washbag by an older passenger. Hiding within the cabin toilet, she finds microfilm hidden within the bag, which she observes and swallows. After this, she is attacked from behind by another creature.
In Moscow, an American operative returns to his safehouse in an attempt to escape a pursuer. As he calls for extraction, he looks above to see one of the creatures phasing through the ceiling. Unable to move, he only watches in horror as it attacks him.
In Sheffield, Yorkshire, Ryan Sinclair is playing basketball with his friends. After a missed shot, Ryan and his friend Tibo have a chat, talking about his absence due to his TARDIS travels - all of which have been blamed on appendicitis, a hernia and a detached retina. They stop talking as they see a car parked in front of them and men in black suits standing by.
At their flat, Sonya is pestering Yasmin Khan for Ryan's phone number while Yaz is packing. Hakim attempts to get the Alexa to work, and Najia looks at a piece of paper, scorning, and says to Yaz that this is the third secondment she's been selected for, all during her probation period. Yaz is proud, but Najia pushes on.
Outside the Hallamshire Police station, Ramesh Sunder, Yaz's superior officer, does not approve, thinking he is losing his best probationer. He asks if this is undercover work but they stop talking as two men in suits appear requesting Yaz.
At his doctor's office, Graham O'Brien is rolling up his sleeve. His doctor notes how the time has flown since his procedure 4 years ago. He asks some routine questions, then offers condolences on his wife. He proffers a tablet for Graham to sign, which he does, and mentions that he's travelling. Graham leaves the office and sees a parked car with two men in black suits.
At M.O.T., the Thirteenth Doctor has her TARDIS up on a car lift. She's wearing dark-tinted goggles and a worker's apron. Cables and tubes are hanging down from the TARDIS's bottom. The Doctor is leaving a group voice message to her "fam" on her mobile phone, saying they are late. She hangs up and turns to see three parked cars and six men in dark grey suits, one of them approaching her. She greets them, noting they are "rocking the ominous look". The man says her friends are in the car. The Doctor goes with them.
With the companions in the backseat and the Doctor in the passenger seat, the man is driving them somewhere, guided by SatNav. Suddenly, the SatNav starts to fritz out, then a red beam shoots from it, killing the driver. The car stops in the middle of the road and the doors lock by themselves. The Doctor tries to use her sonic screwdriver, but the SatNav starts up again, noting that in 5 seconds, they will all die. The car then starts up again, driving in reverse while the Doctor tries to stop it. Red beams shoot from the SatNav. The Doctor grabs the rearview mirror and uses it to reflect a beam back to the SatNav, destroying it. The car stops just before falling off the end of the road. "C" talks over the car's speaker, and convinces the Doctor to come to MI6, in London.
The team arrives at MI6. As they climb the stairs inside, the Doctor sees the TARDIS and notes that it's arrived undamaged. Graham remarks in wonder that he's always wanted to be a spy, and Ryan banters with him that he would be a terrible spy. "C" greets them at the top of the stairs, but mistakenly addresses Graham as the Doctor. When his assistant Franklin corrects him, he notes "I read the files, the Doctor is a man." The Doctor replies that she's "had an upgrade". "C" verbally defends himself from the Doctor's and Yaz's accusations and slights, then announces that he is authorised by "every security agency around the globe" and asks for help.
While walking down the corridor, "C" tells the team that intelligence officers of all nationalities around the globe have been attacked, potentially by aliens. Arriving at a door, "C" uses a wall-mounted hand scanner to access the room and leads the team in. The passenger attacked from the Tokyo flight is present, on a hospital bed. "C" hands the Doctor a tablet, revealing the passenger's DNA has been rewritten. The Doctor mentions that this is beyond any human technology.
In his office, "C" provides Team TARDIS with three briefcases of spy equipment. "C" reveals that all of the assassinated agents were working leads related to Daniel Barton, the founder and CEO of VOR, a modern tech company that is more powerful than most governments. The Doctor says she'll need his best man, but C replies that he fired him, as alien issues are not MI6's area. Irritated, the Doctor sends the former agent a voicemail, receiving an fish image in reply. "C" warns that Barton is likely now a double- or triple-agent but an unseen sniper kills "C" before he can say more, and starts shooting at the team. The team flees to the TARDIS as Kasaavin start phasing through the office walls.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor analyses the steganography of the fish picture and determines the agent's location is the Outback. A Kasaavin starts to phase through the TARDIS door, but fails when the Doctor engages the engines. The Doctor scans the doors with her sonic screwdriver but does not get a reading. The Doctor decides the team should split up. She and Graham go to Australia to meet the former agent, while Yaz and Ryan go to VOR. Along with the spy equipment they got from "C", the Doctor also gives Yaz and Ryan a bioscanner disguised as a digital recorder.
Ryan hacks Barton's diary arrange a meeting with him. Ryan is getting panicky but Yaz calms him down. Yaz and Ryan enter VOR headquarters in San Francisco as a journalist and her photographer and are greeted inside by Barton and his assistant.
The TARDIS materializes in the Great Victoria Desert. Former MI6 agent "O" and two Australian Secret Service agents, Seesay and Browning greet the Doctor and Graham. The Doctor asks if she can look around, and proceeds into O's house without waiting for an answer. Inside, "O" and the Doctor discuss the situation, and Graham reveals "O"'s security setup. "O" states he is cautious, believing the threat will follow the Doctor to him.
In Barton's office, he confesses he only granted Yaz the interview because they are "Brits" and his mum reads their paper. Yaz uses the bioscanner discreetly while Barton electronically verifies Yaz and Ryan's false identities. With Barton's approval, Yaz proceeds with the interview, while Ryan photographs Barton and uses a spy feature of the camera to duplicate Barton's security badge. Barton's mobile phone buzzes and he cuts the interview short; before leaving, he invites Yaz and Ryan to his house for his birthday party the next day as an apology. Ryan notes that he has duplicated the ID badge, but Yaz is worried because her scan indicates Barton has only 93% human DNA.
Graham and the Doctor find O in the Australian outback. In their separate investigations, both groups encounter the same luminescent alien entities, who appear to be cooperating with Barton. In Australia, the Doctor is able to capture one of the lifeforms who reveals their intent to occupy the universe. While sneaking into VOR's headquarters with Ryan, Yaz is attacked by one such entity and transported to a strange environment. The captured alien frees itself by swapping with Yaz, leaving her in O's base. Ryan is brought to Australia and regroups with Yaz, Graham and the Doctor.
Joined by O, the four investigate Barton at his birthday party. After being confronted by the Doctor, Barton denies all accusations put to him and angrily leaves in his car. The Doctor and her companions pursue Barton on motorbikes to his private jet. Leaping aboard the jet, O reveals he is actually the Master – having been in control of Barton and the aliens, a race known as the Kasaavins, the whole time. Barton then disappears from the pilot seat, leaving a bomb in his place. The Master says to the Doctor, "One thing I should tell you in the seconds before you die: Everything that you think you know, is a lie". The device detonates, shattering the nose of the plane and sending it into a nose dive. The Master then manages to escape and two of the aliens cause the Doctor to disappear from the plane, reappearing in the same environment Yaz was in earlier, leaving the others in the falling plane.
Part Two
In the aliens' dimension, the Doctor meets computer pioneer Ada Lovelace and grabs her hand when a Kasaavin appears, transporting them to an invention exhibition in 1834, where they encounter the Master. The Doctor realises the Master does not fully understand the Kasaavins when he asks her how she escaped their dimension. Ada takes her to the residence of polymath Charles Babbage, where the Doctor summons a Kasaavin via a figurine identical to the one in Barton's office, hoping to return to the 21st century. Ada grabs the Doctor's hand as she fades and they travel to Paris during World War II in 1943. They are rescued by British spy Noor Inayat Khan, with the Master posing as a Nazi officer through the use of a perception filter.
The Doctor meets the Master atop the Eiffel Tower, where the Master reveals that he had the Kasaavins kill spies to get the Doctor's attention. He also informs the Doctor that Gallifrey has been destroyed. With help from Ada and Noor, the Doctor destroys his filter and turns the Nazis on the Master, while her group uses his TARDIS to return to the present. Meanwhile, Ryan finds instructions to safely land the plane with help from a recording by the Doctor. Barton has made Graham, Yaz and Ryan persons of interest. They steal one of Barton's cars, taking them to a warehouse where they find his stern mother. Speaking at a conference, Barton reveals that the Kasaavin will rewrite humanity's DNA to utilise its storage capacity as hard drives. The Master, forced to live through the 20th century without his TARDIS, arrives in time to see the figurine device activate, only for it to fail after the Doctor meddles with the device and exposes the Master's treachery, sending the Kasaavins back to their dimension, taking the Master with them, while Barton calls for extraction.
After having set up the means for her companions to survive the plane crash, the Doctor returns Ada and Noor to their timelines and wipes herself from their memories. She visits Gallifrey's ruins, discovering a confession by the Master on how he destroyed their home planet after realising their understanding of Time Lord history was a lie, mentioning the "Timeless Child". Afterwards, her companions bluntly request the Doctor explains who she is. She tells them of what she believes to be her backstory.
Cast
- The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
- Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
- Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
- Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
- O / The Master[1] - Sacha Dhawan
- Daniel Barton - Lenny Henry
- C - Stephen Fry
- Ada Lovelace - Sylvie Briggs
- Noor Inayat Khan - Aurora Marion
- Charles Babbage - Mark Dexter
- 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
- Inventor - Andrew Piper
- Airport Worker - Tom Ashley
- Perkins - Kenneth Jay
- Barton's Mother - Blanche Williams
- Voice of Kasaavin - Struan Rodger
Uncredited cast
Crew
| Executive Producers Matt Strevens and Chris Chibnall | ||||||||||||
| Series Producer Nikki Wilson | ||||||||||||
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| General production staff Art department |
Camera and lighting department
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| 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. |
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Because this site places both episodes of Spyfall into one single article, it is slightly more difficult to properly represent the crew in the above framework. Episodes 1 and 2 did not share the same credits. Most notably, Part One was directed by Jamie Magnus Stone, while Part Two was instead directed by Lee Haven Jones. |
References
Individuals
- The Doctor once lived in the Outback for 123 years.
- The Kasaavin place agents on everyone important to the development of computers through history starting with Ada Lovelace including Alan Turing, Steve Jobs and Grace Hopper.
Technology
- Hakim tries and fails to use Alexa.
- The Doctor contacts "O" using an iPhone, through WhatsApp.
- "O" encrypted his location using steganography.
Popular culture
- Hakim asks Alexa to play Rubber Soul.
- Graham calls the grey-suited men's car the "worst Uber ever".
- Ryan decides that his spy name will be "Logan", but starts panicking upon realising he looks "nothing like Hugh Jackman".
- When describing his collection, "O" says that it includes a "complete set of 'Fortean Times' in mint condition"
- The Doctor introduces herself to the party receptionist as "[the name's] Doctor, The Doctor" in James Bond style.
- During the lead-up to his real identity, "O" states his house flying outside the plane is "[b]it Wicked Witch of the West".
- "O" makes a cup of tea.
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, both stories aired in part on New Year's Day, and both featured the Master.
- This is the first story in the show's history to have its parts air four days apart rather than a whole week. 1 January and 5 January 2020, respectively.
- The first part of this story was dedicated to the memory of the "Masterful" Terrance Dicks. Dicks was script editor for the Master's debut story, Terror of the Autons.
- 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, the first novel in the Bond series, which was centred on gambling and aristocracy.[2]
- The concept of MI6 members being known by a single letter, namely "C" and "O", may also be in reference to a similar feature ("M" and "Q") seen throughout the James Bond franchise, introduced in the original novels by Ian Fleming.
- Part One marks the first episode since Twice Upon a Time to include a "cold opening". Part Two, however used a re-cap of Part One rather than a new scene.
- Part Two is the first "follow-up" episode of Doctor Who to feature a re-cap with an opening voiceover: "Previously on Doctor Who...", read by Thirteenth Doctor actor Jodie Whittaker. The prior norm for Doctor Who, and indeed its televised spin-offs, was the use of an on-screen caption which typically read "Previously".
- This formula was previously used by Big Finish Productions in the recap to Neverland which opened Zagreus. In that case, the voiceover was provided by Don Warrington, who voiced Rassilon in both stories.
- Part Two is the first "follow-up" episode of Doctor Who to feature a re-cap with an opening voiceover: "Previously on Doctor Who...", read by Thirteenth Doctor actor Jodie Whittaker. The prior norm for Doctor Who, and indeed its televised spin-offs, was the use of an on-screen caption which typically read "Previously".
- Similar to The Return of Doctor Mysterio and its predecessor, Part One of this story aired exactly one year after the preceding episode.
- This story marked the first time a villain has been capable of physically breaking through the sealed TARDIS doors.
- This is the first multi-part television story to have more than one credited director since Planet of Giants in 1964.
Ratings
Filming locations
- South Africa - Australian outback
- Wales
- Cardiff Central Police Station - Hallamshire Police HQ
- Swansea Guildhall, Swansea - C's office, MI6
Production errors
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)
- The Doctor's life is once again threatened by a SatNav device controlled by a power intent on killing target passengers. In her tenth incarnation, the Doctor narrowly escaped from an ATMOS-controlled UNIT vehicle which was about to plunge him and Jenkins to their "final destination". (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)
- When C dismisses the possibility of alien life, the Doctor tells him to ask GCHQ, referring to the Dalek attack of New Year's Day 2019. (TV: Resolution)
- The Doctor remarks in surprise at an entity's abilty to enter the TARDIS given its high security. (TV: Rose, The Parting of the Ways, Journey's End)
- 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)
- Ada's involvement with the Star Chamber and Faction Paradox in the Clockwork Ouroboros affair were detailed in The Book of the War. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
- Graham is mistaken as the Doctor, (PROSE: The Good Doctor) and the Doctor herself is immediately dismissed, in favour of Graham, on account of her gender. (TV: The Witchfinders)
- The Doctor refers to her regeneration to female form as an "upgrade", much as Missy once did. (TV: The Witch's Familiar)
- The Master once again spends an extensive amount of time masquerading as someone else in order to carry out a long-term plan. (TV: The Sound of Drums, World Enough and Time)
- The Master uses his Tissue Compression Eliminator. (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Deadly Assassin, Logopolis, Time Flight, et al.)
- The Master claims to be the Doctor's "best enemy". Within the Death Zone, the Third Doctor previously identified the Tremas Master as such to Sarah Jane Smith. (TV: The Five Doctors)
- The Master uses his TARDIS again. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
- The Master mentions how the Time Lords view him and the Doctor as renegades. (TV: The War Games, Terror of the Autons, The Deadly Assassin, The Five Doctors, The End of Time, Heaven Sent, Hell Bent)
- Ryan says he is still unable to ride a bicycle. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
- The Doctor once again forgets to alter her language to account for her new gender. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
- The Fourth Doctor previously met Ada Lovelace at a later point in her life. (AUDIO: The Enchantress of Numbers)
- Graham recalls the Doctor mentioning regeneration on the day they first met. (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
- The Doctor taps a morse code of four beats, the heartbeat of a Time Lord, which she notes she and the Master have a personal connection to. (TV: Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time)
- The Doctor steals the Master's TARDIS, mirroring how the Master once did likewise with the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: Utopia)
- The Doctor and the Master use Time Lord telepathic contact (TV: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors et al.) once again to communicate with one another. (AUDIO: The Missing Link)
- The Master alludes to his part in the Fourth Doctor's regeneration asking if he had ever apologised for the Doctor falling from the Pharos Project radio telescope. (TV: Logopolis)
- The Master refers to Gallifrey "hiding in its little bubble universe". (TV: The Day of the Doctor, The Time of the Doctor)
- The Master remembers visiting Gallifrey after the Last Great Time War. (TV: The Doctor Falls)
- Hakim confidently asserts that he was right all along about a conspiracy theory. (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
- The Doctor wipes Noor and Ada's memories of everything they witnessed since meeting her. (TV: Journey's End)
- The Master has left a hologram message for the Doctor, which plays in the TARDIS after he is gone. The Ninth Doctor once did something similar, recording such a message for Rose Tyler as part of Emergency Program One. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)
- In the hologram, the Master references the Founding Fathers of Gallifrey. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell, The Infinity Doctors)
- The Doctor recalls hearing about the Timeless Child from the Remnants. (TV: The Ghost Monument)
- The Doctor tells her companions that she comes from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. (TV: Pyramids of Mars, Attack of the Cybermen, Voyage of the Damned, The Day of the Doctor)
- The Doctor states that she stole her TARDIS and ran away from Gallifrey. (TV: The War Games, Logopolis, The Five Doctors, Remembrance of the Daleks, The Sound of Drums, The Doctor's Wife, The Name of the Doctor, Heaven Sent; AUDIO: The Beginning)
- The Doctor has a conversation with Graham through a tape. The Tenth Doctor did much the same with Sally Sparrow. (TV: Blink)
Home video releases
to be added
External links
- Official Spyfall: Part One page on the Doctor Who website
- Official Spyfall: Part Two page on the Doctor Who website
Footnotes
- ↑ Dhawan is credited in Part One as "O", and in Part Two, as "The Master".
- ↑ Laford, Andrea (27 December 2018). Doctor Who Spyfall: new images and information. CultBox. Retrieved on 1 January 2020.
- ↑ Ratings - Radio Times
- ↑ Ratings - Doctor Who News