The Doctor Falls is considered the weaker of the two episodes and while I agree, it still has its fair share of incredible moments and that barn scene with Bill realising what’s happened to her is just pure gold.

……………. Oh yeah and the Master’s in this.

Now this might be seen as a hot take, but I don’t think this story really needed the Master, specifically the John Simm incarnation, Missy fits well with the story. But yes, it is entertaining having two different incarnations of the Master interact, the first time the show had done this idea and even for Big Finish they’d only got there first by about a year. Their scenes are a lot of fun, and it has a perfect ending for both incarnations.

I’ve never considered myself a fan of John Simm as the Master, admittedly most of that is down to spite as I was absolutely in love with Derek Jacobi’s performance in Utopia and three minutes later John Simm suddenly hijacks the role and gives us something significantly weaker. His Master felt like a villain role you’d give to Jim Carey, it just never sat well with me. Also, the drums idea was so stupid, particularly having it be the reason for him being evil when it never once came up in Classic Who, the audios or novels. Even today it’s never come up outside of musical scores, it’s like brining back Davros, giving him a clown afro and then have everyone act like it’s always been there!!!! And that’s just how he was in The Sound of Drums, he was so much worse in The End of Time! But with that said, he is actually really good in his return story. I love how he spends part one disguised as an odd caretaker who befriends Bill during her time at the hospital before pulling off the mask and revealing his true identity, that’s old school Master at his best. On top of that, his performance is significantly toned down which was one of the issues I had with him previously. He still has his zany moments, but they feel more natural, and he gets some really cold lines in this episode. So, it was a welcome return of a Master I was never a fan of, I just think you could’ve had the episode without him.

For actual issues I had with the story, the climax is literally the Doctor blowing Cybermen up with his sonic screwdriver shouting “Tomb of the Cybermen! Earthshock! Army of Ghosts!” at them, which sounds like the sort of thing a child would play out with their toys. Also, while the retcon of Bill’s “death” isn’t nearly as bad as Clara’s from Hell Bent, there is one line towards the end that utterly kills it, where her space girlfriend says she can restore Bill to her normal body and put her back home. I would’ve cut that line, I’m perfectly fine with Bill existing as a non-corporeal entity, free to travel the universe with her girlfriend (it’s a long story), especially considering how brutal and unforgiving the story was to her, I think she deserved some levity at the very end. But yeah, having that line about going back to living her normal life in her normal body just ruined the moment! I guess some things can’t be helped with Modern Who’s approach to companion exits.

My one other issue is the fact that this wasn’t the Twelfth Doctor’s regeneration story, it was originally planned to be, but when Moffat got wind that Chibnall was going to ditch the Christmas specials entirely (a move I frankly support), Moffat decided to step in and quickly write one more Christmas special to bow out his era and the Twelfth Doctor and boy did it show! This last one we had certainly felt like a story written at last minute, and it seemed to end the Twelfth Doctor’s era on a very cold note. Not to mention the abysmal inclusion of the First Doctor which made very clear that Moffat wasn’t a fan of the Hartnell years.

Popping my tin foil hat on, I do wonder if that reveal trailer we got for the Thirteenth Doctor back in 2017 was supposed to be her original first scene and how The Doctor Falls would’ve ended as it bears a lot of resemblance to where this story is set. I’m probably wrong but it did feel like that was how the story was going to end. If this had been Capaldi’s last story we would’ve had one of Doctor Who’s best regeneration stories, as is it ends up being probably the best penultimate story.