Like the Witchfinders, this is another otherwise great adventure hamstrung by the same issues that plague this whole era.

There are legitimately fun elements of this story: the overall homage to James Bond is a fun idea for Doctor Who and little moments, like the tuxedo glow-up, "The name's Doctor. The Doctor," and the finale car-chase really lean into that. But it could have leaned in more, and incorporated other elements better. We get a classic-Bond/weird-gadget scene before we're even given a mission, for example. And it would have been nicer if the cinematography leaned into the Bond aesthetic more as well. We get a quick shot of each companion and the Doc playing casino games, but these moments are not shot in the visual language of the Bond films. There's no tension, no staredown. The dialogue surrounding these games features no clever double entendre.

These moments just happen and nothing is gained. Why do Graham and Ryan win big? I was expecting a reveal that the Doctor rigged it so they'd blend in or something, but no. It just happens and we move on. Because in Bond they do casino games, you see.

The episode is also dragged down by other problems that infect the rest of the Chibnall era. The dialogue is boring and descriptive but it's delivered like we're supposed to think it's snappy or clever. Characters just describe what's happening; at best, they go, 'oh wow, this is happening.' They don't say things that reveal their character or make us smile or laugh or build tension or really add to what we're already seeing in any way. This is a problem with most Chibnall-era episodes but it's particularly glaring here where we're being asked to think about another franchise known for its punchy dialogue.

The 13th Doctor is once again awkward and passive, which remains a strange direction to take this character. And again, it's particularly glaring when we're being asked to compare her to Bond, who is the polar opposite.

For example, once the Doctor and fam are abducted, C's driver is taking them to MI6. The characters talk briefly, just to establish that none of them know where they're going. It's not hard to imagine, say, Capaldi's Doctor in this same situation taking the opportunity to be humorous and rude, maybe insulting the driver for just following orders. You can hear Capaldi's accent calling the driver "stupid," maybe even goading him into telling the crew where they're headed (12 could follow up by calling him "not a very good agent" after he reveals this information). In the episode we get, it's just a dead moment where we could have had humor or character (and would have had, in a previous era). That said, turning the car ride into an action set piece is very Bond, and the Doctor's quick thinking with the rearview is clever and well-done.

I like the idea of the Spymaster and Sacha Dhawan is an excellent actor. If anything, the reveal could have been drawn out more. It would also have been nice to base that reveal on some hint dropped earlier in the episode, instead of just a slip of the tongue at the last moment. But a lovely twist all the same, and Dhawan's little details completely sell us. The way he flicks away the shrunken agent who's life he stole is such a great flourish. Evil, callous, funny, dangerous, all in a moment. You almost have to forgive the episode its faults for reintroducing the Master in style. Almost.

I think this review is getting too long, so I'll save some thoughts for Spyfall, Part 2. Particularly, the problems with reintroducing the Master at all, and the way Ryan and Yaz are handled. But it seems more fair to address those in Part 2 since this episode is clearly setting up more for that hour.

Whatever my qualms with the Chibnall era may be, and they are innumerable, I cannot deny this is a pretty strong and impressive episode. I remember watching it and getting really excited and optimistic for Series 12. I don't feel those feelings ultimately are merited or would even pay off with Part 2 of Spyfall, but yeah, Part 1 does a pretty good job overall.

The idea of spies being killed around the world by alien stuff is interesting and feels like a great Doctor Who story. And unlike normally with the Chibnall era, the production actually does a decent job of executing the idea and creating a fast-paced story. Once again it feels like our companions and even the Doctor are non-characters. Ryan has a disability that never effects him, Yaz is a cop that never uses her experiences or lets it affect her attitude around anything, and the Doctor is here to carry us from one story to the next.

Graham is pretty consistently fun though, and that reveal of the Master might be Sacha Dhawan's take on the character at this best. From a production standpoint in particular, I found that impressive and they did a great job with the plane reveal and the dramatic music around it. This feels like a point where everything kind of goes downhill from here, especially in regards to the Master, but at least they had a good start.

By far one of my favorite season openers, you have MI-6, going undercover, creepy aliens, James Bond style story beats, and the Master! All the actors are top of the game on this episode, including Sacha Dhawan, playing a wonderfully unhinged Master. Even though I knew about the reveal at the end, I think it's one of the best surprise reveals in the show, you don't expect it at all.

To the negatives, I do think the Master reveal was a little abrupt. The Doctor breaks apart a small bit of his cover story and then he decides to just abandon his cover. Though, it seemed like it was part of his plan to reveal himself then anyway.

Also, it wasn't clear what happened to the billionaire guy in the plane? He just disappeared and a bomb was there instead.

At this point I’m not really looking forward to the influx of Jamie Magnus Stone directed episodes over the next two seasons, and the direction in this episode in particular is exhausting. I feel like the common complaints people have with this era’s closeups, wide lenses, light being far too colorful/distracting, etc, are really laid bare in this episode. No framing/blocking decisions felt motivated at all, and it leaves me as an audience member bored visually and wanting more from the script as a result. And there’s not much to that either so this episode upon rewatch was kind of a dud.

O as the Master is something I became very excited about when I watched this on broadcast. I like him a lot in this episode. Sacha Dhawan’s ability to embody the Doctor’s arch rival. There’s a moment where O tempts Graham to learning more about the Doctor, and talking about her contradictory experiences, very clearly setting up the finale. But I think it’s Dhawan’s subtle Masterisms breaking out that makes the scene interesting. Other than the performance, there is not a single clue that O is not who he says he is. On a screenplay level, it rings very hollow on rewatch, and even Dhawan’s performance ended up being pretty tiring as the show went on from what I remember.

The fam are now structurally not a new family anymore, they’ve been family for a while now. I don’t think this is intentional but there are several scenes in this episode where two of the four talk and it’s always revealing how these characters have very little intimacy and yet we feel like the characters are subtly wanting closer connection. Pretty much every relationship between these four has an unspoken awkwardness to it. For example, when Yaz comes back to the mortal world and Ryan comforts her after abandoning her. He apologizes and pats her shoulder and tells her he’ll never let that happen again and Yaz turns and cries. Now there’s no romance there, it’s just two people who are not intimate with each other, and he can’t help her at all because a closer friend or a significant other would be able to understand Yaz. But instead there’s this underlying sadness that this fam will never be a fully happy family, and they’re all happy together because of shared trauma. I know the mixture of unambitious writing and sincerity of the show is likely the cause for this subtext, but the subtext is there.

I like a lot of what’s going on here though. The globetrotting identity of this story works very well in my opinion. The final fifteen minutes are fantastic. The Kasaavin are neat if not a bit generic. Thirteen has a good moment playing against Lenny Henry, which is probably the highlight of the episode.

Amazing!

So much action and suspense from start to finish, and the new aliens were creepy. Loved the cinematography with the weird forest Yaz then later the Doctor ended up in, the spy stuff, the EPIC James Bond-esque music and I did not see that 'O' Master reveal coming.