Spyfall Part 1
When spies around the world begin disappearing, MI6 begins rounding up the Doctor’s companions on Earth so they can find out what the Doctor is. But as the Doctor and friends are being driven to MI6, the in-dash GPS of the car taking them there suddenly lashes out with lasers – admittedly not a standard feature – and vaporizes the driver before the car itself tries to drive the time travelers to their deaths. The Doctor turns the GPS’ weapon against itself and gains control of the car, driving it to MI6 anyway. The Doctor’s attention is drawn to the missing spies – and the fate of the missing spies who have been found, now no longer fully human, their DNA forcibly rewritten. Another attack, this one within MI6 headquarters itself, reveals the face of the inhuman power that the Doctor is up against: creatures who can appear to be made of light one moment, and can pass through solid matter (with considerable effort) the next. The only MI6 agent who seemed to have any idea about this invasion is sequestered in the Australian outback, and is most enthusiastic to meet the Doctor and to join in the investigation…until he reveals himself as one of the Doctor’s oldest enemies, before delivering the Doctor into the hands of the new enemies with whom he has allied himself.
written by Chris Chibnall
directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
music by Segun Akinola
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O’Brien), Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair), Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan), Sacha Dhawan (O), Lenny Henry (Daniel Barton), Stephen Fry (C), Shobna Gulati (Najia Khan), Ravin J. Ganatra (Hakim Khan), Bhavnisha Parmar (Sonya Khan), Melissa de Vries (Sniper), Sacharissa Claxton (Passenger), William Ely (Older Passenger), Brian Law (U.S. Operative), Buom Tigngang (Tibo), Asif Khan (Sergeant Ramesh Sunder), Andrew Bone (Mr. Collins), Ronan Summers (Rendition Man), Christopher McArthur (Ethan), Darron Meyer (Seesay), Dominique Maher (Browning), Struan Rodger (voice of Kasaavin)
Notes: Sacha Dhawan has plenty of Doctor Who history, most notably starring as Waris Hussein in the 50th anniveresary docudrama An Adventure In Space And Time (2013); he has also appeared in several Big Finish audio stories (The Reviled, 2014; Fallen Angels, 2016; Ghost Walk, 2018, and the 2017 Torchwood audio story Zero Hour). Here he plays a previously unseen incarnation of the Master. Struan Rodger previously provided the voice of the Face of Boe during the David Tennant era (New Earth, 2006; Gridlock, 2007).
LogBook entry by Earl Green
Cast: Jodie Whittaker (
Notes: The Master has resumed use of his signature weapon, the Tissue Compression Eliminator, which made its debut alongside the Master himself (Terror Of The Autons, 1971); it was last seen when another incarnation of the Master was trying to “improve” it (Planet Of Fire, 1984). The “knock four times” rhythm that drove a previous incarnation of the Master insane resurfaces here (featured heavily in 2007’s The Sound Of Drums and both parts of 2009’s The End Of Time). Gallifrey was forced into a pocket universe in 2013’s Day Of The Doctor for its own protection at the end of the last great Time War, though a later incarnation of the Doctor visited it in Hell Bent (2015); as it turns out, Gallifrey didn’t stand very long. The real Ada Lovelace went on to develop a correspondence with the real Charles Dickens (a fictionalized version of Dickens met the ninth Doctor in 2005’s The Unquiet Dead; it’s probably safe to assume that they never compared notes about their strange friend with the time-traveling blue box, since the Doctor wipes Ada’s memory of their shared adventure here).