GALLERY
CAST
Regular Cast
Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yasmin), Toshin Cole (Ryan), Bradley Walsh (Graham)
Guest Cast
Lennie Henry (Daniel Barton), Steven Fry (C), Buom Tihngang (Tibo), Andrew Bone (Mr Collins), Shobna Gulati (Sonya Khan), Bhavnisha Parmar (Najia Khan), Ravin J Ganatra (Hakim Khan), Christopher McArthur (Ethan), Darron Meyer (Seesay), Dominique Maher Browning (Australian intelligence agent), Melissa De Vries (Sniper), William Ely (Older Passenger), Brian Law (US Operative), Ronan Summers (Rendition Man)
CREW
| Written by | Chris Chibnall |
| Directed by | Wayne Yip |
| Produced by | Nikki Wilson, Adam Friedlander & Alex Mercer |
SYPNOSIS
The time traveller returns for a fresh set of adventures. When intelligence agents around the world come under attack from alien forces, MI6 turns to the only people who can help – a certain Doctor and her companions. As they travel the globe in pursuit of answers, threats arrive from all sides, leaving Earth’s security resting on the team’s shoulders. But where will this planet-threatening conspiracy lead them?
PLOT
In various locations around the world, a sniper, a spy on a plane, and an American operative are attacked by unknown creatures. In Sheffield, Yorkshire, Ryan Sinclair plays 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 different illnesses. They stop talking as they see a car parked in front of them and men in black suits standing by.
At their flat, sonya pesters Yasmin Khan for Ryan’s phone number while Yasmin is packing. Hakim attempts to get the Alexa to work, and Najia is annoyed at that this is the third secondment Yaz been selected for, during her probation period. Yaz is proud, but Najia pushes on. Outside the Hallamshire Police station, Ramesh Sunder, Yaz’s superiorofficer, does not approve, thinking he is losing his best probationer. He asks if this is undercover work but are interrupted by two men in suits 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 wile 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 materialises 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 last thing. Something you should know 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 inearlier, leaving the others in the falling plane.
REFERENCES
TECHNOLOGY
Hakim tries and fails to use Alexa.
POPULAR CULTURE
Hakim asks Alexa to play Rubber Soul.
Ryan decides that his spy name would be “Logan”, and starts panicking upon realising he looks”nothing like Hugh Jackman “.
The Doctor introduces herself to the party receptionist as “[the name’s] Doctor, The Doctor” in James Bond style.
THE DOCTOR
The Doctor once lived in the Australian outback for 123 years.