GALLERY
CAST
Regular Cast
Jodie Whittaker (
Guest Cast
Sacha Dhawan (The Master), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Janet Fielding (Tegan), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen), David Bradley (First Doctor), Paul McGann (Eighth Doctor), Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor), Jo Martin (The Doctor), David Tennant (The Doctor), Bradley Walsh (Graham O Brien), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Jacob Anderson (Vinder), Jos Slovick (Messenger), Patrick O’Kane (Ashad), Joe Sims (Deputy Marshal Arnhost), Sanchia McCormack (Train Marshal Halaz), Danielle Bjelic (Curator), Anna Andresen (Alexandra), Richard Dempsey (Nicholas), Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg (Dalek Operators), Simon Carew, Jon Davey, Chester Durrant, Mickey Lewis, Felix Young, Richard Price, Andrew Cross, Matthew Doman (Cybermen)
CREW
| Written by | Chris Chibnall |
| Directed by | Jamie Magnus Stone |
| Produced by | Nikki Wilson, Matt Strevens & Chris Chibnall |
SYPNOSIS
In this feature-length special to mark her last adventure, Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor must fight for her very existence against her deadliest enemies: The Daleks, the Cybermen and her arch-nemesis, The Master.
Who is attacking a speeding bullet train on the edges of a distant galaxy? Why are seismologists going missing from 21st-century Earth? Who is defacing some of history’s most iconic paintings? Why is a Dalek trying to make contact with The Doctor? And just what hold does the mesmeric Rasputin have over Tsar Nicholas II in 1916 Russia?
The Doctor faces multiple threats – and a battle to the death.
PLOT
The Doctor and her companions rescue a space-going bullet train from a Cyberman attack, but Dan is nearly killed during the escapade. Having developed a sense of his own mortality, Dan parts ways with The Doctor in order to get back to living his life. A renegade Dalek contacts The Doctor, claiming to have decided The Daleks need to be destroyed due to them being a perversion of the Kaled race. It offers information about a plot to destroy humanity, promising to communicate a time and location. Kate Stewart also contacts The Doctor and informs her that various pieces of famous artwork have been defaced with The Master’s visage and several seismologists abducted.
After briefly reuniting with former companions Tegan Jovanka and Ace McShane, The Doctor confronts The Master and learns he and his CyberMasters have teamed up with The Daleks and enslaved an energy being called the Qurunx, to end humanity by setting off eruptions from all volcanoes on Earth simultaneously. The Doctor meets the renegade Dalek, but discovers it had been allowed to contact her in order to lure herout, leaving The Daleks including their commander to kill the traitor and capture her.
The Master is arrested by UNIT, but reveals he sent a miniaturised Ashad to Tegan, pretending to be The Doctor. The miniaturised Ashad enlarges and acts as a portal to bring a fleet of Cybermen into UNIT HQ, freeing The Master. The Daleks take The Doctor to 1916 and hand her to The Master, who uses Gallifreyan technology to force her to regenerate into him. An AI program The Doctor created, taking the images of the Fifth, Seventh, Fugitive, and Thirteenth Doctors, leads Ace to meet with fellow former companion Graham O’Brien and destroy The Dalek volcano machine, Tegan to destroy the Cyberman converter created in UNIT HQ and destroy the CyberMasters before they convert Kate, and Yaz and previous ally Vinder to capture The Master and force him to undo The Doctor’s transformation. Defeated, The Master mortally wounds The Doctor with the Qurunx’ energy beam, causing her to begin her regeneration.
The Doctor takes Yaz home. Yaz meets with a group of former companions including Graham, Dan, Ace, Tegan, Ian Chesterton, Jo Jones, and Melanie Bush. The Doctor finds a beautiful sunrise to watch and regenerates into the Fourteenth Doctor. As the new Doctor examines himself, he discovers to his shock that he has regenerated to the form of the Tenth Doctor (although his clothes, changing in the process, were similar but not the same), and in surprise, exclaims “What? What? What!?”
REFERENCES
THE DOCTOR’S CLOTHING
After stealing The Doctor’s body, The Master dons the Fourth Doctor’s multi-coloured scarf, the Seventh Doctor’s jumper, and attaches a stick of celery on his lapel as worn by the Fifth Doctor. He also wears a tie very similar if not the same one worn by the Tenth Doctor. He also has the Second Doctor’s recorder tucked away in his coat.
The Fourteenth Doctor’s attire includes a white button-up shirt, with a lilac paisley tie and a loose fitting tartan waistcoat and trousers. He also wears a navy blue trenchcoat and Converse shoes.
TARDISES
The Spy Master’s TARDIS is a Type 75.
STORY NOTES
This story was created in celebration of the BBC’s 100th Anniversary, as part of BBC 100.
Despite all being featured in 1983 story The Five Doctors, this is the first story to depict both The Daleks, the Cybermen and the Master all working together.
This story touches on the circumstances of Ace leaving the Seventh Doctor’s company, an event which was not seen on-screen but was most recently depicted in the novel At Childhood’s End, written by Sophie Aldred. The Power of the Doctor contradicts At Childhood’s End by having Ace meet the Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan and Graham O’Brien for the first time, though At Childhood’s End does establish that Ace’s timeline has multiple possible futures.
Tegan’s claims that she hasn’t seen The Doctor since 1984 contradicts the Big Finish audio The Gathering, where the Fifth Doctor catches up with her in 2006 just as she’s about to celebrate her 46th birthday. It also contradicts the date given by Fixing a Hole for the events of A Fix with Sontarans, which was set on 23 February 1985.
Mel is listed in the ending credits as “Melanie Bush”, marking the first time on television that her surname, which was previously only established in audio and books, has been used.
Jo is listed in the ending credits as “Jo Jones” which is the first time on television that her married name has been used on credits. It was previously given in dialogue in The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor.
This story is the first on-screen appearance of William Russell as Ian Chesterton since 1965 story The Chase.
The new BBC logo returned to the title sequence having been absent since Eve of the Daleks.
The end credits also changed to groups instead of scrolling. This was last seen in Revolution of the Daleks. The text for the character names and crew roles were also changed to bold last seen for the title card for The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
This episode is the first to have two actor’s names appear at the same time in the title sequence, in this case Sophie Aldred and Janet Fielding.
This is the first case of the Doctor regenerating into an incarnation that looks like a previous one; in this case, the Fourteenth Doctor looks like the Tenth Doctor, but remains unknown if this means the Tenth’s personality traits re-emerge with his face.
The Curator (who looked like an aged Fourth Doctor) had told the Eleventh he would be revisting some old faces; but just the favorites. The second part of the Curator’s foreshadowing now serves as a fourth wall message to the audience, who previously enjoyed David Tennant’s time on the show.
The Master refers to his plans as The Master’s Dalek Plan. This is a reversal of the 1965 story’s episode title The Daleks’ Master Plan. This was previously done in the title of a Big Finish Productions audio story featuring the War Master, The Master’s Dalek Plan.
Jodie Whittaker was pregnant while filming this story.
According to Chris Chibnall, this story was filmed in the belief that it was to be the last story of Doctor Who, as he didn’t know about who would take over from him.
The post-regeneration scene with David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor was filmed seperately at a later date.
The Doctor recalls The Master creating the CyberMasters. (The Timeless Children)
Tegan last saw The Doctor 38 years ago. (Resurrection of the Daleks)
Ace mentions it being three decades since she last met The Doctor. (An Alien Werewolf in London)
Kate is rebuilding UNIT. (Survivors of the Flux)
The Doctor asks The Master how he escaped Gallifrey, (The Timeless Children) which he mentions having “ransacked”. (Spyfall)
The Master taunts Tegan by mentioning her Aunt Vanessa. (Logopolis)
Ace recalls that The Master was “half cat” the last time she saw him. (Survival)
The Master is aware of the Time Lords enforcing a regeneration onto the Second Doctor. (The War Games)
Both Ace and the Master acknowledge that she had a “fall[ing] out” with the Seventh Doctor. (At Childhood’s End)
The Master mentions he killed Ashad. (The Timeless Children)
Ace refers to the Cybermen’s weakness to gold, (Silver Nemesis) and UNIT has guns with gold bullets. (Code Silver) Ashad reveals that the Cybermen have overcome this weakness. (Nightmare in Silver)
The Master has made attempts to take The Doctor’s body before. (The Keeper of Traken, The TV Movie)
The Master says that he has “dressed for the occasion” before taking The Doctor’s body. (The TV Movie)
Yaz has post-it notes on how to fly the TARDIS. (Revolution of the Daleks)
Vinder uses the communications device The Doctor gave him. (Once, Upon Time)
Tegan confides to the Fifth Doctor’s image that seeing the Cybermen makes her think of Adric. (Earthshock)
The Doctor has previously met past incarnations after death in her mind. (Zagreus)
When in The Doctor’s body, The Master plays the recorder. (The Power of the Daleks)
Ace has forgotten that she was taught to pilot a TARDIS and piloted both her own (Intervention Earth, Enemy Lines) Irving Braxiatel’s TARDIS (Soldier Obscura) and the Doctor’s TARDIS. (The Vaults of Osiris) She is also surprised at someone else piloting it, despite knowing that Melanie Bush taught herself to do it. (The Quantum Possibility Engine)
Yaz recognises the Fugitive Doctor as a tour guide she met in Gloucester. (Fugitive of the Judoon)
Graham owns psychic paper. (Revolution of the Daleks)
Ace recalls fighting The Daleks in 1963. (Remembrance of the Daleks)
Cortalian also had a Type 75 timeship. (Going Once, Going Twice)
Ace’s regret on how wrong she was about the Seventh Doctor mirrors these events:
The Doctor remarks on the “blossomiest blossom”, akin to the Third Doctor’s recollections of the “daisiest daisy”. (The Time Monster)
The regenerated Doctor remarks on his teeth, (The Parting of the Ways) and repeats the word “what” in rapid succession. (Doomsday, Last of the Time Lords, Time Crash)
The Doctor changes clothes when they regenerate. (The Tenth Planet, The Power of the Daleks)
Graham, Yaz, and Dan, are invited to a meeting of some of the Doctor’s past companions, alongside Tegan, Ace, Ian Chesterton, Jo Jones, and Melanie Bush. A similar meeting was previously organised by Alice Obiefune. (The Meeting)