10:42 Well, the Master was stuck on Earth from the 1940s to the present day so maybe he got a directing job for the BBC in the 1960s during that time

Wait a second, Stuart's brain looks just like Moffat's... ARE THEY THE SAME BRAIN???

Clyde and Rani going to investigate a tech company guy by pretending to be journalists reminded me of that Sarah Jane episode where Yaz and Ryan did the same.

I must admit, I thought the whole 'destruction of Gallifrey' idea was just a quick reset to 2005, and worry that if this Master is the latest incarnation, it's just erased all of Series 10's attempts at character development.

Could Thirteen be a reverse Twelve? She starts off warm hearted and slowly becomes dark and cynical?

I will say, I think the reason The Timeless Child intrigues me so much more than most of the other mystery boxes, is that it feels like there have already been consequences as a result of it. The Master has destroyed Gallifrey after finding out what it means, and its made the Doctor question her whole existence. It isn't purely a 'mysterious word' in the background, like 'What is the Hybrid?' 'What is Torchwood?' 'Who is Missy?', which generally feel like empty promises of a better episode in the future. This time, it feels like there's some actual weight behind it, because it's already created drama for the characters. Of course, I have no idea if it will actually pay off well in the end, but it's definitely a strong start to a mystery imo.

"Right now vore is more powerful than most nations" 👀

To be quite honest, it would be interesting if Jodie could be like how Patrick treated the Doctor cause it would sorta be like how Capaldi’s Doctor has parallels to Hartnell’s. She is the second incarnation in this new set of regenerations. Sylvester was more of a reversal of Patrick’s Doctor where Patrick was a goofy enjoyable Doctor who was pulled into situations where he has to be dark for the better, where Sylvester plays a goofy enjoyable Doctor to hide the fact he is a very dark person. That moment in Spyfall seems like something the second Doctor did at the end of The Enemy of the World. He pretty much told Ramón Salamander to leave the TARDIS and face the mob that was definitely going to kill him.

The Doctor's throwing the Master to the Nazis is quite an odd scene to me. It's honestly a confrontation I'd expect to have read as a chapter in one of the 90s Classic Who books.

Don’t let the last episode be his Rise of Skywalker.

Stubagful: "Chris Chibnall is like the J.J.Abrams of Doctor Who and Spyfall is his Force Awakens" Me after seeing Rise of Skywalker and Series 12 finale: Then that finale is his Rise of Skywalker. Like you said, "A piece of Horse Shit".

"Oh muh guh, what if it's Ohmuhguh?!" It's never Ohmuhguh

Honestly, my standards are quite low, I'll enjoy most episodes of Doctor Who and even found Orphan 55 alright when everyone else hated it. I think the reason Spyfall works is because of the fact that the Master is there - it's absolutely the nostalgia. But it's also worth noting that the Master brings out a side of Thirteen that we never saw in series 11, and for lack of better wording, feels familiar. When she's with the Master she really feels like the Doctor more than ever, and I think that's what makes Spyfall so good.

I think the best thing about this season so far is how much more proactive and hero-esque The Doctor acts. She's no longer just waving around a screwdriver, she's actually acting like The Doctor. Yes, this is basically the bare minimum requirement, but at least they've finally fulfilled it

But - did we only like Spyfall Because The Master ? Yeh probably

I loved his little monologue in the gallery about how killing people gives him a buzz like he's doing what he was made for. This gives me an idea of where his head's at following the Missy redemption arc. While I'm a bit disappointed it never got addressed, let's face it people, there are two things The Master never does: Turn good and die. So my headcanon is that Missy managed to regenerate and escape the Mondasian colony ship, eventually make his way back to Gallifrey, figured out this Timeless Child thing and had a complete breakdown and reverted back to his evil ways because there's no point to anything in his eyes. He's very much a Master who's hurting and he's clearly overcompensating for his evilness after having to play nice for so long as Missy.

VOR me Daddy Chibnall

Some fans thought the name of Bartons company was a hint that the Kasaavins were actually the Voord, an alien race from the Classic Who story, "the Keys of Marinus".

is the transition in two years from Metalhead Stuart to short-haired bitter Stuart the Stuart IRL version of Dark Eyes?

Yeeeaahhhh. Lovely. I may have felt exactly the same about Spyfall. And then Orphan 55 happened...

hm, As an aviation/pilot nerd, VOR means "VHF Omnidirectional Ranging Radio". It's a navigation radio used to define a course from a transmitter over a distance of roughly 100 nautical miles. They are usually paired with DME Distance Measuring Equipment.

"but come on the season finale's got to suck Stewart, it's tradition!" LMFAO IM DEAD

I swear Jay Exci has live streamed with every channel on KZfaq at this point

As a retired channel once said, "It's Never Omega!"

Awh, hearing that it got you caring again makes me sad for what you probably thought of Orphan 55... Hopefully it's the only real dud in this season, as episode 4 was apparently quite good

It got me back into this era of Who again too. There were some glaring problems though. One of them is why on Earth does the Doctor ignore her TARDIS and steal some people's motorbikes to chase Barton? The TARDIS is faster, can fly, and they'd be a lot safer. It's also weird that at a posh party for billionaires, 4 of them attended on motorbikes - and also left their keys in the ignition. Furthermore, if the Doctor HAD done the thing she'd clearly do and used the TARDIS, she could've got on the plane and off again easily. That means the Master's entire plan hinged on the Doctor randomly deciding to not use the TARDIS and that there'd be some bikes randomly around instead. One last problem with that part is that it's so weird how the chase just ends. One second they're in a chase. Then it cuts and they're not. They're standing around as Barton is in the airport.

I never thought I'd look back at Moffat with such appreciation... thank you Chris.

Well, I would say Spyfall was Chibnall's Rise of Skywalker. Gallifrey was blown up. Then it didn't. And then it did. Sounds familiar?

I'm glad I'm the only one who couldn't stop giggling at VOR. Didn't expect you to be fond of this one at all

My concern with the timeless child is don't we already know every shady/evil thing the founding fathers did? We know from Zagreus that Rassilon forced most life froms in the universe to resemble timelords, wiped out giant vampires, invented regeneration and the order in which events run and locked away the Divergents, and its been implied that he outright betrayed Omega. The only other explanation is maybe something related to the Cartmell Masterplan which I really hope they don't do.

Given that retcons a previous character arc with the Master and undoes what the previous showrunner did by destroying Gallifrey again, I'd say it's more Chibnall's Rise of Skywalker.

I really liked the episode but it was mostly because of everyone BUT the Doctor. She just did nothing for most of it and I was waiting for her to act and take the initiative but she just kept reacting to everything until right at the end where she just solves everything by going back and changing the past (which wasn't the worst finale though, there's been far worse). The Master was the most interesting character to me in this, and the way the actor acted the scene in the tower and the message afterwards makes me wonder if he already knows what the timeless child is or he is just that good that he can imply such weight in the acting alone without really knowing. The tower scene with the acting also made me wonder if he really DOES come after Missy in the end and his going back to Gallifrey was a consecuence of that, and he only went back to not caring because of what he learned of the timeless child thing.

I found your point about 13 maybe becoming a bit more like 7 to be really interesting, because it would back up the popular thought that the modern Doctors mirror the classic series. 3/9 - Reintroducing the show to a new audience with a largely Earth bound tenure. 4/10 - Fan favourites which create the most iconic iterations of the character. 5/11 - Youngest actors to play the role. Hard follow-up to their predecessors. 6/12 - More brash portrayals of the character. Ratings start to fall. 7/13 - Actor with background in comedy brought into the role (and potentially similar character development if your theory is right). I wonder what this means. Is there only a certain number of ways you can write The Doctor. I don't think so. I certainly have my own ideas for the character. I'd love to hear what others think about this.

Excellent job man! Cheers for shouting out the podcast!

I appreciate, empathize with & respect the pain you go through dude ; you are one of the few YT Whovian's whose assessments I respect Kudos & thanks dudey dude

Nikola Tesla Night of Terror was awesome too and while it was very standard doctor who It was standard doctor who -educational with some freaky monsters and kinda camp

Well you wasn’t wrong about the finale lmaoooo

Finally someone honest! All the people like bowlestrek arent prepared to admit spyfall is good because their only goal is to hate

the voice in the back of your head is the remains of the giant brain of moffat, still haunting you... always haunting...

Chibnall kind of morphs from JJ Abrams to Ruan Johnson by the end of the series.

This is the first time I’ve watched a Doctor Who video from you (I found you through the video you did with Council of Geeks a while back). This was fun to watch! I can’t wait to hear your review of Orphan 55, that should be a hoot. Hang in there, episode 4 is a lot better. I personally like this darker side of the Doctor.

Oh, please keep doing dem reviews, Stu! Episode 5 has been mindblowing..... I liked it even more than Heaven Sent!

Good to have you back stu. How I've missed your batch of cynicism only to be destroyed by nostalgic moments.

Well after tonight's episode I'm definitely curious what you think now

Thanks for this Stu, I was like you and was so incredibly unenthusiastic about series 11 that I couldn't be bothered to watch series 12, I've been digging my heals in this whole time but I might now actually give it a try.

Also wondering if you're planning on covering moffats Dracula

I'm thrilled to see this review. There are some that hated the last series who seem to refuse to like anything about this one out of stubbornness. You've thrown yourself back in, run with it and enjoying it as a result. Much respect. For what it's worth, I think history will judge S11 as a pallet cleanser for S12. NuWho had got very complicated under Moffat, and I bailed around S8. It was nice to have S11 as a fresh start, with some simple (but still watchable) stories. Cleaning the slate ready for the throwback fest that seems to be S12. Having had a whole series with hardly any references to the past, seeing them resurface in S12 makes me feel the same sort of excitement when classic things were re-introduced in the first few RTD series. I'm here for it and glad to have you on the journey too!

i require immediate VOR

The Master getting thrown to the nazis was chibnall channeling his inner torchwood: which is what he's good at. More twisted dark stuff please xD. Great review aswell.

The Master apparently having been on earth for 70 years is the dumbest, biggest plothole in all of new Who, and it bothered me so damn much. I get that Chris steals from other stories, but did he really have to steal from Curse of Fatal Death as well?

She *had* just found out the master nuked her homeworld when she threw him to the nazi's though.

Calling chibs JJ is the coldest comparison ive heard levied against the man. Tough but fair

Holy smokes!! You pronounced "Omega" correctly! I've never seen anyone do that before!

2:32 That pause fucking scared me more than anything in this show

Doctor Who: ''Leaving me behind? HUHUHUHUHUHUHU! *I am part of you* - you can never escape from me, even my mid season trailer looks super good, you are mine for eternity, Stubagful.''

I honestly feel like The Master was exactly what the 13th Doctor needed at this point to bring out her character better. Series 12 has been a lot of fun so far, ignoring Orphan 55. Nikola Tesla's Night Of Terror was a good episode that felt like a fun filler from the RTD era, and I enjoy that - probably the most solid episode since series 10

In fact I feel like he also referenced The Curse of Certain Death when the Master walks into the hangar and says “Do you know how hard it is to live through the 20th century?” And I'm really glad that you liked it because I really liked it even though I was hugely disappointed with Series 11, and even though the 4 episodes that we have got so far are not completely devoid of the same issues pertaining to corny and unrealistic dialogue, Chibnall _has_ gotten better. Personally, I don't really mind if he recycles ideas, so long as the end result is as good as Spyfall Part 2. I actually feel like part 1 and part 2 are radically different because one had absolutely nothing fun about it whereas part 2 HAD THE FRICKING MASTER AND OH DO I LOVE HIM!!!! It's baffling to me that Chibnall writes such _abonimably_ cheesy dialogue for the humans, and yet his Time Lords are _spot-on!_ Yes, there was a ton of nostalgia bait, but I am fully aware of how easily I give in to nostalgia, and I hope that there's more to come in the finale at the very least.

You’re right here, it felt like docotr who over the bland series 11 but at the same time, it wasn’t the best doctor who, but it at least felt like I was watching my favourite show again

7:20 but the "references" in Spyfall is so obvious. I feel like he wanted us to notice...is it an anniversary or something?

We all know that The Timeless Child is either The Pythia or Vael from Cat's Cradle ;)

I was thinking 7th Doctor all the way through this episode. Chibnall managed to alienate a huge chunk of the fanbase with series 11, now he's finally made something good just when people have given up on the show. I suspect New Who will soon meet the same fate Classic Who did in the eighties, and episodes like Spyfall will be cult classics in 20 years time.

The first minute is already super depressing as I love seeing your reviews, but I was in your same camp. I couldn't finish series 11 because I was bored to tears and had lost interest in the show and finally the first episode premiered without me realizing because I wasn't keeping track of Who news and when it would premier but I finally watched it and loved it and now I'm tentatively back on to the modern Who camp and watching the episodes as they premier and kinda being excited about it. OH MA GOD is the show fixed!? Well not really I still don't feel like we are back to Moffat's lows yet (okay maybe not THAT bad Moffat's lows were preeetty fucking low but I still feel like the show currently is still less good than the average of Moffat's and Davie's runs) but I'm excited we are back on track to getting there. EDIT Oh god you and I were basically in the same camp too about series 8... Except for me it was more towards the middle where I just stopped watching the show for a few months and then tried to get back into it and to my fucking surprise what did I come back to? The two best episodes of the series Flatline and Mummy written by the Moffat-esque writer of the Moffat era, who was able to reinvigorate my love of Who! I literally stopped at the worst point!

Would you ever review the war doctor boxsets please stu

She already did similar thing with spiders last seasons. She wouldn't kill them, but she'll leave them to die. Same with Master here. Nothing new really.

I thought this episode was good and I was so pleased the show I love was actually making me happy again. Then orphan 55 happened and it completely desensitised me from the show and now the nikola Tesla episode which I thought I liked had no affect on me at all.

I hope that the Gallifrey thing is another 2 parter but the finale. I think done probably it could be great!!

Wow, I'm surprised that you enjoyed this. Truth be told, I saw this as more of the same stuff we got last season, though I was drawn in by the dynamic between The Doctor and The Master. Barring that, I thought this was just okay.

great review as per! agree with all of your points more or less, and the comparison to the force awakens is spot on, although does that make orphan 55 the controversial and not very good sequel?

is it just me or do the light monster silhouettes really look like The Voord? I know going really old school for that one but wouldn't be surprised if they showed up again and when the come to have form they're The Voord.

I found Spyfall part 1 super messy and all over the place Spyfall part 2 when it was all slimed down was much better

We now have a Stu illustration for vore. That's a handy time saver. Personally, I was not looking forward to that conversation with my mom.

For fuck sake Stuart what is this like the 5th time you’ve been possessed by a disgruntled doctor who show runner ?

I thought this two parter adhered to the time-honoured tradition of shit endings: the first half felt well constructed, while most of the payoffs felt rushed and unexplained. Why did Lenny Henry want to turn everyone into storage units? Why were the aliens targeting spies initially? Why did the conclusion utilise “I went back in time to work around your evil plan” a la curse of fatal death without making that element more of a central story feature for the companions? And why remove the masters perception filter when you’ve sent the nazi’s to get him? They won’t recognise him until he speaks.

Go to next episode with low expectations, the one after it is million times better.

Why isn't anyone bothered by the fact that several scenes are straight out missing? The Kasaavins surround the fam, Graham's laser shoes work on them - cut- doctor stuff -cut - it's day time and they're fine. What happened? Did Graham kill every single Kasaavin? Anyway, it's cool to see, but it's an epilepsy inducing sequence of scenes that keep changing. It's pyrotechnic, not clever. The Master keeps trying to kill The Doctor, until he stops and talk to her because... the drum sound? Because the plot needed so. The sonic screwdriver records voice. It was established in that scene from the parking lots, no, wait, that was Zootopia. It hadn't been established. The SS squad fires into the floor in order to kill whoever is hiding there, but luckily The Doctor and Ada were hidden UNDER THE FLOOR so they didn't get shot! So they fired in a different spot and our hero gets away because she's lucky. There's so much bad stuff. If one could see one part at a time, Spyfall would be dreadful, it would be a season 11 on its own, but here's the catch: it would be the whole series 11 in one episode. More stuff happens here than in the past series, so it's entertaining and I've over all enjoyed it

stubagful livestreams with jay exci- jay exci is a regular guest on efap- GET STUBAGFUL A GUEST INVITE TO EFAP

*shouts from the back* “IT’S SHIT”

Great video, I'm mostly in agreement with you on this one. But it's kinda shame that you haven't talked about the "KNEEL" scene that, as it's possibly the kinkiest thing in all of New Who.

Y'know maybe we should take a break from new who. I love listening to your big finish audio review.

The choice of title "orphan" for a planet that's been made uninhabitable makes me suspect the "timeless child" is going to be a planet. Either the Time Lords stole time-travel technology from a race that no longer exists because of it, or Gallifrey itself (being mainly desert) is the timeless child, once home to different people whose history was forgotten, and Time Lord society was built out of their destruction. Seems a bit too altruistic of the Master to destroy them over that, though. Not sure what his motives will turn out to be.

Three words - Nail on Head!

The Star Wars comparison is spot on, let's hope we don't end up with a Rise of Skywalker analogue here

I hope The Timeless Child turns out to be 'The Other' storyline that was originally planned for the Eighth Doctor.

Coming back to this episode after some time, I have to say that the bit where the Doctor weaponises the Master's ethnicity against him feels really out of place.

Don't forget the Logopolis reference

Ironically being an indian makes him more Aryan than the Germans. Since the real meaning of Aryan is Persian speaking

You missed out the classic era references xD

Can you please re-upload the Doctor-Retrospectives, again?

Doctor Who is now directionless. Ten years ago it was spearheaded by two elements. 1. The concept of his 13th incarnation being his last (which was resolved effortlessly) and 2. The loss of Gallifrey (which was ESSENTIAL for raising the stakes of the modern series). Without these, it's just random adventures which doesn't work like it used to because the modern episodes lack imagination. Compare them to the recent big finish releases, it says it all

To be honest, it was a bit better than series 11. It wasn't great, but was... Alright. I wasn't very sold on the new Master, he seemed too close to the Joker. The twist was good tho. Part 2 let it down imo. I didn't get the plan of the villains, nor the need for the spare companions the doctor meets. Also, "finally got some edge"?! The doctor was doing that stuff last season too! Using the DNA bombs, locking the spiders in the cell to starve, etc.

Oh man, what if Omega had been the solution to the time war in day of the doctor?

Totally agree with you

...and she died at 36 of uterine cancer. Spoiler alert! This is officially my favorite clip from any He Who Moans ever made.

The doctor handing over the master is fine on my part. Very 7th doctor.

Amusingly I think we had opposite experiences. I was ready to give Spyfall a chance as I didn't hate late series 11 but watching it made me completely drop the show. I might give it another chance but Chibnall is the king of bland.

I S I T O M A G U H ?

i feel like the new master would have been a better doctor

Omg. JJ he is!

I liked this two-parter for the most part, even though as you said Stephen Fry was completely wasted, and also the dialogue, particular in the first part, was really bad. And I couldn't help but feel like it was too soon for the Master's return. Especially since we literally saw Missy die right in front of us. And although the Doctor didn't see that, it would be nice if we at some point could get an explanation of how the Master survived dying, again. The Timeless Child arc intrigues me so I'm looking forward to seeing how that's resolved.

In my opinion a very entertaining set of episodes, but the more you look into it the more it falls apart and I began to realise nothing had improved.