12 Notable Moments From World Enough & Time
Mark McCullough makes his choices from the eleventh episode of Series 10.
What an episode World Enough & Time was! Never did I think that I would have been sitting down to discuss what is probably the best episode Doctor Who has ever produced, and I don’t say that lightly. So, without further ado let’s get cracking with twelve things that especially stood out as worth talking about:
12. The Doctor Regenerates
11. Missy is the Doctor
The contrast between the tone of the episode’s opening and the rest of the story is a stark one. The scenes where Missy is having her go at being the Doctor to prove that she has changed for the better are among the most light-hearted in the history of the show. There’s a lot that’s played specifically for humour and Gomez laps this up thriving with the script to bring us Missy on as good form as we have seen her. Nardole and Bill are essentially relegated to mere bystanders as Missy takes the centre stage with even the Doctor enjoying things watching on screen with a packet of crisps. Inevitably things go horribly wrong as Missy underestimates the situation putting Bill in grave danger which ultimately costs her her life.
10. Doctor Who
I didn’t think Moffat would have left without attempting to answer the one question which has been oh-so prominent in his era: Doctor Who? Missy is the perfect person to approach this topic as she obviously knows the answer as she has known the Doctor forever. It should be worth considering that this should be taken with a pinch of salt, as the narrative itself does with the suggestion that Missy is just winding Bill up. There’s a nice symmetry also with the scene where the Tenth Doctor comments on the Master’s choice of name being a psychiatrist’s field day to here where Missy suggests that the Doctor’s was chosen to be mysterious for the sake of it. Once again Moffat does what he does best and answers a huge mystery without having it set in stone, this appeases everyone as you can take from it what you want and also offers an in narrative explanation for production errors when listing the character’s name.
9. The Concept
This part of the article is going to get a little Sciencey Wiencey as we look to get into the concept that underpins the episode. The story behind this one is a heart-warming one, coming as a meeting of the minds between Moffat and his son. The idea is that of Time Dilation and a super long spaceship meaning that time passes at different rates at different ends of the ship. Time Dilation is the idea that time is affected by gravity which in turn is affected by mass. It is indeed a concept that is true to reality with time on an airplane passing at a different rate to time on the ground. This effect is increased in the narrative using a black hole, an area of extreme amounts of mass, and by extension gravity. This affects how time passes on the ship with minutes close to the black hole becoming years when you move away. This is how the ship was able to be colonised in apparently no time at all and is most likely how the different generations of Cybermen marketed in this episode eventually comes about.
8. Metatextual Elements
One of the most intelligent elements of the episode was the commentary it offered on the show itself. There’s a bit of overlap in this analysis, but that’s necessary to highlight these wonderful pieces of writing. At the start of the episode we have the jokes around the Doctor’s name, the revelation is that it was chosen to create mystery. Whilst in narrative this might have been a joke, in a meta context, it’s literally the reason why the show bears the moniker it does today. We have Missy assigning narrative roles to characters and the Doctor literally sitting back and watching Doctor Who with a packet of crisps. This is something that is echoed again later on but contextualised even better. We see Bill and Razor watching the Doctor as a form of escapism from the difficulties that they face daily, a beautiful scene which shows an exceptional insight from Moffat on the importance of the show. There are more metatextual moments too such as but not limited to: The Master’s suggestion of a better name for the episode, a commentary on the mannerisms of the Doctor and the Master’s disguise.
7. The Doctor Master Relationship
The relationship between these two characters has been the arc of this series so it’s no surprise that the narrative here brings it to the fore. Ignoring the opening scenes as I have already commented on those above as focusing on the Doctor trying to make Missy a better person. The more interesting elements comes when the Doctor is trying to explain to Bill why. Understandably Bill is apprehensive about giving Missy a chance, and doesn’t trust her with good reason. It falls to the Doctor then to justify why she deserves a chance. The scenes where he describes their childhood together are a highlight and really shows a more human side to both characters. I also think it was a very good decision by Moffat to have the relationship as indescribable as that is the most realistic description of such an iconic relationship.
6. Body Horror
The Cybermen have proved to be a rather divisive enemy in the revived series with some viewers struggling to take them seriously. The reason for this was probably the way they were treated by the narratives, serving little more purpose than generic baddies and often on the receiving end of the ‘defeated by love’ trope. Here we see a completely different use for the monster as the narrative opts to explore the nature of the Cybermen rather than feature them in a traditional role. Oh boy does it work producing what is easily the best performance of the Cybermen arguably ever. There’s something completely unnerving about the idea of being in constant pain and not being able to do anything about it, for some this is a reality and will only have made the episode more harrowing. Arguably the most terrifying aspect of the whole affair is the fact that is established as having a consensual nature, people are knowingly choosing to go through this torture and that concept leaves me feeling very uneasy.
5. The Master of Disguise
I’ll hold my hands up here and openly admit that I did not see this one coming. Ironic really considering my belief that announcing Simm so early would ruin his eventual appearance in the episode. I could not physically have been more wrong, with the narrative transpiring that I didn’t have an inkling of Razor’s identity until the scene he shared with Missy. This made the reveal a whole lot more effective as it had me questioning how I was able to miss something which should have been so obvious for so long. In truth the reason why myself and a few others I have spoken to believe this to be the case is due to the emotional investment in Bill and her struggle with partial Cyber-conversion. It’s a classic Moffat twist right up there with the single headed statues in The Time of Angels where he shifts the viewers focus enough to be able to pull the rug out from underneath them. I’m glad he got to do so one more time before he leaves.
4. Bill’s Relationship with the Master
Previous point considered, the fact that Razor was the Master all along considerably enriches the episode on re-watch and allows us to comment on Bill’s relationship with yet another Time Lord. Also, it is worth pointing out the fact that due to the Time Dilation, Bill has actually spent a lot longer with the Master than she has with the Doctor. Due to the time they have spent together, the relationship between them is as you would expect, they are quite close and the Master appears to be quite protective of her. Later in the narrative we have the suggestion that this was all a ruse and the Master was playing a long game. However, in retrospect I don’t believe this to be the case as the relationship seemed genuine with nothing to suggest that it wasn’t. There is evidence that the Master was remorseful about betraying her, or even wanted to avoid doing it in the first place. Obviously with Bill’s fate the cliff-hanger of the episode and very little of the Master outside of disguise seen in this instalment it is impossible to say anything for definite, but I would hope the relationship continues to be as interesting in the finale.
3. Genesis of the Cybermen
Another worry I had going into the episode was the rumours circulating about Bill’s fate. The fear was that Doctor Who would fall into the unfortunate trope of killing off the most progressive companion to date. As it stands this appears to be a route that the show has taken, however it would be foolish to forget the twist that occurred when Clara was placed in a similar situation last year. I have huge faith in Moffat as a writer and am definitely a fan of his writing, so there’s an element of trust there that he will handle the Bill situation in an appropriate manner. As such I can happily say that I that I was very satisfied with the twist which the episode was building up to naturally. The actual delivery too was completely heart-breaking with CyberBill identifying herself and telling the Doctor how she waited for him. The scene takes on even more impact with the realisation that this makes Bill the first proper Cyberman in existence. As cliff-hangers go, it’s also one of the best in New Who to date.
2. Production Values
This is an area I have neglected to focus on much with these articles and that is rather unfair of me. The show this year has been at such a consistently high quality with every episode wonderfully realised. That said the bar here was well and truly raised with one of the most beautiful Doctor Who episodes in recently memory. Credit where it is due to Rachel Talalay does an exceptional job of framing this narrative capturing the scale of the ship and the horror of the Cybermen. A highlight was the reveal of CyberBill at the end of the episode where the reveal started at the boots then depicted the full horror of the situation as she stepped out from the shadows. CGI in the episode was also top notch with the black hole of a quality that wouldn’t look out of place in a Blockbuster film. Credit should also be given to veteran Murray Gold who scores the episode to perfection adding a mix of tension and nostalgia which helped the episode reach its full potential.
1. Themes
It’s very hard to highlight what I want to highlight here without having the full picture. It’s even harder to do so without making this segment into an article of its own right which is probably what I’ll end up doing with a slight overview here. Thematically one obviously parallel is with the second episode of the series: Smile, this most evident in the premise of a carrier ship with a skeleton crew in a story about the relationship between man and machine. World Enough and Time acts as a thematic successor to the majority of Series Ten, echoing Oxygen with Bill in peril, Extremis with the Missy arc, and Thin Ice with the societal structure on the ship. However, this is more than just a bookend to Series Ten, but the entire Moffat Era too. This allows the episode to draw some of the more overarching themes which it does so effectively. One of the biggest thing that jumps out to me is going to be the subject of the aforementioned future article, the thematic mirroring of a character’s final story, and their second story. I’ve already mentioned the thematic parallels for Bill in with Smile. For the Twelfth Doctor, his second story explored the nature of an iconic Who Villain and if they could possibly be good. Looking slightly further back, Clara’s second adventure in The Rings of Akhaten focuses on the infinite potential of a life cut tragically short, only for her swansong to feature her travelling the stars fulfilling that infinite potential between one heartbeat and her last.
