Chris Chibnall’s Newfound Love of Continuity
Feature by Robert Colonna.
I personally enjoyed Series 11 of Doctor Who, but I did miss the continuity of past seasons. I understand that Chris Chibnall wanted to make the last season more approachable to newcomers and wanted to differentiate himself from Steven Moffat’s continuity-infused seasons, but I do think he went too far in the opposite direction. Aside from a fez and a few callbacks like mentioning the wasp in “Kerblam” and bringing back the Daleks, Series 11 was mostly devoid of callbacks to the 50+ years of Doctor Who. Watching Parts 1 and 2 of Spyfall show that Chris Chibnall is now ready to embrace the show’s history.
In Part 1, Doctor is still using the flip phone that the 10th Doctor got from Martha. I thought that was a nice callback that doesn’t distract from the opening montage. UNIT and Torchwood get mentioned, which isn’t surprising because Chibnall helped run Torchwood, and he brought the Kate Stewart UNIT into the show. The bow tie outfit, while also being an homage to James Bond, bears a striking resemblance to both Tennant’s tuxedo and Matt Smith’s second outfit. Finally, the Master is back to shrinking people again, and his life as O is similar to Harold Saxon. It is in Part 2 that Chibnall takes continuity to an entirely new level though.
At the start, the conversation between Graham and the Doctor on the plane’s screen very much reminds me of the majority of Moffat’s “Blink”. The Doctor gets the Master’s attention by using a Morse Code of four beats, and directly references the drumbeats of the John Simm Master. The console of the Master’s TARDIS also mirrors the Doctors like in the classic series, while also having a passing reference to the Rani’s TARDIS console. When the Doctor is ready to talk to the Master she says “Contact”, similar to how the classic Doctors said it to each other when sharing information. I was happy to see that back again and the way the Master also says it is very classic. I agree with the Doctor; nothing wrong with classic.
While on top of the Eiffel Tower, the Master asks if he apologized for pushing the Doctor off the tower leading to her 4th incarnation having to regenerate. There were a few surprising references to Moffat’s parody The Curse of Fatal Death by trapping the Master back in time making him live through decades to get back to her before sending him somewhere else again. Like in that story she beats the Master by going back in time and planting her trap just as the Master had done. Couch of Reasonable Comfort anyone?
The Master uses a perception filter, which is something we haven’t heard of in a while, but the biggest continuity has to come at the end. When the Doctor removes the memories of his two new friends, it is similar to the end of Series 4. Removing Ada’s memories very much reflects removing Donna’s memories in both the way the Doctor does it and her reaction.
The Doctor appears to be the Last of the Time Lords again (aside from the Master…again) and Gallifrey has burned once again. Finally, the line where the Doctor reveals where she is from is a reference to Tennant’s “I’m the Doctor. I’m a Time Lord. I’m from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous …” in both “Voyage of the Damned” and “The Day of the Doctor”.
All of this makes me very excited for the rest of Series 12. It seems Chibnall has really found his footing and is ready to embrace Doctor Who’s history, while still taking it in a new direction. To me this is a welcome addition to Whittaker’s run in the TARDIS. I hope you enjoyed this analysis of the first two episodes and I hope that this is something that follows in the rest of Series 12.
