Spyfall Part Two is finally here, at the heart of this episode is the relationship between The Doctor and The Master.
When we left The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) is trapped in a mysterious realm while Graham (Bradley Walsh), Ryan (Tosin Cole) and Yas (Mandip Gill) are still in a crashing plane. The whole team look as if they aren’t going to survive however thanks to chance meeting for the Doctor, she manages to send help back in time for her friends.
Part Two sees the Doctor being plunged into The Royal Gallery of Practical Science in 1834 and Paris in 1943. Considering Part One felt like a James Bond film, Part Two doesn’t have the same atmosphere maybe this is due to each episode has had a different director. Jamie Magnus Stone directed Part One, while Lee Haven Jones has directed this episode which might explain why this second part has a different look and feel compared the previous part.
Jodie Whittaker is on top form as the Doctor. We get to see her out of her element as she is trapped in the past and hiding from The Master. Sacha Dhawan as The Master is fantastic as he puts on another great performance in this second episode. Whittaker and Dhawan are great together, we see how strained their friendship are but we also see the anger that is shared between them. They help each other's performances in each scene they have together, by making their performance more entertaining to watch.
We can't be sure which version Dhawan's version of the master is. We can't confirm is this version is Missy's successor. Although, it is interesting to have the Master be the Doctor's enemy again instead of her friend and ally. This Master is full of anger and dramatic who wants destruction and death to all. We know it is very likely we will meet the Master again but we can't certain yet on how he will escape the mysterious realm that he sent the Doctor too.
In this episode, Gallifrey is mentioned and the Doctor finally travels back their however it isn’t as she expected. The Master claims to The Doctor that their home has been pulverised, burned and nuked. The Doctor didn’t believe him until she saw it with her own eyes. At the end we learned that this is all due to the Master and what he learned about the true nature of the Time Lords and what they have done. The timeless child is mentioned and it feels as if we may finally get some answers to what that means in this series but we might have to wait a while before we get any more information.
When it comes to the Doctor's friends, they are separated for almost the whole episode so they have to do things themselves and think like the Doctor. Bradley Walsh puts on a great performance as the loveable Graham. Watching Walsh goofing around with his laser shoes to fend himself and his friends is quite amusing to watch. Along with this Tosin Cole as Ryan is entertaining to watch, it is always a joy to watch him in scenes. A line in particular which brings joy is when he says, "I can't ride a bike but I can fly a plane", humour during serious moments is what Ryan does so well thus making him a joy to watch. Yas played by Mandip Gill tries too hard to be like the Doctor and it is sometimes annoying to watch her in scenes. This is due to this character trying too hard, she tries too hard to be the Doctor and tries too to keep her family safe. Gill's performance falls a bit flat in this episode considering in the last episode we finally noticed her. We can only hope there is something more to this character that Gill is hiding from us but at the moment she is slowing creeping into the background and isn't making a difference to the plot.
However, even though Yas isn't making an impact Chibnall does honour the more quietly sung heroines of the past in this episode who make a real impact with their limited screen time. We meet computer pioneer Charles Babbage's associate Ada Lovelace who is Byron's daughter and crucial in the development of Babbage's Analytical Engine. Ada Lovelace is played by Sylvie Briggs; she is determined and has a very curious mind. Briggs performance is beautiful to watch as she is gentle but strong and we want to see her exploring the new worlds in which she is put into to see how she reacts. Along with Ada, we meet Noor Inayat Khan played by Aurora Marion who is the first woman wireless operator dropped behind enemy lines in the Second World War. Marion portrays her character just as strong as Ada yet there a sense of fear that most people probably had back then that this darkness will never end. This leads to the Doctor being motivational and inspirational by explaining that darkness doesn’t carry on forever, it might feel so dark right now but it doesn’t last. This is subtle hint about our world right now, we may feel that the darkness won’t last forever, even though it feels like it will at moment while we live through it, one day it will end.
Lenny Henry returns as Daniel Barton in this episode, he isn't scary when he's being threatening. It is unnerving when Barton gives his speech revealing his master plan which is humanity being enslaved to technology which many people fear will happen today. What is odd is after The Master and Barton have been defeated by the Doctor due to a computer virus, Barton disappears. This might be a clue that we may see him again as we only saw the fate of the Master, we never saw what happened to Barton, if anything did happen. Lenny Henry was good in this role but because he is such a familiar face, it felt that this role didn’t fit him or he wasn’t convincing enough as his performance was good but the character didn’t give the hard impact that a character like this should.
Part Two is a mixture of things for fans old and new. We get to see the Doctor inform Graham, Yas and Ryan of her origins and see her the start of an identity crisis for the Doctor once more. However, this time it is a crisis of what have the Time Lords hidden away from her, relating to the hidden child. Part Two-episode cheers women in the past who have made a difference and the performances from Whittaker and Dhawan which are faultless as their relationship is complex but they work really well together. Gill as Yas needs more work to make this character and friend of the Doctor a more valuable character to have around so she actually makes a difference to the plot. At the moment if Yas wasn't there then the plot doesn’t change. Bradley Walsh and Tosin Cole are on top form. it is exciting to see how this series will develop with what we have learnt and how the events of these two parts affects the team further along in the series.
