Doctor Who Is NEW!: Spyfall - Part One

So we kicked off a new season of Doctor Who last night.

And my thoughts on that will follow after the spoiler warning.

SPYFALL - PART ONE 

by Chris Chibnall 

We have the return of the cold open, the scene before the theme music which I missed last season. 

We have some touch bases with the fam. Yaz is getting grief from her family about what she is (or is not) doing with her career. Ryan plays some basketball with some friends where we hear of the series of medical ailments that he's been using to account for his frequent absences travelling with the Doctor. And Graham has a medical check up that confirms his cancer is still in remission. And the Doctor herself has the TARDIS up on a lift in a car repair garage. 

All these scenarios end with an encounter with men in black who are bringing the gang to a meeting with MI6. 

Along the way, their driver gets killed and the Doctor has to save herself and the fam from a self driving car determined to kill them as well. (No, ATMOS was not involved.) 

Spoiler: the Doctor and the gang do not get killed. 

They arrive at MI6 HQ and where Stephen Fry as "C" greets Graham as the Doctor. The Doctor intervenes to inform C she has had an "upgrade".  

C brings the gang up to speed on some weird shenanigans of alien origins that's killing the great spies of Europe and everywhere.  All this is possibly linked to a former agent now multi-medial mogul named Daniel Barton. 

The gang goes on separate missions. Yaz and Ryan go undercover to get some intel on Barton in San Francisco while the Doctor and Graham are off to Australia to meet up with a former agent of MI6 "O" who was MI6's only resource on alien stuff before C fired him.  

Yes, we get confirmation from the Doctor that UNIT and even Torchwood are gone. 

Yaz and Ryan have some good character building time as they do their thing to figure out what Barton is up to. We discover that Barton is 93% human. What is the other 7%? We also see him interacting with strange humanoid outlines of blinding white light. It isn't entirely clear who is in charge of who.   

Meanwhile, in the land down under, those same strange humanoid outlines of blinding white light are attacking O's home.  

The strange humanoid outlines of blinding white light seem to be wearing something on their heads? Are they...Cybermen?

Right out of the James Bond playbook, The Doctor and her gang infiltrate a high end posh party. Then there's a high speed chase as the Doctor and her friends right motorcycles to chase after Barton and avoid gunfire.  

I suspect the 7% of Daniel Barton that isn't human is Imperial Stormtrooper.  

Barton gets to an airport and flies off in a commercial airliner. But not before the Doctor and the gang has scrambled to get inside the plane before it takes off. 

Major sticking point for me: why did Ryan, Yaz, Graham and O have to get on the plane with the Doctor?  

Once we're on the plane, it is discovered that Barton isn't on the plane. In the pilot's seat is a bomb. 

And it turns out O isn't O. 

Sweet adorkable O played by sweet adorkable Sacha Dhawan suddenly begans laughing a maniacal laugh and reveals he is....

SERIOUSLY, THIS IS A MAJOR SPOILER! 

....The Master! 

Whoa! Did NOT see that coming! 

I will caution that all may not be as it seems. The last thing the grinning Master tells the Doctor before the episode ends is "everything is a lie".  

Does that include O being the Master? 

Wow! But this episode was so good, filled with action and humor from start to finish. 

I can't wait for episode two. 

And here's the trailer for that.