Doctor Who: Ascension of the Cybermen (1)

Ashad: 'Ascension is near!'

This felt like an episode whose ultimate success depends upon next week's conclusion not stinking. If 'The Timeless Children' fails, then a solid chunk of the ideas introduced tonight will have been for naught, which would be a real shame as 'Ascension of the Cybermen' contained some audacious story beats. The floating cyber heads, however, were not one of them.

One thing I thought this episode had in spades was movement and tension. Too often of late the peril has felt forced and the pacing disjointed, but tonight the threat was palpable. Although the early location shots reeked of a low budget, the later ship interiors brought some much-needed atmosphere, and the guest cast whilst not brilliantly used—the usual too many new faces, with too little story to go around—did a decent job as the dregs of humanity on the verge of extinction. I don't know whether Ravio's interest in Graham will lead anywhere, or whether he, she, or both will be dead this time next week, but it was a nice moment for Graham nevertheless.

Speaking of Graham, is it my imagination or is he sounding more and more Cockney as the season progresses? He was even explaining rhyming slang this week. Despite the fact that they split the Doctor from her companions virtually every week now, I rather enjoyed Graham and Yaz's little adventure. Yaz feels like the natural successor to Clara... despite her personality being as empty as Chris Chibnall's good ideas chest. In fact, I'm tempted to say that Clara got more character development in season 7 than Yaz has in the past two years... which is pretty fucking grim. But tonight Yaz took charge, endeavoured to be positive, and tried to reassure. Surely they're not going to kill her too? There's a lot of talk online at the moment about all three companions 'picking turnips with a step-ladder' next week, but at this juncture it's (a) hard to believe Chibnall would be so bold, and (b) harder to believe anyone would care.

I did like the Doctor getting ratty with her companions though. One thing the Doctor/companion dynamic has been sorely lacking is any sort of internal disagreement. That's just not how a family works, it's not how friendships function, and most importantly it's as boring as shit to watch. But tonight the Doctor actually raised her voice and freely admitted to being reckless. About damn time! Of course, I'm not sure I bought any of it—she's been reckless with them for almost two seasons, why this sudden spasm of self-awareness?—but at least an attempt was made to give the Doctor colour. Tonight she made mistakes, lost her rag, and at times looked half-worried, which in turn generated some natural-sounding dialogue which Jodie handled far better than she does the techobabble.

As with the Daleks, the Cybermen are a one-note villain with their obsession with conquest, killing, and being generally ghastly all round, so centring the story on Ashad was a clever move as it gave them a modicum of depth. Last week's set up gave us a peek at Ashad's inner workings, and although I think that worked well for his character then, this week felt like more standard Cyber fare, with explosions, heavy-footed stomping, and cries of delete, surrender and some nonsense about the Cybermen rising again. When you bring back such an iconic foe, you have to be prepared to either reinvent the wheel or go for broke. Sadly, Chibnall went the safe route, deeming the Cybermen's return enough to hold our attention, whilst chucking in just enough mystery to keep us wrong-footed. Which if next week's payoff satisfies, will have been a solid gamble.

But the piece of the puzzle which continues to intrigue—not to mention the most Moffatian—is Ashad. Are he and Brendan one and the same? Outside of Ko Sharmus, there aren't really many other candidates, and Brendan's desire to serve and make a difference sort of fits Ashad's Cyber recruitment story. Or maybe he's one of The Timeless Children. Why he's seemingly immortal is quite the conundrum, not to mention why, despite Brendan ageing, both his adoptive father and mentor remain young. This is the sort of story I like, and that final reveal of a destroyed Gallifrey on the other side of the portal was the proverbial cherry on cake. What the ruddy heck is going on?

And then the Master turned up. I did enjoy Sacha Dhawan's version of the Master back in 'Spyfall', but there was always the potential that the pantomime element of his personality might dominate. It's too early to say what kind of Master we'll have going forward, but he may as well have appeared dressed as Widow Twanky tonight. His dialogue was way too crafted to sound realistic, as though he were delivering a teaser voice-over rather than having an actual conversation. Hopefully they'll tone it down next week and all of the hanging threads will come together in a satisfying way. Because there's some good stuff here. There's also the possibility of a colossal fuck-up, but I'm throwing caution to the wind and viewing the glass as half full. Here's hoping that Chibnall doesn't spill the water, smash the crystalware, and then shit on it.

Other Thoughts:

—I have no idea what Ashad was doing to that older design Cyberman, but it looked to be nothing good.

—The Cyber Drones being decapitated heads didn't really work for me. I know we have a new special effects team now, but it doesn't feel like the show's upped its visual game.

—The Doctor still spends far too much time telling people what to think, be it us or the other characters. 'You can trust us... you don't need to use that against us.... we care'. Yeah... fine, whatever!

Quotes:

Ashad: 'We know where you are. We will find you.'
If you know where they are, you're already found them, surely?