After the disappointing “Spyfall Part 1,” the second part of “Spyfall” was a massive improvement.
“Spyfall Part 1” left off with an incredible cliffhanger: The Doctor is trapped in another dimension and her companions are stuck on a falling plane. Fortunately, there’s always gets a way out. The Doctor meets a woman in the other dimension and she finds her way to the 19th Century, whilst on the plane, The Doctor has left Easter Eggs to help the companions control the plane.
In the 19th Century, the Doctor seeks to find a way back to the 21st Century and gets help from two unlikely allies. In the present day, Graham, Ryan, and Yazz have to go off the grid and look to stop Daniel Barton (Lennie Henry) and The Kasaavin.
The main problem with the first part of “Spyfall” was it heavily expository and Chris Chibnall has the ability to make decent ideas really dull. The second part was an improvement because there was urgency. The Doctor needed to get back to present as fast as possible and The Master (Sasha Dhawan) was hunting her down. The companions have a ticking clock scenario because they need to race against time to stop Barton.
The second part of “Spyfall” does take advantage of Doctor Who’s time travel concept. The Doctor ends up in 1834 and 1943 as she uses The Kasaavin as a gateway to these time periods. In the past, The Doctor meets Ada Lovelace and Noor Inayat Khan and they become her temporary companions. Ada Lovelace was a famous mathematician and a pioneer in computer science and her presence was key to The Doctor discovering what The Kasasvin’s were planning. It would have cool if the episode showed more computer scientists that The Kasavin had been following throughout history, but that’s a case of coulda, woulda, shoulda. The role of Noor Inayat Khan could have been rewritten to be a fictional character without it making any difference to the plot: but this was a minor issue. Some people of a certain persuasion that this episode was ‘feminist propaganda,’ but Lovelace and Khan were real historical figures and Lovelace’s appearance in the episode does make sense in the context of the episode.
Chibnall does lift from previous episodes from the modern era. The Doctor being trapped in the past and leaving clues for people to in the future, including the Doctor leaving a pre-recorded video, was taken from “Blink.” The companions had to go dark was like what happened to The Doctor and his companions in “The Sound of Drums” – it also reminded me of Hobbs and Shaw. Whilst the role of The Kasaavin was similar to The Silence because both sets of aliens were infiltrators who influenced the people in power. At least Chinball was trying to make Doctor Who more like the Davies/Moffatt eras. Chibnall also used a couple of deus ex machinas that stops the villains: a classic Doctor Who trope.
Dhawan was clearly having a blast as The Master. He didn’t have to play the awkward nerd that was in the previous episode. His version of The Master was a full-on maniac who had no issue problem killing innocent civilians. Dhawan was brilliantly over-the-top and entertaining, even if his Master wasn’t as cunning as the previous version of the character. The role of The Master set up the wider story for the series involving The Timeless Child. The ending involving Gallifrey was effective.
“Spyfall Part 2” was a more entertaining episode than the previous episode due to the story having some agency. Chibnall clearly returned to what worked for his predecessors.
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