Doctor Who, “Spyfall Part I”, Review!

The premiere episode of season twelve of Doctor Who is here!  It is currently streaming on BBC America in case you missed it.  There was also a showing in the theaters of part one and two at the theaters.  The episode written by Chris Chibnall begins with a pan down to reveal the Ivory Coast of West Africa.  A soldier (Melissa De Vries) with a sniper rifle is targeting a truck through her scope.  Something moves in the rocks behind her and she screams!  Then, it shifts to night over the Pacific Ocean, there is an aircraft with passengers.  A man (William Ely) asks a woman with glasses (Sacharissa Claxton) about a wash bag.  She takes it and enters the wash room to remove a message from toothpaste.  The woman uses her glasses to record the coded message and then eats it.  Again, there is a strange light as a blurry figure reaches for her.  Next, we have Moscow, Russia at night.  An Asian, young man (Brian Law) runs in the streets and reaches the safehouse.  The man rests on a couch and then looks up to see the blurry figure falling towards him!  The spy element mixed with a new Doctor Who monster is perfect. 

DOCTOR WHO - “Spyfall, Part I” - MANDIP GILL, TOSIN COLE, JODIE WHITTAKER, BRADLEY WALSH - Ben Blackall/BBC Studios. 

Then, we get a basketball game at Sheffield, Yorkshire.  The ball is passed to Ryan (Tosin Cole), a closeup as he sets himself up for a throw.  He does so and it bounces off the rim. Ryan is alone in his disappoint as his friends leave.  Tibo (Burom Tihngang), Ryan’s friends, asks him about his health problems to explains his travels with the Doctor.  They both see men in black suits with sunglasses in front of a car.  At her family’s home, Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill) argues with her sister, Sonya (Bhavnisha Parmar) over giving her Ryan’s number.  Meanwhile, their father, Hakim (Ravin J. Ganatra) struggles with getting Alexa to work.  Najia (Shobna Gulati) worries over Yasmin taking time off work.  At the Sheffield police station, Yasmin’s boss, Sgt. Sunder (Asif Khan) doesn’t like her time away from being a probation officer.  He hints at her time away is undercover work.  They see the men in suits.  At a doctor’s office, Graham (Bradley Walsh) is finishing his exam, the doctor notes that he is healthy.  Graham leaves the hospital to see the mysterious men.  This is a great peek at ordinary life with Team Tardis of course disrupted by something unusual.  

At a garage, the Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), with welder’s goggles, is busy working on the underside of her Tardis on a lift with dangling cables.  She is on her phone leaving a message to the fam, then she sees the cars, one of which has Graham in the back.  On the night ride, the Doctor lets the team in on her plan to go along to find out who sent for them.  The agent checks the malfunctunting navigation screen and it suddenly vaporizes him!  They are caught in a wild ride as the accelerator pedal drops.  The car stops and the screen notes that they will die.  It hurtles backwards through traffic, the Doctor can’t stop it with her sonic screwdriver, and the screen sends out blasts.  Graham notes that the road is ending and the Doctor uses the car’s mirror to reflect the ray back at the screen!  She slams on the brake and the car just reaches the edge of the road touching traffic cones.  A voice (Stephen Fry) questions what has happened, he identifies himself as C, and that they were meant to be taken to MI6 in London.  At night, we get the MI6 building, impressive since I stayed at a hotel just four buildings away on the other side of the street.  

DOCTOR WHO -- “Spyfall Part I” -- JODIE WHITTAKER -- Ben Blackall/BBC Studios. 

The Tardis is being taken across a hall, C mistakes Graham for the Doctor, he asks for the help of the Doctor.  I do like Fry as the head of MI6 and his letter name.  C explains that agents are being attacked across the world and takes them into an examining room.  The woman with glasses is now on a hospital bed.  The Doctor realizes that her entire DNA was re-written, just a “shell”!  C shows Team Tardis briefcases of equipment including laser shoe guns.  Next, he shows them a file on the man that the agents were investigating, Daniel Barton.  He is the founder of VOR, a company “more powerful than most nations.”  The Doctor asks about the MI6’s best man, “Horizon Watcher”, but C says he sacked him.  The extraterrestrial threats should be handled by U.N.I.T. or Torchwood and the Doctor says they are all gone.  The Doctor decides to call Horizon Watcher and gets a picture of a fish.  C says that Barton worked for MI6, but may be working for someone else, then he is shot!  Team Tardis hurries out of the room as the creatures pull themselves from the walls.  

The Doctor sets her phone on the Tardis console and explains that coordinates were hidden in the fish photo.  Graham looks and sees the creatures are trying to breach the Tardis door!  The Doctor activates the Tardis and the creature is thrown from the door.  She decides to split up with Graham to go see Horizon Watcher in Australia and then Yazmin and Ryan are on the other team.  She gives Yazmin a bio-scanner.  In San Francisco, the VOR building, Ryan sets their identities as Yaz as a journalist named Sofia and himself as a photographer named Logan.   They enter and are met by Daniel Barton (Lenny Henry), casually dressed with glasses.  Then, we get a home set in the Great Victoria Desert in Australia.  Watching the materialization of the Tardis is a man in a chair. Two security guards, Seesay (Darron Meyer) and Browning (Dominique Maher), are surprised at it.  He introduces himself as O (Sacha Dhawan). The Doctor and Graham inspect O’s house looking at his collection, she calls him a hoarder, and Graham looks through his Fortean Times.  He confirms that O heard about C getting shot and connects it with the agents.  Graham pulls back a curtain to show a computer center.   

DOCTOR WHO -- “Spyfall, Part I” -- JODIE WHITTAKER -- Ben Blackall/BBC Studios.

At the interview, Yaz sets the bio-scanner as a recorder, Ryan takes photos scanning him.  He takes one of Barton’s id card and duplicates it.  Barton has to cut the interview short and invites them to his birthday party at his house.  Yaz sees on the bio-scanner that Barton is 93% human.  Browning wonders about the desert night.  O finds that his sensors are activated.  Lights suddenly turn on as the agents are armed.  The Doctor uses her sonic screwdriver and senses the creatures.  Seesay orders them back in the house as they try to protect them.  Browning swings her gun at the lights flashing in and out.  The creature, a figure of light, in what seems like a hat appears.  Browning fires at it, but the creature is unaffected.  They overwhelm the two guards.  O uses his console and activates the house defenses setting up a barrier that stops the creatures.  One has survived and enters the house, the Doctor uses her sonic to drop a trap, and contain the creature.  The Doctor questions the creature that says it’s from “far beyond.”  They are ready to take the universe! 

The VOR building is after hours, Ryan and Yazmin use the counterfeit i.d. to enter Barton’s office.  Yaz puts the device to download all of the data from Barton’s computer.  She brings up that she hasn’t given Ryan’s number to her sister.  Ryan sees that Barton’s i.d. has been used and they hide behind a couch.  He has sensed that the creatures are there and they threaten him.  They want the project to continue.  Barton leaves and Yaz wants to check the computer, the creature appears, and uses its power to sweep him away.  Yaz finds herself in an empty, green world with strange columns like giant synapses.  Ryan runs out the building and sees the creatures showing up all over the building.  Yaz sees the creatures scattering through the columns.  There is something happening to the creature in the box.  Yaz is suddenly in the box!  Team Tardis must infiltrate Barton’s estate James Bond-style with formal wear, uncover these mysteries, and find out who or what is behind them.  Another mystery is that O has gathered information on the Doctor which is something that the team has uncover.  

Five Sonic Screwdrivers out of Five! 

#DoctorWho, #SpyFallPart1, #JodieWhittaker, #BradleyWalsh, #MandipGill, #TosinCole,  #SachaDhawan.