[reactions] Doctor Who and the Ascension of the Cybermen - 12x09

[grimorie]

I was out of town so I had to rewatch it several times to get into it -- my small screen and broken earphones weren't doing the episode justice. But once I got home I was able to really take it all in starting with the really fantastic opener when the camera goes into the eye of the dead cyberman and straight in to the vortex.

This is another episode with a story time voice over, this is a different form of fairytale storytelling, this is mythmaking from the Cybermen side.

Speaking of Ashad: I thought that Ascension was another synonym of the word "Rise" of the Cybermen but now knowing what we know of Ashad - a Cyberman whose neural inhibitors doesn't work and doesn't stop him but actually make him more terrifying especially since he is a zealot. He believes in the purity of the purpose of the Cyberman, like a religious fanatic and I realized that "ascension" has a different connotation too: Ascension can mean rising to the ranks and reaching a position or in a religious sense, ascension can mean 'ascending to heaven'.

I don't think that's a coincidence especially with Ashad at the helm of the Cyber race.

There is nothing more terrifying than someone who believes 100% that they are right, also this lines up with last season's penultimate episode, Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos about the Ux, whose faith were misused. It does seem like Chibnall likes to touch on things like faith, which is interesting. Faith can mean many things and not just the religious sense, as we're seeing now in Ashad.

Amidst everything there is the curious subplot of Brendan the deathless Irish man, and I wondered if the being set on Ireland ins the fruition of a long in joke about Gallifrey being mistaken for a city in Ireland. My suspicion there is that Brendan is a Time Lord trapped in a loop where he is grown and made to cycle his life over and over again.

And then the main plot has our team going separate ways, Yaz and Graham with the remaining Humans with Yaz stepping up into the Doctor role and Graham acting as a supportive second, and then stumbling into a carrier full of dormant Cybermen, reminiscent of the Tomb of the Cybermen. Ashad follows and begins his reconversion of the newest line up of Cybermen which have a big 80s vibe going for them.

And then there's the Doctor and Ryan, poor Ryan got left behind but fortunately Thirteen spotted him even if Thirteen is not in the best of headspaces, since Spyfall Thirteen's on a slow train to a breakdown and the Cybermen just expedited that and because the Master knows how to compound the problem, he shows up in the end like the Right Bastard that he is.

Anyway, the Doctor's plans to take down the Cybermen didn't account for an aerial attack and all their equipment is broken, three people die because of her and I love how Thirteen takes a moment to look at the dead boy, unfortunately, the team come right behind her informing her of the things she already knew had gone wrong. It's that time I realize, they really think they're still on a jaunt, a soft ball adventure, and they think Thirteen is on the same page as them when she just isn't.

She's back in the battlefield on the Mondasian colony ship, fighting a losing war having failed Bill Potts, and lost Missy to herself, never knowing that Twelve did have an impact on her and she was about to return to him.

So, of course, she snaps and shouts at them and then orders them, more firmly to leave -- all the times she's asked them to do that and all the time Ryan and Yaz were Ride or Die for her, and not once did she like that, but she tried so hard to honor their agency. But in a warzone against Cybermen, they're more a liability than help.

Thirteen's also in full commander mode and I just remember Clara at this time gently admonishing Twelve in Girl Who Lived, to stop playing at soldiers, and be the Doctor. Because Clara's right, everytime the Doctor plays into that role, in what people are likely to do, the Doctor is much less effective but when they step out of the box, and be the Doctor, they do amazing things. I think Thirteen needs that reminder but right now, she's running on fumes, fear, and trauma.

They end up in a planet with Ko Sharmus and the Boundary, set to be the final hope of Humanity, a kind of nexus point to other places in the universe, Ko Sharmus has a bit of Wizard/Time Lord vibe. Ko Sharmus tells Thirteen to stand in front of the Boundary and it will open -- my theory is that the Boundary locked on to the Doctor, because Time Lord, and maybe because of the other bastard at the end of it, waiting in anticipation. And the moment it locked into Gallifrey, The Right Bastard made a flying leap, almost tripped and declared his entrance was great.

I love him.

But also, I think this is the first time in a ship where I actively want one pairing to punch the other in face and by that I mean, the Doctor just ripping him a new one. Also, consider, the Doctor went back to Gallifrey several times and this tool must have known and was just hiding because It Wasn't Time for him to make an entrance.

What a magnificent bastard, I hope Thirteen gets a good kick in.

TLDR, there's a lot in this episode and it's fun but also since this is part 1, this is very much a lot of table setting for part 2. Part 2 is where everything hinges if this whole set-up worked.