It’s a little daunting to jump right from the end of a two-part premiere into another two-part adventure, but in a way, it’s a nice to see the narratives have a chance to breathe.  Longer treatments mean more character interactions, usually, and that’s one of the strengths of the series.  In particular, I liked the scenes between Clara and The Doctor that continued to address his question of self-identity. 

I’m not sure that The Doctor came out of his encounter with Davros with any better sense of his own moral compass than he did at the end of Series 8.  He knows he can be a good man, but does that mean it is at the root of his nature?  His similarities to The Master/Missy are plain as day, and his penchant for stomping all over the feelings of others is rather pronounced in this incarnation, but hardly a new thing.  (The notecards were a particularly nice touch!)  On the other hand, if actions speak louder than words, and intentions matter, then The Doctor is still the good man that must continually go to war.



One of the nice elements of this episode was the callback to classic adventures.  Twelve may be in many respects closer to the mold of Three, and running around bases of various size and location was more the hallmark of Two, but Eleven and Twelve have both been a conscious melding of classic versions of The Doctor and it shows.  After all, the premiere was all but a rehashing of a truly seminal Fourth Doctor serial, so why not continue to play in familiar old-school waters?  

As such, I was a little taken aback by the idea that The Doctor would be so astonished by an encounter with “ghosts”.  He’s done it plenty of times before, after all, and all of them end up being something very different from the shades of the dead.  So why would he get so worked up now?  Or rather, why treat it as something that matches the folklore that surrounds the concept?  I can see him sifting the answers he receives for the truth, but in such cases, he’s usually frank with his companions about his true motives.



On the whole, there was so much setup that the quality of the entire story is going to depend almost entirely on the second half, which is a bit unbalanced.  The process of discovery is fun enough, especially when it comes to The Doctor, yet it would have been possible to have something happen beyond a provocative cliffhanger.  Unraveling the riddle was cool, but I wanted something more.







Far more interesting is the question of Clara’s motivation at this stage of the game.  She seemed more or less content with her world in the premiere, but now she is back to craving adventure.  That said, she was also clearly more experienced with The Doctor and the wider universe by the time of the premiere than she was at the end of Series 8, so perhaps this shift will seem more natural over time.  Whatever the case, she will have to step up in the conclusion to this tale.