I adore TTC with all my heart, but Spyfall Part One is just that little bit better.
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Just seen that It Takes You Away didn’t make it past the first round - absolutely gutted, because that’s my joint favourite Thirteen episode out in the first round!
I’ll be crossing my fingers that my other favourite, Resolution, does a bit better 
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Well, I voted for it…
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I voted for both parts of spy fall because i love the spy master.
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What is your issue with that
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Certain scenes between 13 and the Master, most notably the one when she hands him over to the Nazis
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Forgot about that
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Spyfall is fun, but I consider Ascension/Timeless to be an essential text for the show overall. Not necessarily in terms of lore (although I personally really like what it does in that regard), but in its approach to lore.
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Spyfall Part 1 and 2. I like the Timeless Child but I like Spyfall Part 1 more. Same thing goes for Part 2.
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Oh, wait, I’ve watched Ascension now, so I can vote in one of the polls! I like part 2 of Spyfall, but Ascension was a masterpiece, so it’s not that much of a competition I’m afraid. Excited to see the next part hopefully tomorrow, though looking at the amount of votes it’s getting here, it seems to be a controversial one…
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While I feel that I like Ascension/Timeless more than many, Spyfall is just a lot of fun, so I voted for both parts.
As mentioned in other voting threads, I was driving, and so missed the previous vote. I’d have voted for Witchfinders, though.
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I voted both parts of Spyfall. I don’t dislike the other, but like Spyfall better. Even that one scene doesn’t bother me. A man who willingly cooperated and collaborated with the Nazis got turned over to them. Not to mention the Master isn’t Indian, even if Dhawan is. He’s a Time Lord and would have gotten away from them with minimal to trouble, and the Doctor knew this. She wouldn’t have done it to someone who was human and would be in actual danger.
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I know I’m late but so incredibly disappointed that It Takes You Away was out so early - easily one of my top 10 favourites from the whole show and extended universe
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I’ve messed up
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Out of interest, why do you think Ascension’s a masterpiece? Not trying to be passive aggressive, genuinely curious cause I’ve never seen many people like it that much lol
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I just think it gets a lot of elements very right that click together expertly. The Cybermen ‘ascending’ by forcing a bit of humanity in them, basically allowing them to always be a little bit horrified and angry to be stronger, I thought that was brilliant and fun and new. Human beings ‘ascending’ into becoming Cybermen. The way they’re almost this cosmic horror. It’s something NuWho’s never done with them before. They’ve always been tragedy for humans on Earth, and to me had become very Earth based, stomping robots for the modern series, or plot device for drama. Here their role is very comparable to Dalek Empire Daleks, in the way the story frames them. They’re a deathly universe wide force, but you get intimate enough with them that they don’t become a meaningless cloud of death. Because the Lone Cyberman’s journey is very personal, his really quite desperate journey for conquest in the name of religious extremism.
The religious, arguably biblical imagery and parallels, it’s very obviously critical, but it also uses it in a strange hopeful way? The promised land Ko Sharmus, is it actually there? And then yes, it is! It’s real. (Or maybe not, we’ll see next episode. The gateway being talked about also very much reminded me of The Emporium at the End, and there the Master was meddling too, so I’m still suspicious…)
Oh right, yes, the ascension of the Cybermen. Ashad the chosen one. Who was rejected for not being right for the Cybermen. But who is now, after the many wars, the last of them, the only one left to fight, oh, parallels to our other favourite guy in that scenario, Doctor Who.
Sorry, tangent again, I’m thinking now of Sins of the Flesh, and how well Cybermen go with religious allegory. Like in there and here they’re both really overt religious extremists, but different sides of it. Like here the conversion is when you’ve accepted the religion, either because it’s forced upon ya, or you willingly think the cyber-way is right. The Cybermen are the stage of no return, when the ideology is too deeply ingrained, that’s when it becomes dangerous. In Sins it’s to ‘cure’ you from being ‘wrong’. The Cybermen are the lot slimier version of getting people in there. With promises of hope, and goodness, and with us you’ll be fine, if you just let go of your life.
So sorry, I don’t even know what more I was about to say now. I think the way we journey through space is really impactful, it’s a great big scope, but it’s not unreasonably big just for the sake of it. Everything feels within reach to some degree, which makes this whole world feel a lot more cohesive. That’s done by taking the time to show the characters going through stuff in again, a way similar to Dalek Empire, and make it about the human perspectives, and how they live in such an environment. I genuinely forgot what else I was gonna say, it was something about colonists and the second coming of Cyber but I don’t remember how exactly and this has gotten long enough.
Also I don’t know what’s happening with that sidestory with the foundling but I am INTRIGUED. It’s so compelling, so well directed, and unreal and sweet to nightmarish, it is excellent.
There were some lines I thought were really stupid (The Cyberman who makes other Cybermen scream I thought sounded quite dumb) but those are like, single lines, so who even cares.
(Of course the real reason is that the opening coming out of the Cyberhead’s eye is the sickest thing this show has ever done.) ↩︎
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You know what? That is such a thoughtful take, I might give it another look soon through this lense. Thank you!
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