Rate and Discuss: Spyfall

Rate and Discuss: Spyfall

With Intelligence Agencies around the world under attack, MI6 turns to the Doctor for help
The Doctor and companions travel around the world looking for answers, but where will the planet-threatening conspiracy lead them?

Eye wash sounds painful but that was a cracking start to the series. It's going to be odd this series as I can't record them onto broken Sky thing so it's just like I used to watch Peter Davison's era!
Voted 8. Fantastic build up. Still room to breathe so it didn't seem cramped. Faultlessly executed cliffhanger.
I know it's been a while since it was on and it might seem desperate for anything Who. But that was a really good episode.
And only a few days to wait for the next as well!

I voted 9, just because this was such unexpectedly good fun I really didn't see it coming!

Despite the last season having some good moments and a few decent episodes, imo it appeared at times to be a worthy, but tedious PC box-ticking exercise designed to appeal to as many people as possible and offend none...all at the expense of simply telling a good story (an area where the series has failed quite a lot over the past few seasons in general to be honest, but for different reasons). It was a missed opportunity. So I was a wee bit wary going into this episode, basically with low expectations and expecting more of the same...

But that was great fun, wasn't it? A rip-off of the 007 movies crossed with an alien invasion of the sort right out of the Pertwee-era (and even thinking along these lines while watching it, the twist at the end still caught me off-guard...I wasn't expecting it but with hindsight the reveal should have been obvious!) You could probably rip this episode to shreds if you look deep enough but for the moment I'm just basking in the enjoyment of such an unexpectedly action-packed and fun episode...easily the most enjoyable new series opener to date, and even thinking back to the original series I have to go back to Fang Rock for such a good season opener.

Why couldn't they have done this last time round? :)

A solid 8 from me and I wasn't expecting to go that high. I was very disappointed with the last series and would rank it my least favourite since the show returned. However, Spyfall Part One was definitely a step up in quality, full of action with a great twist and cliffhanger, (although I would have preferred the ending to have occurred a few seconds earlier with them all on the crashing plane).

I really do hope the rest of the season is as good.

I think an 8 would probably be more accurate for me as well, but very rarely has the series surprised me so pleasantly that it got an extra point simply for that reason! :)

I really enjoyed it - like everyone it seems, I didn't see the big reveal coming at all. If anything, because Sacha Dhawan had such a big part I was wondering if they were lining him up as a new companion, with one of the others set to be written out unexpectedly!!

I agree with Dino, it seemed to have more room to breathe and very much benefited from it, so hopefully part 2 will keep up the same standard. I'm not entirely convinced anybody could run fast enough to catch up and jump inside a plane taxiing along the runway, but I'm happy to let that go - and after all, if it's partly a Bond pastiche, that sort of thing is right on the money!!

I'm sure people will be complaining "And now we have an Asian Master!" Being a - ahem! - master of disguise, and having possessed people in the past, the character could be anything you like, so there!

Nice Bond pastiche, action-packed in the right places, humorous in the right places, scary in the right places.

9/10

I rather like the fact that we're in a 'different world' now - last year's "UNIT is closed" scene was a bit daft on its own, but in the scenes with C it's apparent that in this version of Who's Earth people are once again dismissive/unbelieving of the possiblity of aliens, so they've closed UNIT and Torchwood (bean-counter decision no doubt) and O is an oddity.

I found this to be a really fun romp, Jodie was much more Doctor-ish than before, and the big reveal was a great one. It's definitely my favourite Chibnall episode so far, and I just hope the second episode also delivers. 7.5/10

I gave it 7/10. The biggest problem I had was the aircraft taking off from the hanger apron and not moving to the runway. Or maybe I missed a bit.
Anyhoo, a solid start.

I missed a bit recently. It can't have been very important - just 50 years long...

Being a little late to the party here, and trying to thinking back to how I felt at the time that this broadcast (i.e. ignoring the nine episodes that came after), the one thing that left me very pleasantly surprised was how engaging this episode was.

Let me give some context to that statement. The worst crime Doctor Who can commit for me is when it's boring. Unfortunately, the majority of Series 11 felt that way to me - the only story that really drew me in was Kerblam!, and that was narratively very problematic. Resolution was a little better, and I was very optimistic that maybe Mr Chibnall was getting the hang of this whole "writing for Doctor Who" thing.

And then came Spyfall, Part 1. Well-paced, very engrossing, with plenty of twists and turns throughout. Lenny Henry playing it straight, and giving us a villain with a huge amount of menace. And just when you think that you might have it all figured out... that ending, when O's real identity was revealed! How perfectly did Sacha Dhawan play it?!?

Segun's score continued to impress - I've been really enjoying his more stripped back approach to the music compared with Murray Gold (who was very good, but after 10 series, I was ready for a change), and here was no different. His pastiche of the way music was deployed in Bond movies really struck a chord here (pardon the pun), and definitely added to the episode in a very positive way.

Finally, I'd like to give some recognition to the director, Jamie Magnus Stone. The shots were absolutely gorgeous throughout - cinematic in a way that we was promised for Series 11 (but not really ever delivered), and he really managed to get the best out of all the regulars.

Also: Stephen Fry in Doctor Who! Eeeeeeee! Seems like they couldn't afford him for long, but it was good to see him finally pop up.

8/10 for me.