4 Ups & 3 Downs From Doctor Who Series 12 - Spyfall Part 2

2. The Master Is Wildly Inconsistent

Though Sacha Dhawan's portrayal of The Master is a brilliant fusion of unhinged anger and loud spectacle, Spyfall Part 2 saw the character flit between multiple versions of himself, not in some multiple personality sort of way, more of a inconsistency in the writing sort of way. When The Doctor is tracked down to 1834, The Master shows up with all intentions to kill, not to talk. When she's tracked down again in 1943, The Master rocks up wanting to destroy her, not chin-wag. After escaping a recreation of the opening to Inglorious Basterds, The Doctor deliberately gets into contact with The Master, who proceeds to tell her the majority of the plan, and not instantly kill her.

Why would he suddenly be giving her the time of day? His plan was, as far as he knew, flawless, especially when The Doctor decided to show up to what would be her own death. Why stall for long enough through conversation to allow The Doctor to thwart the Nazi Master instead of just throwing her from atop the Eiffel Tower? Even then, this short-tempered Master lives on Earth for 70 years after these events in 1943, waiting to catch up with Graham, Yaz, and Ryan in the present day- and apparently doesn't mess with human history over that time.

Finally, we still don't know why The Master is full-on evil again. Has Missy's redemption arc indeed been retconned, or is there more we don't know about this new Master? Admittedly, as much as we would have liked it, there wasn't a huge point in revealing all over the course of one full episode when it could be drawn out over a whole series. Let's hope it's only over one series and not any longer.