Doctor Who: 10 Huge Questions After Spyfall Part One
3. Did We See That Twist Coming?
Doctor Who and spoilers seem to go together like cheese and
fine wine. Intrepid set reporters and leaks were common place during the
Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat years and in the end the BBC started to beat
them at their own game by revealing far more than many viewers wanted in
advance.
All that changed with the new production team, and Spyfall has been the greatest payoff yet for this tightened security. Indeed, we would have to go back as far as 1982 and the surprise reveal of the Cybermen in Earthshock for a twist that so few saw coming.
There was no press release to say that Sacha Dhawan had been cast as the new Master, and his return has come much sooner than it did in either Russell T Davies or Steven Moffat’s time, who both saved the character until after their second Doctors had been fully established in the role. There was still talk in some quarters of either Michelle Gomez or John Simm returning to play their iconic versions.
The audio clues didn’t come until after the reveal, but on second viewing we could be forgiven for feeling a little foolish for missing those lines of dialogue that could have given the game away. The spymaster? Well done to all who got that one. The files on the Doctor, we were misdirected to link to the likes of super-fans such as Clive (Rose), Elton (Love and Monsters) or Osgood, but who is more obsessed with the Doctor than her arch-nemesis?