Doctor Who: All 40 Steven Moffat Episodes Ranked From Worst To Best

We're used to seeing the Doctor in complete charge of any situation, no matter how hopeless, and usually one step ahead of anyone who thinks they've outsmarted the Time Lord.

As exemplified near the beginning of the series 8 finale: even though it seems Clara is chief manipulator when first threatening, then unregrettably throwing the TARDIS keys into the lava, you just knew, somehow, the Doctor was in absolute control of the whole scenario.

It's, therefore, always more engrossing when we see the Doctor suddenly caught unawares. The look of transfixed horror on his face when Missy seductively reveals she is a female incarnation of the Master is a bravura cliffhanger.

That horror continues to transfix, and almost certainly terrify the younger viewers, during the second part: the malevolent clouds above the graveyard; the dead banging on the doors of their cold chambers; Cybermen rising from graves; Danny looking gruesome a la Darth Vader unmasked; and Missy casually murdering a version of Osgood before blowing up part of the plane.

Ah Missy, she really does blow our minds thanks to Michelle Gomez's star turn. She’s beguiling, bananas and indeed a beauty to behold. It's not just the Scottish accent Gomez and Capaldi share but also hypnotising eyes that can convey more than words do. Together, their Doctor-Master relationship dynamic is as compelling - perhaps more so - as that of David Tennant and John Simm's.

This is also where the Clara Oswald story should have ended. Her and the Doctor's bittersweet goodbye packs more of an emotional punch than that convoluted nonsense in Hell Bent.