Doctor Who: Peter Capaldi’s 12 Best Performances As The Twelfth Doctor

The Doctor still manages to better two versions of his arch-frenemy, even with a bump on the noggin and strapped to a wheelchair.

Capaldi, Gomez and the welcome return of John Simm simply sparkle as a trio, especially during the Doctor's impassioned plea to get them to stay and fight out of simple kindness. As we're glued by this verbal-non verbal exchange, we see Missy clearly conflicted and therefore left wondering whether the Doctor can convince the Master.

Well, Capaldi's crestfallen look says it all as the Master effectively sticks two fingers up to his heroic last stand. And with Missy hightailing it (although she was going to come back), the Doctor could do without enemies like the Cybermen when your supposed best friend ditches you in your hour of need.

Of course The Doctor Falls marks the beginning of the end for the Twelfth Doctor. There are hints throughout the episode: walking with a limp, the bandaged hand, emitting a smidgen of regeneration energy, being given a full blast of a Cyberman's laser beam resulting in a teasing "is he gonna regenerate now?" moment on the battlefield, in the TARDIS and just outside on a snowy landscape.

Now, the Tenth Doctor's reluctance to change was divisive amongst Doctor Who fandom; a justifiable swansong to an epic era or unjustifiably self-indulgent? But, here, the Twelfth Doctor's unwillingness to transform is borne out of understandable frustration at having to become somebody else, again.