Doctor Who Series 12: 10 Huge Questions After Spyfall Part 2
9. Why Did Barton Kill His Mother?
After playing a starring role in part one, it is a shame that Lenny Henry’s James Bond style villain is largely absent in part two, with much of the action taking place in the 19th and 20th century. There are no efforts to explore the inner workings of a man who is so driven by ambition that he has completely rejected his Bromsgrove council estate roots.
Instead, that identity betrayal is shown through the most brutal of images as Barton singles out his mother to be the first human to become a hard drive. He already knows from his experiments on himself that he has a workable plan. He didn’t have to use anyone else as a test subject, let alone his mother.
There is no redemption for Barton, not even an opportunity to show remorse or back off from his destructive plans. But it isn’t the 7% non-human DNA that has turned him bad. His motivations for making an example of his mother are shown to be all too human. Ever since he was a boy he has yearned for his mother’s approval. Now he admonishes her for not praising him for making something of himself.
This is Barton’s final chance to gain any kind of personal reaction, given that he is about to turn virtually the entire human race into non-sentient hard drives. His thought patterns are childish, and there is nothing ‘peak human’ about wanting to see his mother suffer.