Who is attacking a speeding bullet train on the edges of a distant galaxy, and why are seismologists going missing from 21st-century Earth?

Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who has come a long way since 7 October 2018 when Jodie Whittaker crashed through a train roof as The Woman who Fell to Earth. It was a season that resolutely refused to look to the past – no previous villains or characters (even the TARDIS initially looked like it wasn’t showing up) – and four years later the Doctor is still dropping in through the roof of a train, but in a story that is brimming with nostalgia.

The feature-length episode has to meet multiple needs, marking the BBC’s 100th anniversary as well as Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor’s regeneration and Chibnall’s departure from the show. With so many masters (ho ho) to serve, the episode succeeds as an explosion of high concept ideas and throwbacks to the show’s past.

For me, the show’s highlights were the appearances of the former Doctors (David Bradley, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann), who appear as aides to Jodie or former companions Tegan and Ace. The multi-Jodie device was used in Flux and here Chibnall takes it to another level, the Doctor also appearing as emergency hologram to help Yaz or to bump the story along, as well as giving us the chance to see Jo Martin’s Fugitive Doctor one more time.

On the side of the villains, it’s the holy trinity of Master, Daleks and Cybermen, but as usually is the case where there’s multiple monsters, not everyone gets an equal share. The plot is thrown at you rapidly and you’re expected to process and accept everything as gospel at first pass, though in truth it’s easier just to sit back and roll with it. The Master is Rasputin in 1916 Russia, trying to catch the Doctor’s eye by defacing classic artwork, while the Daleks are drilling underneath the Earth’s volcanoes and the Cybermen have a cyber planet in orbit around Earth, while setting up a conversion chamber in UNIT’s London HQ.

Sacha Dhawan is having a ball as the Master, particularly as he throws his dance moves in Boney M’s Rasputin, and he showcases another familiar Chibnall trope – the introduction of previously unheard Gallifreyan lore: this time it’s the forced regeneration. Things explode, people run round, but it’s still very much Jodie’s show, as she holds court in her various forms, trying to look after the planet and people that she loves.

Away from the big-ticket stuff of the previous Doctors, monsters and companions, this is still the story of someone who is facing her mortality with dignity. I’ve said before that I think Jodie is great as the Doctor, but often let down by writing that makes her annoying and irritating. As an actor, she’s one of the best ambassadors of the show, and I’m pleased that she gets some moments of reflection before moving in. In her eyes, there’s a sense of going too soon and unfulfilled ambitions, and in a world without Covid who knows where her final season would have taken her. And as the regeneration energy passes through her, she changes into Ncuti… what? Hang on, what’s going on here? November 2023 will tell all.

Verdict: Boisterous fun that gives Jodie’s 13th Doctor an appropriate send off and well as treating long-term fans to a number of surprise moments. Much better than I feared, and can we please now dispense with those giant on-screen place names!  8/10

Nick Joy