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***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***

And so we come to the end of the tenth season of the revamped Doctor Who (who knew it would last this long?) as well as the almost-end for Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. “The Doctor Falls” is the second half of the two-part finale, which began with the impressive, captivating “World Enough and Time,” but I have to admit I found the conclusion a bit of a mixed bag. As usual, the performances are excellent, from Capaldi to Pearl Mackie to Matt Lucas to Michelle Gomez, everyone brought their A-game. (I very much enjoyed seeing John Simm again, but I felt his Master was underwritten and, for most of the episode, underused. He lacked the charm, menace, and biting wit of his season-three days, in my opinion. Also, at one point two weeks pass and we get no indication that the Master has been up to anything, evil or otherwise!) The Doctor gives another of his barnstormer speeches like he did in last season’s “The Zygon Inversion” that really cements Capaldi’s portrayal for me. “Where I stand is where I fall,” he says, and he doesn’t do it out of anger or vengeance, but out of kindness. I’m so sorry to see Capaldi leave.

But even with everyone giving it their all, this is Missy’s episode. Her interactions with Simm’s younger incarnation of herself are worth the ticket price. (But there’s no way Missy would turn down the Master’s invitation for hanky-panky. You know the Master would have sex with himself every chance he gets!) We get some answers as to where the Master has been since 2010 Tenth Doctor episode “The End of Time” — they fixed his “condition” on Gallifrey, presumably meaning the drums in his head and his unstable resurrected body, and booted him out again, but then at some point his TARDIS got stuck on the Mondasian ship (I’m only sorry we never actually get to see the Master’s TARDIS in this episode, that’s always fun) — and we also get the answer of how Simm’s Master regenerated into Missy, and I’m not exaggerating when I say it’s the highlight of the episode.

It’s worth noting that before the actor Roger Delgado’s untimely death in 1973, the Master’s arc during the Third Doctor era was going to come to a close with the Master sacrificing his life to save the Doctor, showing that there really had been a basis of friendship between the two before (and perhaps even while) things went bad. Missy deciding to help the Doctor in “The Doctor Falls” but getting killed by the Master follows that trajectory, although I would have actually liked to see her and the Doctor team up against the Cybermen even briefly first. But the idea of the Master killing himself rather than standing with the Doctor makes perfect sense in context, and the scene where both Masters are lying on the ground, dying from the mortal wounds each has given the other, and laughing maniacally at the perfection of their fates is chilling, tragic, and superb all in one. If there was a character arc to the Twelfth Doctor era, it wasn’t the Doctor’s, it was Missy’s. Her fate, should it be final, and I assume it is, is impeccable.

I wasn’t sure how the show would handle Nardole’s exit, since I assumed he wouldn’t be in the next season, and I think they did a fine job with him as well. Like Nyssa during the Fifth Doctor era, who stayed on Terminus to help heal the Lazars, Nardole’s travels with the Doctor led him to find his calling and leave the Doctor to go help people who need him. I’ll miss him. Matt Lucas is great in everything he does, but Nardole in particular was a fantastic role, and such a great addition to the Doctor Who companion roster. Here’s hoping for future cameos!

But I can’t talk about the aspects of “The Doctor Falls” that were less exciting to me without mentioning Steven Moffat’s propensity for telling the same story over and over again. In “The Doctor Falls,” the Doctor makes his last stand defending a town with lots of children and relatively primitive weaponry against an advanced invasion force of classic Doctor Who monsters — which is exactly how the Eleventh Doctor went out in 2013’s “The Time of the Doctor,” although it was Daleks then, not Cybermen. (Although “The Doctor Falls” is a thousand times better than “The Time of the Doctor,” which I’d say is one of the worst Eleventh Doctor episodes, of which, it is my opinion, there are many to choose from.) Bill has been converted into a Cyberman but sees herself in her regular body, which is exactly like Oswin Oswald who was turned into a Dalek in the 2012 Eleventh Doctor episode “Asylum of the Daleks.” (Again, I found it much more affecting here, since I have grown over the course of the season to care about Bill and had only met Oswin that same episode.) At the end, Bill, restored but not quite human anymore, leaves the Doctor to go traveling the universe with her space girlfriend Heather from the episode “The Pilot,” which, while utilizing different details, is exactly the same end Clara got last season in the episode “Hell Bent,” in which she went off in a TARDIS with her friend Ashildr to travel the universe.

Speaking of Heather, while her appearance at the end is a total deus ex machina, I was still glad to see her rescue Bill from a tragic fate for two reasons. One, Bill deserved a happier ending than to be turned into a Cyberman, and two, after setting up the possibility of seeing Heather again so well in “The Pilot,” I was worried the show was going to forget about her. (It wouldn’t be the first time Steven Moffat has dropped a plot line!)

There’s a lot of handwaving, too, which at this point I’ve come to expect from the show but still get annoyed by. The way the Doctor reprograms the Cybermen on the bottom level to come after Time Lords as well as humans felt rushed and half-baked. Nardole using his computer to remotely blow up parts of Level 507 didn’t make much sense, nor did the Doctor somehow absorbing that computer program into his sonic screwdriver, which basically turns it into a magic wand to blow up Cybermen with. Missy telling the Master to always carry a spare dematerialization circuit from now on, and then pulling one out of her pocket, is like something out of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and doesn’t deserve to be here. These may be quibbles, but they tend to stick out for me.

Something is going on with the Doctor’s regeneration. At the end of “Empress of Mars,” Missy looks the Doctor up and down and asks if he’s okay, as if she can see something wrong in him, some illness perhaps. In “The Doctor Falls,” we see the Doctor fight off his regeneration at one point when he’s simply walking through the woods with Bill. He fights it off again at the end of the episode. We’ve never seen the Doctor fight off a regeneration before, so something is definitely up. (We did see him sort-of regenerate without changing his appearance in the 2008 Tenth Doctor episode “Journey’s End,” but I always thought that was such bullshit I was surprised it was even mentioned in “The Time of the Doctor” as an expended regeneration.) Was the Doctor mortally wounded by the Cyberman who zapped him on the rooftop at the beginning of “The Doctor Falls,” or is it something else, something Missy saw inside him in that earlier episode? I hope this will be explained in the Christmas special.

One of the true joys of “The Doctor Falls” for longtime fans is the many, many callbacks to the classic series, so how about a heaping dose of Doctor Who neepery? Jeez, where to begin? How about at the start when the Masters are asking the Doctor about the different ways he’s “died”? The Master asks if he’s ever burned to death, which the Master appeared to do in the 1984 Fifth Doctor serial “Planet of Fire.” Missy says she knows the Doctor has fallen to his “death” because the Master basically knocked him off a radio telescope in the 1981 Fourth Doctor serial “Logopolis,” which triggers his regeneration into the Fifth Doctor. The line repeated throughout the episode, “Where there’s tears, there’s hope,” is a version of the last words the Third Doctor said to Sarah Jane Smith before regenerating into the Fourth Doctor (“A tear, Sarah Jane? No, don’t cry. While there’s life, there’s…hope.”) Similarly, his line when he wakes up in the TARDIS — “Sontarans perverting the course of human history!” — are the first words of the Fourth Doctor after his regeneration, a reference to the 1973 Third Doctor serial that introduced the Sontarans, “The Time Warrior.” (Since Twelve is very much a mixture of the Third and Fourth Doctors in my mind, this was perfect.) Right before his regeneration, he has memories of all his previous companions saying the name, “Doctor,” as well as his enemies doing the same, and that’s a callback to the Fourth Doctor’s regeneration into the Fifth, during which the same thing happened to him. Something similar happened when the Fifth Doctor regenerated into the Sixth, although in that instance the images of his companions spoke full sentences of encouragement instead of just saying “Doctor.”

But wait, there’s more! As the Doctor is blowing up Cybermen with his sonic screwdriver, he rattles off a list of all the planets where he has met and defeated them over his lifetime: Mondas (1966’s “The Tenth Planet”), Telos (1967’s “The Tomb of the Cybermen”/1985’s “Attack of the Cybermen”), Earth (1968’s “The Invasion”/1982’s “Earthshock”),Voga (1975’s “Revenge of the Cybermen”), the battle of Canary Wharf (2006’s “Army of Ghosts”/”Doomsday”), the moon (1967’s “The Moonbase”), and hilariously, Planet 14. Why is Planet 14 hilarious? Because in the long history of Doctor Who, that battle has never been shown. Instead, it’s simply mentioned in the Second Doctor serial “The Invasion” as a previous occasion when the Doctor fought the Cybermen. Though the story has never been told, it’s kind of cool that they include it in “The Doctor Falls”! (The Doctor also lists Marinus as a planet where the Cybermen were, but the only Doctor Who serial involving that planet is the 1964 First Doctor serial “The Keys of Marinus,” which doesn’t involve the Cybermen at all. Maybe this is another untelevised adventure, like the events of Planet 14?) And of course, the biggest callback of all: At the end of the episode the Doctor encounters his first incarnation, which he has previously done on two other occasions: the 1973 tenth anniversary serial “The Three Doctors” and the 1983 twentieth anniversary special “The Five Doctors.” (In fact, the line “I’m the Doctor. The original you might say” is spoken by the First Doctor in the “The Five Doctors.” Additionally, the line, “You may be a Doctor, but I’m the Doctor” is something the Fourth Doctor says to Harry Sullivan in his very first serial, 1974’s “Robot.”) Twelve and One were both present at the climax of the 2013 fiftieth anniversary special “Day of the Doctor,” but I’m not sure we can say they actually met then.

I’m looking forward to the Christmas special. It’s going to be so much fun watching the Twelfth Doctor interact with the First. Of all his incarnations, Twelve and One are definitely the grumpiest!

***MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD***

A friend of mine wrote on Twitter about this episode, “Holy $#!^. Doctor Who is off the chain.” And she was right! This episode is insane, but in a very, very good way. From Missy’s opening test to the final reveals — and there are like three cliffhanger reveals happening at once — “World Enough and Time” delivers the goods. This is probably the best Missy episode we’ve had since the character was introduced back in season eight, and her jokes about the Doctor’s real name being “Doctor Who” are surprisingly funny for such a touchy subject among fans. The 400-mile long spaceship where, thanks the proximity of a black hole, the ends of the ship are moving through time at different speeds, is a great idea and very well executed. The hospital where Bill winds up after she’s nearly killed is superbly creepy, and the design of the other patients is a sneaky treat to those of us who remember classic Doctor Who, in particular the very first appearance of the Cybermen in the 1966 First Doctor serial “The Tenth Planet.” When the episode ended, I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what happens next.

My only wish is that the BBC hadn’t hyped the return of both the Mondasian Cybermen from “The Tenth Planet” and the John Simm Master. The news that they were returning in this episode left me waiting for both, and as a result I didn’t feel as surprised as I wish I had. In particular, I found myself guessing correctly that Razor was the Master in disguise, which left me not as excited by the reveal as I should have been. Also, I have to admit I didn’t fully understand why the Master bothered with a disguise. If the ship is from Mondas, they wouldn’t have recognized him as Harold Saxon, former Prime Minister of the UK. If the disguise is solely for Bill’s benefit, why did the hospital nurse show no surprise at “Razor’s” sudden appearance. Like the Doctor’s fake regeneration in “The Lie of the Land,” I suspect this was done solely for the audience, rather than for any story purpose, and when that happens it never feels quite authentic. On the other hand, the Master always did have a propensity for disguising himself, especially during the 1980s when he was played by Anthony Ainley. He disguises himself as the weird, alien mystic Kalid in the 1982 Fifth Doctor serial “Time Flight,” and the redheaded Frenchman Sir Gilles in the court of King John in the 1983 Fifth Doctor serial “The King’s Demons,” and he does both without knowing the Doctor would show up. He simply likes disguises, and I suppose I shouldn’t look for a reason he disguises himself as Razor in “World Enough and Time.” It’s just something the Master does.

Anyway, what’s going to happen to Bill now that she’s been turned into a Cyberman (Cyberperson?)? What’s going to happen now that Missy and the Master seem to have joined forces? Where has the Master been and how did he survive the cataclysmic events of the 2010 episode “The End of Time”? How will the Doctor stop the Cybermen, and will doing so lead to his regeneration, which is teased in the first few minutes of the episode? I want part two right now!

But since we have to wait, how about some good old-fashioned Doctor Who neepery? According to the classic series, Mondas, the planet where the Cybermen originated, is Earth’s twin planet, the tenth planet of our solar system (they were still counting Pluto back then!), which broke out of orbit somehow long ago. The inhabitants began to replace their organic body parts with mechanical ones in order to survive, which eventually led to them losing their emotions as well. They learned to pilot their planet like a spaceship and attacked Earth in the distant future of 1986, but the First Doctor defeated them in a taxing battle that, afterward, saw him regenerate for the very first time. The show seems to be playing with the origin a bit here, indicating the Cybermen were initially created on the lower decks of the spaceship in order to survive “Operation Exodus,” the journey back to the top of the ship. The Doctor knocks out the blue man on the bridge of the ship using Venusian Aikido, which is a martial art the Third Doctor used quite often back in the 1970s. But of course the best callback of all was John Simm wearing a goatee as the Master, the facial hair style employed by both Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley in the role before him!

Can I have part two now, please?

I thought this episode was so-so. I enjoyed the monster movie angle of it, the mysterious creature from another dimension that’s out there in the wilderness killing anyone it finds, and I liked the ancient setting of Romans vs. Picts. There’s a fun part where the Doctor says he once lived as a Roman, which is a nice callback to the 1965 First Doctor serial “The Romans,” in which the Doctor hangs out in Nero’s court after being mistaken for a famous lyre player. But that’s about it. The stuff with the talking crows was garbage, and a lot of the emotions in “The Eaters of Light” felt forced and unearned, especially at the end. Bringing together two warring sides to fight for their mutual survival is a theme that was just explored in the previous episode, “Empress of Mars,” and as a result I found it lacked the appropriate weight here. There’s some more interesting interplay between Missy and the Doctor at the end of the episode, but that plot is starting to feel like wheel-spinning, like it’s not really going anywhere.

Luckily, the two-part season finale is up next, so it will definitely be going somewhere (I hope). The much-teased return of John Simm as the Master’s previous incarnation looks like it’s about to happen, and I’m psyched to see where it goes. (I was a big fan of Simm as the Master back in the Doctor Who revival’s third season, plus I thought he was great in Life on Mars.) The return of the Mondasian Cybermen has me equally intrigued, although less excited because I always thought they looked silly with those socks over their heads. Also, since Steven Moffat is writing these final episodes, I half expect some timey-wimey nonsense where the Twelfth Doctor’s encounter with the Mondasians now inspires them to invade earth, where he initially encounters them as the First Doctor in the 1966 serial “The Tenth Planet.”

We’ll see. Onward to the finale!

This week on The Scariest Part, my guest is author Billy Lyons, whose debut novel is Blood and Needles. Here is the publisher’s description:

The last person 25-year-old junkie, Steven Jameson, expected to meet was Anna Marie, an alluring stranger who turns out to be a fellow junkie . . . and a vampire. Anna Marie senses an inner steel deep inside Steven, and offers him a membership in the seductive world of The Morphia Clan, a group of vampires as devoted to using narcotics as they are to drinking blood. Steven soon falls in love with Anna Marie, whose vampire throne is threatened from outside forces and from within. There are hidden dangers everywhere, and treachery and betrayal lie just around every corner. Soon Steven finds himself not only in a fight to save his own life but also the life of the vampire he loves.

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Billy Lyons:

Blood and Needles is the story of Steven Jameson, a junkie who lives on the streets of Orlando and finances his habit by robbing tourists. One Saturday night he’s preparing to do this very thing when he runs into Anna Marie Jennsen. It turns out that Anna Marie isn’t just a fellow addict, but the leader of a family of vampires who love shooting up as much as drinking blood.

Steven joins the ranks of the undead degenerates, and while he’s sleeping away his first day as a vampire, he has a very unsettling dream. It begins pleasantly enough, with him floating languidly along a waterway of blood. As he drifts along, he dips his head into it from time to time and takes a sip, but it isn’t long before things turn ugly. The blood begins to congeal, and its smell changes from savory to sickening. In a matter of minutes, the blood clots completely, and he’s trapped. That’s when things get ugly.

The naked, bloated bodies of his deceased family members emerge from the blood. They point lifeless fingers at Steven, and make accusations that that cut him to the quick.

“Steven, you stole pain medication from me. My cancer hurt so bad.” Grandma.

Before Steven can reply, his relatives are joined by hundreds more of the undead, each one a victim of Steven’s addiction. They rush forward and begin to chew away his flesh.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, Steven’s twin brother Allen (the person he loved most during his human existence) rips off one of Steven’s fingers and throws it high in the air. Buster, the family border collie, catches the finger in his mouth. Allen casts an evil grin at Steven, and with a wink says “Good boy, Buster!” Steven loses it completely, and screams himself awake.

When I first wrote this scene, I had to wonder if I wasn’t more than a little bit disturbed, and the fear it invoked stayed with me longer than anything else I’d written. I’d recently lost my older brother to a sudden heart attack, and my beloved miniature dachshund, Theodore, died around the same time from old age. The similarities between Steven’s grief and my own, combined with the fact that it’s just a scary freaking dream, made the experience of writing it quite terrifying. I did notice, however, that my grief had lessened somewhat afterwards, as crazy as that may sound. Call it catharsis through cannibalism.

Steven’s dream is brutal, frightening, and disturbing, but so is the world of the hardcore addict. As a vampire, Steven might find inner peace, but he must first deal with this little bit of leftover baggage from his human life. As a writer, creating the dream helped me deal with my own.

Blood and Needles: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Powell’s / IndieBound

Billy Lyons: Facebook / Twitter

Billy Lyons is the author of two published short stories. “Cell 334” was featured in the November 2014 edition of Another Realm magazine. “Black-Eyed Children, Blue-Eyed Child” was published in High Strange Horror, a 2015 horror anthology from Muzzleland Press. His latest, “Sheep and Snakes,” will be featured in Two Eyes Open, a horror anthology due to be released in August by MacKenzie Publishing. Blood and Needles is Billy’s debut novel. Follow Billy on Facebook for giveaways, personal appearances, and current writing projects.