The Doctor Falls (TV story)

, written by Steven Moffat, was the twelfth and final episode of the tenth series of Doctor Who produced by BBC Wales. It featured the departures of both Bill Potts and Nardole, and the apparent death of after ensuring the end of. Expanding on the Twelfth Doctor's regeneration teased in the previous episode, it saw him mortally wounded in battle against the Cybermen. The regeneration would be postponed, however, as the Doctor refused to change.

The story featured several connections to the 1966 serial The Tenth Planet, including a story featuring humans from Mondas and featured appearances by the Cyberman from said planet. More surprisingly, it featured the surprise return of the First Doctor now portrayed by David Bradley, who had previously portrayed William Hartnell in the docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, in a scene set during the finale of The Tenth Planet iself.

Plot
The episode opens to a group of farmers on Floor 0507 facing against the prototypes from Floor 1056, shooting them down by night to then restrain on wooden crosses by day. A school child is out in the field one morning when a shuttlepod blasts through the ground. From the rubble, a Cyberman walks out carrying an unconscious Doctor.

Sometime earlier, The Doctor awakes on top of the hospital, soon recalling how he was subdued by Missy and the Master. The Doctor, now restrained in a wheelchair, watches the two incarnations of the Master taunt him on the many deaths the Doctor has had and wanting to find out new ways to kill him. The Master and Missy dance and flirt with each other and gloat of their plan of the Cybermen converting all the humans on the ship. However the Master is stunned to find that the Cybermen are heading towards the building that they are perched on. The Doctor explains while he was knocked down by Missy, he altered the signal to focus on the Time Lords present and brags that he is the only one who has ever been able to stop so many Cybermen at once. Missy knocks the Master out and frees the Doctor from his restraints.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Capaldi
 * Bill - Pearl Mackie
 * Nardole - Matt Lucas
 * - Michelle Gomez
 * - John Simm
 * Hazran - Samantha Spiro
 * Alit - Briana Shann
 * Gazron - Rosie Boore
 * Rexhill - Simon Coombs
 * Heather - Stephanie Hyam
 * Voice of the Cybermen - Nicholas Briggs
 * The First Doctor - David Bradley

Story notes

 * This marks David Bradley's first appearance as the First Doctor in a DWU television story. Bradley previously portrayed a fictionalised version of William Hartnell, the original actor to portray the First Doctor, in the non-DWU docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, in which Bradley reenacted scenes from several First Doctor serials.

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Continuity

 * The Doctor recalls last seeing Missy's predecessor heading to Gallifrey, deducing that the Time Lords cured his "little condition" before kicking him out. (TV: The End of Time)
 * The Doctor notes the Cybermen have risen from Mondas (AUDIO: Spare Parts, TV: The Tenth Planet) to Telos, (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) Earth, (TV: Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel) Planet 14 (TV: The Invasion) and Marinus. (COMIC: The World Shapers)
 * The Doctor recounts his various victories over the Cybermen: on Telos where he sealed them into their ice tombs, (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) Voga, (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen), Canary Wharf (TV: Army of Ghosts / Doomsday) and Planet 14. (COMIC: The World Shapers, TV: The Invasion)
 * The Doctor reminds Bill how she remembered the truth during the reign of the Monks. (TV: The Lie of the Land)
 * The Doctor reiterates his dislike of guns, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Doctor's Daughter, The Impossible Astronaut, The Curse of the Black Spot) despite having once willingly used one. (TV: Hell Bent)
 * Missy is able to provide the Master with a dematerialization circuit by telling him to always carry a spare, similar to how the Tenth Doctor told the Fifth how he could stop the TARDIS exploding (Time Crash).
 * The Doctor reiterates River's words that Nardole once spoke to him from her diary. (TV: Extremis)
 * Bill is reunited with Heather in the form of sentient oil. (TV: The Pilot)
 * Missy uses her sonic umbrella. (TV: World Enough and Time)
 * Missy says that she knows the Doctor has literally fell to his death, referring to how he once fell from a radio telescope. (TV: Logopolis)
 * The Master uses a modified laser screwdriver. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
 * The Master moves the Doctor around in a wheelchair. (TV: Last of the Time Lords)
 * The Doctor has a brief recall of some of his past companions from his ninth incarnation onwards, just before his body attempts to regenerate. The Fourth and Fifth Doctor similarly had this occur to him. Likewise, the last face he sees is the Master's. (TV: The Caves of Androzani, Logopolis)
 * He recalls Rose Tyler from Bad Wolf, Martha Jones from Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, Donna Noble from Partners in Crime, Jack Harkness from Utopia, Vastra from The Name of the Doctor, Jenny Flint from The Crimson Horror, Sarah Jane Smith from The Stolen Earth, Amy Pond from The Impossible Astronaut, River Song from The Pandorica Opens, and even Clara Oswald from Last Christmas.
 * When waking up after his pre-regeneration flashbacks, the Doctor says "Sontarans! Perverting the course of human history!". They were the first words of the Fourth Doctor after regenerating. (TV: Robot). He said the same statement after he woke up in the TARDIS during TV: Listen.
 * As he begins regenerating, the Doctor says "I don't want to go", the exact same words his tenth incarnation said before regenerating. (TV: The End of Time) He also reiterates the last lines of his eleventh incarnation, (TV: The Time of the Doctor) as well as the final words the Tenth Doctor stated before his aborted regeneration. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
 * The Doctor resists regenerating. He has previously done this when nearing the end of his fifth (TV: The Caves of Androzani) and tenth incarnations. (TV: The End of Time)
 * The Doctor offers people jelly babies. (TV: The Three Doctors, Robot, et. al)
 * It was revealed Heather gave her tears to track Bill, explaining how Bill was still able to cry despite being a Cyberman. (TV: World Enough and Time)
 * The Doctor meets his first incarnation. He has met this version of himself on numerous previous occasions. (TV: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Day of the Doctor)
 * As the Doctor leaves the TARDIS the Cloister Bell is heard ringing.

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