It was fun. The plot/themes/writing was a mess. But it was the first Chibnall written episode where I could turn off my brain and enjoy it while watching.

The cameos were a lot of fun, and the episode was entertaining enough. There were just too many random plot threads that went nowhere or only lasted one scene before being wrapped up. Like, why did the Master deface all those paintings? And why pretend to be Rasputin in the first place? And why did Ashad come back to life with no explanation only to not do anything in the episode? And why did the Master want to turn the Doctor into him? And why did a Dalek betray its own kind, only to get exterminated before anything can come of that? And how did Graham get inside a volcano?

For this episode to be really good, Chibnall would have had to cut out some of the plot threads that went nowhere, and expand on some of the plot threads that were poorly developed. As it is, I’d give this episode a C+, which is remarkably good for Chibnall.

Why did the energy thingy (I refuse to call it by its name. Chibbers does not get to keep making up awful scifi names. We're done with that.) have to be a creature? It was just a power source for the planet, so why not have any other power source? Why have the planet in 1916 in particular? (Obviously the answer is Chibnall wanted to rip off Peter Harness, but we can't say that.) How did the Master randomly pushing a button on the TCE cause the energy alien thing to decide to use its laser on the Doctor? Why does the Doctor die to a random laser when every other Doctor's regeneration since the revival has some sort of thematic meaning for their character?

It's just an incoherent mess of an episode. But a lot of fun fanwank, which is really the first time I can say that.

I haven’t seen it and I have no desire to and I’ve already seen the best part which was a clip of Jodie regenerating into David Tenant

The scenes with Davison and Eccleston were also pretty good.

@Icecreamdif Half of the things that confuse you are explained. Ashad was cloned by the master (Not sure which version between Clone or Raspu or when) and he was basically just there for the siege of UNIT I suppose. The Master wanted to become the doctor in order to (Paraphrasing Hamilton here) "sully their good name" by allowing the cybermen to convert humanity into cyberpeople and by allowing the daleks free reign to take over the planet, as he had no intent on stopping them and he believed that if he didn't stop them, then who would as the only other time lord that he knew of who were anywhere near earth were 13 who he just stole the body of, thus meaning he erased their shared mortal enemy from existence had his plan have been wholly successful. The dalek traitor also explained that the daleks had strayed too far away from their original mission which was the protection of the Kaled Race and as such he believed they needed to be destroyed (Even if this meant that it would be destroyed too), yet that dalek was exterminated as the others used him in order to lure 13 to them so that it could kill the traitor, imprison her within its casing and take her to the RaspuMaster in 1919. In terms of the paintings and Graham winding up within a volcano, I can't answer though as these weren't explained within the episode.

@Najawin I suppose 13's regeneration has some sort of thematic meaning for The Master who portrayed her in some parts of the episode, as he managed to force her to have to regenerate via shooting her with the laser as he was prevented from being the doctor by her. Otherwise its hard to even pinpoint a theme of any kind when most of 13's episodes don't even join up in order to make a story. Series 11 was just a mess of a plot (The only episodes with plot relevance were The Woman Who Fell To Earth, The Ghost Monument & The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos. The only reason to watch Arachnids in the UK would be to understand who Jack Robertson is in Revolution of the Daleks, otherwise skipping episodes 3 and 5-9 would make no difference at all here. You could probably skip Resolution too as that has no impact that I can remember afterwards neither). By Series 12 Chibnall got a little better as more episodes matched up to make a story (Plot relevance episodes included Spyfall parts 1 & 2, Fugitive of the Judoon, The Haunting of Villa Diodati and Ascension of the Cyberman / The Timeless Children. So half of the series connects up whereas episodes 3 - 4 & 6 - 7 have no plot relevance at all). By Series 13 Chibnall finally nailed an actual arc which latest a series with Flux, and the specials were just really Yaz's feelings for the doctor thematically (Otherwise everything here was random and hardly joined up neither). The TCE seeing The Master get the Qurunx to shoot the Doctor was probably just plot convenience. The other two questions, I again can't answer put perhaps your correct or again it was plot convenience.

This vote is now closed and with 31% of the vote the Fantastic Tier has won the vote so as such will be notated in said Tier in the final incarnation of the Tier List (See what I did there, because I've been updating it on a special by special basis?)

@Icecreamdif I mean, I think the idea is that Ashad has no reason for actually coming back. Sure, he can, the Master cloned him, but the Master had no reason to do so. Except, apparently, the Master finds him fun. Moreover, Ashad serves no narrative purpose in the episode. I guess he was just a popular character so Chibnall brought him back.

As for the whole Dalek subplot, sure, there's some internal logic there, but couldn't we cut it out of the episode entirely and capture the Doctor in a far simpler way? Like with the army of Cybermen? The entire reason for their existence in the episode is the "Master's Dalek Plan" gag.

I must have missed the line about cloning. So did the Master clone him, and then half cyber-convert him? And if so, why? And from a real world point of view, what was the point of bringing him back. He didn’t end up doing anything.

Couldn’t the Master sully the Doctor’s good name just by going around telling people that he was the Doctor? And couldn’t he have just killed her with his TCE? Taking the Doctor’s body didn’t seem to accomplish anything. Obviously, he tried to do something similar in the TV movie, but in that case he had lost his Time Lord body and was dying. He didn’t seem to have a similar reason here.

@Icecreamdif He could have cloned him before he killed him, yet this wasn't seen in Timeless Children (If this were the case he would already be half cyber converted technically), and I guess he cloned him in order to have Ashad help his The Master's clone escaped UNIT and to hold them up so that they couldn't stop his plans and this way he may have had the best of both worlds by having Ashad on his side and the ability to keep the Cyberium as I'm guessing it would have been conscious enough to know that this version of Ashad was a clone.

In terms of sullying the doctor's could name, of course he could have gone around telling people he were the doctor, yet for him he wouldn't find that avenue any fun. Whereas, allowing the doctors mortal enemies the freedom to do whatever they wanted to the world was more fun in his eyes. Also just killing her with the TCE on the conversion planet would not have caused the forced regeneration, it would have just caused her regeneration into 14, thus meaning he wouldn't be able to steal her body as by the seems of things, he probably needed the chambers in 1919 Russia in order to achieve that.