"World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls"

Time is coming to an end for our leading man and the person responsible for guiding him in the programme. The stickers on the banner are certainly impressive – The original Cybermen! Two Masters! It seems that this event finale will certainly not disappoint in terms of spectacle. To limit the appeal of the Series 10 finale to this, however, is doing it a serious disservice. Stephen Moffat has written better stories, but that does not, in any way, take away from the triumph that is "World Enough and Time"/"The Doctor Falls". The headline attractions are arresting enough, but we also have the setting of a 400 mile long colony ship slowly escaping from the gravitational pull of a black hole. The way in which these flavours complement, rather than clash with each other show Moffat as a master chef. It is striking how many long, quiet scenes there are and their punctuation with shocks and awe are expertly constructed. There is a fascinating sci-fi concept at the heart of the story, with the time dilation occurring along the vast length of the ship, but the way in which this is used in so many ways in the story is masterful – a moment at one end lasting a month at the other, the micro-communities at different levels, the Cybermen’s accelerated evolution.

Ah, yes, the Cybermen. Fond as I am of "Rise of the Cybermen"/"The Age of Steel", this story is in a different league from its predecessor. The stages in the creation of the Cybermen are alternately disquieting, disturbing and horrific in a way subtly different from any other mood in the programme’s past. The ‘scarecrows’ as the proto-Cybermen are sometimes called are both pathetic and horrifying and the dispassionate functionality of the medical staff creating the Cybermen is far more shocking than Lumic’s megalomania. I have said before that, in many ways, the original Cybermen have a quality that their successors didn’t manage to emulate and the design team do little more than tidy up the edges around Sandra Reid’s superlative original designs. The production throughout is hugely impressive and, again, Rachel Talalay shows that she is the person to handle the spectacle and the emotion. It is hard to dazzle purely with special effects any more, but the opening shot of the ship is the closest the programme has come to emulating the awe the average viewer would have had, when watching the opening of The Trial of a Time Lord. The quiet moments, the funny moments, the scary and disquieting ones – all guided with an expert hand.

The supporting cast is first rate. Paul Brightwell and Alison Lintott as the Surgeon and Nurse give unshowy performances, which makes the horror of what they are doing all the more acute. The incredibly versatile Samantha Spiro is a delight as Hazran who finds an unlikely friend, with hopes for more, in Nardole, played with effortless charm again, by Matt Lucas. Then, we come to the Masters. The interplay between the two incarnations is delightfully twisted in every way and Michelle Gomez and John Simm pull out all the stops. The final act of suicide is merely the culmination of their perverse relationship and would be a fitting end for the character – although I do not, for a moment, believe that this is the end for the Master.

Which brings us to the regulars. Pearl Mackie impressed me from the get-go and she only improved as the series went on, but the sheer passion of her performance in this story is breath-taking. I have loved each of the companions since the programme came back, so it is not lightly that I say that there has never been a better companion than Bill this century, and there has never been a better actor playing a companion than Pearl Mackie. It would be fantastic if she could carry on, but if not, the wonderful Ms Mackie has a very bright future ahead of her. However, this is still Peter Capaldi’s show and his portrayal of this cantankerous, yet kind warrior for right is as archetypal, yet unique, as all the best performances in the role have been. Fighting against what is inevitable, Capaldi wins the hearts that he will soon break.

It is hard to rein in the hyperbole when assessing this story, so I will only state what I am absolutely confident of. This is in the league of "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday" and "Heaven Sent"/"Hell Bent" as far as season finales go and is, in my opinion, the finest Cyberman story of them all. Everyone involved with this story deserves a pat on the back.

NEXT: "Twice Upon a Time"