It’s the end for the Twelfth Doctor, but to find out exactly how Peter Capaldi goes out, you’ll want to be watching this weekend.
Last week’s penultimate episode of Doctor Who series 10 didn’t just bring back a very old enemy, the Mondasian Cybermen. It also began with the Twelfth Doctor staggering out of the TARDIS into the snow and beginning to regenerate.
Alas, we know this is no trick like the one we saw the Doctor pull earlier in the season to help defeat the Monks. This is the last regular series appearance for Peter Capaldi, who will at least show up at the start of the Christmas special to hand the sonic screwdriver off to whoever is cast as the Thirteenth Doctor.
There’s another problem to deal with first, and it’s the not insignificant bit that Bill Potts is now a Cyberman (Cyberwoman?) herself, transformed after waiting for a long time for the Doctor because of the time difference between the top and bottom of the enormous colony ship they’re on.
Of course the Doctor needs to save Bill, if she can be saved, but there are generations of humans at the bottom of the ship too, as we’re reminded by the synopsis for “The Doctor Falls,” courtesy of TV Guide:
"In the season finale, the Doctor makes a final stand against an army of Cybermen, to protect a tiny band of humans from destruction."
The Cybermen have always been creepy in the current incarnation of the show, but the Mondasian Cybermen are especially chilling. The synopsis, perhaps because it was written and distributed before the episode 9 reveal, doesn’t even mention that the Master is back and is behind the mechanical menaces — or at least working with them.
So “The Doctor Falls” is going to be a jam-packed episode, as we find out if Bill will survive, whether Missy is really going to turn on the Doctor now that she’s made some progress, how the Master will be dealt with and what starts the Doctor’s regeneration.
Next: Doctor Who series 10, episode 11 recap
That’s an awful lot, which is why this episode starts at 8:30 p.m. instead of 9. Enjoy the series 10 finale and be sure to return to FanSided.com for our recap and review on Saturday night.