Banging end regenerates Time Lord’s whimper of a series

O ver at Saturday night’s Doctor Who finale, the Doctor was busy making cracks about the Cybermen not having much up top: “You can always fool a monkey brain with a little bit of theatre.” Funnily enough, for me that pretty much sums up the latest series. OK, so writer Steven Moffat might not actually think BBC1 viewers have the brains of monkeys. (The jury is still out on whether whoever commissioned Pitch Battle does, however.) That said, he may well have hoped the dazzling theatre of the final two episodes would prove enough to fool some people into believing this was a vintage run. Some diehard fans no doubt loved all 12 weeks of it. Casual viewers in need of an easy Saturday night thrill were less well-served. The ratings appear to back that up. A third had deserted by the time John Simm returned as the Master in the penultimate episode and suddenly made things interesting again. Those who drifted back for Saturday’s finale were rewarded with a fine hour of TV which had yanked at the heartstrings even before the lily was well and truly gilded by that “montage of companions” near the end. Peter Capaldi was on great form and you cannot deny that the surprise ending left us all wanting more. As if the current Doctor halting his regeneration by dipping his flaming hands in some handily placed snow wasn’t enough, in walked the first Doctor – with the wonderful David Bradley taking on William Hartnell’s duties. The pair will be back on Christmas Day. The missing millions, you might say, would be well advised to join them.

RETURN Simm as the Master