'Doctor Who' Season 12 Episode 8 sees the Doctor save Percy Shelley but also unleash another evil
Spoiler alert for Season 12 Episode 8 of 'Doctor Who'!
Who came first? Frankenstein or the Cyberman? While the answer to the question may have been easier to give before tonight's episode, it might not be so after.
The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), Yasmin Khan aka Yaz (Mandip Gill), Ryan Sinclair (Tosin Cole), and Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh) travel to Lake Geneva in 1816 to spend a night with Lord Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley, Claire Claremont and John Polidori -- the same night that Mary first came up with the idea for Frankenstein.
However, when they get there, things are not going as expected. For one, Percy is missing and for another, nobody is writing. As they split up, the Doctor and her companions realize that the house is becoming a maze -- "folding in on itself", as Ryan said -- and it may be haunted.
As apparitions become visible, the Doctor continues to question the events and comes to realize that something is trying to enter the house in search of some object hidden within the house.
That unwanted guest happens to be a Cyberman, only this Cyberman is not as whole as the Cybermen viewers might be used to seeing. Part of his face is visible and so is his arm. This Cyberman is after Percy -- who is responsible for all the ghostly events after absorbing Cyberium.
Through the Cyberium fused to his brain, Percy was able to create a barrier to keep the Cyberman away -- however, it is also killing him. In an effort to save Percy, the Doctor considers removing the Cyberium and giving it to the Cyberman.
But this would go against Jack Harkness's warning as Yaz and Ryan warn the Doctor against doing so. When Ryan says extracting the Cyberium and giving it to the Cyberman would kill billions, but leaving it in Percy would only kill one, the Doctor tells him that one life does matter -- if Percy were to die in 1816, the thousands who were to be influenced by him would be affected, after all, as the Doctor says, "words matter."
So, as the Cyberium is given to the Cyberman, the Doctor is also working on step 2 of her plan -- clean up the mess she created while trying to save Percy. While she gives her companions the option to go back home, they, of course, decide to go with her.
This, now, sets up the two-part finale. The return of the Cybermen was teased before the season started. Now that Jack's warning makes sense, we have to wait and see whether the Master will return. The finale is titled 'The Timeless Children', so the return of the Cyberman should also coincide with a bigger mystery.
While the eighth episode served as a lead-in to the final two episodes, it did well enough to hold its own. It was funny and terrifying -- a mix that is difficult to get right -- and featured all the elements of 'Doctor Who' that make the show what it is.
'Doctor Who' airs on Sunday nights at 8/7c on BBC America.