‘I’ll have to bill you for therapy at this rate.’ First impressions were that this was The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos done right, with genuine stakes and a credible villain. Like Tim Shaw, Ashad has beef with the Doctor – but in Ashad’s case he has the power to back up his threats, and much of this episode’s propulsive energy comes from his relentless, single-minded hatred. He’s the Locutus of the Cybermen: the rest of the species are emotionless drones, while he acts as a channel for their malevolence.

Other similarities to The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos include the settings (a war-torn planet, and a gloomy spacecraft), and the rag-tag bunch of survivors the Fam discovers. As in the previous finale, Chibnall takes the rare step of splitting the Fam up, this time pairing Yaz and Graham, the Doctor and Ryan. It’s a smart move: while Yaz and Graham team up with Bonekicker’s Julie Graham for the Eric Saward space horror (the debris field of dismembered Cybermen; the suspiciously abandoned mothership, and the very Earthshock moment of storage units disgorging row upon row of Cybermen while the human survivors cower on the bridge), the Doctor travels to the mysterious ‘boundary’ and meets the Obi Wan Kenobi-ish Ko Sharmus (her message to him almost says, ‘Help us Ko Sharmus, you’re our only hope’).

Along the way, Whittaker gives her funniest, most commanding performance (her confrontation with the hologram of Ashad is superb), as the Doctor is forced to take the lead in impossible circumstances. Like Pertwee, there’s a sense that Whittaker is terrible on the rebound, and her Doctor works best when at her apparent weakest – when the Master forced her to her knees in Spyfall, or here, where she has to face wave after wave of Cyber troops. The Graham and Yaz double act works a lot better than the more familiar Graham and Ryan pairing (‘You’ve come as long way Graham O’Brien’), and there’s an uneasy peril to their gradual reboot of the Cyber mothership. On the other hand, Ryan continues to be a spare wheel this series, essentially a background character while the Doctor improvises wildly.

I also like Chibnall’s additions to the Cyberman ranks: aside from Ashad, the flying head drones are a nice touch, and the new Warrior Class is the most accurate attempt to recreate a The Invasion style mask in the modern series. I assume for cost reasons the Warrior Class bodies re-use the Nightmare in Silver costumes, which is a slight shame because the heads look a bit top-heavy on them. But it does mean the old CybusMen models are dragged out of storage to act as Ashad’s guards.

If this were the finale, then, it would trump The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos on all counts. But there’s still an episode to go, to wrap up Ashad’s plans for ‘the ascension’, explain the strange Ashes to Ashes style cutaways to an immortal Irish police officer and his mysterious handlers, and tell us what the Master is doing beyond the boundary in the ruins of Gallifrey. After this, I’m excited to see what happens next.

Next Time: The Timeless Children