Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor Recap

This article contains SPOILERS for Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor. 

Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor has her final adventure where she faces her deadliest enemies, including Sacha Dhawan’s Master.

Check out our recap of Doctor Who’s season 12 finale The Timeless Children!

The episode begins with someone on a train asking for help because the train has been hijacked. Cybermen burst into the top of the train and attack everyone on board.

The crew manages to kill the Cybermen, but they can regenerate. One of the crew members on the train sends another urgent call for help.

Of course, this call for help is picked up by the Doctor. The Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan, also known as Yaz, and Dan Lewis get ready to help the people on the train.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Return of the Cyber Masters

The Doctor sends a ladder down to the train. One of the Cybermen, or the Cyber Masters created by the Master in the Timeless Children, finds out that the Doctor is there.

The Doctor, Yaz, and Dan use the ladder to climb down from the TARDIS to the top of the train. Two crew members argue with one who doesn’t want to leave the passengers, and the other saying they have to protect the cargo.

The Cyber Masters attack the crew, one of them asking about the cargo. A crew member lies and says there is none, but the Cyber Master knows it’s a lie.

The crew member says she isn’t afraid of Cybermen. The Cyber Master says that they are not Cybermen; they have evolved and are Cyber Masters.

The Doctor, Yaz, and Dan are dealing with Cyber Masters on their own on the top of the train. The Doctor deactivates the train’s electromagnets.

Yaz is barely able to hold onto Dan. The Doctor tells Dan where the controls are and warns him not to lose her sonic screwdriver.

She and Yaz attempt to help the passengers and find out what the Cyber Masters want. Meanwhile, the Cyber Masters are still terrorizing the crew in an attempt to get the cargo.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The Doctor lies?

One of the Cyber Masters tells another to open the cargo. The Doctor and Yaz find the passengers, where Yaz heals someone’s wounds while the Doctor deals with the Cyber Masters.

The Doctor finds the Cyber Masters beginning to open the cargo. One of them says that she won’t interfere with their mission, but the Doctor disagrees with that.

Once the Cyber Masters open the cargo, the Doctor sees a child and comforts her. The Cyber Master says she’s lying, and all of them disappear with the child.

In 1916 Russia, someone comes to Rasputin’s door and says that the Tsarina requires his presence at the Winter Palace because the Tsarovitch had taken ill.

He heads out. In present day London, a woman looks at a spot where a painting should be in a museum.

She asks one of the workers where the picture is, and the worker explains it needs some restoration work. The woman knows, however, that the painting was restored two months ago.

The museum worker responds that it required some additional work.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Ace and Tegan

The woman is talking to someone on the phone about how 15 of the world’s most famous paintings have been taken down without any explanation. She is revealed to be a former companion of the Doctor, known as Ace.

Ace is speaking to another former companion, Tegan. Tegan is in Romania.

Tegan tells Ace about how seismologists were investigating an earthquake in Romania, but they disappeared. A dozen seismologists are missing, according to Ace.

Tegan tells Ace that when she arrived at where she was staying in Romania, there was a package with a card that said it was from the Doctor. Inside the package was a Russian doll box with a miniature Cyberman inside.

Tegan wonders why the Doctor would send that, as it is not a good memory for her. Ace tells Tegan they should go in somewhere.

The TARDIS materializes in present-day Liverpool. Inside the Doctor tells Dan that he’s back in time for his date and asks if she and Yaz should pick him up in 24 hours.

He says that she doesn’t have to come back for him.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: A Dalek who doesn’t mean harm?

Dan tells the Doctor and Yaz that he is so close to being thrown into space and suffocating and doesn’t want to push his luck too much. He wants to return to his life, although imperfect and feels more prepared to do so, thanks to his time with the Doctor.

The Doctor responds that she understands the importance of life and home. Yaz and Dan say goodbye, but the Doctor doesn’t like goodbyes and goes back into her TARDIS.

A hologram of a Dalek appears in the TARDIS, one who means the Doctor no harm. The Dalek says that it has information critical to the future of humanity and Daleks and wants to meet the Doctor immediately.

The Dalek says it can give the Doctor the key to destroying the Daleks. Naturally the Doctor is skeptical.

The Dalek adds that it no longer believes in the Daleks’ mission. It tells the Doctor that the Daleks have lost the right to survive.

It warns that a Dalek invasion of Earth is coming and that it offers the Doctor the chance to destroy all Daleks before then. The Doctor wonders why she should trust the Dalek.

The Dalek states that she will because it could save the lives of billions of humans.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Rasputin is who?

The Dalek tells the Doctor that it will tell her the location and time of their meeting and that she must go. The Doctor doesn’t like being ordered around by a Dalek and yells at it.

The Dalek ends the conversation because other Daleks have detected it. Just then, Yaz enters the TARDIS, wondering who the Doctor was yelling at.

The TARDIS picks up where the Cyber Masters have taken the child; Russia in 1916. The Doctor says it doesn’t make sense, and Yaz wonders why.

The Doctor explains that there’s one planet too many in the solar system. The extra planet is right in the shadow of Earth.

The scene moves to 1916 Russia where Rasputin is revealed to be the Master. The Tsarina wants to know about her son’s health.

The Tsarina says that her son’s health has worsened since the arrival of the second moon in the sky. The Master tells her that she can’t lose her faith but must allow it to be strengthened.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Two TARDISes on a metallic planet

The Tsarina is still worried, but the Master assures her that her son will be much improved in the morning. The Master then turns his attention to the Tsar, asking whether he will send more troops to war or withdraw.

The Tsar asks him for his advice. The Master says that the Tsar and his family should go on a vacation.

However, the Tsar is somewhat reluctant. The Master says that he will take care of the Winter Palace, and the Tsar will be assured of his one certainty.

This certainty is that the Master is the Master, and the Tsar will obey him. The Doctor and Yaz land on the extra planet, full of volcanic matter turned into metal.

Yaz says it’s Cyber technology, and the Doctor wonders if the Cybermen are capable of that. The Doctor mentions that the Master created the Cyber Masters on Gallifrey.

Then Yaz spots another TARDIS on the planet, one that looks just like the Doctor’s. She calls the Doctor’s attention to this.

They both walk towards the TARDIS, and the Doctor tells her to stay there, but she doesn’t listen.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: One of the great mysteries of the universe

The Doctor and Yaz walk into the other TARDIS, seeing that the inside also looks like the Doctor’s. The Doctor notices that the core of the TARDIS is lashed into the center of the planet’s metal structure.

Yaz tells the Doctor that the screen shows another energy source on the planet’s surface. The Doctor and Yaz head out to find this other energy source.

The Doctor realizes that there’s a cloaking shield and undoes it with her sonic screwdriver. Once she does, she and Yaz see the child, a little girl, who is the energy source.

Yaz wonders how the girl is an energy source. The Doctor says that there are more layers to the shield.

The child is really a creature, a Qurunx, trying to protect itself, by presenting itself as someone that others would want to protect. According to the Doctor, the Qurunx is one of the great mysteries of the universe.

The Doctor has never seen a Qurunx before, as they are rare. They are conscious energy, enough to power an entire planet or a civilization.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The Doctor’s Master awaits?

The Doctor wonders what the Qurunx and the planet were doing near Earth in the 20th century. As she’s wondering, a Cyber Master appears and shoots at her and Yaz.

The Cyber Master says that the planet is the zenith of Cyber conversion. The Doctor, of course, can’t allow that.

However, the Cyber Master says that she can’t stop it. It proclaims that the Doctor’s Master awaits.

Yaz wonders what it means by that, but before the Doctor can answer, they’re getting shot at again. The Doctor and Yaz head back to the TARDIS, dodging shots from the Cyber Masters.

Once she and Yaz are in the TARDIS, the Doctor gets a call from Kate Stewart at UNIT. Kate says that UNIT needs the Doctor’s help.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: An awkward reunion for the Doctor

Of course, the Doctor is busy and asks if it can wait, but it can’t. So, the Doctor and Yaz head to present-day London, to UNIT headquarters.

Kate tells the Doctor about the missing seismologists and paintings. She mentions that UNIT has some new freelancers and asks the Doctor not to be upset.

The Doctor heads in to see that the “freelancers” are Ace and Tegan. The Doctor asks them what they’re doing there.

Kate explains that she’s building up UNIT’s intelligence network with people who know what problems Earth is facing from personal experience. The best place to start is with the Doctor’s former companions.

The Doctor asks how Ace and Tegan are doing, with Tegan mentioning that she hasn’t seen the Doctor for 38 years. Yaz wonders what is going on, so Tegan tells her that she and Ace used to be just like Yaz decades ago.

The Doctor asks Kate what was so urgent. Kate shows the Doctor the missing paintings, which have been taken out of view because they have been defaced with the inserted face of Rasputin.

The Doctor explains that it isn’t Rasputin but the Master.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The Master returns to the present

Ace and Tegan are shocked. The Master then gives a speech at a seismology conference and sends the location, which shows up on the screen at UNIT, for everyone to see.

The Master is apparently in a hotel near Mount Vesuvius. Kate goes to get the Doctor local support from the UNIT base in Naples.

The Doctor apologizes to Ace and Tegan. When she touches them both, she gives them electric shocks.

She and Yaz then head to Naples to meet the Master. The Doctor and Yaz see that the Master has shrunk the seismologists, making them tiny and killing them.

The Doctor wonders how the Master being Rasputin, the metal planet with the Cyber Masters on it, and the Master shrinking the seismologists all fit together. Yaz asks the Master why he killed all the seismologists.

He tells the Doctor that this is meant to be a warning to her. He says that this is the day the Doctor dies and is erased from existence forever.

The Master goes to Yaz and tells her it isn’t an empty threat. Just then, UNIT soldiers come into the room.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Mission partially successful

Two soldiers hold onto the Master, and the Doctor asks one of the others to give Yaz a gun. The Master says she must be worried because the Doctor doesn’t like guns.

Yaz reluctantly takes the gun and points it at the Master, after the Doctor tells her they’re taking him in the TARDIS. The Master tells Yaz that he ingested the Cybermen’s Cyberium and is so many steps ahead.

He brags about seeing all of their ends, and Yaz spats in his dreams in response. The Doctor says that UNIT will keep the Master under armed guard while she takes care of the problems he’s been causing.

The Doctor gets a message from a Dalek, and the Master wonders why. Yaz replies that there must be a good reason.

Vinder, who showed up in Doctor Who Flux, appears again, exiting a wormhole in his ship. He’s tracking the missing Qurunx.

However, the wormhole is destroying his ship. Vinder talks about how his ship went through the wormhole with him, and it led him to the missing Qurunx.

So, his mission is partially successful.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Dales, Cybermen, and the Master, oh my

Vinder also mentions that the Qurunx is on a planet that shouldn’t even be there and that his ship is broken. He sees the other TARDIS on the planet.

Kate instructs the UNIT soldiers to put the Master in the bunker. The Master taunts Ace and Tegan, but they both have something to say to him.

Kate orders the UNIT soldiers to take the Master away. He asks the Doctor if she’s staying.

The UNIT soldiers take him away in an elevator. The Doctor tells Ace and Tegan to stay at UNIT headquarters and monitor the Master.

She says that she and Yaz won’t be long. Yaz tells the Doctor that she can’t keep going from one place to another without explanations.

The Doctor says there’s no time, but Yaz demands her to make time. She notes that Daleks appearing on the same day as Cybermen and the Master can’t be good.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: A trap for the Doctor?

The Doctor responds that the three villains are either separate problems or part of a bigger scheme. She adds that the Master doesn’t have the power to corral Daleks and Cybermen, right?

The Doctor touches Yaz, giving her an electric shock and then scanning Yaz with her sonic, as she did with Ace and Tegan earlier. She apologizes for being static-y today.

Yaz wonders if the Doctor is walking into a trap by meeting the Dalek. The Doctor is wondering that too, but she says that there is about to be a Dalek invasion on Earth.

This invasion can give her the ability to stop all Daleks forever. The Doctor, of course, can’t pass up that opportunity.

She and Yaz head to Bolivia to meet the Dalek, and once there, they split up. Yaz tells the Doctor to be careful, and the Doctor replies that she should be saying that to Yaz.

The Doctor then heads over to meet the Dalek. The Dalek tells the Doctor that she must ensure all the Daleks are destroyed.

Meanwhile, Yaz sees other Daleks getting something ready and says that all these villainous aliens showing up is not good news.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Who sent the toy Cyberman?

Meanwhile, Ace and Tegan get ready to watch the Master in his cell at UNIT headquarters. Tegan notices that the toy Cyberman is on the floor, not in her bag.

The Master appears on the screen, asking Tegan if she thinks the Doctor cared enough to send her a toy. He confesses that he sent it.

The Master also says that he knew what Tegan would do with the tiny Cyberman, keep it close to her. He adds that it’s not just any Cyberman; it’s a Russian doll.

The Master reverses the compression on the Cyberman, and several Cybermen walk out of it. The Master tells Ace and Tegan to say hello to his friend Ashad, who he killed once, but who has now forgiven him.

Ace and Tegan get behind a table and send gold bullets at the Cybermen. When it doesn’t kill them, Ashad, the Cyberman, says they developed a resistance to gold long ago.

Ace and Tegan then flee from the Cybermen. Ashad heads to the bunker and helps the Master break out.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Dalek mission successful

Once The Master is out of the bunker, he hits something on the wall, takes a device out of it, and disappears. Meanwhile, the Doctor and the spy Dalek are interrupted by other Daleks coming.

They tell the Doctor to stay where she is, and the Doctor wonders if the Dalek betrayed her. It says it didn’t, and the other Daleks confirm it is telling the truth.

The other Daleks say that they allowed the traitor Dalek to contact the Doctor. They force the traitor’s casing to open.

They then kill the traitor Dalek and order the Doctor to enter the casing. The Doctor refuses, but the Daleks push forward, continuing to demand the Doctor and threatening to exterminate her.

As the Doctor steps back, she is drawn into the casing, with the Daleks say their mission is successful. They disappear along with the Doctor.

Yaz, who has witnessed all this, heads back to the TARDIS. She tells the TARDIS that the Doctor is in danger and that there must be some Dalek teleport that the TARDIS can lock onto.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The day I killed the Doctor (with a little help from my friends)

Yaz wonders why she’s talking to the TARDIS. The Doctor opens her eyes to find that she’s in 1916 Russia with the Master pretending to be Rasputin.

The Master welcomes the Doctor to the end of her existence. The Master introduces her to his friends, the Daleks, and Cybermen.

The Master wonders what he’ll call his plan but supposes that he will call it the day he killed the Doctor with a little help from his friends.

The Doctor mentions that the Daleks and Cybermen hate each other. The Master responds that the only thing stronger than their hatred for each other is their hatred for the Doctor.

The Master says that what unites them is stronger than what divides them, which is very likely the Doctor. He says that she has her fam, and now he has his.

The Doctor wonders if everything else was a diversion. The Master reveals that it wasn’t, it’s all important and part of a three-phase plan.

The Master adds that he is going old-school and will punish the Doctor with the ultimate punishment for breaking Gallifreyan laws: forced regeneration.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Ra-Ra-Rasputin, or Ma-Ma-Master?

The Master says that the Time Lords did it to the Doctor, maybe more than once. The Doctor replies that the Master doesn’t have the technology to force her to regenerate.

He confirms that he does. When he ransacked Gallifrey, he took everything.

He wonders where he would get the power and reveals that he built the metal planet for this purpose. The Master begins dancing to a song about Rasputin while Vinder calls the Doctor for help.

Yaz gets Vinder’s call in the TARDIS, and then the Master calls as well, telling Yaz to say goodbye to the Doctor. The Master is going to force her to regenerate into him.

It works, and the Master is then wearing the Doctor’s clothes. Yaz arrives and asks the Master where her Doctor is.

The Master says she is gone and tells Yaz that she will get used to him being the Doctor, and so will everyone else. He asks Yaz to go on an adventure and not to make him ask twice.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The tarnished name of the Doctor

Meanwhile, at UNIT headquarters, Kate, Ace, and Tegan discuss the Cybermen attack. Kate tells them to get out of there.

Ace suggests that they jump off the roof with parachutes. Yaz tells the Master to change back to her Doctor and he explains that it can’t be done.

He says that the Earth will become a home for Daleks and Cybermen while he tarnishes the Doctor’s name. Yaz yells at him that she won’t let him, but he yells back.

He warns Yaz that he’ll kill her if she tries to escape or touches anything. Ace and Tegan are on the roof, but Tegan is reluctant to go onto it fully.

Tegan tells Ace she brought the Cybermen there, so she needs to help Kate. She adds that Ace should find the Doctor.

The Master tells Yaz how you stop two sides warring by destroying them both and tells a camera robot that he is the Doctor and caused this war. Yaz pushes the Master and closes the doors of the TARDIS, leaving the Master stranded.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Guardians of the edge of existence

The Master says he’ll wait, Yaz will be back, and he has all the time. He begins playing a recorder.

The Doctor is seen speaking to a past incarnation of herself. Her past incarnation praises her strength of character and says that she is determined because she refuses to pass through.

The Doctor wonders where she is. Her past incarnations call themselves guardians of the edge.

The Doctor wonders what edge they are guardians of. The Doctor sees the edge, and her Eighth incarnation says it is the edge of existence.

This is the place that the Doctor passes through during the regeneration process. Another past incarnation tells the Doctor that she can’t let the Master hijack their existence.

The Doctor is aware of this. She thinks about how the body reboots after regeneration, particularly a forced one, so that the Master will be vulnerable.

Her past incarnations say that she will need help from the outside, which will be difficult.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Extreme circumstances

The Doctor responds that it won’t because she – well, all incarnations of the Doctor – are very clever. She feels that is why her past incarnations manifested there, to remind her that things always work out.

When she looks back, her past incarnations have disappeared. Meanwhile, Yaz wants to return to UNIT and work with the others to find the Doctor.

A hologram of the Doctor appears in the TARDIS, and she tells Yaz that she put a sonically triggered nano implant under Yaz’s skin and passed it off as static electricity. Yaz is upset, saying that the Doctor could have told her, Ace, and Tegan that she was doing that.

Yaz tells the hologram Doctor that she has a plan and goes to pick up Vinder. She asks the Doctor’s hologram how to reverse a forced regeneration.

The hologram says that a forced regeneration is not something anyone would want to deal with and wonders if that is what happened to her. Yaz responds that it is.

The Doctor’s hologram says that she’s seen it reversed in extreme circumstances, but it’s dangerous. She wonders if these are extreme circumstances.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Kate distracts the Cybermen

Ashad and the other Cybermen begin to convert the UNIT soldiers into Cybermen. Ashad says that the UNIT army will become their army.

Tegan goes to help Kate, who is upset that she didn’t leave the building. Tegan asks her what the plan is.

Kate tells her that a switch in the basement will level the building, leaving everything and everyone inside entombed. If Tegan can get to the basement, Kate will distract the Cybermen.

Tegan wonders how Kate is going to do that. Back with Ashad and the other Cybermen, Kate’s face appears on the screen, and she says she has an offer for the Cybermen if they can find her.

Ace eventually jumps off the roof with the parachute. One of the Cybermen shoots at her, causing her to try to stop the parachute.

She falls into the TARDIS with Yaz and Vinder. Yaz asks Ace how she’d feel about being dropped off under a Bolivian volcano so she can stop the Daleks from flooding the world with lava.

Ace takes out a bat and says that it’s wicked.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The Doctor’s hologram reaches Tegan and Ace

Yaz tells Vinder that their mission is even more dangerous than that. She heads back to where the Master is waiting and apologizes to him.

He asks if she’s really sorry, and she says she came back, didn’t she? The Master says that he is fun and that he and Yaz could have fun together and travel.

The Master then pilots the TARDIS, while Vinder lurks in the background with a gun in his hand. The hologram of the Doctor appears to Tegan and morphs into the Fifth incarnation of the Doctor, being affected by her memories.

The hologram tells Tegan that the Doctor never forgets any of their companions and encourages Tegan to remain brave. The hologram tells Tegan not to get killed and to go.

The Daleks get things ready under the volcano, as Ace meets the Doctor’s hologram, who turns into the Doctor’s seventh incarnation, the one Ace traveled with. The Doctor’s hologram says that the Doctor just wanted to teach Ace good habits but failed.

Ace says that the Doctor didn’t fail and that they made Ace into the woman she is today. She apologizes for the falling out with the Doctor and judging them.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Watching children fly

The hologram says that all children eventually leave home; the joy is watching them fly. Ace asks the Doctor’s hologram if they’re good.

The hologram replies that they’re more than good; they’re ace. The hologram encourages Ace to use her self-created explosive on the Daleks.

She heads out and is prepared to hit a Dalek with her bat. Instead, she runs into an older man, Graham O’Brien, a former companion of the Thirteenth Doctor.

He introduces himself as Arnold Palmerson, volcano inspector but the psychic paper he’s carrying tells the truth to Ace. Graham tells her that the Daleks are from outer space.

She knows and asks if he wants to see how she dealt with them in 1963. Graham asks how old she is, and Ace scolds him for asking.

She introduces herself as Ace. Meanwhile, at UNIT headquarters, Ashad and the other Cybermen found Kate.

Kate offers to help the Cybermen with her knowledge of Earth and its security infrastructure if they let the UNIT soldiers go.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Time to kill everyone

She tells Ashad and the other Cybermen that she is of greater strategic value to them. Ashad says that Kate thinks this will buy her time for reinforcements to arrive, but the Doctor isn’t coming.

Ashad informs her that the Doctor will never save her again. Kate chooses to believe otherwise.

Ashad says that Kate’s surrender is accepted, and her conversion will begin. Meanwhile, Tegan is climbing down a ladder in the walls of UNIT headquarters, heading for the basement.

Ashad notices that Tegan is in the walls. He and other Cybermen begin to shoot at her.

Meanwhile, the Master arrives back in 1916 Russia to greet the Daleks and Cybermen. The Master says it’s time to kill everyone and orders the Daleks to unleash the volcanoes.

They do just that. Yaz tells the Master that he’ll never be the Doctor, and he says that the Doctor has had better companions than her.

Yaz asks why he and his villainous friends didn’t notice her coming.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The Doctor’s greatest strength

The Master wonders who Yaz is talking about and turns around to see the Fugitive Doctor, the secret incarnation first introduced during season 12’s “Fugitive of the Judoon” episode, entering the room. She introduces herself as the Doctor.

The Fugitive Doctor is a hologram and taunts the Master for not checking for signs of a hologram before he orders the Cybermen to shoot her. The Master asks if Yaz did this, and she says that the Doctor outthought him.

Yaz then tells the Master to get in the machine. The Master asks what Yaz will do if he doesn’t.

Vinder appears behind the Master, pointing a gun at his head. He shoots the Master, who asks if Yaz will let Vinder do this to her Doctor.

Yaz says he isn’t her Doctor because her Doctor has spent her life gathering friends and is loved. That is the Doctor’s greatest strength.

As the Cybermen, or rather the Cyber Masters, begin to regenerate, the hologram of the Doctor tells Yaz to harness that regeneration energy to undo the forced regeneration. The Doctor, still at the edge of existence with her past incarnations, is told to focus and reunite.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Ace and Graham vs. the Daleks

The Doctor reappears and tells Yaz that she saved her life. Yaz says you’re welcome.

The Doctor wonders what Vinder is doing there and heads into the TARDIS, saying that she, Yaz, and Vinder have a lot to do. Ashad and the Cybermen are trying to convert Kate.

Tegan heads to the basement, and the Doctor appears, instructing Tegan on what to do to stop the Cybermen. A Cyberman’s arm grabs Tegan, but she manages to disconnect something.

The Doctor tries to think of how to solve all the problems going on. She eventually figures it out but says that they will need help.

Ace and Graham attack the Daleks and make it so they will explode. The Doctor arrives in her TARDIS and wonders what Graham is doing there.

He wonders the same about the Doctor. The volcano blows just as the Doctor leaves in the TARDIS, destroying the Daleks with it.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Double-powered TARDIS

UNIT headquarters is also destroyed, but Tegan and Kate make it out. The Doctor arrives, saying she doesn’t want to mess with either of them.

Tegan says she would like to go to the TARDIS, and the Doctor asks Kate to come too. The Master wakes up in 1916 Russia.

The Doctor instructs everyone in her TARDIS on what to touch and when to activate everything. She asks Vinder if his ship is on the planet’s surface and tells him to follow her.

The Doctor fixes Vinder’s ship. He thanks her, and she thanks him in return for being there for her.

The Doctor goes into the Master’s TARDIS and tells her friends that she’s using hers to jumpstart his. With her order, they should all use the control she gave each of them.

Then they will have a double-powered TARDIS. The Doctor gives the order, and the controls are activated, moving the planet from 1916 to 2022.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Another regeneration?

The Doctor freezes volcanoes to steel. Then the Doctor pleads with the Qurunx to disintegrate the planet, and it will be free.

The Qurunx starts destroying the planet, when the Master appears in his TARDIS. He calls out to the Doctor.

She says that he lost. The Master replies that if he can’t be the Doctor, neither can she.

He turns the Qurunx energy towards the Doctor, and she falls. Yaz heads out of the TARDIS and picks the Doctor up, carrying her back into it.

As the TARDIS heads away, the planet is destroyed, and the Qurunx is freed. The Doctor wakes up to find she’s alone with Yaz, who took everyone else home.

The cloister bell in the TARDIS starts ringing, and Yaz sees the Doctor’s hand. She is regenerating.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: Goodbyes only hurt because what came before was so special

The Doctor wants more time and asks Yaz if she knows what it means. She nods in tears and the Doctor comforts her.

She asks Yaz to go on one last trip with her and asks where she would choose and what flavor of ice cream she wants. The Doctor and Yaz are then seen sitting on top of the TARDIS, looking at the Earth and eating their ice cream.

Yaz asks the Doctor how many times she’s saved Earth. The Doctor says that she’s lost count.

Yaz doesn’t want it to end, and the Doctor says that goodbyes only hurt because what came before was so special. The Doctor talks to Yaz about how much she loves her and all the other companions she’s traveled with and that no one else experienced what they did.

Yaz tells the Doctor that they shouldn’t say goodbye. The Doctor drops Yaz back home, and they smile at each other.

Yaz runs into Dan and Graham and is taken to a group of former companions of the Doctor. Meanwhile, the Doctor is in her TARDIS, about to regenerate.

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor: The Thirteenth Doctor regenerates into who?

Tegan and Ace ask Yaz if she’s okay and if the Doctor is okay. Yaz says that, of course, she’s okay; she’s the Doctor.

The Doctor takes in one last sunrise. The Doctor says that she wants to know what happens next.

She says, “tag you’re it” to the next incarnation, the one coming. And then she regenerates into the next incarnation.

David Tennant, who also played the Tenth Doctor, plays this incarnation. He talks about knowing these teeth and says what several times, and the episode ends.

How did you enjoy the last episode with the Thirteenth Doctor? Will the Master somehow survive?

What will happen to the Doctor now, and why are they reusing an old face? Let us know your answers and opinions in the comments below.

Doctor Who is returning in 2023 on BBC/BBC America.