History YMMV / DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand

** Upon its initial airing, few viewers believed that Missy/The Master was actually capable of the HeelFaceTurn this episode suggested she was attempting to make, if only because s/he's the franchise's most popular standalone villain and has personality that the Daleks and Cybermen do not. As it turned out, [[spoiler: she '''was''' capable but her ''previous self'' wouldn't have it and killed her.]] So, since the Master ''does'' have JokerImmunity, will Missy's actions affect the next incarnation in a positive or negative way when they come along?

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

* TastesLikeDiabetes: Bill's "memory" of her mother saving the world. Beyond ThePowerOfLove figuring into a ''Doctor Who'' climax once again, all the sparkles and rainbow-bright hues flying about on the screens look like something off of a Lisa Frank-branded notebook.

* UncannyValley: The Doctor's "smile", which takes Twelve's already slightly-unsettling [[TheUnSmile unsmile]] and makes it even ''worse'', because he's serving the Monks and at that point it's not clear if he's BrainwashedAndCrazy, NotBrainwashed, or PretendToBeBrainwashed. If ever there was something from this episode that would make people dive behind their couches, ''this is it''.

** Hohoho-''boy'', a large chunk of the fanbase started lobbing grenades when the Doctor's [[NeverTrustATrailer trailer sequence regeneration]] turned out to be cheap theatrics. Meanwhile, veteran fans were wise enough to anticipate a trick and [[ActuallyPrettyFunny laughed it off pretty well]] -- though they still criticized how it required all the regulars to act '''way''' out of character both in the heat of the phony crisis and afterwards. In particular, Bill and the Doctor's friendship isn't affected ''at all'' by his manipulative SecretTestOfCharacter when two seasons earlier, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E7KillTheMoon Clara Oswald told off and abandoned him for months -- even though she'd known him far longer than Bill at that respective point and knew he was having a crisis of identity -- simply because he chose not to interfere with humanity's fate in the moon crisis and had faith in her ability to solve the problem herself]].

** Upon its initial airing, few viewers believed that Missy/The Master was actually capable of the HeelFaceTurn this episode suggested she was attempting to make, if only because s/he's the franchise's most popular standalone villain and has personality that the Daleks and Cybermen do not. As it turned out, she '''was''' capable but her ''previous self'' wouldn't have it and killed her. So, since the Master ''does'' have JokerImmunity, will Missy's actions affect the next incarnation in a positive or negative way when they come along?

*** Further complicating this debate is that this turned out to be the only storyline of Bill's only season in which she gets to accomplish a world-saving feat in the way that other Revival Era companions do -- usually in {{Season Finale}}s. This is because this season's finale had to wrap up the Twelfth Doctor's MythArc by placing him at the centre of the heroics ''and'' resolving his relationship with Missy; poor Bill ends up being deprived of her agency upon being shot in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime World Enough and Time]]". Due to spending most of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls The Doctor Falls]]" as a potentially deadly Cyberman, her agency and the resultant decisions available to her end up very limited until the denouement. In a sense, Bill's CharacterDevelopment ends with the Monks Trilogy thanks to the need to move on to resolving Twelve and Missy's story in the remaining four episodes of Series 10, and some fans wanted more for her.

** Some wish that the episode should have stuck with Bill's ADayInTheLimelight plot for the entire episode instead of only the first fifteen minutes, while others believe that if the episode did this, it would be a carbon copy of "Last of the Time Lords", and want that episode to remain unique.
*** Further complicating this debate is that this turned out to be the only storyline of Bill's only season in which she gets to accomplish a world-saving feat in the way that other Revival Era companions do -- usually in {{Season Finale}}s. This is because this season's finale had to wrap up the Twelfth Doctor's MythArc by placing him at the centre of the heroics ''and'' resolving his relationship with Missy; poor Bill ends up being deprived of her agency upon being shot in "World Enough and Time". Due to spending most of "The Doctor Falls" as a potentially deadly Cyberman, her agency and the resultant decisions available to her end up very limited until the denouement. In a sense, Bill's CharacterDevelopment ends with the Monks Trilogy thanks to the need to move on to resolving Twelve and Missy's story in the remaining four episodes of Series 10, and some fans wanted more for her.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Whatever else is said about this episode, virtually everyone agrees that the acting from Creator/PeterCapaldi and Creator/PearlMackie is ''staggering'' throughout, reaching its apex with the chilling standoff aboard the prison ship. Michelle Gomez and Matt Lucas are also in excellent form in their smaller roles.

* VillainDecay: The Monks go through this big time in this episode, having suddenly lost their RealityWarper powers in favour of Silence-style electricity blasts, a weakness to bullets, and a decision to immediately surrender and flee the second humanity turns against them. They almost feel like completely different monsters from those of "Extremis" and "The Pyramid at the End of the World".

* AnticlimaxBoss: Despite having RealityWarper powers, proving to be able to deal with resistance well in the previous episode, and being able to see all of humanity's history and ''plan for any contingency'', the Monks are oddly easy to defeat. It was still difficult, mind you, (several people die getting the Doctor in and the Doctor himself is unable to hijack the signal) but given their previous showing, more was expected.

* ClicheStorm: As the list of {{Continuity Nod}}s on the recap page attests to, the script recycles many, if not most, of its major plot beats and concepts from previous [=NewWho=] episodes, in particular "Last of the Time Lords", "The Wedding of River Song", and "The Rings of Akhaten".

** TheUnsmile of the Twelfth Doctor turned up in the Series 10 trailers and fans loved it, posting screenshots on Tumblr and gushing over how adorable it was. The ''Radio Times'' theorized it would come from the scene where his eyesight was restored at last. Turns out he's already able to see again... and he's smiling because he's a spokesman for the Monks. It returns to its original form when it turns out he was just undercover.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: Whatever else is said about this episode, virtually everyone agrees that the acting from Peter Capaldi and Creator/PearlMackie is ''staggering'' throughout, reaching its apex with the chilling standoff aboard the prison ship. Michelle Gomez and Matt Lucas are also in excellent form in their smaller roles.

** The Doctor's choice to fake a FaceHeelTurn and work deep undercover to undermine the Monks was probably the best one he could have made under the circumstances, but this means he helped send a lot of people to imprisonment, forced labour, and/or death for six months. The only assumption the viewer can make based on on-screen evidence is that he thought their lives were an acceptable sacrifice (contrary to how he usually regards ''all'' lives as equally precious), yet he objects to the prospect of Bill being killed or brain-damaged to stop the Monks for good and save humanity when Missy brings it up. Missy, oddly, doesn't call the Doctor out on this in her WhatTheHellHero speech, not bringing up the lives already lost, although she implies he's showing favoritism to Bill ("I'm sorry your Plus One doesn't get a happy ending."). (It may be significant that Toby Whithouse previously wrote the Fisher King two-parter, the ''other'' story in which Twelve is this trope -- for letting O'Donnell die and telling Bennett that cannot be changed, yet trying to defy the fates when it looks like ''Clara'' is to be the King's next victim. In both stories, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality the Doctor makes an exception to acceptable losses when it's his companion on the line]].) His psychologically traumatic testing of Bill is also unusually cruel. Then again...

** The Doctor's choice to fake a FaceHeelTurn and work deep undercover to undermine the Monks was probably the best one he could have made under the circumstances, but this means he helped send a lot of people to imprisonment, forced labor, and/or death for six months. The only assumption the viewer can make based on on-screen evidence is that he thought their lives were an acceptable sacrifice (contrary to how he usually regards ''all'' lives as equally precious), yet he objects to the prospect of Bill being killed or brain-damaged to stop the Monks for good and save humanity when Missy brings it up. Missy, oddly, doesn't call the Doctor out on this in her WhatTheHellHero speech, not bringing up the lives already lost, although she implies he's showing favoritism to Bill ("I'm sorry your Plus One doesn't get a happy ending."). (It may be significant that Toby Whithouse previously wrote the Fisher King two-parter, the ''other'' story in which Twelve is this trope -- for letting O'Donnell die and telling Bennett that cannot be changed, yet trying to defy the fates when it looks like ''Clara'' is to be the King's next victim. In both stories, [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality the Doctor makes an exception to acceptable losses when it's his companion on the line]].) His psychologically traumatic testing of Bill is also unusually cruel. Then again...

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Bill using a mental image of the mother she never knew to cope with her plight is intended as touching, but actually making her tea, talking out loud to her, and basically TalkingToThemself, comes off as less than mentally sound. Worse, she displayed similar behaviour in earlier episodes, so this behaviour can't all be attributable to the current crisis. Combine this with her deciding to use lethal force as her first defense against the Doctor in the prison ship standoff, and she appears downright unhinged. Worse, the Doctor is ''happy'' she got to that point as it serves as proof she wasn't under the Monks' control, so he and his allies formulated the plan under the assumption that it was something only the "real" Bill would do.