'Doctor Who' Season 12 Episode 9 Recap: "Ascension of the Cybermen"

There are a lot of assumptions fans make about Doctor Who. The Doctor always has a plan, and when put into practice, people get saved. The companion, or companions, survive every episode, enclosed in plot armor as thick as the Doctor's. If a companion or the Doctor leaves, fans usually know well ahead, as recasting these roles can be a long and arduous process. So perhaps the most effective thing anyone involved with the show can do is yank the rug out from under those certainties.

The Doctor: I used to hotwire warp drives for fun on weekends as a teenager. Not that we had weekends or teenagers. Basically, I used to do this a lot and people got mad.

That's what the episode does within the first ten minutes. After an opening proclaiming the imminent return of the Cybermen, the show cuts to somewhere in the past, on Earth, as a young Irishman, Patrick (Branwell Donaghey), who finds an abandoned baby. He and his wife, Meg (Orla O'Rourke), take the child in, after the local Gardaí, Michael (Andrew Macklin) can't find the parents. As fans try to work out how the child, Brendon, figures in, the action cuts to the future, where the last humans, mostly nurses, teachers, and children, attempt to outrun the Cybermen.