Doctor: Jodie Whittaker
Companions
Bradley Walsh (Graham O'Brien)
Mandip Gill (Yasmin Khan)
Tosin Cole (Ryan Sinclair)
Others
Sacha Dhawan – The Master
Patrick O'Kane – Ashad
Julie Graham – Ravio
Ian McElhinney – Ko Sharmus
Alex Austin – Yedlarmi
Steve Toussaint – Feekat
Rhiannon Clements – Bescot
Matt Carver – Ethan
Jack Osborn – Fuskle
Evan McCabe – Brendan
Branwell Donaghey – Patrick
Orla O'Rourke – Meg
Andrew Macklin – Michael
Coalyn Byrne – Sergeant
Nicholas Briggs – Voice of the Cybermen
Matthew Rohman – Cyberman
Simon Carew – Cyberman
Jon Davey – Cyberman
Richard Highgate – Cyberman
Ricard Price – Cyberman
Mickey Lewis – Cyberman
Matthew Doman – Cyberman
Paul Bailey – Cyberman
Production
Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
Written by Chris Chibnall
Script editor: Fiona McAllister
Produced by Nikki Wilson
Executive producer(s) Chris Chibnall, Matt Strevens
Incidental music composer: Segun Akinola
Series 12
Length: 1st of 2-part story, 49 minutes
First broadcast 23 February 2020
In rural Ireland during the early 20th century, a young couple find and adopt an abandoned baby, Brendan, who grows up to be a police officer. On an early assignment, he is shot and falls off a cliff during a confrontation with a criminal, but miraculously survives unscathed. Years later, he retires but is confronted by two men — his adoptive father and mentor, neither of whom have aged — who take him to the "back office" and place electrodes to his head, telling him they have to start over and that he will not remember anyway.
In the far future, the last of humanity is hiding from the last of the Cybermen, who have hunted them almost to extinction. As a pair of Cybershuttles arrive overhead, the Doctor and her companions arrive and set up the means to protect the humans from a group of attacking Cyberdrones. However, their devices fail, and some of the humans are killed. The Doctor orders her companions to leave with the remaining humans on their ship, and get to safety, but Ryan and another human named Ethan are separated by the Cybermen's only partially cyberconverted leader, Ashad. Ryan and Ethan escape to assist the Doctor in hijacking one of the Cybershuttles, but the Cybermen pursue in another Cybershuttle.
In deep space, Yaz, Graham, and the other three humans Yedlarmi, Ravio and Bescot discover they are traveling through a battlefield surrounded by dead Cybermen. They board an abandoned Cybercarrier, which they believe can take them to "Ko Sharmus", a haven which is supposedly home to the Boundary, a portal that sends humans to the other side of the universe where they cannot be reliably followed by Cybermen. Graham and Ravio investigate and discover the Cybercarrier holds thousands of fresh Cyberwarriors in stasis just as Ashad and his crew dock their shuttle.
The Doctor, Ryan, and Ethan arrive on the planet where Ko Sharmus is. They discover Ko Sharmus is a person who helped other humans through the Boundary but remained behind as a ferryman in case others had survived. He takes them to the Boundary, and a portal opens. Ashad and the Cybermen begin drilling into the warriors and resurrecting them, while Graham and Ravio return to the control deck. Ashad leads the warriors to the control deck as Yaz manages to contact the Doctor, warning her that the ship is almost there, but it is carrying numerous Cyberwarriors.
The Doctor watches in horror, as the other side of the portal reveals the ruined Gallifrey, much to everyone's confusion. The Master leaps through, exclaiming that the Doctor should be afraid because everything is about to change forever.
Ascension of the Cybermen