History Recap / DoctorWhoS36E8TheLieOfTheLand

* PublicSecretMessage: Bill assumes that the Doctor is only pretending to play along with the Monks, so she mentions the incident of the creature under the River Seine (when it was [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E3ThinIce actually the Thames]]). However the Doctor immediately reveals what she's doing; it's at this point that Bill starts to freak out, believing that he really has changed sides.

->''"Everything they told us, all that we believe now, is a lie."''

----

* BattleInTheCentreOfTheMind: In order to free humanity from the Monks, the Doctor tries to hijack the signal being sent by their leader to rewrite history. Though he's successful at first, the Giant Monk fights back and overpowers him. Then Bill has a go at it. Though the Monk starts rewriting her memories, he's unable to rewrite a memory of her mother which Bill made up on her own. Seeing this, the Doctor has her think of nothing but that fake memory, which overpowers the Monk and frees everyone.

** As a SpotTheImposter test, Bill asks Nardole and later the Doctor about events from "Pilot", "Oxygen" and "Thin Ice".

** Bill choosing to take the Doctor's place in the BattleInTheCentreOfTheMind to defeat the Giant Monk, even though it will kill her, recalls River Song's sacrifice for him in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]" -- and given how much River meant to this particular incarnation of the Doctor, he might actually be thinking of that as Bill heads off to meet her fate. Luckily, she survives.

-->"Oh. My. God. [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar I am going to beat the sh-]]"

-->"You had free will, and look at what you did with it! Worse than that, you had history. History was saying, 'Hello? I've got some examples here of fascism you might want to look at. No? Fundamentalism? No? Okay, you carry on.' I had to stop you. Or at least not stand in the way of someone else stopping you. Because the guns were getting bigger, the stakes were getting higher, and any minute now it was going to be 'Goodnight, Vienna'."

* FatalFamilyPhoto: A family photograph of the dissidents who get arrested is knocked to the floor and trodden on by the [[{{Anvilicious}} fascist boot of the Memory Police]].

** Missy thinks Nardole looks like an egg; this may be a homage to how Matt Lucas was the lead of the 1997 Cadbury Cream Egg Adverts?

** Nardole says he found the signal tracker he uses to locate the Doctor lying around in a drawer along with some takeaway menus and some Danish kroner. This is likely a reference to Creator/MichaelMcintyre and his famous "man drawer" routine.

* SoProudOfYou: The Doctor is ''overjoyed'' that Bill passed his SecretTestOfCharacter, even given that she just shot him!

* SplashOfColour: The Doctor's office aboard a prison ship is near-devoid of colour -- mostly white, with grey and black for "variety". The sole exception is the {{Hotline}} on his desk, which is bright red.

* PlotHole: Why didn't the Doctor ask Missy what she knew about the Monks between "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E6Extremis Extremis]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E7ThePyramidAtTheEndOfTheWorld The Pyramid at the End of the World]]"?
** Like noted above; Missy is the Doctor's GodzillaThreshold, so he would only consult her, when he definitely feels that he needs help?

** Just like the last episode, the show takes a big swipe at UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump as a picture of him is prominently featured among the Monks' attempts to reassert their mind control.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The Doctor '''seems''' to be this. Although he recalls the way things were before the Monks took over, his speech about TheEvilsOfFreeWill reveals that he thinks that humanity has no future unless the Monks keep them from destroying themselves. He turns out to be faking it.

** The '''only''' reason Bill has such a vivid image of her mother in her mind is because of the pictures the Doctor took of her and left for Bill back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E1ThePilot The Pilot]]", as he points out. He was just being kind, feeling he owed her something in return for the Christmas present she got him, but this act allowed Bill to save the world.

* ConsummateLiar: The Doctor outdoes himself here -- he convinces the Monks that he is on their side and becomes their secondary PropagandaMachine spreading lies to the world, their never suspecting he's putting ''them'' on too. '''Then''' he manages to fool Bill into thinking he's gone bad to give her SecretTestOfCharacter.

** This episode has '''many''' similarities to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E13TheWeddingOfRiverSong The Wedding of River Song]]": Earth and humanity have been plunged into a mad new reality thanks to a woman who loves the Doctor and saved his life when he was effectively destined to die. Only a few characters remember how things once were. The companions become part of LaResistance to an alien race that has religious connotations, can toy with what people's minds, and has been observing Earth for millennia. An imprisoned Time Lord is consulted for advice. An unusual pyramid is a central setting. Said woman shoots the Doctor but he somehow survives ''without'' completely regenerating. These connections are only strengthened by one of the good guys (Nardole) having been an associate of River, and the Twelfth Doctor having been the incarnation who truly returned River's love.

** Missy's [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E4KnockKnock piano]] appears on screen!

** When attacking the Pyramid, the humans wear headphones playing a tape of Bill's voice reminding them that the Monk's version of history is not real. When a tape player gets smashed by a stray bullet, that soldier quickly falls under the Monk's control.

* ThirdActStupidity: '''The Monks.''' They spent so much time planning and seeing through their actual invasion over the previous two episodes, and are {{Reality Warper}}s capable of observing the entire planet's history or just one person from afar and sensing ulterior motives. Once they have the planet in their thrall, they blindly trust the man who fought them tooth and nail to be a PropagandaMachine with no ulterior motive at all for six months, allowing him to slowly put a plan into motion all that time, rather than just killing him. They don't think to imprison or at least keep an eye on Bill despite the importance of her being kept alive. They don't notice how many people the Doctor is converting to his side. They don't do anything to stop the prison ship from returning to the mainland. They don't have the pyramid's exterior guarded by anything more than the psychic field that is easily endurable via Walkmans. They don't have the throne room's interior guarded by ''anything at all!'' The only reason for all of this is that if the Monks had been as competent in this episode as they were in the previous two, they would be nigh invincible.

* TheUnsmile: This trope has long been associated with the Twelfth Doctor, but as [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dwthelieofthelandpart3.png this image shows]] -- from one of his propaganda broadcasts in-universe -- shows, when he's on the side of evil (even if he's faking it) it borders on SlasherSmile.

de* ForYourOwnGood: The Doctor's speech on TheEvilsOfFreeWill (see above) is his way of explaining to Bill that he joined the Monks because they would stop humanity from destroying itself.

* ForgotAboutHisPowers: The TARDIS doesn't so much as appear in this episode even though it could have been used to board and escape the prison ship, enter the pyramid while avoiding the psychic field, etc. Indeed, neither Nardole nor the Doctor so much as mention it. One can only assume that it's still being cleansed of the super bacteria from the previous episode. Nardole almost died, after all.
* ForYourOwnGood: The Doctor's speech on TheEvilsOfFreeWill (see above) is his way of explaining to Bill that he joined the Monks because they would stop humanity from destroying itself.

* DynamicEntry / SoMuchForStealth: The Doctor crashing his own prison ship on the shore, while cackling from the deck.
-->'''Bill:''' We're coming back. We could have snuck back in, but the Doctor being the Doctor...

* DayOfTheJackboot: For all their talk about ruling through love rather than fear, the Monks have resorted to the usual tools of government coercion like propaganda, secret police, rewriting history, DisproportionateRetribution for activities they deem subversive, and prison camps in isolated locations.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Among all the other fascist paraphernalia, note the SS in the Monk's SigilSpam.

* GoodIsNotNice: What Missy argues. Before she was willing to burn whole cities ForTheEvulz, but reforming her evil ways doesn't mean she has to accept that Doctor's view of what 'good' is.

** When attacking the Pyramid, the humans wear headphone playing a tape with Bill's voice reminding them of what's actually happening. One walkman gets smashed by a stray bullet.
* PublicSecretMessage: Bill tries this, but the Doctor immediately reveals what she's doing.

-->'''Missy:''' They just chalk it up to an experience.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: Gets trodden on by the fascist boot of oppression.

** Missy once made a gun out of leaves.

* CallBack: The '''only''' reason Bill has such a vivid image of her mother in her mind is because of the pictures the Doctor took of her and left for Bill back in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E1ThePilot The Pilot]]", as he points out. He was just being kind, feeling he owed her something in return for the Christmas present she got him, but this act allowed Bill to save the world.

* WierdnessCensor: Thanks to the Monks wiping everyone's memories of their conquest.

* TemptingFate: The Doctor boasts that a brainwashing machine covering the entire globe is no match for him. Turns out it is.

* DayOfTheJackboot:

* RunningGag: The Doctor is still reluctant to admit that anyone is smarter than him, even Missy (who for the record, beat the Doctor in cosmic science at the Time Lord Academy).

* EasilyConqueredWorld

* CardboardPrison: Missy points out that if she really wanted to escape, a mere door wouldn't hold her in the Vault. She's held in a forcefield too, but this ''is'' the Doctor's EvilCounterpart (and smarter too, despite what he claims) so it's likely she's not bluffing.

* PsychicBlockDefense: Bill uses the memory of her mother as a sentinel against the Monks' brainwashing and an anchor into her previous life. She's been doing this every day to keep herself sane and has, in fact, been doing this for years. The Doctor's gift of a picture makes it work better.

* DynamicEntry: The Doctor crashing his own prison ship on the shore, while cackling from the deck.