Wish World / The Reality War
Whoa boy kinda nice to visit these episodes late and let the opinion discourse fly. Terrible writing, just long stretches of exposition and turning attention to it meta wise does not forgive it. The Rani is a bit moustache twirling but doesn’t really get the time to shine here. Our token trans and disabled people return to not add anything to the story. Kate manages to mention her father again, gets people to shoot their complicated named guns and have a forced romance with a younger soldier. Way too many babies in this episode, I’m unsure which audience you’re pandering to when this has never been what people wanted especially to introduce the idea so late. Poppy has a cute face but for the Doctor and Belinda to dedicate themselves entirely to saving someone who never existed is strange. They manage to cure the sexist by solving his daddy issues, but not sure they needed that redemption instead of punishment and is not realistic. The bone beasts looked great but didn’t quite understand the point of them. Omegas return was majorly disappointing, you don’t want another big monster you want an equal to the Doctor - a time lord! Mel gets her original perm back but some of the lines are straight from the panto where she became more famous. So Susan was absolutely pointless right haha. Not satisfied with cramming a new character every 5 min, they also bring back the star from the Christmas special along with the lovely hotelier who realises that bloke she spent a year hanging out with is actually gay. She then proceeds to get immediately knocked up - there really is a bad feminist message here that a woman’s main job is babies. Rogue films a line in his hotel roomthat doesn’t mean anything. Way too many clips of old episodes this series. Susan Twist is not much of a good actor now she’s not a baddie. Ruby knowing the real world is not overly explained but she was somehow more well rounded character in total. Belinda’s entire character arc changes in an instant from someone who doesn’t consent to being with the Doctor to suddenly being ok with having his child, such a waste and no time to develop this series. Jodie comes back because Russell must’ve been desperate to write her. She was lovely to see, even if so soon and trying to really cement that yes she was gay. I’m not actually too mad about Rose coming back as the Doctor (maybe?) but I really do hope it’s for more of an ongoing series than a one off but might be so - there’s just way too many extra Docs now.
RTD’s return was much anticipated and whilst there was some shining diamonds of ideas, it really was a disappointment on every level. By focusing so much on the anti woke haters, he actually managed to alienate the fans who want a bit of escapism with a splash of pro queer politics. This is not the clean slate reboot that was promised with the latest ep especially relying on decades of prior knowledge. I totally get Ncuti wanting to go off and do bigger and better things because he really is an incredible talent to see and he thrived in such a short time. He was somewhat underdeveloped, similar to Jodie, we never saw the true character there with the writing, substituting regular tears for meaning. I will miss him and his amazing clothing.
OK, now ranking this series best to worst: Lux, The Interstellar Song Contest, The Robot Revolution, The Story & the Engine, The Well, Wish World / The Reality War, Lucky Day. And finally companions (not based solely on this finale haha): Belinda Chandra, Ruby Sunday
