#18 (2.8): The Reality War.

The new Doctor Who themed "Souls-like" game is looking really weird...

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 66 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Alex Sanjiv Pillai. Produced by: Chris May.

Note: This review contains spoilers.


THE PLOT:

The Rani has won. As the clock sounds midnight on May 24, 2025, Earth hurtles towards its destruction, with the Doctor helpless to stop it.

Then a door opens. Anita (Steph de Whalley), the hotel manager the Doctor spent a year with before getting her a job at the Time Hotel, uses the hotel's capabilities to rescue him. The doors to the hotel also allow reality to disrupt Conrad's "wish," meaning that the Doctor can quickly restore the memories of Belinda, Ruby, and UNIT.

Conveniently, the Rani needs one more cycle to gather the energy to let the first Time Lord, Omega, into reality, so she has to reset the Earth to May 23 once more before the end. This gives the Doctor and his friends time to zap a bunch of CGI before he returns to her Bone Palace to try to stop her.

But it may be too late for that. The Rani's plans come to fruition (on May 23, squashing any significance to the May 24 date). Omega is returning to reality - but the wish has transformed him as well, and not for the better...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: In a confrontation with the Rani in which he appears to come out the loser, he actually tricks her into providing data to bypass the Bone Palace's security. He tries to argue against the Rani's plan to bring back Omega, reminding her that the Time Lords of that era were despots, but Mrs. Flood silences him with a single question: "Don't you want to see him?" - and he has to acknowledge that yes, he does. He draws on all his ingenuity to try to protect his and Belinda's "wish" daughter, Poppy, from being overwritten when the wish is broken.

Belinda: The Doctor/Belinda partnership has been a joy, with Belinda's mix of enthusiasm for and wariness of the Doctor helping to make many of this year's episodes sparkle. Her reward... is to spend the finale sidelined, right down to being locked in a cupboard for the climax. I don't object to her being protective of her "wish daughter." Belinda as a mother would be fiercely protective. I object to her entire personality being reduced to only that and nothing else.

Ruby Sunday: Internet rumors suggest that Millie Gibson's Ruby was meant to be the companion for both seasons, with Belinda's presence in Season Two being a change of plans. I don't tend to put much stock in Internet rumors... but if it's true, it makes a lot of sense with regard to how this episode plays out. Belinda, the season's actual co-star, is sidelined, while Ruby plays a key role in resolving the crisis. After the wish is broken, it's not Belinda - Poppy's mother - who insists on the child's reality, but Ruby, with Millie Gibson doing the emotional heavy lifting for the early epilogue scenes. The story would make more sense, both in terms of emotion and plot, if Ruby was Poppy's mother... and given that Ruby was more prominent than Belinda in both of the final episodes, I'm not sure why that wasn't the case.

Recurring Cast: The UNIT crew are all there... and that's most of what there is to say about them. Kate barks orders to facilitate the Doctor's plan and gets a slightly bizarre mini-speech in which she refers to them all as the Doctor's children, while UNIT's role is basically to add to the CGI activity by breaking out big guns to zap monsters that serve no actual narrative purpose. Mel probably gets the best bit, reacting to the Rani with a loathing that would suggest the existence of a much more interesting version of Time and the Rani than the one that aired. All of these characters could be removed entirely. Not only would the story not be harmed, I think their removal would help the episode to feel less overloaded.

The Rani: In one of the few clever bits of scripting, she fully anticipates the Doctor's attempt to trick her. As a result, she's ready when he arrives at the Bone Palace to confront her. She goads him about his compassionate nature, sneering that all he's armed with are "dazzling words, maybe a pun, and then... platitudes." She's eager to use Omega's power to recreate the Time Lords of old...

Omega: ...Except that Omega is a CGI monster who looks like he stepped out of a Dark Souls game. Kind of like Empire of Death's Sutekh. This episode isn't as bad as that one, but the treatment of Omega is actually worse than that of Sutekh. At least the Egyptian god had always been portrayed as a monster devoted to destruction. Omega's main ambition in his two Classic Series stories was basically just to live. Now he's a parasitic creature who wants to "feast upon this world." Sure, there's the excuse that this Omega has been twisted by the wish into the mad titan of legend - but when the character (if you can call him that) bears no resemblance to the original Omega, then I'm left wondering why the script bothers to even call him that. Other than empty fanservice, that is. Oh, wait - I think I just answered my own question.


THOUGHTS:

The Reality War has a few good moments. I enjoyed the Rani and Mel sniping at each other, even if that scene doesn't actually lead to anything. The acting is generally good. Though there's the usual RTD finale "frenetic activity" going on, it is competently structured and is legitimately telling a story, albeit badly, and that's more than enough to make it a step up from Empire of Death.

Which doesn't change that I'd still rank this as a bad episode.

It repeats some of the same mistakes as Empire of Death. When Omega finally appears, he's a cannibalistic CGI monster that looks like it stepped out of a video game. When it speaks (briefly), it's not to bemoan its fate. Instead, it boasts of how it intends to feed. The Doctor doesn't defeat it through cleverness. Instead, it conveniently turns out that the Vindicator gadget he's been playing with all season just happens to double as a big gun. Because nothing says Doctor Who quite like watching the Doctor zap a CGI beastie with a ray gun, right?

Bizarrely, I think the best part of the episode is the epilogue, much of which consists of reshoots that were hastily thrown together after Ncuti Gatwa opted to leave. There's an excellent scene in which Ruby watches the Doctor and Belinda giddily debate their next destination while they forget something that should matter to them.

The scene is pulled off through the simplest techniques: a series of edits, a shift in the performances of Ncuti Gatwa and Varada Sethu, and Millie Gibson's horrified nonverbal reaction. It's by far the episode's best moment, and the follow-up scene in which Ruby persuades the Doctor, Belinda, and UNIT that her memory isn't at fault is almost as good. It's as if Russell T. Davies is able to create something reasonably involving when he's forced to put down his CGI toolbox.

The 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) shows up for the outgoing Doctor's sendoff.

A REGENERATION, A WELCOME CAMEO, AND A MASSIVE MISJUDGEMENT:

In October 2024, while guesting on The Graham Norton Show, Ncuti Gatwa briefly confirmed plans to shoot Season Three in early 2025. Disney delayed making a decision about renewing their co-production deal (as of this writing, they still have not handed down their verdict), and the remarks were edited out before broadcast. By February 2025, Gatwa had decided to exit the role. He publicly cited the physical toll of being the Doctor, but his October remarks indicate that he would almost certainly have done a third season had the show been renewed promptly.

Regardless of the exact reason or combination of reasons, February saw last-minute reshoots that resulted in the surprise regeneration of Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor in an epilogue that was very much bolted onto the end of the episode.

As I've observed, many of these scenes are better than the episode itself. While he's contemplating sacrificing this incarnation, the 15th Doctor receives a visit from Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor. I thoroughly enjoyed the interplay between Whittaker and Gatwa. I wouldn't have minded a proper multi-Doctor story with these two, as they're a natural contrast: Thirteen was arguably the most emotionally guarded incarnation, while Gatwa is the most emotionally open. He blurts out that he loves her, which stuns her: "I never say things like that."

The cameo does have one unfortunate knock-on effect, however: Whittaker's appearance makes me realize that I feel more of a connection with her Doctor than with the one who is actually departing. I think Gatwa really needed that third season. He's been good to great throughout Season Two, and for all my issues with this episode, his second season has been generally quite good. But I came into Season Two feeling zero connection. Ultimately, eight episodes, even with most of them being of high quality, were not enough to make up the difference.

The regeneration sequence is mostly decent on its own terms. My issues with this episode's treatment of Belinda aside, the Doctor's goodbye to her is enjoyable in its quietness. I also rather like him choosing to look out into the Vortex as he regenerates.

Then all of that gets overshadowed by what I consider to be a serious misjudgment.


A MISJUDGED ENDING:

The regeneration ends with another surprise cameo, this one seemingly designed to get viewers talking. It worked... if you don't mind that many viewers vocally wondered if the show was disappearing so far up itself that it might just create a singularity.

The credits fudge the exact nature of the cameo, and RTD has indicated that even he isn't completely certain what he's going to do with it. I wish I thought he was just baiting people, as he's done multiple times in the past... but in this case, I believe him. I suspect much of what comes next will be down to one actor's availability whenever the show gets back into production - which doesn't strike me as a recipe for quality or even internal consistency.

Say what you will about Chris Chibnall, but he had the right idea for how to handle a regeneration in the face of a potential gap. Initially, The Power of the Doctor was meant to end with the regeneration in longshot, with viewers not seeing the new Doctor. This allowed freedom for the next showrunner to properly cast and plan, allowing them to either pick up at that moment or well in the future, maximizing creative freedom while maintaining unbroken continuity. It was a good plan, one that became unnecessary once Davies came back to helm the next era... and it was exactly what should have been done here.

Wherever this final turn goes, it cements one of my fears about RTD's return: Looking backward. Doctor Who is at its best when it puts a new spin on its own tropes. "RTD 2" has done this multiple times - in midseason standalone episodes, such as Dot and Bubble and The Story and the Engine. Unfortunately, its event episodes have leaned on the series' worst tendencies, creating empty spectacle that relies on fan buzz in response to references to characters last seen decades ago!

When Doctor Who returns - and I believe that it will, and likely sooner than Internet rage-baiters believe - I fervently hope that the series focuses on moving forward again.


OVERALL:

The Reality War is a bad end to a good season. I almost wrote that it was a "disappointing" end, except that it was pretty much what I expected: lots of activity, urgent pronouncements that the actors seem to be barely managing to utter with straight faces, and too much CGI. The most involving part of the episode is the epilogue, which mostly consists of last-minute reshoots!

It's a poor finale for Varada Sethu's Belinda, who helped to make this season better than the previous one, and who is rewarded by being reduced to a plot device while being upstaged by her predecessor. As if to make that upstaging a theme, the 13th Doctor pops into Gatwa's extended farewell just long enough to make me realize that, for all of her era's flaws, she feels more like the Doctor to me than he does.

The very good set of episodes leading up to this is an excellent argument that Doctor Who has plenty of life left in it... but I have to admit that it's hard to cling to that in the face of this dreary final episode. Ncuti Gatwa deserved better. Varada Sethu deserved better. This season deserved better. And the viewers certainly deserved better.


Overall Rating: 3/10.

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#17 (2.7): Wish World.

The Doctor confronts the Rani (Archie Panjabi).

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Alex Sanjiv Pillai. Produced by: Chris May.


THE PLOT:

John Smith (Ncuti Gatwa) is a normal man who has a normal job at an insurance agency. He has a normal, happily domesticated wife, Belinda (Varada Sethu), and a young daughter, Poppy (Sienna-Robyn Mavanga-Phipps). They are making plans for tomorrow's holiday: May 24, 2025, while on the television set, Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King) presents a commemorative story about "Dr. Who."

A strange woman comes to John's door. Ruby (Millie Gibson) swears that he is actually "The Doctor" and that nothing about his life is real - but she flees when Belinda picks up the phone to report her for having doubts.

Doubt is contagious, however, and both John and Belinda find themselves doubting their perfect world. Belinda realizes that she can't even remember when Polly was born, while John finds that he can't quite conform to the society in which he's supposedly so happy.

Above London, in her Bone Palace, the Rani (Archie Panjabi) prepares for her victory. She isn't worried that the Doctor might remember who he is and bring this artificial world crashing down. In fact, she's counting on exactly that...


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He's all but disappeared into the "John Smith" persona. None of his old self is visible when he rejects Ruby's assertion that he's the Doctor, with him mainly just responding with indignation and confusion. It's only in the little slips in which his old personality emerges, such as when he's casually urging Ibrahim to ask Kate out on a date or when he dares to wonder who the Rani is. Even with no memory, he remains protective of Belinda, attempting to shield her when the Rani has them both picked up for "doubting."

Belinda: Somehow, she's less fully enfolded by the illusion than the Doctor is. My pet theory is that he longs for a place to belong, and so this fake world fulfills some of his desires, while Belinda has no great urge to cosplay as a submissive 1950s housewife. The Doctor has small slips at work, but Belinda has a full-blown freakout when she realizes that she can't remember the birth of her supposed daughter.

Ruby Sunday: She's partially insulated from the false memories thanks to her experiences in 73 Yards. She doesn't quite remember the real world, but she perceives snatches of the truth, as if she's seeing them out of the corner of her eye. She has no conscious memory of Conrad, but an instinct has carried over that he cannot be trusted.

Conrad: Lucky Day ended with him being rescued from prison by Mrs. Flood (Anita Dobson). The "wish world" of the title is his: a pseudo 1950s utopia that feels less like the actual 1950s than like the product of someone who watched too many Leave It to Beaver reruns. Ruby and the group of outcasts she joins refer to him as the god of this fake world, but he seems to still be a prisoner. He spends all of his time in a single room, perpetually exhausted by the mental energy required to keep this fake society running. When Mrs. Flood brings him a sandwich, he seems on the verge of tears at receiving this simple comfort. All told, he probably would have been better off in his cell.

Recurring Cast: There are cameos for all the members of the UNIT crew. Kate is "John's" no-nonsense boss at the insurance company, reacting sternly when he's merely on time for work instead of early. Col. Ibrahim is one of the staff. Mel, a single middle-aged woman, can't possibly work in Conrad's wish world, so she spends her time in contemplation. Wheelchair-bound Shirley has no place at all, so she is the leader of the outcasts Ruby joins. They're all present long enough to register, but only Shirley receives any real attention, sharp enough to wonder how she could afford medicine for her spinal condition and a high-quality wheelchair and pointing out the inconsistencies that riddle this world.

The Rani: Archie Panjabi's Rani is less the amoral scientist of The Mark of the Rani than the "female Master" of Time and the Rani and Dimensions in Time, which I find to be the less interesting choice for the character. On the plus side, if this Rani is just a camp villain, at least Panjabi makes her a fun camp villain, throwing herself into the role with gusto. Russell T. Davies has retained the character's intelligence. She doesn't underestimate the Doctor - quite the reverse, given that her plan actually requires him to break through the conditioning. Thanks to bi-generation, her previous incarnation, Mrs. Flood, remains at her side - and Mrs. Flood seems ever-so-politely annoyed at being treated like a servant by her own successor.


THOUGHTS:

I ended my review of The Interstellar Song Contest by praising this season as a whole - something I did in no small part because I had low expectations for Wish World. Thankfully, I ended up mostly liking this. It's enjoyable and well-paced, and it gets a lift from some very good performances.

The plot is familiar stuff. Thematically, there's more than a touch of Pleasantville, with a 1950s utopia that is actually a dystopia. The "regulars in a fake world" plot has been used by multiple science fiction series. TNT's The Librarians ran through variations of this plot twice!

Still, it delivers a nicely creepy vibe. My favorite scene is the one with Belinda's mother and grandmother, the women cheerfully recounting the full female life cycle according to Conrad Clark: perfect daughter to perfect wife to perfect mother. No wonder she runs out screaming. I also appreciate how completely the Doctor falls into the John Smith persona. The Story and the Engine showed how much he longs for a place to belong. As twisted as Conrad's world is, it gives him that - so completely that it takes external force to start snapping him out of it.

The story weakens in the final Act, when it starts to feel as if writer Russell T. Davies is copying himself. The scene between the Doctor and the Rani feels very close to the Doctor/Master confrontation at the end of The Sound of Drums, right down to it taking place on a vessel above London, and it even includes the Rani dancing. At least we're spared a "Gollum Doctor" moment, but the entire sequence amounts to an extended exposition drop, with the more interesting aspects of this episode mostly forgotten in the setup for the next one.


OVERALL:

I have noticed that Season Two repeats the general structure from Season One. Wish World occupies the same slot as last season's The Legend of Ruby Sunday and it fulfills the same role: setup for the finale, ending on a cliffhanger that teases the return of a foe first seen in the 1970s.

Judged as an episode in itself, I like this Wish World better. It makes better use of the characters, Ruby included. It also has a story of its own, of the Doctor and Belinda gradually breaking through the fake world, which makes it feel like an actual episode and not just extended prologue.

I would place this on the weaker end of this season's offerings. Still, it's never less than entertaining, and it is much better than I had expected.


Overall Rating: 6/10. Would be a "7" if the last ten minutes wasn't a step down from the rest.

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#14 (2.4): Lucky Day.

Ruby Sunday has a classic "meet cute" with podcaster Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King).

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 46 minutes. Written by: Pete McTighe. Directed by: Peter Hoar. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

When he was just 8 years old, Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King) had a chance encounter with the Doctor that shaped his life. He later observed the Doctor again, this time alongside his companion Ruby Sunday, as the two stopped a threat from "The Shreek," a creature that marks its prey so that it can hunt it down in the future - and on that occasion, the Shreek marked Conrad.

Now the host of a podcast about extraterrestrials, Conrad arranges an interview with Ruby. She's been struggling to adjust to a normal life after her time with the Doctor, and she's charmed by this awkward but kind young man. After he tells her about the Shreek, she arranged for UNIT to give him an antidote, so that he need never worry about the creatures again.

Conrad and Ruby begin dating, and one weekend he invites her to his hometown to meet his friends. While enjoying drinks at a pub, Ruby notices the lights flickering, which is one of the early warnings of the Shreek's approach. This should be impossible - Not only is the creature in UNIT's custody, they would only be tracking them if Conrad hadn't drunk the antidote.

Then Conrad reveals that he did not drink the liquid - a mistake that appears to have put him, Ruby, and his friends all in imminent danger!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He makes an indelible impression on young Conrad simply by materializing the TARDIS in front of him. He's kind to the boy, giving him a coin and telling him that it's his lucky day before leaving again as quickly as he came. He has three appearances in the episode, and all of them happen "out of order" from his perspective: He meets young Conrad while taking another Vindicator reading with Belinda; his second scene is, from his perspective, well before that, when he was traveling with Ruby shortly after the events of The Devil's Chord; and his final one is set between seasons, when he was traveling alone.

Ruby Sunday: She's been struggling with PTSD since leaving the Doctor. Conrad appears to be just what she needs: a simple nice guy who's supportive and willing to listen. She's appalled when he reveals that he didn't take the Shreek antidote, and she's quick to take charge when the pub comes under siege. Millie Gibson's last two episodes as a regular were also her worst, with weak scripts that resulted in generic performances. Lucky Day gives her much stronger material, allowing her to show restlessness, fear, happiness, and anger. It's a reminder of how good she can be when she's actually given something to work with.

Belinda: She's present only for the opening scene, in which she's still anxious to return home. The Doctor introduces her to child Conrad, which results in a closed circle when adult Conrad asks the Doctor about Belinda when he hasn't yet met her - which might =be the reason that he was searching for her at the start of The Robot Revolution.

Conrad: Jonah Hauer-King presents Conrad as instantly likable: just nervous and insecure enough to be appealing without seeming clingy or useless. We know early on that he's not telling Ruby everything about himself. He presents his relationship with his dead mother as a positive one, while the opening indicated that his mother was abusive and cruel... though in fairness, that's not something you're likely to bring up on a first date. These tidbits, his insecurity and the past that we glimpse at the episode's start, make it believable that he would engage in an ill-conceived effort to be fearless for Ruby.

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: When Ruby calls her with her worries about the Shreek, she takes her concerns seriously, running a check both on the power grid and on the Shreek that she has confined. When both come up clean, she gently suggests that Ruby is "constantly on alert" (read: paranoid), and she manages to make the observation sound kind rather than judgment. She expresses concerns that the UK ministers would be only too happy to turn on UNIT, and she worries about the organization's technology leaking out if that happens. Jemma Redgrave gets possibly her series-best scene near the end, when Kate grows grim and angry while dealing with the mess of this situation.


THOUGHTS:

I managed not to be spoiled for The Well, which enhanced my enjoyment of that very good episode. Lucky Day is also a good episode... but unfortunately, this time I was spoiled about the big reveal. Ah, well: Such are the perils of waiting on new episodes until after the full season has dropped.

I enjoyed Lucky Day. It does a good job of playing with expectations. The opening deliberately echoes Love & Monsters, with Conrad - like that episode's Elton - encountering the TARDIS by chance and even stretching out his fingers toward the door before observing the end of an unseen adventure involving the Shreek. Like that episode's Elton, his brief encounters with the Doctor have clearly shaped his life - though Conrad has turned his enthusiasm into a podcast rather than joining a fan group.

All of this, and his amusingly clumsy "meet cute" with Ruby, prime us to like him even before the main story properly gets going. The point-of-view then shifts to Ruby and her difficulties with normal life. This also works, with us seeing her relax and enjoy herself again with Conrad as her family cheers her on. All of which builds effectively to the weekend, with the tone turning darker as the lights flicker and the first glimpses are caught of the monster outside...

The second half makes one more switch in viewpoint, with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and UNIT taking center stage as the story moves toward its conclusion. I could gripe that UNIT's security appears to be poor enough to qualify them for service on the starship Enterprise, but I can handwave that because the story remains engrossing. The climax is effective, as Kate takes actions that she knows and states the Doctor would disapprove of in order to neutralize the threat, and Jemma Redgrave is outstanding when Kate shows her full fury. With the story resolved, I was preparing to award a strong "8."

...And then came the Doctor's third appearance. I like the idea that an offhand remark from Conrad accidentally guides the Doctor to find Belinda, essentially setting the stage for the entire season. I'm less fond of the scene's centerpiece: a heavy-handed speech in which the Doctor lays out The Moral of the Story. I appear to be in the minority in not liking the speech. It's good as a speech, and I agree with almost every word ... but the episode's themes had already been conveyed by Kate and Ruby. This is pure heavy-handedness, hammering it home on the theory that we're too dumb to have gotten the point.

Since I don't particular enjoy being lectured, even when I agree with the lecture, this was enough for me to deduct one point from my final score - leaving Lucky Day still at a solid...


Overall Rating: 7/10.

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#9 (1.8): Empire of Death.

Ruby presents a gift to Sutekh. Too bad it's not a better script.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 54 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Jamie Donoughue. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

Sutekh has returned to spread his "gift of death" to the entire universe. The centuries that have passed since the 4th Doctor defeated him in 1911 have only made him stronger. He's engulfed the TARDIS, feeding off its energy like a giant tick, and his minions spread his "dust of death" across all of time and space to extinguish all life in the universe.

The Doctor, Ruby, and Mel escape by using the Memory TARDIS in UNIT's Time Window. Now it's up to them to find a way to stop Sutekh and restore the universe. A tall order, since they only have access to a barely functioning "deathtrap" of a time machine, but the Doctor has it in hand. After all, he's able to convince a survivor (Sian Clifford) to let him have her spoon.


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor howling at the dying universe echoes another moment in this season: His cry of frustration and helplessness at the end of Dot and Bubble. But, much like Empire of Death itself, it mainly serves to remind me of a much better episode. His cry in Dot and Bubble felt organic: a raw reaction to an act of self-destruction that was based on pure irrationality. This howl? It's hollow artifice, a good actor doing his level best to try to lend some weight to a CGI apocalypse that we already know will be undone in the next half hour.

Ruby: The "Time Window" image of her birth mother is the key to the plot, such as it is. Just as she and the Doctor are unable to see the image of the woman's face, so is Sutekh, and he becomes obsessed with discovering this stranger's identity. Ruby gets a decent character scene when she refuses to allow the Doctor to blame himself for Sutekh's actions. That scene, and Ruby's brief but well-scripted encounter with Sutekh, allow Millie Gibson to show some of the talent we saw in the midseason, though this episode's Ruby remains more of a plot device than a character.

Mel: She gets a good moment early on, when she hauls the Doctor to her scooter to make an escape and declares that the only thing they can do now is fight. After that... Well, a little too much like in her actual tenure as a regular, she's reduced to a combination of Plot Device and Spare Part. Bonnie Langford continues to make the most of the little bits she gets, such as when an exhausted Mel remarks that her time in the TARDIS was the best time of her life - but for the first time since her return, those moments don't ultimately add up to much.

Sutekh: Gabriel Woolf returns to voice Sutekh, the villain he so memorably brought to life in Pyramids of Mars. Woolf's deep, rich tones are still a perfect fit for the God of Death. The characterization is... less good. Sutekh has been watching all season, and he's apparently gotten really invested in the mystery of Ruby's mother. This leads to him sparing the Doctor and Ruby; his goal may be the death of everything, but he's not about to let things end on a cliffhanger! I'm of two minds about Sutekh's CGI redesign. It does feel like a modernized extrapolation of the original design, and there is something effective about the way he hangs over the TARDIS. On the other hand, "New Sutekh" looks like he should be a Dark Souls boss, which further emphasizes the artificiality pervading this episode.


THOUGHTS:

When basically the entire recurring cast was vaporized within the first five minutes, it was obvious that this was headed for a bright red reset button. This doesn't have to mean disaster. Star Trek: Voyager's Year of Hell was a reset button episode, but it also made good use of that show's regular cast, showing both their vulnerability and their resilience in the face of a horrible situation.

Empire of Death doesn't do this. It pretends to, with the Doctor talking at the end about how much he's learned and Millie Gibson's Ruby trotting out her "holding back a sob" voice a few times too many for it to remain effective. But the attempts at emotion end up feeling like some sort of processed emotion substitute, something to sell in a convenience store in a blue-and-red tin.

The script doesn't so much build to a climax as arrive there after a collection of scenes. There's a callback to the malevolent Prime Minister from 73 Yards, but it seems to exist solely to have a callback. The whole bit just left me wishing I was rewatching that excellent episode instead of this dross.

The Doctor and Ruby ultimately outwit Sutekh by yanking something out of the Memory Nether Regions, which only works because in addition to being the God of Death, Sutekh is also the God of Stupidity. And I'm left reflecting that even though I've yet to listen to the character's audio return with Big Finish, I have no doubt that it was better done than this - largely because it had to be.


ONE GREAT SCENE:

The episode does manage to deliver one great scene. After the first Act, with Sutekh having unleashed his "gift of death" on the universe, there's a quiet exchange between the Doctor and a woman (Sian Clifford) on the remains of her planet. Clifford is excellent in this scene, conveying a certain serene weariness. She cannot remember her name, but she clings to fragments - an infant daughter, a husband whom she remembers was "tall," an opera house. She smiles at the Doctor's "kind face." This scene also sees Ncuti Gatwa's best acting of the episode, his Doctor compassionate and patient in his interactions with her.

This one scene keeps me from giving this episode an absolute rock bottom score - but it also makes the emptiness of the rest of the show stand out all the more. The soft, sad conversation between the Doctor and the nameless woman left me wanting a story centered around this specific situation... and instead we go right back to the CGI Feast of Sutekh.


OVERALL:

An extended epilogue tries to wring some emotion, and I'll be fair and acknowledge that there are a couple of good lines in this part. But writer Russell T. Davies lays it on a bit too thick for a bit too long, until it ends up feeling as hollow as the rest of it. In the end, I think the episode's defining moment is the Doctor's howl at the end of the First Act: a failed attempt at emotional resonance that collides ineffectually into a computer-generated void of nothingness.

In my review of Dot and Bubble, I reflected that after three excellent episodes in a row, this season was on track to be one of the strongest since the show's 2005 return. I think I jinxed it. Empire of Death is dreadful, easily the worst season finale since Doctor Who's 2005 return. Judged only as an episode, the only thing keeping this from being worse than Space Babies is that one excellent scene between the Doctor and the unnamed woman.

If nothing else, this has given me a newfound appreciation for the merits of The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos.


Overall Rating: 2/10.

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#8 (1.7): The Legend of Ruby Sunday.

The Doctor investigates Ruby's past - and falls right into an old enemy's trap!

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 46 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Jamie Donoughue. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor comes to UNIT for help in identifying two people: the mysterious woman (Susan Twist) who keeps appearing wherever he and Ruby go, and Ruby's mother. The first is no problem. The woman is Susan Triad, head of S. Triad Technology, and she is preparing to unveil a remarkable piece of new, free technology. All of that would have been more than enough to put her on UNIT's radar, even if her company's name wasn't an obvious anagram for "TARDIS."

For the Doctor, there's one more issue involving this woman, aspects of whom keep appearing throughout time and space. Her name is Susan - a common name, yes, but also the name of his granddaughter!

The mystery of Ruby's origins is more complicated, but Ruby does have a copy of the 2005 CCTV footage from outside the church where she was abandoned. As expected from a twenty year old VHS tape, it's extremely grainy, the details impossible to discern. But with UNIT's technology, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart is confident that they can enhance it enough to see the woman's face.

But as the Doctor observes, memory is time - and whatever force is behind this, it clearly can travel or at least project itself through time. And UNIT's newest scientific advisor (Lenny Rush) feels certain that all of this is a trap!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: This incarnation's emotional openness also leaves him feeling guilt more strongly. He confesses to Kate that he feels like he brings disaster everywhere he goes. This really isn't true - It's more that he tends to arrive just in time to reveal and fight the disaster that would have happened anyway. Still, he can get tunnel vision when he feels close to solving a mystery, which in this episode leads to a moment of carelessness.

Ruby: Despite the episode's title, I think this might be Ruby's weakest showing as a character. She's reduced entirely to a plot device, left to react to events rather than actually doing anything. I suspect it's no coincidence that Millie Gibson, who has been quite good for most of the season, is much worse here as well. If you assume she's putting a little squeak into her voice, often while softly crying "Mum? Mum!", then you really won't be too far off. Given some of the excellent material she received in Boom, Dot and Bubble, and particularly 73 Yards, this is a severe disappointment.

Mel: I'll admit to feeling some pleasure in observing that Bonnie Langford, one-time bane of Doctor Who fandom, gives easily the best performance of the episode. As in The Giggle, Mel retains her Classic Series positivity. Even as she investigates Susan Triad, she reports back to UNIT that the woman is not only human, but actually quite nice. She has absolute faith in the Doctor, reassuring Ruby's mother that she is safe with him. She also refuses to let the Doctor paralyze himself with guilt. When he has a moment of despair, she looks down at him and says: "Finished? Now stop grizzling and fix it!" As with Langford's Big Finish audios, her modern-day television appearances reinforce that neither Langford nor the character brief were the problems with Mel at the time; the writing was.

Carla Sunday: When Ruby comes for the tape, Carla decides that she's going to return with her. To the highly secure, top-secret government installation. To the episode's credit, she at least gets stopped by security, with the Doctor having to intervene for her to be allowed in. Once inside, she... doesn't do much of anything, more or less standing around until the Doctor sends her away again. It's still more than Yasmin Finney's Rose Noble gets to do (Rose's role: Present); but given how much of a point the script makes of Carla going to UNIT, it's odd that she contributes almost nothing to the actual story.

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: She was raised on her father's stories of the Doctor; and though she's sometimes clashed with him, she argues against his claim that he brings disaster. She does get angry with him later, when his carelessness puts one of her men in harm's way, and Jemma Redgrave delivers a glare that would make a desert cactus wither. But she still defers to him. When he orders Ruby back to UNIT's Time Window, Ruby asks why - at which point Kate snaps, "You do not question. You move!"


THOUGHTS:

My biggest criticism about The Legend of Ruby Sunday is that it feels mechanical. Everything here revolves around two scenes: the scene in which the Doctor, Ruby, and UNIT look at the night Ruby was abandoned through a "Time Window"; and the big reveal at the end. The rest of the episode is designed to get to those two scenes. I was suitably gripped by the Time Window scene. Still, I can't quite escape the feeling that this central piece of the story amounts to the characters studying a blow-up of an old photo.

On the plus side, Davies and director Jamie Donoughue do a good job of filling the time. The episode establishes a sense of urgency early on, and momentum carries the viewer through. The plot amounts to an extended build to the big reveal, but script, performances, and direction do a fine job of making you feel that things are about to go badly wrong.

The reveal itself is a strong scene, particularly for those who watched Doctor Who's original run, and the cliffhanger has me ready for the finale. That said, I've been disappointed with Russell T. Davies's finales more often than not, and that tempers my excitement.


OVERALL:

I'm torn assigning a score, as The Legend of Ruby Sunday is less a story than a lead-in to the next episode. It does a good job with pacing and atmosphere. Ruby, however, is reduced to being little more than a plot device, and the thread involving Carla's visit to UNIT comes to exactly nothing.

The hour goes by quickly, and I wasn't bored. In the end, though, I'm left thinking that my final opinion on this episode is going to very dependent on the success or failure of the next one.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

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#7 (1.6): Rogue.

The Doctor meets - and flirts shamelessly with - a time traveling bounty hunter (Jonathan Groff).

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Kate Herron, Briony Redmond. Directed by: Ben Chessell. Produced by: Chris May.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor takes Ruby to 1813 so that they can attend a lavish ball at the Duchess of Pemberton (Indira Varma)'s estate. Ruby enthuses about essentially being in a real-life episode of the TV show Bridgerton, and the pair are having a grand time with the fancy dress and the dances.

Then the Doctor notices the handsome Rogue (Jonathan Groff), standing on a high balcony and surveying the party. Rogue is a bounty hunter from the distant future, and he has mistaken the Doctor for his prey - a Chuldur, an alien shapeshifter. Chuldur adopt the forms of the people they kill - not for any real purpose, but just to enjoy "the dance, the drama, the emotion... It's cosplay!"

The Doctor convinces Rogue of his true identity, and the two agree to work together to trap the alien. But there's more than one Chuldur at this party, and the time travelers quickly find themselves on the run. Meanwhile, the head Chuldur sets its sights on its next victim: Ruby!


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He spends most of the episode flirting with Rogue. This is mostly entertaining, their playful banter leading to a handful of amusing moments. A highlight comes when Rogue, still thinking the Doctor is the shapeshifter, traps him in a force field. It's deadlocked (*drink*), so the sonic screwdriver can't deactivate it... and so he shifts to what he can do, including activating the ship's sound system and dancing in place to Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out of My Head. Later, comic misunderstandings cleared up, he and Rogue talk about loss. Rogue lost his partner; the Doctor has lost "everybody."

Ruby: This is very much the Doctor/Rogue show, but she still gets some decent moments. She bonds with bookish young Emily (Camilla Aiko), who is distraught after being used and then rejected by caddish Lord Barton (Paul Forman). Ruby's protectiveness toward Emily and disdain for Barton inadvertently draws the attention of the Chuldur, because Ruby "seems so different."

Rogue: The episode's title character is a handsome, morally ambiguous American who works as an intergalactic, time traveling bounty hunter. His technology is advanced enough to deadlock the Doctor's sonic, and he's quick with both quips and flirtation. Meaning, yes, Rogue is exactly one Barrowman away from being Capt. Jack Harkness. Actor Jonathan Groff helps to counter the familiar characterization by playing it straight. Where Barrowman was happy to lean into a bit of ham and reflect anything emotional with a shield of glibness, Groff deadpans one-liners while showing hints of emotional vulnerability. The character still feels like a Jack stand-in, though, which I think blunted my response to the episode.


THOUGHTS:

Rogue provides a bit of light relief after the string of heavy episodes that preceded it. There are a couple of emotional beats near the end, including one that wants me to feel a lot more than I actually do. For the most part, though, this is a fun adventure that feels like a bit of silliness before the season-ending two-parter.

The script toys around with the notion of cosplay. Early in the episode, a Chuldur who's disguised as a strait-laced lord is taunted by a cad. After some back-and-forth, the Chuldur declares of the cad: "You gamble, have affairs, you're an absolute snake. Meanwhile, I'm all noble and serious... I'd rather be you." The Chuldur proceeds to make good on that, claiming first the cad's life and then his identity - simply because playing him will be a lot more fun.

That's all the Chuldur are there for: Fun. They're at the ball to soak up the atmosphere: "The dance, the drama, the emotion!" This is pretty much the exact same reason that the Doctor and Ruby are there. Ruby spends her first scene giggling about this being like a real-life Bridgerton episode, and she's quick to pass herself off as "Lady Ruby Sunday of the Notting Hill Estates." The Doctor even feels the need to remind her not to do anything to accidentally change history.

The real focus of the episode is not on the monster, but on the interactions between the Doctor and Rogue. Most of this is entertaining. Like most single episode romances, it moves too quickly, but writers Kate Herron and Briony Redmond are careful not to push things past internal credibility. The Doctor and Rogue have fun together and are interested in getting to know each other better, and there's a spark that could lead to something more - but their interactions ultimately amount to a very good (if unconventional) first date.

The episode tries to take a more serious turn near the end - and that's the part that ends up not working for me. When Ruby is put in jeopardy, the Doctor responds with a dark anger that is well-played by Gatwa... but I don't feel it the way I sometimes did with the 11th and 12th Doctors, because these villains don't feel worthy of this response. The Chuldur work when played for laughs, but they don't convey menace. I never believe that Ruby is actually in danger, and so the climactic standoff falls just a bit flat.

The same is true of the ending. The Doctor may be affected by events, but I'm left at a distance. One of Doctor Who's strengths is its ability turn on a dime between silly and serious. But this episode doesn't quite pull that off, at least not for me. As a result, I'm left with a disconnect, unable to make myself feel any of what the episode clearly wants me to.


OVERALL:

Rogue is at its best when it sticks to being lightweight fun. The first two thirds are played as a light period monster piece, and both the bits with the Childur and the flirting between the Doctor and Rogue are enormously enjoyable. But when it tries to shift to something more seriously emotional, I just don't end up feeling it.

It's still a decent entertainment. This is one occasion, though, in which I wish the writers had just stuck to lighthearted fun and left attempts at heavy drama to other episodes.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Story: Dot and Bubble
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#6 (1.5): Dot and Bubble.

The Doctor and Ruby try to rescue spoiled Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke).

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 43 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Dylan Holmes Williams. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

"We come here from the Homeworld. No stinky old folk, just people ages 17 to 27. I mean, no, not just anyone. If you can afford it, obviously."

Lindy Pepper-Bean (Callie Cooke) is a resident of Finetime, a carefree luxury city for the children of the elite. These teens spend two hours per day working and the rest of their time partying. Lindy and her friends are constantly online inside their "bubbles," holographic social media spheres that encircles the users' heads.

Lindy lives completely inside her bubble, so much so that the Doctor and Ruby have to push her to look beyond it before she even notices one of her co-workers being literally eaten right next to her. Finetime has become infested with monsters: sluglike creatures that are consuming the population - and yet, for whatever reason, they are ignoring Lindy... at least, so far.

Finetime's security is too tight for even the Doctor to get in. If Lindy wants to survive, she'll need to follow his and Ruby's instructions in order to reach a place of safety. All the while, the Doctor tries to piece together what's happening based on the snippets of information available to him.


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He tries to contact Lindy right at the start of the episode. When he appears on her screen, talking about monsters, she instantly blocks him. It's only after Ruby manages to gain a small degree of trust that the young woman is willing to listen to him. He shrugs off Lindy's wails that she hates him, doing his utmost to keep this frankly idiotic young woman to focus on her own survival. Gatwa delivers what I think is his best-acted scene of the series thus far at the very end: The Doctor, letting out a cry of pure frustration before he lapses into a deep, still silence.

Ruby: Gets the time-honored companion's role of acting as the Doctor's intermediary when he alienates Lindy. She alternately ignores or agrees with Lindy's complaints about how "stupid" she is for not knowing about Finetime and the bubble, showing impressive patience and compassion for the girl. She's still working class at heart, though; when she learns that the residents are "the rich kids," she can't help but snark about it.

Lindy Pepper-Bean: Lindy's bubble is her world far more than any actual physical space. It's where she has fun, where she interacts with her friends, and where she distracts herself from having to ever actually think. There's a wonderful little moment after she witnesses the monster eating her co-worker. She shuts down, unable to process it, retreating into her bubble and playing music to avoid engaging with reality. The importance of Callie Cooke's performance to this episode can't be understated. We experience the entire story through Lindy's eyes, making it critical that this fundamentally selfish and unlikable person still comes across as human enough to make us care about her fate.

Ricky September: The social media star idolized by Lindy, Ricky (Tom Rhys Harries) has a "star account." In defiance of the stereotype, he is probably the least narcissistic person in Finetime. When he sees Lindy struggling, he helps her immediately, and he is protective of her both physically and emotionally from that moment on. He's more capable than her, and we discover why: Despite owing his success to social media, he likes to turn the bubble off while walking around and reading. Some of his behavior is almost Doctorish, with him putting himself in harm's way to save Lindy.


THOUGHTS:

Dot and Bubble is the best episode so far this season - and following on the heels of two other excellent episodes, that's an impressive achievement.

The story is well constructed. We open on Lindy and stay with her for the entire running time. A lot of world building is achieved in the opening minutes, with her turning on her bubble as soon as she wakes, her head engulfed in social media "noise" even as she walks to the bathroom (following directional arrows) to brush her teeth. A couple of her friends are bizarrely "offline," and the Doctor appears to give a warning that she ignores. That warning aside, this opening mostly establishes her daily life, which is so consumed by her bubble that reality has become all but irrelevant.

Lindy's bubble isn't a metaphor or analogy for social media, because it explicitly is social media. It's not the only bubble that exists in the story, though. Lindy happily declares that Finetime is reserved for the young and rich. Poor people and "stinky old people" have no place, keeping her and her friends isolated from anyone belonging to a different social class or even generation. Finetime is itself a domed city, so thoroughly locked off from the outside world that even the Doctor can't get in. When you break it all down, Lindy and her peers: live inside their personal social media bubbles... inside a bubble of youth and privilege... all of which exists inside the bubble of Finetime itself.

The epilogue takes the already existing ideas of social media isolation and separation according to class and adds a new wrinkle. This doesn't come out of nowhere, with hints dropped in character reactions throughout. However, unlike the "bubble" themes, this last is kept reasonably subtle and in the background, so that its full revelation comes as a shock to the Doctor and probably much of the audience, as well. The epilogue deals with this change-up well, with the final minutes particularly effective in not only the scripting, but also in Gatwa's performance and some outright beautiful closing shots.


OVERALL:

Dot and Bubble is my favorite episode so far this season. A good script provides an effective monster story while at the same time delivering plenty of social commentary. The performances are universally excellent. It's also extremely well-directed, with a wonderful contrast between Lindy's noisily cheerful bubble and the monsters chowing down on people outside of it.

This also marks the third standout in a row. At this point, not only has "Season One" (Series Fourteen, I mumble stubbornly) firmly recovered from its stumbling start - It seems on track to be one of the revived series' stronger seasons.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

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#5 (1.4): 73 Yards.

Ruby Sunday is followed by a mysterious woman who is always exactly 73 yards away.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 47 minutes. Written by: Russell T. Davies. Directed by: Dylan Holmes Williams. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

The TARDIS materializes in Wales, near the top of a cliff overlooking the sea. The Doctor exults in the view, waxing on about "the war between the land and the sea" - and gets so carried away with his own eloquence that he doesn't notice himself stepping on a fairy circle surrounding a makeshift shrine. Ruby pauses to read a couple of the prayers left by the locals, one of which references a "Mad Jack." When she looks up, the Doctor is gone, and a mysterious woman is watching Ruby from 73 yards away.

Ruby attempts to walk to her to ask where the Doctor went... but no matter what route she takes, the stranger remains 73 yards in the distance. After trying to get back into the TARDIS to no avail, Ruby starts walking to the local village. She asks a hiker to talk to the woman and the hiker agrees, only to flee as soon as she approaches. A man in the local pub also tries, with the same result.

Eventually, Ruby gives up and returns home. From the train, she sees the woman still watching her from 73 yards away, impossibly appearing in fields and towns every time she looks out the window. Her mother decides to put an end to this issue, striding forward to talk to her daughter's stalker... but she turns cold at once, abandoning Ruby.

Before the Doctor's disappearance, when he was nattering on about all things Welsh, he mentioned a future Prime Minister: Roger ap Gwilliam (Aneurin Barnard), whom he described as "terrifying." When Ruby sees ab Gwilliam giving a television interview, just beginning his political ascent, she decides that there's a purpose to what's happening after all. Whether it will solve her problem or not, she resolves to stop this man and "save the world."


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: He's barely in this episode. He drops a bit of exposition about Roger ap Gwilliam to set up later plot events. He's also instantly and deeply sorry about having broken the circle, with his first instinct to try to repair the damage he's done.

Ruby: By contrast, she doesn't care at all about breaking the circle, shrugging it off and proceeding to read some of the prayers left by the shrine. There's a running theme of abandonment, with every protector or potential protector deserting her: The Doctor, the woman who runs the pub, UNIT, even her mother. She feels these emotional wounds strongly, but she also pays close attention to the situation with the mysterious woman. She may not know what is happening or why, but she figures out some of the rules. By the second half, she learns to help herself - and when her lonely new fate intersects with the ascent of Roger ap Gwilliam, she uses her observations to greatest advantage.

Kate Lethbridge-Stewart: Briefly positioned as a potential savior for Ruby. She shows up with the offer a job, observing that UNIT has recently developed "a tradition of helping the Doctor's former companions." She also has UNIT's resources to bring to bear. Unfortunately, that's where it all goes wrong. Kate attempts to apprehend the mystery woman; and as soon as she and her soldiers approach, she turns cold and orders her forces to "disengage."

Carla Sunday: The Church on Ruby Road showed an alternate reality in which, without Ruby, generous and joyful Carla was instead selfish and bitter. We see that contrast again. When Ruby comes home, Carla is entirely supportive. She's the one who insists on confronting the woman, using walkie-talkies so that Ruby will be able to hear what the woman says. Then a switch is flipped. All at once, Carla stops seeing Ruby as her daughter, and Carla's manner transforms into... well, into the woman we saw in that one scene in The Church on Ruby Road.

Roger Ap Gwilliam: The closest this episode has to a villain, Gwylliam seems designed after modern populist figures. In the usual way of modern television, his actual politics are obscure. He is anti-NATO, however, and plans to buy a nuclear arsenal to keep the UK independent from the rest of the world. He's a nasty piece of work regardless, something the episode reinforces when he initiates an abusive relationship with Marti (Sophie Ablett), one of his campaign's young volunteers.


THOUGHTS:

"That's what we do, all of us. We see something inexplicable and invent the rules to make it work."
-Kate Lethbridge-Stewart drops a pretty big hint about the nature of this story.

73 Yards is deliberately ambiguous, providing questions and only ever giving partial answers.

That isn't to say that it isn't precisely structured. It sets up a problem for Ruby in the woman following her. It establishes rules: The woman is always 73 yards away, and anyone she speaks to is driven into an immediate panic and becomes particularly cold toward Ruby. It holds to both rules consistently and allows Ruby to use them to proactively to solve a problem. As a result, even with answers in short supply, there's still a feeling of completion. An end-of-episode twist provides sense of closure, even as questions are left to swirl around the viewer's mind.

The episode is a showcase for the character of Ruby in much the way Boom showcased the new Doctor. The result is, unsurprisingly, the strongest episode yet for the character. Ruby spends the first half trying to solve the immediate problem. She attempts to approach the woman. When that doesn't work, she enlists the aid of people she meets, hoping they can talk to her so that she can understand what's happening. Each attempt not only fails, but also leaves her more isolated than before. The second half then sees her fixating on a problem - Gwyllim - and relying only on herself to solve it.

I found the first half to be the stronger part, with plenty of atmosphere and a rising sense... not really of dread, but of something being "not right." The Gwyllim plot that dominates the second half is still well told, and it allows Ruby to firmly claim the "hero" role. But these scenes just don't have the same pull, and I think the script lifts a little too freely from Stephen King's The Dead Zone.

Millie Gibson impresses throughout. With Ncuti Gatwa gone save for a couple of minutes at the beginning and even less than that at the end, she has to carry the story, and she does so splendidly. There are moments of strong emotion, particularly in the scenes involving her mother's rejection of her, and she plays these in a way that makes them feel both effective and entirely natural. When she meets Kate, she shifts from relief at having found real help to dread when UNIT descends on the strange woman. Even as her isolation increases, she never loses her sense of humor or compassion.


OVERALL:

73 Yards is the second excellent episode in a row. It's atmospheric and mysterious, and it is further elevated by Millie Gibson's lead performance. I don't think the second half is quite as good as the first, which is why this falls just slightly short of full marks, but I'd still rank it among Russell T. Davies' best Doctor Who scripts. 

This season's stumbling start had me seriously worried. After Boom and this, however, I am back to eagerly awaiting the next installment.


Overall Rating: 9/10.

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#4 (1.3): Boom.

The Doctor has to remain very still after stepping on a land mine.

1 episode. Running Time: Approx. 44 minutes. Written by: Steven Moffat. Directed by: Julie Anne Robinson. Produced by: Vicki Delow.


THE PLOT:

The Doctor brings Ruby to her first alien planet. Unfortunately, the planet in question is Kastarion 3, which is in the midst of a devastating war between the Anglican Marines and an unseen enemy. The Doctor arrives just in time to hear the dying scream of marine John Francis Vater (Joe Anderson). He runs out to help - and steps on a land mine.

This is a smart mine. Not only can the Doctor not move without triggering it, he also needs to control his emotional responses. His attempts at forced calm are disrupted first by the arrival of the dead man's young daughter, Splice (Caoilinn Springhall) and then by another Anglican soldier, Mundy (Varada Sethu). Mundy brings him more bad news: The mine has a failsafe. Even if the Doctor is able to avoid setting it off, it will self-detonate after a certain period of time. Time that is rapidly running out.

"Thoughts and prayers!"


CHARACTERS:

The Doctor: This episode absolutely depends on Ncuti Gatwa for its success, and he delivers a great performance. The Doctor spends the bulk of the episode frozen in place, leaving Gatwa to act with his voice, facial expressions, and eyes, and this allows him to finally show how good he can be. The Doctor is clearly scared - even more when he realizes the full stakes involved - but he maintains control. Every time the mine advances toward blowing, we see his struggle to keep his adrenaline and heart rate from triggering it. Most importantly, even though he's frozen in place for most of the episode, he's still the most powerful figure on screen.

Ruby: Early on, the Doctor sends her to search for a counterweight to allow him to safely lower one foot that's suspended in midair. When she returns, he tries to get her to throw the object to him from a safe distance. She refuses, knowing that he'll have a much better chance if she hands it to him, and she flatly ignores his pleas to stay back. Millie Gibson matches Gatwa, putting strong emotion into her voice as she attempts to act as his hands during this crisis. When the fog clears, she also catches her first glimpse of an alien sky, which allows a brief moment of wonder to interrupt the terror.


THOUGHTS:

YES!

After three episodes of being mostly cardboard characters, the 15th Doctor and Ruby finally, finally! feel like real people. Credit to Gatwa and Gibson who, given meaty material at last, deliver very good performances.

I'm going to give even more credit to writer Steven Moffat for crafting that material. Moffat's scripts have consistently ranked among my favorites since Doctor Who's 2005 return. Boom's premise is simple - the Doctor stuck on a landmine - but Moffat uses the situation to focus tightly on the two regulars. Despite liking the actors, I have been badly struggling with a lack of connection to this Doctor/companion team. Moffat's script gives me that missing connection within the first few minutes.

The teaser establishes the nature of both threats in a sequence following the doomed John and the equally doomed younger soldier trying to get him back to safety. We spend just enough time with John to get to like him... though anyone who has ever seen any form of war story knows that he's done for as soon as he calls up his young daughter, Splice. Then the younger soldier steps on a land mine, showing what will happen to the Doctor if he moves or reacts, and the first threat is established. Then the second threat - the one that truly represents the villain of the piece - is shown when John is killed by a more unexpected source.

From that moment, the tension just keeps rising. The Doctor follows John's scream and steps on a land mine. Just as his situation is temporarily stabilized, Splice shows up to learn about her father's death at the worst possible time. Then Mundy arrives, gun drawn, ready to shoot the Doctor if he doesn't get himself blown up first. And then... Well, suffice it to say that complications keep coming, and the stakes keep rising to encompass more lives than just the two regulars.

Moffat fills out bits of world-building from his own era. The Anglican soldiers were established in Series Five's The Time of Angels, and we learn more about them here. The episode also touches on themes similar to Series Ten's Oxygen, in which the real monster was an extreme form of capitalism. Cold capitalism is again the villain here, with the entire scenario caused by a privatized weapons industry and its business model: "The algorithm maintains a fighting force at just above the acceptable number of casualties... War is business, and business is booming."

I could argue that the resolution is reached a little too easily. Even that largely works, though, with the Doctor succeeding through a combination of cleverness and a direct and honest emotional appeal. If pressed, I think the ending is the weakest part of the episode, but it doesn't undercut the tension building up to it.


OVERALL:

Boom is the first great episode of showrunner Russell T. Davies' second tenure. It's tense and personal, while still finding room for future world/universe-building. It's unabashedly political, as Moffat's era tended to be, but its themes serve and arise from the story rather than distracting from it.

Most importantly, it makes the new Doctor and companion finally feel like fully formed people. I've been struggling to connect with the 15th Doctor and Ruby; this episode fixed that almost immediately without seeming to even try very hard to do it. Fingers crossed that the remaining episodes are able to sustain it!


Overall Rating: 10/10.

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