New Doctor Who Season 2 First Impressions: Episode 8 (The Reality War)

Goodness, we have a lot to talk about here, don't we? Well, let's roll up our sleeves and fucking get in there.

The Reality War is not just the end of New Doctor Who Season 2, but the end of Ncuti Gatwa's time as Doctor Who. It could even be The Last Doctor Who Episode Ever. I do not usually engage in such doomposting, and baseless speculation on any potential mess behind the scenes is not my jam. I'm here to give you the vibes, to tell you how the episode made me feel, and whether or not it succeeded. It must be said, however, that the end result of an episode here feels messy. You can feel a sense of a production fraying at the edges, one that has 66 minutes to do its thing but still feels like it's rushing. A production juggling about its Ruby Sunday, its Belinda Chandra, and its huge UNIT supporting cast with wildly disparate results. A production where it feels like our Doctor Who could have gone on for longer, but has burned out like a star twice as bright and is now replaced with... Well, whatever's going on with that regeneration. It's a messy finale. Here's the thing, though: I can appreciate a messy Doctor Who finale. I did so with the Empire Of Death last year. I did so in 2011 with The Wedding Of River Song. I do this here, with The Reality War. I enjoyed this episode. Many did not, and we can try and bring up how they feel as we go, but I had a lot of fun. Let's give the 15th Doctor Who a sendoff that he no doubt would love. For our last go round with Ncuti Gatwa, let's have a fucking jam.

Let us begin with the big shit that RTD chucks in the bin after the first half: the Ranis and Omega. The Rani's scheme is at last revealed here, and it's a Time Lord superiority complex. Also we're doing some absolutely wild shit with Time Lord sterilization that recontextualizes the Dhawan Master's destruction of the Time Lords again as this thing that comes dangerously close to being Looms lore again. RTD's vibe is that of a cackling madman, flying close to the sun with his alchemy and threatening to lorebomb us all. He might bring Susan back! He might use Poppy to explain it! He might canonize the looms or finally explain UNIT dating or bring back Omega as Peter Davison like in Arc Of Infinity! It's daring, it's dangerous, it pisses more than a few people off, and I find it fascinating. The reveal of Omega as a decayed and corrupt myth given sentience, just this massive piece of sentient LORE that wants to consume all? It could be a powerful salve of anti-nostalgia, a lesson to be learned to not hang all of your hopes on sci-fi baddies from the 1970s. A sentiment to touch grass and to focus on the human drama of the back half, and not the idea of lore bombs exploding into canonized confetti all around us. I do not know if I entirely buy this reading, given the extremely nostalgic read of Gatwa's successor... But lord is it a more interesting explanation than just "Old man's brain is broken and stuck on obscure 70's villains". So Omega is a big skull boy, one Rani gets eaten and the other escapes to get you next time, Gadget, next tiiiime. Least interesting part of the episode for me. Let's jam with other shit.

Ruby Sunday fascinates me in this. I have continued to threaten to do a Ruby Sunday Arc Post, in line with my passionate defense of why the Silence Arc from Matt Smith's time is brilliant. I don't want to give too much away for that, and I can't really since I only have the broad strokes of what I want to say in my head. Plus I've not rewatched New Doctor Who Season 1 yet for it, I was waiting for this to finish first. Good thing I did. Anyway, Ruby and Conrad. For all that Ruby would be well within her rights to punch this doofus in the back of the head (and for how satisfying it would be), I like that in the end she takes pity on him. Pity is not the same as forgiveness, mind. Conrad, this Conrad, is nasty. Consider the horrific fact that what I said about Wish World and the trans people was proven right this episode, when Rose Noble appeared back into existence. (To give a fair bit of critique, I do wish Yasmin Finney was actually in the episode past the halfway point, in a bigger role.) As cathartic as it would be for him to become an Omega snack... I am okay with this. Our Ruby Sunday makes better things possible with a wish, a wish for a boy she did kind of love. A complex figure who contained equal parts sweetness and malice in his heart, given another shot at life. Freedom from the hate in his heart. Ruby does that in this episode, and it's sweet. Then she does it again.

The sheer gobsmacked horror of Ruby realizing that the Doctor's efforts failed, that baby Poppy has ceased to be and everyone's laughing and joking and having a good time as if this horrible thing hasn't happened, hit like a ton of bricks. That, along with everyone insisting that no, Ruby, all is well and right with the world, what are you on about? is a culmination point for her. Ruby, the forgotten foundling who herself ceased to be for a moment there. Ruby, the girl touched by fae and cursed to have her deepest fears of abandonment made manifest for the rest of her days, in a timeline that once was. Ruby, betrayed by the man she loved and forced to live in a world of his making. This is her line in the sand, her Doctorish moment. No more. If the price paid for this world is the abandonment of baby Poppy, then this world must be broken. Because she was real. Everything about not just Ruby Sunday, but the metafictional concepts being played with for all this era, coalesce into this one moment of drama. She was a construct of that other world, yes, but Conrad's narrow thinking should not condemn her to nonexistence. Ruby Sunday, in her last moments on this show, stands up for the baby who is much like her. She stands up for the lost forgotten child, and in those moments becomes almost Doctorish in her defiance of the status quo. Like an impossible girl before her, Ruby Sunday stands up to Doctor Who, and Doctor Who blinks.

There's a satisfying sense of emotional throughline here for the Doctor as well. All season he has been mirrored by shitty toxic men: Alan, Conrad, the Barber, Kid. There has been a foreboding sense, wondering if our party Doctor has a meaner streak to him. Here we see that challenged and refuted. This Doctor gives his life because a child no longer exists, despite their efforts to try and save her. It is a selfless act, one without hope or witness or reward, other than the satisfaction of having done the right thing before giving up this face for good. Better things are possible, and redemptions can come from anywhere... as demonstrated when Jodie Whitaker wanders back onto the show for a moment. You know how the Chibnall era wounded me. This era wounded many just as badly, if not worse. Not me, though. That mad alchemy of healing and redemption does one hell of a magic trick here. It almost heals the wound of Thasmin. It has the 13th Doctor admit she never said that to Yaz, but she should have. Better things are possible, and while Yaz deserved more... This is nice. It's genuinely nice to have that track for a companion who was... shall we say, underappreciated by the writing.

Which brings us to Belinda, the big sore point of this episode. I understand her motherly instinct here towards Poppy, I really do, but the companion being locked in a box while the grand finale happens is... a bit much, shall we say. We can go full Pepe Silvia and compare to Ruby, who gets to confront Conrad in tandem with the Doctor confronting Omega. We can weave a web of conspiracy around Millie Gibson leaving last year, and whether or not Varada Sethu was a Hasty Replacement, and all this other stuff. I don't want to do that. The biggest debate against this episode is Belinda and the new timeline where she becomes a single mother raising a human Poppy. There has been all sorts of critique in front of my eyes over this. Is it validating the traditional family values the Wish World was built upon, those which we decried last time? Is it giving the independent and prickly Belinda a smoothing-over at the expense of her agency? I don't know. It helps, for me, that Belinda wants to save Poppy and recognizes her realness even after Wish World is done away with. It helps that we had Poppy appear in The Story And The Engine, a vision which suggests that the new timeline is the original and that what we saw all season was a fractured one. More of the focus is on the Doctor's sadness, over him not being able to have a family and be a parent in the traditional way. A lot could be said about focusing on how sad the man is while the woman is just left aside to play mommy. Look, I don't have a valuable take on it. I'm not appalled, nor am I in love with it. If it's a dealbreaker for you, I get it.

The end of Gatwa, then, and the rise of... who's next. I do love the callback to Joy (furthered by Anita showing up to bail the Doctor out of the cliffhanger... even if her job thereafter is holding open a door.) and this Doctor's last words being about joy. That's what he was, in the end. A joyous soul set loose from the frazzled veteran 14th, to allow that man to retire and find his own joy in quiet therapy. A joyous, imperiously queer Doctor who rocked a skirt, who kissed men, who saved the world with an infectious energy and used his last breaths to ensure the happiness of one child. He was a fun Doctor, his era was just plain fun, and I will miss him. Cut, then, to who's next. Billie Piper is... the 16th Doctor Who? Okay, look. Billie Piper is not credited as The Doctor at the end, which suggests that shenanigans could potentially occur in a followup and we have yet to see the true 16th Doctor. I don't know any of that for sure, so until it happens I'm just going to call her the 16th Doctor? Okay. Okay. So, the 16th Doctor is an actress who played a past companion. Wild. I would have killed for Jenna Coleman in this role, but Billie. I'll take it. Is there a nostalgic cynicism behind this stunt casting, a desperation to remind people of the olden days when the show was good (and a sentiment which cuts against that Omega reading from earlier)? Maybe. The funny thing is, I didn't feel it this time. Somehow, I had killed that reflexive cringe in my mind without knowing. Have I gone soft in my middle age? Would I give the likes of Ready Player One or Enterprise Season 4 a pass now if I were coming to them for the first time today?

Probably not. Let's not say things we can't take back here, Frez. I don't know! I'm excited for a Girl Doctor Who, okay? Just like I was last time in 2017 when they cast Jodie Whitaker! This time they might even have better writing, and I'm excited for that too! There'll probably be an explanation in-universe for why it's Rose's face as 16, but if Capaldi can do it so can she! We could have a cool and good Girl Doctor Who! I don't give a shit if it's trying to make me remember 2006 when the show was good, if it makes the show good in 2026 then fuck it! Give it to me! There are a lot of exclamation points in this paragraph, but I am excited for this. I really hope she is Sweet 16 proper and not just some placeholder cooked up for a year of specials to be going away at the end. Time will tell. It always does. Time also leaves this, the Gatwa era, behind. Thanks for everything, Ncuti. You were indeed a great Doctor Whomst. May you go on to better and brighter things in your future. May there be a bright and shining future ahead for this dumb phone box show I love, now with a cool blonde girl as our mysterious physician. 

As for me, I know where I'm going next. You'll see. Probably.

New Doctor Who Season 2 First Impressions: Episode 7 (Wish World)

Once again, we find ourselves haunted by those two little words: Temporal flux...

It's an easy enough term to reintroduce. Temporal flux is that specific state that extends out, in this case, from May 24th to May 31st of 2025. The week-long gap between part 1 and part 2 of a Doctor Who finale, in which we only have half a story to ruminate on. The gap in which opinions and takes are fully up in the air, uncertainty hailing in this madcap realm where anything could happen in the back half to change your mind on things. It is a hellish place to be in, especially when done poorly. In recent memory, there was Chibnall's Ascension Of The Cybermen and last year's The Legend Of Ruby Sunday, both episodes feeling to me like 45 minutes of wheel spinning, of keeping things Just So until a cliffhanger Big Reveal, of being glorified teaser trailers for the Next Exciting Episode. Wish World threatens to be that again, and has been critiqued as such by some. The Rani's (oh god, I do have to talk about her at some point in this, huh?) scheme of making Doctor Who doubt this false reality so that it cracks like an egg and lets her see down into the void where Omega lurks? Why did she do it at 40 minutes in and not minute 1? Why don't the characters have more agency in setting themselves free from the delusion of this fake world? I am somewhat sympathetic to these concerns and readings of the episode... but I'm not going to bash Wish World on those terms. No, let's take a different approach. Let's unflatten our way of thinking from the mode of narrative contrivance critique, and look at Wish World with a different eye. Yes, Wish World is part 1 of 2 and setting up some dominoes for The Reality War... but it is not sitting in place for all of that time. It's doing some shit I found interesting, so let's talk about that instead.

New Doctor Who Season 2 First Impressions: Episode 6 (The Interstellar Song Contest)

Oh Christ this is going to be a hard one to write.

Listen to my song...

I say that, but I do have a comparison and throughline with which to tackle some coverage of the episode. This episode, this Interstellar Song Contest, is a mess. That may sound like a pejorative, but I promise it's not. What I mean is that it is a tangled and complex thing, a Schrodinger's episode which is constantly shifting between quantum states of being tonedeaf centrist horseshit and an inspiring story about oppression and song. The reaction to it online has been all over the place, and now my dumb ass has to try and plant a flag somewheres. I haven't felt this politically confused about an episode since The Zygon Inversion, over a decade ago. Back then I did plant a flag somewhere, and since then I constantly waffle back and forth on whether I was wrong or not: whether that famous Capaldi speech is a passionate plea against thoughtless revolutionary revenge, or an infantalizing reduction of someone's legitimate grievance with the status quo. I don't know, y'all! I still don't know, and to that point I do not know about this fucking Space Eurovision episode! I'm going to do what I can, though, tough as it may be. Let us begin.

The big detractors of this episode are taking the plight of the Hellions as a 1:1 allegory for Palestinians, and taking great offense in how they get portrayed in this light. On the most extreme ends of things you have folks who were already soured on this new era going apopletic, calling RTD and Juno Dawson Zionist propagandists and declaring that they Quit Doctor Who Forever over this neoliberal horseshit. Even more reasonable people who aren't screaming to the high heavens in rage are still down on the show, citing that this is about the worst time to make the worst point. Now I have to critique that. Oh God help me. We'll start upfront with a statement that should not be controversial, but sadly is: Free Palestine. Unequivocally. Even if I get it wrong and defend this dumbass episode too much for your liking, I want you to know that I believe in and support that statement. With that out of the way, the question remains. Are the Hellions, displaced from their home planet by maximalist capitalist greed, with two of them becoming violent revolutionaries planning the deaths of trillions in revenge, a perfect 1:1 allegory for Palestine? I don't think so. I will admit that things are not helped by this happening in the space Eurovision episode; I am across the pond and know little about Eurovision, but I know that Israel's involvement in it has sparked its fair share of controversy recently. Yes, the episode was written before October 7th, but it's not like the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a new thing. Seen one way, this Schrodinger's episode has some unfortunate connotations that really ought to have been polished somewhere along the way in production to prevent things from being such a mess.

On the other hand, Cora. As my BFF Lena Mactire (see, I can do it too!) pointed out, or will point out whenever her coverage of the episode goes out, there are other readings to apply to the Hellions. The scene where Cora reveals how she had to cut off her horns to hide her Hellion nature, and her coworker or manager or whatever reacts with revulsion, a HOW YOU COULD HIDE THIS HORRIBLE SECRET FROM ME I NO LONGER TRUST YOU moment? That's trans shit. It's hard not to read that as extremely trans, given that a trans woman wrote this. The prejudice against the Hellions is ingrained into this episode, and it feels frankly ridiculous. Just like transphobia. The shit with the little person in the control room when her Hellion coworker reveals she's part of the evil scheme, for instance. I TOOK A CHANCE ON YOU! I HIRED YOU, A HELLION! YOU SHOULD BE GROVELING AT MY FEET FOR THE JOB! Gross shit. We are dealing with a fucked up society here. This anti-Hellion bigotry is deep-seated, and it's awful. What has been done to Hellia is a war crime, their home destroyed to bring back the goddamn honey and sell it back to the people. Fuck capitalism. It should be burned to the ground... ah, but then we get to Kid, and shit gets messy once again.

We're really doing that trope again, aren't we? The one where the revolutionary leftist is using violence, and has to be stopped, and we don't interrogate further any of the points being made? I watched a video essay about this trope the other day, but I won't cite that: what kinda dumbass amateur would just cite the most recent video essay they saw about a thing to defend mid Doctor Who? All that being said, we just did this kind of thing two weeks ago in Lucky Day. It's a risible trope, it makes the blood boil when it gets included in capeshit, and it should do the same here. Kid isn't trying to change the world, though. It has been noted that, practically, his plan makes no goddamn sense. If the capitalist Corporation razed Hellia to ashes and your solution to this is "mass murder", surely you kill them and not just 3 trillion dorks who want to watch aliens sing pop songs? Look, Schrodinger, the episode shifts again. There's a twisted sense of mirroring happening here in Kid's mind to justify this act as poetic justice. The Corporation committed a terrible crime and then demonized the Hellions to the point that what's left of their species is seen as monstrous. Kid, then, is trying to use the weapon of the enemy against them. Commit a terrible crime and then pin it on the capitalist bastards, so they are demonized. So they know how it feels. This has a similarity to the antagonist's plot in, God help me, Kerblam, but I don't think Kid is trying to change the world for Hellia's sake. It's a cycle of violence. Hurt people hurt people, and there's none more hurt than a disenfranchised minority. 

This applies to the Doctor too, in that really spiky scene where he zaps Kid over and over as a sense of cathartic justice. This is what set off at least one person to quit forever, the idea of DOCTOR WHO TORTURING A GENOCIDE SURVIVOR, and... Hmm. This is not meant to be a good thing. As Doctor Who notes, there's ice in his heart now because of what Kid did to the crowd and what he's planning to do. The debate will ever rage on over whether or not having Doctor Who be a bastard is a good idea, and it continues to rage here. The fact that he does this because he's raging over the memory of the Time Lords all being killed, the fact that he excuses it to Belinda as being triggered... There's an edge here. I genuinely cannot pin down if it is a good idea or not. Certainly I do agree that there should be more consequences, more distance between the Doctor and Belinda over this. The idea of Susan (oh hey, they got Carole Ann Ford back and put her in the show, WILD) being his conscience is an interesting one. Point is, it's an odd beat. Hurt people hurt people, and we want our beloved icon Doctor Who to be better. Valid.

Let's jam a little, then. Let's talk about that ending, in which Cora sings the beautiful song of her people while we see footage of Hellia burning, the poppies continuing to grow (which I took on first watch as, they still grow despite the razing, Hellia and her Hellions will survive this), and using the platform of the biggest song stage in the galaxy to call attention to the plight of her people, before we get silence and then slow claps until everyone claps. It's RTD as fuck, maximalist twee emotional resonance in which The Power Of Space Eurovision brings us all together. People are not happy about this. They point out, realistically, that this should not work. You can't really break prejudices with one sad song, you can't solve the plight of an oppressed people by platforming them on an event sponsored by the product that they were oppressed to profit from. The real Eurovision doesn't work this way, why should the space one? Fair enough. Absolutely fair enough. There is a limit to how much material social progress we can expect from our mass media sci-fi entertainment, and I can understand not being swayed by such twee hugboxing. Sometimes, you have to be practical. Let me give you one last alternate perspective in our little Schrodinger's episode, though.

Let me talk to you about Symphogear. OH GOD HERE FREZNO GOES AGAIN--

Symphogear, my favorite Japanese cartoon ever, is all about song and the power it has to help people gain a deeper understanding of one another. How it can transcend language, connecting hearts and minds in beautiful utopic harmony. Horrific things happen in Symphogear, just as they do in this episode. Both Symphogear Episode 1 and The Interstellar Song Contest have concert massacres within their opening minutes. In later seasons we delve into the perspectives of oppressed peoples, violent revolutionaries, and people willing to kill for their ideals. Always, without fail, a hand is extended. The idea of mutual understanding, that we don't have to fight, don't have to hold hate in our hearts. That we can connect and understand each other, and that this power can manifest in the form of a song. I believe in that wholeheartedly. So, when I sit down for my Doctor Who and I see a disenfranchised person of a demonized minority take the stage and sing the song of her people, in the hopes that it will get them all to understand, to open their eyes and see that the Hellions and their plight matter? I want to believe in that idealism. I want to believe that this society can take the first steps to grow and change for the better. Notably, the one who first starts the slow clap is not the Doctor or Belinda. It's Gary, the ISC's biggest fan in the episode. A member of this society, this world which has villified Hellions, who begins to see. It's fitting that he's the first to get it: He's a huge fan of the contest, so connected to the songs and performances, so attuned with the power of music. I can be miffed that nothing is really done against the capitalist hellscape here, but also come away from this episode thinking that change has begun in this world thanks to that song. 

No, it's not realistic at all. Yes, it's naive and idealistic. But, if I may? There's no point in living with total cynicism in this world. Our media can't be a total reactive force that brings about societal change, but it can be a start. It can imagine a better tomorrow, and then it's up to us to transmute that imagining into real and material social progress. That's my takeaway from this mess. Not adding to the fuel of hate, taking things as poorly as possible and railing against the sins of the production team. Not Quitting Doctor Who Forever. My Symphogear-addled brain saw, just for a moment, a true connection occur. As messy and as tangled as this episode is, there was a spark of something that resonated. It's up to us to take that spark and do something with it, to make this world just a little bit better. So, yes. Trans rights are human rights, and free Palestine. What a weirdo episode. As much as I have a distance towards it, it gave me that little spark, and for that I have to give it a solemn little nod. Okay.

Oh yeah, and the fucking Rani or something? I'm too tired for fanbrain. We'll deal with that in Wish World.

New Doctor Who Season 2 First Impressions: Episode 5 (The Story And The Engine)

Buckle up, friends. We've got a lot to tackle with this one.

The Story And The Engine is the best debut Who script from a writer we've had since... god, Sarah Dollard with Face The Raven? There have been some highlights since in the Chibnall years like Vinay Patel or Ed Hime or Nina Metevier, but those are mired in that trouble of an era. This? This radiates with a confidence rarely seen on this show. Inua Ellems has crafted pure gold here, and I want to luxuriate in that space and sing the episode's praises. It's handily my favorite of New Doctor Who Season 2 so far, finally dethroning Lux. It pulses with the heartbeat of other cultures, other people, other stories than the ones we've seen on Doctor Who thus far. It does this with immaculate fucking beauty, delivering some of the most potent vibes ever given to me from the phone box show. There's a power to stories, all stories, and this story is glowing with it. Let us take care, and examine it for what it is and why I love it.

New Doctor Who Season 2 First Impressions: Episode 4 (Lucky Day)

Well, I'll say this: It was better than I was expecting.

Conrad Clark does not get a screencap on my blog.

Lucky Day sees the return of Pete McTighe to televised Doctor Who, which is a bit of cursed knowledge that gave me pause. McTighe, of course, debuted during the Chibnall era with Kerblam, an episode which took me on a bit of a critical roller coaster ride in the fall of 2017. I remember watching it with the friend I was visiting, and enjoying it quite a bit. It had an energy and a drive to it that the Chibnall episodes up to that point had been lacking. It really felt like some solid Doctor Who. It really didn't sink in, what it was doing (and I confess to a naivety on my part back then, but I was on vacation and riding on high vibes then, give me a bit of a pass) until I read some more critical reviews and gave it a think myself. Ah. Oh dear. It completely upended itself into centrist neoliberal horseshit in the last ten minutes, famously stating that the problems with its world weren't the rampant unchecked excesses of hypercapitalism and space Amazon, but the revolutionary leftist trying to Do A Bad To Change The Status Quo. Bad. Very bad, but we will circle back to this unfortunate sentiment when we get to the climax of Lucky Day, and see just what's changed. This is an improvement from McTighe, but in some ways it's much of the same. For better or worse, McTighe has his distinct style and vision, and it bristles against my tastes somewhat.

New Doctor Who Season 2 First Impressions: Episode 3 (The Well)

Oh yeah, second episode in a row with a big
MIRROR ALERT. And mercury, too. Based.

 I guess you could say... Well well well, another banger from New Doctor Who Season 2. Look, I'm not a dad but I'm middle-aged, what do you want from me? A Doctor Who first impression, probably, but lucky for you my fingers are currently crafting one for your eyeballs to scan. Ain't that a bit of serendipity? The Well is an odd one, in that it is once again one of those cowritten episodes, and the usual pitfalls and cautions apply. You can't just blindly speculate which parts of this script are newcomer Sharma Angel-Walfall and which are RTD. This was a problem back in the Chibnall years as well, where it was tempting to look at every cowritten episode and delineate who wrote which part based on if you liked it or not. I have a guess as to what happened here, with a prior episode to cite as evidence, but if the actual basic concept here was all Angel-Walfall? Keep her the fuck on, she gets it.

I say that, of course, while liking but not loving The Well. My podcast pals, whom I could not join for reasons of being in a basement hundreds of miles away, really loved this one. It is a strong episode and I will have much praise for it, but it is very much a sci-fi horror Gun story. There's more than a bit of Aliens in it, and that's all done very well, but it's not my absolute favorite mold of Doctor Who, y'know? At least it's better than Earthshock, but that's damning with faint praise so we will try a different tact. Let's talk about Aliss Fenly. I fucking love her. It should not have taken Doctor Who another literal decade to get some good deaf representation, but they did it and she's miles ahead of that girl from Toby Whithouse's Flood two-parter. I just wanted this poor girl to get out of it safe, and she did. Arguably, but we'll get to that. I love how her deafness is used in the story to add to the world and the plot, from the holographic screens that translate speech to her fears about people turning their back on her: both because she can't lipread and know what's being said, and because of that thing on her back.

Yes, we'll get to what that thing is supposed to be, but let me continue to jam and praise the everything around it that isn't that. As far as horror/monster concepts go, this thing is fucking genius. I love that we get these brief jumpscare glimpses of a something, and I forbid myself from going back and checking the screencaps to get a closer look. The concept of this thing latched onto the back that kills you if it is perceived is so damn effective, and I love the shot where the metaphor of the clock face is brought up and you then see the aerial shot of the huge circular room the action plays out in. The massacre in the second act is so goddamn macabre while still remaining safe enough for an all-ages sci-fi show that's doing a spooky one this week, and less is more in this case. Just like the mysterious monster on Aliss's back, not seeing shit often adds to the tension and scare. The fear of the unknown, and all... Ah, but then we do get a little of the known with this being. Yes, let's rip the bandaid off and talk about that, hmm?

So. This is Midnight 2. This is a sequel story to an old David Tennant tale from 2008. Now, there's a lot to be said about that from all sides. You have people who were floored by this, and excited at how this accentuates a really spooky David Tennant classic. You have people who are lamenting the fact that we're pissing away one of our precious Doctor Who slots on a sequel to a story that came out when current high school graduates were born, and worrying what this means for the rumours that Doctor Who Is Dead Forever #RIPDoctorWho. I'll be honest with you. If this were four years ago, I'd be in the latter camp. Go search through this blog for anything to do with Season 4 of Enterprise and you will find a version of me frothing at the mouth about this kind of shit. That version of me would rail and scream and shout about the lack of creativity at play, and wondering why this just couldn't be its own fucking thing instead of tying in to Midnight to light up a fan's brain. This is all true. That version of me is also six years in the past. I'm several critical regenerations ahead of that, so what do I think now?

I'm on the fence about it. I can see the arguments for how this choice enhances the episode, and how it also detracts. Eh. It does nothing for me. It sparks no particular joy to make the episode better, tying it to a Tennant classic, but it also doesn't fuck it all up for me like 2019 me would be screaming about. Settle down, you old dork. What we have here is a very strong original idea that gets a tie to Midnight, and this is my best guess as to how the thing was constructed. I could be wrong, but perception is everything. I think Sharma Angel-Walfall came up with this amazing horror monster concept, a thing on the back that kills if someone gets between it and other people like a clock face. I also think RTD went something like "Oh, that's rather like that episode Midnight I did" and then made the connection with his cowriting credit. It's not the first time he's done something like this: Cast your mind back to The Giggle, where RTD came up with that creepy puppet thing at the dawn of television, thought up a puppet master for it, and then went "Hey, doesn't Doctor Who have an evil gamesmaster weirdo in its canon already?" before dredging up the Toymaker. I think that's what happened. I could be wrong. Point is, I'm much more mellowed out and this doesn't help nor hinder things for me.

I will dock RTD a little for the ending, though. It is a strong ending, and really could have had a fun ambiguous horror vibe to it. Are they paranoid, or did the monster really escape? That ambiguity could fit really well with the idea of this being a sequel to Midnight, that episode being all about how paranoia and mistrust turns ordinary people into mob mentality monsters. Then he has to have that shot of the airlock occupancy. Prominently. If it had been a background detail for someone to notice and speculate on, great! The fact that it's right there is a bit much for me. It's the same as RTD actually trying to give an explanation to 73 Yards. Take a page from David Lynch, buddy, and don't go saying the answers. Let us come up with them! That being said, there is still plenty of speculation about that ending, so I guess things aren't all doom and gloom. The Well, then. A very strong Doctor Who episode that isn't hurt by its flirtations with the past, but not my favorite mode of the show. Lux remains my favorite of the season thus far, but this is a close second. Not bad at all. 

Okay, what's next-- OH FOR FUCK'S SAKES PETE MCTIGHE AGAIN? GOD WHY COULDN'T WE GET VINAY PATEL BACK I HATE THIS--

New Doctor Who Season 2 First Impressions: Episode 2 (Lux)

(With thanks to Lena Mactíre for some magical consultations)

I got you, moonlight, you're my starlight...

I'll echo what I said a year and a half ago, in a brief 5-star review of Wild Blue Yonder: RTD, holy fuck. With Lux, we have something we've not had in a long time: an episode I really love which other people actually agree with me on. It was a harsh period there where I thought the pervasive toxic stink of fandom was poisoning this show to death in the public opinion. I almost wrote a hit piece about how the true Empire Of Death were the fans who were convinced this shit was going away forever. I did not do that, but I have a very different piece simmering in my mind. A piece about the new RTD era, and about how its more magical elements let not just gods and goblins into the world of Doctor Who, but open holes in the fourth wall for our own perceptions and assumptions to seep in and affect the program. Boy howdy am I glad I waited until this season concluded to write that, because RTD just fucking goes for it here. Let me gush about Lux for an amount of words, and give my praises as the magic returns to Doctor Who (not that it left, but it did for a lot of nerds!).