daibhidc | Wish World/The Reality War (Reply)

Okay. I've spent a week trying to work out what I even made of this (not just that, obviously; I didn't phone work and say "Sorry, I need to spend every minute trying to process what the heck Doctor Who's supposed to be doing."), and I'm not sure it helped. So this is going to be even more stream-of-consciousness and rambling than normal, sorry,

Let's start with something I am sure of; the Ranis were brilliant. Archie Punjabi does a great job channelling Kate O'Mara, and Anette Dobson does a great job not doing that, while suggesting that there's something of it underlying Mrs Flood's apparent servility. (There's a quote from Dobson in DWM, in which she suggests that, after two seasons of hiding in the background, when the moment came for her to actually enact her plan, Mrs Flood decided she'd rather a different Rani did that,while she stayed in the background.) And I appreciated Rusty getting to use the "two Ranis" gag again.

Having said that, I have no idea what the deal is with Gallifrey right now. The last time we saw it, the Time Lords had (sigh) all been cyberised and then wiped out by the (deeper sigh) Death Particle. The Doctor is amazed that the Rani survived, which seems to corroborate this, and she explains that she saw the "genetic explosion" coming. The Rani's plan is to recreate the Time Lord race, which also fits. Then she mentions that Time Lords are a "biological dead end" that can't reproduce normally, which had me thinking "Are ... are the Looms canon again?" before saying that this was the effect of the genetic explosion. Which ... no, it wasn't. I've never felt any pressing desire to rewatch "The Timeless Children", but I'm pretty sure we saw the CyberLords get reduced to fine powder. And if they weren't, they'd still be cyberised.

Unless ... the "genetic explosion" is a thing that happened before the Death Particle, and the Rani isn't up on more recent events? Sure, why not, what's one more destruction of Gallifrey at this stage?

Wish World was ... interesting. The fifties aesthetic and Everyone Knowing Their Place aspect fitted with Conrad being an utter pillock, although I'm kind of surprised there didn't seem to be any racism in the world. It might be that this is covered by Conrad's later explanation that he was trying to keep everyone safe and happy, although since his unconcious bias caused disabled people to be ignored and transgender people to literally stop existing, I'm surprised that didn't filter through as well. I guess Conrad is a paranoid, prejudiced pillock who isn't racist? Okay, then.

Speaking of, it was clear from the moment he appeared that Conrad might think he was king of the world, but he was just a tool of the Ranis. And the idea he was being set-up to fail, because they knew any world created by him was one people would question, was neat. But there was a moment, when Ruby was asking him about his dad, when I thought "Am I supposed to feel sorry for Conrad Clark? Because I'm never going to feel sorry for Conrad Clark." I'm mostly okay with his final fate though; cathartic as it would have been to see him get punched for being a pillock, I admit it's a better solution if he simply never was one.

And then there's Omega. Oh, dear.

Okay, let's be fair, if you're going to do "the Ultimate Villain is a big CGI monster that can be defeated in a couple of minutes", then having him only appear for those two minutes is probably better than the Doctor running in circles for an entire episode before doing something he could have done at any time (coughEmpireofDeathcough). But even so, after all that build-up, it's a bit of an anticlimax that Omega is just a monstrous skeleton that the Doctor can drive back into the Underverse because it turns out the Vindicator is also a laser gun now. Then again, fighting Omega isn't the climax. We've got time to spare, and we're going to spend it on The Problem of Poppy.

Here's the thing: if that's what you're doing, I think Omega needs to be more of an anticlimax. I realise "What if we took a leaf from The Eight Doctors?" is not something Doctor Who writers often ask themselves, (EDIT: The bit I'm thinking of is actually in Blood Harvest, which is less funny as a source of inspiration) but picture it: the Rani is ranting about Omega restoring the Time Lords, the Seal of Rassillon opens ... and an old man in relatively plain Gallifreyan robes shuffles out, and says he's had a lot of time to think and whatever she's selling, he's not interested. She tries to force the issue and he just ... disappears her, apologises to the Doctor for the whole stealing-his-body business that one time, and shuffles back into the Underverse again, leaving a slightly nonplussed Doctor to deal with the Poppy issue.

So, the Poppy issue. Goodness, there was a lot of time spent on that. First they've saved her, then they haven't, then Ruby remembers, and the Doctor sacrifices himself to bring Poppy back. And I spent all of it thinking "I don't know where this is going, and I don't even know where I think it should go, and it keeps feeling like RTD is writing himself into a corner, but then it turns into a different corner." My thoughts about this probably work best as bullet points.

Just before Poppy disappeared, for one mad moment I thought they were actually going to have a baby going on adventures with them. Apparently there are people disappointed this didn't happen, while I was thinking "But .. that won't work. Rusty must know it won't work. You can't go around picking fights with Daleks when you've got a baby with you!"
Some people were even suggesting Poppy could have grown up to be Susan's mother, because if there's one thing we need more than a fourth destruction of Gallifrey, it's a fifth origin for Susan.
The bit where they just keep folding up the jacket until it's gone was cleverly done.
Why does Ruby remember? Because she's an ordinary person, and that's the most extraordinary thing there is, and that gives her magical ordinary-person powers like making it snow, remembering previous timelines, and moving the plot along.
JODIE!!! Was not expecting that! LOL at Fifteenth's relief it's not the one who's always showing up.
The actual restoration of Poppy as just Belinda's daughter was kind of sweet, but ultimately seemed like a way of quickly writing out the companion who'd spent half the episode shut in a box.
I did like the flashbacks establishing that in the new timeline she mentioned Poppy in every episode.
I was convinced that there was going to be a moment where Totally Human Poppy did something Time Lordy while nobody was watching, Thank you Rusty, for not doing the cheap drama bit there.
Still don't know why she appeared to Belinda in Lagos.
At first I thought that he'd used regeneration energy to power the shift, but he wouldn't actually regenerate, like in "The Stolen Earth". But having repeatedly thought "I have no idea where this is going," I was now honestly starting to be open to the idea he might regenerate even though there'd been no announcement. It still seemed unlikely, though.
What? What?? WHAT?!?!

So, yeah. That happened. Although I note (as everyone's already pointed out) that Billie's not actually credited as the Doctor, so who knows? And indeed, perhaps we'll never know, because in avoiding anything that might be spoilers, I also managed to avoid learning that there's no word on another series, or even a Christmas special.

(My theory, FWIW, that if this cliffhanger does get resolved, then not only will BillieDoc be even more temporary than Tennant Two, but her time will end with Ncuti returning. I just don't believe an actor would think "Well, I've had a good run as the Doctor but I think it's time to move on" when they haven't even had a Dalek story. Even Too Many Tennants had a Dalek story!)

So. Did I enjoy this? On balance, yes. Did I think it was good? Honestly, no idea.