Doctor Who S2 Roundup
- JoshuaShort
- 5 days ago
- 36 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
With another season of Doctor Who, there comes an opportunity for far-fetched, fantastical stories for fans to indulge in, along with story arcs shrouded in mystery. Alongside head-writer Russel T Davies (RTD as I’ll refer to him in the reviews), new writers for this season included Sharma Angel Walfall, Inua Ellams, Pete McTighe, and Juno Dawson join, bringing their own take on the 15th Doctor.
I’ll be going through my personal highs and lows (and mid-points) from this season*, alongside breakdowns of the character and story arcs for the season, and what the ending means for the future of the blue box show.
*note that if I rate something as a ‘High’, it doesn’t mean that there are zero negative qualities to it, and likewise a ‘Low’ doesn’t necessarily mean there are zero positive elements.
Low No.1 - The Robot Revolution
Synopsis
Belinda Chandra, a nurse from Earth 2025, is thrown into the Doctor’s world due to a seemingly insignificant moment from her past, leading her to a throne in space and an old flame…
Plot
The story does begin well, starting off by showing Belinda being gifted with a Star Certificate by an ex-boyfriend, Al, many years prior, and fast-forwarding, the pace starts to move along nicely as Belinda is kidnapped by robots from the planet ‘Missbelindachandra One’, believing her to be their Queen. It is also revealed that on their travels to the planet, with the Doctor following behind in the TARDIS, they passed through a time fracture, causing the Doctor to arrive on the planet 6 months prior to Belinda’s arrival, allowing him to build his presence with the rebels.
The Robots wish for Belinda to marry the great AI Generator, the instigator of the Robot’s rebellion against the planet’s people, but once the Doctor and Belinda escape from the robots, things do slow down significantly and become less interesting as the characters escape to their hideaway. Overall, it’s not as exciting as a rebellion-based storyline should be, with only one scene depicting a fight against the robots.
The conclusion of the story also brings a twist, with the AI Generator actually revealed as Alan, who had been picked up by the Robots in the past (inadvertently caused by Belinda, who told them it was Al who got her the certificate, and to go to him), essentially sparking the Robot Revolution which led to her being kidnapped in the first place (AKA, a bootstrap paradox). With Alan somehow possessing the same copy of the Star Certificate, Belinda uses her own to spark an explosion between the 2, destroying Al in the process (or rather reverting him, oddly, into just an egg and sperm) but as the Doctor catches Belinda as she falls, he manages to save her.
Overall, this story is naturally much more of a character introduction rather than plot-focused, serving as a way of introducing Belinda’s moral code to the audience, although it likely won’t stand as a classic episode amongst fans.
High No.1 - Lux
Synopsis
The TARDIS lands in 1952 Miami, where a shut-down cinema and 15 missing people leads the Doctor and Belinda to a cartoon who’s somehow come to life, with a link to enemies from the Doctor’s past…
Plot
With the introduction to Belinda out of the way, this episode places her and the Doctor straight into a mystery surrounding a chained-up cinema and missing people. Whilst Bel is not so much interested in solving this as she is in getting home, the Doctor can’t resist, and starts investigating, beginning with a local diner before heading into the cinema.
This change in pace and setting to 1950’s Miami is a welcome touch, continuing to showcase the Doctor’s ever-changing fashion sense (with a nice callback to last year’s wardrobe-change scene in ‘The Devil’s Chord’).
Once inside the excitement starts to ramp up, with the 2 meeting a cartoon character who’s come to life. The visual effects are beautiful, bringing Mr Ring-A-Ding to life (spoiler: more than once), with varied styles of animation, and visuals that flow and integrate with live-action seamlessly. The Disney investment is truly paying off in this episode, and it’s safe to say this level of effects has never been seen on Doctor Who until now.
Both are amazed at how he can even exist, but it soon becomes clear that he was involved in the disappearance of the cinema’s occupants, and reveals his true name and status as “Lux Imperator, the god of light”, which sparks fear in the Doctor, and continues the trend of the Pantheon of gods appearing. Lux even identifies the Doctor as “the one… enemy of the Toymaker, decomposer of Maestro, the killer of the god of death”.
He soon shows his power when he transforms the Doctor and Belinda into cartoons, with the 2 having to escape from the film they’re trapped in. This leads to a very meta and self-referential scene, where the Doctor and Belinda escape the film, finding themselves in a living room where 3 “fictional” Doctor Who fans (AKA Whovians) are sat, shocked at their fictional hero bursting through the screen.
There are references to many fan’s favourite episode, ‘Blink’ by Steven Moffat, along with jokes about Doctor Who fans being “annoying” (a likely nod by Russell T Davies at the many complaints that fans of the show are not afraid to share on social media).
Some fans on X had already theorised that RTD was leading towards a reveal of Doctor realising he is a fictional character in season finale ‘The Reality War’, however this week’s episode handled it in a way that leaves it open to interpretation, as these fans are revealed to be fictional themselves, a part of Lux’s plan to trap the Doctor who is actually real (although the mid-credits scene does call this into question when the fans reappear!)
Once they escape, Lux takes advantage of the Doctor’s regeneration energy to create himself a new body, which leads to Reginald, the cinema’s projectionist, blowing a hole in the cinema to expose Lux to daylight. This allows the Doctor and Bel to escape whilst Lux begins to grow in stature from absorbing the sunlight, however this also becomes his downfall, as he becomes pure light and disappears into the universe.
Overall, the episode balances the concept brilliantly, and despite the use of a cartoon which may imply a childish episode, it doesn’t feel that way, instead cementing itself as a strong episode for the season.
Emotional Moments
The cinema’s projectionist, Reginald Pye, is duped by Lux, who brings his wife to life through old footage he had kept on film, telling the Doctor “don’t tell me she’s not really there, because if that thing is real, then so is she!”, to which the Doctor smiles with tears in his eyes, nodding in agreement (a potential nod to the time the Doctor saw his wife River’s data-ghost, when she wasn’t physically there in ‘The Name of the Doctor’.)
This episode also contained some of Murray Gold’s older tracks, including ‘The Sad Man with a Box’ and a hint of ‘Amy’s Theme’ from Series 5. Eagle-eared fans (including myself) would have recognised these tracks straight away from Matt Smith’s era as the 11th Doctor.
Coming back to the Doctor’s adoring fans, we depart from them believing they will die when the Doctor leaves (a surprisingly tear-jerking moment, especially paired with ‘Sad Man in a Box’), however a mid-credit scene shows them still existing.
When the Doctor speaks with Tommy’s mother in the diner, she mentions how she thought they’d given up looking for the missing people, until someone delivered a Police Box, to which the Doctor asks “does that give you hope?”, her replying “it does Sir”, paying off in the concluding scenes, with Tommy Lee and his mother reunited as the Doctor looks on with a smile - the TARDIS being a beacon of hope also calls back to a moment in 50th Anniversary Special ‘The Day of the Doctor’:
“You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning? That sound brings hope wherever it goes. To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone. However lost. Even you.”
High No.2 - The Well
Synopsis
The Doctor and Belinda travel far into the future to a deserted planet, joining an expedition to find a missing person, but what they find puts them in grave danger, a danger that the Doctor has experienced before…
The Doctor and Belinda are thrust straight into another adventure, this time one they have no control over, as they join an expedition on a new planet.
When the Doctor realises that the planet was previously covered in diamonds, and after hearing the deceased crew say on tape “we don’t know what it is”, the coin begins to drop for the Doctor and it is revealed in dramatic fashion that the planet was called Midnight 400,000 years ago, the titular episode from Series 4 where David Tennant’s Doctor visited the planet, and faced the same creature.
It’s revealed that Aliss has been infiltrated by the creature, with her now hosting it, always present behind her. It’s abilities do differ from the creature encountered in ‘Midnight’; originally it seemed to possess a human, repeating/mimicking any words it heard from others, before eventually stealing people’s words before they’d even spoken them. Now, it whispers to it’s victims, a sign that they’d now be the new host, and kills anyone who stands directly behind it, which by the Doctor’s logic, is due to that being in the Midnight clock position.
When he addresses it directly, it even somehow knows the Doctor’s real name, implying an ability to see into people’s minds. The way Ncuti displays the Doctor’s fear in these moments, paired with the change in his eyes and face when he figures out how to escape, is a great piece of acting.
The onscreen glimpses that are given of the creature are very fleeting, so much so that you even question if you saw something yourself, as the characters onscreen do too. Regardless, these literally spine-tingling moments create that sense of fear excellently.
The moments of paranoia amongst the crew exposes their differing perspectives of Aliss and how they should deal with this unknown creature, with some responding in anger at other crew members being murdered, Cassio in particular, and Shaya eventually responds by getting Aliss to turn in such a direction so that Cassio will be killed. This harks back to ‘Midnight’, where the humans fought and became the worst versions of themselves due to their fear of dying.
When Doctor Who veers into base-under-siege storylines, with no access to the TARDIS, the episodes tend to blow the audience away with innovative monsters.
There are lingering questions, as little moments seem to imply that the creature also escaped with the crew, e.g. when Aliss and 2 others flee in the lift, only 3 people enter, but the screen recognises 4. The concluding moments also show another crew member, Mo, speaking with her colleague, who seems to notice something behind her, with the closing moments of darkness followed by faint whispers.
This episode does a great job of creating tension and drama, leaving viewers wondering which direction the episode will go, and how such a creature can be escaped from.
Low No.2 - Lucky Day
Synopsis
Ruby Sunday starts dating a charming Podcaster who has also encountered the Doctor in his past, however UNIT soon become a public target, and Ruby’s relationship is not what it seems.
The story is fairly straightforward, taking a focus on Ruby’s life since leaving the Doctor, who is mostly absent for the majority of the episode, with 3 scenes, and Belinda only present for the pre-title sequence. After a few episodes with Belinda and the Doctor facing unique or exciting concepts, it does feel like a shame to be back on modern-day Earth with a more grounded, less extraordinary story.
We are introduced to Conrad, first as a young boy meeting the Doctor on the off-chance in 2007 (with the Doctor still trying to get Belinda home), then coming across a past version of 15 (from our perspective) on his travels with Ruby, accidentally becoming contaminated with a substance that an alien called ‘the Shreek’ use as a way of tracking their prey, at which point he tries to find Ruby and interview her for his podcast.
From here, they begin dating, eventually going on a weekend break in an English village, where Conrad’s true colours and intentions are exposed.
Conrad is exposed as a member of ‘Think Tank’, an organisation who believe that UNIT are taking taxpayers money and creating false stories about aliens, using fear to control the public. His choice to not take the antidote, which would repel the Shreek from finding him, is a clear commentary on those who are against vaccinations, with Conrad’s denial of the truth putting him in direct danger later on when the Shreek is released by Kate. Where the scenes in UNIT tower are meant to feel tense, they are overshadowed by the fact that viewers already knew that those present at UNIT would be appearing later on in the series.
Kate Stewart is pushed to the edge in this episode, with her patience wearing thin trying to prove the truth to Conrad, to the point where she releases the alien that will hunt him down. She recognises that the Doctor would disapprove of her actions and even try to stop her, but his absence gives her the excuse she needs. If it were up to the Doctor, who knows what he would have done.
Doctor Who has never shied away from political commentary, with episodes focused on war, genocide, and colonialism, and this episode takes a stance on both; people’s personal autonomy over their body choices, and a society fighting against an organization that they do not believe in.
While both angles have their points, the writer’s intentions may come across as muddled, with the audience knowing UNIT are a trustworthy organisation who the Doctor trusts, but recognising how some organisations do need to be called out for potential lies, such as governments - it’s clear though, that Pete McTighe’s intentions were to exemplify ignorance within people in the face of the truth.
With Ruby returning after some time away from the show, the episode explores how she has felt after coming home, having had some near-death experiences. Finding Conrad and breaking down her barriers in getting to know him, we see her vulnerable and trusting, just as she trusted the Doctor, and sharing stories she felt she couldn’t. But when she finds out that Conrad had been lying and using her, this brings her into a position she’s not dealt with before. As a much younger companion compared to Belinda, their differences are clear wherein Ruby until this point has been very trusting, whereas Belinda recognises danger.
Conrad does get what he deserves, ending up in prison, and with limited screen time for the Doctor, his final scene where he lands the TARDIS around Conrad to give him a piece of his mind shows more of the Doctor’s dark side spilling out of his usually cool and joyful demeanor. Conrad holds a sense of power, asking him if he’s met belinda Chandra yet, the very act that sets him on the path to finding her.
With the TARDIS glowing a warm orange from the round things (the new interior looking better than ever), the Doctor calmly lets his fire out, telling him “I’ll tell you your future. You die in a prison cell, boiling in anger and poison until your heart packs in at 49, alone and unloved. Forgotten. The world carries on, the world gets better. You aren’t even a footnote. Just ashes on the wind” much to Conrad’s reluctance to listen. The look in the Doctor’s eyes is one of contained anger, and is a highlight of the episode.
Overall, for a season with only 8 episodes, having Doctor-lite episode remain within the past 2 seasons feels like a huge waste of Ncuti’s Doctor, and being back in modern-day London doesn’t exactly invoke the excitement that a Disney-funded Doctor Who should.
High No. 3 - The Story and the Engine
Synopsis
In Nigeria, the Doctor’s favourite barber shop is taken over by a mysterious brother and sister with a devastating plan, and once inside, there is no easy way out…
This episode is a divisive one, but it goes on the ‘Highs’ due to its unique concept and just how different it is from most episodes in the Disney era.
The Doctor lands in Nigeria to utilise the country’s networking and boost the Vindicator, however, he persuades Belinda to stay there longer due to his kinship with the people of Nigeria. After losing Gallifrey, and encountering racial prejudice in his current body, the Doctor finds acceptance and love here, exchanging stories with others at Omo’s Palace. His joy is clear as he wanders the marketplace, hugging people with a beaming smile.
However as he makes his way to the shop, missing posters are pasted on the walls, with Omo being one of the missing men, and once the Doctor gets into the shop, he soon realises that things have changed, with it now under new management.
The Barber (as he is mysteriously named) is revealed to have offered Omo a haircut one day, but as soon as his clippers touched Omo, he felt like “a sort of current just ran through the whole shop, like magic, like witchcraft. It seemed to transfer itself (the shop), its soul, to him”. He is assisted by Abby, his sister, who brings food for those in the shop, but has a disdain for the Doctor once she sees him. He also recognises her for some reason, but does not realise until later why…
The Barber’s goal is that those who sit in the chair for a haircut must tell a story which is powering an Engine, which in turn is enabling the barbershop to somehow travel towards somewhere unknown, for now. The mechanics of the shop seem to allow people to enter from the outside, but once in, they join the journey and cannot leave without permission - also, once someone has had a haircut, their hair will magically grow back almost instantly, meaning they must continue to tell their stories.
Soon, the Doctor tells a simple story in the Barber’s chair, about Belinda on one of her shifts and the kindness she showed when she could have put herself first instead, and the appreciation she received from her kindness - this story is enough to supercharge the Engine to the fullest it’s been in ages, which prompts Omo to ask the Barber to release him and the others so that the Doctor can now power the Engine.
This leads to a realisation from the Doctor that Omo had been hoping for him to arrive eventually, and planned to use his stories as a way to get the others home, a betrayal which devastates him; “because I have no home, I’m what? I’m expendable?.. I loved this shop, I loved YOU, Omo. I thought it was a home for me… I was safe.”
So when he manages to open the door with his sonic to let them fulfil their wish, he soon sees what is actually going on - they are moving through space, the shop sat on top of what appears to be a giant spider, which is being fed by the story engine.
What follows is a reveal of sorts to who the Barber really is; he claims to go by many names, including “Anansi, the man-spider, Saga - the Norse goddess, Bastet, Dionysus - the Greek god of theatre, even Loki - god of mischief! I have been them all… It does not matter what I am called, it matters who I am, what I do.”
But to this, the Doctor laughs, reeling off times he met nearly all of the gods mentioned, and instead it’s shown that the Barber was in fact working for the gods, sharing their stories and legends in order to strengthen them and their bond with humanity, and created the web (the Nexus) that they travelled along as a way of connecting the stories, constantly expanding.
He wanted recognition for his work, but being told he should know his place, he was cast out from the gods, having made himself redundant with the Nexus which did his job for him (this is likely an allegory for how AI has made some human jobs redundant).
His true goal now, in an act of revenge, is to erase the gods from memory, which in turn will kill them, and harm the essence of humanity’s ability to tell stories.
After the mention of Anansi, the Doctor soon realises who Abby is: the daughter of Anansi. This is the link that Abby had with the Doctor, as it’s revealed that Anansi was actually the Barber and Abby’s father, who bet Abby’s life to the Doctor, who purposely lost the bet, leaving Abby behind with nothing but resentment for the Doctor she’d heard such positive stories of.
This leads to an appearance from Jo Martin’s ‘Fugitive’ Doctor in a small cameo, which slightly expands upon her history, whilst also raising the question of how the current Doctor remembers this moment of his life when it’s previously been revealed that this incarnation had been erased from his memory.
When Abby realises that her brother has been lying to her, she uses an empowering story of her own about women slaves who broke free of their chains, who used hair braiding as a means to create maps and save other slaves. As she braids the Doctor’s hair, he realises she is giving him a way of finding the story engine in the shop.
This leads to one fan-pleasing moment, when the Doctor finds and connects himself to the story engine, mentioning that his body is “like a barbershop, all of them inside, telling their stories, bickering!” in reference to his past selves, which consequently endangers the engine and will explode.
There are flashes of Doctors from the past on the screens around them, moments fans have seen on screen before, and the Doctor appeals to the Barber that 7 billion lives will be wrecked if he has his way. When he realises that he’s endangered the whole planet, he allows the others to leave, but sits in shame, almost accepting his death, but the Doctor shows mercy to him, telling him “don’t let this be how your story ends”.
The end of the story shows both the Barber and the Doctor escaping, as the spider explodes from the sheer power of the Doctor’s stories, and the barbershop restored. With Omo forgiven by the Doctor, and handing the reins to the Barber, along with a name that can be trusted, Adetokunbo, the name of Omo’s father.
Despite not feeling he deserves such kindness, he thanks Omo, and finds redemption. Abby also finds freedom to do as she pleases, and departs from her brother not in bitterness, but understanding the hurt he has experienced.
While the episode gives a fresh experience of viewers, the concept of having to tell stories to survive could have been executed better, as it’s established that the spider that consumes the stories does so in order to keep travelling along the Nexus, but if it were the case that only a certain kind of story could further them on the journey, this would add further peril and danger to the occupants.
Why not say that if the Engine were not satisfied with the story, it would consume the storyteller instead? It would have also given an opportunity for the Doctor to tell stories about his past that haven’t been seen on screen, unravelling secrets to his already muddled past.
One moment that highlights how this episode stands out is when Rashid, one of the trapped residents, tells a story about music; “In the old days, music was a live thing! But after Industrial Revolution, people became obsessed with producing identical things, to package time. But not in Africa.” As an episode that is reminiscent of a play with it’s limited barbershop setting, paired with circumstances that have never been seen before in Doctor Who, it certainly stands as an episode that isn’t identical to others, creating a story that in itself shines light on the importance of stories and their connection to humanity.
High No. 4 - The Interstellar Song Contest
Synopsis
The TARDIS lands in the Harmony Arena, where the biggest singing contest in the universe is taking place, but a plan is stirring behind the scenes that not only threatens its viewers, but the Doctor’s moral compass too.
When the TARDIS lands, the Doctor and Belinda are awestruck at where they’ve landed, with Belinda intent on staying to experience the show. With a quick glimpse of Rylan (who is introduced in a camp but funny way), they sit back and enjoy. From the crowd, Mrs Flood is spying on them both, spotting that the Doctor has used the Vindicator, and pulls out a device of her own which appears to be ready for something, but she’s in no rush to leave.
They are quite quickly thrown into action, with a backstage siege occurring as 2 horned humanoids called Kid and Wynn hold the production team hostage, and soon bring down the gravity shield (or mavity as the show is intent on calling it), hurtling 100,000 people into space, including the Doctor (and Mrs Flood…). A couple, Gary and Mike, who were meant to have tickets into the show, find that their booth is taken by the Doctor and Belinda, but this ends up keeping them safe from being thrown into space.
In a surprise appearance, there are brief cameos from the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, originally and still played by Carole Ann Ford, who appears in the Doctor’s mind as he freezes in space. She tells him to “go back” and “find me”, waking him up abruptly.
While there have been hints at Susan returning, it was not expected to be in this episode, and although nice to see, they could have been handled more subtly, perhaps with some whispers of her voice echoing in his mind, to then showing her, rather than quick flashes of Susan onboard the TARDIS talking into the camera.
At this point, the Doctor finds a confetti cannon floating in space, which he uses to blast himself back to the space-station (a slightly cheesy-yet-fun way of the Doctor getting back to safety), much to Gary and Mike’s surprise, and he tells them that he had triplicated the mavity field, meaning everyone else outside was still alive.
Once the Doctor gets through to Kid via video, he takes his threats and turns them back on him, telling him “do you know what I’ll do? I will survive, and I will find you, and you can run and hide and whimper all you like, but I will find you, cos you have put ice in my heart, darling… so I will cast your body out, into the void, and I will stand and watch you freeze to death”, which Belinda sees and is understandably shocked at.
Another character, Cora, was meant to sing at the contest, but is saved by Wynn unbeknownst to Kid. She hides the fact that she is from Hellia, having cut off her own horns, and when her assistant describes them as a “weird lot. They say they practise cannibalism. And witchcraft. They’ve got these horns. People say they give them psychic powers”, Cora defends them as a species that aren’t understood, and reveals the truth.
The parallels between the events of the episode and the current state of the Palestine/Israel conflict were controversial and confused, portraying Kid and Wynn, survivors of Hellia’s genocide, as revenge seeking maniacs who are willing to kill 3 trillion innocent viewers of the contest to portray the corporation in it’s true light.
With Kid taking charge, this angers the Doctor immensely, who does not know of Kid’s background or reasoning, but instead sees him as someone whose “cold, filthy heart just likes to kill”.
This leads to an intense scene where the Doctor uses a hologram of himself to trick Kid, destroying the Delta Wave with a flick of his sonic, and then converting holograms of himself into hard light, allowing him to electrocute Kid multiple times. With further glimpses of Susan urging him to stop, he gives in to his fury and ignores her, until Belinda enters the room, snapping him out of his trance.
Commentary on the episode following release focused on this, with many viewers angry at how the Doctor, a victim of genocide himself, could be written in such a way, comparing this episode to the previous where the Doctor showed mercy to the Barber, but did not do so to Kid here.
While an understandable response, this feels like a flawed argument, as in Episode 5, the Barber does not realise that he is endangering so many lives until the Doctor points it out to him, however in this episode, Kit knows exactly what he’s doing, and it’s also not yet known by the Doctor that Kid is reacting out of revenge for Hellia, which is why the Doctor just sees him as a murderous maniac.
However it can be said that the Doctor could have seeked to find out Kid’s motivations before acting so angrily, but it seems that the aim of these scenes was to show a side to the 15th Doctor that hasn’t really been explored, reminiscent of the 12th Doctor’s often angry side, where he was not afraid of exploiting his power to get what he wanted.
With Kid taken incarcerated at the end, the Doctor makes it clear that the ice in his heart is still there, and his anger towards Kid hasn’t left him. After this, the Doctor’s new friends Mike and Gary find a way to bring back those floating in space, leading to a happy ending for all.
It is only once the show is back on, and Cora sings a song about the devastation on her planet to shed light on the true nature of the Corporation, which is received with all-around applause, that the Doctor realises the reasons behind her fellow Hellians who were willing to kill to prove a point.
The resolution shows Belinda confronting the Doctor, but not in her usual way, instead showing a softer approach instead of calling him out for his actions, which is a shame considering her previous shade thrown at the Doctor for arguably much worse actions.
The episode ends with a hologram of Graham Norton (because why not) informing the two that Earth was obliterated into rocks and dust, leaving the Doctor and Bel to jump into the TARDIS and go back to May 24th. This puts the TARDIS under strain, with the cloister bell ringing as a sign of danger, and the TARDIS doors exploding…
Overall, from the initial announcement of this episode, which implied ‘Eurovision in Space’ with Rylan Clark as its host, viewers wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that this story would be a fun, throwaway adventure. What was actually delivered was more a commentary on corporations exposing innocent lives and committing genocide, hidden behind a facade.
There were moments of humour, camp silliness, and high stakes, with a chilling performance from Ncuti, all capped off at the end by a cliffhanger in the mid-credits, revealing Mrs Flood’s identity as another Time Lady, the Rani (which seemed wildly out of place for such an integral mystery), leading into the finale.
Low No. 3 - Wish World / The Reality War
Synopsis
The Doctor, Belinda, Ruby, and UNIT must awaken from a false reality that the Rani and Conrad have created, to prevent Earth from falling into the hands of an even bigger threat…
The finale of each series serves as a way of tying up the loose ends that have been scattered throughout. RTD is infamous for setting up a gargantuan task of pleasing fans with good resolutions, but usually is able to reset things with a flick of a switch.
The first part begins showing the latest incarnation of the Rani in Bavaria 1865. Here, she comes across a family where a child has just been born to “the seventh son of a seventh son”, and she picks up the child to take him away. The child’s mother protests, at which point the Rani kisses the baby’s head, blows towards her, and turns her into violets, and then does the same to the other children, turning them into ducks, and finally she turns the father into an owl.
The scene then skips ahead to 2025, and shows the Doctor and Belinda waking up in bed, greeting each-other as a married couple, who are soon joined by a child resembling Poppy from the season 1 episode ‘Space Babies’. This feels slightly disjointed, as there is no resolution to the TARDIS doors having been blown off their hinges last week.
Conrad is shown to be speaking to residents of this Utopian/1984-esque world through TV’s, telling the story of “Doctor Who and the Deadly Wish”; however, those watching do not question it, except for Ruby, who turns up at the Doctor’s door.
She asks him if he is called the Doctor, to which he replies his name is John Smith (his usual alias), and even Mel who now lives next door doesn’t recognise Ruby. He now works for UNIT, who are the ‘Unified National Insurance Team’ in this new reality, with everyone apart from Ruby, Shirley, Rose, and the Vlinx, present due to Conrad’s prejudice.
There are moments where mugs on tables keep dropping to the ground and smashing, which seems to happen when someone is doubting, or questioning something - when it happens, it’s just accepted as an accident, however soon enough the Doctor is confronted by a message on his TV screen from Rogue (from season 1 episode ‘Rogue’), who was trapped in another dimension, and is somehow able to transmit directly to the Doctor (with no explanation for this surprisingly… hope you got the sarcasm there). He tells him “tables don’t do that”, which wakes the Doctor up slightly into realising that yes, mugs don’t just slip through tables, but Belinda then calls the police due to him expressing doubt. Belinda is also arrested, after her mother shopped her in for expressing doubt earlier on too.
The scenes where Ruby and Shirley are discussing Conrad and the world they now live in, although necessary in explaining why the disabled are living on the streets, does slow things down slightly, and takes viewers out of the action of an already pretty dull episode. They state that they have plans to “bring down god”, meaning Conrad, but when it comes to their plan, they simply set up an iPad on a stand underneath the Bone Palace where Conrad now resides, believing they can use it to cut off the signal allowing him to transmit (again, with no real explanation for how they would do this).
When the Doctor and Belinda arrive in the Bone Palace, the Rani works to wake him up from his delusion, mentioning items and people from Gallifrey’s past to see if it triggers his memory. She soon explains her plan, which was to wish a world into existence using Desiderium, and then break open reality with the Doctor’s doubt, opening up the Underverse, so that she could release “the one who is lost… Omega”.
Once the Doctor realises who he is, she then disposes of him by setting off explosives, leaving him hurtling to the ground as the balcony plummets.
Moving into the second part of the story, the Doctor is quickly saved by Anita who appeared in the Christmas special “Joy to the World”, opening up a time door and pulling the Doctor through.
There are brief glimpses into the Doctor’s past from when Anita has tried to find him on her days off, showing both the 11th and 3rd Doctor on separate adventures, and a quick glimpse of the Doctor’s dance with Rogue, which makes Anita realise he was maybe not interested in her romantically.
This leads to the Doctor and Anita using this technology to wake up UNIT and Belinda from their delusions, leading to a reunion between everyone including the Doctor and Ruby.
When Mel learns that the Rani is back, the dialogue feels cringey, unnatural and forced, used as a way of explaining who the Rani is, with Mel stating “I fought the Rani when i travelled with the Doctor all those years ago… she’s indifferent to any pain or morality or humanity. The whole universe is just an experiment to her”.
This continues when she meets the Rani again, and she literally says “we meet again”. A bit of originality here wouldn’t go amiss…
She makes her intentions known, asking the Doctor to stand with her and build a new race of Time Lords, using Omega as a gene bank to do so.
There is some exposition on why the Rani can’t use her’s and the Doctor’s DNA to rebuild the Time Lords, which some expansion on Gallifrey’s destruction (by the Master); the Rani explains that there was a genetic explosion which rendered her and the Doctor sterile and unable to reproduce, which has never been mentioned before and is clearly shoved in as an excuse to bring Omega back.
But as this will lead to Poppy no longer existing, the Doctor declines and makes it clear he will stop her, at which point the Rani retreats and sets the Bone Beasts onto UNIT tower.
This leads to a battle between UNIT’s weapons array and the Beasts, the building itself able to rotate on the upper floors, and the Doctor infiltrating the Rani’s transport device so that he can fly to the Bone Palace and break the protective threshold. This is to enable Ruby to teleport into the Palace, and somehow bring Conrad’s wish to an end (she asks if she can punch him, which Kate immediately agrees to).
Belinda and Poppy have also been placed inside a “Zero Room” which exists outside of time and space, so that once the wish ends, she will hopefully still exist.
Once the Doctor flies into the Palace, he can’t resist seeing Omega, and he is released from his tomb and the Underverse. When he does appear on screen, he is now a huge CGI beast, nowhere near the fantastic original design that was shown in 1973’s ‘The Three Doctors’.
Omega’s most recent appearance, left, alongside his original look, right, https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/doctor-who-rtd-defends-omega-105731.html
Omega’s appearance also feels like a huge missed opportunity. Where Sutekh was built up as a threat in Season 1, with hints towards him scattered throughout, there are no such hints in Season 2 at Omega reappearing. The resolution to his appearance is the Doctor using the Vindicator as a weapon to blast him back into the Underverse, harnessing the energy it has accrued throughout the Season.
What’s more, the newest incarnation of the Rani is quickly disposed of, being eaten by Omega, leaving Mrs Flood to escape - after barely appearing in 3 episodes, it would’ve felt more fitting for Mrs Flood to go, especially with Archie Panjabi’s compelling performance, and it also leaves the question of whether she can still regenerate, as she is technically the previous incarnation.
Ruby is able to get to Desiderium, and makes a wish towards Conrad that he will be happy, which makes him disappear. Once the Wish is over, Ruby and the Doctor escape with the baby in the TARDIS, where the Doctor has to make a wish of his own at the risk of losing Poppy; no more wishes.
Once back at UNIT, the Zero Room is opened, revealing that Poppy had indeed survived, much to everyone’s satisfaction, especially the Doctor. Before Anita departs, she mentions “they say hello, by the way… the Boss”, the third mention so far since ‘The Star Beast’, positioning another likely return for a villain from the past (it’s got to be the Master, surely).
Desiderium is left in the safe hands of Ruby’s mother Carla, and the Doctor and Belinda begin to plan their new life as parents to Poppy. In a clever scene, the Doctor and Belinda fold Poppy’s coat, passing it between each-other, which the camera intentionally focuses on, until finally it disappears.
Viewers then see that Poppy has disappeared from existence, which feels like a natural conclusion to the wishes ending, the coat folding a subtle way of showing her fading from their memories, however Ruby’s persistence that Poppy should exist (much to everyone else’s confusion after forgetting her) is clearly added in as a result of backstage production changes for this particular episode, which meant that Ncuti Gatwa decided to leave the show.
The Doctor decides to restore reality by jolting the time vortex with regeneration energy, which will result in him having to regenerate. The TARDIS console screen begins to show him his previous faces for some reason, and then jolts to the 13th Doctor, who miraculously appears in the TARDIS.
Jodie Whittaker’s return was a highlight for this episode, with her showing up due to timey-wimey stuff (or in her words “a great big time schism on its way, caused by you”) to warn the Doctor of his plan to alter reality. She can’t convince him, leading to the Doctor putting on an impressive display with his regeneration energy, and shattering reality.
When he somehow awakens in a garden, he finds that his hand is glowing, ready for his next change, but before that, he is reunited with Belinda, who reveals that Poppy is alive, but in this reality, Belinda has always been Poppy’s mother, with their adventures slightly rewritten to have Belinda’s reason for getting home purely because of Poppy., and the Doctor is no longer her father.
Many fans have been disappointed by this resolution, essentially seeing it as a disrespectful rewrite by taking Belinda’s autonomy as a woman and making her a mother, limiting her to a stereotypical female purpose.
All the same, the goodbye between the Doctor and Belinda is bittersweet, with him telling her “we travel in and out of the slipstreams of time. Beautiful things can be forgotten and gone. But they still happened… somewhere. I think one things remains. I love you. And I love you, Pops. That will never change.”
The final scene arrives, with the Doctor walking towards the inner doors of the TARDIS as the lights gradually turn off around him, opening them up to both space and Joy, the star from ‘Joy to the World’. With his final words before regenerating; “Joy to the world! And that is exactly the word. This has been an absolute joy”, the Doctor bursts with regenerative flames, which looks fantastic on screen, accompanied by a powerful score, before transforming into… Billie Piper?! She looks around confused, before exclaiming “oh hello!”, and the episode ends, curiously not introducing her as The Doctor in the credits as the show usually does for any new Doctor.
This ends the season on an unusual cliffhanger, as not only is this the first “surprise” regeneration due to not being revealed before broadcast (although this had been spoiled for some fans by leaks), but having a previous companion returning to play the Doctor is a first for the show. The Doctor is no stranger to taking on faces from their past, with Peter Capaldi return to the show as the Doctor after appearing in an episode in 2008, and David Tennant taking on the role of the 14th Doctor in 2022, but this move seems to be a plea of desperation by producers, using nostalgia-bait as a way of luring in fans, and potentially having the show renewed for further seasons, a non-guarantee under the new Disney-funded era.
Overall, this finale does have some redeeming moments, but they are not enough to put this story amongst the big leagues of RTD’s previous finales such as ‘Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways’, or Steven Moffat’s ‘World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls’.
My Predictions Pre-Finale
Whilst watching the early part of the season, I wrote some predictions down based on online discourse and leaks - alongside this, I’ve noted the outcomes of each following my watch of the finale:
1. With the mention of an ‘Unholy Trinity’ that the Doctor will face in the season finale, fans are now speculating about who the next gods could be (potentially the Gods of Ragnarok, or the gods of Malice, Mischief, and Misery mentioned in season 1).
Neither of these were the case, as we instead saw The Rani (2 incarnations), Conrad, and Desiderium (the god of wishes) forming the Unholy Trinity.
2. Conrad’s statement that he doesn’t accept The Doctor’s reality will have consequences for the finale too, as Mrs Flood, now appearing as The Governor of the prison he’s held in, sets him free, calling it his Lucky Day - the season finale is titled ‘The Reality War’, which ties into what Conrad said, hinting at some changes ahead for the universe, and certainly linked to the Earth’s disappearance
This did have ramifications, with the Rani using Conrad and Desiderium to create Conrad’s idealised version of Earth, so that she could break open reality by using the Doctor’s doubt of it, thus unleashing the Underverse where Omega was banished.
3. Rumours of Doctor Who’s potential cancellation following the conclusion of Disney’s initial ‘2-season investment’ are now strengthened by the cinematic release of the Finale, which will take place in the evening and not allow for the usual 8am iPlayer debut will no longer go ahead for the final episode - this has sparked theories that The Doctor may regenerate, with Ncuti Gatwa already signing up for a West End play, implying that there may not be plans for him to continue filming for Doctor Who if it is indeed renewed by Disney or the BBC.
Ncuti did indeed leave the show in the final episode, and since concluding, there has been little talk about the future of the show. Russell T Davies has stated clearly in Doctor Who Magazine that “We don’t know what’s happening yet, and while everyone works that out, I’ll take a pause on this page… Hopefully, we’ll have some news soon… ”
Story/Character Arcs
The Doctor
The 15th Doctor’s character gets a chance to expand in season 2, experiencing even more danger than his first season, and enemies who threaten life on a far greater scale.
The racial abuse the Doctor faces, although within the fictional confines of film at the hands of Ring-A-Ding, furthers this Doctor’s encounters of discrimination (see ‘Dot and Bubble’ from season 1), and exposes Belinda to the same shocking treatment. Even as he walks out of the TARDIS into the 1950’s, the Doctor is more self-aware than he’s ever been before, but Belinda’s shock at experiencing the discriminatory nature of the 1950’s is swiftly batted away by the Doctor, his focus on finding the missing people no matter what.
With the 15th Doctor facing people and experiences that royally angers him, including Conrad and Kid, he is shown unleashing more of his anger, as previous incarnations have. It’s been interesting to see him leaning into the darkness he usually suppresses, although it has caused uproar amongst fans for this portrayal in Episode 6.
Regardless, it has added a layer of depth to his characterisation, not just showing him as the joyful, happy-go-lucky Doctor, but one who is flawed and passionate about life, maintaining his role as a protector of the Universe.
It’s a huge shame to have not seen 15 face the Daleks, one thing that Ncuti had wanted to do in his time playing the character - this makes Ncuti only the 3rd Doctor to have not had his own Dalek story after Paul McGann and Jo Martin (or 4th if we include David Tennant’s 14th Doctor).
After much teasing too, not having a reunion between the Doctor and his granddaughter is a shame, and would have likely happened if Ncuti had stayed on for a season 3, but it’s not to say that she won’t come back again in some way for a family reunion.
For his final episode, the 15th Doctor chooses to sacrifice himself for the sake of one life, Poppy’s, knowing that he will regenerate. As the 13th Doctor says to him, “all these faces and we never really change”. This stays true to the core of the Doctor, who will die for the many, but also the few.
To not have Ncuti continue on as the Doctor is a sad reality, especially with all the potential villains and adventures fans could have seen him in, but there’s always a chance he could make a brief return in the future, as other Doctors have.
Belinda Chandra
New companion Belinda Chandra brings a fresh take as the newest companion, who just wants to get home rather than travelling the universe, breaking the mould from Ruby’s previous introduction in ‘The Church on Ruby Road’. Her reluctance to travel with the Doctor partly stems from witnessing his friend, Sasha 55, being killed immediately after asking to see the stars with him, with Belinda even going as far as guilt tripping the Doctor due to Sasha’s trust in him.
She challenges the Doctor even further after this, calling him out after he scans her body and DNA without her permission (to which the Doctor apologises). She recognises the Doctor is dangerous, and although she doesn’t show fear, it’s clear she had no wish to continue in the TARDIS, however this slowly starts to fade as the show progresses
After meeting a character in Season 1 called Mundy Flynn, who is the spitting image of Belinda, The Doctor believes Mundy to be a direct descendant of Belinda, giving him the idea that they were destined to meet - paired with a reveal that The Doctor had been told about Belinda (off-screen by an unknown man), this implied a greater relevance to Belinda moving forward, which didn’t really get expanded upon.
Although there aren’t many, she shines in her comedic moments, clearly not impressed by the Doctor explaining something as “timey-wimey”, with her deadpan reply of “am I six?”, and also asking Mrs Flood to tell Lucy at number 7 that “her cat’s gone to live on a farm” after seeing said cat disintegrated by the Robots.
Belinda’s core character trait is her caring nature, with her occupation as a nurse putting her on a path of putting others before herself, offering herself up to the AI Generator, knowing she will be saving the planet’s inhabitants at the cost of her own life. Furthermore, she even sympathises with the victim of a genocide who is willing to kill trillions as revenge when she witnesses the Doctor torturing him later on in the season, with her small whisper of “no” enough to snap the Doctor out of his anger.
Later in the season, it does feel like Belinda is pushed aside for the majority of the episodes, as she barely appears in Lucky Day, her purpose in The Story and the Engine is limited, regulated to mostly standing around with little dialogue and only a few moments to contribute to the plot and surrounding characters, The Interstellar Song Contest has her separated from the Doctor again, Wish World has Belinda stuck in a reality dreamed up by Conrad, and The Reality War literally shoves her into a box to look after her fictional child.
Overall, Belinda makes for a good companion, acted well by Verada Sethu, but unfortunately is not given enough to do in the season, and therefore may not be remembered as fondly as fan favourites such as Rose Tyler.
Mrs Flood / The Rani
Mrs Flood (played by Anita Dobson) returns after multiple appearances since 2023’s Christmas special, now appearing as Belinda’s neighbour, having previously lived next-door to Ruby. The fact she was not surprised at all by Belinda being kidnapped by robots, waving her off as if she’s going on holiday, and then proceeds to tell the audience “you ain’t seen me”, added more questions as to what this mysterious woman’s true identity was.
With multiple mentions of the Doctor being ‘the Last of the Time Lords’, it yet again implied a pattern followed from RTD’s first era, where the 9th and 10th Doctors believed themselves to be the sole survivor of the Time War, leading to the eventual revelation that his old frenemy, The Master, was also alive.
Fan theories had been claiming she was a Time Lord/Lady (in the last series, she claimed to ‘always be hiding herself away’, a characteristic of Time Lords that the Doctor had also mentioned in the very same episode), and seemed like an obvious revelation.
While she popped up in each episode in a new location and timezone, what prompts her reveal is after being sucked into space in Episode 6, and coincidentally she is the last person to be revived, albeit with damage to her double brain stem, causing her to bi-generate and reveal herself as the Rani.
While predictable, it was an exciting reveal to have another Time Lord alive, and made a change from the Master appearing, giving the Rani a chance to shine for the first time in 32 years.
What’s happened to Earth?
The Doctor attempts to return Belinda to Earth, specifically the 24th May at her request, but the TARDIS refuses to land for an unexplained reason. We then have an ominous final shot in the episode, with a London cab floating through space, alongside bits of the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, a calendar indicating the date is indeed 24th May, and an ominous sound reminiscent of the noise the TARDIS continuously made in season 1 (when Sutekh had been part of the TARDIS itself).
By the season finale, it seems that there is an answer for this, with the planet sliding into the Underverse, however at the strike of midnight at the conclusion of ‘Wish World’, the Earth just reverts back to normal on May 23rd (or the new normal that Conrad constructed), and is eventually saved by the Doctor once reality is restored.
The Pantheon of Gods
Lux joins the pantheon of gods that we’ve become accustomed to in RTD’s new era, introduced in RTD’s signature fashion with a suitably dramatic speech, and callbacks to the other gods such as the Toymaker, Maestro, and Sutekh.
While not explicitly a god, the Barber’s relation to Anansi and his work for the gods seems to link to this story arc, with gods such as Bastet and Dionysus having met the Doctor in non-antagonistic terms.
In ‘Wish World’, another god in the form of Desiderium, the god of wishes, appears, however he is merely a baby who actually poses no threat to anyone, with Conrad and The Rani exploting his powers to enact their scheme.
It’s unclear if it was RTD’s intention, but it seemed that Omega, the “first Time Lord”, was also presented as a god-like figure, although it doesn’t seem he was part of the pantheon.
What’s Next for Doctor Who?
Doctor Who is one of those special beasts of a franchise which has the ability to induce such passion and love from fans, that there’s a sense of protectiveness over it. As the show moves into an uncertain future, with no word on renewal by the BBC or Disney, and no clarity on whether Billie Piper is indeed playing the Doctor, or if this is instead a gimmick or trick played by RTD, fans must now patiently wait for news.
There is a spinoff show coming, ‘The War Between the Land and the Sea’, focused on UNIT and the Sea Devils, but there is no confirmation on when this will air as of yet.
It’s hard to believe that Doctor Who may have aired it’s last ever season, but it could well be the case, with overnight viewings declining again, and a sense of dissatisfaction amongst long-term fans at both the show and the head-writer behind it all, and rumours of Disney pulling funding, things may be heading downwards.
But if one thing is for sure, Doctor Who has survived under just the BBC before, and even survived the COVID days, producing one of the most visually appealing seasons since it began (‘Flux’), albeit a shorter one of 6 episodes. There is always hope that the Doctor’s story will continue, whether under the BBC or another streaming service, but time can only tell what happens next for Doctor Who…
🪐 Are you excited for what's next?... 🪐
Yes
No
Meh
Let's See...
Glossary
Bootstrap Paradox… a theoretical time travel topic where an event, object, or piece of information is sent back in time, then becomes part of its own origin, creating an infinite loop with no discernible starting point.
Meta... the ability to become aware of a subject's self or situation, the ability to step out of being within a context but consciously looking from the outside in.
TARDIS (aka ‘Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space’)... is a machine that can travel through space and time.
Comentários