i genuinely do not trust anyone who doesnt find mike yates at all redeemable or sympathetic after this episode. yes, operation golden age was objectively wrong and immoral, im not arguing that at all. what i am arguing is that mike was deliberately chosen to be radicalised towards this cause because he was already fragile mentally and isolated from his peers. that's how radicalisation starts. they deliberately pick on people who dont have a support network but desperately need one - trust me, i know this shit. did he decide of his own accord to join the group? probably. was he in a good frame of mind to be making that decision? i dont think so. lots of people seem to think that his involvement makes him inherently evil but i fully believe he was just vulnerable and targeted because of that. im absolutely going to go on another wild tangent about this when i watch invasion of the spiders, but for now i just need to emphisise that hes not irredeemable. yes hes made bad decisions but hes not evil. no i dont project my own feelings onto doctor who characters wtf are you on about.