I can already tell that this is going to be a controversial one. Pete McTighe's confused politics strikes again. However, I can understand what he was going for here, even if I think there's some serious issues with how he went about it.

In this episode, UNIT is set as a parallel to the WHO, climate scientists, and other organizations that help to prevent catastrophic existential threats to humanity. Conrad and his <THINK_TANK> buddies are clearly parallels to COVID deniers, climate deniers, etc. "I didn't take the antidote," anyone? Pretty cut and dry, then, that UNIT are the heroes of the tale, and the evil podcaster is the villain.

However, UNIT cannot be analyzed by this story alone, and in previous stories, especially modern RTD stories, they've been pretty blatantly a paramilitary organization with some pretty awful tactics; I haven't forgotten how they shoved a journalist into an unmarked van in The Star Beast, e.g., and Kate's tactic of siccing the Shreek on Conrad is pretty indefensible. She didn't have any good options, to be fair, but I really think she would have let him die without the intervention of the others. UNIT is deserving of critique and scrutiny in and out of universe, and that should've gotten more of a discussion than one line about Kate going too far.

It's a bit of a morally grey muddle, but honestly? I appreciate that. I wish that they had brought up more legitimate grievances about UNIT's methods, but it was a decent start at accepting that UNIT is both necessary for the continued security of the planet, but also a profoundly flawed organization.

Anyway, politics out of the way, I really liked this episode. I went into it being extremely suspicious of Conrad, but I let the narrative carry me away to the point where his betrayal really hurt. Hauer-King did an excellent job at portraying him both as the kind boyfriend and as the conspiracy-poisoned gaslighting traitor. I felt awful for Ruby.

Talking of Ruby, I really enjoyed Gibson's performance here as well, and the depiction of a companion after their travels with the Doctor are over. She has fond memories of it, but the PTSD she got from the constant danger of her adventures is going to be something that haunts her for a long time. Also, love that we got to see her family again, that was really cute!!

I was a little hesitant at first about this being a Doctor-lite, but I think it really worked. I do wish we'd had more time with Gatwa's Doctor, of course, especially given how short the seasons are these days, but given the nature of this episode as a post-Doctor story, there was no place for him in this one. Also, his speech at the end was incredible. Flinty eyes and a smile barely concealing his rage and disgust. Chef's kiss.

8.75/10