Ahh, a political episode by Pete McTighe. Here we go again. Political stories tend to be the ones I dig my teeth into the most so bear with me and we’ll see how long I go for.

I have seen a lot of people say that this episode is a redemption for Mctighe after the less than loved episodes of Kerblam and Praxeus. And this is definitely a step up, it's the best episode he's written. But it still bears the giant unmissable stain that has defined the failures of all 3 of his episodes in my mind, and that is his compulsion to default to authority, in ways that distort reasonable plots into outright harmful messaging that seems to be indicative of a very authoritarian politics.

Taken in isolation, the story of Conrad and his followers could make some sense. If you consider every time throughout the show's history that the Earth has been invaded by aliens, often within plain sight of the majority of the population, a propagandist spreading a false narrative about how every invasion and sighting was faked for a secret agenda of supposedly making people scared and submissive could work. But that only does work if this was situated in a world with an established continuity about public perceptions of UNIT and more broadly alien life. There is no sense of that having been established either within this era of the show or within this episode. It seems that every time we return to present day Earth everyone has forgotten or covered up previous alien incursions, and this is sometimes even addressed directly in the past. Which is fine and allows for tension to be maintained and for new viewers to be welcome without needing to be aware of how the Earth in universe differs from our one. But what it does mean is that the possibility of this episode's premise goes out the window. Previous alien encounters barely get a mention here and so we are only left with UNITs recent behaviour to judge what the general public perception of them might be that Conrad is railing against.

And that behaviour is a UNIT that does act in a very shady manner. Hiding what they do from the general populace, holding technology far beyond what is available to anyone outside, being seemingly unaccountable to anybody or elected for their position by anybody, stuffing people into dark vans while running around with guns and military wear. Why exactly are we supposed to be entirely on board with the idea that criticising this institution is evil, or at all comparable to far right conspiratory behaviour we see in the real world? Because the fact that the episode wants us to map Conrad's behaviour onto far-right figures is not subtle in the slightest. It whacks us round the head with it, especially in the final scene between the Doctor and Conrad. Which would be fine, if the analogy landed in the slightest. Instead, the messaging seems to be muddied more towards something that says that scepticism towards powerful state institutions is evil and that these institutions always act with your interests and humanities interest in mind. Which I fear is the reason that McTighe created this analogy, as in Kerblam he believes that institutions of power should be defaulted to for morality and that societal issues come down to individuals wielding power in the wrong way, rather than any problem being a systemic one. This is even shown on the opposite side of the conflict in this episode when once Conrad is deposed of, everything seems to go back to normal. If we get rid of right-wing figureheads, another one just takes their place and martyr hood would often await someone like that. Not to say this is particularly offensive since the focus is on Conrad himself and the 45 minute episode doesn't have the scope to deal with the entire structure of conspiracies, but it is another aspect of a very simplistic, surface level politics that McTighe holds.

As for the characterisation of a conspiracist himself in Conrad, McTighe actually does pretty well. According to Michael Barkun there are 3 principles of conspiricism and 2 of them are very clear in Conrad- nothing happens by accident, and nothing is as it seems. The third principle, everything is connected, feels like it is missing from his characterisation, but that can be put down to the limited runtime. There probably was not time to delve further into Conrad's beliefs, into why he believes that UNIT would want to fake all these aliens. It would've been nice to explore Conrad's other likely unsavoury beliefs to round out how this narrative fits into his wider worldview. I enjoyed the fact that even in the face of overwhelming evidence at the end, Conrad does not change but he changes the conspiracy to make it fit to what he’s just seen. Which is very accurate to real life and shows how debunking conspiracy theorists is never a worthwhile effort unfortunately. It was also a very nice touch that Conrad was made to feel like he didn't matter by his mother at the start of the episode, it was a nice nod to how his conspiracies served an identity that made him feel like he did matter. Although I do wish that this was touched on again later so that it could be tied back into his character arc later on.

You might have to bear with me for a second on this one, but I can't help but think that the reason that McTighe manages to nail this characterisation is that their thinking ironically shares a lot of similarities, not in the messaging but the underlying thought process. McTighe is not a conspiracist, but like McTighe, conspiracists are often never able to place blame on institutional power structures. Instead to a conspiracist issues are always caused by unambiguously evil people with evil plans orchestrating evil plots in a very black and white power struggle of 'elites' vs 'the people'. McTighe consistent style of characterising villains in this way plays to his advantage here, and he was able to create a very dislikeable villain.

With all that being said, there is some fantastic character work in this episode. I think I liked Ruby the most I've ever liked her in this episode, more than I ever liked her during her actual run. The PTSD she is left with is very believable and I felt so sorry for her that when she was finally able to get some stability that she needed, but she was manipulated at her most vulnerable and that whole pillar was torn away so quickly from under her and revealed to all be false. Poor woman, I did feel so sorry for her. And I looooved the darker side to Kate's morality. I think UNIT should be somewhat more antagonistic to the doctor's morals. Both fighting for the defence of humanity, but UNIT in a more militaristic, ambiguous role. Willing to sacrifice people for its interest because it is more removed from personal emotions and ethics, as real life militaries are. If you get in their way, they will steamroll over you without second thought. If that's the direction that UNIT is taken in during the upcoming spin off that this episode is setting up, I am so down, strap me in. However I'm not sure whether that is the case or whether this darker moment is just another personal flaw in Kate herself. McTighe's writing record would have me believe the latter, but we'll have to see.

Contrary to past appearances, the final scene with Mrs Flood here does actually gain my interest, since it's not just a simple cameo with little substance, she is beginning to play more of an active role in the narrative, which is nice to see. I am reasonably excited to find out what role Conrad could be playing in the finale, as seemed to be alluded to. Last season's teasers were a huge let down, but I have higher hope for this season, because it feels like we're getting a little bit more substance to the teases now and Mrs Flood is clearly playing an actively villainous role rather than someone who is just a tool. But how Conrad could be a returning villain? I'm not sure but I hope his character is expanded upon further outwards, building on the base of his conspiracism into his wider worldview. This is just wild speculation but I'll spoiler anyway, if perhaps Mrs Flood is some sort of God of stories, maybe she has use for Conrad because of his power in the way he yields fake stories into something real? Which could be made literal in the process of manufacturing a false reality for the doctor. That could be fascinating and possibly again tie back into our political climate and the false narrative presented by much of our media.

So for me this is an episode that was built around a real life analogy that did not land in the slightest. And yet within there is some beautiful character work. I think it does continue the poisonous trend in McTighe's writing of sucking up to authority and creating stories that essentially end up as copaganda. And it is an episode that definitely struggles in a world where UNITs role in the world is not well established, and that murkiness is not helped within the episode: It is jarring that within this single episode UNIT is almost deified by a narrative that refuses to acknowledge their shortcomings, then later on has them committing such a morally ambiguous act through Kate.  It's an inconsistency that means I'm left unsure what impression of UNIT it wanted to leave, but I hope that can be established further and fleshed out in the spin off. I personally hope we get more of the morally ambiguous UNIT, one that does make tough decisions when it has to. Maybe as a spinoff it could go to those darker roles that the main show can't, and it could fill the same role Torchwood did in that way. The episode very nearly told an extremely relevant and potent story about far right conspiracies, but UNIT was undoubtedly in my eyes the wrong vehicle to be telling this story through. My mixed feelings mean that it's an episode I had a gut negative reaction to at first because of the taste the messaging left in my mouth, but one that had big potential that was at least partially realised given a second thought. I hope this set up for both the finale and the upcoming spin off pay off!!!