This turned out both better and worse than I was expecting going in. I love the main premise of films coming to life (reminds me of Torchwood's From Out Of The Rain in a good way), and I like how it handled fourth-wall breaks and the Doctor meeting his own superfans was handled well (makes too much sense that they all name Blink as their favourite story, as that one also directly acknowledged the audience in a way that the show doesn't regularly do, albeit with more sophistication than is shown here). For better or worse, the fans have been in charge of the show for decades by this point, and the acknowledgement of the connection that audiences make with fictional characters hit me right in my weakness for metafiction and self-reflexivity. The animation is good too; really liked the 'added dimensions' scene.

I also like how it addressed that this story takes place in the era of Jim Crow. It doesn't derail the plot (save for one really good fake-out) and after past stories made a bit of a dog's breakfast of addressing such things (looking at you, The Shakespearean Code), it fits naturally with the story being told. Less 'message of the day' and more 'this is the normal of this place', which is a good mood to set for a period piece.

Not that massive on the villain, though. The character design is good (very Cuphead) and later shots of him are downright freaky. But it didn't feel like I was as scared of him as the episode wanted me to be, not helped by the resolution which involves one of my big DW pet peeves where the bad guy technically wins but it doesn't actually mean anything (see also: Tooth And Claw, Victory Of The Daleks, Sleep No More). Then again, given the Jim Crow setting, maybe there's something more to the notion that the villain can be broadly described as a person of colour that this predominantly-White community is terrified from the perceived actions of... who ultimately didn't do as much harm as the fear around him suggested. Bit screwy, admittedly, and much less salient than the surprisingly effective weaponisation behind Dot & Bubble if that is indeed the case, but with how much the episode itself makes a point of separating physical dimensions and literary dimensions (as in the depth of a given character), it gives the story some decent subtext.

I'm not sure if I'll end up rewatching this in a hurry, but it gave me some giggles and stuff to think about afterwards; more of what I want from this show.