Wow, such an interesting concept. Animation and illustration has been such an engrained part of Doctor Who, given the amount of animated remasters of lost serials, spinoff animations like Scream of the Shalka, and as many graphic novels and comics as there have been. I've always wanted the live action series to incorporate animation, and I even had a dream a few years ago that the 60th would include stop-motion models and sets, so this theoretically is everything I've been wanting for a while.

This is definitely my favourite episode so far since RTD took back the reins, and possibly my favourite since Moffat left. You can feel that the writing team has changed, everything seems a bit more concise, and the dialogue has markedly improved in quality. The introduction of Mr Ring-a-Ding was pretty standardly spooky, but it did its job, and his character is equally charismatic to Maestro from last season.

In a similar manner to Thin Ice and Rosa, they actually acknowledge racism and segregation in a realistic manner, not like how it's brushed off callously by the Doctor in the Shakespeare Code, or where in the same episode, Shakespeare's ignorance is played for laughs (Martha deserved better).

The scene in the diner with the mother was quite striking, and it's there that I first noticed that the soundtrack this series seems more memorable than the last, I'm actually being able to pay attention to not only the grandiose pieces of music that draw attention to big moments, but the tracks that play in the less high-energy scenes, like in the diner. I think the best acting in the episode might be from Mrs Lowenstein in sed scene: she nails the exasperation of a mother with a missing son who has almost lost all hope, her performance seems to have more human subtlety than the other characters (including the Doctor and Belinda unfortunately).

I do appreciate the effort to add depth and purpose to most of if not every character. It hurt me in Monster House (2006) when Mr Nevercracker had a dead wife being kept alive by supernatural forces, so it hurt me here when they did a similar thing with Mr Pye. I do think that this can be faulty at times, but I'll get into that more when I address the fourth-wall break later on in my review.

Mr Ring-a-Ding's introduction to the Doctor and Belinda is great, I love him and may possibly have to bookmark him as a potential Halloween costume. The ye olde sound effects and rotoscope-reminiscient animation style is really good at paying homage to the point in time where animation really started to feel alive. He is so engagingly unhinged as a villain, and goes to prove that we don't need the Master constantly in order to have camp psychos bouncing off the walls like personified fireworks. Speaking of camp psychos, I kind of enjoy that the Pantheon of Gods feel like JoJo bosses, I know some other people don't, but it's working for me personally.

I wish the part where the Doctor and Belinda were animated went on longer, maybe even for half of the episode; it would avoid that clunky trauma dump about Gallifrey at least. It would be so cool if we stayed in the animated world and they spent a bit of runtime trying to figure out how to break out other than just being vulnerable. Then you could keep in the scene with the police officer in the theatre afterwards as a live action layer that they have to break out from and (in my personal opinion) completely cut out the fourth-wall break.

Okay, so, might be a controversial opinion, I don't know, I don't really follow tons of Doctor Who discourse online. I really didn't like the fourth-wall break. And I understand it, that within this universe, Mr Ring-a-Ding could appeal to one of the Doctor's flaws (narcissism) to convince him to stay in a trap where he is the main character of a big TV show and that there are notable pieces of iconography from his subconscious that these fictional fans could hypothetically be drawn to: fez, scarf, cyberman, meep, etc. but everything about this scene is so hyper-specific to real life. And I really don't think this scene serves any purpose outside of fan service, or a gotcha moment where RTD has baited us into thinking it's real life but it actually isn't. It is so upsetting to me because it seems ultimately meaningless. And even if I did feel happy about the meta-ness of this plot point, it offers a pretty reductive view of Doctor Who fans for the most part: overly critical, annoying, having unanimous opinions about episodes, even saying #RIPDoctorWho is cringily twisting the knife, given that a post series 15 hiatus is more likely than not. If we remove what these characters are supposed to represent (us), and just see them as characters who have only been on screen for a few minutes, it really doesn't make sense why they've chosen to score the scene with A Sad Man With a Box either, because that song is supposed to represent an unconcievable amount of yearning and loneliness, incomprehensible pain suffered by a heavily flawed and traumatised near immortal, it represents the Doctor's sadness and guilt, of which we could never even begin to understand, and it represents these emotions so beautifully, and so it then feels cheapened by its reprisal here for characters who aren't real, have only existed for a few minutes, and we have no prior knowledge of. Like for comparison, Ross in the Sontaran double-episodes is a more developed character, his death is sadder, and it would still feel wrong to play A Sad Man With a Box in that moment. There's a similar vibe about how the Doctor keeps crying every episode, there is an aspect of being told when to be sad as an audience member, instead of actually being given something substantial to cry to. 'We love you so much' did make me cry, but that's because it appealed to my specific life experiences and how they link to this show. If I wasn't already a massive fan, it wouldn't sit the same way, and I keep remembering how Russell T Davies said that he wants this era starting with Church on Ruby Road to appeal to the younger generation, but he keeps seeming too hung up on trying to appeal to the children he already raised with his original run, people like me, which is nice that he's still thinking about us, but the younger generation should have their own experiences with the show and be able to get what I did from watching revival.

The 3D modelling of Mr Ring-a-Ding when he gains power is really awesome, and so well-done, there are times where I do really appreciate parts of what they've been able to do with the Disney budget, even if I wish Disney had less input. The goodbye between Mr Pye and his wife was beautiful, and it could have been even better if we learned a bit more about their relationship, the simple everyday things about loving another person that you take for granted until they're gone. Again even Mr Ring-a-Ding's ending made me quite teary, the whole thing was quite ethereal and evocative.

Not to end on a pedantic note, but old film stock isn't explosive, it's flammable. Sorry if that's nit-picky, but the explosive nature of it does play a part in the climax.