This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Angel of Scutari

I was planning on doing A Death in the Family aswell today but this story has genuinely killed my motivation stone-dead.  It genuinely takes skill to fumble a cliffhanger as good as the one from the last story. There's some decent tension in the first part with the Doctor needing to stitch Hex up while armed soldiers close in and then after that Hex gets sorted and it doesn't come up for the rest of the story.

I just hate the Forge, they're so annoying in a "we're so edgy and cool way". I hate how the Doctor tolerates them infinitely more than he should. I hate how under-developed they are - I've listened to 3 of their stories and I still don't understand their motivations or why they exist. They are cartoonishly evil. Particularly Nimord. It's such a shame because this story should be really important for setting up Hex's feelings going into the next story but I struggled to properly get into it because I genuinely can't take this seriously.

In a way, it's a similar position to the one I was in with Project: Lazarus going into Arrangements for War. A really awful story that unfortunately sets up the main emotional driver for the events of the following one. At the very least I'm getting towards the end of this nonsense and I'll be able to continue my Doctor Who in peace without the forced melodrama and edginess that comes with the Forge.

Next Story: A Death in the Family