So I think this is probably the weakest episode in Series 1. There's a few reasons for this.

Firstly the overall look, design and world building in this episode is very weak. A lot of the episode basically takes place in just a big white room with some food vendors and occasionally some orange lighting. This is supposed to be a space station from the year 200,000, but it looks like a half finished set. The food vendors don't even feel particularly futuristic or different. It just feels like someone watched Blade Runner and decided that borrowing a thing from that film (but make much more boring to look at) would be enough to feel like sci-fi. Just having a mostly ordinary looking food vendor say the words "kronk burger" a bunch is not enough. Everyone in this episode is also pretty much just wearing 2005 fashion as well. It's crazy how little effort the costume department put into the costumes here. The most sci-fi/futuristic fashion choice in this whole episode is the top worn by Rose. The only character actually from 2005 is probably the only person in the episode who doesn't look like they're from 2005. Then there's the big alien villain, who is just a big, slimy, blob with teeth. It all feels so lazy and the storytelling lacks much specificity as well. So as a place to visit, Satellite 5 is incredibly boring.

Now let's talk about Adam. I don't like Adam, but that's ok because I don't think you're supposed to like Adam. He's supposed to be a bad companion, and a contrast to Rose. This sounds like an interesting idea in theory, and maybe it could've been in execution. But, I find Adam incredibly boring, his storyline incredibly boring, his actions & motivations are boring too. Maybe it's supposed to be a fun fish out of water way to explore this new environment. But when the environment is so thinly and uninterestingly drawn, there isn't much to really explore.

He gets his own subplot that for most of the episode is completely unconnected to what is happening in the A plot. It does reconnect at the end, where Adam's selfish actions inadvertently make things worse for The Doctor and heighten the stakes. But we have to dedicate like 10 minutes of the episode to get to a brief heightening of stakes. I feel like you could remove Adam from the episode and write another (more interesting) way to get to the same point in less time.

It's not just that his plot is boring, but if it's supposed to contrast with Rose and make me like/appreciate Rose more, well it doesn't feel worth it because I already really like/appreciate Rose. Honestly, it might accidentally make me like Rose less, because she's brought a boring character on an adventure just because he's pretty to look at. I accept that Rose couldn't have known he'd be so weak and couldn't be trusted, but he was never interesting.

The plot itself is ok. The villains are controlling the news everyone receives and using it to subjugate the human empire. In some ways this story feels more interesting now than I think it did 20 years ago. We're living in an era of 'Fake News', and people are very aware that people's behaviour/beliefs can be influenced by the news/media they consume. But this also makes it kinda less interesting as well. The problem with watching this now is that we all know this, and there have been many much more insightful takes on this idea than are presented here, where the basic message of the episode doesn't amount to much more than 'wake up, sheeple'. But it is still a good message to present, even if it is presented in a very simple form.

I do like Cathica though. In fact I liked her an awful lot more than I remembered on this rewatch. I like how cravenly self-interested she is when we meet her (actually this probably makes her a more interesting contrast to Adam than Rose is. But I only realised whilst typing this review, so I'm not sure the episode does enough to actually make this point), but that's just her being a product of this world and the control of the Jagrafess. By spending time with the Doctor she starts to see that more and more things on Satellite 5 don't make sense. She's smart enough to quickly realise something is wrong, but has been conditioned to want to reject that notion. So she pretends there isn't for as long as she can. But once the illusion that everything is correct has been broken, she can't help but want to know more and starts to ask questions, which leads to her waking up and becoming an actual journalist who asks questions and investigates. I think it's a nice little arc for the character.

But even so, it's still a weak episode. If it wasn't for it's connection to the finale, I would recommend to anyone who wants to get into Doctor Who that they give this one a skip.