Doctor Who is a very, very special franchise to me. Anyone who knows me can tell you this about me, it owns a piece of my heart and always has done since it first made me dream of my own adventures when I started watching in 2007 at a puny 5 years old. Since then the greatest story ever told has captured me, from Ian and Barbara stumbling into a junkyard in 1963 to grand speeches from the 12th Doctor that permanently alter my brain chemistry to endless audio adventures to accompany my daily commute to work. However now, I've needed a period of time to step slightly away from everything Doctor Who after this one. Not quite a period of grieving, because thank the lord there is more to Doctor Who than what's currently on our TV screens. But just, time to process what on earth just happened when this catastrophe was put in front of us at the cinema no less. I'm sure there's absolutely no original thought I could add after such a universally criticised episode, but I'm here to reconcile with it, to accept it for what it is so that my love for this franchise can go on despite what has been done to it's image here, just before a likely 2 year break at least where this will be the latest TV episode on the audience's mind. I think there's something cathartic about joining in on the choir of people crying for a change of direction after this episode. For Russel T Davies to be sacked as a great man once said.

The obvious problems all come in during the final 20 minutes of this episode. After the main story which was attempting to deal with a myriad of characters was wrapped up haphazardly in just 40 minutes before the rest of what we get which is just a contrived, poorly thought through excuse for Ncuti to leave after his issues behind the scenes. It could be easy to blame Disney for this, and while I do indirectly, the nostalgia baiting and the sidelining of Belinda perfectly exemplify the problems with the RTD2 era by showing these issues at their worse.

To start: I have never known a creative decision as awful, as desperate, as the casting of Billie Piper. Everything that made her run as Rose brilliant was that she was an embodiment of the human spirit of a completely ordinary working class woman. She was the ying to the Doctor’s yang, his opposite in a way that perfectly highlighted what’s so special about ordinary humanity. Wherever the pair went, Rose was always connecting to the people that are forgotten about, the oppressed, especially other working class women. To make the show feel so grounded, so real, so that us watching at home always had a way in to the story. To bring her back as a time lord, one way or another whether she is fully the Doctor or not, I feel is the antithesis to everything her character is and I fear her whole run as Rose will be trodden on underfoot in retrospect. Because there are so many things the Doctor is, but grounded is not one of them. It’s one of many issues but it’s the one that shows us what the future of this show will be. What makes this in my eyes so much more than just a terrible episode.

Besides that, the nostalgia bait of it is so glaringly obvious. It's been happening for a while now since DT was brought back for the 60th, but personally I could excuse that at the time. Now, that it's reached this peak, I can't help but see the decision then as part of the same pattern of the show regurtitating it's past. For the 60th, it was at least a Doctor that was brought back as The Doctor. It was a special anniversary event, when Doctor Who always has done some more out there crossovers and multi-doctor stories. And I personally could get behind the "this face came back to bring you home to rest" reasoning even though a lot of other people cannot. This decision now has none of those excuses. Even watching it for the first time before I knew it to be true, it was so obvious that everything about the ending was reshot hastily, especially this excuse for a regeneration, where Billie isn't even there in Ncuti's clothes, she's just superimposed on top of him after Ncuti's face faded into the regeneration glow. They had little time so all they could think to do was to reheat something old. And to think this show is one that fundamentally should be about change, about progress. Especially regeneration, which is supposed to embody that truth of the show in it's purest. It shows us even when things end, when times change, there is always a new future ahead to keep moving towards, even through all the pain and uncertainty. This is not a new future. Far from it, it is a betrayal of the foundational principles of the show.

The other overriding problem is the complete character assasination of Belinda, for the sake of a baby that we are given no reason to care about. I'll put it bluntly, it's just plainly misogynistic for Belinda, who we first saw as a fiercely independent, career focused woman to be shoehorned solely into the role of a mother without that even being her choice. A role that was literally created for her by design by a bigot who believed that the only path in life for women is "good little girl, then good little wife, then good little mother", as was literally spelled out to us in the first half of the finale. But then come to the end of that same finale, and we're supposed to go along with the previous Belinda we knew being wiped from existence so that she can seemingly fulfill her 'purpose' of being a mother???? In the scene in UNIT, Belinda has one (1) single line where she realises that Poppy is apparently 'real', then doesn't get to say anything else before the Doctor rushes off to make this her whole reality. Not a word about whether this is what Belinda wants. It just feels like Conrad's sexist ideal of what a woman should be not only survived the ending of the wish, but is then upheld by the show itself and it is disgusting.

I loved the potential there was in Belinda when she was set up in the first episode as having real conflict with the Doctor. Ruby and the Doctor got on too well, she was just star struck by him and there was little depth to her character. Belinda looked like she could be someone who wasn't just going to be happy to go along with everything the Doctor does. But now, at the end of the series, she has become the opposite of what she was set up to be in that she is completely subservient to the Doctor and allows all his behaviour to go unchecked, even when the Doctor has gone off the rails. She wasn't there in lucky day, sidelined in the story and the engine and in the interstellar song contest, and now in reality war she is literally put hidden away into a box for most of the story. TISC had the perfect opportunity where any reasonable person would call the Doctor out for his torture of Kid, yet alone a companion set up with that conflict as well as her compassion being a defining and interesting trait, and who knows more about the genocide of the Hegelians than the Doctor does. But no, Belinda forgives the Doctor straight away just as the plot does and even goes on to give him starry eyed looks and say how wonderful he is for it. To really exemplify the change, Belinda is angry at the Doctor for scanning her DNA in episode 1 without her permission, yet he does the very same thing to her baby in the finale without a word said about it. All of it is character assasination on multiple levels in the most brutal way

But it's not only Belinda who's character is brutalised, oh no. Omega was once a time lord credited with creating the eye of harmony to allow Gallifreyans to travel in time and hence earn their title as time lords. Even though he was revered as a hero back on Gallifrey, he was trapped in the anti-matter universe where he created this miracle, and so he felt betrayed by the time lords, which drove him to insanity. Now... he is... a giant skeleton... who wants to... eat everyone. Grow. Up. Oh. My. GOD.

I was following this episode and I can pinpoint the very moment it lost me as when those giant claws reached around the portal. I can understand the in universe reasoning for a change of design because he was held together in his original serial by pure willpower, he had no physical form beneath his mask as the antimatter had destroyed him. So maybe it makes sense that his willpower can create a form however he pleases given enough time. But a giant CGI skeleton too cumbersome to even leave the portal he came through, who's only motivation is to EAT PEOPLE.. it's pure spectacle with zero substance. The most shallow, childish characterisation of a villain possible. And then he is literally dealt with in about 2 minutes by.. shooting him with a laser beam. What a clown show.

Those are the biggest problems, the unholy trinity if you will. But before I rattle through some of the other smaller problems I do want to say that this finale isn't entirely negatives. Because even though it wasn't fulfilled, there was genuinely real potential here. Hell, as an episode on it's own two feet I actually enjoyed the first part, wish world. I love the concept of Conrad’s worldview fleshed out and turned literal to expand on the conspiracy thinking we got in lucky day and showcase his bigotry. And that’s exactly what we got. Because conspiracty theorists never do just make conspiracy theories about one thing and leave it at that, to them everything is connected in a huge web of conspiricies, which so often includes twisted ideas of marginalised people because the idea of their liberation feels like oppression compared to the privilege so many men like Conrad are used to. And it was done beautifully, the way the erasure of these disabled and marginalised people’s lives through Conrad's perception bias was made literal so they could work in the shadows, good stuff.

Around that as well the whole wish world felt very beliveable and fleshed out. It felt on the money with Doctor Who transported back to a twisted fascistic ideal of the 1950s. I loved seeing the battle going on within our characters for them to realise what’s going on and remember who they are. You know, it could have been a wonderful finale if it focused solely on Conrad's wish world, brought to life by Desiderium, with the Doctor and Belinda fighting to realise who they are then simply escaping that world fighting against Conrad who has the power to twist the world around them and make any of his wishes come true. That could have been an epic on it's own, and could have told a hopeful story that could be a parallel to deradicalisation of right wing figures in real life. This would have made for a story very similar to Big Finish's natural history of fear, with it's thought police and all, which would have been a wonderful thing.

Instead the finale feels like 2 grand finale level plots bashed together into 1 haphazardly so that none of the elements have the space to breathe that they need. One about Conrad and Desiderium's wish world, and one about the Rani using Omega to bring back the time lords. These could have been 2 seperate finales to different seasons each. This problem is the one that was on the front of my mind after the first part, when I was none the wiser to all the other myriad problems that would pop off in the final episode. There was never going to be time to wrap up all of the plot elements that were there at the end of wish world in 1 hour, but then they decided they were only going to use 40 minutes for it anyway ahaha!!!

But where wish world failed ultimately was in not doing enough to allow the finale to pull everything together. Only giving the Doctor agency as himself in the final few seconds of the first half of the finale when there is so much to fix is a wild choice. And Belinda seemed to recognise the absurdity and falseness of her reality and gain some agency when she runs into the woods and screams, which was a beautiful scene, only for that to be completely forgotten when she uncritically reports the Doctor to the thought police later that day?? Let your characters develop without being forced to by the plot please Russell. Ironically this scream scene also seems to show that even Belinda does not care for Poppy as much as we the audience are supposed to care about her by the end. What we are shown here is that it very much does matter to Belinda that Poppy isn't really her daughter outside of this false reality. She was screaming at the very reality of being a mother to a daughter that wasn't real yesterday that the Doctor sacrificed himself to place her back into at the end.

Time to reel off some smaller problems because I've talked enough about the catastrophic ones, I'll go in chronological order: the magic doors of the time hotel ruin the one thing that was fun about joy to the world, about mysterious doors that seem to lead to nowhere. Besides there was literally a REAL DOOR right next to the magical one that opened on the balcony that could have been used to stay consistent with JTTW. The reset that followed felt cheap, what was even the point of trapping the Doctor on the balcony, or of any of the tension at the end of the first part, if everyone just resets to where they were the morning of the 23rd?

Rose Noble came back just for the episode to announce that she's trans and not give her anything else to do. I hate so much that she's just The Trans Character and doesn't have any other dimensions to her, it's bad representation. And a little bit ironic to erase her from the story after that one moment given that that's just what Conrad did.

The bone beasts attack on UNIT tower is the peak of the MCU-ification of the current era of Doctor who, and it has to stop. Just action for the sake of action, pure spectacle. And it goes on for so long, lingering on shots of laser cannons firing on them. As if this military action is what Doctor Who is about. I will say though that the Doctor flying across the london skyline under tower bridge is one bit of spectacle I can get behind because it's iconic.

Even if his story could have done with more attention (there's a long queue), I appreciate Ruby being the better person to Conrad and wishing him to have a happy life. Because she knows that a truly happy life is incompatible with his bigoted, hateful views, which is a powerful truth

The Doctor's treatment of Ruby throughout the whole ending is painful, from the moment they step back onto the tardis with Poppy the Doctor and Belinda are like two best friends with a third wheel who is made to feel awkwardly left out and belittled. And then of course he does not listen to a word Ruby says about Poppy, ignores her, patronises her, laughs at her, gaslights her. That should not be how the Doctor treats his companions, especially 15 who is supposed to be an emotionally intelligent Doctor, he is far from that here.

The "I think we're all your children" makes me laugh at it every time. It's so stupidly melodramatic with the overbearing music and it doesn't realise it at all.

Okay now for a couple positives. The appearance of 13!!!!!!! Easily the best part of the episode, she brings so much joy into this otherwise sorrowful moment, bringing the energy that 15 is missing in this moment perfectly. I have been too harsh on 13 throughout the years, there's no doubt she's a wonderful actress as the Doctor, it's a classic case of not realising what you had until they're gone. I love all her little wonderful motivational quotes that she brings here too in "dont go in fear, go with that lovely smile". But here it's like she never left. And the moment about loving Yaz gaaah my heart!!

Keeping on the postitive note, the Rani throughout this whole episode was fantastically played by Archie Panjabi. I doubted her a bit in the first part, but given a bit of time she actually nailed the immoral scientist role in my opinion. The loftiness while remaining logical and not too maniacal. The ever so subtle sass she adds to the character is so welcome. And her outfit, shoutout to the costume department because I don't think I've ever wanted to steal someone's outfit through the TV so much. She sold the role so well when she went on the eugenicist speech about Poppy's DNA, it's just such a shame that she was denied any satisfying conclusion and was instead eaten by Omega like something out of a toddler's story book.

Maybe it was because she was played so well, but at a point or two in the finale I did actually find myself on team Rani when it came to bringing back Gallifrey and the time lords. Getting rid of it again so cheaply in spyfall was always a terrible mistake and I think it's past the time to move on from the mopey last of the time lords schtick. 15 was supposed to be a Doctor that had recovered, healed and I was so looking forward to that but in the end it was made impossible by the fact that he is still triggered at multiple points by being reminded that he is the last of his kind. So yes, join the Rani and bring them back!!! She said she would leave this world unharmed once she did and I think she could be trusted on that,,

This brings me to a point of reflection about 15s run as a whole. Because in this run it's clear he has an incomplete arc, a painfully incomplete arc. Because where it is cut off what we are left with is an 'arc' where the Doctor goes from carefree, youthful party lover to being much more bitter, spiteful and unforgiving. Some of the recent characterisation of the Doctor is simply not who the Doctor should be at all, and worse still it is during his final few episodes, among the notes he is leaving on. Here his dismissive treatment of Ruby is an awful taste to leave on and I also wonder if he would've been pushed so far in the interstellar song contest if it was known at the time that it would be 15s penultimate story. Although I'm not sure because that story can barely even acknowledge the brutality of his actions. It is an arc that almost feels like 12s arc in reverse, which is not something that should have been done at all, I sure hope it wasn't the plan but either way it leaves a sour taste in the mouth regarding how this Doctor will be seen in retrospect.

With that being said, there really is a bittersweet aspect to the end of this story. Because Ncuti was a fantastic actor as the Doctor. The energy, range and emotion he brought to the role throughout his time will be remembered, even if a lot of the writing of the scripts is best left forgotten. That seems like a cliche in the Doctor Who world at this point. "Great Doctor let down by the writing". But I wish so hard that we could have more of him, its such a shame and such a waste of amazing talent. When he started out I had hoped that he would break the 3 season unspoken rule, but by doing more because of his shortened season length not less. His final moments weren't even very touching and did not honour the best of 15. Joy didn't get even get enough time of day in the episode she was a titular character of, so calling back to her in 15s final moments doesn't feel fitting at all and leaves not much to remember fondly from his final moments. It's all such a shame.

So that's what's been bubbling away in my head for 3 weeks now. Turns out when a show that is a big part of my life betrays it's very foundational principles I have quite a lot to say about it. If anybody has read through the whole thing, thank you, you didn't have to do that. It's been so hard to get around to this review and so hard to conclude it because besides the fact of all it's problems, the result is that it's just extremely hard to actually compute that 15 has really left the show and we need to move on. It was all so abrupt. Other regeneration stories all have build up so that they feel earned and emotionally satisfying, so that we can say goodbye knowing that the time was right. Here, effectively killing himself for a baby that just popped up and we are given no reason to care about was so clearly contrived and left us feeling hollow. And left us with a show in a sorry state, it's own tail fully down it's throat in a position that betrays the values of change and progress that the show should embody. All of which tails an episode which was entirely spectacle without any substance to it at all. It is with little doubt, the worst episode of Doctor Who ever put out to me. All of us as fans deserve so so so much better. As the chorus of fans have been saying for the past few weeks I must say the words: Sack Russel T Davies.

The worst part of all is that I am left actively not wanting whatever is being set up here to be made. For it to be cancelled or cleansed of this direction it's going before I am forced to watch Billie Piper as the Doctor. And to say that about a show I adore so so much is genuinely so painful.

But believe it or not I consider myself to be an optimist. Whenever hope seems lost it's in my nature to at least end by glancing up at the light I can see at the end of the tunnel: now is the perfect time, with the future of the show so uncertain, for all the fans to truly consider the Doctor Who franchise our own. The titans of old have proved themselves incapable, so now is the time for a generation of new talent to rise up through the cracks. Whether that is by some mad fortune on TV or, much more likely, through a wealth or expanded universe content all the way to fan fiction. Because at the end of all this I can still say without a doubt that I love Doctor Who and I always will do, because it is so much bigger than what's on TV. It does not have to stagnate in this way if we don't let it. We can hold true the values of hope and renewal that are at the heart of Doctor Who. Believe in better stories than the one that was put in front of us here.