pros: jodie whittaker

cons: literally everything else

With wish world being a right wing populist's ideal world and the rani being a eugenicist you wouldve thought that the episode would treat that as a bad thing. and it does! but then why does the episode then end up rewriting the entire character and timeline of belinda chandra to make her a caricature of motherhood. especially when her opening story is about dealing with shitty incels and not trusting the doctor for messing with her dna. but suddenly shes fine with having a literal child with him and isnt bothered by that at all and thats supposed to be a good thing.

wish world understands that its bad to force women into restrictive roles of motherhood. and yet the finale of belindas own series has her shoved in a closet with a baby away from any action while the white woman ruby goes to save the day.

these past few seasons built hype about omega and the rani only to kill them off instantly and have omega basically be an entirely separate character anyways because "he became the mad god". which feels like a complete waste of his character and compelty generic RTD2 finale villain.

Archie Panjabi is brilliant as the Rani but is unceremoniously murdered by Omgea in her second episode. but we still have mrs flood as if she didnt get 2 seasons already while the new Rani gets murdered... it feels a little offensive to keep prioritising the white characters more over the people of colour.

Also, I'm not sure if its going to be brought up next season, but the susan cameos were very strange as they didn't go anywhere at all. I would've thought that bringing susan back properly would tie in brilliantly with the themes and motifs of ncutis doctor but she was basically just an easter egg so far.

Ncuti Gatwa regenerating when his seasons were so short is genuinely dissapointing. I loved him as the doctor and i wish he'd gotten more time as it seemed he was really hitting his groove.

the return of billie piper as the doctor seems incredibly desperate and im worried the news will overshadow ncutis finale. these past few seasons seem stuck in the past instead of coming up with new concepts. im getting really sick of all the callbacks to david tennants era. if this is supposed to be a "jumping in point for new viewers", its doing a terrible job and they must be pretty confused.

that being said, i do think a billie piper doctor can maybe be interesting, at least. if the show acknowledges the grief and f**ked up nature of stealing the face of your lost ex love interest. but im worried its just a cheap stunt to generate news. i am very happy we got another female doctor though! I was very worried the show wouldnt have the guts to have one to avoid upsetting the whittaker haters. so silver linings i guess.

on that note, jodies cameo was wonderful. she was so in character and i was so happy to see her again i nearly cried. what a great moment. anita and mel were also great

even though i wasnt fond of this episode, thank you to ncuti gatwa for being a wonderful Doctor. these past few seasons have been brilliant