In my heart of hearts, this episode deserves the lowest possible rating, but I'm being overly generous because of the appearance of Jodie Whittaker as Thirteen and the subsequent Thirteen/Yaz relationship mention. In other words, what a pile of rubbish.

I may come back and edit this review to go more into depth but, for now, I'll just say that so many things in 'The Reality War' are not only generally bad writing but actively propping up misogynistic and hetero-normative narratives, as well as having negative implications beyond that**. While I don't think these are the explicit intentions of the writer, it's something that's hard not to think about once you notice it. Varada Sethu and Ncuti Gatwa deserved so much better than this ending to their season, as did the characters they were portraying.

Bringing back Billie Piper the play the Doctor*, especially after doing the same with David Tennant, is an awful decision, as talented as she is, and will likely lead to the death of the show if the next year doesn't bring some major changes to the direction of the show and the (hopeful) departure of RTD** as showrunner. I'm seeing dedicated fans and casual watchers in my life alike considering stopping watching new episodes as a direct result of this regeneration. I won't... but can't say it didn't cross my mind.

I love a good bit of nostalgia-bait but bringing back Susan, the Rani, and then Omega in quick succession with barely any care given is just a bit much, innit?

*There was the notable omission of "as the Doctor" in the credits so that will probably be relevant but, as of writing, we saw Fifteen regenerate into that face so I will assume she is playing the next Doctor

**This is not meant to be any sort of attack on RTD as a person but I am not a fan of the creative direction he's taking the show in, or the more recent episodes that he's been the primary writer for.