Now this is the Doctor Who episode I have been waiting for! Instantly better than most of last season for me except for maybe Rogue.

This era for me certainly still struggles with how it writes the more character-driven facets of its stories. For example - Sasha 55 has maybe 4 or 5 lines and dies fairly early on in the episode leading to The Doctor crying over the 6 months that they'd known each other and been working together. Unfortunately, this moment just has no emotional connection to the audience - having the same style of character introduction for Sasha as we had for Anita in Joy to the World would have made this moment so much more powerful and felt that the tears were more meaningful. I also think that the flashbacks to Alan being a bit of a dick at the climax of the episode is a super lazy way of writing that aspect in - would have been much better to have more of that scene in the initial parts of the episode (or peppered in throughout to build towards the ending).

I think the humor on this episode was incredible. Both my boyfriend and I could not stop giggling throughout this episode! The missbelinachantrajokes were well used and not overdone. I have been quoting "polish polish" all week.

By far, the highlight has to be Varada Sethu - I am loving Belinda already. I always felt that the instant best friends dynamic that Ruby and 15 had just didn't work at all - there were several points in the last season where the plot dynamic and emotional tension of the episode was reliant on Ruby trusting the Doctor. And there just wasn't a good reason why she should - he's an alien, they've just met - there really needed to be an exploration of Ruby getting to trust the Doctor that was just missing. Belinda, on the other hand, starts out not trusting the Doctor at all - I can already see the potential for the character arc and character development that is possible this season which I am rather excited about.

Overall, this episode was pretty good, compared to what I was expecting going in. Still some issues with the episode, but I genuinely enjoyed watching this one, which is more than I can say for most of the previous season. I'm keen to see where the rest of this season goes!