For a title supposedly among if not the absolute worst the Classic Series has to offer, I do have to say this wasn't terrible. It was almost acceptable. It was definitely at least watchable, even if quite flawed and dry. It was a lot better than something actively antagonizing like The Web Planet or even something modern like Orphan 55. I could tell you a lot about the story and even parts of the story I liked, such as Azmael and his relationship with the Doctor. I followed the basic premise well enough and wasn't even miserable getting through these episodes.

For all the talk about what doesn't work for the Sixth Doctor in this era, a lot of the Colin Baker I like from Big Finish is right here in this very first performance. What's off and by far the most serious misfire of Twin Dilemma is the relationship between the Doctor and Peri. He just doesn't treat her with much respect, it's not really done in a way that even resembles funny more often than not, and infamously, is clearly abusive when he tries to strangle her.

While not excusable and especially problematic knowing what we now do about Jonathan Nathan-Turner, Twin Dilemma to its credit clearly identifies this behaviour as unacceptable, to the point the Doctor instantly regrets this, is clearly disoriented from an unusually stressful regeneration, and then immediately decides to exile himself. He assumes Peri will be his slave during exile, but it at least shows that the strangulation was wrong. I don't know, it's not exactly Shakespeare, but at least its heart feels vaguely in the right direction.

The story kind of meanders from here and the Twin story line, the bulk of the focus of Twin Dilemma, is kind of boring, really. Were it not for the details around Azmael I mentioned earlier the story would be kind of useless. It's a story that has a lot of technical flaws rather than super obvious ones. I can see why people don't like it - I don't really like it - but I can also recognize there were a lot of talented people working on these episodes behind and in front of the camera. That hard work and talent just had a lot pushing up against it from the management side of things.

One last note, the episode ends with such an awkward look between Peri and the Doctor. It's such a weird attempt at a knowing moment of the two excited for a future of adventure and such a spectacular failure of achieving that moment. They just couldn't quite convincingly pull it off, especially after the Doctor being so terrible for the entire story. Perhaps the director just couldn't quite the right look out of the actors or something, maybe it just reflects them still finding a new tone for this new Doctor and new era, whatever it is, they couldn't quite pull off what they were going for. It's a symbol of an era that just never quite worked and never could quite achieve the look it was going for, which seems to be exactly what I can expect for the rest of the Sixth Doctor on television, but we'll see. I do hope I am pleasantly surprised, or at the very least, not overwhelmed with feelings of negativity. Twin Dilemma was definitely the latter - sure, it wasn't great, but it didn't reek of Chibnall-esque staleness, either.