This one is a hard one to rate and review. It's very much a first part, but I don't think it really takes advantage of the format. It adds more mysteries on top of more mysteries, without really answering too many questions until the end. And the answers at the end just set up more questions, leading to me fearing that The Reality War will be overstuffed.

Something that annoys me is that The Doctor has little to no agency. He doesn't solve what's going on or work it out by himself at all; he gets it explained to him just as he was on the cusp of things. He was so close to cracking it! And then just didn't get to at all.

After being set up amazingly in TRR and being fun for the rest of the year, Belinda has felt somewhat wasted and I'm sad to say that she really felt it here today. She didn't get much to do other than just help contribute to the doubt mystery and uh.... Get captured and uh... That's it! Ruby got more to do and it's frustrating honestly.

And final thing to be negative about: The Rani here felt to me very Mastery. Campy, loving doing her schemes, flirting with 15.... It just felt off. There were glimmers (I love that she says she isn't an enemy due to death, this rules and feels like her) but so many times it feels less like she's a scientist with no ethics, and more just like a NuWho Master wanting to conquer and destroy with only a few good moments. Pity.

Enough negativity though! I did love a lot of things!

The dystopian setting was done and paced beautifully. The world here felt well realised and fleshed out, and the mystery box was super fun to watch unravel.

I really liked Ruby's moments (even if the camp was too similar to Curse of Clyde Langer....) and the performances were all great (Panjabi is fantastic even if I think she's barely The Rani), and I love the idea of Conrad not even acknowledging or noticing the oppressed so they can rebel without issue.

Also wow this was gorgeous !!!

I liked this episode and had a fun time watching it, just unfortunately there's more negatives to talk about than positives sadly.