Perhaps I'm a little too early, perhaps I should wait until next week to review this? But as of right now this episode, to me, seems like a waste of server space on Iplayer and whatever other unfortunate site has to hold onto this. It was a bold choice to reveal the return of everyone's favourite and most iconic Doctor Who villain in last weeks mid credit scene, hiding the reveal from The Doctor but ensuring the faithful viewers are in on the twist (because there's always a twist at the end) - the twist being everyone ignoring the Rani and focussing on Dugga Do instead - who actually should've been the 3rd member of the unholy trinity instead of who (I think?) it actually was revealed to be.

But, as it usually has been with RTD2 there are a few positives - mostly in the initial set up to the episode.

I adored the 1984 esque set up - the sets were perfectly eerie and the general weirdness of the uniformity was right up my alley - thank you Russel for doing that specifically for me. I enjoyed the nuclear family set up of all the characters, solidifying my hatred for Conrad - it was massively different to what Doctor Who is and I only wish we'd had more time seeing how twisted and pathetic Conrad's ideals are. Also, a special shout out to Russel spamming "Doctor Who" as many times as he could into the script.  Funny stuff. Oh, and of course, Archie Panjabi is stellar in the role. Her performance was easily my favourite in the episode, delightfully cruel and sort of uninterested? Her plan is all that matters to her and anything else is just irritating noise. The writing does border on making her the Master a few times, but I don't think I'm actually bothered by that. Russel managed to refrain from forcing a classic pop number into the The Rani's grand exposition dump (being self aware about this doesn't make it untrue, Russel) which I'm very proud of him for.

Other than that though, the episode felt like a poor impression of a bad Moffat episode. I just don't know if it was weird enough to work. The entire episode was set up for next week. And yes, I am aware that is mostly how a part one works but it should also be able to function as a story in itself. Last year's part 1 demonstrated this. It worked because we didn't know who Susan was. But this week, the grand reveal is introduced as soon as it's resolved - Omega's return. There is just far too much going on, far too much that needs to be resolved. Oh! And because there was almost time for providing some depth to the episode, RTD decided to lob an incredibly bizarre Johnathan Groff cameo into the script. Why is he here? Why does he know what's going on? Why does the hell dimension look like it was filmed in his bedroom? Tune in next week to probably still wonder WHY?? I think that is probably my main takeaway from this week. Why is all of this happening? Genuinely how could all of this be resolved? Why introduce the Rani(s) if the threat of Omega is introduced within 40 minutes to overshadow her? Why could Mrs Flood break the 4th wall? Why was Poppy in Space Babies? WHY is everything bone themed?? Perhaps to signify that the show I loved is nothing more than a fossil, all the substance is gone and all we have left is hype moments and aura farming. The skeleton of the show is its characters, and without the fleshy substance of them... they are only names,  spewing out with accompanying flashbacks.

Ironically, I think this episode does actually reflect a lot of my problem's with the episode. Don't doubt, just accept.