I mostly enjoyed this episode, with a few caveats... this is NOT organised and WILL be a rant. Spoilers ahead. No idea how to rate this one...

A whole lot of fluff for not much plot, this was a fun episode with a well-done (though ultimately unoriginal) dystopia-disguised-as-a-utopia that I thought handled some of the terror of this quite well. The gestapo idea was clear, and the clothing and memory stuff especially reminded me of the monk trilogy. The heteronormativity/fear of difference in regards to queerness specifically was I think the most well-done part of the dystopian alt-right wishful reality, with Ibrahim's horror (you're a man, you can't find another man beautiful) being truly chilling. I expect nothing less from Russell T "the Doctor's bisexual companion cured AIDS with gay sex" Davies... though, given the careful focus to racism given in the last two series what with this being our first Black mainline Doctor, I did expect more on that angle. I mean, Belinda in the 1950s housewife dress (with the episode being rife with 1950s misogyny to boot), the illegality of homosexuality, the full on report-your-friends-and-family-to-the-cops-if-they-stray-from-the-norm/the-rules thought crime stuff... it was basically set in the 1950s, with all the associated societal bigotry, but NOT racism?? I feel like that's a pretty big thing to leave out. Though, another part of this that I did like was how the ableism was handled - RTD was in a tricky spot. You can't ignore the disabled people and just Not Address It (unlike racism apparently), and you can't have them go through what happens in real life (because all that death is a tad much for a family show), so working in the fact that it can't be ignored as a plot point that clues us in to what's happening? I think that was the only thing that could be done, and was a good move.

Though, speaking of cluing us in to what's happening - I feel like the trailer/teasers/promo/beginning of the episode pretty much Told Us what was happening. The plot should have been the Doctor working that out, and then working out the Rani's plan, why she was doing all this... but there was just really no plot. We as the audience know what's happening, so the plot can't just be the Doctor working it out too, because then there's no pay-off for us as viewers, and yet... well, I can't ask for the world, I suppose. It is an RTD finale. The visuals were gorgeous, and very much suited to a dystopia-disguised-as-a-utopia. We deserved more development from the characters, though... which brings me to the unignorable.

The Rani.

HE BUTCHERED MY GIRL!!!! Resident Deca fan over here - that was some of the worst character assasination I've seen in a long time. My girl is  COLDHEARTED, UNCARING, INDIFFERENT B*TCH. How dare RTD make her Feel. How dare he take a genuine girlboss and turn her into yet another Master-lite, desparate for the Doctor's attention/to know how cool she is, romantic situationship!!! The answer to the question "were we lovers?" is a big fat NO, Doctor, and you better tell my favourite asexual lesbian that next episode, and she better laugh and go "Yeah that was the point lol". It isn't so much about the romance - it's the idea that the Rani, who does not care what anyone thinks, cares about the Doctor enough to play with his feelings. To give him a second glance. To treat him as anything more than a mildly annoying lab partner Borusa stuck her with against her wishes who only slows her down, but she just about tolerates becuase she's friends with his boyfriend. Still, at least RTD got one thing right: she does like dinosaurs. The skeleton dinosaur was clearly for her :D RTD can come back from this, but the question is - will he?

I'm not really going to bring up the Rogue and Susan cameos. They were fun, but, that better not be it for Rogue (gay boy in superhell... died 2020(?) born 2025 welcome back Castiel from Supernatural), and Susan (as well as a lot of other things about this episode, such as Poppy) felt like there was some plot threads being set up here. Too much. I worry that RTD will have tried to squeeze a lot of plots into the finale and it will be overcrowded, when really some of that plot should have been saved for this episode. It really did need it. Overall, enjoyed, with some reservations - excited but apprehensive to see if RTD sticks the landing next week.