So the first half was a good setup, and I liked the return of Rogue. However:

1. The Rani was extremely mischaracterized — if you changed the name to "The Master" it would have been fine! But the Rani was 1) a scientist doing genuine real scientific experiments (NOT magic), with actual goals to benefit herself and further the science she was doing (not get back at anyone, or whatever this Rani was trying to do), who 2) DID NOT CARE about the Doctor, or the Master for that matter, and 3) had been exiled by the time lords and didn't really care about them either (certainly not enough to put the seal of Rassilon in her palace). I went in not really trusting RTD to do right by the Rani (especially with him choosing to bring her back during the magic pantheon era when she is very much a woman of hard science and logic and mathematics) but I didn't expect the characterization to be THIS blatantly inaccurate.

2. Belinda once again did nothing. It's really a shame, I would love to see any actual motivations from her at all, but there's nothing — she basically didn't contribute to the plot at all, she didn't figure anything out, she didn't try to break out of her role as the perfect 1950s housewife and stay-at-home mom. Nothing. I don't even know why the Rani had her brought up to the bone palace, that made no sense whatsoever.

3. Why on earth is Ruby more important to this episode than Belinda? Ruby had her season, and like it's fine that she's still around, whatever, but the fact that she was FAR more integral to this episode than Belinda was really disappointing, especially with RTD's history of sidelining non-white characters for white and especially blonde girls on Doctor Who (Martha Jones with both Rose and Joan Redfern, naming two different black women after Rose Tyler - Rosita from The Next Doctor and Rose Noble, Mickey being sidelined as well, giving 15 three Doctor-lite episodes within his first 14 episodes when no other Modern Who Doctor has had more than three total, Belinda barely even being in Lucky Day which focused on Ruby instead). It's just very disappointing that this is happening when it's the season with the first fully non-white Team TARDIS.

4. A LOT of RTD's scripts this season have felt very... recycled, reusing plots (73 Yards was just The Curse of Clyde Langer from SJA but with a blonde white girl instead of Clyde! Even down to the mother of the main character being a Black woman named Carla!) and bringing back old characters that had one or maybe two appearances on the show prior (which is very different from bringing back the Daleks or Cybermen or the Master, as they are all very well established to be a part of the image of the show). This was really no different. Russell T Davies needs to leave the show, because he's clearly showing the audience that he doesn't have any new ideas by choosing to dredge up old history rather than invent anything new. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it — I don't think any of the episodes solely penned by RTD have invented a new, non-Pantheon monster (like a REAL monster of the week type enemy) that was directly the villain except for the goblins (Dot and Bubble does NOT count — those monsters were not the villain). And frankly the goblins being the one new monster he's invented is NOT a good look, given that "goblins steal a white baby from a christian church in order to eat it" could not be any more directly blood libel. I really think RTD needs to leave the role of showrunner and not write for TV Who again, cause this has led to it feeling really stagnant. Like, come on, what is Doctor Who without a good classic one-off monster of the week?

I don't know. There were some good things, it's just clear that RTD is doubling down and not fixing any of the problems that have been present in his run. I know it's the first half of a two parter, but very few of the questions he's raised over this season or even back to 15's first episode were answered or even hinted at there being an answer to, save Rogue I suppose. I could probably give this lower, as 15 really doesn't do much of anything either (he doesn't even figure out the story universe thing on his own — Rogue has to help him!) I'm holding out some hope that the finale will go some way to fix some of these problems, but I'm not all that optimistic it will, I'm afraid.