The perpetuation of war, violence and death, to fund a capitalist corporation - oh, this is the brilliance of a Moffat script. The value of weapons, and how they are sold to continue to generate this profit provides much to think about and always politically relevant. In most stories, this will be the extent of the brilliance and genius, but Moffat had to add many more layers to this.

The concept of faith, believing without knowing, and how valuable this is, is a meaningful dimension to digest throughout - faith in the Church and their religion, and faith in the war - brilliant to consider, and another deep layer throughout this story.

The slower pace due the Doctor on the land mine allows for these ideas to be explored with value and merit, without rushing through superfluously. But to manage to maintain a tension and threat, which keeps you drawn in throughout a full story, with the Doctor immobilised the whole time, it needed the pen of Moffat to write.

Rewatched 2025-04-04 (⭐⭐⭐⭐½)

This story is all-around beautiful. The connection between capitalism and the cycles of violence in war is beautiful. The acting is beautiful, especially with how much goes into the facial expressions. The pointlessness of all three deaths is beautiful in its tragedy: all of them could have lived. There was no reason for them to be in danger at all, unlike the usual type of self-sacrifice done to protect someone in this show. And yes, obviously Ruby doesn't stay dead, but I still think her death matters here. It was unexpected and random and unnecessary, and reminds the Doctor just how much of the universe is like that.

It also feels very classic of this episode to take place (almost) entirely in one spot. An entire story takes place and the Doctor is maybe 20 feet from the tardis. (Maybe the least running he's ever done tbh). And the contrast of that with the gorgeous space effects just add to the beauty of this episode.

I don’t understand why people love this episode a lot. For me it’s good but not amazing. Ncuti gives a great performance when Ruby gets shot and I was not expecting that at all. I like the interactions between Mundy and the 15th Doctor especially after realizing that he was just checking out the area. The child character is okay and I like how the story ended. The speech that the 15th Doctor gives about death at the end is good.