If I were asked to sum up Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor in two words, I'd say 'Surprisingly Forgettable'.

This story, along with some others such as Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough, has become somewhat famous in Doctor Who circles for its place in canon. If Revival Who is the tip of the iceberg, and Big Finish is just below the surface, Sil and Zygon are possibly the deepest you can go where a typical fan will still be able to at least recognise their DWU connections.

Sil also sees the return of Nabil Shaban and Christopher Ryan as Sil and Kiv respectively, reprising their roles from over 30 years prior, and stars Sophie Aldred herself, playing a newly created member of Sil's species, acting as a foil to him in the episode she primarily appears in.

All this is to say that Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor is a fascinating piece of media... conceptually.

While I have to commend the set design, costumers, and some of the actors, the story here is nothing to write home about. Some parts don't seem to make sense or seem to come out of nowhere, Sil isn't anywhere near as fun to watch a protagonist as he is an antagonist, the direction isn't great, and while I absolutely could see a courtroom drama doctor who story working out incredibly (just look at Trial), here, it just isn't. The writers seem to have a vague idea of what people want from a courtroom drama, but don't understand what really makes them tick, and fact the judicial system is invented for this, and the intricacies of it actually matter somewhat unlike Trial, just makes me wonder why I should care.

I genuinely don't understand how this ended up like it has, from the premise and concept, you'd expect it to either be competent, not necessarily good, but competent, or a complete trainwreck. This somehow manages to be neither.

I don't care about the courtroom drama, I'm not laughing, either at or with the story when there's a moment that would otherwise be pretty funny.

I'm just bored.

This is one of the worst pieces of Doctor Who media I have ever had the displeasure of consuming. It's just so unbearably dull. This story truly proves the saying that the worst thing a Doctor Who story can be is boring.

Courtroom dramas are hard to pull of at the best of times. With an unlikeable lead, no flashbacks, only one witness (who doesn't even speak), a judge who lacks enthusiasm and a prosecutor who only has one facial expression it was doomed to fail from the start.

Who genuinely thought making a spin-off with Sil would be a good idea? I have never heard a single person say they like this character, or even care about him at all.

The entire thing is endlessly repetitive, which was useful to me, because I didn't have subtitles and found it tremendously difficult to focus on what people were saying when I was already bored out of my mind, but doesn't actually make it good. Most of the runtime was dedicated to people standing around and talking in the worst way possible.

None of the more "action-y" bits had any impact on the plot. Sil tried to bribe the guards to help him escape, and they took the money and turned him in. There were two or three different assassination attempts, and none of them went anywhere. Sil got alien Sophie Aldred to give him a bath in one of the most uncomfortable scenes I've ever had to sit through.

Other than the story itself, the dialogue was poorly written, most of the actors were either over- or under-acting, leading to stilted performances, and the prosthetics look unfinished and poorly blended. I could see the seams on Sil's rubber fingers.

The only bit of praise I can even attempt to offer is that the CGI of the opening sequence is pretty solid.

I would not recommend this to anyone. In fact, I would recommend people avoid this outright. I expected it to be bad, but I thought it might be a case of "so bad it's good", but it's not. It's just bad.