somehow im starting to hate the start to this season more than i hated series 11 which is really impressive. its not like this is outright terrible or even bad but its easier to describe this (and the previous 2 episodes) as Lacking Soul. feels dreadfully uninspired. sure the set looks nice, the outfits are cute, having a drag queen villain is awesome... but like... i dont know. i just feel like something is missing.

ruby keeps talking to the doctor like shes known him longer than she has even though this is only her second adventure in the tardis. hearing her say stuff like "but doctor you always know" and "doctor you never hide" is just so weird to me like she doesnt even know him like that yet. not to mention that those are just examples of her dialogue being really dull. frankly i dislike her more than any chibnall companion so far which is kind of crazy since shes not even a bad character so far she just seems so boring. her entire character right now is relying on this mystery of her birth but with her terrible introduction how am i to even care. at least this episode improves on space babies by not mentioning the doctor not knowing where he came from every 10 minutes (a bit of an exaggeration but you know. rtd doesnt seem to understand why some of us actually liked the timeless child stuff and is milking it only for the adoption aspect)

also, whoever is making these original songs is really really really bad at music. ive never sat through such actually bad musical numbers in my life. you cannot convince me that anyone is going to dance to that song with the energy the cast had to it.

I was pretty disappointed with the episode. Especially since I was a Beatles fan, and the episode itself was marketed as a Beatles episode. But really it was just a sequel to "The Giggle" with John and Paul being the only Beatles that are really featured (I don't dislike the two, but I really wanted to see some George and Ringo action for the episode).

It definitely should've been something like "Vincent and the Doctor" or "The Shakespeare Code", where the historical figures featured actually take part in the story instead of pretty much doing nothing for 40 minutes then just appearing in the climax to play a chord.

Even though I was disappointed with the lack of Beatles in it, I wouldn't say that I hate it entirely. Most of the redeeming factors for me would go to Jinx Monsoon's performance as Maestro and the neat reference to Pyramids of Mars. So I probably would say that it's like "Rings of Akhaten", where the story isn't great, but there's that one bit that overshadows the entire episode and kept it from being a terrible one. That one scene (for me personally) being the Beatles dog song the Pyramids of Mars reference.

As a massive Beatles fan, I was beyond excited for this episode. Then I saw the cast for the Fab Four and the synopsis, I ended up postponing watching it for months to garner strength to survive what was sure to be a very very camp, bordering on cringe, experience. And so it was.

Why are the Beatles even in this episode? I expected they’d be like Dickens, Agatha Christie, and Van Gogh were in their respective stories: an integral part of the plot, pretty much one-off companions, even. But no. The boys are barely in the story at all. The Doctor and Ruby watch them perform one (very bad, for plot reasons) song, and have 01 conversation with John and Paul, and that’s all the interaction we see between them. George and Ringo don’t have a single line of dialogue. They defeat Maestro unknowingly, by playing one single chord in a piano that is in a whole other room, separate from where the climax is taking place. They never even see Maestro! Now, as a Beatlemaniac: John and Paul, I must point out, could not read music. Not that anyone would be able to read those floating notes, as there was no clef and no staff, so how would anyone even know what they were??? Anyway. The boys have like 3 lines, and I could have never guessed who they were supposed to be by them. “Oh, but this is a world where music has been shit since the 30’s”. Fine, then maybe don’t use the very famous, very real, Beatles as your characters? And I have to be a bit petty and complain about John’s glasses. John Lennon in 1963 would not be caught DEAD wearing those. He used them later in his life and is famously associated with them, yes, but this is supposed to be ‘63, and wearing glasses was a big insecurity of John’s back then. 

On the DW side of things, I did like Maestro. The whole thing with lasso-ing people with magical music and trapping them in instruments was waaay  too much, but it was silly fun. The soundless scene was pretty cool. Maestro was quite menacing, I hope they show up again. But really, they’re defeated by playing 01 chord on 01 piano? That’s just too simple! They could have at least made it so the chord had to be played by several people, on several instruments or something.

The Doctor and Ruby don’t have much going on in this one, but they are clearly having fun, and Ncuti and Millie have amazing BFF energy. Characterisation-wise, though, this episode is not very meaty.

I swear I’m not usually this grumpy, but I had such high hopes for this! I can’t believe they wasted this great idea, the Doctor teaming up with the Beatles!!!, on a story where the Beatles are tangential to the plot, and where they don’t (can’t, I guess) play a single one of their songs. Ah, and on the singing at the end: it was super silly, but it was funny, so I was okay with it.

It's silly, it's chaotic, and it's exactly my kind of trash. Well, better than trash, bit like a raw gemstone.

There's a lot that could have been better about this episode but it gives me severe brainrot so I don't care too much about that.

A nonsensical plot - RTD at his worst with his penchant for pomp and unreasonably high stakes - saved by lots of fun and some great acting, particularly but by no means only from Jinkx.