Cowardly episode.

I don’t want to watch a show with characters like this. Doctor Who was supposed to be better than this. It was supposed to be about people who gave a s**t about what was going on around them. Belinda’s personality is completely gone, to the point where I’m genuinely considering whether we'll find out that she’s under some kind of mind control tomorrow. In this episode that’s at least somewhat about corporate involvement in genocide all she seems to care about is The Doctor. I simply don’t buy their relationship here, and if I did I would hate it because it has the effect of making the participants completely uninteresting. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that there be some goddamn character drama, or that the someone who in her first episode was disconcertingly willing to sacrifice herself for strangers and called the Doctor dangerous for testing her DNA without permission would respond to him torturing someone Dr. Gorst style with nothing but a hug and a token note of concern (for him, of course. Caring about that other genocide survivor isn’t relateable enough or something). The politics were bad but in an extremely boring way. Society has moved past the need for Revolutionary With Valid Points Who Then Threatens To Kill A Bunch of People For No Reason.

Honestly, I was looking forward to this episode. I genuinely enjoyed every episode of the season thus far, and was very optimistic about this one. However, I cannot in good conscious give the episode a rating higher than the lowest available option. The actual plot was average at best, with good visuals. The Rani reveal felt thrown in and half-baked, and I'd almost rather they wait until the next episode to do it. Not to mention, the bi-regeneration concept was terrible the first time around, and was supposed to be this 'mythical' event, and has now happened twice. It is just poor writing.

Now, the main issue with the episode is the utter slap-in-the-face it is to genocide victims across the globe. In this episode, The Doctor, completely out of character, tortures a genocide survivor who is grieving with the fact that this injustice has been done to their people. Never in the show has The Doctor deliberately tortured someone, much less someone who was unarmed and grieving, only to receive praise from the companion who watched it happen. It fundamentally misunderstands The Doctor as a character. Not to mention, with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it is just unacceptable for this to have been allowed to air in the first place. In the episode, the message is that genocide survivors feelings are invalid, and they should pursue unconventional means to achieve their goals, such as singing. As a descendant of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, I watched in horror as my favorite show dumbed down my family's generational trauma to something that can be resolved by simply singing a song, and my comfort character torturing a genocide victim. I cannot even begin to imagine how disgusted any Palestinian person must have felt watching this episode. Personally for me, I think this is the end of my time watching the show. I may finish out the season, just to see if The Doctor faces consequences for his abhorrent actions, but other than that I think I am done. As someone who has watched nearly the entirety of Doctor Who going all the way back to 1963, it pains me to say this. However, if the BBC stands by this story, Doctor Who is no longer the show I love.

The BBC needs to issue a public apology for this episode immediately. The message is disgusting and everyone involved in writing it should be ashamed of themselves.

Much has been written about this highly controversial and contentious episode, which arguably has failed it's audience politically more than any episode since the seminal "Kerblam!" The episode equally succeeds and fails massively: Despite featuring the best looking special effects in Doctor Who history, the surprise return of Susan, and a earth-shattering performance by Ncuti Gatwa, the episode can't overcome it's ridiculous messaging, which is poor storytelling even disregarding it's frankly enormous political implications. It is impossible to ignore the vacuous simplicity of "Kid's" character, a growingly concerning trope in the current age of media of the "activist" going wrong. Kid attempts ultracide in this episode for a reason that doesn't make any sort of legitimate sense -- Does he really think that all of this will fall back on the "Corporation" and not the person who sabotaged the station and attempted to murder uncounted people? From a strict sense of what I can tolerate watching, it's not even the worst part of the episode, an honor which goes to it's hideous post-credit sequence.

However.

And this is a big however. I am being fully serious, and I don't want to seem like I'm doing an ironic bit here.

The episode does in fact have Dugga Doo in it.
Which surely earns it some points.

Truly awful episode. Very obviously an allegory for the Palestinian genoside and tries to claim both sides are just as bad as each other. If the show had any self-introspection at all it could have been a story about how being anti-violence can lead to you supporting some heinous stuff but no it plays it completely straight. The production design was good and had some entertaining moments however I cannot give any episode that supports ethnic cleansing more than the minimum rating.