What an absolute mess this has made.  I was quite enjoying Season Two, at least up until a certain point.  We were having some very fun episodes, the mystery around Belinda was intriguing enough without ever getting too intrusive, and I was ready to optimistically hope for something a little more thoughtful in a finale with The Reality War after The Empire of Death was such a disappointment last season.

Sadly, though, in a lot of ways The Reality War isn't much better.  I'm hesitant to join in with the chorus of people decrying this as the worst finale ever.  That simply isn't true.  It has some very thoughtful, interesting, and intriguing moments.  That part where only Ruby can remember Poppy was genuinely haunting.  It left me thinking a lot about loss, grief, and the nature of memories.  There's something very interesting and cool in a story desperately trying to break out.  The moments with Jodie's return and Ncuti's regeneration were great - bittersweet in that both moments kind of feel like they represent missed opportunities for both of these Doctors, but entertaining moments just the same.

I can't defend the frankly embarrassing way the Rani and Omega were handled.  Even setting aside all the precedent and weight of the franchise imposing some reasonable degree of expectation on some level of quality control on these characters - if you had never heard of any of these stories before this would still be a tremendously disappointing take on any kind of villain.  Omega looks like a terrible CGI monster, is barely in the story, and brushes away Rani's character like the pointless distraction she always was this season.

It sucks.  As much as I can see the potential of the Reality War, as much as I feel this might be the best depiction of the 13th Doctor to date, and as much as I weirdly think the Conrad content was thoughtful and kind of well-written here - none of these things can make up for The Reality War stumbling on even the most basic beats of its own plot.  It's embarrassing, and could very well be what kills modern Who for good.  I don't want that to happen, but gosh is it hard to generate enthusiasm for this franchise when it puts out content like this.

Season Two (Series 15); Episode Eight - "The Reality War" by Russell T. Davies

Man, f**k you RTD.

This whole season, I’ve been a little annoyed with myself. I can’t take this show seriously anymore and I know how that sounds to anybody other than me. It’s clearly not meant to be some grand narrative epic, it’s clearly meant for a younger audience, I should just have fun with it. And this whole season, I’ve felt like I’ve been cynical and irksome and a rain on everybody’s parade but I’ve decided no, actually, that’s not how I watch TV and I am going to hold this to the same standard I hold every other piece of Doctor Who material ever released. This show is a joke. It is a blatantly unfunny, smug, patronising joke and I refuse to give it a pass because it’s deliberately like that. I’m not fighting it anymore, I think I’ve just found my least favourite season of Doctor Who.

All of reality stands on a knife’s edge. As the Doctor makes battle with the Ranis, he prepares to face a living legend and the consequences of playing god.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

RTD2 is a prank. It is a slight by the showrunners and I refuse to believe this is real TV that a team of people looked at and agreed was anything less than psychological warfare. What the f**k happened to this show? What was once a bastion for intelligent and fun TV has turned into whatever The Reality War is and I just know Russell thinks he’s a goddamn genius for it. I once called RTD2 a soap opera with a budget. It’s flashy, looks incredible but consists of shallow action scenes and emotional beats that have all the depth of reality TV. It’s almost like every complaint anybody ever had about the first RTD era turned into a show. And I’m sick of it.

Like I said before, this looks incredible. Seriously, gorgeous sets, gorgeous effects, gorgeous costuming. Give the art departments a raise, put them in charge of the show, anything but this. Murray Gold, also, has improved since his somewhat dip in quality last season. I was overjoyed when the sound mixing made the score take over the dialogue because then I could just listen to that. This looks and sounds and has all the physical qualities of something incredible, but looks are nothing. Looks don’t make the story, looks don’t make the characters, looks don’t make me like the show.

I have found that there’s no easy way to truly describe how I feel about this era or this episode, but I found the best phrase I can use to describe it is “a parody of itself”. Like I said, this is a joke and I felt embarrassed to be watching it. Let’s break this down to make it a little easier:

Mistake 1: Tone - I don’t know what RTD’s going for here but I hate it. It feels a little edgy to complain about how everybody’s so happy-go-lucky and how it “feels like Disney Channel” but there’s not really a better way to describe it. Everybody is a campy, melodramatic mess and it sucks all the life from the show. These are not real people, I do not care about them. I do not fear for their lives when they’re acting all kooky and doing funny little shenanigans whilst the world’s ending. I am not threatened by villains ripped straight from a pantomime. So, yes, the tone annoys me and I can’t get past it. It all feels like the worst parts of the MCU.

Mistake 2: Characters - Like I said, nobody here is a real person. Everybody having heightened personalities and having every emotional moment be big, melodramatic scenes with loud, sad music and RTD in the corner telling you “this is really sad” makes every single person here feel like cardboard. Nobody grows or changes, nobody deepens or develops. I am relying entirely on chemistry, it’s the only reason I buy into 15 and Ruby’s relationship. By the end, what was Fifteen? Can you pinpoint how he changed from Church on Ruby Road to here? Can you actually tell me what made his character interesting and emotional past quirks? Every character is a function or a joke.

Mistake 3: Plot - What the f**k was this? This might actually be the worst script I’ve ever seen because it shouldn’t even count as a piece of fiction. When I say the show’s a parody, I’m talking about this. This is not a finale, it’s an RTD finale. The Rani is not a villain, she’s an RTD villain. It feels like the bastardisation of better episodes and then they have the f**king gall to end it twenty minutes in. The whole season, everything, twenty minutes. Props to RTD for at least wrapping up most of the plot threads he set up in that amount of time but what in the name of all that is holy was that? One action sequence, a bunch of expositing and then it just ends. I knew it would be bad when the episode opened with a blatant deus ex machina but Jesus Christ. And then after that, it’s just contrived nonsense and sentiment, there is nothing to like at all.

Mistake 4: Villains - The Rani is at her worst here, which is weird, because her last episode was Time and the Rani and I didn’t think you could get worse than that. She spends the first nineteen minutes standing around, with our main characters, and having some menial exposition with them about her plan, all whilst twiddling her moustache and cackling about how evil she is. I am not threatened by her at all, at any moment, and then she just dies. Two seasons of build up to this villain and she dies instantly. Huh? Why should I care? Somebody tell me that, why should I even care about anything that’s happening? And don’t get me started on Omega. Big baby was the best thing about this episode because at least I could laugh at it. That’s not Omega. I’m sorry, it’s not. Russell, if you’re going to do fan wank, at least do it. Anyway, the Doctor kills Omega in five seconds because this episode isn’t real.

Mistake 5: Belinda - Belinda, I can confidently say, is one of my least favourite companions ever. Not only is she bland, not only is she a stock, copy and pasted bit of cardboard with no personality, she is a bait and switch. She was introduced as something fresh, something new; a companion who was going to stand up to the Doctor and her arc is that she becomes less interesting. Actually, no, there is no arc, we’re just told she’s going to be different in The Robot Revolution and then she’s all buddy buddy with the Doctor immediately. I don’t think she counts as a character. Also, changing time so she has a daughter is weird Russell, maybe don’t do that.

Mistake 6: Fanwank - So much of this story hinges on Russell going “look, it’s the thing”. He just brings back old enemies and old characters and throws them at the screen. Thirteen comes back for no reason so she can just run around the TARDIS a bit and go “oh wow Fifteen, you’re so cool, how are you this awesome and so cool?”. Fifteen regenerates into Billie Piper, what? Russell, you have to let go of the past at some point my guy. It’s annoying and feels like keys being jangled in front of my face.

Mistake 7: The Ending - So, the Rani is dead, Omega is dead, what do we have left? Well, how about for contrived plot reasons, the Doctor’s daughter (???) disappears, he’s weirdly cold to his close friend trying to warn him something’s wrong and then immediately decides to kill himself to save the child he doesn’t remember. I like the idea of the Doctor dying, not in battle, not to stop the end of time, but to save one person, but RTD already did that in The End of Time and Moffat did something similar in Time of the Doctor. Anyway, some convenient bollocks happen and Gatwa leaves the show, Billie Piper comes back for some reason, the end. Completely unsatisfying, totally out of the blue, feels like a slap in the face to anybody who’s been wanting, oh I don’t know, a coherent series arc. All it does is rely on sentiment. That’s it, just melodramatic, over the top tugs on the heartstrings, and I’m done.

I’ll be back to this show when it returns, don’t you worry. It’s Doctor Who and at the end of the day, I don’t think I could stop watching it. But I’m not going to stop bitching. This isn’t TV worthy of my time, it’s a smug middle finger directed at the audience and I don’t want to give it the benefit of the doubt anymore. For as much as I hate the Chibnall era, at least it had a modicum of competence. Whatever the show is now, it’s not for me anymore.

1/10

Pros:

+ A technical masterpiece

Cons:

- Truly embarrassing TV

- Is built off shallow, sentimental nothings

- Our entire cast consists of bland do-gooders

- The Rani and especially Omega are some of the least threatening villains ever

- Belinda cements herself as one of my least favourite companions ever

- The plot is a contrived mess

- Patches over bad writing with senseless fan wank

- Feels like a parody of itself

- Absolutely nonsensical in the worst possible way

- Has all the depth of 2D shape

Jaw-droppingly bad. Misogynistic. Racist. Rage-inducing. Absolutely abysmal. They literally put Belinda in a box for half the episode so that the white companion could be a part of the main action (after Belinda had absolutely nothing to do all season!). Then, in a scenario from a horror story, they forcibly made her into a mother for a child who isn't real. Like... what can you even say.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“THE REALITY WAR – WISHFUL THINKING RUNS OUT IN THIS MESSY, MISGUIDED FINALE”

The Reality War, the 2025 season finale of Doctor Who, should have been a triumph. Instead, it collapses under the weight of retooling, overstuffed plotting, and what feels like a scramble behind the scenes. While it opens with intrigue and emotional promise, it ultimately becomes the most frustrating RTD finale to date, an episode pulled in too many directions to ever settle into something satisfying. Retrofitted to include a regeneration after Ncuti Gatwa stepped down earlier than expected, the 68-minute runtime offers enough material for three different episodes, but doesn’t commit properly to any of them.

THE WISH WORLD FALLOUT: HIGH STAKES, LOW PAYOFF

Following directly from the events of Wish World, the episode wisely builds on one of the season’s most potent ideas—the unraveling of reality itself. The world resets each night at midnight, fraying the timeline until the barrier with the Underverse cracks. This eerie, Groundhog Day-with-cosmic-horror concept is ripe with potential, and the idea of the world’s fabric becoming thin enough to bring Omega back is a suitably grand finale hook.

But almost immediately, the episode gets lost in itself. The return of Anita and the Time Hotel is a welcome nod to Joy to the World, but while Steph de Whalley is clearly game, Anita spends most of the episode holding a literal door open, reduced to quipping about being a “simple hotel manager.” That her sidelining seems to accommodate the actress’s real-life pregnancy doesn’t make it any less disappointing narratively.

Still, her journey through multiple timelines—including a poignant glimpse of the Doctor dancing with Rogue, which prompts her to stop her search—is one of the more elegant and moving touches in an otherwise overblown episode.

THE POPPY PROBLEM: A DAUGHTER NOBODY ASKED FOR

Much of the episode’s emotional core hinges on Poppy, the supposed daughter of the Doctor and Belinda, a creation of the Wish World who may or may not be “real.” This could have been compelling, had the character been seeded meaningfully throughout the season. Instead, she feels like an 11th-hour plot device, used to justify Belinda’s baffling re-characterisation.

After a season as a proudly single and independent woman, Belinda is suddenly retconned as a mother all along—one who is willing to sacrifice everything for a child she didn't even know existed two episodes ago. While her choice to remain in the Zero Room to keep Poppy from vanishing is in-character in terms of heroism, the emotional underpinning feels forced and underdeveloped. Belinda deserved better.

UNIT MADNESS, RANI EX MACHINA, AND THE MISUSED CAST

Once the Doctor breaks through to UNIT, we get one of the few sequences that lives up to the promise of a Disney-backed Doctor Who: a chaotic, visually spectacular restoration of reality in UNIT Tower, complete with bone beasts, laser cannons, and the Doctor flying through the fray in the Rani’s aircraft. It’s gloriously dumb in the best way.

Mel arriving on a Vespa is delightful, and there’s something fun in the UNIT staff realising they’re all dressed like clowns. But these highlights are buried beneath clumsy exposition dumps, including a frustrating info-dump by the Rani that exists solely to clarify the increasingly convoluted backstory. At least Archie Panjabi commands the screen in her confrontation with Mel and Ruby—too bad she’s ultimately swallowed whole by Omega (a CGI skeleton-baby, of all things) in one of the episode’s most baffling and laughable creative decisions.

Meanwhile, Ruby’s growing awareness of false realities is brushed aside by the Doctor himself—odd, considering her entire arc has been built around her perceptiveness and emotional intelligence. And Rose Noble, returning for exactly one line and zero development, might as well not have been in it at all.

OMEGA RETURNS—SORT OF

The long-awaited return of Omega, teased throughout the season, is ultimately a dud. The slow reveal of the villain’s vault is genuinely suspenseful, but all tension evaporates when he’s revealed to be a massive, grey CGI baby skeleton. He eats the Rani. He says a few things. He gets zapped back into the Underverse by the Vindicator. That’s it. Omega, one of the founding fathers of Time Lord society, reduced to a ghoulish footnote. It’s a disastrous reimagining that squanders an iconic villain.

A DRAGGING FAREWELL AND A DIVISIVE ENDING

With the plot essentially wrapped up at the halfway mark, the episode slows to a crawl in its final 40 minutes, as RTD attempts to wring emotion from a character we’ve only just met. The Doctor sacrifices himself to make Poppy real and retroactively rewrites Belinda’s history to make her Poppy’s mother from the beginning—an overly complicated way to achieve what could have been a simpler and more poignant ending.

Thematically, the Doctor’s willingness to die to save even one life rings true. But when that life is an artificially created baby no one knows, remembers, or has spent time with, the sentiment falls flat. The cringeworthy suggestion that everyone the Doctor’s ever saved is technically “his child” doesn’t help either.

And what of all the loose ends? The mysterious Boss is mentioned again without clarification. The Susan arc, so intriguingly teased in previous episodes, is simply dropped—apparently scuppered by rewrites, but still leaving a major narrative hole.

A CAMEO, A REGENERATION, A STUNT CASTING

Then comes the highlight: a beautifully played scene between Ncuti Gatwa and Jodie Whittaker, as Thirteen gives her future self a final pep talk. Their chemistry is electric, and it’s a rare moment of genuine joy and emotional truth in an otherwise confused story.

The regeneration itself is visually spectacular, beginning with the Doctor channelling energy through the TARDIS and ending with a quiet, moving goodbye to Belinda. And then—the twist. Ncuti regenerates into Billie Piper. Cue shock, confusion, and a million thinkpieces.

It’s a jaw-dropping moment, but it also feels worryingly like a gimmick. With the Tennant return barely behind us, casting another former companion as the next Doctor reeks of desperation to “make headlines.” It’s not yet confirmed if Piper is the permanent replacement or a stopgap, but if it’s the latter, Doctor Who risks becoming a carousel of legacy casting at the expense of narrative integrity.

📝VERDICT: 💙💙💙💙💙🩶🩶🩶🩶🩶

THE REALITY WAR is an ambitious, sprawling, and ultimately disappointing season finale. It offers fleeting brilliance—a few standout performances, emotional beats, and visual flair—but collapses under the weight of too many ideas, last-minute rewrites, and an emotional core that never quite lands. Omega is wasted, Poppy is unearned, and Belinda is betrayed by a hasty character retcon. Ncuti Gatwa’s final turn is dignified and compelling, but even that can’t save a finale that feels more like a patchwork than a plan. The shock regeneration into Billie Piper may grab attention, but it also risks derailing the show’s momentum. If this is to be the start of a new era, it begins on unsteady ground.

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