Storytelling should be about open possibilities! That's why I wait until the corporation that owns my Favourite Intellectual Property gives me the green light before I start coming up with my own stories.

And thank goodness they did. Now, thanks to this episode, all Doctors are canon. Provided they're retconned to be cops.

Some day, I'm going to map out a theory that connects this, Main Range #49: Master, and Lungbarrow in a single cohesive timeline.

But for right now, I'm just all kinds of fine with this as an addition to the DW universe. The way the Brendan subplot is visualised and rationalised here, it got me thinking about how many TV stories have different tellings (original broadcast, novelisations, recorded readings of said novelisations, telesnap reconstructions, animated reconstructions, audio adaptations); the same story, just looked at through different filters. Shada is one of my favourites, and there are more versions of that than Blade Runner. With how increasingly self-referential the show has become over the decades, I like this example more than most.

Between that and creating a nice big gap in the Doctor's history to fit more stories into (insert Big Finish joke here), it just feels like a fan made this, and I mean that as a positive. I absolutely get why others didn't like this, both in intent and execution, and I wasn't entirely sure if I did either at first. But even more so than when Doctor Who is good, I like Doctor Who when it's interesting, and this certainly captured my interest. Then again, Jodie Whittaker and Sacha Dhawan are in such top form here, I'll also argue that it's quite good.

Overhated AF

This episode was literally first mentioned in Series 11 episode 2, Ghost monument by a rag, then the destruction of Gallifrey shown in the episode was shown at the beginning of Series 12

This just shows Chibnall had a vision he followed through on.

The "Fam" escapes from the cybermen and destroyed Gallifrey. Thirteen isn't as lucky being arrested the second she re-enters her TARDIS

I'm am so tired of these backstory fanwank episodes first it was Name of the Doctor, then Listen, now this.  They pretty much never work, are pointless in the long run, and only tend to dilate the decades of TV history. This is especially a half baked origin story that is the low point of DW as a whole.

Most of the effects are passable and the performances are unconvincing especially from Whittaker. The only highlight I can think of comes from Dhawan where he does commit as hard as he can to make his character work. As for the subplot I don't have enough emotional connection to either the companions or the side cast to care about them.

This a awful episode and frankly not even one good performance could save it.

oh the reviews on this one are going to be rancid