This is such a brilliant episode. I feel like people would've enjoyed it a lot more if everything hadn't leaked a few weeks ago. Many people read the leaks and went into the episode expecting to be let down, so they couldn't enjoy it properly.

they had to call it underverse because omegaverse would have been so funny 🙂‍↕️

Perhaps I'm a little too early, perhaps I should wait until next week to review this? But as of right now this episode, to me, seems like a waste of server space on Iplayer and whatever other unfortunate site has to hold onto this. It was a bold choice to reveal the return of everyone's favourite and most iconic Doctor Who villain in last weeks mid credit scene, hiding the reveal from The Doctor but ensuring the faithful viewers are in on the twist (because there's always a twist at the end) - the twist being everyone ignoring the Rani and focussing on Dugga Do instead - who actually should've been the 3rd member of the unholy trinity instead of who (I think?) it actually was revealed to be.

But, as it usually has been with RTD2 there are a few positives - mostly in the initial set up to the episode.

I adored the 1984 esque set up - the sets were perfectly eerie and the general weirdness of the uniformity was right up my alley - thank you Russel for doing that specifically for me. I enjoyed the nuclear family set up of all the characters, solidifying my hatred for Conrad - it was massively different to what Doctor Who is and I only wish we'd had more time seeing how twisted and pathetic Conrad's ideals are. Also, a special shout out to Russel spamming "Doctor Who" as many times as he could into the script.  Funny stuff. Oh, and of course, Archie Panjabi is stellar in the role. Her performance was easily my favourite in the episode, delightfully cruel and sort of uninterested? Her plan is all that matters to her and anything else is just irritating noise. The writing does border on making her the Master a few times, but I don't think I'm actually bothered by that. Russel managed to refrain from forcing a classic pop number into the The Rani's grand exposition dump (being self aware about this doesn't make it untrue, Russel) which I'm very proud of him for.

Other than that though, the episode felt like a poor impression of a bad Moffat episode. I just don't know if it was weird enough to work. The entire episode was set up for next week. And yes, I am aware that is mostly how a part one works but it should also be able to function as a story in itself. Last year's part 1 demonstrated this. It worked because we didn't know who Susan was. But this week, the grand reveal is introduced as soon as it's resolved - Omega's return. There is just far too much going on, far too much that needs to be resolved. Oh! And because there was almost time for providing some depth to the episode, RTD decided to lob an incredibly bizarre Johnathan Groff cameo into the script. Why is he here? Why does he know what's going on? Why does the hell dimension look like it was filmed in his bedroom? Tune in next week to probably still wonder WHY?? I think that is probably my main takeaway from this week. Why is all of this happening? Genuinely how could all of this be resolved? Why introduce the Rani(s) if the threat of Omega is introduced within 40 minutes to overshadow her? Why could Mrs Flood break the 4th wall? Why was Poppy in Space Babies? WHY is everything bone themed?? Perhaps to signify that the show I loved is nothing more than a fossil, all the substance is gone and all we have left is hype moments and aura farming. The skeleton of the show is its characters, and without the fleshy substance of them... they are only names,  spewing out with accompanying flashbacks.

Ironically, I think this episode does actually reflect a lot of my problem's with the episode. Don't doubt, just accept.

Maybe I’m easy to please and my opinion of a first watch is often far better than after some time has passed, but I loved this episode. It had me jumping up from the sofa and the last couple of minutes had me almost crawling into my TV.

The Rani is maybe not entirely accurate to her earlier portrayal, but she is also a different incarnation and a lot of time has passed, so it’s close enough for me. The dance scene had me worried for a second, but I actually rather like it now. I am also a huge fan of secret-third-thing time lord relationships so that played right into that.

I’m very interested to see what they do with Omega. Can’t say on that one yet.

I really liked how the Wish World showed its cracks with misogyny and homophobia and ableism. I think that shows really well how often the ‘perfect’ world of some people forgets about those who don’t fit in. It gave me a sense of visceral horror most of the episode which was really poignant to me.

Not quite sure yet what is up with Poppy, we’ll have to see on that.

Didn’t like the Rogue cameo. The CGI was weird, it’s odd that that would be the character calling the doctor back, yeah, not a fan of that.

This one is a hard one to rate and review. It's very much a first part, but I don't think it really takes advantage of the format. It adds more mysteries on top of more mysteries, without really answering too many questions until the end. And the answers at the end just set up more questions, leading to me fearing that The Reality War will be overstuffed.

Something that annoys me is that The Doctor has little to no agency. He doesn't solve what's going on or work it out by himself at all; he gets it explained to him just as he was on the cusp of things. He was so close to cracking it! And then just didn't get to at all.

After being set up amazingly in TRR and being fun for the rest of the year, Belinda has felt somewhat wasted and I'm sad to say that she really felt it here today. She didn't get much to do other than just help contribute to the doubt mystery and uh.... Get captured and uh... That's it! Ruby got more to do and it's frustrating honestly.

And final thing to be negative about: The Rani here felt to me very Mastery. Campy, loving doing her schemes, flirting with 15.... It just felt off. There were glimmers (I love that she says she isn't an enemy due to death, this rules and feels like her) but so many times it feels less like she's a scientist with no ethics, and more just like a NuWho Master wanting to conquer and destroy with only a few good moments. Pity.

Enough negativity though! I did love a lot of things!

The dystopian setting was done and paced beautifully. The world here felt well realised and fleshed out, and the mystery box was super fun to watch unravel.

I really liked Ruby's moments (even if the camp was too similar to Curse of Clyde Langer....) and the performances were all great (Panjabi is fantastic even if I think she's barely The Rani), and I love the idea of Conrad not even acknowledging or noticing the oppressed so they can rebel without issue.

Also wow this was gorgeous !!!

I liked this episode and had a fun time watching it, just unfortunately there's more negatives to talk about than positives sadly.

A lot of set up I’m not gonna lie but I enjoyed it a lot it really depends on the finale now to justify the rating

i had a theory that belinda would turn out to be susan in the cliffhanger but thats basically junk now. ANYWAY holy s**t good luck trying to make omega interesting, rtd (the audio story did a good job but this is. not that)

Why the hell did I buy cinema tickets for this???

I think this might be it for me, Doctor Who is not for me anymore and I hate to say it but this genuinely made me nostalgic for Empire Of Death of all things I cannot fathom how much of a MESS the finale will be.

I don't give a rating for episodes in a two-parter until I see how it finishes, but I do have some thoughts.

Overall, I am conflicted, but I am erring on the side of that I enjoyed it.

The world building of Conrad's Wish World is fantastic - brilliant dystopian vibes, the looming authority threat preventing any questions, and a world which represses anyone who does not fit his ideals. This is wonderfully dark, and handled so well. A whole episode of this, with Conrad using the power of the Gods to manipulate this would be fantastic! Particularly seeing the Doctor and Belinda in this world is great, as their doubt bleeds through.

The Rani is played so well by Panjabi, I really began to enjoy her performance. However, I'm not sure she fully works within this story. She is brilliant, and so menacing, but underserved in favour (and rightfully so) for Conrad's Wish World story. I'm hoping for more from her in the next story, and I hope it also fixes some of the issues with her characterisation. Throughout this story, she was much more of a Master clone then like the Rani that we have met before, and I hope that the science led Rani can return properly in the next story.

And it does lead me to the worst part of the story - the cliffhanger. Yes, Omega is a great concept who I think would work so well in the show. But, this isn't the story to promise his return - it seems so shoehorned and forced, when there was enough threat from the villains, and the Baby God as it is.

Even with this, there is so much I have loved, and I think it's a lot to enjoy, but equally a lot that has left me underwhelmed or anxious.

Fingers crossed Davies can stick the landing.....

It feels incomplete, just half a story with it's only purpose to reveal that Omega's back.

A bloated nothing burger that pokes you with the nostalgia stick hoping you will keep watching. I am because I’m too far into the show to stop but damn I do not care about whatever is happening next, spent to much time on characters we haven’t seen in forever and magic sucks. I’m all for a little fantasy but when DW of all shows has a literal magic baby that grants wishes, no science required. That crosses a line

Oh boy here we go.
I won't hide spoilers, because there are just a lot.

Now I can safely say that RTD is running out of ideas.

This episode tries to be the S4 finale so hard that I can't help but laugh.

I mean:
- The setup of the universal threat? Check.
- Return of everyone everywhere all at once? Check.
Except this episode fails not only to reach the impact of *The Stolen Earth* (because it's just the same thing again but worse), it fails even to reach *The Legend of Ruby Sunday* (because it's just overloaded with exposition, the entire episode is just exposition), which I - the number one *Empire of Death* hater, consider genuinely good.

Anyway, I was excited about the Rani's return. I haven't reached any of her episodes in Classic Who yet, but I was curious. And just what I was worried about happened - RTD turned her into the Master. Seriously, she behaves just like him here - the manneurisms, the plan of resurrecting the ancient deity, the relationship between her and the Doctor.
I swear, can we have a classic who villain not being corrupted by RTD for five minutes? However I will say that I'm glad that we were shown the dynamic between the two Ranis - with Mrs Flood mockingly discussing the Rani's orders.
And the Omega, oh DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE OMEGA
Not only it seems that RTD is about to retcon him with another one of his childhood headcanons, but after what RTD did to Sutekh, I do not trust him a single bit. I like Omega way more than I like Sutekh, and I'm fully expecting to receive a bucketful of crap.

And another thing - dialogues.
They are really over the top, and that's my problem with 15's era as a whole. As if BBC realized that the kids are watching and just went YouTube - made everything as kid friendly as humanly possible, explaining everything like the viewers don't even know how to walk yet. Who let the child of Mary Whitehouse run the show? The enemies to lovers arc is crazy.

Also the topic of ableism.
I'm not disabled in any way nor am I educated in the topic, but... what the hell?
The only time when something was shoved that hard towards the viewers was *The Star Beast*. I hate that episode with my soul, because it basically told me to get lost.
Here it is the same - the topics get shoved in and RTD doesn't even try to hide it.
Ruby asks a genuinely logical question - "Why are the girls on the wheelchairs spies?", only to get slapped with "Ew, ableist!". Twitter must've loved this scene.
The idea of the disabled people being able to resist Conrad would've made sense, if:
a) It wasn't shoved that hard
b) Conrad was an ableist
*Lucky Day* didn't show us whether he was, so this feels kind of out of nowhere. Maybe I don't remember him behaving like that, correct me if I'm wrong.

As for the story itself - there is no story.
There is an interesting setting that is kind of reminds me of *Human Nature* or *The Natural History of Fear*, which isn't a bad thing. The family sections were actually pretty sweet.
But then it gets overloaded with exposition. BOOM - Conrad, BOOM - Susan's cameo, BOOM - Rogue, BOOM - the Ranis capture the Doctor, BOOM - the exposition dance where the Rani doesn't even try not to behave like the Master, BOOM - flashbacks, BOOM - the god of stories who isn't even explained, BOOM - Omega who is retconned, BOOM - Earth goes BOOM, BOOM - dramatic "To be continued" which solidifies the status of this episode as *The Stolen Earth* wannabe.

And the episode tries to behave as if it is self-aware, with the Rani commenting on the exposition, but it doesn't work. It feels like a mockery and that the writer is running out of ideas.

Russell... get out. Just get out. Go publish your fanfics on AO3 or something.
Leave the chair for new people who know what they're doing.

A dystopian world where thoughtcrime is a punishable offence, and the masses are kept placated and entertained by the adventures of a man called The Doctor.

Basically, we have an answer for just how much The Natural History Of Fear has to be sanded-down to become an actual TV story.

I quite like the Milk Wars-esque aesthetic of the Wish World, along with the many blink-and-you-miss-them bits of dialogue that underpin the heteronormative, ableist, patriarchal society this is. The set design for the Bone Palace might be one of my favourite villain lairs of the entire franchise; if I ever got my hands on a TARDIS, it's a real toss-up between this and Eighth's Victorian interior for what I would make it look like. Those giant roaming bone creatures are sick too.

As for the story, it's... well, it's not as exciting as The Legend Of Ruby Sunday. It's another case of putting in the brickwork for the conclusion, and while the dystopian satire is fun and all, the messaging feels a bit muddled. Like, is it good to have doubts and questions about the way society is presented or not? Thematically, sure, it leans in that direction, with Conrad rewriting the story of his world into what he wants to be real, and I got quite a kick from Shirley saying that her and her group of disabled truthers were going to take down a God. But narratively, considering how this first part concludes, it loses itself in the rush of revelation.

Same goes for the Rani. Archie Punjabi is really good in her performance, but the writing feels off in a number of ways. She's supposed to be a scientist with no care for ethics, so her experiments are all merciless free-for-alls, and the construction of this world as a trap for the Doctor as part of an even larger scheme fits a certain 'mad science' niche that could have worked... but are they really trying to set her up as the Doctor's ex or something? Combining that with him and Belinda in this new reality, and the cameo from Rogue, the relationship dimensions of this story are all over the map.

I will say, though, that I genuinely did not see that ending reveal coming. I was open to seeing the Rani return (even with my misgivings about the realisation here), but the return of my all-time favourite Time Lord villain in Omega has me well and truly hyped for the finale.

I AM HOOKED.

Bring on the finale!!!!

PEAK,CINEMA