Wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this one, but it blew me away. A beautifully absurd romp through history.

RTD's introduction of fantasy elements and the idea of gods without sci-fi explanations is paying off in full here, I wasn't sure about the Goblins, and whilst the Toymaker was amazing, he was an existing villain. Maestro is one of the best villains the show has ever had, their erratic nature is so much fun to watch whilst still being terrifying, because it really feels like they could do anything. The Master has been somewhat like this since Simm, but the powers of the pantheon of gods being introduced here take it to a whole new level.

Ncuti and Millie are just as perfect as in Space Babies, and Ncuti really gets to show off his dramatic skills here, we see glimpses of a darker Doctor peering through, and I can't wait to see more. I suspect Boom! will show us more, based on the glimpses we've seen.

The time jump took me by surprise, really reinforcing the idea that RTD just is not interested in companion setup. I suppose with the reduced episode count he wanted to get straight to the meat of the season rather than wasting half the season on setup, but it does feel a bit odd. These two episodes have quite a difficult task, they have to introduce the concept of the show to new viewers, whilst also not boring existing viewers. This was easier for S1, because it had been so long since the show ended that the fanbase that didn't need anything reintroducing was much smaller, but there's a much more careful balance that needs to be had here, and I'm not totally sure yet whether they've managed it.

If the season continues on like this, I think it's safe to say we're back.
Who's next week's written by again?

... shit.

8.5/10

I wasn't expecting much going into this one, but it was a solid piece of television.

The Doctor and Ruby are immediately perfect, I'd seen complaints that they felt a bit cookie cutter from previews, but I don't get that at all, their interactions feel so genuine and so full of joy, yet there is absolutely still some tension between them early on.

That being said, a lot of it felt very "we need to do XYZ with  Ruby so she can be a full companion, so let's get it all over with ASAP", seeing space, the phone upgrade, the TARDIS key at the end, RTD doesn't seem too interested in a slow start for them, he wants to get right into the action and regular Doctor Who episodes, with a less likeable and talented cast, this might not work, but I think he might have just about pulled it off here.

The Space Babies themselves were... something. The CGI on their mouths never quite felt right, but even as someone who despises children, I couldn't help but find them a bit cute, primarily through the way the Doctor and Ruby interact with them.

The way this episode looks at the Timeless Child revelations through the lens of how it would affect a real person is such a breath of fresh air, finally seeing the Doctor actually talk about it, rather than just brooding, it's incredible. The links to Gatwa's real experience escaping the Rwandan genocide are also appreciated, Gatwa really does feel like the perfect person to be playing 15.

The Bogeyman was amazing visually, and the idea of him being made of the babies' snot was perfectly gross, but I feel they could have done a little more with him, as well as the overall allegory for the fight surrounding reproductive rights. Going too overt with it might have taken away from the episode a bit, but I feel like RTD was playing it a little too safe with this one. Maybe with an extended runtime they could have delved a little deeper into the questions it seems to be tepidly trying to raise, but at the same time this was a perfectly paced 45 minutes, and loading overt political commentary onto the new audience within the first episode would have probably been a mistake. (Although, that never stopped them from making an allegory for socialism in An Unearthly Child!)

We'll have to see the rest of the season to tell how good of an introduction this is to the concept of RTD2 when compared to past era-openers (although it's unclear if this or Ruby Road is intended as the jumping on point for new viewers, neither feels like it's truly without baggage) but I've got high hopes going forward.

7.5/10

Pretty good overall, but my issue with this story - and this range - is the release format

It worked for Once and Future and Sontarans vs Rutans, where the stories were mostly unconnected and you only needed to remember vague details about past stories to understand the next, but with Dark Gallifrey, at least so far, they're very much 3 part stories, not 3 individual stories.

With the month long wait after Part 1, I felt totally lost starting up Part 2 and picking up exactly where we left off, I couldn't tell you a thing about the ending of part 1, and with no quick recap at the start, I felt lost throughout most of the story.

These should be done weekly throughout a month, then space out each 3 part segment by a couple of months. Unless the Morbius story and the War Master story link together as much as these three parts do I see no reason they need to be just as close together.