The date is the 27th of April. My bestie and I are talking about how fun Doctor Who is at the cinema and they wanted to watch it. We pray that it will get announced.

The date is the 29th of April. It gets announced. I joke that if I lived closer we'd watch together. A few hours later I pitch to them maybe me travelling the 4.5 hours to do it anyway. I am now going cross country to see my mate, and to watch the finale of a series I quite enjoyed.

By end of the week everything's booked, I'm £160 out of pocket, and it is scheduled.

The date is the 24th of May. I wake up at 7:30am. I get ready for my morning. I go for a jog at 8am. I eat a Baynes breakfast roll while I watch Wish World at 9am. I enjoy the episode somewhat but have tonnes of issues with The Rani's characterisation and the amount of set up. I am tentatively excited for Omega.

The date is the 30th of May. I decide to relisten to Omega at the gym in prep. I like it but find it messy and overly long.

The date is the 31st of May. On the train, I watch The Three Doctors (Tales of the TARDIS) in prep. I love it. Omega is such a dominating presence and continues to be one of my favourite villains ever. I then read some Heavenly Tyrant and reach some great twists and reveals before getting off the train to meet my friend.

They walk me to my hotel where I accidentally get two keycards cause they walked in with me. They are not staying with me. Amusing.

We then walk down the canal and go to various manga shops. I buy Show-Ha Shoten volume 1, Frieren volume 6, and One Piece volumes 46-49 in an omnibus as they have a three for two deal. The teller is lovely and gives my friend loyalty card points from my purchase.

We went to a Japanese restaurant literally next door afterwards. My friend orders the best looking Udon I've ever seen. I get takoyaki and ramen. Both are great. They have an Utada Hikaru playlist going. I'm in such a good mood.

We then go to Waterstones and window shop before heading to the cinema.

I enjoy Wish World more this time and then go for a pee. Turns out the intermission this time is only about 5 mins and barely make it back in time.

I watch the worst episode RTD has ever written and leave annoyed. My friend has fun but doesn't really love it either. They are very patient with my complaining.

We went to an arcade bar after and played Switch for 2 hours while having cocktails during happy hour. I win at Smash and we draw at Mario Kart. Neither of us know how to play Mario Super Strikers.

I go back to the hotel and say good night. Tomorrow we will go wander around town again before my train at 2pm.

Day out: 7/7

This episode?: 2/7

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.

I liked this a lot! But I didn't love it by any means, I'm sad to say. I'd place it above Lucky Day and Robot Revolution in my rankings, but below Lux.

I was cautiously optimistic going into this. Eurovision has become fairly famously propaganda for a certain.... country that helps sponsor it. Banning flags, banning "political messaging" (but always happens to be messaging in a specific direction... curious, eh?), refusing to ban said country despite banning Russia, etc. And thus, despite having complete confidence in Juno Dawson, I feared that the BBC, Disney, and higher ups on the show would make this propaganda.

I am pleased to say that this did an attempt at being critical of Eurovision, and succeeded in many ways but failed in others. The Hellians are very obviously a stand-in for Palestinians, and the Corporation for Israel. Initially I thought this was just going pure anti-capitalism because of, well we'll get to that, but once the ball dropped for me I was so happy. And that ending with Cora! Beautiful stuff! I do hope though this isn't seen as "wow now all prejudice is fixed!" and more just as "people are reminded that these demonised victims of a conflict they did not cause are people too with their own cultures and lives, and deserve love and respect.

Now unfortunately, as I alluded to, I think it failed too. I think by having the villains be Hellian terrorists who want revenge, there's an angle of almost "both siding" this, especially as they don't just revenge solely on the Corporation, but on everyone at large. Is that really fair? Does that not give a lot of the right and the lobby that this episode is trying to criticise some ground to stand on? You can't give it to them, if you concede on even small points, you are opening the gateway for them to push more and more and deny your arguments entirely. I won't say this ruined the episode for me - again, it was more critical of Eurovision happily accepting said sponsor and banishing Palestine entirely than I was expecting - but it did leave a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.

Enough about the politics for now though (WOW DOCTOR WHO MORE LIKE DOCTOR WOKE AM I RIGHT FELLAS????), let's talk about the episode itself.

I had heard going in it was Die Hard meets Eurovision and I am SO glad it was more Die Hard than Eurovision. The plot was fairly light despite a lot going on, but it was fun! Maybe a tad too camp for my liking at points, but still fun! I love the idea of 15 and Belinda getting separated, though I don't think Bel got enough to do (other than continue to be a very good beating heart as all companions should be). I just wish she got some action or got to use her nurse skillset in some way.

Fab performances from the main cast as always, and I'm so glad that darker 15 has been pushed more and more to the forefront! I always love seeing companions scared of The Doctor's rage.

Side performances were fine this time. After the delight that was The Barber and the absolutely realness that was Aliss; the side cast were kinda just... There. Also how convenient is it that The Doctor ran into a nurse and a hologram engineer when he needed to? I wish these skillsets - especially Gary's engineering - were established beforehand because it felt almost like a copout to me.

Overall, the story itself was fine for me. I had a good enough time to give a 4 star, but nothing elevated it for me.

Oh wait. I forgot to talk about the reveals.

I jumped out of my chair when I saw Susan. I famously on the forums am super critical of her not appearing in season 40, so having her appear her - still portrayed by 84 year old Carol Ann Ford, who looks gorgeous for her age btw - made me SO excited and happy! Russell. Do not let the side down. We need her to have a sweet moment with 15. And preferably keep it vague so it doesn't retcon her adventures in the 8DAs <3

The Rani reveal was fine. I think the performances are fun, but I hate bigeneration! Why can't it be gone!! And why did Anita Dobson's Rani suddenly do a 180 personality wise and become subservient? It felt weird. The new Rani has amazing screen presence though and I'm hyped to see what Panjabi can do in the role. Also the reveal felt so weird in that it was just? Very casual? It left me with little impact. Though by having it here I'm hoping it means the two part finale will get plenty of room to breathe.

The everyone is The Rani meme is dead. Long live the everyone is The Rani meme.

4* - a very fun time that I have quite a few issues with, but the strengths of it carry me through those issues

I wanna give this a 4.5 but there's just enough detractors. But before that: this is one of the funniest stories ever, with amazing dialogue from Adams, fantastic wit, a very fun villain performance from The Captain, and great nuanced performances from both Tamm and Baker. And the premise!!! It's such a cool sci-fi concept executed decently.

But the Mentiads are just sooooo boring. And the Queen Xanxia twist comes kinda out of nowhere and hijacks the entire story, making the final part a bit of a letdown and a drag. More than enough for me to dock half a star.

Oh and on a neutral note: the bad special effects this time made me laugh hard, but I can't really be too critical of ambition

I can never trust Brax ever again.

In one ear. Out of the other. Though I am happy to hear Narvin being Narvin :) The ending has some good 8 stuff too

I love Macqueen!Master and I love Molly but I just genuinely could not care less about the Eminence

I absolutely adore stories about stories, and stories about creation. Look Back, Akane-Banashi, Blue Period, Eizouken are all favourites of mine. Uh whoops, all of these are all anime/manga, but like, you get the gist right? Art about art gets me to my soul.

Now combine that with a story structure, setting and voice we have never had before. Inua Ellems' voice shown throughout this. This didn't feel like anything we've had before in Doctor Who (other than the resolution, slightly. Which we'll get to shortly). The dialogue flowed in a way that felt wholly unique. The concept was fresh. The conflict itself even! This is why I've been begging for new voices since the start of the era! And while it's great when we get episodes like Rogue, which are done by new writers but feel like standard Who fair with new penmanship, this is a whole other level. This was brand new!

It looked gorgeous too. I love mixed media and the mixed media storytelling on the windows was beautiful. The direction? Fantastic. And oooh it was a bottle episode <3 Love those!

Performances were incredible. Abby and The Barber both felt liked nuanced characters not just due to their dialogue, but primarily due to their performances. There were layers to each and honestly, both of them are some of the best guest stars we've ever had (other than Ayling-Ellis in The Well, who I still think is maybe the best side character performance ever). Fab stuff.

And 15! I feel like I'm learning more and more of who he actually is this series, and Ncuti Gatwa plays a quiet wrathful Doctor who is also open to give second chances to those who deserve it, and to those who aren't necessarily evil so well. While I've had issues in the past with how undefined this Doctor has felt to me, Gatwa himself has never once let me down with his performance, and this week he elevated it to a whole new standard. He's such a stellar actor, and I really hope we get him for a few more years, rumours and fears be damned!

Resolution wise, while yes "I am The Doctor and I am old and cool!" is a very NuWho standard resolution at this point, here it felt like it was better set up and earned after Ol' Doccy Who got access to the engine. "I'm born. I die. I'm born." Beautiful stuff. I genuinely thought this landed because it was old hat done in a way that felt new and unique.

Oh and yes, I did lose my mind at the Jo Martin cameo. I gamer leaned and physically gasped. Amazing having you here, Fugitive darling <3

Fantastic episode and on immediate gut feeling, my favourite of the series so far.

We're so back.

It is no secret to those who know me that Robert Shearman is my favourite Doctor Who writer of all time. Chimes of Midnight is probably my favourite Doctor Who story of any medium. Deadline is probably my favourite Big Finish script. Even Scherzo and Dalek (TV), my two lowest rated Shearman stories, I gave 4.5 stars to; with Dalek (TV) being one that I could arguably bump up to 5 stars. I feel like Shearman understands the show in ways few others do, and he is incredibly skilled as a storyteller, especially in his use of tone.

So of course, I was excited for the Target novelisation. And when I first read it a few years ago, I enjoyed it but didn't love it.

For its 20th anniversary, I rewatched Dalek (TV) and loved it, giving it aforementioned 4.5 stars. My only criticisms being that Adam Mitchell isn't a good character and wastes time and space; and that I wish Rose felt more guilt for her actions leading to the deaths of so many. After watching this episode and adoring it, I decided I'd give the novel another shake to see if I'd enjoy it more this time around, especially with the episode it's adapting still in my mind.

This is my least favourite Shearman by a large margin, and it frustrates me to no end that it is because so many of his best qualities shine throughout.

Let me start with the positives: this is an incredible read. As prose, it's easily a 4-4.5 star. The way that Shearman writes is beautiful, compelling and accessible. The story flows from one word to the next with ease, and I felt it was definitely a bit of a page turner. I also feel like that there two significant changes both work: Goddard becoming an FBI agent gives her so much more depth, and it makes her betrayal of Van Statten feel more fleshed out and real; and the Van Statten's fate not only adds a karmic justice, but also makes the titular Dalek feel more calculating, and cruel. To cause this fate not through physical violence or death, but purely psychologically hurting Van Statten. It's very Whittaker in the Dalek portrayal, and very Shearman in the psychological sense.

I will be talking more about the backstories in a moment, but there are two that stand out: the first and the last. The first is just a very good short story with great prose and character insights. The latter.... It's just spectacular, and the insight it gives into the Dalek's past is just absolutely stellar.

But here we get to the crux of the issue I have with this adaptation: there are only 2 significant changes to the narrative itself, and there are multiple new backstories with only one that truly gives me new insight into the story, with the other one I praised being great in and of itself, but in the context of Dalek the story? Why do I care? It didn't make me feel for the torturer more, nor did it make me feel for his death. I just thought it was a nice, unrelated short story that Shearman had glued into his Dalek novelisation.

For me, these backstories are just distracting. They interrupt the flow of the narrative and no matter how well written they are, it just makes the story feel bloated as they don't really make me feel more invested in the characters they're about, with exception of the final backstory character, and to an extent Goddard.

I also feel like because the rest of the book is a fairly straight adaptation and so much time is spent on these side characters, 9 and Rose almost feel sidelined in their own story... And it really does harm it for me. There are a few great small moments where added depth is given to both, but the breakneck pace at which the normal adaptation happens while the backstories get fleshed out and more time to breathe makes it feel like Shearman almost wasn't too interested in actually doing Dalek. It genuinely feels almost bizarre having the main characters rush along while side ones get so much focus.

And that's the other issue: the pacing. The start and end (especially the end) feel rushed, and scenes from the TV episode really are just in here almost verbatim with only minor changes for the most part, and we move on from them super quickly. But again, the backstories get very long, very dedicated sections. And it just emphasises the problem of them being distracting from the narrative.

2.5 may feel harsh when I loved the writing so much, but it's what I feel in my heart. Because while I think this is an amazing book, I don't think it's a good adaptation. I wish it fleshed out the actual scenes of the episode, instead of brushing past them. I wish it tied the backstories more into the narrative. I wish the backstories weren't given almost entirely to characters who die and we don't care about.

It's just a frustrating book because I know Shearman can do better! He has before, multiple times! He hopefully will come October with his next adaptations! Hell, he has in this very own book at points. But in my heart of hearts, I feel this is just a let down. Maybe it could one day be a 3 for me, but with how much it annoys me in the way it's done, I doubt it.

What a shame.

The phrase "this is your Lucky Day" was said multiple times so this story is a 5/5 and McTighe is certifiably not the hack I feared he would be going into this.

Seriously though, this is a great episode. A great episode that I can't appreciate as much as I'd like to because of one thing: "Ruby gets a new boyfriend and he's secretly evil" is the most obvious twist of all time. It's no exaggeration to say that I rolled my eyes and groaned at the reveal. I didn't even see the leaks and I still went into the episode expecting this, so having it happen is a huge letdown and annoyance - especially when up until that point the episode had successfully set him up as a naïve toxically masculine buffoon who was maybe just a little too interested in The Doctor despite how small an impact 15 had on him as a kid. I thought that this was a more interesting interpretation of the character than just him being a flat baddie, so I was frustrated as hell. But I acknowledge entirely that this is an issue of my own creation; caused by my expectations alone.

I think the fact that I got so annoyed at the above though goes to show that the execution was really good. I was truly convinced by the first half of what was going on that when it happened I elicited a response, even if not necessarily the one McTighe wanted. And that's good! That's a great twist!! That's a great reveal!!! Even if it's one I didn't want to happen!!!

Okay. Fine. Let's move on and talk about everything else with the episode.

What did we do to deserve Millie Gibbo? She's such an incredible talent, as we learnt last year, and she further shows that here. While I did find her character flat in spite of her amazing performance in season 40, here we get a lot of depth and we get to examine something NuWho's done a few times: what happens to a companion after The Doctor leaves? What is their mental state? And I love love love what we get here. Yes, The Doctor improved Ruby's life significantly. But he also ruined it. She's got PTSD. She's paranoid. And she feels alone. Yes, she has 100 mums (great gag from Shirley btw), yes she has a great support network, but she feels alone with him. And like she's unable to have a normal life and process what's happening. It's a natural extension of 73 Yards and it's fab! It's fantastic character writing and development for her, played beautifully by Gibson.

This is Kate's best episode on TV by far. She has a lot of depth and so many layers to her, and Redgrave puts in her best performance in the role yet. I loved her in Legend of Ruby Sunday and everything I loved there is on display here in spades. She is cold. She is angry. And she is willing to go to any lengths to defend her duty, and her father's legacy. And what she's doing might not be morally correct, but have UNIT ever been truly the good guys? They have an important role in the universe, and they're fundamentally more good than bad, but they are still a military complex! They still have wrongdoings! And she plays that moral ambiguity and greyness perfectly. And I love that the script does go into this and explores that! I feel like sometimes Doctor Who forgets that UNIT aren't just 100% good guys.

I also love that this episode criticises the manosphere, and in such a real feeling way. Conrad was a truly believable villain, and I think it's fundamentally important he didn't learn his lesson. He didn't get a redemption. Sometimes people are just bad people. And brilliantly performed too! He felt so real.

But of course the stand out of the episode was the scene with 15. I've always wanted more angry 15 because the few glimpses we get have been amazing, and here it was: unsubtle and unafraid to call out toxic people. And fantastically performed by Gatwa. The sheer rage he felt towards Conrad was palpable. And the way it was shot! I loved the darker colours of the TARDIS to reflect the mood.

I came out of this episode immediately thinking it was the weakest of the series so far. But considering how much positive I have to say.... I think maybe it was actually kinda great, and I'm just mad that the premise was so predictable - even if the execution was brilliant and took it in a direction I never expected.

Fine. I'll give it to you. It's your Lucky Day, McTighe.