Ahh, a political episode by Pete McTighe. Here we go again. Political stories tend to be the ones I dig my teeth into the most so bear with me and we’ll see how long I go for.

I have seen a lot of people say that this episode is a redemption for Mctighe after the less than loved episodes of Kerblam and Praxeus. And this is definitely a step up, it's the best episode he's written. But it still bears the giant unmissable stain that has defined the failures of all 3 of his episodes in my mind, and that is his compulsion to default to authority, in ways that distort reasonable plots into outright harmful messaging that seems to be indicative of a very authoritarian politics.

Taken in isolation, the story of Conrad and his followers could make some sense. If you consider every time throughout the show's history that the Earth has been invaded by aliens, often within plain sight of the majority of the population, a propagandist spreading a false narrative about how every invasion and sighting was faked for a secret agenda of supposedly making people scared and submissive could work. But that only does work if this was situated in a world with an established continuity about public perceptions of UNIT and more broadly alien life. There is no sense of that having been established either within this era of the show or within this episode. It seems that every time we return to present day Earth everyone has forgotten or covered up previous alien incursions, and this is sometimes even addressed directly in the past. Which is fine and allows for tension to be maintained and for new viewers to be welcome without needing to be aware of how the Earth in universe differs from our one. But what it does mean is that the possibility of this episode's premise goes out the window. Previous alien encounters barely get a mention here and so we are only left with UNITs recent behaviour to judge what the general public perception of them might be that Conrad is railing against.

And that behaviour is a UNIT that does act in a very shady manner. Hiding what they do from the general populace, holding technology far beyond what is available to anyone outside, being seemingly unaccountable to anybody or elected for their position by anybody, stuffing people into dark vans while running around with guns and military wear. Why exactly are we supposed to be entirely on board with the idea that criticising this institution is evil, or at all comparable to far right conspiratory behaviour we see in the real world? Because the fact that the episode wants us to map Conrad's behaviour onto far-right figures is not subtle in the slightest. It whacks us round the head with it, especially in the final scene between the Doctor and Conrad. Which would be fine, if the analogy landed in the slightest. Instead, the messaging seems to be muddied more towards something that says that scepticism towards powerful state institutions is evil and that these institutions always act with your interests and humanities interest in mind. Which I fear is the reason that McTighe created this analogy, as in Kerblam he believes that institutions of power should be defaulted to for morality and that societal issues come down to individuals wielding power in the wrong way, rather than any problem being a systemic one. This is even shown on the opposite side of the conflict in this episode when once Conrad is deposed of, everything seems to go back to normal. If we get rid of right-wing figureheads, another one just takes their place and martyr hood would often await someone like that. Not to say this is particularly offensive since the focus is on Conrad himself and the 45 minute episode doesn't have the scope to deal with the entire structure of conspiracies, but it is another aspect of a very simplistic, surface level politics that McTighe holds.

As for the characterisation of a conspiracist himself in Conrad, McTighe actually does pretty well. According to Michael Barkun there are 3 principles of conspiricism and 2 of them are very clear in Conrad- nothing happens by accident, and nothing is as it seems. The third principle, everything is connected, feels like it is missing from his characterisation, but that can be put down to the limited runtime. There probably was not time to delve further into Conrad's beliefs, into why he believes that UNIT would want to fake all these aliens. It would've been nice to explore Conrad's other likely unsavoury beliefs to round out how this narrative fits into his wider worldview. I enjoyed the fact that even in the face of overwhelming evidence at the end, Conrad does not change but he changes the conspiracy to make it fit to what he’s just seen. Which is very accurate to real life and shows how debunking conspiracy theorists is never a worthwhile effort unfortunately. It was also a very nice touch that Conrad was made to feel like he didn't matter by his mother at the start of the episode, it was a nice nod to how his conspiracies served an identity that made him feel like he did matter. Although I do wish that this was touched on again later so that it could be tied back into his character arc later on.

You might have to bear with me for a second on this one, but I can't help but think that the reason that McTighe manages to nail this characterisation is that their thinking ironically shares a lot of similarities, not in the messaging but the underlying thought process. McTighe is not a conspiracist, but like McTighe, conspiracists are often never able to place blame on institutional power structures. Instead to a conspiracist issues are always caused by unambiguously evil people with evil plans orchestrating evil plots in a very black and white power struggle of 'elites' vs 'the people'. McTighe consistent style of characterising villains in this way plays to his advantage here, and he was able to create a very dislikeable villain.

With all that being said, there is some fantastic character work in this episode. I think I liked Ruby the most I've ever liked her in this episode, more than I ever liked her during her actual run. The PTSD she is left with is very believable and I felt so sorry for her that when she was finally able to get some stability that she needed, but she was manipulated at her most vulnerable and that whole pillar was torn away so quickly from under her and revealed to all be false. Poor woman, I did feel so sorry for her. And I looooved the darker side to Kate's morality. I think UNIT should be somewhat more antagonistic to the doctor's morals. Both fighting for the defence of humanity, but UNIT in a more militaristic, ambiguous role. Willing to sacrifice people for its interest because it is more removed from personal emotions and ethics, as real life militaries are. If you get in their way, they will steamroll over you without second thought. If that's the direction that UNIT is taken in during the upcoming spin off that this episode is setting up, I am so down, strap me in. However I'm not sure whether that is the case or whether this darker moment is just another personal flaw in Kate herself. McTighe's writing record would have me believe the latter, but we'll have to see.

Contrary to past appearances, the final scene with Mrs Flood here does actually gain my interest, since it's not just a simple cameo with little substance, she is beginning to play more of an active role in the narrative, which is nice to see. I am reasonably excited to find out what role Conrad could be playing in the finale, as seemed to be alluded to. Last season's teasers were a huge let down, but I have higher hope for this season, because it feels like we're getting a little bit more substance to the teases now and Mrs Flood is clearly playing an actively villainous role rather than someone who is just a tool. But how Conrad could be a returning villain? I'm not sure but I hope his character is expanded upon further outwards, building on the base of his conspiracism into his wider worldview. This is just wild speculation but I'll spoiler anyway, if perhaps Mrs Flood is some sort of God of stories, maybe she has use for Conrad because of his power in the way he yields fake stories into something real? Which could be made literal in the process of manufacturing a false reality for the doctor. That could be fascinating and possibly again tie back into our political climate and the false narrative presented by much of our media.

So for me this is an episode that was built around a real life analogy that did not land in the slightest. And yet within there is some beautiful character work. I think it does continue the poisonous trend in McTighe's writing of sucking up to authority and creating stories that essentially end up as copaganda. And it is an episode that definitely struggles in a world where UNITs role in the world is not well established, and that murkiness is not helped within the episode: It is jarring that within this single episode UNIT is almost deified by a narrative that refuses to acknowledge their shortcomings, then later on has them committing such a morally ambiguous act through Kate.  It's an inconsistency that means I'm left unsure what impression of UNIT it wanted to leave, but I hope that can be established further and fleshed out in the spin off. I personally hope we get more of the morally ambiguous UNIT, one that does make tough decisions when it has to. Maybe as a spinoff it could go to those darker roles that the main show can't, and it could fill the same role Torchwood did in that way. The episode very nearly told an extremely relevant and potent story about far right conspiracies, but UNIT was undoubtedly in my eyes the wrong vehicle to be telling this story through. My mixed feelings mean that it's an episode I had a gut negative reaction to at first because of the taste the messaging left in my mouth, but one that had big potential that was at least partially realised given a second thought. I hope this set up for both the finale and the upcoming spin off pay off!!!

I've realised since listening to this story and loving it that it seems to be a controversial one without much of a consensus on it's quality, both loved and hated. And obviously by my rating I'm here to defend it, because it might be heavy on tropes that have been done before, but that's not a bad thing when it's done well with so much charm like it is here in my eyes. This was the 3rd Big Finish audio I ever listened to after Storm Warning and Sword of Orion, and this one holds a special place as the one which drawed me in to the world of audio for good and made the 8th Doctor really click for me.

The atmosphere and dialogue throughout are brilliant, which really capture a historic and traditional Venician setting, even if that technically wasn't what it was supposed to be. That could be one small criticism of the story, I completely forgot it was meant to be set in the far future, which could be explained away by the strong desire to preserve somewhere as historic as Venice leading to the future there looking just like the past, we can never tell what the future is going to look like. Such an explanation could've been done in just a few lines of dialogue, but is unfortunately missing from the story. I feel like the far future setting was written in to avoid having to do the explaining that would have to happen to fit this story into our own history. Nevertheless it's a very engaging and charming setting in every aspect and whether it's the past like it feels or is actually in the future doesn't feel too relevant while listening.

I can see why some people would think the ending is cliche and predictable, but it's actually the part of the story I love the most. The day was saved with love which has been done a million times before, but here it is done really well and it lands perfectly for me. It beautifully emphasises the beauty and power of humanity which I always think Dr who does best. I loved how the Doctor figured it all out in a beautiful speech, but ultimately all his words couldn't save the day, only humanity could. It's sweet and fantastical and I love it.

All in all it's a gorgeous story in a gorgeous setting which will always hold a special place in my heart for not only being where 8 and Charley settled in to their parts brilliantly in my eyes but also for it's wonderful charm and sentiment. 4.5 stars feels slightly generous but 4 stars isn't enough, it's an 8.5/10 for me.

What I've realised rewatching the 13th Doctor's era, after admittedly not giving it the full time of day at broadcast, is that my god it has pronounced ups and downs, its a rollercoaster. And nowhere is this as apparent to me going from Resolution into Spyfall. Resolution to me is a truly classic story, that allows the dalek(s) to be terrifyingly genius for the first time in such a long time. The dalek feels so real and gritty and creates true fear in me which is so hard to achieve using such a well known and used enemy as the daleks, because it feels so grounded in what is a believable and gripping plot.

I say this because Spyfall is the complete antithesis to everything that Resolution is. Part 1 isn't as criminal as part 2, but I could personally never enjoy a serial that is set up to be so cheesy and filled with overdone cliches without doing anything new with them really, not for me. But part 2 is where the plot becomes completely disparate and all over the place. We spend the time of the episode getting taken from time period to time period across history and after watching I'm not even sure why, except to save the dangling plot pieces that were thrown at us. It was all loosely held together by a thread by three very powerful enemies, at least two of which felt underutilised because of the need to throw as much extravagance into the plot for show. The tech CEO was a convincing villain, who really portrayed a coldness that was maybe my favourite part of the serial. The mysterious race from another universe and the master both honestly felt like they could've been left out to create a better story, we're left with 3 huge personalities as our villains that take up so much space without really clashing or being addressed in much of a meaningful way, their motivations, individually or as a mismatched alliance, never really explained. The Master especially honestly felt like he didn't have to be there, especially with no acknowledgement of the events of the Doctor Falls. It's the most unnuanced depiction of the Master in a long time which is a real shame after just having such a beautiful arc end with Missy, and we don't even know how they're supposed to fit together.

And then of course I take issue with Gallifrey being destroyed again so cheaply, apparently just because the Master had a tantrum, oopsie! The first time Gallifrey was seemingly gone in the time war it was a mythic event that defined the Doctor's character arc for series to come and was the ultimate sacrifice at the end of the greatest war known to time. Just awful for this episode to tack on at the end, "oh yeah by the way. Gallifrey's gone." Character work is far from this era's strong point, and such an extreme event will not be able to have justice done to it I fear. But I know there's more Resolutions to come, and after this showing I can't wait for an episode that will restore my faith.

So, I liked this episode much less when I watched it the first time around on christmas day with my family. I originally rated it 2.5/5 stars, and I think that's because to me it is one of the least christmassy christmas specials, only alongside Dr Mysterio for the christmas episode with the least christmassy energy in my eyes. And I know that's a positive in some people's eyes, that a lot of the christmas specials are saccharine which isn't for everyone, but personally I need my christmas specials to feel christmassy, which doesn't always have to mean excessive sentiment, just look at the best christmas special Last Christmas for how it can be done. Joy's holy sacrifice at Bethlehem obviously has christmas spirit, but I'll get into why the ending didn't do anything for me. Besides that it's just the christmas tree in the time hotel and other random decorations to tie it down to christmas really.

I'm much more positive about it now after a rewatch, although I still stand by what criticisms I did have. I think how the episode makes us feel on the initial watch is especially important on christmas day, when christmas is in the air and we expect a certain type of doctor who episode to fill the traditional role it has.

But on rewatch I really appreciate much more the positive aspects of the story- as a lot of other people said Anita was brilliant. She stands out in a large cast of guest characters as truly being the companion to the doctor in this story, she spends a year with the doctor in comparison to Joy, the titular character, who couldn't even have spent an hour with him!!! I do hope that Anita can return in some form, although I think a full return like Donna made is unlikely given that it seems she found her calling working in the time hotel, but maybe she finds her own way into adventures there- Big Finish pay attention!!!

The whole bootstrap situation that allowed the year with Anita to happen is also classic Moffat flair in the best way, and "It came from nothing. But so did the universe and nobody complains about that" is up there in my favourite quotes honestly. The darker moments of the anger at himself and when he brews up anger in Joy really show off Ncuti's range and that just because the doctor is more of a healed man since 14 doesn't mean he's all sunshine and rainbows, I love it.

But as for the criticisms, I do still think there were too many characters dying that the episode wanted us to care about which wasn’t justified in the little runtime we spent with them. 5 different side characters (including Joy), multiple of which got tears out of the doctor but weren't close to getting any out of me with their sacrifice at the end. I do think this is a good episode, let down by the ending in the last 10 minutes. The fact that Joy didn't get the time of day throughout the episode to justify being the main, titular character she was designed to be means that her sacrifice didn't have much emotional weight to me. And I can't get behind the dead characters gaining god like powers to just up and move the star lightyears away with what seems to be just pure willpower without any other explanation from the episode. They're conscious within the containment unit's systems I understand that, but it was established in the episode that when the star does bloom, it will do so just where it is on Earth.

And this one's more of a side note than a big criticism, but I do think the COVID bit means that part of the episode is timely to a time that has already passed in my eyes. As a political statement it's redundant because the consequences of partygate have already played out, the Tory party are already ruined and all the countries political establishments have punished them dearly for everything they did. The episode isn't saying anything new or insightful about it and there’s plenty things to be angry about that are timeless and not only relevant to events 3-4 years ago. As emotional catharsis, it feels too pointed to be reaching out to a large number of people affected, although I am fortunate enough to not have lost someone in a similar way to how Joy did and have that particular perspective who it could be more meaningful to.

I think this episode is a good special in a general sense, which is let down by it's ending and let down further personally by the fact it's a christmas special that doesn't feel much like one. If it weren't broadcast at christmas it could've got a low 4/5 stars honestly but given everything 3/5 feels fitting. I hope its the start of more Anita content!!!!

Insanely difficult and only the screen between levels can really tell you its even supposed to be doctor who themed but I like a challenge and I got to here to doctor who theme in 8 bit so