It would have been nice to not know that. Miserable mess of an episode, but I did actually heavily enjoy it. I have a hard time hating something as messily entertaining as that.

Big big caveat: the plot ends 25 minutes in . Omega and the Rani are defeated and it’s done and the second half of the story is incredibly messy . That was fairly idiotic. But the second half is . well, it’s more cohesive.

I am sick of the pageantry that regeneration specials have become. I feel the same way about Power of the Doctor in that I had immense joy about the cameos and performances but apathy about the story itself . Give me a caves of Androzani again. Give me a planet of the spiders again. A normal story where Dr. who’s back is against the wall and he has to do the unthinkable.

A genuine catharsis — the Torchwood Story Continues characters have been so formative for me as a creative being, a writer, a person, and I am deeply thankful for them. This is a powerful and beautiful story, and I hope those who need to hear it hear it.

I very much liked this and have very little negative to say. Gemma's a blast, and she brings out a semblance of good acting in Baggs. Not much, but a semblance. The script helps and there's actual atmosphere. There's a good plot! I had a phenomenal time, and if it wasn't for the pathetic camera work, this would be a legitimate reccomendation.

I'm exceedingly charmed. I mean, this is the same quality of the PROBE case files, but with a $19 dollar budget instead of a 2 cent one, it has the capacity to deeply entertain. A very So Bad It's Good Experience, I had a magnificent time with this, unlike pretty much every other Case File. I will note there shouldn't be a horrific nonconsensual scene in the middle of it, which was exceedingly distasteful. But it's the most entertaining any of these has ever been, and in a series that has mostly been misery because it is so boring, this is an enormous success in NOT being boring. Yee-haw.

The only way I can reconcile this depiction of Maxie is that it's Giles' perturbed fanfiction of what Maxie is like. I hardly know anything about Maxie and yet I know that it is wrong. It's Giles glazing fic. Maxie calls him perfect so many times, and the script constantly uses the word "female." I hate how many of these are in contention for my least favorite thing.

The only way I can reconcile this depiction of Maxie is that it's Giles' perturbed fanfiction of what Maxie is like. I hardly know anything about Maxie and yet I know that it is wrong. It's Giles glazing fic. Maxie calls him perfect so many times, and the script constantly uses the word "female." I hate how many of these are in contention for my least favorite thing.

Astonished by how much I liked this one. I had VERY little hope going in (because finale bullshit is almost universally never my thing) but this was deeply fascinating, and I will still probably enjoy it lots even if the next part is dog-water. The large-ensemble cast of RTD-2 who is weaponized here in a remarkably clever way, reorganizing a comfortable world into a terrifying landscape without any sort of nuance. The way this "Wish World" exists is just very well done, because it's the ultimate extreme of Conrad as a character, who is infantilized in a very scary way. He doesn't have room in his head for places that aren't Britain -- he can't picture bits of Africa and India and so they go away. Mel's line about life as a single woman is the high point of the episode, though Ibrahim nearly turning on the Doctor when he compliments him was another frightening highlight. I wish we could have spent even longer in this eerie bizarro world -- the wrongness of this episode was very up my street.

I don't give a rat's ass about Omega or The Rani's evil plan or Time Lord Lore or anything, I simply don't, because there's no way that the TV stuff will outdo the expanded material in that regard, and there's additionally pretty much no way the next episode delivers a satisfying narrative. But for a glimpse down a miserable uncanny valley, this was an absolute delight as far as I'm concerned.

By far the best looking P.R.O.B.E. case file, this is some very nice atmospheric work. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a plot. There's a bit about an alien crashing and some London Underground stuff....

Clever tie-in with a book I haven't read. Faction Paradox deserves better than Bill Baggs, but this is still definitely one of the most effective case files.

Bill's out on a holiday. I'd say it's Giles, but it's clearly Bill Baggs on vacation. It's hot apparently. There's a seizure warning on this one for bright flashing lights, but I didn't see any. As for the plot: No. There isn't one.