A very creative story in the Feast Of Steven Short Trips. It involves the First Doctor, Steven and Dodo arriving on an alien world where people are forced to partake in a game to the death. The reveal that it's a massive game of chess is very cool, and the Doctor being the King in the Chess game is a neat reveal.

As expected for 'A Feast Of Steven', The Doctor's Gambit is a great showcase for Steven Taylor. It shows his ingenuity, as he works out how to make it through the chess game without killing anyone, and also has a nice connection to the first story, with a woman who looks like his wife Harla from A Forest Of All Seasons.

This first story in Big Finish's Thirteenth Doctor Adventures is a ton of fun. Its story about a vampire lurking at a hen party makes for an entertaining opener, and I like how the vampire ties into the Great Vampires, the Dark Times and Ancient Gallifrey.

Jodie Whittaker is on top form, slipping back effortlessly into her Doctor's manic bundle of energy. The chickens Ian and Barbara are textbook Thirteenth Doctor, recalling her aloof nature that she often displayed onscreen. I was a little indifferent to Mandip Gill on TV, but I think much of my indifference was related to Yaz's lack of characterisation. She's much better here, due to the stronger script, which allows Mandip Gill to shine more in the role. We get to see more of her police detective skills, such aswhen she (incorrectly) deduces that the Great Vampire is Zoya, based on clues like the strawberry breath tying in with the strawberries she is using during her baking.

Vampire Weekend feels ripped straight from the Chibnall era. The music soundtrack evokes Segun Akinola very well, and the larger-than-life narrative feels perfectly in-keeping with other stories from the era, like It Takes You Away and Orphan 55. The beginning to The Thirteenth Doctor Adventures suggests plenty of promise for this new range's future.

This is by far the barmiest Doctor Who Magazine comic strip I have read. Some of it may be because as with the TV story Love & Monsters, it features monsters designed by kids as part of a children’s competition. This one is more successful than Love & Monsters, as the quirkier nature of the designs fits the comic medium better.

It concerns a hypnotising cat taking the Doctor to a dance floor where sentient interdimensional banana creatures have beaten Earth world leaders in the medium of dance. Their leader Beattie challenges the Doctor to a dance off: if he wins, they leave. If they win, they take over the Earth.

I’m not sure entirely how I feel about it. It’s certainly entertaining, and it fits the Fifteenth Doctor era like a glove. However, sometimes the silliness is a bit overpowering and removes any sense of jeopardy from the story.

A beautiful story, regarding the TARDIS crew landing inside a computer simulation of a forest, which has been copying people's memories to show them their possible futures. Steven and Harla's romance is sweet and believable, and Vicki also gets some nice character moments, despite being absent from a significant chunk of the story. She is faced with the opportunity to see her late father again, but tragically fails to reunite with him, which really makes you feel for the poor girl.

A lovely epilogue to Once And Future, concerning the Fugitive Doctor having been unknowingly hired to track down and kill the War Doctor. There's some nice callbacks to Big Finish's own history here, with appearances from Vienna and Bernice Summerfield. Bernice, particularly, works very well as the voice of someone who knows the Doctor very well, and is shocked at how different the Fugitive incarnation seems to the usual Doctor. Her horror at the Fugitive Doctor using weapons, ordering a Voord army, and having an armoury onboard the TARDIS sells how much of an outier this Doctor is compared to other incarnations, which is a nice symmetary of the War Doctor, who is also a notably more gung-ho incarnation.

Jonathan Carley as usual is note perfect as the War Doctor, sounding uncannily like John Hurt, and the idea of two Time Lords fighting each other causing the emergence of an Uroboros is a novel one. This is a Multi-Doctor story that feels fresh and distinct from all of the others, and hearing these two incarnations who are more brutish in their approach compared to every other Doctor meet is a lot of fun.

I don't think there's been an episode since I started watching in 2005 where there has been so much uncertainty on what form Doctor Who's future will take. Obviously fans who grew up with the classic series would have had a similar experience with Trial Of A Time Lord, Survival, and the 1996 TV Movie, but for those of us who have been watching since 2005, all we have ever known is being sure that the next episode will be a Special, or that there will be another full series the following year. Even with The Power Of The Doctor, it was known that there would be three 60th Specials, followed by a Christmas Special, two seasons with Ncuti Gatwa and a spin-off. It's obvious that Doctor Who will continue, but the format of the show is less clear.

The Reality War, as expected, is a heck of a packed episode. It not only has three companions, but pretty much the entire UNIT team, two Ranis, Omega, and a regeneration, plus the surprise returning Doctor. I actually think it manages to balance these elements quite well. Some will complain that the Ranis and Omega are dealt with quickly, but that story strand still takes up around 40/45 minutes of the episode, and the point of the story is clearly more about Poppy, and who she is in relation to the Doctor and Belinda. I like that this Doctor's last stand is to save a missing child who has been forgotten by everyone except Ruby, as it feels very in-character for the Doctor and speaks to his humanity and compassion.

The reveal that Belinda's motive for wanting to go home is because she actually did have a daughter called Poppy is great too. It brings added context to her desperation to return to Earth, as she has responsibilities regarding her daughter, but it's also such a devastating twist for the Doctor. The poor guy spends the entire adventure because of Wish World thinking that he is Poppy's father, only to find out the Dad is someone else. That must be soul-crushing, and it actually makes Wish World seem quite cruel. Conrad and the Ranis made him believe the child was his, only to strip it away from him.

Belinda is at her best here as a companion also. We get more of that fiery determination we saw from her in The Robot Revolution, through her steely resolve to keep her daughter safe. Belinda shows some real agency away from the Doctor, basically being the one who demands that UNIT put her in their Zero Room, despite the Doctor advising it would be better if Poppy was in there alone. I prefer this Belinda who does what she thinks is right, staying in the Zero Room with Poppy, than what the Doctor thinks should be done.

As said before, I love these incarnations of the Rani. Archie Panjabi and Anita Dobson are such a great pairing, and brilliantly convey the aura of a Time Lord. The fact that they want to rule over this new Gallifrey when they bring it back feels in-character for the Rani as depicted in Time And The Rani with the way she had taken control of the planet Lakertya. It's great that her obsession with bringing back Omega is what ultimately leads to her downfall, with Omega gobbling up Archie Panjabi's incarnation and Anita Dobson's Mrs Flood iteration taking the coward's way out by fleeing the scene completely. I don't even mind that Omega is underused and defeated quickly. He could always come back in the future, as all the Doctor really does is push him back into the Underverse, and I think it would be better to have a finale in the future where Omega is the main focus. I'm relieved the leaks that he would be a giant CGI claw/crab were wrong, and I hope if he does return later down the line, he has his iconic Three Doctors look next time around.

One thing I really wasn't expecting was Jodie Whittaker's return. Seeing the Thirteenth Doctor in the TARDIS again was a real thrill, and Jodie Whittaker seamlessly slips back into the role. There's even a mention of Yaz, and how she never got to tell her that she loved her, which is a neat touch as Thasmin became a strong talking point around fans during her era.

It is sad to see Ncuti Gatwa leave, but not surprising. It did feel inevitable with the long delay from Disney renewing the streaming rights, but this is a strong end for his Doctor. His final words being 'Joy to the world' are a beautiful callback to Steven Moffat's recent Christmas Special, just as it was great to see Anita return earlier in the episode. Billie Piper's casting as the Sixteenth Doctor (as much as some are suggesting there's a twist, I doubt it) is obviously controversial, but I think people just need to give her a chance. If anybody can pull off a previous companion returning as the Doctor, it's Billie Piper. She is an extremely talented actor, and I think she has the ability to make her incarnation feel distinct enough from Rose.

My only real disappointment with The Reality War is that there's no reunion between the Doctor and Susan. It's a confusing move to not feature Susan in this episode, given all of the build up in Season One, The Interstellar Song Contest and Wish World which appeared to be leading something. People can say they're clearly keeping it back for a third season all they like, but as awful as it is to say, Carole Ann Ford isn't getting any younger. She's 84 years old, and we have no idea when Season 3 will even be filmed,never mind when it will air. I'd rather they had focused on Susan and kept Omega back for Season 3, whenever it may happen, as Susan's return had been teased already, whereas the Omega tease was somewhat left-field in Wish World.

Overall, I'd give The Reality War a 10/10. It's an action-packed finale that goes at a brisk pace, and a wholly satisfying conclusion to both Season Two and Ncuti Gatwa's era as a whole. His regenerative sacrifice being to locate Poppy feels heroic and worthy of the Doctor character, and its surprise return of the Thirteenth Doctor is the icing on the cake. Billie Piper's casting as 16 will ruffle a few feathers, but she's a talented enough actor to pull it off, and it seems crazy to me that this happened in an episode that also featured two fantastic incarnations of the Rani, an Omega who thankfully is not a CGI crab or claw, and Melanie Bush, whose face-off with the Rani carries all of the emotional weight of their previous clash in Time And The Rani. The Reality War is a vast improvement over last year's Empire Of Death, with the only real downside being that Susan's teased return still hasn't been paid off.

In terms of the era as a whole, I think it's a crying shame that 15 is the first Doctor since Paul McGann to not face the Daleks on TV or in expanded media during his era, as I think a Doctor's first encounter with a Dalek is often one of their defining Doctor moments, and it does feel like he has been robbed of the opportunity somewhat. The Eighth Doctor did eventually get to meet the Daleks in Big Finish audios, so hopefully the same is true for the Fifteenth Doctor, and Ncuti Gatwa records some audios at some point. 15 has at least met one of the big three in the Cybermen in expanded media, but if you had told me this Doctor battling the Toymaker, Sutekh, the Midnight Entity, two incarnations of the Rani and Omega would be events that happen in his TV era and not some later Big Finish audios, before Russell T Davies returned as showrunner, I would never have believed you.

A short but sweet tale, concerning the Doctor being chased by a creature being hunted by some extra-terrestrial hunters. There isn't a great deal to the story, but it does have some solid character moments, with 15 pretending Ruby is still with him because of how he misses her. There's nothing more Doctor-like than the Doctor talking to himself in the absence of a companion.

Season Two's series finale feels like one of Doctor Who's most ambitious of all time. The concluding two-parter to Season Two not only has to answer why the Doctor and Belinda couldn't return to Earth on the 24th May, but also incorporate two incarnations of the Rani, returning characters like Ruby and Melanie Bush, possibly Susan, and a potential regeneration. It's a lot to pack into two episodes, and already feels bigger in scope than last year's concluding story.

Wish World, for me, is a definite hit. Its pre-titles sequence, with Archie Panjabi's Rani on horseback and kidnapping a baby, does a great job at leaving viewers intrigued. It leaves you curious about why the Rani is interested in a baby, later revealed to be the God of Wishes, and whilst the Rani's new magical powers don't make much sense, they make for some neat visuals, with the Rani transforming people into flowers, chickens and owls. It could be rationalised as the Rani taking advantage of this new magical universe, or perhaps some kind of scientific experiment she has conducted on herself to give her these abilities, perhaps.

Archie Panjabi and Anita Dobson are both fantastic as the Rani. They brilliantly capture Kate O'Mara's theatrical demeanour, whilst also feeling like their own distinct incarnations of the character. The Mrs Flood incarnation seems kinder and more sensitive, whereas Archie Panjabi's is a colder and more manipulative version. As a pairing, they contrast nicely, and feel like great foils for Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor.

I really like the set-up of Wish World. The WandaVision vibes are a very neat hook, immediately subverting expectations by throwing us into a world where the Fifteenth Doctor is a working man named John Smith who answers calls for an insurance company, whilst his wife Belinda is a stay-at-home mum. Conrad's idealised world being a 50s pastiche rife with sexism and homophobia makes so much sense for the character e meet in Lucky Day, who already seemed like one of those far-right extremists with the horrendous way he spoke about Shirley. His attitude towards the disabled even comes into play here, with them treated as outcasts shunned by society. It feels like a smart commentary not just on ableism, but also taking into account unseen disabilities like autism and ADHD too. Conrad's reality conveys the nonsense idea that disabled people are lesser, and should be ignored, rather than accepted as people who are just as reliable and capable as everyone else.

Millie Gibson shines here, probably more so than Varada Sethu as Belinda. Ruby's personal connection to Conrad, and how she is the first to see through his illusion, echoes Monica Rambeau in WandaVision, who similarly held a personal history with the creator of that series' alternate reality, Wanda Maximoff. It shows Ruby's agency and her strength as a companion, that she is the one to stand up against this fabricated world and purposefully seek the Doctor out to make him see the truth. Seeing the Doctor be so cold towards Ruby in his John Smith persona really hurts, because of how we have seen their close friendship in Season One, and I really hope we get a proper reunion between the Doctor and Ruby in The Reality War. It's not only Ruby trying to break the Doctor out of the illusion though.

Rogue also plays a role, appearing on a TV screen whilst in a 'hell dimension', and it's great to see him again. Jonathan Groff was excellent as Rogue last season, and whilst his romance with the Doctor felt a tad quick, it was still a highlight of Season One. He surprisingly gets more to do than Susan's very brief appearance, in her blink and you miss it cameo, although Susan did feature in a bigger cameo last week, so has technically had more screen time this season than Rogue. Here's hoping that both Rogue and Susan feature next week in some capacity.

Unfortunately, Wish World does suffer from featuring too many characters. Whilst the Doctor, Ruby, Belinda, the Ranis and UNIT are served well in the narrative, Mel Bush is heavily underutilised. Her appearance is a very short cameo as John Smith's neighbour at the beginning and end of the episode. It's a shame because Bonnie Langford is fantastic in the part and it's always great to see more Mel. I had thought given that the Rani has an established rivalry with Mel, that she may have had a bigger part to play in proceedings, but maybe Mel meets both Ranis next week.

Normally, I'd give Wish World a 9/10, but despite its shortcomings, I prefer this episode to The Interstellar Song Contest, and I gave the latter a 10/10. This means that by default, Wish World has to be a 10/10. It's a tremendous set-up for next week's The Reality War, with an extremely appearing WandaVision-esque set-up and some scene-stealing performances from Archie Panjabi and Anita Dobson. Wish World is in a whole other league compared to The Legend Of Ruby Sunday, which in comparison, had some interesting ideas seeded for Empire Of Death but felt mostly like the episode was biding its time for the concluding instalment. My biggest criticism of Wish World is how much Bonnie Langford is wasted as Mel, which is a great shame, as she deserved a bigger role in this episode. I'm curious to see how Omega factors into The Reality War, and hope that the leaks aren't true regarding how he looks in the episode. 

Out of all of the Season Two episodes, Interstellar Song Contest was the one I was most apprehensive about. I'm not a fan of Eurovision, I find it too camp and tacky, and I hate that the voting is so political. The idea of a Eurovision-themed Doctor Who episode understandably didn't thrill me. However, as more information about the episode came out, the more curious I became in what the episode entailed, and the result is not only the best episode of Season Two, but the best episode of RTD2 overall.

This episode is ridiculously ambitious. Whilst the claims that the episode contains four songs are stretching it a little as most of them are small snippets with one full number at the end, and it's a shame we still don't have a musical episode of Doctor Who, I still can't believe how much we got in this episode. This is the most expensive Doctor Who has ever been, and the Disney money has never been more evident than it is here. The scope of the Harmony Arena is breathtaking; it's a massive and impressive combination of CGI with what is obviously in reality a much smaller set. Not to mention that the audience and alien competitors are comprised of tons of people in prosthetics. At times, it feels like watching an episode of a big-budget American streaming series on Disney Plus or Netflix.

As much as it captures the camp and cringey feel of Eurovision, the Eurovision theming only really plays a small part in the episode. The main plot is much more like Die Hard, concerning the Doctor fighting against an extra-terrestrial terrorist called Kid whose actions are driven by vengeance against the corporation funding the song contest. For an episode that was being billed as basically being 'the Eurovision one', it's surprisingly dark. Kid's main plan is to kill trillions of people through a delta wave, making him easily one of the biggest threats this Doctor has faced.

It's why I don't find the Fifteenth Doctor's outburst out of place. Kid's scheme is so horrific that I can buy that he would lose it and not only threaten to eject him into space and watch as he freezes to death, but proceed to torture him in the gallery. I love when we get to see this Doctor's darkest moments, as Ncuti Gatwa plays it so well, and it's a reminder of how powerful and dangerous the Doctor can be when he becomes your enemy. As Belinda notes, the Doctor can be both 'the most amazing man' and scary, and he needs his companions like Belinda to hold him back.

Speaking of companions, it's fantastic to see Susan Foreman come back, and played by Carole Ann Ford again. Seeing her come back in this episode was a real shock, and such an excellent moment. I really hope we see her again in a future episode, because there's so much storytelling potential in a proper reunion between the Doctor and Susan, given that he left her and never returned as he promised.

Best of all is the Mrs Flood reveal. Since she was first introduced in The Church On Ruby Road, I have thought she was the Rani, because so much of Anita Dobson's camp and theatrical performance reminds me of Kate O'Mara. To finally have these suspicions confirmed is fantastic, and unlike other fans, I think Anita Dobson has been perfect casting so far. I don't know much about Archie Panjabi as an actor, but she certainly looks the part of the Rani, and seemed promising in the limited screentime she has in the mid-credits scene. The Rani's return has been long overdue though and I'm glad they have finally got the rights issues sorted.

A special mention must be given to Rylan Clark-Neal, who is amazing in this episode. Given that he is mostly known as a TV presenter, I wondered how he would fare in an acting role. Rylan Clark-Neal is a natural thought, and his confusion and shock at seeing the audience be sucked into space really sells the horrific nature of Kid's masterplan. I'm surprised Graham Norton didn't have a larger role as I thought we would hear him providing commentary on the different planets' songs, but he is relegated to a hologram in a museum dedicated to the song contest, which is unexpected, but he does well with the material he is given.

Overall, I'd give Interstellar Song Contest a 10/10. Whilst the claim that it features four songs is a bit of a stretch, it's still an impressively ambitious episode, and unlike The Devil's Chord, it doesn't play it safe. Interstellar Song Contest is a dark episode with a villain who pushes Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor more than any other he has met so far, and is packed with some great surprises that it's sure to be an episode that will be fondly remembered by the fandom for years to come.

It's always nice to see new writers working for Doctor Who,especially as so much of RTD2 has been written by Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat. Inua Ellams is credited as the sole writer for this one, and she has a decent resume. She's an established playwright, known for The Barber Shop Chronicles, about stories being shared across one day in various barber shops across Africa. I've never seen the play, but based on that premise alone, it's clear that this story owes a lot to her earlier work.

The Story And The Engine is similar to episodes like Midnight, in that it's mostly set all in one location. It sees the Doctor visiting his old friend Omo at his barber shop, which has fallen under new management. I'm glad we got the short story on the official website, because it gives some much needed context for the Doctor and Omo's friendship. The duo work well here, as you can tell they mean a lot to each other, and I like the idea of the barber shop feeling like a place of safety for the Doctor because of how he's made to feelwelcomed. It's like the anti-Dot And Bubble, where instead of a society cruelly shunning the Fifteenth Doctor for being black, this community embrace him.

The barber shop is a good setting also for the concept of stories being fed to the Gods. Hairdresser's are places that are already known as locations where people share their tales whilst having their hair cut, and hairdressers themselves are usually depicted as gossips anyway, so the Barber opting for a barber shop as his location for the Nexus makes a lot of sense.

I do think, however, that the focus on storytelling leads to a very slow pace. Not much really happens for most of the runtime, as it largely focuses on those inside the barber shop sitting around and recalling past events. It would have been nice had we been given a greater sense of jeopardy, similar to when the Doctor opens the barber shop door and exposes the place's occupants to space. It also doesn't make a ton of sense.

Whilst it's nice to see Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor return, her cameo is blink-and-you-miss-it, lasting for approximately ten seconds of runtime. We don't even get any explanation for how the Doctor can suddenly remember her, when his mind was wiped by the Divison of his memories regarding the Pre-Hartnell incarnations, and the Thirteenth Doctor chose not to open the fobwatch back, to retrieve the memories. I have seen some speculate that the barber shop being a place where stories are harnessed for the Gods could have allowed these memories to seep back through temporarily to the Doctor, but if that is the case, then it shouldhave been explained in the episode. As it stands, Jo Martin's cameo feels like a waste, as she doesn't get to do anything.

Even more pointless is Poppy's return. I doubt anyone was clamouring for any of the characters from Space Babies to come back, and Poppy's reappearance doesn't contribute anything to the plot. She appears to Belinda as a "story leaking out," and immediately runs away. It's a really bizarre moment, and I'm not sure why you would choose Space Babies of all episodes to return to. Again, I have seen some speculation that this may be to set up a future plot point for the finale, but as set up, it doesn't work either, as it doesn't leave you feeling curious or desperate to find out why Poppy was in Lagos.

The visuals in this episode, on the other hand, are very impressive. Seeing the giant spider on the Nexus web is such a striking piece of CGI, and feels like the Disney budget is being well spent. The giant spider's destruction at the end of the episode is also an epic means to finish the story, and representative of the kind of oomph that The Story And The Engine needed more of. I'm not saying it should have been full of action and explosions, but a greater sense of danger and peril was needed here to keep the episode engaging.

Overall, I'd give The Story And The Engine a 5/10. It's a decent concept, with a good setting and some nice visuals, but the Fugitive Doctor and Poppy cameos contribute nothing of significance to the plot, and it goes at a very slow pace, meaning that you never get a sense that the characters are in any real danger.

A decent if rather basic Doctor Who story. It takes the form of an in-universe essay by a character who will presumably feature in this week's episode called Omo, and concerns an oil drilling operation in Etsako. What I Did On My Holidays is a story that feels very topical at the moment, with fracking remaining controversial, and the continued move away from fossil fuels.

'David versus Goliath' stories are always interesting, and here we have two kids essentially fighting the Nigerian government, by throwing stones at the drilling equipment and inadvertently causing a fire. Blue is a particularly likeable individual, being the activist who brings Omo onboard with the plan to stop the oil drilling, and I hope we see more of her in Saturday's episode.

The Doctor's appearance is brief, coming at the very end to help Blue after she ends up injured, and using a hosepipe to put out the fire. It's always nice to get some more Fifteenth Doctor content, though, especially as this story is also written by the writer of this Saturday's episode, Inua Ellams.

When it was announced Pete McTighe was returning to Doctor Who, I was very happy. Whilst I found his last episode Praxeus underwhelming, Kerblam! was a brilliant instalment in the Chibnall era and his work on the Collection minisodes has been impressive. Even so, I didn't really know what to expect from Lucky Day. This episode, and The Story And The Engine are the two stories from this season that have seen the least amount of leaks. Lucky Day could have been about literally anything, and what we did get was great.

The main focal point of Lucky Day is the romance between Ruby and Conrad. Millie Gibson and Hauer-King have a lot of chemistry, and it really helps to sell you on their relationship before the twist regards Conrad's true intentions. You see how much Ruby falls for Conrad, and trusts him.

It makes the reveal that Conrad was just using Ruby to learn information about the Doctor and manipulate the public against UNIT hurt all the more. Conrad is easily one of the most unlikable characters in Doctor Who. He's one of those people you just love to hate, especially because of how endearing Millie Gibson is as Ruby. This awful excuse for a human being not only leads Ruby into believing he has feelings for her before cruelly labelling their relationship a "chore," but purposefully spreads misinformation that UNIT create fake alien invasions, and even implies Shirley is a benefits scrounger. He's such a brilliant antagonist, as he shows that sometimes the threat isn't always alien but can be closer to home.

It leads to easily the Fifteenth Doctor's best scene, when he rants at Conrad about how he purposefully spreads misinformation to profit from it. This moment in the TARDIS is one of this incarnation's darkest so far, even going as far as to tell Conrad he'll die at only 49 years of age in his prison cell, and Ncuti Gatwa performs it fantastically. My personal view is that Ncuti Gatwa is at his best in these scenes where he can show the Doctor's inner darkness, and I hope we get more of these going forward into the Fifteenth Doctor's run.

I don't think Kate has been better either. Previously, I've seen her as a bit of a bland UNIT leader, defined more by the connection to her father than her own personality. Here, however, she really shines. Her decision to let the Shreek loose to show Conrad and his followers the 'truth' as opposed to the lies they are spreading is a superb way to demonstrate how far Kate will go when the Doctor isn't around. She will take the kind of measures the Doctor would not, to protect UNIT, her staff, and her friends. Hopefully we see more of Kate's more brutal methods in The War Between The Land And The Sea.

If there's one drawback to the episode, I do think it's a shame we see so little of Belinda. Whilst it's nice to have the mystery of who told the Doctor about Belinda resolved, it feels a bit random that Conrad brings her up. He only met Belinda once as a child, and it seems as though Conrad knows somehow that the Doctor hasn't met Belinda when he meets the Doctor again. It could be his own educated guess if he brought Belinda up to Ruby and Ruby said that she never met Belinda Chandra, but it would have made it clearer how Conrad was able to tease the Doctor about whether he's met Belinda if there was a scene showing Conrad befriending her. Alternatively, one of the most interesting aspects of Varada Sethu being confirmed as a companion last year was when the announcement teased a TARDIS team of 15, Ruby, and Belinda. So why not meet the audience halfway, and show Belinda as being a friend of Ruby's? Especially as one of the promotional pieces of the episode involved Millie Gibson and Varada Sethu discussing the episode together.

Mrs Flood's cameo feels random this week too, posing as the prison governor. It's not clear as to why someone as powerful as Mrs Flood seems to be would even be remotely interested in Conrad (although this could be answered in the finale) and it feels shoehorned in as set-up for the two part Season Two finale. It's a strange choice when Mrs Flood is already established as Ruby's neighbour, giving her a natural place for her to cameo.

Overall, I'd give Lucky Day an 8/10. It's a great character piece, showing Ruby's love for Conrad and ultimate tragedy when he turns out to be a manipulative conspiracy theorist. Conrad is one of the most detestable human villains, and Ncuti Gatwa shines brighter than ever in the final scene. However, the episode is let down by Belinda's disappointingly brief appearance, and Mrs Flood's cameo feeling forced rather than a natural part of the story.

I have been vocal on here about not being a fan of Midnight. I know that seems odd, because it is widely considered a fan-favourite, however, I just found the constant repetition and talking over one another annoying rather than compelling, and my parents were the same. I get the dramatic intensions and how it is done to showcase human paranoia, and how it leads to humanity at their worst, but in my (unpopular) opinion it just creates a frustrating viewing experience. So I was apprehensive when the leaks suggested The Well would be a sequel to Midnight. I have seen a few people complaining about tweeters spreading the leaks online, but I think it's important to remember a 'leak' isn't always true. Going into the episode, nobody including myself knew for sure whether the Midnight sequel rumours were true or false.

The reveal halfway through the episode, therefore, that the planet the Doctor and Belinda are on is the planet Midnight is still very effective. Ncuti Gatwa plays it fantastically, giving you a real sense of how the events of the episode Midnight still haunt the Doctor to this day. It was an experience that genuinely left him terrified, which is rare for someone who is often the ultimate authority in the room and gives those who are with him the reassurance to fight against the monsters.

Also when it comes to the leaks, just because the Midnight sequel aspects were right doesn't mean the rest of it is true. I won't spoil what the leaks say about Mrs Flood, but based on her appearance here, I do think they will turn out to be right about her, though. The Mrs Flood cameo is excellent this week, and really leaves you hooked and desperate for answers. I can't wait to find out how she knows what a Vindicator is and why it's 'great news' to her that the Doctor and Belinda are using it. Similarly interesting is how nobody seems to know about the Earth or the human race. So far, RTD2 has done a great job at building its series arcs and making you anticipate the answers to them. The answers last year were underwhelming, so hopefully this year the pay-off is better.

The premise of the episode, concerning a group of soldiers investigating a missing mining colony, is such a strong one for a horror base-under-siege. Especially as when they arrive, only one of the mining crew - Aliss - has survived the incident that has taken place. Rose Ayling-Ellis is fantastic as the mining colony's deaf cook; I was also impressed by her on Strictly and in Ludwig. She really makes you feel for poor Aliss, who just wants to see her daughter again, and is forced to kill a ton of people including her best friend after they are driven mad by the Midnight Entity. I've seen some theories suggesting that Aliss was actually possessed by the Entity, which would have been a cool twist, but this is never explicitly confirmed in the episode.

I actually prefer the Midnight Entity here too. It still plays on people's paranoia, but with none of the irritating copying what people are saying. Instead, it hides behind its hosts and whispers in their ear. It makes for a very dark and atmospheric episode, with one heck of an ending, when it is revealed that the Midnight Entity survived despite Shaya's sacrifice, and attached itself to a new host, rendering her death ultimately futile and meaningless. The Well stands with other Doctor Who stories like The Caves Of Androzani and World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls, in that it's allvery bleak. The Doctor loses, and all he can do is fight to survive.

The Doctor and Belinda continue to impress as a Doctor and companion pairing. Seeing a companion whose main motivation is to go back home and make sure her parents are safe with whatever is happening with the Earth is refreshing, as the new series has never really done this before. It does seem like she's becoming more accustomed to the adventures now and not as reluctant a traveller as she was in The Robot Revolution, but it still feels worlds apart from the Doctor and Ruby last series, and even the Twelfth Doctor with Nardole, with the latter being somewhat reluctant with his constant nagging for the Doctor to return to the university where he was working and assume his duties guarding the Vault.

Overall, I'd give The Well a 10/10. It's a fantastic, dark and atmospheric story that preys on the paranoia at the heart of the Midnight Entity well. The Doctor and Belinda are a Doctor and companion duo that stand among the greatest, and the hints regards Earth becoming this unknown planet and Mrs. Flood's observations of the Doctor and Belinda's use of the Vindicator leave you feeling suitably intrigued. I'd say The Well is probably the standout of RTD2 so far, and to me is a good example of how keeping an episode shrouded in secrecy can work well, without leaving fans feeling disappointed or unsatisfied.

A really quirky Doctor Who Magazine comic strip. I like the idea of fake human beings transformed into monsters to con war mongerers into buying them as an invasion fleet. It feels like textbook Doctor Who; the kind of madness that only Doctor Who can get away with.

It ties into Liberation Of The Daleks in a clever way, being the same technology seen in that strip being used to create the people, and also the previous Fifteenth Doctor strip with Hans Christian Anderson. Ruby wishing the people/monsters to have wings has me curious. Could it tie into the upcoming TV episode Wish World somehow?

A really strong character piece. I really feel for poor Kevin/Proteus, who just wants to see his Dad, but nobody is hearing him. He's the ultimate misunderstood villain, and it makes the ending all the more pleasing, when his Dad finally accepts his mutant son.

Out of all of the episodes in Doctor Who Season 2, Lux is the one I've most been looking forward to. A Doctor Who episode that combines live-action and animation is such a cool idea, and offers something new that the show hasn't done as a plot device before. Yes, there have been animated stories like The Infinite Quest and Dreamland, but this is the first time it's used as a narrative device.

The cold open is one of the best the show has seen in recent years. The shots of the animated Mr Ring-A-Ding cartoon are beautifully realised, and Mr Ring-A-Ding's interactions with the audience of 15 before he steps out of the screen and they go missing does a brilliant job at establishing the threat. Straight away, we get a sense that Mr Ring-A-Ding is a malevolent being.

When Mr Ring-A-Ding enters the live-action realm, the animation work is sublime. There have been reports that some of the same people who worked on Who Framed Roger Rabbit lent their talents to Mr Ring-A-Ding, and you can see the influence. Mr Ring-A-Ding is so expressive, and his move from 2D to 3D brings some wildly imaginative imagery.

I do think it's a shame though that more time isn't spent on the Fifteenth Doctor and Belinda becoming trapped inside a cartoon. The small sequence we do get is a superb piece of animation, especially when they progress to 3D animation, but they could have expanded on this further with different animation styles. The reviews mentioned different uses of animation, which made me think we were going to get 15 and Belinda crossing into different styles of animation, like stop-motion for instance, or the anime style that people go crazy over (although that's never done much for me).

I'm also not sure how I feel about the Doctor and Belinda meeting Doctor Who fans. It feels a little too meta for me, especially when they start discussing how their favourite Doctor Who episode is Blink. I feel it would have worked better had they been played by real fans, like Crispy Pro and Harbo Whole's. Hiring actors to play Doctor Who fans is a strange choice when you could use real-life Whotubers.

On the plus side, Lux does an excellent job at exploring the racist attitudes in 1950s Miami. It's a subtle yet effective approach, showing brief references to segregation in the cafe and later when the Doctor and Belinda are confronted by New York policemen in the cinema. It shows the unfortunate reality of two people of colour travelling to the past, which is something that needed to be addressed.

Overall, I'd give Lux an 8/10. The animation work is fantastic and Mr Ring-A-Ding is easily one of the best antagonists of RTD2. However, the episode doesn't realise the full potential of 15 and Belinda trapped inside a cartoon, and their meeting with Doctor Who fans could be a step too far into breaking the fourth wall.

Last year's Doctor Who opener was a somewhat underwhelming affair. Instead of kicking off Ncuti Gatwa's first season as the Doctor with a bang, Space Babies was a silly and underwhelming beginning to the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby's adventures after The Church On Ruby Road.

Fortunately, The Robot Revolution is a vast improvement, providing an exciting first adventure for Belinda Chandra. The story concerns Belinda being mistaken by robots for their planet's Queen, due to a star certificate from her ex-boyfriend. It's a typically quirky Doctor Who escapade, and moves at a rollickingly fast pace, keeping your attention throughout.

The robots themselves may be very similar to the Emojibots in Smile, but they work well as antagonists who provide enough of a threat to the Doctor and Belinda, without distracting from Belinda's introduction.

Belinda is an excellent addition to the TARDIS team. She is much feistier than Ruby, which makes for a refreshing change. Belinda is the kind of companion who is unafraid to challenge the Doctor, and simply just wants to return home to complete her work shift, rather than traverse the universe. Seeing a companion willing to put the Fifteenth Doctor in his place introduces an interesting new dynamic which should lead to some great drama in the upcoming weeks.

The resolution to this story is a little weak, however. Whilst I like the concept of robots and what at first appears to be an AI misinterpreting the star certificate and believing Belinda to be their Queen, because of how topical it is with the rise of AI, I did find the twist that the AI generator was Belinda's ex Al all along a bit underwhelming. It feels a bit convenient, and makes you wonder how nobody noticed Al was missing when he was taken by the robots. The means in which the Doctor and Belinda are able to stop Belinda's marriage to Al/the AI generator via the star certificate feels a little hand-waver also. Overall, though, The Robot Revolution is an easy 8/10. It's an excellent, fun sci-fi adventure of the Doctor and Belinda versus a robot revolution.

A sweet if rather basic one page strip for Doctor Who Magazine. It gives us a taste of what an in-universe Mr Ring-A-Ding cartoon entails, showing the titular character waking up Sunny Town's residents with his singing, and helping the Easter Bunny deliver Easter Eggs.

Whilst I'd have preferred an animated minisode, it would probably have been costly to produce, which makes the DWM strip a nice compromise.

Usually with Doctor Who, I find it much easier to concentrate during an episode. This time, however, was different. We were still opening presents in our household, which partly contributed to the episode feeling harder to follow than usual, although judging by the reaction to the episode afterwards, it does seem like some of it is also the way the narrative itself was written.

Joy To The World is an episode I enjoyed a lot. The Time Hotel is a fantastic concept; I love the idea of a hotel where the rooms lead to different periods. However, it does also lead to the episode feeling a little disjointed. When the Doctor is bouncing between rooms that go to such wildly different times and places, it can make it harder to follow. It also doesn't help that the episode doesn't do much to explore the central concept. It never really makes full use of the idea of a hotel where you can go to any time, or spend much time in the time periods the Doctor travels to. It would have been nice to have seen more of the prehistoric era, for instance.

Joy is also surprisingly underwritten. Before the episode aired, I expected Joy to be the star of the show, as so much of the marketing of the episode was focused around her. She's strangely underutilised however, and abandoned for a large chunk of the plot when the Doctor is locked out of the Time Hotel by his future self.

On the other hand, I loved the Doctor's friendship with Anita. Their dynamic as friends is engaging to watch during the year that the Doctor spends working at the normal hotel, and Ncuti Gatwa and Stephanie de Whalley have tons of chemistry. I actually came away from this episode hoping Anita would become a future companion at some point, and I expected to feel that way about Joy.

Another highlight of the episode is when the Doctor manipulates Joy by being mean toward her, hoping it will make her angry to stop the suitcase brainwashing her mind. This scene felt like a classic Doctor moment, similar to the scene where Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor manipulates Sarah Jane out of the air vent in The Ark In Space. It culminates in a fantastic emotional sequence, where Joy talks about her mother's death and how she was unable to see her in hospital during COVID. It's Joy's best moment as a character, and Nicola Coughlan's best performance in the role.

The reveal that the Villenguard's artificial star is the Star of Bethlehem felt like a fitting means of tying the special to the Christmas period. I have no doubt that it was probably controversial and upset some diehard Christians, but I thought it was clever, and a neat way of explaining an iconic Christmas element within Doctor Who's lore.

It was lovely also seeing Millie Gibson briefly cameo as Ruby Sunday. She was not announced prior to the episode airing as featuring within Joy To The World, so I was surprised when she appeared. It felt like a nice and unexpected Christmas treat, as Ruby has been one of the best aspects of RTD2 so far. Overall, I would give Joy To The World an 8/10. It has a bold and brilliant concept, but the time hotel is confusing and underutilised, and Joy as a character feels surprisingly weak. I was expecting more from Joy, whilst Stephanie de Whalley's Anita was the true guest star who shined.

I watched this during the airing at 9pm, and it confirmed my suspicions that the 90 minute edit would be an improvement over the original version. This War Games is a much tighter narrative, with less padding and a far stronger pace. It helps to give the story the epic feel it deserves, concerning soldiers from various Earth time periods transported to another planet to fight one another.

The colourisation is also stronger than in The Daleks. I was so amazed by the colourization work that at times, I forgot I was watching a production from the 60s. It's a clear, crisp picture that remarkably looks as though it could have been filmed today.

Most impressive is the CGI in this new War Games. It's extremely cool seeing the modern Gallifrey and regeneration effect in Patrick Troughton's final serial, but I was most blown away by the regeneration sequence. The fact that they managed to create a whole CGI Troughton in his TARDIS, complete with the transition into Pertwee, is nothing short of astounding.

The War Games very much feels like one for the fans. It's packed with references to everything from the common fan theory that the War Chief is the Master to the UNIT dating controversy. It's impossible to watch without a massive smile on your face.

A fantastic conclusion to Dalek Universe. A prospect of a Dalek/Movellan alliance is an exciting one, and Mark Seven is tragic, seeming not to remember the Doctor and Anya until towards the end. The story's ending also ties in with The Day Of The Doctor/The End Of Time, with the Doctor setting off to romance Queen Elizabeth I, which is a neat way to fit it into continuity.

A very strong retelling of the repeat of the story. It gives greater insight into Jamie's thoughts and feelings as the Doctor tests him for the human factor, as well as a look into the Doctor's perspective during his manipulative actions. Evil Of The Daleks also ends with a beautifully poignant moment where Jamie suggests the Doctor showed Zoe the adventure because he still misses Victoria, showing that the companions never truly go away for the Doctor.

A simple, yet hugely exciting story. It concerns a human prison ship keeping Davros prisoner, and the Daleks and Movellans both fighting over stealing Davros from the human fighters. The Doctor/Davros scenes, as usual, are top-notch, and it ends on a killer twist, revealing Mark Seven as the First Movellan.

An exciting, action-packed opener to the third Dalek Universe box set. This time, the Tenth Doctor and Anya Kingdom find themselves inside the Dalek and Movellan war.

The River Song mystery regards whether she's a Movellan or the real deal is interesting, especially considering the human/Movellan hybrid Kamen who refers to her as his 'mother'. It does seem judging by the end of this story, that The First Son is the one and only time River features in the box set, which is surprising given her prominence on the cover art.

A very interesting story. It concerns the Doctor crashing with Anya Kingdom on a strange planet, with a Godlike entity called Lost who was imprisoned there. The ending is possibly the best part. Never expected to hear a Dalek proclaim "Hello sweetie".