I've watched this episode a few times to try and get into it, given how it is a bit of a fan favourite, but I just can't really resonate with this one very much.

The concept is clever - it's always an interesting school of creative thought to set boundaries for what is not allowed (in this case, the doctor moving) and seeing what flows from that. Unfortunately, I feel that this episode suffers dearly from its placement in the series order. As the third episode, it is also filling the role of Ruby's first alien planet which means that they have not been travelling together for a very long time. Ruby and the Doctor have this instant besties dynamic where she immediately just trusts him and we never really see any conflict between the two of them. As such, the relationship between the two of them never feels real - it just seems so superficial at every point. This is also never addressed later in the series - as the audience we are just expected to believe that off-screen they have gotten to know each other and trust each other. And that just doesn't work for an episode where the emotional tension is so predicated off of Ruby trusting the Doctor. Remove that impact of that tension and the episode just feels empty and hollow, which is how I've felt every time I've watched it so far.

The ending of this episode does not improve my view on it either. I am so sick of episodes where the resolution is just that the Power of Love™ defeats evil. It's just so lazy, and it reeks of the writer phoning it in at the end. It didn't work for the Monk trilogy from Capaldi's run and it still doesn't work here.

I hate being rude to the child actors on this show as they're young and often still learning, but their performance here was not great. They seem so happy-go-lucky about the passing of their dad, which is just a bit bizarre and off-putting.

I know Steven Moffatt loves his Anglican church army, but I didn't feel like they added much to this story - it did not feel to me as if it was treading over any new ground that wasn't in any of their previous appearances. I would like to see him not including some of his old creations in there to try and cook up something a bit more interesting.

Overall, this episode just isn't for me. I just can't get past the lack of character development from the start of this series ruining the character driven narrative of this story. If the dynamic of Ruby and 15 was more fleshed out (doesn't exactly need conflict between the two, but certainly show more of Ruby cautiously learning to trust the Doctor) and this episode was later on in the series, I think I would appreciate it far more. Unfortunately, I just found it a rather hollow watch.

Now this is the Doctor Who episode I have been waiting for! Instantly better than most of last season for me except for maybe Rogue.

This era for me certainly still struggles with how it writes the more character-driven facets of its stories. For example - Sasha 55 has maybe 4 or 5 lines and dies fairly early on in the episode leading to The Doctor crying over the 6 months that they'd known each other and been working together. Unfortunately, this moment just has no emotional connection to the audience - having the same style of character introduction for Sasha as we had for Anita in Joy to the World would have made this moment so much more powerful and felt that the tears were more meaningful. I also think that the flashbacks to Alan being a bit of a dick at the climax of the episode is a super lazy way of writing that aspect in - would have been much better to have more of that scene in the initial parts of the episode (or peppered in throughout to build towards the ending).

I think the humor on this episode was incredible. Both my boyfriend and I could not stop giggling throughout this episode! The missbelinachantrajokes were well used and not overdone. I have been quoting "polish polish" all week.

By far, the highlight has to be Varada Sethu - I am loving Belinda already. I always felt that the instant best friends dynamic that Ruby and 15 had just didn't work at all - there were several points in the last season where the plot dynamic and emotional tension of the episode was reliant on Ruby trusting the Doctor. And there just wasn't a good reason why she should - he's an alien, they've just met - there really needed to be an exploration of Ruby getting to trust the Doctor that was just missing. Belinda, on the other hand, starts out not trusting the Doctor at all - I can already see the potential for the character arc and character development that is possible this season which I am rather excited about.

Overall, this episode was pretty good, compared to what I was expecting going in. Still some issues with the episode, but I genuinely enjoyed watching this one, which is more than I can say for most of the previous season. I'm keen to see where the rest of this season goes!

This story definitely struggles a fair bit for feeling a bit unpolished. I also really don't like the performances put in by the child actors in this episode. They've been given the brief of annoying phone-addicted teenager (to be fair, they do a convincing job of) - which is unfortunately just annoying!

The only good takeaway for me from this episode is the characterisation of the cybermen - all too often writers fall into the trap of just writing the cybermen as robots that love to shoot and yell DELETE, effectively written as bargain bin Daleks. To write the cybermen well, they really need to be scary. The best way to do this is like in World Enough and Time, where you really lean into the body horror of the cybermen to make them scary. The characterisation here in Nightmare also works in a way - I like playing into the computer hivemind to upgrade and overcome obstacles. I just wish the rest of the episode was well written and performed enough to carry this characterisation further.

There are also moments in this episode that seem a bit more ickier and questionable with the recent allegations that have been raised about Neil Gaiman - the line about Clara being in a skirt that's a little too tight is the most egregious one. All in all, this is one of my least favourite episodes, for the cardinal sin of being annoying - definitely one I would skip on a rewatch.

At best, I find this season finale unsatisfying. At worst it is a major disappointment.

It especially hurts as I feel like this story had so much going right for it. The return of Gabriel Woolf as Sutekh is great fun; and I can get past the dog CGI as a bit goofy and on brand for DW. Mel is back! Whilst I still want some more respect to be given to her computer programmer background, Bonnie is a delight to watch perform.

Unfortunately, everything else in this episode sort of just falls apart. Sutekh is built up to be this all powerful god yet is defeated almost trivially. I still think it was an odd choice to make it such that Sutekh had clung to the TARDIS the whole time since Pyramids of Mars - surely the salt at the edge of the universe in Wild Blue Yonder is a much better point to make him reenter.

By far the biggest letdowns of this story is the overall season arc of Ruby’s biological mother. We spend this whole season with this mystery, with the recurring snow, with the almost magical inability for anyone to detect who her mother is. She has no face on the historical reconstruction hologram! All the clues are pointing towards there being something special about Ruby. Even part of the reason Sutekh shows up is because they - a god - cannot find out who Ruby’s mother is! To have the grand reveal at the end of this episode that she’s just a normal girl with a normal mother is so underwhelming. If you’re going to make the companion an ordinary person - just do that! It worked super well for Bill Potts as a recent example!

I get that there was a desire to do a Poirot-esque reveal of the mystery at the end, but none of it makes any sense. There are definitely things revealed here at the end that were never hinted at during the series or impossible for the audience to figure out beforehand - what is the point of putting arc clues in throughout the season if they are all red herrings? What does the snow mean in each episode if her mother is a normal person? Who is she pointing at the street sign for? I find it hard to suspend disbelief here when there are this many ridiculous things going on.

Overall, I found this season and its finale to be rather disappointing, which is a shame as I really like Ncuti and love his performance- I just wish he had much better material to work with!