This is the first amazing episode this show has seen in a very long time. A classic mystery episode that kept me engaged by not giving up much information on what's going on. The best pieces of art are completely subjective and up to interpretation. I might be biased as well since I've been a tiny bit obsessed with Wales recently but the setting mixed with urban legends and fairy tales and an unsolved mystery makes this episode a wonderful reminder of what made me fall in love with Doctor Who.

Not every mystery requires a solution or an answer and without love it cannot be seen <3

somehow im starting to hate the start to this season more than i hated series 11 which is really impressive. its not like this is outright terrible or even bad but its easier to describe this (and the previous 2 episodes) as Lacking Soul. feels dreadfully uninspired. sure the set looks nice, the outfits are cute, having a drag queen villain is awesome... but like... i dont know. i just feel like something is missing.

ruby keeps talking to the doctor like shes known him longer than she has even though this is only her second adventure in the tardis. hearing her say stuff like "but doctor you always know" and "doctor you never hide" is just so weird to me like she doesnt even know him like that yet. not to mention that those are just examples of her dialogue being really dull. frankly i dislike her more than any chibnall companion so far which is kind of crazy since shes not even a bad character so far she just seems so boring. her entire character right now is relying on this mystery of her birth but with her terrible introduction how am i to even care. at least this episode improves on space babies by not mentioning the doctor not knowing where he came from every 10 minutes (a bit of an exaggeration but you know. rtd doesnt seem to understand why some of us actually liked the timeless child stuff and is milking it only for the adoption aspect)

also, whoever is making these original songs is really really really bad at music. ive never sat through such actually bad musical numbers in my life. you cannot convince me that anyone is going to dance to that song with the energy the cast had to it.

I'm actually going crazy did no one else notice the crazy antisemitism in this episode or what. Like i guess after centuries British people still have to write about goblins eating babies. After some years of the show trying to show how it's so progressive and socially aware now you'd think the most basic of racist tropes would be done away with. Genuinely so disappointing especially to see in a Christmas special so it feels especially on purpose. I honestly have other issues with this episode but I'm not even going to mention them because I feel like I'm going insane going through reviews and seeing no one mention this.

i actually think its extremely offensive to give me a qing dynasty historical like i asked but its some yawn doodoo boring s**t and anyways like if youre gonna do any china historical and not make it the most amazing groundbreaking episode i literally hate you. bbc are you racist like be honest.

and also idgaf about thasmin like im sorry but yazmin got the characterization of a piece of cardboard especially in comparison to other companions. how on earth am i supposed to care about this #emotional romantic conversations when ive sat through companions that gone through crazier s**t with the doctor.

This wasn't bad for a 6 episode long story arc, I had fun with it. Not exactly entirely my thing and I just didn't care for the villains at all. Dan is a really fun character and I wish he was a companion for longer than he is!!!

how does every single episode with a huge plot like this feel so stupid. Like i cant even express how flat everything about this is. The daleks were actually a high point of the episode BUT everything else just brought it down. I dont even feel like jack being here really added much of anything to the episode at all. Spyfall was so good but evidently those will be the only 2 episodes chibnall can write that will get a positive response out of me. Also I don't get why this one was titled a "festive special" but there was nothing festive about it. No new years or christmas or anything. Honestly the only positive of this beyond the daleks is Jodie's acting which really carries it after the awesome reveal of the timeless child (that also, somehow, had to take place between really stupid annoying boring plot!) as far as series 12 goes I'd dare to say the only actually consistently good aspects are the doctor (would be concerning if not) and the master (why did he get barely anytime at all here... Like he seriously got the least screentime in 1 season I've seen from any incarnation of the master who got a place in any seasons overall plot). Sure the companions are nice. I'm a little sad to see Ryan and Graham go. But 3 companions is so bloated and evidently chibnall couldn't handle it. He can barely handle writing one character, the main one everyone watches the show for! Insane they brought back some dude from series 11 here who I did not remember at all, looked up, and realized hes from one of the most god awful episodes I've sat through. The fact I have stuck with the show through all of this has proved I have genuine brainrot from not getting over the absolute peak of moffats era. Every new episode is a disappointment (except spyfall, that was genuinely good). Why even bother to show yazmin having feelings for the doctor when she's the companion who got the least characterization. Like she literally does not have any character traits that I can name of beyond the fact she has family and apparently struggled with being bullied. And she's a cop (YAWN). It's really impressive how Chibnall can show how little he truly cares about writing this show, or is the production team behind him just truly incompetent. I honestly think it's a mix of both. The timeless child was absolutely genius on paper but that might've been a stroke of luck from him that he even was capable of thinking of that (I could've thought of it too though if i was in that studio immediately after i finished playing xenogears). I'm honestly just flabbergasted this show has been allowed to be this terrible for 2 straight seasons and they let chibnall on for a third one. Genuinely BBC I have beef with you and you need to get your s**t together I literally volunteer to get in there and fix everything because you need help.

frankly i love the timeless child stuff, the inconsistencies work out if you think about it a bit (and with chibnalls creativity shining here you can see any writer for doctor who regardless of skill is creative enough to iron out these inconsistencies even in different ways than what immediately came to mind for me). i definitely understand why people dislike the doctor being special on principal but the doctor being like fei fong wong xenogears style characterization is actually making me literally nuts right now This is probably going to be the only way chibnall era can peak.

on paper this idea sounded kind of bad but in execution it holds so much emotional weight (sacha dhawan absolutely carried this with his performance of the master constantly having a specific look in his eyes no matter if he was smiling frowning yelling or laughing) i will say there was moments during the whole reveal with 13 where i wonder if the acting direction was just really poor (mainly at the paralysis bit) i think also this script was way too bloated for a reveal as huge as this which actually took away from the impact they were going for.

i honestly couldnt care less about a single other thing happening in this episode, the lone cyberman ended up being stupid and the plot played out like some low budget childrens movie. this easily couldve been a 5 star episode with a more wise way of wedging this reveal into an episode with better pacing as well. i honestly forgot this was technically a 2 parter while writing this but it is which is actually nuts because ascension of the cybermen is such a forgettable episode! maybe if it had some real substance i wouldve given this a higher rating. absolutely disappointing one of the most interesting doctor who twists of all time gets sandwiched into a pretty poorly written plot.

this definitely is a set up for a great arc in the future to explore the doctors 'true' origins but i hope they dont do it as soon as 15s era and i truly hope they dont take a boring and easy way out of it by saying the doctor is an eternal and moving on

for an episode being the first to actually take place in ottoman aleppo (and probably the first in syria (?)) this was really a let down (ottoman history is cool af, aleppo is a historically significant city and wouldve been a great historical) like conceptually it was a cool idea but like. i dont really like the whole 2 gods plotline. it was overall a flat and uninteresting story. i struggled to pay attention to a single thing happening because it essentially felt like nothing happened. i honestly just feel baited with seeing aleppo and getting literally nothing from it like this is probably the most disappointing episode of all time

do you guys think there was crazy discourse with the balkan doctor who fandom because they casted a croatian guy as nikola tesla. i really need to do some investigating on this because that was actually the most controversial thing ive ever seen this show do ever

this 2 parter was absolutely amazing. sacha dhawan plays his part so perfectly. the plot actually kept me really engaged for the most part, the dialogue written by chibnall for once felt in character and believable, i really love how spyfall was put together in general. and i may be biased because im a bit of a james bond fan but like... this is actually the first quality episodes we've even seen from chibnall. he actually seems to have improved here. im not sure if its because this is him actually writing out a full on plot without motw elements (the series 11 overarching plot was basically nonexistent so maybe hes also just learning on the job?) but im really pleased with this one. lots of fun. definitely a classic 2 parter. i cant wait to see more of sacha dhawan since hes also very sexylicious which means seeing him be evil is going to be a huge treat for the rest of his run as the master