Not perfect but better than I remembered. What happened to character driven episodes like these.

Episode 8: The Reality War

If this was a bad era this might have been forgivable but it hasn't. Its been pretty good. Wild Blue Yonder, Boom, Rogue, Lux and The Well was amazing. I also admired episodes like 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble and The Story & The Engine even though even though they didn't really fully work for me on broadcast. But ending this era like this is unforgivable. I don't even know where to start. I never thought the day would come where I would give a doctor who episode half a star. This episode has tarnished this whole era and made it look like a big mistake. Maybe this was all a mistake. Doctor Who needs new voices. Bringing back RTD and Tennant, whilst executed quite well, set the worst precedent. Doctor Who has become what is was in the 80s. Rehashing old lore that no one cares about because the people running the show don't have any other ideas.

I'm generally wary of waving pitchforks at showrunners. Consistently good writing is something that is quite rare in doctor who.
But this episode confirmed my worst fears.

Sack Russel T Davis.

Episode 6: The Interstellar Song Contest

I miss when doctor who was written by socialists and fundi greens. Not because I think doctor who should be marxist but because these creatives would know better. 70s who would have never got doctor who anywhere near an institution that supports an apartheid fascist state.

Sort of reminded me a doctor who adventures comic.

Episode 5: The Story & The Engine

I wanted to like this more but you can sort of tell this was written by a first time TV writer. It feels like a script written by someone who has always wanted to write doctor who but is not sure they'll have another opportunity so has crammed all their ideas into one episode. The end result for me was just confusion. That being said this would make an amazing target novel.

Also I'm pretty sure some of the story graphics used AI...

New who's Pirate Planet.

An all on location story. What's not to love!

Love the revolutionary spirit. A solid doctor who episode. The collector is an antisemitic charicture which sucks.

I did this review when the episode came out. I have no idea if I still agree with it.

Whilst previous doctors, namely 10 and 11, have had memorial specials with episodes such as waters on mars and day of the doctor, Whittaker, as is it seems to be a general trend with the rest of her era, has had it poorly to no fault of her own. This and Eve of the Daleks feel like filler and I sincerely doubt, apart from the "Thasmin" subplot, these stories will not add up much to the inevitably catastrophic finale. This episode will probably, apart from the very clear production problems, be largely forgotten and overshadowed. If this episode was nothing more, nothing less than just forgettable, then it would warrant a higher rating but this episode is full of baffling inconsistencies which can only be explained by a rushed production trying to meet a deadline. That's not to say its faults are exclusively technical as chibnal poor writing quality is also on display. Its by no means an abomination though but feels very much a product of lack of imagination and doctor who's formulaic nature. One common criticism of the episode is its vfx which I believe are a result of the sea devils and the centenary. The sea devils have to be animated in every shot which is undoubtedly a tedious process which is why they obviously reused some shots. That being said the sea monster fx looks amazing. I wouldn't be surprised though that shot was done by the famous ben pickles who we recently found out was responsible for some of whittaker eras best vfx shots.

Overall its clunky and forgettable and will probably only be remembered for what ever the hell was going on behind the scenes. In that sense it will then share an ironic mirroring of warriors of the deep, which was famed for its difficult production. Hopefully Michael Grade won't pick this episode up out of context and use it to argue for its cancellation.

My review from 05/01/2022

The main aspect of the story I noticed is the ambition of it. In a way its like a mini Doctor Who Flux hopping around from place to place with an overarching story. The story mainly acts as a piece of world building where the doctor navigates a politically unstable landscape, trying to prevent a terrible war. The story is very noticeably cynical on authority whether its the facist leaning ideology of General Williams or the sexist traditions of the Draconian court. Because the serial spends a lot of the time in exploring the world it, does drag quite a bit. Jo Grant also barely gets anything to do and could easily be removed from the story without any impacts. Despite this Pertwee and Delgado are in top form and the final cliffhangers is probably one of the best in the shows history.