It's refreshing to have a regeneration story which really digs into the transition between incarnations from the perspective of the companion. It's something that's usually ignored or resolved quickly or circumvented completely by introducing new companions at the same time. I think the episode strikes a good balance between the scepticism felt by Clara (and perhaps the audience) and the return to normality demanded by the narrative of the show; it would've been tedious for Clara to be so suspicious for more than one episode. It makes both the new Doctor and Clara feel more rounded as characters and establishes the basis for their relationship in the coming series. The presence of the Paternoster Gang also helps to smooth the transition and provide some genuinely amusing and much-needed comic relief.

The plot with the robots is interesting enough and has a couple of really good moments (like Clara holding her breath in the ship and the confrontation between the Doctor and the Half-Face Man) but feels rather perfunctory because the focus is on the Doctor and Clara. It's a slow burner but I think it does about enough to earn its longer run time and I prefer the more sedate pace over the typical zaniness you see in the revived series.

In many respects, this feels like the greatest hits of Steven Moffat. It features some very familiar tropes, characters, dialogue, and storytelling, with a couple of twists and turns. Thankfully, Moffat's greatest hits are so good that it results in a solid, enjoyable episode.

The most unique aspect is the central conceit of the Doctor being stuck on a landmine and it was a conceit that was used to its full potential. It created threat, tension, drama, and it helped to create a narrative which was small-scale yet still high-stakes, which is the sort of narrative that Doctor Who excels at. It also gave the actors their moments to shine. Gatwa, Gibson, and the supporting cast were all great and this episode was the first time that the Fifteenth Doctor felt like, well, the Doctor.

In an era which seems to pride itself on being more silly and zany and colourful, it was good to have an episode that had an edge to it and leaned into darker themes. The ambulances roaming the battlefield, the flesh canisters, the disposable attitude towards life, and the general pervading sense of this being just one battlefield in a huge industrial war gave the episode a vivid and, at times, haunting feeling to it. It felt like a real setting with real people and real struggles. Consequently, the messaging around war and religion and capitalism also felt more authentic and relatable.

If this is an episode of Moffat's greatest hits then it should perhaps not come as a surprise that it doesn't entirely stick the landing. "The power of love saves the day" just isn't a very satisfying ending but the rest of the episode is so high quality that it can be forgiven a questionable conclusion.

I've always liked the idea of Doctor Who tackling social history or cultural history, the gritty details of everyday life as opposed to the key events or great figures of the past. A world without music therefore sounds like a great idea but the execution left a lot to be desired.

The whole thing felt very disjointed, it meandered along and didn't really have a sense of narrative progression. It felt as if there was no cause and effect and that things simply happened for the sake of it. A major reason for this is Maestro who, besides acting like a pantomime villain for most of their scenes, is a character that has no consistent rules or powers or weaknesses; they act as the plot demands they act with no other justification and that seriously weakens the narrative of the episode. This sense of listlessness isn't helped by the Doctor's passivity and helplessness nor by the dwelling on Ruby's mystery, which was interesting at the time but is ruined in retrospect, nor by the weird scenes with the Beatles who end up with a pivotal role at the climax despite being superfluous and disposable right up until that point.

There are couple of good scenes, like the Maestro and the Doctor having their sonic battle, some funny moments at the start, and the part where music gradually returns to the world, but they can't salvage the episode.

As for the musical number at the end: well, perhaps a world without music wouldn't be so bad after all.

I'm not someone who believes that Doctor Who should be an "adult" show, it can and should appeal to all ages, but it should also aspire to a basic level of seriousness and dramatic storytelling. This episode is juvenile, it's frivolous, it's occasionally very puerile, and it doesn't feel serious at all. Perhaps that was the intent but, if so, it wasn't a good idea. It feels almost like a parody of itself.

When it isn't being childish, it's just being bad. The exposition dump at the start is clumsy with none of the elegance seen in Rose and The End of the World, the latter of which this episode pretty conspicuously apes, the humour isn't very good, the political messaging is questionably-handled, and the pacing is all over the place. The only two redeeming features are the set design, which is great, and Gatwa and Gibson, who are instantly likeable and have great chemistry, but those two things are not enough to save this episode.

And extra points have to be docked for the fact that this was the series opener. Had it been broadcast in a later slot, you could forgive it as one of the mid-series stinkers that you usually find in Doctor Who, albeit a particularly bad one. To show this as the first episode of a new series, which itself was supposed to be a fresh start, was an insane choice and one has to wonder how much long-term damage it did to the new era.