I read Sick Building for this month's TARDIS Guide Forum Book Club. Sick Building is an enjoyable example of the entirely-digital-house-and-things-are-going-wrong trope (I don't know the actual name for it), and the Tenth Doctor's characterization is more on-point here than in some other NSAs.

I didn't finish watching "The Reality War" until 10 pm, and I listened to my emo playlist for an hour to cope, but I think I can write a review now. It will still be all over the place, but I'm nothing if not predictable. I didn't think that I would like this episode, but that doesn't mean I'm not still disappointed.

I probably shouldn't have been looking at the leaks, but I'm nosy and purposefully looked at the leaks thread in the forum for this season. I was really hoping that 15 wouldn't regenerate since he's one of my favorite Doctors, Ncuti Gatwa is fabulous in the role, he's only been in nineteen episodes, and he never really got a chance to shine. I love earning badges, but I'm sad to earn the one for finishing all TV stories with 15. I wish Ncuti Gatwa all the best, and I'm sure he will continue to slay, just no longer on new episodes of Doctor Who.

The entire RTD2 era has felt like RTD taking the popular parts of his first era and redoing them in this era, but in a derivative and worse manner in an attempt to recreate the popularity of his original era. It does not work. Billie Piper being the new Doctor is unfortunately a prime example of this. Instead of casting an up-and-coming actor to play the Doctor, RTD chose an actor that portrayed one of the show's most popular companions (and one that was from his original era). I have nothing against Billie Piper, but she's the wrong person to play the next Doctor since she already came back for "Day of the Doctor" as a different character after the popularity of Rose Tyler. The casting of the Doctor should not be a publicity gimmick! Well, technically she wasn't credited as the Doctor in the credits so she might not be the next Doctor, but it is still a gimmick to get people talking about how Billie Piper is the next Doctor.

I loved Belinda at the beginning of the season, but the more interesting parts of her characterization were quickly abandoned, which sucks. I don't like how the bit with the Doctor making a wish that Poppy lives resulted in Belinda being Poppy's mother. Belinda's motivation for the rest of the season being changed to wanting to go home to Poppy was incredibly disappointing. I'm terribly sick of female characters being reduced to their main goal in the narrative being something related to their children, and it sucks that this ended up being the case.

The Rani and the Wish World being defeated by Anita holding a door open and the Doctor making a new wish is an extremely unsatisfying conclusion. Omega being a CGI skeleton was also extremely unsatisfying.

I've never experienced the EU media where looms are mentioned, but it is interesting that Time Lords being sterile is canon now. I'm happy for the fans of the EU media where that's a thing. I really wish that Rose Noble had a bigger role; I'm sick of her just being written as a part of the UNIT set. I loved Thirteen's cameo; I'm indifferent towards Thasmin, but I'm happy for Thasmin fans. Kate telling Ruby that she can punch Conrad is iconic tbh. I love Anita, but I wish she had more to do besides holding a door open (that and everything with Belinda and Poppy was so sexist). Susan should've been brought back due to her appearance in "The Interstellar Song Contest," but I honestly don't trust RTD to correctly write her return. This show needs new blood. I need to bill RTD for my meds, next meeting with my therapist, and next meeting with my psychiatrist.

I'll probably add more of my thoughts later.

I hate the Americanization of British TV shows more than I hate myself (I may be American, but at least I have good taste). Miracle Day is an interesting premise with an intriguing hook, but the episode mostly focuses on American characters that I have no emotional attachment to (Esther Drummond is the most milquetoast character I've watched) and spends little time with the more dynamic characters formerly employed by the Torchwood Institute.

This will function as my review of both "Day Four" and Torchwood: Children of Earth so far. It's hard to believe that Children of Earth is a season of the same tv show that brought us alien sex gas. The immature throwing around of sex and gore just because the writers felt like it is gone and replaced by a mature fabulous combination of science-fiction and drama that feels very real and grounded in human behavior. The scene where the government officials are sitting around a table, surrendering to the 456, deciding what children to sacrifice, and deciding to sacrifice disabled and disenfranchised children they see as useless was chilling, but felt unfortunately accurate to how I think real-life government officials would handle this situation. All of the tension that's been building in the first three episodes results in catastrophe in "Day Four", and I can't wait to watch "Day Five". Although John Barrowman was able to pull off the charisma and one-liners required for the role of Jack Harkness in his limited appearances in Doctor Who, his dramatic acting in Torchwood is lacking and clearly weaker when compared to the rest of the cast (especially Peter Capaldi as the mundanely evil middle man John Frobisher).

Although I was nervous for "Wish World" after the catastrophe (imo) of last year's finale two-parter, I really enjoyed this episode (so did my father, but this isn't his review). I love how the "perfect" world has misogyny, ableism, homophobia, etc that function as cracks to shatter any illusion that it isn't a dystopia. The first twenty minutes were pretty much perfect. I say "pretty much" because RTD needs to give Shirley a personality trait besides "being disabled." The Rani is immensely camp and I love her. I know her characterization differs significantly from her previous episodes, but I haven't seen any Classic Who, so I can't comment on that. Also, I hope that Mrs. Flood's fourth wall breaking is explained at some point. I did not like how she just infodumped for ten minutes; RTD, if you're reading this, you can't wave away exposition-dumping just by mentioning it. The score for this episode was perfect, and I am begging Murray Gold to release a Doctor Who score album for the first time in a decade. The set of the bone palace was gorgeous, and I loved all of the other visuals. I was super excited for Belinda in the first few episodes, but it seems like her trait of not blindly following the Doctor just sort of disappeared pretty quickly, and I was disappointed because I loved having a companion that stood up to him and was reluctant to travel. I did not know that Rogue would be returning, and I full-blown squealed when I saw him on screen! I hope he's actually brought back, and he wasn't just used as a plot device to have the Doctor examine the table and mugs (also, if he could communicate, why couldn't he just tell the Doctor where he is?). As I ask in every post-"The Giggle" story set on Earth; where is the Fourteenth Doctor? It's a bit silly to keep one version of the Doctor on present-day Earth when so many episodes take place on present-day Earth. I really hope that "The Reality War" isn't half as bad as "Empire of Death" and that all of the interesting setup in "Wish World" has a good conclusion.

I was hoping that due to it being for a more mature audience, Torchwood could fully explore the body horror of Cybermen as a concept in "Cyberwoman" in a way that its family-friendly parent show Doctor Who can't; that was not what happened. "Cyberwoman" introduces the concept of Cybermen converting full-bodies (not just brains) with a result of a human with some metal casing that's capable of expressing some emotion. Unfortunately, Lisa (the titular Cyberwoman) is horrendously objectified, turning the interesting new conversion concept into an excuse to sexualize her.

I read Forever Autumn for the TARDIS Guide Forum Book Club. The plot of Forever Autumn is nothing special (not exceptional, but not bad), but I thoroughly enjoyed the Halloween setting. There definitely need to be more Halloween-themed Whoniverse stories

I haven't watched "Dark Water" in several years, and I had forgotten how much I love it! I remembered the twists, so the foreshadowing had me cackling. I love the Cybermen eyes on the doors and when their theme music starts to play as our protagonists figure it out. I love Missy! She's probably one of the most fun characters to watch on-screen. Also, I always love it when Osgood showed up. She and Missy are now some of my favorite characters.

I really wanted to love this episode, but the "both sides" handling of the political aspects left a bitter taste in my mouth. I'll start out with the positives. I loved how camp the episode was (The Doctor using a confetti cannon to maneuver himself back to the ship was fun), and the fact that there were songs present and that they were actually good. I have much more to say about the negatives. Although the antagonists had valid motivations, destroying the corporation that committed genocide against their people and planet to make profit from stolen natural resources, they were still depicted as mostly one-dimensional terrorists. Obviously their plan to murder three trillion people is horrendous, but the characters and the narrative equate it to the genocide committed by the Corporation (the corporate sponsors of the Interstellar Song Contest) against the Hellions. Although it makes sense to focus more on the acts committed by the main antagonists, the Corporation's crimes are mostly ignored by the characters. Cora is depicted as the "good" Hellion because she protested within the system (again, I think attempting to murder everyone in the universe is awful and I wasn't rooting for the antagonists), but that doesn't detract from how protests that don't attempt to change anything on a systemic level were depicted as superior, and how one song was shown to automatically changing the minds of most people in the audience. Although I love it when the Doctor shows his darker side, the scene of him torturing the kid definitely dragged on a bit too long for it to be in character. For the rest of the season, Belinda hasn't hesitated to criticize the Doctor (which I love), and it felt out of character that she didn't say anything after she saw him torture someone. These last three episodes have been Belinda-lite, which I don't like since she's a very interesting companion in a very short season that I think I would love even more if she had more time on screen. Susan appearing in the Doctor's mind felt a bit out of place. I already saw the leaks about Mrs. Flood being the Rani, but I still don't like the use of bigeneration. That being said, Archie Panjabi is fantastic in the role! I wasn't the biggest fan of it in "The Giggle" but at least it was a one-time thing that made sense since the Doctor went to the end of the universe and certain forces were let in. There was no reason for the Rani to bigenerate. Additionally, Mrs. Flood suddenly becoming subservient when the other version of herself took charge felt out of character.

I watched "The Crimson Horror" on a loop for a period of time that was 9-10 years ago, which was the start of my love for horror and mysteries set in the Victorian era. I don't like it as much as I did when I was younger, but it's still enjoyable.