I have to give credit where credit is due, trying something new with the poem telling most of the story was interesting and a lot more palatable than the regular rehash full of bad jokes. I don't want to be too harsh on it because it was fine, as far as poems written in this style go; there were a few lines that didn't quite fit the rhythm but for the most part it worked out.

I was a little disappointed at the return to form after, but it didn't have a lot of space to ruin everything with terrible jokes (though the ones that were in it were atrocious).

The "old English" in this is atrocious, the mixing of modern slang with it even more so. The last section however almost makes up for it, bringing out some actually funny jokes that aren't just nitpicking everything bad in the original story.

I get it now. I completely understand why this is considered one of the worst, most boring Classic serials. This is the first time in my life where I've had to look up a Wikipedia summary of a story to understand what was going on, and it's the first time I've ever actively considered dropping a Doctor Who story in the middle.

I really wanted to like this serial. The first episode is actually quite good; the atmosphere is fantastic, the alien costumes and sets are all phenomenal in my opinion, and in general it seems like a great set-up for an intriguing story. In fact, I had fully expected to finish this serial saying it's no more slow than many 60's stories.

Somewhere around the third episode it starts to fall off for me. It's probably equally due to my subtitles not working as it is for the story itself, but I found myself bored and confused. I didn't try to binge it and instead spaced out the episodes as is recommended, but honestly I feel that only made it worse for my comprehension.

It reminds me a bit of The Daleks, in that it's a new concept with interesting aliens bogged down by spending far too much time on side quests while trying to make us care about identical lookingside characters, except the Daleks went on to become reoccurring villains while The Web Planet fell into obscurity. I think the Web Planet is more enjoyable for me purely on the lack of oversaturation.

The sound design for the Zarbi was interesting but quickly became grating. The way the Menoptra spoke was annoying, even more so because I struggled to understand them without subtitles. I like their ballet-like movements and poses, though.

The concept of the low-oxygen atmosphere bothers me. It's interesting on paper but is barely explored beyond the first episode, and directly clashes with the concept of giant, intelligent insects. Insects don't have a respiratory system like we do; they don't have lungs and they breathe through their skin. The oxygen flows through their body using the movement of their muscles rather than a central heart pump. To grow that big they would require extremely high levels of oxygen in the air. Yes, it's nitpicky - they're aliens! They probably don't have the same internal systems as Earth insects! But it's still enough to stretch my suspension of disbelief and take me out of the story a little, especially seeing how much thought was put into the alien insects with the costumes, movements and even death scenes.

This is pretty standard fair for a Doctor Who episode. It's fun, but it's far from perfect. While I did come out of this episode having had a pretty good time, a lot of it falls apart a little under scrutiny, and this review will reflect that.

Let's start with the Eurovision concept. This event has never been one I was particularly interested in (though I do have a good amount of knowledge about it on account of a friend of mine loving it), so this episode wasn't one I was really looking forward to. I think the episode succeeded is striking a balance between being exciting for fans of the event without alienating people who don't care for it. I was a little disappointed with the selection of song snippets we got, all of them being very pop-y and only one not being in English (excluding the song at the end, which I'll get to). I would have liked to see rep for one of the countries that always goes for a heavy metal song.

Unfortunately, I don't think this episode really managed to strike a balance between the high energy, fun, campy Eurovision stuff and the darker, more political stuff. It kept bouncing between them, givingme a sort of emotional whiplash. I think it would have worked better if we got the initial shock of everyone getting sucked out into space and then stuck with that vibe until the end.

So let's talk about the darker, more political stuff. I don't know if the writer was trying to write an allegory, but I'd like to give them the benefit of a doubt, because the alternative is ignorance. Unfortunately, the allegory is not a great one to make. Sci-fi racism is always difficult to pull off, and while I appreciate that they didn't try to explain why people don't like the Hellions, their actions and the way the story treats them does exactly what I don't like about scu-fi racism stories.

The villains are flat (because a tragic backstory does not a good villain make). Their motivation is solid - revenge against the corporation that ruined their planet. But by making them take it too far and claim they only do it because they have evil in their heart makes it seem like the story - and the Doctor - is siding with their oppressor. Sure, Cora then goes on to have an emotional song that gets the crowd cheering, but that's not going to fix anything. People who hate Hellions will continue to hate them. Unfortunately, history has shown again and again that oftentimes violence is the best way to cause change. Maybe "acceptable" Hellions like Cora, who have their horns cut and can pass as human (or whatever humanoid species is prolific throughout the galaxy at this point) will be allowed to sing and have rights and whatnot, but ones that are unwilling to conform will continue to deal with prejudice. Or maybe I'm just thinking too hard about this.

Politics aside, I didn't really care for the side characters in this one. They were all extremely one-note. Lynn had no reason to actively save Cora if she hated her, and that thread was never resolved. Mike and Gary were relegated to plot devices, and their introductory squabble was left completely hanging; I think it's possible they were going for a "they remembered why they fell in love in the first place" thing with Gary watching Mike work for the first time, but they didn't continue with that and it's a plot I greatly dislike anyway because it never actually resolves the problem.

Even the stuff I like is tainted. We have another appearance of Catkind, but she's furless and (for some reason) French. The Doctor getting to go dark again and the fear he clearly inspired in everyone but the villain is great, but he talked about it like it was caused by Kid and the "ice [he] put in [his] heart", as if it hasn't been an aspect of his character since forever. Belinda finally got to stand out again, but she has completely lost her dislike for the Doctor - where's the woman who was so offended by him scanning her DNA without consent when he nearly electrocutes a guy to death? Why does she immediately go to hug him after that rather than ripping him a new one?

Then there are the two twists. I'm happy to finally see Susan after all the name-dropping in the last series, but her cameo comes out of nowhere and is incredibly jarring. It's - for lack of a better word - loud. It completely overtakes the episode at some sections.

The Rani reveal made me leap out of my seat and chear and pace across the room. I usually back out of an episode as soon as it ends because I like avoiding the next time trailers, so it was incredibly lucky that I caught a second of this post-credits scene and realised it was still part of the episode. It feels like a really weird choice to put it there. After I calmed down from the hype of my favourite Time Lord appearing on my screen again, I realised what it meant and started feeling dread. Now, my thoughts on this choice could change drastically depending on what actually happens with her during the finale, but I'm very far from optimistic. The Rani has never been interested in world domination or obsessed with the Doctor, and this feels like the way RTD is taking the character, which I'm very much against. The bigeneration was bad enough when the Doctor did it, but this "myth" happening twice in a row is maddening. Mrs. Flood immediately lost all her personality, which makes this reveal even less satisfying than if she had just regenerated normally - and I was so lookingforwardto seeing her take centre stage after so long.

Now come the nitpicks, of which I have two: one, people don't freeze instantly in space. So much of the resolution hinges on this happening which elevates it from a minor niggle to something more groan-worthy. The second is that Cora says she spent "all those years working on this song" and then the song is bad. It's terrible. It's a perfect example of everything I dislike about the genre. Maybe it's a metaphor but it seems to be about love from the few lines we got to hear so I don't think it is. Girl, stick to a language no one understands.

Anyway, my enjoyment of this episode (or lack thereof) is pretty tied to how the finale will end up going. As a standalone, however, the politics are pretty bad (still not as bad as Lucky Day) but it's overall a pretty fun romp, even if my review doesn't show it.

It's entirely possible that my enjoyment of this story is owed in full to the presence of India Fisher, who I missed quite a lot. It's not Charley, but her character is fun and interesting.

Still, I don't think that's the case. It's an atmospheric story with an interesting concept which was well-realised. The twists were telegraphed and easy to predict (which I personally think is a good thing). The side characters, while somewhat flat, were all unique and served their purpose.

Five's level-headedness didn't ditract from this story for me, possibly because he wasn't in a lot of it. I always enjoy seeing (or listening to, in this case) him be put in his place, and Nyssa gets to shine as she does that. I'm really enjoying this particular TARDIS team so far.

I was really looking forward to having some fresh blood behind the scenes - and, finally, a Black writer for our first Black Doctor (seriously, why did that take so long?) - but unfortunately, I have to say I didn't really vibe with this episode.

I'm not sure if the pacing is off, or if it's more my problem with bottle episode and especially stories that rely heavily on a bunch of people standing in a room and talking that bothers me. It's another case of feeling like both too much and not enough happened in this episode.

The concept is interesting, and the execution of the stories being told in (frankly gorgeous) artwork works really well. We've had stories about stories (which I personally think is a lot of fun as a trope), but never quite like this.

Belinda was barely in this episode. It definitely feels like at least one scene was cut, after she gets caught by the cop but before she's in the alley looking for the barbershop. Her role basically starts and ends with telling Abby that "Hurt people hurt people", a line which felt tacked on both from a story perspective and with the audio mastering. These series are too short to continuously sideline the main characters like this, though I do appreciate Fifteen getting more of a focus.

Speaking of, that's really the main thing I enjoyed about this episode. Like Belinda said, wanting to belong is very human, and I loved the scene of him walking through the market, thoroughly in his element. It's just nice to have a story set on contemporary(ish) Earth set outside of the UK, especially Africa, which I don't believe we've been to yet, and even more so to a specific country rather than the nebulous continent so many (non Who) stories are set in.

The Doctor's anger at Omo's "betrayal" felt unearned and out of place. Maybe if we had seen them bonding more it would have been more powerful, but then it would have been even more jarring that Omo essentially begging for the Doctor's help gets such a vitriolic response.

Jo Martin's cameo as the fugitive Doctor was fun and exciting, though it does raise a few questions on how much the Doctor remembers of being her considering he was fobwatched.

From the moment stories were used to sate some sort of beast I was reminded of Rings of Akhaten, one of my all time favourite episodes - which unfortunately isn't a good thing. Much like The Well being a sequel to Midnight or Lucky Day opening quite similarly to Love & Monsters, referencing an old favourite forces me to compare the stories, even if subconsciously, and like most people, I am likely blinded by nostalgia and my love for those established stories, and am much more likely to be critical of the newer ones. As such, the ending where the Doctor uses his past lives to overload the engine falls flat for me; nothing will ever compare to the feeling I got watching that grandiose speech with the music swelling in the background when I was twelve.

That being said, the resolution was still fun. All the old Doctor cameos always get a smile, no matter how overdone they are. The tree-like brain/heart thing was gorgeous (though I do wish they hadn't spelled out the symbolism). I like that everyone was forgiven and they all ended up on good terms with one another.

The acting was really good throughout the whole episode (though some of the side characters felt quite flat and didn't really feel like proper characters), it was gorgeous to look at, and it did something a little bit different, even if it reused some staple tropes. Overall, despite my general feelings of "meh", there's definitely a lot to enjoy here.

Oh boy, here we go again. After a solid run of episodes we run face first into the dirt of bad politics. And, almost worse, a boring story.

My first thought as I finished the episode was, "Who was that for?". The main point of the story seems to be about misinformation and the alt-right pipeline, and how that's bad. But the Conrads of the world aren't watching this; they're too busy complaining on Xitter and in YouTube comment sections about how Doctor Who is too woke now. The people who are watching the show are likely already aware that misinformationis bad. It doesn't help that the message is incredibly heavy-handed, with the Doctor looking directly at the camera and saying Conrad is a terrible person.

I don't tend to speculate while watching, but Conrad was putting up a lot of red flags from the beginning. He got caught by the Shreek's marker and after hearing the Doctor tell Ruby exactly what it does he didn't immediately run out of his hiding place and ask for the antidote for himself; he took a very stalkery picture of Ruby and plastered it all over the internet; and while I don't watch many romcoms, it definitely read to me as off how much he pushed to get a date with Ruby after having her on the podcast. Safe to say, I wasn't exactly surprised when he turned out to be a prick, especially since we already had that twist earlier in the series (done a lot better, I might add).

Ruby is ostensibly the main character of this episode. Unfortunately, stopping the momentum of this series in its tracks to focus on a previous companion doesn't really warm me to Ruby, especially when she's one of the blandest companions to date in my opinion. After a full series and an extra episode I still don't feel like I know her, and that's made even worse in comparison with Belinda, who had only one or two lines in this episode which were already so full of personality. They tried for depth with Ruby discussing life after the Doctor, but her thinking she has PTSD felt very scripted and really fell flat for me.

UNIT is back in all its messy RTD2 glory. They didn't introduce any new child soldiers, which I'm grateful for, but they have yet to do anything with the existing characters, either. Shirley is back, but she only gets a handful of lines and is once again reduced to a punching bag to make a point about how terrible the villain is. Ibrahim has no character or personality beyond being Kate's boyfriend, and while I don't have very strong opinions on Kate's sexuality, I would like to say that at least dating a subordinate would be out of character for her - if only she had a consistent character in this era.

A big part of what bothers me with this episode is how entrenched in real life it is. Doctor Who, as a sci-fi show, has always commented on current issues, but usually with at least a few layers of metaphor. Darker episodes have always been set either in thepast, the future, or some alternate reality, being more character-driven. Episodes set in the modern day, even heavily political ones, always cussion it by either making the bad guys aliens or splicing in lots of jokes, going for a more lighthearted tone. This one is set in the modern day, in a world that is identical to our own except for the clear existence of aliens. None of it is played for a joke, the tone is sombre, and it just feels far more real than anything we've seen from Who before (maybe except for The Green Death, but that was before my time and as such I can't comment on how similar it felt).

And that leads me to my main problem with the episode, which is, of course, the politics. Setting aside the implicit racism of the fact that this is Fifteen's third Doctor-light episode in already short seasons and our new WoC companion getting sodelined for an old, very white one, the optics of the actual episode are terrible.

Because UNIT is, first and foremost, a military. They come in with uniforms and guns. Maybe the basic premise of the prank (make UNIT look stupid for reacting to fake aliens? Make it seem like UNIT are the ones who put those guys in costumes?) is kind of senseless, but everything around it is what actually makes UNIT look bad, not just in universe, but for the viewers as well. In our current political climate, you'd be hard pressed to find someone watching this episode who doesn't at least know someone who knows someone who ended up in conflict with the police during a protest, if they haven't been in that situation themselves. The imagery of armed soldiers taking away civilians, manhandling them and pointing guns at them while the civilians film or livestream it is one we are all familiar with from real life, and it paints UNIT as very much in the wrong.

The episode refuses to engage with that, however. It compares UNIT more to the WHO, a scientific organisation constantly under threat of being defunded. But scientists don't go around pointing guns at people. Usually, if you know where to look, you'll find exactly how much taxpayer money they receive and what tey do with it. Now, I don't know if Conrad is telling the truth about UNIT being completely opaque with that stuff (they don't dispute him, but it's also a high tension situation), but if he is he's making some really good points. Sure, he's doing it for attention and personal gain, and that makes him a bad person, but him being terrible doesn't automatically make UNIT the good guys.

But this darker side of UNIT isn't explored here. Maybe this episode was designed as a backdoor pilot for the spinoff, but a backdoor pilot doesn't work if the show it's in grinds to a halt. I'm not more interested in watching the spinoff because I want to see what's gonna happen - I'm just annoyed at this episode leaving me hanging.

The climax, while exciting, leaves a lot to be desired. I like this darker side of Kate, but it falls flat within the context of the episode. The Shreek is scary and the tension is good, but after seeing the Shreek costumes earlier in the episode the CGI version is obviously digital and lacks weight - it doesn't interact with the world the way the "fake" ones did. The highlight of the episode was Conrad's quick switch from begging for his life to once again being sure of himself, but when a single acting moment is the best part it's more telling on the rest of the episode.

Then comes the Doctor's speech. At first, I thought it was part of this darker UNIT, and they somehow projected the illusion of the TARDIS and the Doctor around Conrad's cell or into his mind as we've never seen a materialisation quite like it, but I don't think that's actually what was happening there. While Gatwa's acting during that scene was fantastic as always, the writing felt incredibly ham-fisted, and honestly, somewhat out of character. I'm interested in a darker Doctor, but I find it hard to believe that he would be perfectly alright with UNIT jailing someone for life (let alone the non-sapient aliens they appear to be keep in cells). The whole thing felt off.

Once again, I find Mrs. Flood to just be another Susan Twist. Whether Conrad return in the finale or not, this episode has proven itself to not be able to stand on its own. Its only purpose is to introduce a spinoff and deepen existing mysteries without giving us any new clues.

All in all, this was a boring waste of an episode in an already short series, with poor politics and even worse optics. The more I think about it the more it annoys me and the more I lower my rating of it. It's especially disappointing after a pretty solid run of episodes, and I can't say I'm looking forward to the spinoff.

I really want to say I enjoyed this episode and just leave it at that. Unfortunately, I have far too much to say to be able to do that. It definitely has its strengths, but it also suffers from a lot of the same problems as the rest of RTD2 so far.

The episode opens immediately after we left off with Lux, with the same sort of odd characterisation choice for Belinda no longer having any sort of antagonism with the Doctor. They change clothes in a shot-for-shot remake of the previous clothes changing scene from the very last episode, with Toxic playing overtop. I really don't get that choice; it was fun, meta, and an obvious joke in End of the World, but here it just feels tacked on. The repetition of the scene (while we still don't get to see any other rooms in the TARDIS!) definitely doesn't help immerse me in the episode.

I've seen arguments both for and against the Doctor and Belinda ending up with the exact same space suits as everyone else, and while I didn't mind it that much, it did take me out of the story a little. What bothered me more is the Doctor flashing his psychic paper, apparently showing up to test the troopers, but then ending up in control of the whole operation. I almost agree with Cassio in hindsight, though I found his actions a bit too extreme while watching.

Still, as the episode continued I left my worries behind and got properly invested. The atmosphere was potent. Aliss, especially, did a phenomenal job making everything more tense,being obviously distressed and the only one left alive.

I really appreciate the Deaf representation. I think it was handled really well; there's a lot of aids without eradicating the condition, while still showing how some people remain subtly bigoted. You can really feel her frustration when people turn their backs on her or turn off their subtitles without even noticing.

Belinda got to shine as a nurse again, though I felt she was somewhat sidelined for most of the episode.

The first jumpscare was really expertly done in my opinion, fast enough and jarring enough to make me thing I was just imagining something behind Aliss, affected by the musical sting and Belinda's reaction more than anything. Really fantastic.

And now we get to the big twist: this is a sequel to Midnight. I thankfully went into this episode not knowing that, having avoided spoilers and leaks. I think I wouldn't have been able to enjoy the first half of this episode as much as I did if I had known. That being said, I really don't think this episode needed to be a sequel. Worse, I think it suffered for it. I think the monster acted too differently to be the same one, especially taking its motivations into consideration - I genuinely don't believe the original Midnight entity was toying with the passengers or laughing at them (whether or not the Doctor believes it, or if it's in character for him to say that, is a matter of some debate that I would be very open to having). It doesn't help that the way it acted in this episode alone was somewhat inconsistent.

The reveal itself doesn't really work for me either; I find it hard to believe that people 400,000 years in the future know the old name of the planet. I don't have an opinion on the flashback either way - it's the most necessary of the *three* flashbacks we've had in these *three* episodes (gosh, talk about repetitive and formulaic), but I don't think it added much. The Doctor crying also felt the most deserved in this one and as such didn't take me out of the story, but it's definitely cheapened by having happened every episode so far.

The way the monster flings the soldiers around didn't bother me as much as some other people, but I do think there were probably scarier ways to have it kill that are just as safe for TV. I really like the way Shaya weaponised the monster to stop Cassio, it was clever and powerful.

The ending felt a tad bit rushed. The mirror thing had been set up pretty obviously, though I'm not exactly sure how (or even if) it worked, or how the creature went about smashing the mirrors in the first place (did it swing people at them?). While I appreciate them not fully showing the monster, I would have preferred to not even see the silhouette of it in the hallway.

I didn't notice the airlock counting an extra person, but I definitely thought it was possible that Belinda was just imagining the whispers, only hearing them after everyone else said they didn't have the creature on them.

I liked Shaya sacrificing herself and the implication that it didn't work. It was obvious to me, as the Doctor was running behind her the whole time and never got flung back, even when Shaya paused at the edge of the well. A needless sacrifice is one of the best parts about this episode.

The mystery of what happened to Earth continues to intrigue. I think it would be even more poignant if the non-humans looked a little more alien - even just Star Trek-style forehead bumps would do the trick, especially now that Doctor Who has the budget to make its aliens look the part. I also think it could have been integrated into the story a bit better.

The ending is dragged down a little for me with the appearance of Mrs. Flood. I really enjoyed her little cameos up to this point, but in this episode she just feels like amother Susan Twist, and I *do not* trust RTD to have it pay off after the way that plot was handled last time.

All in all, I think this is a really solid episode bogged down by the stories around it. I think it could have been a 10/10 for me if it was more of a standalone, without the season-wide mysteries and the ties back to Midnight. I would love to see the earliest drafts of this story.

This is, all in all, a fun episode that I would gladly watch again and enjoy. It's paced better than many episodes in this era, has interesting side characters and quite a bit of heart, as well as fantastic atmosphere.

I think my main complaint would be the villain. Mr. Ring-a-Ding just wasn't very good. Some of his scenes felt powerful, but for the most part he was a little annoying. The "don't make me laugh" thing was an obvious set-up and felt very strange and kind of stupid in the introductory song. I didn't feel the flashbacks were necessary, especially after the even shorter-term flashbacks in the very previous episodes, and the harbinger reveal was groan-worthy.

On top of that, the animation was clearly done by computer rather than using cell animation, leaving it in a sort of uncanny valley that made it hard for me to focus on the actual story. When the Doctor and Belinda got animated it looked really stiff, and made the already forced-feeling moment of honesty between them feel even more wooden and out of place, which led to me being completely unable to believe that Belinda learned to trust him more during this episode. I do like how the "real" body Lux was building was clearly referencing those youtube videos where a sculpter makes "X but realistic".

The thing is, there's a difference Whoniverse story with a near-identical premise: Torchwood's From Out of the Rain. I can easily compare Lux to the Ghostmaker and say that I by far prefer the latter.

Let's move on to happier things. I really liked the scene with the fans; while I was hoping for a deep cut with the favourite episode, I must admit them all being so adamant about Blink was quite funny. It was an exciting moment, and I enjoyed it. It was nice to have a bit of downtime before the third act with a bit of meta humour.

I think the episode handled segregation very well for the runtime available and considering the episode wasn't about that (much better than Dot and Bubble handled racism, in my personal opinion), but I'm a bit miffed with how surprised Belinda was to learn about it.

The set design and costuming were great, though I'm again left begging for them to show us the wardrobe room.

This review might be leaning a little negative, but I really did have a good time.

I think I might have been a little distracted while listening to the first half of this story, but I found it pretty middling. Usually, folklore-inspired contemporary Doctor Who stories are my bread and butter, so it's odd that this didn't really capture me like they usually do.

The story itself is nothing special. All the twists were incredibly predictable, which isn't always a bad thing but also doesn't really do this story any favours.

The side characters were likeable enough, if quite flat; I liked Phillip and the professor, and it's a shame they met such grizzly ends.

Sixie's first meeting with the Brig was a highlight; I appreciate the Brig recognising him instantly. Evelyn is even more enjoyable than in her first outing.

There's nothing particularly bad about this story, but no standouts either. As middle-of-the-road as they come.