The War Between the Land and the Sea: The End of the War

 "We will give you anything you want. Because we are terrified of you."

RTD is writing again for what proves to be a dramatic finale that hits hard and delivers its political subtext relatively well for current television. The human race is indeed out of control, what with the climate catastrophe, pollution, threats of nuclear war, unregulated AI and other such nonsense, all in the name of profit- however nice individual humans may be. And the dog eating scene... yeah, we all know which orange individual is being referred to there. Nice one.

The plot here, if we look at the broad thrust, is quite horrifying. The Sea Devils seem to have won. Humanity has an impossible five years to implement the terms, or the Sea Devils will melt the ice caps, causing mass floods and even more carbon emissions. But some have a plan, Severance, to stop them, and it's particularly pernicious. Not only is it genocidal, it cruelly exploits the love which Barclay has for Salt, using him as the unwitting vector for transmission... and then we get the Sea Devil bodies washing up on the beach. 90% of all Sea Devils are dead. Humanity has won. And we are truly terrifying.

Some may criticise the virus as deus ex machina. I wouldn't. "Severance" is seeded well in advance. But one other possible criticism is how similar this is, plot-wise, to the resolution of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. There's a thin line, sometimes, between homage and just simply lifting something, and I'm not sure which side of the line to place this.

There's much else, though. Kate Lethbridge-Stewart has been deepened considerably as a character within this series. Grief-stricken, obsessive, workaholic, capable of blackmail to avoid being signed off work, her threats to the prime minister are great stuff... but will this be built upon later? I like the reference to the Doctor's absence, though- "I save the human race, but I don't shape the human race". And the scientist's comment that "from the moment homo sapiens meet a new species, we slaughter them.". Indeed. What hope for the Sea Devils, after the fate of the Neanderthals, Denisovans and countless other hominids that went before them?

Salt and Barclay may get their happy ending to counterbalance the bleakness, as Barclay grows gills(!) and goes to live in the sea. But he's abandoning his child, and that sits very badly with me. This, the War of the Worlds issue, and the need for Kate's character development to actually be followed through on, are real worries for me. But there's no doubt that this is a hard-hitting and impactful finale.

The War Between the Land and the Sea: The Witch of the Waterfall

 "You'll never swim alone!"

Hmm. I can see what they're trying to do, and even admire it. There's a racism and xenophobia subtext in this episode, especially given that the phrase "great replacement theory" gets bandied around at one point. Far right conspiracies, rich oligarchs, populism... these are, of course, terrible things. So Salt gets arrested, there's the deepfake image of her claiming responsibility, all so very topical. It's all very well done, but perhaps a little too obviously on the nose.

Then there's the weird romance between Salt and Barclay, now rebels together against both human and Sea Devil. Yes, we've seen their mutual attraction, but I'm not sure I buy this. Again, we have the racism angle, and this is supposed to show an interracial relationship as a contrast to all the MAGA-type racism. But the analogy doesn't hold. Barclay and salt aren't people of different ethnicities, they're literally a mammal and a reptile... "interracial" is a much bigger deal here.

And there's Kate, overworking and ploughing through her grief. Jemma Redgrave is superb here, but the character just isn't that deep, and this deep focus on her characterisation just doesn't really work as a consequence. And the stuff with the conspiracy, and the stressed prime minister in over his head... again, I like and appreciate what they're trying to do in theory. But the execution makes no sense. Why is a British PM being advised by American and French generals rather than the Cabinet? Why is an American general giving orders to the British army on London's streets? The whole thing doesn't quite come off, and I just don't buy the stand-off at the end.

Perhaps I'm being a little harsh. The whole thing looks superb, and the performances remain first rate. The dialogue is often impressive. But I'm not sure this is quite working in terms of the execution when it comes to both plot and subtext. I hope the finale makes me feel differently...

The War Between the Land and the Sea: The Deep

 "If you're trying to keep the peace, you've already failed."

The third episode maintains the quality by pushing the tension even further, daring to pace things slowly in a way that really works. There's so much superb characterisation here in both script and performances, but malevolent forces are lurking behind the scenes and the shock ending (if not that detail!) feels both earned and inevitable.

The scenes with Barbara and Kirby, with TikTok calling Barclay both a fool and a traitor, shows us just how much pressure he's under, as well as how awful humanity can be in this age of far right culture war. And I have to admire how the slow descent is dwelt on, with some superb and very real characterisation alongside the building up of tension. This takes up a huge chunk of the episode and, in pure plot terms, is technically padding. Yet it's utterly gripping, the atmospheric pressure of the deep an apposite metaphor for the pressure felt by Barclay.

Yet, on the surface, all is not well. Kate is overworking, to the concern of Colonel Ibrahim, while the prime minister tries to subtly exclude her, himself being manipulated by the dark forces of the military-industrial complex.

The home of the Sea Devils (and other races) is quite the sight. We, and Barclay, are fed a little more lore- the Sea Devils are nomadic, and seem to count dolphins amongst the many aquatic races! And Barclay and Salt have blatant sexual tension. A mammal and a reptile...!

The end comes as a huge shock, though. The assassination attempt on Kate, Ibrahim taking the bullet for her and dying, her anguish as her soulmate dies in her arms- Jemma Redgrave is extraordinary here. And then we see why Ted was so nervous all along... he was a suicide bomber, and we know who he's broadly working for.

Wow. It's all kicking off. This is gripping stuff, still.

The War Between the Land and the Sea: Plastic Apocalypse

 "This man is the most important person on the planet."

This episode may be Pete McTighe rather than RTD, but the quality continues. If it continues to do so, we could have something truly special here, a modern and deeply thoughtful updating of the Silurians' and Sea Devils' intrinsic subtexts. Here, though, there are two key differences. Firstly, the Sea Devils (still not having Homo Aqua, reptiles are not hominids!) are not opposed to humanity's existence, or ownership of the land; they merely object- strongly- to our pollution, and our possession of the oceans and waterways. Secondly, there's no Doctor... much as Kate may complain, when Barclay goes off script, that "This is like working with the Doctor"!

Yet there's the human side too. Barclay feels real, a testament to Russell Tovey's acting but also to the characterisation. His relation to Barbara and Kirby further humanises him, with Kirby genuinely both idealistic and proud of her dad. But humans, of course, are not perfect, and those with wealth and power are plotting to undermine UNIT. This plot thread can only deepen.

It's interesting to see UNIT more closely. For the first time we see Kate and Colonel Ibrahim at home, very much a couple, contrasting with their professionalism at work. We see speculation about a kind of Sea Devil hive mind. And... it becomes more and more unclear what Shirley's job description actually is.

Yet the drama of the actual diplomatic negotiations is enormous. Even more so than the Sea Devils' dramatic act of returning all plastic etc in the oceans back to land (including, in an echo of Ghostbusters II, the Titanic finally reaching New York)!. Salt and Barclay see to have real chemistry, yet her (and their) anger is palpable. Their demands are seemingly impossible, the sacrifices seemingly too great. Yet, from the Sea Devils' perspective, they are modest and reasonable.

There's long to go, and I've no idea how this will end. But the subtext, the pacing, the characters... this is very, very good.

The War Between the Land and the Sea: Homo Aqua

 "That's them- the gay waters!"

Before I start praising this promising first episode, a gripe about "homo aqua": it's just scientifically illiterate. Even this English graduate knows that the genus "homo" is for hominids, i.e. primate species that walk upright. The Sea Devils are not even mammals, let alone primates. It just doesn't work. I get that the name "Sea Devils" is pejorative, and I don't mean to be one of those tiresome culture warriors who whinge about "woke" this and "woke" that. But dammit, this is a fictional race, and I'm just not having this bad science. As far as I'm concerned, "Sea Devils" it is.

That said, though... this is a very promising start. It looks gorgeous, with the Disney budget well used. The cast, led by Russell Tovey, is excellent. There are some nice little Easter eggs for the fans- a glimpse of Trinity Wells; the surprising use of General (formerly Colonel) Pierce in a more important role all these years later; UNIT in all it's glory, with Kate, Colonel Ibrahim and Shirley all back... although no Blinx; that would hardly suit the more adult tone.

But best of all we have the impressive script from an RTD writing for an adult rather than family audience. The world-building and exposition is well done for people who haven't seen The Sea Devils, and so is the characterisation. General Pierce comes across as a well-rounded and rather impressive individual. Even better, though, is Barclay, the relatable everyman and audience surrogate, with whom we quickly come to identify. He's no one special, just a humble UNIT clerk, divorced and with complex child custody issues to navigate- I can certainly relate! And it's somehow made believable that a chain of events could lead to him being forced to act as humanity's ambassador to the Sea Devils.

I already want to watch more of this intriguing spin-off. I suspect pollution will be a theme, and I wonder what's going on with the two apparent other species. Are we going to get an explanation as to why the Sea Devils look so different, though?

This has real potential. I'm not going to say that it has Torchwood: Children of Earth vibes yet, but the potential is certainly there.

Doctor Who: Wish World

 "This isn't exposition, Doctor."

The opening scene to this episode is decidedly odd, in ways which, I think, are oddly clever. It's Bavaria, 1865. A time and place which is somewhat redolent of fairy tales. And, sure enough, a seventh son is born to the seventh son of a seventh son, which must surely be rather unlikely. And so in swoops Archie  Panjabi's rather wonderful new Rani to steal the baby... and magically turn the rest of the family into violets (evoking Luke being turned into a tree in Mark of the Rani?), ducks and an own respectively.

This is pretty much as fairytale as it gets. Magic, not science, although I suppose there's that famous quote from Arthur C. Clarke. But hasn't there been a lot more of this sort of thing in doctor Who lately, along with the fourth wall breaking? Almost as though reality is not the same as it was. Perhaps since the Doctor and Donna did that thing with the salt in Wild Blue Yonder...?

We then move to a bit of a mini-Doctor Who trope: reality has changed. The Doctor (or "John Smith") and Belinda are a married couple, and Poppy from Space Babies (and as glimpsed in The Story and the Engine) is their Daughter. The likes of Ruby, Mel, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Colonel Ibrahim and Shirley all exist within this world, which is disturbingly trad and socially conservative, especially with regards to gender roles and sexuality. Given this existence's reactionary bent, it shouldn't be a surprise for us to see Conrad, that cad, on the telly. It'll be May the 24th tomorrow. And there's this constant, Orwellian pressure not to doubt this reality, or one may be disappeared.

Oh, and there are skeletal dinosaurs walking all over the place, because of course there are.

There are some nice touches. Ruby remembers a little more because, with the events of 73 Yards, she has previous. Conrad's storybook, about the story of "Doctor Who" (was that the sound of the fourth wall collapsing again?) is by "I.M. Foreman". And even Susan Triad works at "John's" office... from tech billionaire to tea lady.

And yet there are, in another nice little assault on the fourth wall, little plot holes in this reality which make it really rather hard not to doubt. Things cannot hold. Conrad is exhausted from maintaining his ideal reality. The older Rani is beginning to resent her "mistress". The Rani is at the centre of London, with a plan that does not bode well for the continued existence of the populace. And Shirley, with the other marginalised, disabled, lets Ruby in on their plot against Conrad and... well, as in other episodes, I approve of what's been said in the socio-political commentary here, but would it not be more effective if it were a little more subtle? Subtext over didacticism? Never mind.

Inevitably, the Doctor and Belinda find themselves doubting this implausibly reality and captured... via appearances by both Rogue and Susan: with all that's going on, with there be much time to devote next season to the latter? Or is she for Season Forty-Two?

And so we have them both introduced to the Rani, as memories stir and we get some answers. The Doctor "stirred the gods"... during Wild Blue Yonder? The baby is Desiderium, god of wishes, boosted by the Vindicator and a sprinkling of technobabble. It's May the 24th, the stroke of midnight, and the outside world dissolves (the "Bone Palace", conveniently, is a fixed point). And the revelations come quick as the cliffhanger approaches. The Rani is doing this to find the "One Who Was Lost"... Omega! and one last thing... Poppy actually, genuinely is the Doctor's daughter! And... Susan's mum...?

Hmm. I enjoyed this episode, it entertained me, but will they stick the landing? That's the question. It's all contingent.

(Incidentally, I love how, in a world where we Brits have been pronouncing the word "omega" the American way for decades now, Doctor Who has accidentally preserved the older British pronunciation that's archaic in 2025... fandom aside!)

Doctor Who: Lucky Day

 "How committed are you to the lies you've told?"

Like, I trust, most of us, I was somewhat displeased by the dismaying tendency of so many people to vote Reform UK on Thursday. The disease of far right populism is a very present danger. So it's highly gratifying to see good old RTD write an episode addressing this, with the real monster not being an alien creature but a cynical, far right grifter, a thinly veiled version of Tommy Robinson. Good. On this occasion I don't even care about the total lack of subtlety towards the end, as the Doctor turns up to give Conrad a proper good bollocking. 

To paraphrase what a wise man once said... there are parts of the Internet that have bred some terrible things, things that oppose all that we believe in. They must be fought.

One may question, of course, the need for Doctor-lite episodes where seasons are only eight episodes long, but heigh-ho. After that brief scene at the start, in 2007, we don't see Belinda again at all (then again, if she appeared, we wouldn't be able to have a story set in 2025...) and the Doctor appears only for the later scene with Ruby from just after The Devil's Chord and, of course, for the aforementioned bollocking. Instead, it's down to Ruby Sunday, her family, and the UNIT gang, to hold the fort in the Doctor's absence. And, actually, this is an interesting long term writing choice to use Ruby in this way. Are we going to keep checking in on her, focusing on the after-effects of being the Doctor's companion and adjusting to "real" life? Having had this experience- betrayal, doxxing, worse- is going to have a deep effect on her character.

The episode is very clever: until the twist arrives, the relationship between Ruby and Conrad develops in ways that are rather sweet, only for the rug to be pulled from underneath us as Conrad turns out to be the cynical leader of some vile conspiracy theorists profiting from insinuating that UNIT are just faking all these alien invasions, which will ultimately result in Earth being vulnerable. They remind me in many ways of anti-vaxxers (Conrad, I note, doesn't take the antidote), and remind us that conspiracy theories- all of them- are dangerous.

The final showdown (it's a shame Mel was missing) is fascinating- yes, it's satisfying to see Kate release the Shreek on Conrad, and the result seems to discredit him, but I suspect the harm has not gone away entirely. And Kate, it very much seems, will have to face the consequences.

There's a satisfying resolution, of sorts- well, until bloody Mrs Flood turns up- but these people will never go away, never stop endlessly flooding the zone with their bullshit and their dead cats and their hate. But the future doesn't belong to the incels, the MAGA morons, Nigel Farage, or Elon Musk. It belongs to us.

So that's four bloody good episodes out of four so far. Good going. Here's hoping they can keep this up.

Doctor Who: Empire of Death

 “Is this thing safe?”

“Absolute deathtrap, Melanie B.”

I was going to do a separate blog post for the Tales of the TARDIS thing for Pyramids of Mars but, well, there’s not much to it. We have some extra Egypt stock footage, some mildly redone effects, and a very short prologue and epilogue with the Doctor and Ruby wonder what the Dickens they’re going to do about Sutlekh. He’s unstoppable, he’s evolved into a “titan”… and that’s it. Presumably it takes place at some point during the episode in that remembered TARDIS while Mel is off doing something?

So on to the episode itself. I watched it at 7am this morning. Since then I’ve had a 200 mile drive and a day spent in full-on dad mode. I’m aware, as hours have passed, that opinion seems to be divided, much as I’ve tried to avoid others’ thought until I’ve blogged mine. Yet I can see how this episode could be fairly criticised: Sutekh destroys all life in the universe, is defeated by a clever trick, everyone is brought back to life with the press of a reset button, and Ruby’s mum was a massive red herring.

And yet… for me, the emotional and storytelling beats were fantastic. I bloody loved this finale. So let’s get into why. This may take a while.

We begin with what at first seems to be the destruction of UNIT with Sutekh’s Dust of Death- Kate Lethbridge-Stewart’s death is played like a big, stoic, dramatic moments and packs a punch. Yet it’s soon clear that the dust is spreading across London. The Doctor, Ruby and Mel escape in the TARDIS… and they can see, through the TARDIS doors, as the dust covers the whole planet. Earth is utterly sterilised. Other than them, there will soon be no one.

We get an interesting scene with Cherry and Mrs Flood, who seemed so creepy last episode but, if you recall, I suspected she may turn out to be an example of the creepy red herring trope- the apparently sinister character who turns out to be benevolent. I see nothing here to change my mind. Mrs Flood sees what’s coming, sighs, says she had “such plans” and hugs Cherry as both become dust. It’s a fascinating scene. And one which suggests to me that, whoever Mrs Flood is, and we may or may not like her agenda… but she’s no Big Bad.

We get some exposition from Sutekh, Gabriel Woolf still sounding spellbounding at ninety-one years of age. It seemed Sutekh hitched a ride on the TARDIS back in 1911 and has been there ever since, slowly setting a trap, the TARDIS now his forever. Yet somehow, very much light shaded by the Doctor, Sutekh seems to be sparing Ruby, Mel and himself.. why? It may all feel a little neat, but all of this is utterly compelling.

So they escape in the TARDIS from the reconstruction of that night on Ruby Road… a “remembered TARDIS”. Is this the explanation for what we see in Tales of the TARDIS? Because I still don’t understand how it all fits together, but no matter.

What does matter is that it isn’t just Earth, it’s everywhere: dead, sterile, lifeless. The Doctor speaks of Venus; Telos; Karen: the Ood Sphere; Skaro. Everywhere and every when the Doctor has visited, dead because he visited. An unbearable weight on anyone’s conscience: “I thought it was fun.” Ncuti Gatwa plays the Doctor’s anguish with such exquisite force. 

Millie Gibson is quite wonderful in this sequence, but do is Bonnie Langford, who really gets material to make Mel shine as she never could way back when, and rises with aplomb to the opportunity.

It all comes back to Ruby’s mother, the all-powerful secret that Sutekh wants. It seems he’s won, but this is his downfall. This… and a spoon. The scene of the Doctor and the poor forgetful lady in the tent who has somehow survived longer … yes, there’s subtext here that I’m not getting, isn’t there?

Yet the Doctor has a spoon… and we get some more exposition and unexpected references to 73 Yards. I’m not sure any of that episode’s ambiguities are explained, beyond the significance of that distance, but nor did they need to be. The secret of Ruby’s birth mother is found, while Mel becomes a horrifying looking servant of Sutekh. All looks bleak.. until the Doctor’s plan unfolds. It’s deeply satisfying, earned, and hits all the emotional beats, including the Doctor’s regret at having no choice but to kill Sutekh. And yes, everyone is resurrected… but the emotional beats are exquisite. And it all happened. 

That Ruby’s mum is just normal is… perfect. Ordinary, good but flawed people are as important as powerful godlike beings. And the scenes where Ruby finds and gets to know her birth mother are… utterly wonderful.

And so, with this all going on, the Doctor leaves for a while. He promises Ruby he’ll be back. He tends not to do this… but this time we believe him.

Oh, and Ruby’s parting words to the Doctor are “I love you”. Oh RTD, you give us the feels in ways Chibnall never could.

And we end… with a narration from a rather different Mrs Flood- her true self, whoever she is? To be continued, clearly. All else for this season is wrapped up: Mrs Flood is for next year. And all is foreboding…

This is television with heart, scares, thrills, all the things we’ve missed for so long. I loved every second of this.

Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday

 "I am in Hell..."

Needless to say, this is going to be a long one.

It's sort of fasionable within fandom, and indeed within fandoms, to prefer the good, unusual quirky episodes to the big, two-part season finales with Big Things happening. I'm quite of that school of thought myself. But let's not pretend here: there's room for both, and I, for one, love a big season finale.

And this episode is very no nonsense about what it is. It advertises, from the start, that this is an episode about Big Things. Bang bang bang, one after another. The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT! Ruby's meeting them for the first time! Rose and Kate! That robot thingy's had an upgrade! And, er, there's this bizarre child genius figure about whom the less said the better, but never mind.

And there's exactly zero faffing about as the episode hones in on the arc stuff, starting with this mysterious woman whose face has been following the Doctor and Ruby around all season. She's a big computer tycoon, very famous... and her company, S Triad, is an acronym of TARDIS, while her first name is Susan. And this in a season where the Doctor's perennially ankle-spraining grandaughter has alreadsy been mentioned. Could it be...?

I love the quip from Kate about how UNIT are always stopping evil software geniuses with alien tech "excelpt him, obviously". Hah. But again, it's zero faffing about as we get straight on to the mysterious origins of Ruby back at that church on Ruby Road that Christmas Eve, as UNIT set to try and solve the mystery with the help of impossibly advanced tech, technobabble and, er, a video tape. I'm not sure why UNIT is happy to use its resources, no doubt expensively, to do this... but never mind. This is season finale logic, and I'm enjoying the ride.

And, of course, Carla needs to be along for the ride too. Which means her mother needs looking after, by our old friend Mrs Flood. Except... as soon as the two of them are left alone together, Mrs Flood starts to act all sinister, stating that "He waits no more".... yep. It's the One Who Waits.

But... and please do indulge me here: I say this totally unspoiled. But could Mrs Flood be that trope that's the hilariously sinister red herring who is actually not a baddie at all? I'm aware, of course- and this is jumping ahead a bit- that she could be Susan,but it would be cool if Susan herself were just a bit of misdirection, although perhaps to be followed up next season?

Anyway, digressions aside... we see a reconstruction of that night, with Ruby's birth mum being an uncanny, hooded figure whose face cannot be seen. Yet she points at the observing Doctor, memories and even video footage change, and there's a deeply creepy, malign presence that horribly kills the poor redshirt, obviously doomed though he was. I love the brief look of disgust Kate gives the Doctor. This is his fault.UNIT are doing all this only to indulge the Doctor, and they lose one of their own.

So what of the mysterious Susan Triad? The Doctor is paired here with the delightful Mel- Bonnie Langford is quite, quite wonderful- who is far better written here than she ever was as a companion. There are even hints of a backstory ("I lost my family to the most terrible things...")... and it's clear that Susan Triad is not who we thought she was. The reveal- another harbinger, the "wrong anagram"- is deeply effective... we get a bit of horrifying exposition of the Pantheon- the Toymaker, the Trickster, the Maestro, the Mara, some others... and, atop them all...

Sutekh. And they've only bloody gone and got Gabriel Woolf.

I suspect this won't make much sense on a second viewing. I don't particularly care. The storytelling beats were exquisite and had me on the edge of my seat. I LOVED this.

Doctor Who: 73 Yards

 “Everyone has abandoned me my whole life…”

Let’s just pause to get the praise out of the way before we start: this is a bloody brilliant bit of telly. Now that’s out of the way… yeah, this is going to be a long one. Make yourself comfortable. 

So the Doctor and Ruby land in what’s instantly recognisable as the South Wales cost to we long-running Doctor Who fans. The Doctor briefly mentions a future prime minister from the area, Roger ap Gwilliam, but it’s nicely downplayed, a throwaway remark and not obvious as Chekhov’s gun at this point.

Ruby disturbs an odd little new age shrine thingy… and suddenly the Doctor vanishes, for this is a Doctor-lite story. And suddenly the direction, the cinematography, the texture of the footage itself, suddenly start to look like the best of co temporary horror. And the central conceit is utter genius: a ghostly old female figure always follows Ruby, staring exactly seventy-three yards away. Others can approach her, but not Ruby… and when others approach, they run. This is deeply creepy and possibly the best horror idea ever in Doctor Who, in terms of both idea and execution.

Of course, I’m sure I’m not the only one who thought of the Watcher in Logopolis…

Anyway, we soon meet a hiker lady, played by Susan Twist, who was the AI ambulance last episode but, in hindsight, has played an awful lot of bit parts recently. And Ruby notices, at this point, that her face is sort of familiar… yeah, definitely a Bad Wolf sort of situation. Who is she? And, while we’re at it, who is Mrs Flood, who briefly appears again? Susan was mentioned last episode- could either of them be her?

There follows a quietly brilliant scene in a local pub where Ruby, at a loss with what to do, meets with an unfriendly reception, being English. Yet there is fault on both sides. The pubgoers are certainly rude, unjustifiably so, but Ruby is also guilty of stereotyping although, perhaps, “racist” is a strong word. I love the prank they play on Ruby about the fairy circle thingy and “Mad Jack”, and all that stuff about the cliff top being a boundary between land and seas and a “liminal space”… the first time that concept has been mentioned in Doctor Who. Oh, and yeah, up until the joke is revealed it’s all bloody terrifying.

It gets worse, of course. Ruby goes home, Carla goes to talk to the figure, runs… and abandons Ruby, shockingly. We get a nice, reassuring cameo with Kate Lethbridge-Stewart… but the same happens with her… although not before, as the explains UNIT to Ruby, complete with its habit of employing ex-companions, as an organisation that deals with extra-terrestrial threats and now also the supernatural as “Things seem to be turning that way these days”. Hmm. Since the Doctor did that thing with the salt in Wild Blue Yonder, perhaps?

Ruby, though, is alone… and the years and decades go by, the figure always there and Ruby never finding happiness, being dumped by boyfriend after boyfriend. It’s an extraordinary direction for the story to go in, much though we sort of know at this point that there’s going to be some sort of reset button.

And so we have the clever resolution. The decades going by and the slightly off near-future feels very Years and Years. But Ruby manages to save the world from a nationalistic nuke -happy maniac by using the figure as a weapon to get Ap Gwilliam to give up. Don’t you think he looks tired?

And so Ruby lives out her sad lovely, life, a life dedicated to saving the world but at a terrible cost to her. No snow, no family, no excitement, no love. And then… the final reveal. The Doctor. And Ruby suddenly has a second chance at life.

I suspect, if you look too closely. There may be the odd little plot inconsistency. I don’t care. This is more than just brilliant. It’s beautiful. 

Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor

 "We could call this the Master's Dalek plan..."(!)

I love the line above. A nice little fourth wall breaking riff on a story that was televised fifty-six years ago and three quarters of which no longer exists.

Anyway, before I proceed to, yes, praise this epic story by Chris Chibnall (yes, I know), let's just briefly acknowledge that it makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, yes, I can dig the Master getting Daleks and Cybermen to join forces against the Doctor a la The Pandorica Opens... but get them to share ownership of Earth as a foundry for their respective races? Nah. Also, the Doctor is about to regenerate so she effectively tells Yaz to naff off?  That's cold, even though the script tries to pretend it isn't. What happened to their romance? Dan's departure seems forced as well.

And yet... it works. It's entertaining, it made me laugh, it made me cry. It contains everything but the kitchen sink, and the TARDIS full of the Doctor's "extended fam" at the end even outdoes Journey's End. Yet it works, all of the characters get room to breathe without outdoing Jodie on her swansong. Even the glimpses of past Doctors- David Bradley, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann- are nice bits of fanwank, but kept in proportion.

And there's a lot of fanwank here. The Companions Anonymous meeting at the end is outrageous. I mean... Mel, Jo, bloody IAN CHESTERTON: William Russell will be ninety-eight next month. Yet, emotionally, it works.

Oh, and who's shipping Ace and Graham? Because Chibbers is.

Ace and Tegan are pitch perfect and absolutely joyful to see. With Tegan, she's the mouth on legs we love so much, brave hearted, wonderful, missing Adric. With Ace we have the jacket, the Nitro 999(!), and even the bloody baseball bat. Ace is absolutely herself, middle aged yet absoklutely the same teenager we know and adore so much. And both of them get to meet their Doctors, courtesy of plot necessity. 

Tegan's line to Yaz- "We used to be you, decades back" is a delight.

And I can't believe the early scene of the Cybermen being demagnetised into space isn't a nice little reference to The Moonbase. I love Ace's shock that Cybermen are now explicitly no longer vulnerable to gold. It's about time that was cleared up.

Sacha Dhawan is superb as the Master. His performance here- ever gaslighting and playing with our heads- makes him a serious contender to be the best Master ever. Yes, possibly better than Roger Delgado, John Simm, Derek Jacobi, even Michelle Gomez. And it cannot be denied that the Master, as Rasputin, in 1916, playing Boneyb M's "Ra Ra Rasputin" is one of the greatest televisual moments ever. The idea of Rasputin's hold over the Tsar and Tsarina being due to the "I am the Master, you will obey me" thing is genius.

But we end with the regeneration. Which, despite the rather forced departure of Yaz, is very well handled indeed. Jodie Whittaker is superb. She and Yaz get one last date and one last ice cream. It's just a shame they didn't kiss.

And then she does indeed, as rumoured, regenerate into David Tennant. Yet it's clear this is not a degeneration but a new incarnation with an old face. Tennant's dialogue is, of course, predictably amusing, but that's what RTD intended.

This was not without its flaws. It's possible that I may revise my opinion downwards in future; that happens with Chibnall scripts. But this episode was a joy.

We end with a preview for next year. Ncuti Gatwa is in it... and he's playing it Scottish?

Doctor Who: Flux, Episode 6- The Vanquishers

 “What an awfully big adventure!"

Perhaps this isn't quite the perfect finale, but it's nonetheless a fine culmination to what s easily Chibnall's best series. It's a busy episode and, if the Sontarans' attempt to save and then rule the universe by backstabbing some suspicioiusly gullible Daleks and Cybermen doesn't quite ring true, there''s enough going on to gloss over it. Even if the Sontarans are simutaneously a bigger threat than they've ever been and, er, overly partial to chocolate. I rather wish that hadn't been done. This os a weakness that will probably be repeated again until we eventually reach the equivalent of Ace chucking gold at Cybermen in Silver Nemesis. Still, I liked it on the whole.

The threads are drawn together well. Vinder and Bel are reunited rather straightforwardly in the end. The Professor, a wonderful character, gets a cool and heroic death. All the characters get something meaningful to do, even if there are a lot of plot threads to tie up. The mystery of the Doctotr's past is dangldd in front of us again, with that nice little metaphor of the Escher-esque rickety house of memory. We learn that Karvanista, perhaps, was a companion, but little else. Indeed, the Doctor ends up with the pocket watch only to deliberately hide it from herself. She fears she would not approve of the person she once was.

The use of the Sontaran plan, and the Passenger, to destroy the flux is clever, although it's not entirely clear how much of the damage can be undone. Azure and Swarm's plan- to sacrifice the Doctor to Time on Atropos and stsrt an endless time loop of the end of the universe- is gloriously bonkers, and I like the hint that it echoes something the Doctor may once have done to them, which makes me think of the fate of the Family in Human Nature.

Oh, and I liked "contact" with the three splinters of the Doctor, deliberately and appropriately echoing The Three Doctors in a tale about anti-matter destroying the universe.

The Doctor and Yaz being reunited is touching, and will do nothing to discourage the shippers, nor will the Doctor's pledge to be more open from now on. And Dan, having just been puzzlingly dumped by the rather resourceful Diane, is now officially a member of the team having well and truly proved himself.

All the more interesting, though, are the hints from Time at the end. The Doctor has little time yet, and will not regenerate. The Master will be involved. It is suddenly starting to feel like the end. And it's all very good. It just doesn't quite feel as epic as it should.

Doctor Who: Flux, Chapter 5- Survivors of the Flux

 "Fetch your dog!"

This is, let us confess with all due squeeing, if that word still exists, that this was a somewhat exciting episode, teasing us almost as much as the Nepalese seer with his Conan Doyle obsession. We had Dan, a rather fetchingly dressed Yaz  and Professor Jericho (yay!) as Edwardian Indiana Joneses. We had Bel and Vinder. We had the Grand Serpent manipulating the history of UNIT, complete with what may have been a bit of Nick Courtney's voice, until Kate Stewart proves to be his match. We get the beginnings of an explanation for the Williamson tunnels. We get, in short, the beginnings of some answers, as befits a fifth episode of our first literal six parter since The Armageddon Factor, another story about time, cosmic balance and war.

Chibnall does well to balance the enormous number of characters here, and gives us feels as well as exposition. There is a lot of character development, from the Doctor's affection (love?) for Yaz to Yaz's resourcefulness as the leader of the intrepid gang stranded in Edwardian times. She's tough, and Dan and the Prof are lucky to have her.  Yet we also feel for poor Mr Williamson (with his anachronistically modern Scouse accent; a Scouser in the 1820s would have sounded more like the rest of Lancashire) as he is at last believed.

It has to  e said, though, that the best bits are the fun, globe-trotting, action set pieces in 1904, as well as the little bits that are bound to pay off later- UNIT, se see, has the TARDIS as it was at the end of last episode.

But the big event is the Division, and the revelation that Barbara Flynn is in fact playing Tecteum,the Doctor's adoptive "mother" (and, by implied retcon, the Claire Bloom character in The End of Time?), as well as that the Division exists outside of time, and has been shaping the history not only of our universe but a whole multiverse (right at the point where I'm reading loads of Michael Moorcock)... to the poinyt of wanting to destroy this universe and move to the next one. Which, incidentally, may be the universe from which the baby Doctor-to-be had just arrived by wormhole when first found by Tecteum, whoincidentally has the Doctor's memories stored in a Chameleon Arch pocket watch.

Deep breath. This is exciting stuff, and if that's not enough the Sontarans are invading, Swarm and Azure have just killed Tecteum and it seems the Doctor is next, amongst some rather exciting silultaneous cliffhangers.

And... breath. Yeah, that was a bit good. And Chibbers wrote it...

Doctor Who: The Zygon Inversion

"Why do you have a Union Jack parachute?"

"Camouflage."

"Camouflage?"

"Yeah. We're in Britain."

Wow. That's how you do it. A Part Two that outstrips Part One. Genius.

The structure of the whole thing is a marvel. The pre-titles bit, revealing the not-dead Clara in her very self-aware dream state in the pod, seems as though things are going to go a bit Forest of the Dead, but instead we get an episode that's all heart, centred around a superb speech by Peter Capaldi that uses a brave amount of screen time and is an acting tour de force. And if that's not enough we get not one but two extraordinary performances from Jenna Coleman. Oh, and Osgood rules. Oh, and there's a nice little moral about ceasefires, peace processes and not obsessing over past grievances that will hopefully get watched in Israel and Palestine.

Basically, the plot is clever, and the Osgood Box is a great big red herring; it's not objects but ideals that are important. This is a deeply and unusually satisfying plot resolution. Evil Clara, played with delicious malice by Jenna Coleman, even has a convincing change of heart and, in a brilliant stroke, becomes the second Osgood. Oh, and Osgood's first name is Petronella. And the Doctor's is Basil, apparently.

Another nice twist is that Kate (Jemma Redgrave underwhelms again, sadly)  was just pretending to be a Zygon, but at the end she almost threatens to act like her dad in Doctor Who and the Silurians, a nice little bit of character development that is, sadly, wasted on Redgrave's phones-in performance. Can we kill the character and put Osgood in charge soon, please? She's cool. Even the Doctor is a huge fan.

But one duff performance doesn't stop this from being a fine episode, and certainly the finest script amongst some stiff competition this season. Only thing is that all this foreshadowing of Clara's death (I'm unspoiled, but it's bleeding obvious) is getting deafening by now...

Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion

"Well, you can't have the United Kingdom. There are already people living there. They'll think you want to pinch their benefits."

This is an awfully clever episode. At first it looks as though it's a traditional, RTD-style, alien invasion two parter. But it's also a very timely bit of political commentary about immigration and xenophobia, albeit this doesn't quite work. And the twist at the end, of course, reveals that everything we thought was wrong: Clara has been a Zygon since early in the episode. And... did they actually just kill Clara? Like that? A really low key exit for a massively important companion? I really think they may have done, you know.

For something that looks, on the surface, like the same sort of thing as The Sontaran Strategem and similar stories, this is a text full of, ahem, semiotic thickness. References and clever tricks abound. Yes, the method of bringing Osgood back may be predicable but a) Osgood's back, so yay, and b) there's a line about her being a "hybrid", which reminds us of what Davros said in The Witch's Familiar. This is just a mischievous bit of misdirection, of course, but it's clever. We get a nice bit of metatextual playfulness as Kate states that Terror of the Zygons took place in the "'70s, '80s", and it also turns out that it was none other than Harry Sullivan who invented a kind of Warriors of the Deep style genocide gas for the Zygons. Which the Doctor promptly nicked, no doubt declaring that Harry Sullivan was an imbecile.

What else? The Doctor, as a tribute to the JN-T era, wears question marks on his underpants. Kate summoning the Doctor at the start because of Zygons echoes her father doing the same forty years earlier. And, although UNIT is a much more feminine place these days, it still has Berks like Colonel Walsh who just want to blow stuff up. Walsh is played here by Rebecca Front who, with this and Humans, seems to mainly play hard faced bitches these days.

The cliffhanger is superb: Clara and Kate are both dead and Zygon Clara seems to blow up the Doctor. Get out of that one.

I'm impressed so far but I'll reserve judgement until I've seen the second part. There's a slight worry I have in that, although the scriptures to satirise the hysterical tabloid attitude to immigrants, there's no denying that immigrants are literally shown as the baddies free, much as the script tries to emphasise that both humans and Zygons encompass goodies and baddies. It's all very Malcolm Hulke, very Doctor Who and the Silurians (it's even the young Zygons specifically who are portrayed as the bigots), but... well, let's see what happens. 

Doctor Who- Death in Heaven

"Typical officer. Got to keep those hands clean."

Wow. That was quite possibly the best season finale ever. Looking over the season, in fact, it's possibly the best treatment of season-long plot threads in Doctor Who, in terms of both plot and themes. And yes, I'm calling it: this is the best season since Philip Hinchcliffe left, a time when Jim Callaghan was prime minister, I was just about to be born and Elvis was alive. Basically, expect a positive review. 

We begin with a clever feint- Clara trying to convince the Cybermen that "Clara Oswald" never existed and she's really the Doctor. This is clever; we've been primed, by a female Master, for a female Doctor, and there's been a season-long theme of Clara being Doctorish; think Flatline. Still... the Doctor is four times married, and has multiple children and grandchildren, all presumed dead. Interesting.

Still, back to the actual plot, UNIT appears, in the form of Kate Stewart, Osgood ("Bow ties are cool!") and a nice reference, via a version of Handles from the late '60s, to The Invasion, later to be echoed with the plane as HQ. It's good to see the Doctor, like Sulla, being appointed dictator of Earth; this is such a great bit of plot economy and is a great way of avoiding so much tiresomeness.

The scene with Clara in a graveyard about to erupt with zombie Cybermen is terrifying, but this is immediately eclipsed with an awesomely scripted and heartbreaking scene between Clara and a Cybernised Danny that brings home the true body horror of Cyber conversion in a way which, for me, eclipses all previous attempts. Wow. Again, wow.

I like the revelations- as expected, it was Missy who rang Clara in The Bells of Saint John and brought her and the Doctor together in Deep Breath. But Michelle Gomez is a brilliantly insane Master, and gets a fantastic showcase scene in which she, sob, kills Osgood! Moffat, YOU BASTARD! Yes, Kate lives, and yes, it's a touching scene with the Brig, but let's be honest, who really likes Kate, and Jemma Redgrave's utter lack of charisma? It's Ingrid Oliver's Osgood who makes UNIT cool, and she's dead!!!

Just as good is the debate between the Doctor and Danny, which pays off another theme of this season- is the Doctor like a military officer, getting others to kill and die for him? Here, he fails to see the humanity present in Danny, seeing him again as a pawn.

Then Missy arrives, all Mary Poppins with her flying umbrella, and reveals a plan which underlines the same theme; the Cyber army is to be put at the Doctor's disposal for him to put to universe-saving purposes. This is for him to realise that the two of them are not so different. And here we get the expected flashbacks to "Am I a good man?" and "You are a good Dalek!" And the Doctor's epiphany; he is not a good man, a bad man, a hero, a president or an officer- just a traveller who helps people out. And, with that, he steps back and let's Danny save the world like the hero he is. And then seems to actually kill Missy. Hmm. Not sure I like that. It's awfully close to endorsing capital punishment.

The story ends with the Doctor and Clara parting, each misunderstanding and lying to each other; she thinks he's found Gallifrey, but he hasn't, and he's devastated, while he thinks that she's found Danny when, in fact, he gave up his one shot at resurrection to the child he killed in Afghanistan, like a true hero. Wow.

And then, tragically, it ends there. The end credits start... and are interrupted. By Father Christmas. Played by Nick Frost.

What? What? WHAT???!!!

Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor

"What are you going to do- assemble a cabinet at them?"

I saw The Day of the Doctor at the pictures with my good lady and a bunch of good mates from Leicester area fandom- Phoenix Arts Cinema to be precise: it's a rather arty place with none of the petty annoyances you find with the large chains, and you can take your pint of Boddingtons into the screening. I recommend it hugely.

This also means I got to see a rather amusing introductory bit by Strax, our favourite Sontaran, and an introduction to all that new-fangled 3-D stuff by Matt Smith and David Tennant. Oh, and the episode itself was pretty damn good too. The visuals, especially the opening bit with the TARDIS, were certainly cinematic.

Quite rightly, the Moff refused to saddle himself with leading men and restricted himself to three: Matt Smith, obviously; David Tennant, who has only recently left and this has not appreciably aged; and the outstanding John Hurt, on a part which was, I suspect, originally intended for Christopher Eccleston. But no matter: John Hurt is magnificent, for that is what he does, and he absolutely knocks it out of the ground for a six.

Having not saddled himself with too many leading men, Moffat manages to produce a magnificent script, one which honours the past while not overly dwelling on it and changes the status quo of the series while doing so. In this respect, it is more The Three Doctors than The Five Doctors. Oh, and it's a damn good script in its own right, ranging from epic scenes of Daleks on Gallifrey during the Time War (which we finally get to see, albeit in 3-D rather than 4-D) to deeply affecting character scenes for the Doctor. And the big, status quo-defining change also serves as a brilliant plot twist. All that plus Peter Capaldi's eyebrows, and a brief yet wonderful scene with Tom Baker as a possible future, retired Doctor with nostalgia for past faces and a future beyond thirteen of them.

The necessary narrative restrictions on how many leading men a script can bear may well restrict the number of returning Doctors, but there are many nods to the past. UNIT's engineering wallah is called Osgood. We get the Hartnell opening titles, I.M. Foreman and Coal Hill School. The Zygons are back, albeit not looking quite as co as they did back in the day. On a more recent note we also see Kate Stewart, now fully established as a recurring character. Here's hoping Osgood comes back too.

Clara is much better here, finally able to be a character rather than a plot point and spreading her wings. She's sassy, clever, brave, witty and cool. We get a glimpse into her future, too, as Kate Stewart refers to a security clearance she has not yet acquired for the Black Archive. The Black Archive is a nifty concept, a UNIT deposit of juicy alien artifacts including a vortex manipulator with belonged to the late Captain Jack, and which absolutely must be kept secret. ("Think about it. Americans with the ability to rewrite history? You've seen their movies!!!")

We also get Billie Piper, though not as Rose but as uber-MacGuffin the Moment. And we get Queen Elizabeth I whose accent occasionally betrays the origins of the Ap Twdyr dynasty. And people hiding in paintings. And Time Lords. Lots of Time Lords.

Mainly, though, the heart of the episode is about their interactions and the effect of one devastating decision made by the Doctor on "the day it wasn't possible to get it right." It is the Moment who allows the War Doctor to interact with his future selves before making said decision and, of course, despite the usual frictions, he eventually concludes that the inevitable has to happen, mainly because of a reluctant admiration for his future selves, both scarred by his decision in different ways. Tennant's Doctor's scars are raw, whereas Smith's Doctor's scars bear the sign of long years of repression: to his previous self's disgust, he no longer remembers how many children died on Gallifrey that day. Yet, as Hurt's Doctor puts it, "How many worlds has his regret saved, do you think?"

Fittingly, the B plot is resolved via a very clever third option, cutting the Gordian knot by forcing the two parties to negotiate terms while they have forgotten who is human and who is Zygon. And this leads to a fiendishly clever way for all three- no, all thirteen Doctors to save Gallifrey. It may still appear to have been destroyed (and Hurt's Doctor regenerates  into Eccleston cruelly forgetting that Gallifrey in fact survives), but Gallifrey is out there, somewhere. The Doctor has a quest. The days of post Time War angst are over after eight long years. What now...?

Doctor Who: The Power of Three

"There are soldiers all over the house. And I'm in my pants."

It's close. Very close. This is the penultimate outing for the Ponds, an episode which takes the time to fully examine both characters, and how the Doctor has affected their lives, until they leave the show next week. I have no idea what's going to happen, being joyfully unspoiled, but I couldn't help but notice the ominous hints: the Doctor admits to Brian that some of his companions have dies, and it's eventually Brian who changes the Ponds' minds and gets them to choose travelling over real life, adding, ominously "Just bring them back safe." Oh dear. That lovely night-time conversation between the Doctor and Amy gives off similar ominous vibes. They're doomed, right?

We get a proper examination of their dual lives, pulling at the Ponds in two directions. That, rather than the gimmickry of the plot, is what the episode is about. The central device, of a very slow invasion, is hardly original, and nor is the concept of loads of mysterious McGuffins suddenly appearing, but then it isn't supposed to be. Indeed, the script even goes so far as to point this out, as Brian rattles off a list of all the usual tropes. It doesn't matter. Let the plot just go ahead and be Quatermass- this is about the Ponds. Although, admittedly, the tension-filled moment where the Doctor opens the box, only to find nothing, is rather too obviously straight out of Kinda. And it's a bloody huge coincidence that, of only seven wormholes on the whole planet, one of them should just so happen to be in the hospital where Rory works.

It's nice to see UNIT, too, of course, and it's especially nice that they've been reformed to be much cuddlier, losing the Orwellian overtones of recent years and becoming infused with scientific values of which the Doctor approves. Kate Stewart, Head of Scientific Research, is a great character, very Doctorish, and making her the Brig's daughter is not only good shorthand but also a sign that we, the viewers, are allowed to be invested in her as a character. She'll probably be back; they cast a Redgrave, after all. Also, the Tower of London being their not-very-secret base is well cool.

It's a good Doctor episode, too. Matt Smith gets, and delivers, such magnificent speeches, and the sequence of him doing household chores (and keepy-uppy) is fab. I'm also enjoying these fun little mini-adventures, this time involving Zygons, Henry VIII, and God knows what else.

The villains are a bit blah, very casually sketched, although admitted the Doctor gets a great speech out of the situation. And the Doctor saves the day with little more than the most casual application of handwavium. But that's sort of appropriate. It's not really about the plot.

I'm nervous about next week. Very nervous…