Spoilers The Reality War grade and discussion thread

[DarthTimon]

I was left a bit non-plussed by it all. The premise of Omega, the most fearsome Time Lord, returning to create chaos and restore the Time Lords could have made for an interesting season. Instead, it's goodbye to the new Rani, and then this weird monster, within 30 seconds of him appearing. Such a waste of a villain that should have tested the Doctor. Likewise with the new Rani. I'm pleased Mrs Flood is still around, as it means we may get a reappearance of the character.

As to that regeneration, I was gutted to see Ncuti go, as he brought a warmth and soul to the character. I loved the Jodie cameo. Billie Piper... she's a good actress, but having her become the Doctor, if that's the plan... well, it could work, but it's certainly gonna polarise fans. My brother-in-law was flabbergasted, and to be fair, I was bewildered too.

 

[bdub76]

The opportunity to use Carol Ann Ford was also lost.

Lots of fails in this one.

 

[Starkers]

The opportunity to use Carol Ann Ford was also lost.

Lots of fails in this one.

We don't know what happened, maybe her performance wasn't good enough or the chemistry wasn't there. Ford is 84 and has done very little on screen acting in recent years. Big Finish is very different

 

[The Nth Doctor]

We don't know what happened, maybe her performance wasn't good enough or the chemistry wasn't there. Ford is 84 and has done very little on screen acting in recent years. Big Finish is very different

That or they have larger plans for her next season.

 

[FredH]

What I was disappointed in shouldn't really be a fault held against the two-parter but rather against my own mismanaged expectations. I had hoped the nature of this reality war would deal directly with the Pantheon and draw directly with what had been going on with mavity and the other subtle changes in reality since Tennant specials. But at least that door was left open when Anita (!!!) referred to the Boss again, undoubtedly the same unseen Boss that Beep the Meep referred to. I was also disappointed (but not surprised) we didn't get any follow-up on Susan's cameos other than providing context and mystery to The Doctor and The Rani's comments about how Time Lords can't reproduce.

What I was indifferent towards was the depiction of Omega and essentially discarding him just as quickly as he arrived as the nonthreat that he was always destined be in this story. I was first baffled but then greatly amused by his weird giant skeleton monster appearance, a deliberate discretion of the character. Good thing I don't care about the character but I imagine some people absolutely hated this depiction and treatment. The only thing that bothered me slightly was how The Doctor (and maybe others but perhaps just him) went back and forth between the British and the American pronunciations of Omega.

What I hated (well, that's a strong word, more like strongly disliked) was the Davies-patented absurdities of breaking down The Rani's wish world veil around UNIT personnel and then quickly foiling The Rani's ridiculous schemes. I guess it's fitting that one of her hare-brained schemes backfired on her and bit in her in the ass (yet again) but I was hoping she was going to be a more genuine threat. Her talk about restoring the Time Lord race with amoral eugenics was a delightful highlight as the episode briefly leaned into The Rani's best characteristic. Just a shame that moment quickly disappeared along with Omega.

I admit I’m among those who’ve hated what RTD did to both Sutekh and Omega. (But the Rani was fine. And the Toymaker couldn’t have been much worse than the original, anyway.)

 

[matthunter]

That or they have larger plans for her next season.

Hopefully, but sadly at 84 I would not be taking bets on whether an actor is going to be available in what might well end up being 2026 filming.

And I'm saying that with a Mum of 80.

Much as we might like to see these people as forever young, even Sophie "can still do the teenager voice for Big Finish" Aldred is 12 years older than me, and I'm fifty with knees that click when I stand up.

 

[diankra]

We don't know what happened, maybe her performance wasn't good enough or the chemistry wasn't there. Ford is 84 and has done very little on screen acting in recent years. Big Finish is very different

30 years ago, her Spotlight entry mentioned recent TV as the Five Doctors and Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Oh noes it's the bone beast! Fire parallax cannons! Galvanic beams! Not the yellow button, the blue button! Anita hold the time door! Mel on a scooter! Get Poppy to the Zero Room! Omega has become his own legend! A billion supernovas!

I was disappointed that the UNIT building didn't transform into a giant mecha. For a moment, with the Flash Gordon scooter and the heavy metal guitar vinidicator cannon it threatened to be dumb entertainment. Actually it was entertaining but I was laughing at it more than I was with it with moments like Ncuti's ugly dress reveal with rising Murray Gold bombast. I saw the wheelchair leaving Back to the Future flaming tracks at one point but didn't rewind it to understand why.

Seemed to be a lot of empty fan service moments where I imagine RTD was cackling to himself at how clever and cheeky he was.

That poor little girl playing Poppy looked checked out a lot of the time and I can't blame her.

When does RTD regenerate?

 

[Mr Awe]

Man, that was bad. Gave it a 2.

The story structure was just awful. Not so much a story per se but events punctuated by random twists out of the blue. So much wasted potential too.

Rani was wasted. Just another mad Time Lord. And the reunion with Mel was so bland. Meh.

Omega was wasted. Just another weird creature that was conveniently put back into jail.

Together, Rani and Omega were just "in name only," a criticism we were noting earlier. No point to using those names other than shock value (at least for longer term viewers).

Mel was wasted. Really, what was the point of having her?!

Where the hell was Susan?! I guess her cameo was just another misdirection but it's really infuriating.

So much talking at each other (see poor story structure). Exposition galore. Then an overly simple solution for New Rani and Omega, with the old Rani slipping away.

Again, the portrayal of UNIT (when they were normal) goes back to the juvenile way they're presented in this era. It's not really the characterization (although it plays a part) but more so the direction and music that just screams juvenile.

The Time Hotel aspect is too much. Too powerful and too easy. We now have a hospitality person able to track the Doctor through time and space, save him, and play a crucial role in saving the world. It's lazy writing with too powerful tools for the protagonists. Time travel used to be rare in this universe, now hotel personnel have a magic door.

I found the whole thing with Poppy irritating. First she's the Doctor's child, then not, she's there, then gone, and then back but now Bel's human child with some random guy. All in all, the baby was just there to use up screen time because there wasn't enough plot to do that.

And finally, I know the phrase "jump the shark" has jumped the shark. But if anything epitomizes a random, bizarre stunt to jack up ratings, it's having Ncuti regenerate into BIllie Piper. It smacks of desperation, regardless of whether she's the next Doctor or something else.

This one was Space Babies bad.

 

[Mr Awe]

The opportunity to use Carol Ann Ford was also lost.

Lots of fails in this one.

Agreed. Massive fail to tease her reappearance two season straight and then to blow it.

 

[Mr Awe]

Well. Literally everything about that was awful, and a possible sign of mental illness on the part of the author.

Normally, I'd take that as hyperbole, but it really was that awful.

 

[Xerxes82]

Where the hell was Susan?! I guess her cameo was just another misdirection but it's really infuriating.

Agreed. Massive fail to tease her reappearance two season straight and then to blow it.

If you believe the rumors, there is a deleted "Ncuti doesn't regen" ending that was filmed if he didn't leave the show.

Wherein the Doctor and Belinda attend a party celebrating the world being saved, while Susan watches them from the crowd. Supposedly setting her up to be a plot element in a hypothetical s3.

Disney+ used a still photo from said scene for the previous episode, briefly, from what folks are saying.

Grains of salt and all that. The internet always claims to know things it really doesn't.

 

[Mr Awe]

Man, even an hour after, I'm still fuming. What a crushing disappointment, on almost every level.

Ncuti deserved better. Belinda deserved better. The Rani eaten by a giant skull giant version of Omega? The bigenerated Rani however survived?

Agreed. While I haven't been the biggest fan of this era, I have particularly liked Ncuti's Doctor, Bel, and Ruby. They all deserved better. I thought they changed Bel's character for the worse for this two parter as well.

 

[Mr Awe]

So if everybody else hated it, how are their 7 8 rating including mine.
It definitely wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed it.
The ending of the Archie Panjabi Rani was perfect way of having her plotting come back to bite her in the ass. And the Mrs. Flood Rani is still around, so we could get a chance to see what she's like when she's not pretending to be human or subservient to the other Rani.
UNIT using the building to fight the bone monsters was fun.
It was great to see Anita again.
I was a little confused as to why Poppy came back Belinda's purely human when the whole point was that she was his daughter too.
I did not expect Jodi Whitacker's appearance, so that was a big surprise.
I have to admit, I cheated a looked at The Doctor's page before I watched it, so I knew going in he was going to regenerate into Billie Piper. I had heard the rumors, but I has assumed there was no way they were actually going to do that, and I'm shocked they actually did. I don't have a problem with her playing The Doctor, it just strikes me as a really desperate attempt on the part of the people in charge to get fan's attention.
I am a little surprised they didn't address the Doctor seeing Susan, I'm hoping they are saving that for next season or something, because it feels like kind of a weird thing to tease and then not address.

We already known at some point they will go back to that face, since we saw him as the Curator in The Day of the Doctor.

She was his biological daughter since she was created from his genes.

Flash over substance then.

 

[Mr Awe]

Possibly a controversial opinion but I'm glad Archie Rani got eaten and Mrs Flood Rani escaped to maybe come back!

I'm now past the idea of having a returning character having a meaningful return under RTD. He'll use the name for the shock value but that's pretty much it.

 

[Mr Awe]

Poppy isn’t amazing and special. She doesn’t need to be anything in particular to deserve saving. That’s the whole point!

I agree with the idea of what you're saying. But as a story, it was boring, confusing, and frustrating as it was portrayed on screen. All that dragging seemed designed to use up screen time.

 

[jaime]

Poppy isn’t amazing and special. She doesn’t need to be anything in particular to deserve saving. That’s the whole point!

If she wasn’t real, is that her that’s been brought back? She’s at least 50 percent not the same child the Doctor went to go save. Is she the same child? Was she saved or created?

That isn’t Belinda either, whole timeline was re-written. *twice*

The whole universe was tilted, according to onscreen dialogue. *again*

Saving the smallest most insignificant person is a Doctor thing. (And a bit of that Christian influence that occasionally turns up, usually in RTDs stuff)

Rewriting an entire persons life without their knowledge or consent?

Well. He did it to Donna.

Wonder if RTD will eventually hit the undo button on this one once he’s had some time to think about it, like he did with that one.

 

[Mr Awe]

Am I the only one who doesn't give a flying flip about Poppy? (EDIT: Poppy was wasted in the end anyways...)

Rani wasted; Omega wasted; At least Mel got in a good line to the Rani. This episode was like 2 or 3 different moods tacked on to eachother. And why does the modern doctor always get a chance to say goodbye and visit people before dying? Man I never thought I'd be longing for the days of 'hit your head on the console' or 'gunned down in san fran on new years eve' lol.

You're not the only one at all. In my review, I state exactly that. They were all wasted. Just there in name only for the name value but no substance.

 

[FredH]

If she wasn’t real, is that her that’s been brought back? She’s at least 50 percent not the same child the Doctor went to go save. Is she the same child? Was she saved or created?

If she’s not, what, do you throw her back?

 

[Redfern]

Two interesting reaction videos...

The first from "Mr. TARDIS" sitting in his car after a theater screening.

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And another from "Sesska" who has been reacting to Doctor Who for almost 10 years!

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